Search Results (270)

Thermal resilience is critical for building safety in cold climates during heating outages. This study presents full-scale experimental data from two residential buildings in Poland, tested during the winter of 2024–2025 under both typical and extreme outdoor conditions. The buildings—a lightweight timber-frame structure and a mediumweight masonry structure with ground coupling—were exposed to multi-day heating blackouts, and their thermal responses were monitored at a high temporal resolution. Several resilience indicators were used, including the resistance time (RT), degree of disruption (DoD), and hours of safety threshold (HST). Additionally, two time-based metrics—the time to threshold (T_x) and temperature at X-hours (T(t_x))—were introduced to improve classification in long-duration scenarios. The weighted unmet thermal performance (WUMTP) index was also implemented and validated using experimental data. The results show that thermal mass and ground coupling significantly improved passive resilience, enabling the mediumweight building to maintain temperatures above 15 °C for over 60 h without heating. This study provides new empirical evidence of passive survivability in blackout conditions and supports the development of time-sensitive assessment tools for cold climates. The findings may inform future updates to building codes and retrofit guidelines. Full article

Measurable changes in electrophysiology have been documented in spaceflight, creating a pathway for disease genesis and progression in astronauts. These electrophysiology changes can be measured using potential difference (PD). A probe to measure PD was developed and is used clinically on Earth; this probe relies on fluid perfusion to establish an electrical connection to make PD measurements. The changes to fluid behavior in microgravity and partial gravity (including lunar and Martian gravity) drives the need to test this probe in a spaceflight environment. Here, we test the PD probe in a novel nasal cavity phantom in parabolic flight, simulating microgravity, lunar gravity, Martian gravity, and hypergravity conditions across 37 parabolas. The results are evaluated across gravity conditions using the Wilcoxon Rank Sum test. We record no statistically significant difference in probe PD measurements in 1 g, microgravity, lunar gravity, and hypergravity (approximately 1.8 g) conditions, reaching a NASA Technology Readiness Level 6. Martian gravity findings are inconclusive. Perfusion-based PD probes are therefore successfully demonstrated for use in spaceflight operation in microgravity, lunar gravity, and hypergravity environments; this establishes a foundation for moving towards the in-space testing of perfusion-based probes in astronauts. Full article

Hyperthermal environments are encountered in many situations, and significant heat stress can exacerbate the fatigue perception of individuals and potentially threaten their safety. Heat acclimation (HA) interventions have many benefits in preventing the risk of incidents. However, whether HA interventions in specific environments can cope with other different hyperthermal environments remains uncertain. In this study, forty-three young male participants were heat-acclimated over 10 days of training on a motorized treadmill in a fixed hyperthermal environment, and they were tested in different hyperthermal environments. Physiological indices (rectal temperature (T_r), heart rate (HR), skin temperature (T_sk), and total sweat loss (M_sl)) and subjective perception (rating of perceived exertion (RPE) and thermal sensation votes (TSVs)) were measured during both the heat stress test (HST) sessions and HA training sessions. The results show that HR and T_sk significantly differed between pre- and post-heat acclimation (p < 0.05 for all) following the acclimation program. However, after heat acclimation training, the reduction in T_r (ΔT_r) was more notable in lower-ET* environments, and M_sl showed distinct changes in different ET* environments. The RPE and TSV decreased after HA interventions, although the difference was not significant. The results indicate that HA can effectively reduce the peak of physiological parameters. However, when subjected to stronger heat stress, the improvement effects of heat acclimation on human responses will be affected. In addition, HA can alleviate physiological thermal strain, thereby reducing the adverse effects on mobility, but it has no effect on the supervisor’s ability to perceive the environment. This study suggests that additional HA training can reduce the risk of activities in high-temperature environments but exhibits different effects under different environmental conditions, indicating that hot acclimation suits have selective effects on the environment. This study provides recommendations for additional HA training before high-temperature activities. Full article

Beyond its immunological role, colostrum has emerged as a promising, non-invasive source of bioactive factors, including mesenchymal stem/stromal cells (MSCs). This study represents the first attempt to isolate and characterize MSCs from equine colostrum (C-MSCs) to assess their potential use in veterinary regenerative medicine. Colostrum (n = 6) was collected from mares immediately after their delivery and centrifuged, and the recovered cells were cultured under standard conditions. The C-MSCs displayed plastic adherence and a heterogeneous morphology, including spindle-shaped and epithelial-like cells. The population doubling time (PDT) values varied among the samples, and four out of six showed rapid proliferation (<2 days). Colony-forming unit (CFU) assays confirmed their clonogenic potential, though significant inter-sample variability was observed (p < 0.05). Spheroid formation assays revealed differences in cell–cell adhesion: four out of six samples formed stable spheroids within four days. A migration assay showed significant variability (p < 0.05): one out of six achieved complete wound closure within 72 h, whereas five out of six reached ~30% at 96 h. All samples were positive for adipogenic, chondrogenic, and osteogenic differentiation as shown via staining. RT-PCR confirmed MSC marker expression, while hematopoietic markers were absent. MHC-I expression was weak in five out of six samples, whereas MHC-II was consistently negative. These findings support equine colostrum as a viable MSC source, though its variability requires further validation with larger samples. Additional research is needed to investigate C-MSCs’ immunomodulatory properties and therapeutic potential. Full article

Data scarcity hampers the implementation of circular economy (CE) in rural historical small towns (HSTs) where traditional agricultural practices persist outside formal monitoring systems. In this regard, this study proposes and tests an estimation framework to quantify agricultural waste flows and energy recovery potential. The methodology combines waste generation coefficients from peer-reviewed literature with administrative data to generate actionable CE assessments. Application to four Sicilian HSTs within the Local Action Group (LAG) “Terre dell’Etna e dell’Alcantara” exhibits substantial waste generation potential despite their small size. The agricultural enterprises generate an estimated 6930–7130 tons of annual agricultural waste under moderate production scenarios, comprising grape pomace (3250 tons), pruning residues (3030 tons), and mixed processing wastes (650–850 tons). The energy recovery potential ranges from 20–30 TJ through direct combustion to 4.9–8.1 TJ via anaerobic digestion. Sensitivity analysis indicates balanced contributions from all three key parameters (enterprise density, yields, and waste coefficients), each accounting for 31–35% of output variance. The framework provides resource-constrained municipalities with a cost-effective tool for preliminary CE assessment, enabling identification of priority interventions without expensive primary data collection. From a managerial perspective, local administrators can leverage this tool to transform routine administrative data into actionable CE strategies. Full article

Deformation is a direct manifestation of structural changes that occur during the operation of arch dams, and the development of reliable deformation early warning indicators allows for their timely study. Considering that an arch dam is a systematic overall structure, it is necessary to systematically analyze the formulation of deformation early warning indicators and general early warning methods for this dam type. To this end, this study innovatively proposes a systematic early warning method for arch dams based on deep learning and a multi-measurement point analysis strategy. Firstly, the causal model (HST) is utilized to extract the environmental factors as convolutional neural network (CNN) array samples, and the absolute deformation residual sequences of multiple points are obtained by HST-MultiCNN. Secondly, combining this with principal component analysis, a systematic deformation residual index with multiple points is established. Then, the kernel function is used to simulate the distribution of the abovementioned indicators, and is combined with the idea of small probability to formulate the overall warning indicator. Finally, the Re-CNN strategy is used to train the mapping relationship between the multi-objective residuals and the system indicators, and the mapping relationship outlined above is then used to obtain the system indicators corresponding to real-time prediction values, which in turn determine the overall deformation state of arch dams. Analysis shows that the RMSE of the deformation output of the proposed monitoring method uses a value between 0.2284 and 0.2942, with satisfactory accuracy, and the overall deformation warning accuracy reaches 100%, which is significantly better than the comparison method, and effectively solves the primary defect of the traditional single-point analysis—failure to reflect the overall deformation condition. Full article

The Upper Carboniferous strata in the eastern Qaidam Basin, comprising several hundred meters of thick, mixed clastic–carbonate successions that have been little reported or explained, provide an excellent geological record of paleoenvironmental and paleo-sea level changes during the Late Carboniferous icehouse period. This tropical carbonate–clastic system offers critical constraints for correlating equatorial sea level responses with high-latitude glacial cycles during the Late Paleozoic Ice Age. Based on detailed outcrop observations and interpretations, five facies assemblages, including fluvial channel, tide-dominated estuary, wave-dominated shoreface, tide-influenced delta, and carbonate-dominated marine, have been identified and organized into cyclical stacking patterns. Correspondingly, four third-order sequences were recognized, each composed of lowstand, transgressive, and highstand system tracts (LST, TST, and HST). LST is generally dominated by fluvial channels as a result of river juvenation when the sea level falls. The TST is characterized by tide-dominated estuaries, followed by retrogradational, carbonated-dominated marine deposits formed during a period of sea level rise. The HST is dominated by aggradational marine deposits, wave-dominated shoreface environments, or tide-influenced deltas, caused by subsequent sea level falls and increased debris supply. The sequence stratigraphic evolution and geochemical records, based on carbon and oxygen isotopes and trace elements, suggest that during the Late Carboniferous period, the eastern Qaidam Basin experienced at least four significant sea level fluctuation events, and an overall long-term sea level rise. These were primarily driven by the Gondwana glacio-eustasy and regionally ascribed to the Paleo-Tethys Ocean expansion induced by the late Hercynian movement. Assessing the history of glacio-eustasy-driven sea level changes in the eastern Qaidam Basin is useful for predicting the distribution and evolution of mixed cyclic succession in and around the Tibetan Plateau. Full article

The reduction of Cu(NO₃)₂ by HS^tBu in CH₃CN under Ar atmosphere produces a light-yellow solution containing numerous {Cu_x(S^tBu)_y} species. The addition of different pyridines (py-R) into this solution results in the formation of {Cu₆(S^tBu)₄} hexanuclear complexes. The slow Et₂O diffusion leads to crystals of [Cu₆(S^tBu)₄(2-Me-py)₅(CH₃CN)(NO₃)](NO₃) (1), [Cu₆(S^tBu)₄(Me₃py)₄(NO₃)₂]·3.5CH₃CN (2a), [Cu₆(S^tBu)₄(Me₃py)₅(NO₃)](NO₃)·5CH₃CN (2b), (NHEt₃)[Cu₆(S^tBu)₄(CH₃CN)₃(NO₃)₃]·H₂O (3), [Cu₆(S^tBu)₄(2-Br-py)₄(NO₃)₂]·2-Br-Py (4), [Cu₆(S^tBu)₄(3-Br-py)₆][Cu₆(S^tBu)₄(CH₃CN)₆](NO₃)₄·9CH₃CN (5), and [Cu₆(S^tBu)₄(3-Cl-py)₆][Cu₆(S^tBu)₄(CH₃CN)₆](NO₃)₄·5CH₃CN (6). The titled compounds were characterized by single crystal X-ray diffraction (SCXRD). The Cu···Cu contacts were analyzed with quantum chemical methods. Full article

To enable highly reliable and spectrum-efficient vehicle-to-everything (V2X) communications under conditions with severe Doppler effects and rapidly time-varying channels, we propose a novel faster-than-Nyquist orthogonal time frequency space (FTN-OTFS) modulation scheme. In this scheme, FTN signaling is integrated with spectrally efficient frequency division multiplexing (SEFDM) within the OTFS framework, enabling a higher symbol-transmission density within a fixed time–frequency resource block and thus enhancing spectral efficiency without increasing the occupied bandwidth. An analytical input–output model is derived in both the delay–Doppler and time–frequency domains. To further enhance numerical stability, an improved detection algorithm called adaptive damping log-domain message-passing (ADL-MP) is developed for the proposed scheme. Simulation results demonstrate that the proposed scheme achieves robust and reliable performance in high-mobility scenarios and that the proposed algorithm consistently outperforms conventional methods in terms of bit error rate (BER) under both the extended vehicular A (EVA) model and the high-speed train (HST) scenario, confirming its effectiveness and superiority for V2X communications. Full article

Short- and medium-sized peptides have long been used as effective and versatile organocatalysts. In the early 80s, Inoue used diketopiperazines in the Strecker reaction, while Juliá and Colonna reported the epoxidation of chalcone catalyzed by poly-L-Ala. Since then, a variety of peptide-catalyzed reactions have been described. However, peptide synthesis typically implicates the use of toxic reagents and generates wastes; therefore, peptide recycling is expected to significantly improve the overall sustainability of the process. Easy recovery and recycling of peptide catalysts can be expediently attained by covalent binding, inclusion, or adsorption. In addition, immobilization can significantly accelerate the screening of new peptide catalysts. For these reasons, diverse supports have been tested, including natural or synthetic polymers, porous polymeric networks, inorganic porous materials, organic-inorganic hybrid materials, and finally metal–organic frame-works. Full article

Observations provided by the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) and James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) have revealed a surprising abundance of galaxies at the “cosmic dawn” epoch, $z>7$. Some of them are found even in a more distant universe at z ≃ 14–16. Most of these galaxies appear to be intriguing: they are found to be either super-bright in the rest-frame ultraviolet (UV) band or super-dusty with a heavily reddened stellar population. The transition from the super-bright and super-dusty regimes seems to occur in the redshift range from z∼10.5 to z∼9.5 within a time range of ∼50 Myr. If confirmed, then the origin of this transition is far from being clear. In the review, we discuss possible mechanisms that can make $z>10$ galaxies free of dust and also explain the origin of apparently excessive dust in galaxies at intermediate and lower redshifts $z<10$. Full article

Histatin 5 (Hst5) is an antifungal peptide (AFP) naturally produced by parotid glands with strong activity against Candida albicans. One of its mechanisms of action is the generation of reactive oxygen species (ROS) inside the C. albicans cells. Despite being an important peptide for the human innate immune response, its activity is reduced or inactivated by proteolytic degradation caused by salivary enzymes. To overcome this barrier, we used solid phase peptide synthesis (SPPS) to modify the Hst5 amino acid sequence improving its antifungal action and minimizing its degradation. We synthesized five peptides, three of which were based on the Hst5 functional domain. We determined that the smallest peptides (8WH5, 7WH5 and 6WH5) demonstrated the greatest antifungal action against C. albicans, including one fluconazole-resistant strain. Besides that, cationic-PAGE and HPLC assays showed that the degradation in saliva was slower for the smaller peptides than for 0WHst5 and WP113. Furthermore, 8WH5, 7WH5 and 6WH5 were found in the samples even after 8 h in whole saliva, while 0WHst5 and WP113 completely disappear after 1.5 h. Finally, we found that the smaller peptides were less fragmented than the 0WHst5 and WP113, so they were the smallest fragments of Hst5 to preserve its antifungal action with reduced degradation in whole saliva. Thus, they can be considered promising molecules for the treatment of C. albicans in the oral cavity. Full article

In highway scenarios, factors such as high-speed vehicle movement, lighting conditions, and positional changes significantly affect the quality of trajectories in multi-object tracking. This, in turn, impacts the trajectory clustering process within the multi-target multi-camera tracking (MTMCT) system. To address this challenge, we present the weak-cue mixed similarity matrix and boundary expansion clustering (WCBE) MTMCT system. First, the weak-cue mixed similarity matrix (WCMSM) enhances the original trajectory features by incorporating weak cues. Then, considering the practical scene and incorporating richer information, the boundary expansion clustering (BEC) algorithm improves trajectory clustering performance by taking the distribution of trajectory observation points into account. Finally, to validate the effectiveness of our proposed method, we conduct experiments on both the Highway Surveillance Traffic (HST) dataset developed by our team and the public CityFlow dataset. The results demonstrate promising outcomes, validating the efficacy of our approach. Full article

Salinity is one of the main environmental factors influencing rice production. Many genes affecting salt tolerance (ST) have been cloned in rice so far. In the present study, four genes negatively regulating ST, including HST1, LRRK1, STRK2, and PC1, were edited by CRISPR-Cas9 technology in six rice varieties (three in indica (xian) and three in japonica (geng) backgrounds), and three two-gene editing combinations, including hst1-lrrk1, hst1-strk2, and hst1-pc1, were created. All combinations of hst1-pc1, hst1-lrrk1, and hst1-strk2 significantly improved the ST of all the tested materials in both xian and geng backgrounds and had much better ST than single-gene editing lines. The combination of hst1-pc1 had the poorest ST in CH70 and 8TX23 backgrounds but showed almost the same level of ST as the combinations of hst1-strk2 and hst1-lrrk1 in the C199S background for 17 days after salinization, which clearly brought out the background effect on ST and its utilization in ST breeding. As a comparison of the recipient varieties, almost all gene-edited lines except hst1-pc1 in the CH70 background showed significantly reduced grain weight owing to reduced seed setting rate in normal conditions. The hst1-strk2 showed the highest level of ST at the seedling stage and a relatively higher grain yield among all the lines; thus, it is feasible to enhance the ST of high-yielding rice varieties by simultaneously gene-editing against the two loci or pyramiding these two alleles with the other major ST genes of rice. Our results provide valuable gene resources and germplasms for improving rice salt tolerance and high yield. Full article

Traumatic spinal cord injury (SCI) initiates a cascade of events, including persistent inflammation, which contributes to secondary injury. At a molecular level, the lesion is characterized by an altered microenvironment with changes in extracellular matrix (ECM) composition and organization, identified as a potential obstacle for effective stem cell-based cell therapies. We investigated the interactions between decellularized intact and injured rat spinal cords and rat embryonic (RESCs) and neural stem cells (NSCs) at 2 and 47 days post-lesion (dpl). Decellularized ECM was used to generate 2D coating and 3D gel in vitro platforms for cell seeding. Results showed that the 2dpl 2D coating exerted a significant negative effect on the viability of both cell types, while the 47dpl 2D coating maintained RESC pluripotency. NSCs cultured on the 2dpl 2D coating for seven days showed a severe impairment in cell growth, while maintaining a cluster formation potential and differentiation marker expression comparable to normal ECM for astrocytic and oligodendroglial lineages. Notably, when NSCs are grown in 47dpl 3D gel, the lineage turns dramatically toward an astroglial lineage. These results clearly show the detrimental effects of the SCI ECM microenvironment on stem cells, advancing the understanding of potential timings suitable for effective SCI cell-based therapies. Full article