Search Results (572)

Background: Intra-abdominal pressure (IAP) has recently been recognized as a new vital sign in critically ill patients. Microwave reflectometry has been proposed as a potential approach for non-invasive IAP measurement. However, systematic investigation on how individual anatomical and geometric factors influence changes in the microwave reflection response of the abdominal compartment is limited. Complementary information regarding illumination frequency and specific absorption rate (SAR) also warrants consideration. Objective: This study aimed to advance the current knowledge on using microwave radar-based sensors in IAP monitoring by studying the most influencing factors. The penetration depth and spot size versus radiation frequency is studied as well. Information on energy deposition due to radio-frequency exposure is investigated too. Methods: Numerical simulations were performed using abdominal models adjusted to represent different IAP levels. Reflection signal features were analyzed in relation to IAP-induced changes, and SAR was calculated using human models. Subsequently, a radar sensor prototype was tested on a benchtop abdominal phantom. Lin’s concordance correlation analysis was used to evaluate absolute agreement between radar-estimated IAP and reference IAP. Additional statistical analyses assessed bias, precision, concordance, and risk levels. Results: Sagittal abdominal diameter was the dominant factor affecting the microwave reflection response. Reflection amplitude showed a periodic trend consistent with abdominal displacement corresponding to multiples of half-wavelength values of the applied electromagnetic waves. Numerical SAR simulations showed increasing SAR with frequency while remaining below the applicable exposure limits under the investigated conditions. The radar sensor showed a bias of 0.43 mmHg and a precision of 2.55 mmHg. Concordance analysis among the paired changes remaining after application of the predefined exclusion criteria showed agreement in the direction of IAP change. Conclusion: The present study should be considered a preliminary proof of concept. Clinically, the technology is currently more suitable for early warning and trend monitoring than for precise absolute IAP measurement, and it does not yet replace standard intravesical measurements. Its ability to support clinical decision-making, including guiding fluid therapy, requires prospective validation in patients. Full article

During rapidly changing emission conditions, including climate overshoot pathways, the conventional globally well-mixed representation of CO₂ may not fully resolve its short-term spatial heterogeneity and associated radiative effects. This study aims to diagnose how source-specific three-dimensional transport and the meteorological and radiative environments sampled by emitted CO₂ are associated with differences in source-normalized radiative effect (RE) during the active emission phase, using China and India as two contrasting source-region cases. Fossil-fuel CO₂ concentration increments from China and India in 2010 were isolated using IAP-AACM with online source tagging, driven by WRF meteorology and CarbonTracker flux and initial fields. Top-of-atmosphere longwave radiative perturbations relative to the realistic baseline atmosphere were then calculated using libRadtran to quantify the RE, while CO₂-mass-weighted meteorological fields were analyzed to characterize the environments sampled along the transport pathways. In the 2010 case, the global annual mean RE was 3.46 mW·m⁻²·GtC⁻¹ for Indian emissions and 3.15 mW·m⁻²·GtC⁻¹ for Chinese emissions, corresponding to a 9.8% difference. The maximum local annual mean RE reached 10.0 mW·m⁻²·GtC⁻¹ for India and 5.5 mW·m⁻²·GtC⁻¹ for China, indicating a substantially stronger source-dependent spatial contrast than suggested by the global mean alone. CO₂-mass-weighted diagnostics showed that the Indian source sampled higher surface skin temperatures (T_sk), lower atmospheric temperatures (T_k), and lower cloud water paths (CWP) than the Chinese source, conditions that are physically consistent with its larger RE. In contrast, the higher precipitable water vapor (PW) sampled along the Indian transport pathways would tend to enhance spectral masking and partially offset this contrast. These results indicate that, before global mixing is approached, the realized radiative effect per unit CO₂ emission reflects the combined influence of source features, three-dimensional atmospheric transport, and the meteorological and radiative environments sampled by the transported CO₂. Full article

Immunologically active peptides (IAP) are important bioactive peptides with potential antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, and immunomodulatory properties. However, their application in broiler production has not been systematically evaluated. This study investigated the effects of dietary IAP supplementation on growth performance, carcass traits, meat quality, selected serum biochemical indices, and ileum inflammatory cytokine expression in broilers. A total of 180 one-day-old Ross 308 male broilers were randomly assigned to 3 dietary treatments with 6 replicates per group for 42 d: a basal diet (CON), and the basal diet supplemented with 500 g/t or 1000 g/t IAP. Overall treatment tendencies were observed for final body weight (BW) and average daily gain (ADG) (p = 0.100; p = 0.096), with numerically higher values observed in broilers receiving 500 g/t IAP. Dietary supplementation with 500 g/t IAP significantly improved feed conversion ratio (p < 0.05). Across increasing dietary IAP levels, significant quadratic responses were observed for final BW, ADG, and FCR (p < 0.05), indicating nonlinear responses to increasing IAP supplementation levels. In addition, serum superoxide dismutase (SOD) activity was significantly increased in broilers receiving 500 g/t IAP compared with the control group (p < 0.05), and a significant quadratic response was observed across dietary IAP levels (p < 0.05). Furthermore, dietary IAP supplementation significantly reduced ileum interleukin-1β (IL-1β) mRNA expression in the 500 g/t group (p < 0.05), and IL-1β expression exhibited a significant quadratic response across IAP supplementation levels (p < 0.05). In conclusion, dietary supplementation with IAP, particularly at 500 g/t, improved feed efficiency, increased serum SOD activity, and reduced ileal IL-1β mRNA expression in broilers without compromising carcass characteristics or meat quality. These findings indicated that IAP has potential as a functional feed additive for further evaluation in broiler production. Full article

Cellular inhibitor of apoptosis protein 1 (cIAP1) plays a crucial role in the apoptotic process. This study involved gene cloning, protein expression, bioinformatics analysis, and the preparation of a specific polyclonal antibody. First, the coding sequence of the duck cIAP1 was amplified by PCR and sequenced. Bioinformatics prediction indicated that this protein is a stable hydrophilic protein with no signal peptides and transmembrane domains. It contains characteristic BIR (bacterial IAP repeat) domains. The secondary structure consists of 43% random coils, 28% α-helix, and 8% β-strand, and its 3D structure is highly conserved compared with human and mouse cIAP1. Subsequently, the cIAP1 was cloned into the pET-28a vector. The recombinant His-tagged cIAP1 protein was successfully expressed in Escherichia coli BL21(DE3) upon induction and subsequently purified. Immunization of BALB/c mice with the purified protein emulsified in Freund’s adjuvant generated polyclonal antibodies. Indirect ELISA confirmed that the antibody titer exceeded 1:2,048,000. Additionally, Western blotting and immunofluorescence staining demonstrated that the antibody specifically recognized native duck cIAP1 protein without non-specific reactions with negative serum. This study successfully achieved prokaryotic expression of duck cIAP1 and produced a high-titer, highly specific mouse polyclonal antibody. This antibody is suitable for experiments such as Western blotting and immunofluorescence, providing important biological materials and a theoretical basis for further investigation of the anti-apoptotic mechanism of cIAP1 in major diseases of ducks. Full article

Background: Advances in neonatal intensive care have improved survival in congenital diaphragmatic hernia (CDH), shifting the clinical focus toward long-term complications such as feeding difficulties. Initiation of enteral feeding varies across centers, with evidence suggesting that intra-abdominal pressure (IAP) may influence time to feeding and clinical decision-making. We explored associations of early postoperative heart rate (HR), recorded Apgar score, and intra-abdominal pressure (IAP) with time to enteral trophic feeding. Methods: We retrospectively evaluated 28 consecutive neonates undergoing CDH repair at a national referral center between January 2022 and June 2025. Trophic enteral feeding (≥10 mL/kg/day for ≥24 h) was the primary endpoint. Aalen–Johansen estimates and two parsimonious Fine–Gray models (HR plus Apgar; IAP plus Apgar) were primary analyses and cause-specific Cox models were sensitivity analyses. Results: Within 30 postoperative days, trophic enteral feeding was achieved in 21 cases, six patients died before feeding, and one did not achieve feeding before censoring. Each 10 bpm higher HR was associated with lower feeding incidence (subdistribution HR 0.62, 0.46–0.85; p = 0.003); the cause-specific point estimate was also below 1 (HR 0.65, 0.47–0.89; p = 0.007). Mean IAP was not clearly associated with feeding incidence (subdistribution HR 1.01 per mmHg, 0.82–1.25; p = 0.925). Both Cox models failed global proportional-hazards tests. Conclusions: Each 10 bpm increase in HR was associated with a longer time to trophic enteral feeding, and the cause-specific sensitivity analysis pointed in the same direction. Because both estimates derive from the same 28 infants, their agreement is expected rather than corroborative. These findings are exploratory and do not establish causality, individual predictive value, or superiority of HR over IAP. Prospective multicenter studies with adequate sample sizes are needed to confirm these findings. Full article

Accurately simulating the spatiotemporal distribution of global atmospheric CO₂ remains challenging yet essential for reducing uncertainties in carbon source-sink inversions, quantifying the climate effects of heterogeneous CO₂ fields, and supporting the development of CO₂ observation networks. In this study, we simulated global atmospheric CO₂ concentrations (2010–2019) at a horizontal spatial resolution of 1° × 1° using the Aerosol and Atmospheric Chemistry Model of the Institute of Atmospheric Physics (IAP-AACM) without data assimilation, with initial fields and flux data from the CarbonTracker CT2022 (CT2022) reanalysis product. The simulations were comprehensively evaluated against CT2022 and observations from ground-based (NOAA GML), airborne (ObsPack), and satellite (OCO-2) platforms. The results indicate that across all evaluated surface stations, CT2022 exhibits poorer overall statistical performance (R = 0.69, RMSE = 5.37 ppm, MB = 2.05 ppm) primarily due to noticeable overestimations at unassimilated ground stations, while IAP-AACM maintains robust performance across the surface network (R = 0.84, RMSE = 2.62 ppm, MB = 0.28 ppm). Vertically, airborne observations across eight global campaigns confirm that IAP-AACM accurately reproduces the vertical distribution of CO₂, maintaining strong correlations (R = 0.72–1.00) and performance comparable to the CT2022 reanalysis (R = 0.86–1.00). In terms of total column CO₂ concentrations (XCO₂), IAP-AACM exhibits strong agreement with satellite retrievals annually (R = 0.97, RMSE = 1.08 ppm, MB = 0.26 ppm), with seasonal metrics remaining consistently robust across all four seasons (R = 0.96–0.97, RMSE = 0.98–1.20 ppm, MB = 0.13–0.37 ppm), demonstrating large-scale transport fidelity on par with the CT2022 reanalysis. Finally, across representative ObsPack land sites, unassimilated IAP-AACM achieves a high median correlation (R = 0.97), low error (RMSE = 2.01 ppm), and low mean bias (MB = −0.45 ppm), closely approaching the assimilated CT2022 reanalysis product (R = 0.98, RMSE = 1.40 ppm, MB = −0.07 ppm). Further analysis indicates that the optimized IAP-AACM exhibits robust performance under stable boundary layer conditions, where the revised diffusion scheme produces higher vertical diffusion coefficients that help mitigate excessive near-surface CO₂ accumulation during nighttime. Overall, the optimized IAP-AACM effectively simulates the spatiotemporal distribution of global atmospheric CO₂, serving as a reliable tool to support advanced research. Full article

The Cryogenic Anticoincidence (CryoAC) detector is a critical subsystem designed to reduce the particle background for the X-ray Integral Field Unit (X-IFU) instrument onboard the NewAthena space observatory, the next ESA X-ray Large mission. Advancing this technology to Technology Readiness Level 5 (TRL5) requires a unified validation spanning both cleanroom microfabrication repeatability and mK low temperature operational performance. This work presents the complete development cycle of the Demonstration Model 1.2 (DM 1.2), which is aimed at completing the TRL5 demonstration path featured by all the critical technologies operating simultaneously. First, single-process verification protocols were established for Iridium pulsed laser deposition, Reactive Ion Etching (RIE), and deep silicon trenching via the Bosch process. Second, three identical single-pixel prototypes were fabricated and subjected to mK characterization. Four-wire resistance measurement results confirmed a 2/3 production yield against strict design targets (T_C ~100 mK). Finally, functional testing at a bath temperature of 50 mK using a VTT FAB4 SQUID readout demonstrated excellent performance, including a low-energy threshold of ~0.6 keV, a pixel power dissipation of 5.15 nW, and an energy resolution ΔE_FWHM = 735 eV at 6 keV. These combined achievements successfully validate the entire manufacturing and operational baseline against all primary space mission requirements. This paper has to be considered as a review of the CryoAC technology path toward the TRL5 achievement; main findings will be reported and discussed. Details are relegated to other papers. Full article

Indoor air pollution (IAP) is an important public health issue in urban households, particularly in hot climates where residents spend substantial time indoors. While the health risks of indoor air pollution are increasingly recognised, gender differences in exposure-related behaviours, risk perception, and health communication preferences remain underexplored in Gulf cities. This study examined gender differences in awareness, household practices, and preferred information channels related to IAP among English-speaking adults in Dubai. A cross-sectional survey was conducted among 1014 adults using a structured questionnaire. Descriptive, bivariate, and multivariable regression analyses were used to examine gender-based patterns. Overall, participants showed moderate awareness of IAP; gender differences emerged across each of the four behavioural domains examined, with women more likely to use chemical-based cleaners and to open windows for ventilation. After controlling for age and education, women were significantly more likely than men to use traditional chemical-based cleaners (β = 0.69; p < 0.001) and to open windows for ventilation (β = 0.78; p < 0.001), while men more frequently relied on mechanical methods such as air filters and ceiling fans. Women were more likely to express interest in learning about IAP (adjusted OR = 2.55; 95% CI: 1.71–3.79) and to prefer community-based, informal channels such as awareness campaigns and social media. These gender differences persisted after adjustment for age and education, suggesting that indoor air quality behaviours and communication preferences may vary systematically by gender in this sample. Among this English-speaking convenience sample, gender differences were observed in household practices and preferred communication channels. These findings provide preliminary evidence that may help inform future public health communication strategies in Dubai but should not be interpreted as representative of the wider Dubai population. Full article

Background/Objectives: Intra-abdominal hypertension (IAH) is a common but under-recognized condition in critically ill patients and is associated with adverse outcomes, particularly acute kidney injury (AKI) and mortality. However, the prognostic value of intra-abdominal pressure (IAP) remains incompletely defined. This study aimed to evaluate the association between IAP levels and clinical outcomes, and to determine its prognostic significance in intensive care unit (ICU) patients. Methods: This prospective cohort study included adult patients admitted to the ICU between 2024 and 2025. Serial IAP measurements were performed using the transvesical method on days 0, 1, 3, 5, and 7. Demographic, clinical, and laboratory data, along with severity scores (SOFA and APACHE II), were recorded. Patients were followed for 90 days. Primary outcomes were AKI and 90-day mortality. Statistical analyses included regression models, survival analysis, and ROC curve analysis. Results: The prevalence of IAH was 54%. IAH was significantly associated with advanced age, male sex, higher body mass index, increased comorbidity burden, sepsis, positive fluid balance, and higher disease severity scores. Patients with IAH had a significantly higher frequency of AKI occurrence and increased mortality. IAP levels positively correlated with serum urea and creatinine levels. Serial IAP measurements, particularly on days 5 and 7, showed progressively improved predictive performance for mortality. Survival analysis revealed significantly reduced survival in patients with IAH. Conclusions: IAH is highly prevalent in critically ill patients and is strongly associated with renal dysfunction and mortality. Serial IAP measurements may provide useful prognostic information in critically ill patients; however, these findings require validation in larger studies. Full article

Managing invasive alien species (IAS) is a major challenge for conserving ecosystems because of their deleterious impacts. This study evaluated the efficacy of five selective herbicides and wheat straw mulch against six invasive alien plant (IAP) species in Iran. Field observations from 2021 to 2025 showed that these species are concentrated in agricultural regions, particularly in summer crops in northern Iran. Five available herbicides (pendimethalin 3 lit h⁻¹, imazethapyr 0.75 lit h⁻¹, nicosulfuron 2 lit h⁻¹, bentazone 2 lit h⁻¹, and 2,4-D+MCPA 1.5 lit h⁻¹) and wheat straw mulch (2 tons ha⁻¹) were used to reduce the growth of six IAP species during summer 2025. Pendimethalin (as a pre-emergence herbicide) was effective (>90%) against all species apart from Ipomoea hederacea (≈60%). While 2,4-D+MCPA (as a post-emergence herbicide) effectively controlled five species, bentazone was effective only against Sida rhombifolia and I. hederacea. Nicosulfuron showed high efficacy (80%) only against I. hederacea. Straw mulch was more effective against Euphorbia nutans but was not effective properly against Ipomoea species. The efficacy of mulch and some herbicides depended on species identity, even within the same genera (Ipomoea and Euphorbia). Our results can help in the successful management of these invasive plants in northern Iran to minimize their impact on yield and quality of crops. As IAPs in environmental areas, this result will also be advantageous. Full article

Knowledge distillation is a cornerstone of image anomaly detection for amplifying subtle defects via teacher–student discrepancy, yet existing methods rely on feature alignment loss that causes reconstruction error confusion and degrades accuracy. To address this critical limitation, this study proposes an abnormal discrepancy-guided knowledge distillation method (DiffKD) that differentially guides student feature reconstruction through channel-level discrepancy masks, leveraging normal features as supervisory signals and abnormal discrepancy features as constraints to enhance anomaly detection performance. The approach integrates a knowledge distillation network for feature reconstruction with a segmentation network for anomaly localization, while utilizing prior anomaly samples and synthetic anomaly samples to provide real-time training data of anomalous samples. Extensive evaluations on the SUT-Crack and MVTec AD benchmarks validate the effectiveness and generalizability of our approach. On MVTec AD, it achieves 80.7% average precision (AP) and 81.9% instance-level average precision (IAP), showing competitive performance against the representative methods evaluated under the same protocol. These results not only demonstrate significant improvements in IAD accuracy but also highlight its promise for enabling real-time, automated anomaly detection in practical applications. Full article

Although the sublethal effects of botanical pesticides are critical for pest management, their role in modifying insect behaviour is frequently overlooked. In a laboratory bioassay utilising powder prepared from the leaf, stem, and root of the invasive alien plants (IAPs) Gleditsia triacanthos, Chromolaena odorata, and Schinus terebinthifolia, this study evaluated the behavioural reactions, notably repellence and locomotion, of Spodoptera frugiperda larvae. For repellence, six second instar larvae of S. frugiperda were individually placed in 30 mL vial that remained unsealed to allow larvae to exit freely if repelled and were exposed to 22% of leaf, stem and root powders of all three plant species over a 12 h period before recording the number of repelled insects. For locomotion, ten-second instar larvae were directly coated with different powder quantity 1.5 g and 2.5 g of leaf, stem, and root of all three IAPs, then released and allowed to move for 60 s on a 90 × 60 cm whiteboard. The running speed was calculated as the distance travelled per unit time. All plant-part powder exhibited significantly higher repellence than the control (0%). Gleditsia triacanthos leaf, root and stem powders showed minimal repellence, with values of 16%, 29% and 21%, respectively. However, higher rates were observed for C. odorata and S. terebinthifolia. Specifically, C. odorata stem powder achieved the highest overall repellence at 54%, whereas S. terebinthifolia performed best with its root powder at 45%. Compared to the control group, the running speed of the insects experienced a substantial reduction, decreasing by 60 to 80% when exposed to powders derived from all parts of the three IAPs. Our results suggest that the IAP powders used in this study both repel S. frugiperda and strongly limit their ability to move, highlighting their potential for behaviour-based pest control strategies. Full article

Survivin is a cancer-associated inhibitor of apoptosis protein (IAP) that can suppress both extrinsic and intrinsic apoptotic pathways. IAPs typically prevent programmed cell death by binding to caspases, but whether survivin behaves as a canonical IAP or can protect cells from death by alternative means has not been fully investigated. Here, we report a novel interaction between survivin and the mitochondrial outer membrane protein, VDAC2, which we show is an indirect association potentially mediated by Bcl2-family members. This novel finding suggests survivin can suppress mitochondrial-mediated apoptosis upstream of caspases and could open a new avenue for targeting survivin in anti-cancer therapy regimes. Full article

Chromosomal rearrangements that lead to the formation of oncogenic gene fusions, such as EML4-ALK, are thought to arise from incorrect repair of double-strand breaks in DNA. However, the mechanisms and factors driving rearrangement formation remain poorly understood, and analysis of these processes is limited by detection methods that are labor-intensive, low-throughput, and not readily quantitative at single-cell resolution. Here, we developed a genetically encoded ALK reporter based on A549 lung adenocarcinoma cells, created by inserting an ALK-P2A-mCherry cassette into the endogenous ALK locus, so that induced EML4-ALK fusion activated mCherry fluorescence. Reporter activation yielded a readily quantifiable mCherry-positive subpopulation that could be measured and enriched by flow cytometry and correlated with EML4-ALK levels. Using this platform, we combined CRISPR-mediated rearrangement induction with knockdown of DNA repair factors using RNA interference. Of the factors involved in base excision repair, homologous recombination-related pathways and canonical non-homologous end joining, knockdown of the APEX1 gene encoding apurinic endonuclease 1 (APE1) selectively increased EML4-ALK levels both in the reporter cell line and in parental A549 cells. Together, this work provides a sensitive, single-cell A549-based ALK reporter platform and a framework for future studies aimed at identifying cellular and environmental factors that modulate oncogenic EML4-ALK rearrangement formation. Full article