Search Results (2,542)

Wildland fires, including surface and crown fires, present significant challenges for ecosystems and forest management. Accurate fire modelling is crucial for risk assessment and mitigation strategies. The Fire Dynamics Simulator (FDS) v6.8.0, developed by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), is a physics-based model that simulates fire behaviour by incorporating advanced physics and chemistry. However, its reliability requires thorough validation. This study validates FDS 6.8.0’s performance in modelling both surface fires and single tree burning. Two separate simulation sets were conducted. For surface fires, pine needle fuel beds were used at a laboratory scale to examine fire behaviour on slopes of 0°, 10°, and 20°. The results were validated against experimental data. A burning Douglas fir tree was simulated, and the results were compared with experimental measurements. The surface fire simulations at 0° and 10° slopes showed strong agreement with experimental data. In single-tree burning, both experimental and simulated results exhibited similar trends, with a rapid increase to a peak mass-loss rate (MLR) followed by a gradual decline. Validating FDS 6.8.0 forms an essential first step toward supporting the investigation of complex wildland fire behaviour, such as surface-to-crown fire transition, canyon fire, and dynamic escalation, using the same FDS version. Full article

Preventing child maltreatment requires approaches that address some of the major root causes including ensuring children and families have access to the essentials like housing, food, and medical care. Colorado’s Family Development Services (FDS) improves family economic self-sufficiency (ESS) and health, which are both protective factors linked to reduced child maltreatment. This study examines how the readiness to change, both at the start and throughout FDS enrollment, impacts ESS and health outcomes. FDS, implemented in Family Resource Centers (FRCs), uses evidence-based practices including family-centered programming, motivational interviewing, and goal setting, in addition to connecting families to resources. We hypothesized that these practices foster readiness to change, which, in turn, improves ESS and health. Using data from 2031 families via the Colorado Family Support Assessment (CFSA) 2.0, we applied three multilevel models. The results showed an early readiness to change was linked to greater ESS and health improvements, while accumulated readiness over time led to more rapid progress. These findings underscore the value of family-focused and family-empowering practices for providers, policymakers, and funders who support family and child development services. Further, these results suggest that FRCs should prioritize building strong relationships, employing motivational strategies, and supporting family-driven goal setting to decrease the risk of child maltreatment. Full article

Anderson–Fabry disease (FD) is an X-linked lysosomal storage disorder caused by pathogenic variants in the GLA gene, resulting in deficient α-galactosidase A activity and progressive accumulation of globotriaosylceramide (Gb3) and its derivative lyso-Gb3 within lysosomes. Beyond substrate storage, FD involves a complex interplay of molecular, metabolic, and inflammatory disturbances that collectively drive multisystemic damage. It seems that Gb3 accumulation impairs autophagic flux, promotes mitochondrial dysfunction, and triggers endoplasmic reticulum stress, leading to oxidative imbalance and bioenergetic failure. Concurrently, activation of innate immune pathways, particularly the TLR4/NF-κB axis, induces pro-inflammatory cytokine release and endothelial dysfunction, while complement activation and adaptive immune responses contribute to chronic inflammation and fibrosis. These mechanisms define a sustained state of “metaflammation,” linking lysosomal dysfunction to systemic inflammation. Understanding this mo Full article

Understanding the changes in physical and mechanical properties of lignite during dehydration is crucial for its sustainability in coal mining, exploitation of coalbed methane, and carbon dioxide sequestration. Through SEM and Computed Tomography (CT) scanning, combined with fractal theory, this study investigates dynamic dehydration characteristics of macerals in lignite during normal temperature drying (NTD), and their effects on pore–fracture development and physic–mechanical property evolution. The results show that the hard layers of lignite are mainly composed of ulminite (Ul), while the soft layers are primarily composed of fusinite (Fu), densinite (De), and Ul. Ul exhibits low dehydration efficiency but is prone to shrinkage and cracking heavily, whereas Fu has high dehydration efficiency and excellent thermal stability. The layered enrichment of macerals controls the development of the three-dimensional (3D) pore–fracture structures of lignite during NTD and leads to distinct cracking characteristics of fracture structures between hard and soft layers. Unlike soft layers, hard layers tend to form long, straight fracture structures with large apertures and exhibit extremely high fracture connectivity and fractal dimension (FD). In addition, the differential drying behavior of macerals causes the physical parameters of lignite such as moisture ratio (MR), drying rate (DR), and density (ρ) to show a dynamic evolution characteristic of “initial rapid decline (or increase) in the early stage–subsequent gradual decline (or increase) and stabilization in the later stage” during NTD. The unique pore–fracture structure controlled by macerals significantly alters the deformation resistance and failure mode of dehydrated lignite under uniaxial compression but has limited effect on its uniaxial compressive strength. Full article

Background: Fractal dimension (FD) analysis has been widely applied to medical and dental images to quantify trabecular bone complexity. Panoramic radiographs are routinely used in dental practice; however, the capability of two-dimensional panoramic imaging combined with FD analysis to detect subtle mandibular trabecular alterations associated with systemic diseases such as type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) remains uncertain. Methodology: This retrospective cross-sectional study included 106 individuals, comprising 53 patients diagnosed with T2DM and 53 non-diabetic controls. Fractal dimension values were calculated using a standardized box-counting algorithm from four anatomically defined mandibular regions of interest (anterior, premolar, molar, and condylar) on panoramic radiographs. Intergroup comparisons of FD values were performed to evaluate the sensitivity of panoramic radiograph-based FD analysis in detecting diabetes-related trabecular differences. Results: No statistically significant differences in fractal dimension values were observed between the T2DM and control groups across all evaluated mandibular regions (p > 0.05). These findings highlight methodological limitations related to image dimensionality, projection geometry, and regional trabecular heterogeneity. Conclusions: Fractal analysis remains a valuable quantitative tool; however, its application to panoramic radiographs should be interpreted cautiously when used to assess systemic bone alterations. Full article

Urban storm drain sediments (SDSs) accumulate heavy metals from building façades and road surfaces, yet the biogeochemical controls governing metal mobility remain poorly understood. This study investigated biotic and abiotic controls on metal mobility along the urban dust transport chain (Xiamen-Quanzhou-Zhangzhou, China), using four sample types—façade dust (FD), road-deposited sediment (RDS), SDS, and runoff suspended solids (RSS)—from nine sites across three functional zones. Metal concentrations (Pb, Cu, Zn, Cr, Cd), phosphorus fractions, and microbial functional genes were quantified to test the hypothesis that viral abundance indicators, rather than pH, are more strongly associated with metal mobility in near-neutral urban sediments. Results showed that SDS served as metal accumulation hotspots with enrichment factors of 2.0–2.3× relative to FD, while total phosphorus declined by 34% along the transport chain. Contrary to conventional expectations, pH exhibited weak correlation with Pb mobility (r = −0.21; 95% CI: −0.62 to 0.27), whereas the T4-type bacteriophage gene g23 showed strong positive correlation (r = 0.85, p < 0.01; 95% CI: 0.52–0.96). Partial least squares path modeling revealed that viral abundance (g23 gene copies) showed the strongest statistical association with metal mobility among biotic variables (β = +0.48, p < 0.001), mediated through phosphorus-supported microbial activity. The model explained 76% of variance in metal mobility, with phosphorus cycling positively influencing viral abundance (β = +0.28). These findings challenge the pH-centric paradigm of metal geochemistry and reveal a novel phosphorus-virus-metal coupling mechanism in urban environments. The textile industrial site QZ-2 exceeded chromium screening values by 45%, demonstrating the framework’s utility for pollution hotspot identification. Full article

This paper presents a numerical investigation studying the response of a new grounding system when submitted to different lightning current waveforms. This grounding system features an electrically conductive concrete (ECON) or geopolymer (ECG) square section with a standard steel rebar as an encased electrode (EE) at the center to potentially replace conventional copper or galvanized steel grounding grids in HV substations. Due to the specificity of this new grounding system called ECON/ECG-EE, we decided to perform different transient simulations using the RF module of the general FEM software Comsol Multiphysics 6.2 version. In the first step, both frequency (FD) and temporal domain (TD) analyses were validated using three grounding systems extracted from the literature. Next, several numerical new grounding system simulations were performed and compared with a conventional HV substation copper grid of the same dimensions equipped with vertical rods. We investigated the influence of several parameters, such as ECON/ECG and soil electrical conductivity, the rise-time in current lightning waveform and the frequency dependency of soil parameters. The numerical results obtained demonstrate that ECON/ECG-EE grounding systems submitted to lightning current pulse present a smaller peak impedance than conventional SGSs equipped with vertical rods, particularly in cases with high soil resistivity. Moreover, it was also demonstrated that with faster lightning current pulse, the ECON/ECG system’s peak impedance becomes significantly lower than those obtained for a copper grid with vertical rods. Full article

To assess digestate’s efficacy as a fertilizer for basil development, a two-year pot experiment was established, comprising four fertilization treatments: namely, mineral fertilizer (F), digestate (D), combined mineral fertilizer and digestate (1:1, FD), and unfertilized control (C). Key metrics assessed included plant height, chlorophyll concentration index (CCI), total biomass (TB), leaf production (LP), essential oil yield, and composition. Post-harvest analysis evaluated nutrient and heavy metal content and pathogen contamination in the growing substrate and leaves. FD treatment produced the highest TB (68.2 g plant⁻¹) and LP (52.7 g plant⁻¹). Digestate application substantially enhanced substrate nutrient availability, increasing extractable phosphorus by 68.5%, potassium by 134.4%, and organic matter by 54.7%. The essential oil yield was significantly higher in the control plants. whereas different fertilization regimes altered secondary metabolite synthesis. Specifically, fertilization with digestate favored sesquiterpenes synthesis, inorganic fertilization enhanced methyleugenol and β-farnesene synthesis, and the control showed higher limonene, eugenol, and linalool. Heavy metal accumulation in the growing substrate was negligible, remaining well within regulatory limits. Salmonella spp., were not detected. Pathogen concentration in the growing substrate was low, while Enterococcus faecalis levels were marginally below EU safety limits (100 cfu g⁻¹) on the leaves. Continuous monitoring of soil chemical properties and plant products after digestate application is essential to ensure soil health and food safety. Full article

The Controller Area Network (CAN) protocol lacks native authentication mechanisms, exposing modern vehicles to critical security threats. While deep learning-based intrusion detection systems show promise, existing solutions require computational resources far exceeding automotive-grade microcontroller constraints, hindering practical embedded deployment. This paper proposes LCSMC-Net, an ultra-lightweight neural architecture for resource-constrained CAN intrusion detection. The framework integrates three innovations: (1) Separable Multiscale Convolution Lite (SMC-Lite) blocks capturing multitemporal attack patterns with minimal parameters; (2) Lightweight Channel-Temporal Attention (LCTA) achieving linear $\mathcal{O}\left(N\right)$ complexity through adaptive pruning; and (3) 6-dimensional CAN-optimized features exploiting protocol-specific characteristics for aggressive compression. The framework employs Bayesian hyperparameter optimization and knowledge distillation for systematic model compression. Extensive experiments on CAN and CAN-FD datasets demonstrate that LCSMC-Net achieves 99.89% accuracy with only 9401 parameters and 2.84M FLOPs, outperforming existing solutions while meeting real-time constraints of automotive embedded systems, providing a viable edge AI deployment solution. Full article

This study investigates the effects of environmentally relevant concentrations of atrazine and fluoxetine, both individually and in combination, on aggressive behavior in male Betta splendens (B. splendens). Controlled behavioral assays were used to test the hypothesis that both individual and combined exposures would alter aggressive behavior, primarily by delaying the initiation of aggression and reducing the duration of specific displays. Twelve low-concentration (15 µg/L atrazine; 0.54 µg/L fluoxetine) and six high-concentration (30 µg/L atrazine; 1.08 µg/L fluoxetine) acute exposure trials were conducted. Latency to respond (LTR), broadside display (BSD), and frontal display (FD) were recorded over three days of male conspecific interactions. We analyzed the results using a negative binomial general linear model with day, atrazine, fluoxetine, and the interaction between the two compounds as predictors of the three behavioral responses. Results found that exposure to both compounds at either concentration significantly reduced aggressive behaviors compared to controls, increasing the latency to respond and decreasing broadside display and frontal display. For the low-concentration experiments, there were significant antagonistic effects from the interaction between fluoxetine and atrazine for all three behavioral responses (LTR p = 0.002, BSD p < 0.001, FD p < 0.001), with the combination of the two compounds showing a smaller impact than predicted by each singly. For the high-concentration experiments, there was a significant antagonistic interaction for BSD (p < 0.0001) and a marginally significant antagonistic interaction for LTR (p = 0.078). These findings suggest that these compounds can delay the onset and reduce the intensity of aggressive behaviors, underscoring the potential disruption of neurobehavioral pathways essential for survival, though the impact of these chemicals is altered by exposure conditions. This research highlights how environmental concentrations of common contaminants, especially in combination, may impair ecologically relevant behaviors in chemically impacted freshwater habitats. Full article

The chlorophyll content of plant leaves measured by the soil plant analysis development (SPAD) is an important indicator for measuring crop growth status and irrigation effect. The rapid, non-destructive and efficient estimation of crop SPAD values is of great significance to the field management of crops. In this study, the canopy hyperspectral reflectance and SPAD values of winter wheat were obtained, and the spectral curve was changed through four spectral processing methods, including first-order differential (FD), second-order differential (SD), multivariate scattering correction (MSC), and Savitzky–Golay smoothing (SG) to improve the correlation between canopy spectral reflectance and SPAD. Furthermore, to investigate and evaluate the performance of various vegetation indices (VIs) in estimating SPAD values for winter wheat, existing published indices were optimized using random band combinations derived from multiple canopy spectral transformations. The optimized vegetation index was used as the input variable of the model, and six machine learning algorithms, including random forest (RF), long short-term memory network (LSTM), multilayer perceptron (MLP), deep recurrent neural network (Deep-RNN), gated recurrent unit (GRU), and convolutional neural network (CNN), were used to construct the winter wheat SPAD values estimation model, and the model was verified. The experimental results demonstrate that, when utilizing an equivalent number of optimized vegetation indices as input, the GRU-based model achieves higher estimation accuracy compared to other models. Specifically, the coefficient of determination (R²) is improved by 0.12 compared to the RF model, by 0.03 compared to the LSTM model, by 0.12 compared to the MLP model, by 0.02 compared to the Deep-RNN model, and by 0.02 compared to the CNN model. At the same time, the GRU model also has a lower root mean square error (RMSE) and relative error (RE) of 7.37 and 24.90%, respectively. This study provides valuable hyperspectral remote sensing technology support for the implementation of winter wheat SPAD values estimation in the field. Full article

Pathologic myopia has become a major global cause of blindness, making timely surgical management for myopic traction maculopathy (MTM) increasingly important. This study aimed to identify prognostic factors associated with functional and anatomical outcomes following surgery for MTM and to determine the optimal timing for intervention. This retrospective study included 33 eyes from 28 patients with MTM without full-thickness macular hole who underwent pars plana vitrectomy with internal limiting membrane peeling and gas tamponade. Better preoperative best-corrected visual acuity (BCVA) and lower foveal height were associated with better postoperative BCVA, whereas longer axial length, higher MTM, and higher Atrophy–Traction–Neovascularization (ATN) classification grade were correlated with thinner postoperative central foveal thickness. Foveal detachment (FD), ellipsoid zone (EZ) disruption, and advanced MTM grade were associated with poorer functional and anatomical outcomes. Postoperative visual outcomes should be interpreted with caution, as they may have been influenced by lens-related factors, including combined cataract surgery, post-vitrectomy cataract progression, and posterior capsule opacity. Nonetheless, consistent anatomical improvement was observed, supporting early surgical consideration in eyes with MTM showing progressive macular traction or EZ disruption, even in the absence of FD. These findings highlight the importance of serial OCT monitoring and individualized surgical timing based on preoperative assessments. Full article

The paper presents computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations of a propane-fueled and under-ventilated fire in a reduced-scale corridor-like enclosure. The fire source is positioned at the closed end of the corridor. Due to the restricted inflow of oxygen, the flame lifts off from the gaseous burner and travels—along with unburned fuel—all the way to the open doorway at the opposite end of the corridor. Oxygen calorimetry shows that a quasi-steady state plateau is established, during which the heat release rate (HRR) within the enclosure is equal to the theoretical value ${\dot{Q}}_{in}=1500 A_o\sqrt{H_o}$ where $A_o\sqrt{H_o}$ is the ventilation factor. Then, external flaming occurs. CFD simulations with the Fire Dynamics Simulator (FDS) captured well the overall flame dynamics. More specifically, the HRR plateau is well predicted, provided that the actual autoignition temperature of propane, AIT = 450 °C, is prescribed instead of the default AIT = −273 °C. However, the occurrence time of external flaming remains significantly underestimated and is better predicted by setting AIT = 600 °C. This aspect of the modelling, linked to extinction and (re-)ignition, remains to be further investigated in the future. Full article

Vision Transformers (ViTs) have achieved strong performance in computer vision but suffer from limited inductive bias, high data requirements, and reduced sensitivity to high-frequency visual details. To address these limitations, Frequency-Domain ViTs (FD-ViTs) incorporate spectral representations—such as Fourier, wavelet, and discrete cosine transforms—into the Transformer pipeline to improve feature expressiveness and robustness. This survey provides a systematic review of FD-ViT architectures and introduces a unified taxonomy based on spectral transformation type, integration level, and computational characteristics. We summarize empirical findings across image classification, image restoration, and domain-specific applications, including medical imaging and remote sensing, highlighting consistent performance patterns and task-dependent trade-offs. Our analysis shows that frequency-domain integration yields modest, context-dependent gains in large-scale classification, while offering more consistent advantages in frequency-sensitive tasks such as image restoration and noise-robust visual analysis. We further discuss key open challenges, including spectral aliasing, phase information loss, evaluation inconsistency, and deployment efficiency, and outline emerging directions toward dynamic spectral operators, multimodal integration, and hardware-aware designs. To the best of our knowledge, this work constitutes the first systematic survey that consolidates the growing body of research on FD-ViT, providing a structured conceptual and methodological reference for future studies on spectral representations in Transformer-based visual learning. Full article

Background/Objectives: Accumulating evidence and clinical observations suggest that the gut microbiome plays a crucial role in functional dyspepsia (FD). However, the precise characterization of this relationship is unclear. This systematic review and meta-analysis aimed to elucidate the potential role of the gut microbiome in FD based on evidence from published clinical studies. Methods: A comprehensive search of three databases (PubMed, Google Scholar, and Web of Science) was conducted, and 17 relevant clinical studies, including 8 observational studies and 9 interventional studies, published up to September 2025, were identified. Data on the gut microbiome and FD were extracted and subjected to meta-analysis. Results: Meta-analysis revealed no significant differences in gut microbiota α- or β-diversity between patients with FD and healthy controls (Shannon index: standardized mean difference [SMD] = −0.12, 95% confidence interval [CI] −0.90 to 0.67, I² = 88%). In contrast, effective interventions induced notable shifts in the microbial community structure (pooled SMD = 0.27, 95% CI −0.28 to −0.83, I² = 58%). These shifts were accompanied by increased short-chain fatty acid (SCFA) production and intestinal tight-junction protein levels, which coincided with improved FD symptoms. Conclusions: Although no significant differences in the gut microbiota were detected between patients with FD and healthy controls, interventions in patients with FD induced marked changes in the microbial community. Modulation of gut microbiota-related metabolites, such as SCFAs, may represent a promising therapeutic strategy for the management of FD. Full article