Search Results (91,512)

Freshwater prawns are important components of freshwater ecosystems, yet their diversity and genetic structure in northeastern Thailand remain insufficiently documented, particularly across habitats differing in soil salinity. This study assessed freshwater prawn diversity and phylogenetic relationships in saline and non-saline habitats using an integrative taxonomic approach combining morphological examination with mitochondrial and nuclear DNA barcoding. A total of 225 mature specimens were collected from 15 sampling sites in Maha Sarakham province (saline habitats) and Mukdahan province (non-saline habitats). Representative specimens were examined morphologically and characterized using four barcode loci: cytochrome c oxidase subunit I (COI), 16S ribosomal RNA (16S rRNA), 18S ribosomal RNA (18S rRNA), and the internal transcribed spacer (ITS). Morphological assessment identified three taxa, Macrobrachium lanchesteri, Macrobrachium niphanae and Caridina sp. Molecular analyses recovered three principal lineages broadly corresponding to these taxonomic groups, although the resolution varied among loci. COI provided consistent species-level discrimination, while 16S rRNA revealed additional genetic variation within Macrobrachium. The conserved 18S rRNA marker supported separation of the major taxonomic lineages, whereas ITS contributed complementary sequence variation for lineage assessment. The concatenated multilocus dataset provided the most stable phylogenetic reconstruction, with strong support for the principal lineages. Samples from saline and non-saline habitats were not consistently separated, suggesting that salinity was not the primary factor underlying the observed genetic structure. Overall, integrating morphological and multilocus molecular evidence provided a robust framework for assessing freshwater prawn diversity and phylogenetic relationships and establishes a baseline for future taxonomic, phylogeographic, and conservation studies in the Mekong region. Full article

This study investigated the effects of yeast-mediated pre-fermentation on the composition and functional characteristics of modern and ancient wheat genotypes, and their subsequent impact on gut microbial fermentation. Whole wheat flours were pre-fermented using Saccharomyces cerevisiae (6%, w/w) at 30 °C for 6 h. Raw and pre-fermented whole wheat samples were subjected to in vitro upper gastrointestinal digestion, followed by monosaccharide composition analysis, in vitro fecal fermentation using a pooled inoculum prepared from three healthy donors, microbial profiling, and short-chain fatty acid (SCFA) quantification. Fermentation increased Folin–Ciocalteu-reactive values and antioxidant capacity, while reducing residual starch and protein after digestion, indicating alterations in the composition of digestion-derived residues. After fermentation by S. cerevisiae, monosaccharide analysis revealed a relative enrichment of glucose, accompanied by decreased proportions of arabinose and xylose. Following in vitro fecal fermentation, pre-fermented wheat samples exhibited significantly (p < 0.001, AMOVA) different microbial community structures compared with their raw counterparts, based on Bray–Curtis dissimilarities, whereas differences in α-diversity were comparatively limited. In addition, taxa associated with carbohydrate fermentation and SCFA production, including Parabacteroides distasonis, Butyrivibrio crossotus, and Kineothrix, showed treatment- and genotype-dependent responses. All wheat samples supported SCFA production, although SCFA accumulation was more gradual than with inulin. Overall, yeast-mediated pre-fermentation was associated with changes in wheat composition and subsequent shifts in fecal microbial community structure and fermentation dynamics, with responses varying among wheat genotypes. Full article

Ruminants harbor a ruminal microbiome that converts their host-indigestible diet into nutrients. This microbiome contains three distinct communities: liquid, solid, and epithelial (or epimural). Currently, there is limited research examining the diet-dependent responses of all three microbiomes within the same animal. Here, we used next-generation 16S rRNA sequencing to characterize the ruminal solid (RS), liquid (RL), and epimural (RE) microbiotas of 13 lactating and cannulated Holstein dairy cows fed either a high- or low-starch diet in a crossover experimental design. Independent of diet, we found that all sample types were dominated by the phyla Firmicutes and Bacteroidetes. Proteobacteria and Epsilonbacteraeota were also highly abundant but only in the RE. Although the total VFA molar abundance did not differ between diets, propionate and valerate were found to increase with the high-starch diet, while acetate was increased with the low-starch diet. Overall, we found that the RE microbiota was more diverse than the RS and RL communities, with diet impacting community diversity in the RS. We found that sample type, diet treatment, and their interaction significantly impacted community structure and composition. Notably, Prevotella was most abundant in the RL and RS, particularly on the low-starch diet. We also found that Lachnospiraceae were significantly enriched in the RS and RL with a high-starch diet, whereas Succiniclasticum was highly abundant in the RE with a low-starch diet. These data suggest that diet influences all three ruminal microbiomes and provides a useful framework for understanding the role of these microbiomes in mediating host production. Full article

Wild Polygala crotalarioides is an ethnomedicinal plant traditionally used for neurological health. Endophytic fungi associated with medicinal plants are increasingly recognized as sources of bioactive natural products; however, their diversity and biological activities in wild P. crotalarioides remain poorly understood. We used high-throughput sequencing and culture-dependent methods to explored the diversity, community composition, and bioactivities of endophytic fungi associated with wild P. crotalarioides. Culturable isolates were identified via ITS sequencing and further screened for AChE-inhibitory and antioxidant activities. Our results revealed that a total of 818 fungal OTUs were detected, revealing pronounced tissue-specific community differentiation. Stem tissues harbored the highest fungal diversity, richness, and number of unique OTUs. Ascomycota and Basidiomycota dominated fungal communities across all tissues, while distinct biomarker taxa were enriched in different organs. Functional annotation indicated marked tissue-dependent variation in trophic composition. Among 108 culturable isolates, Penicillium sp. PRP024 and Trichoderma sp. PRP008 exhibited the strongest AChE inhibitory activities (>80%), whereas Fusarium sp. PSP053, Diaporthe sp. PSM027 and Exserohilum sp. PSP042 showed notable antioxidant activities. Wild P. crotalarioides hosts highly diverse and tissue-specific endophytic fungal communities. Several isolates exhibited promising acetylcholinesterase inhibitory and antioxidant activities, highlighting medicinal plant-associated endophytic fungi as potential sources of antioxidative natural products. Full article

Background and Clinical Significance: Dystrophic calcinosis cutis involves calcium deposition in damaged or chronically inflamed tissues despite normal calcium and phosphate metabolism. Although typically associated with systemic sclerosis and dermatomyositis, it is rare in rheumatoid arthritis. Ulceration over calcified deposits may impair healing and function. This case highlights a staged reconstructive strategy to remove calcified tissue and achieve definitive wound closure. Case Presentation: A 73-year-old woman with a 22-year history of rheumatoid arthritis presented with painful, partially confluent pretibial ulcerations, purulent drainage, impaired mobility, and extrusion of chalk-like material. Radiographic and histopathological findings supported dystrophic calcinosis cutis. Deep-tissue culture grew Escherichia coli, treated with intravenous ertapenem. Tangential excision of necrotic tissue and accessible calcific deposits resulted in an irregular full-thickness defect extending to the pretibial fascia. A synthetic polylactic acid matrix was applied with single-use negative pressure wound therapy for 14 days, followed by split-thickness skin grafting on day 21. Graft take exceeded 90%, and residual areas epithelialized without regrafting. At 12 months, the wound remained completely epithelialized without recurrent ulceration, with pain resolution and return to baseline activities. Conclusions: In this patient with ulcerated dystrophic calcinosis cutis associated with rheumatoid arthritis, staged reconstruction using surgical excision, a polylactic acid matrix, single-use negative pressure wound therapy, and split-thickness skin grafting facilitated recipient-bed preparation and definitive cutaneous closure of the post-excisional defect. This case supports the feasibility of this sequence for wound reconstruction in selected complex ulcerated lesions. Further studies are needed to define its comparative role. Full article

Fraxinus mandshurica (Manchurian ash) is an ecologically and economically valuable hardwood tree native to Northeast Asia, yet its genomic resources remain limited. We assembled its complete chloroplast (cp) genome (155,559 bp) using hybrid PacBio and Illumina sequencing and performed comparative, phylogenetic, and evolutionary analyses. The cp genome exhibits a typical quadripartite structure encoding 132 gene copies, comprising 114 unique genes (80 protein-coding, 30 tRNA, and 4 rRNA genes), with 18 genes duplicated in the inverted repeat (IR) regions. Simple sequence repeat analysis revealed dominance of mononucleotide A/T repeats. Phylogenetic analysis of 53 complete cp genomes strongly supported the monophyly of Oleaceae and resolved F. mandshurica as sister to the North American F. nigra, consistent with previously proposed Miocene intercontinental dispersal scenarios between East Asia and North America. Most protein-coding genes were under strong purifying selection (Ka/Ks << 1), whereas petB, rpl2, and several ndh genes showed elevated Ka/Ks values that are suggestive of altered selective constraint but are based on very few substitutions and are therefore not, on their own, evidence of positive selection. Nucleotide diversity (Pi) analysis identified 15 hypervariable intergenic spacers (mean Pi = 0.067), among which trnM-CAU-rps14, ndhJ-ndhK, and petL-petG represent promising candidate barcode regions requiring further validation. This study provides a high-quality, fully annotated cp genome of F. mandshurica and a valuable genomic resource for future phylogenetic, population genetic, and conservation studies of this important genus. Full article

Fine particulate matter (${\mathrm{PM}}_{2.5}$) pollution in Bogotá follows a strongly asymmetric temporal pattern: at the Puente Aranda industrial-corridor monitoring station, 98.7% of days whose daily mean exceeds the WHO 2021 guideline of 15 $\mathsf{\mu }{\mathrm{g}/\mathrm{m}}^3$ contain at least one hourly concentration above 25 $\mathsf{\mu }{\mathrm{g}/\mathrm{m}}^3$, with a median peak-to-mean ratio of 1.90. Conventional forecasting models, trained to minimise average error, systematically underpredict these critical episodes. To address this structural bias, we trained a Bidirectional Long Short-Term Memory (BiLSTM) network for 24 h ${\mathrm{PM}}_{2.5}$ forecasting using three complementary mechanisms: an asymmetric Huber loss that penalises underprediction $\alpha$-fold more than overprediction, sample weighting that amplifies gradients from exceedance windows, and Bayesian hyperparameter optimisation (Optuna-TPE, 100 trials). Evaluating four model configurations on hourly records from 2022 to 2025 (n = 31,961), we identify an inherent regression–detection tension: among the $\alpha$ values examined ($\alpha \in \{1.5,2.5,2.80\}$), no single value simultaneously minimised global MAE and peak MAE. Bayesian optimisation (Optuna-TPE, 100 trials) selected $\alpha =2.80$ and $w_{\mathrm{high}}=10$, achieving the nominally highest sequence-level detection quality (AP = 0.724, 95% bootstrap CI [0.582, 0.821]) and the lowest ${\mathrm{MAE}}_{\mathrm{peaks}}$ (10.64 $\mathsf{\mu }{\mathrm{g}/\mathrm{m}}^3$), but at the cost of near-zero global regression ($R^2\approx 0$). BiLSTM-A1.5 ($\alpha =1.5$) constitutes the best overall compromise (AP = 0.718, CI [0.575, 0.819]; RMSE = 6.65 $\mathsf{\mu }{\mathrm{g}/\mathrm{m}}^3$; $R^2=0.372$; sequence F1 = 0.674); the AP difference ($\Delta =0.006$) is within overlapping bootstrap confidence intervals. All models localise the daily peak within 6 h in at least 88% of exceedance sequences. These results support reframing early-warning system evaluation around exceedance detection rather than regression error. Full article

DNA methylation is implicated in epileptogenesis. Sarcosine, a glycine transporter 1 (GlyT1) inhibitor and methyl donor, attenuates behavioral progression during rapid hippocampal kindling and alters hippocampal DNA methylation, but its locus-specific epigenetic effects remain poorly understood. Here, reduced representation bisulfite sequencing (RRBS) was combined with targeted gene expression analysis in the hippocampi of sarcosine-treated kindled rats. RRBS identified 563, 533, and 390 differentially methylated regions (DMRs), corresponding to 521, 499, and 374 DMR-associated genes, in vehicle-kindled versus sham (vKD vs. vSH), sarcosine-kindled versus sham (sKD vs. vSH), and sarcosine-kindled versus vehicle-kindled (sKD vs. vKD) comparisons, respectively. Pathway enrichment analysis identified 217 significantly affected pathways, including glutamatergic signaling, extracellular matrix (ECM) organization, chromatin regulation, axon guidance, and apoptotic processes. Eleven candidate genes involved in epigenetic regulation, excitatory neurotransmission, and ECM remodeling were selected for transcriptional validation. All 11 genes were significantly upregulated in kindled hippocampi, whereas sarcosine was associated with reduced expression relative to vehicle-kindled rats for eight genes (Hdac9, Fos, Smad7, Unc5a, Grik2, Gpr37l1, Cacna2d2, and Yy1). Collectively, these findings indicate that sarcosine remodels DNA methylation-associated transcriptional networks during rapid hippocampal kindling and support GlyT1 inhibition as a potential disease-modifying approach in experimental epileptogenesis. Full article

This study examines how the vertical spacing of a multi-height 360° camera array affects novel-view synthesis quality in indoor scenes reconstructed with 3D Gaussian splatting (3DGS). Although 3DGS enables high-quality real-time scene representation, its output depends on the geometric arrangement of the input views, which single-lens workflows secure through repeated captures at several heights. A rig of three vertically arranged 360° cameras was evaluated in four indoor spaces differing in ceiling height, structure, and capture path. Three spacing conditions were applied in each space, denoted as Set-L, Set-D, and Set-H. These are ordinal positions within the vertical range each space allows rather than fixed absolute distances, since an identical spacing sits differently in rooms of different scale. The 360° footage was stitched into equirectangular video and reframed into multi-view image sequences, yielding 120 datasets from four spaces × three conditions × ten repeated captures. Novel-view synthesis quality was measured with the PSNR, SSIM, and LPIPS on validation views withheld from training. Because normality and homogeneity of variance were not satisfied, a robust two-way factorial analysis of variance based on 20% trimmed means was used, with robust post hoc comparisons. Spacing, spatial characteristics, and their interaction were significant for all three metrics, so no single spacing was preferable across every space. The wide setting performed best in the low-ceiling repetitive space, the narrow setting in the open space, and the baseline setting in the largest space with variable ceiling height. In one space, comprising stepped, near-symmetric seating, no condition was distinguishable, and dispersion across repeated captures was an order of magnitude larger than elsewhere, indicating that, where a repetitive structure is extensive, the limiting factor is capture stability rather than the choice of spacing. The findings are consistent with a trade-off between vertical viewpoint separation and inter-view overlap, and provide exploratory, space-conditional reference points for indoor 3DGS capture rather than a standardized specification, with relevance to virtual exhibitions, architectural visualization, and digital-twin construction. Full article

The increasing demand for electrified rail transportation has intensified power quality (PQ) challenges, including harmonics, voltage imbalance, and low power factor (PF). These issues have driven the development of advanced traction power supply systems, particularly co-phase configurations, to improve power quality, enhance grid-connected stability, and strengthen the operational resilience of railway power infrastructure. This paper proposes a co-phase power supply system for high-speed railways that facilitates high-speed train operation by integrating power quality compensation technologies while reducing the required number of neutral sections by half, thereby improving the continuity and robustness of traction power delivery. To address PQ issues, a capacitive-coupled hybrid power quality conditioner (HPQC) incorporating renewable energy sources (RESs) into its DC link is introduced. Given the highly dynamic and time-varying nature of railway loads, a sliding mode control (SMC)-based robust control method is developed based on the state space model of the co-phase power supply system and the HPQC to provide a stable and rapid response to load variations and operational disturbances. The effectiveness and real-time implementation capability of the proposed approach are validated through real-time control hardware-in-the-loop (CHIL) simulations. Results from MATLAB/Simulink simulations and real-time CHIL testing demonstrate substantial harmonic reduction, improved power factor, reduced negative-sequence currents, and enhanced overall system efficiency. These outcomes confirm the suitability of the proposed system for modern high-speed railway applications and highlight its contribution to resilient traction power supply systems capable of maintaining reliable operation under highly variable loading conditions. Full article

The ubiquitous presence of modified mycotoxins such as zearalenone-14-glucoside (ZEN-14G) in agricultural resources presents a critical challenge to livestock safety, specifically regarding their capacity to disrupt lipid metabolism and fermentation in the rumen. This study aimed to evaluate the dose- and time-dependent direct effects of ZEN-14G on rumen fermentation characteristics, nutrient disappearance, and mycotoxin biotransformation under controlled in vitro conditions, and to explore the associated microbial and metabolic responses. An in vitro batch fermentation system was established with three ZEN-14G doses, namely control (CON), low dosage (GL), and high dosage (GH), across three time points (6, 12, and 24 h). Basic fermentation parameters, fat disappearance rates, and ZEN-14G metabolites were quantified, while 16S rRNA gene sequencing and untargeted metabolomics were conducted specifically on 24 h endpoint samples from the CON and GH groups to investigate downstream mechanistic disruptions. The results showed that while baseline pH homeostasis remained unaffected across groups, ZEN-14G dose-dependently inhibited fat disappearance, with the GH group exhibiting a significant reduction throughout fermentation. Targeted quantification confirmed that ZEN-14G was predominantly deglucosylated to free ZEN and reduced to α/β-ZEL. Endpoint multi-omics revealed that although overall α/β-diversity was maintained at 24 h, ZEN-14G induced fine-scale strain-level replacement (12% shared ASVs), marked by the depletion of the key lipolytic bacterium Prevotella sp. R79. Untargeted metabolomics showed marked disruptions in sphingolipid metabolism and linoleic acid oxidation, where the accumulation of cytotoxic oxidized fatty acids (12,13-EpOME) and membrane turnover markers (sphingosine) positively correlated with enriched Bacillota. In summary, under macroscopic acid–base homeostasis, masked ZEN-14G directly impairs ruminal lipid metabolism, alters microbial community structure at the strain level, and perturbs cell membrane lipid turnover strictly within an in vitro system. These findings establish a key mechanistic baseline for masked mycotoxin biotransformation in the rumen, highlighting the necessity for future in vivo feeding trials to fully evaluate their systemic risk profile in ruminants. Full article

Integrated management systems (IMSs) are currently experiencing a radical revolution triggered by digital technologies, sustainability issues, and human-centric management philosophies of Industry X.0. Even though there have been many advances in research about IMSs, our understanding of the evolution process and digital revolution of IMSs is still far from being comprehensive. In this research, a combination of bibliometric analysis and qualitative content analysis is used to explore the evolution of IMSs published in the scientific literature from 2015 to 2026. A set of 103 peer-reviewed publications, obtained through searches in the Scopus, Web of Science, and ScienceDirect databases, was analyzed following the PRISMA 2020 guidelines; of these, 59 full-text papers were selected for qualitative analyses. This bibliometric study discloses the ongoing advancement of IMSs, with major characteristics highlighting the increasing relevance of digital transformation, sustainability, artificial intelligence, and human-oriented management. According to the results of the bibliometric analysis, two theoretical contributions are made in this paper. First, a Digital Enabler Classification (DEC) taxonomy is proposed to classify IMS configurations according to their dominant digital enablers and associated management characteristics, comprising six analytical categories (DEC-0 to DEC-5). Second, a conceptual framework is proposed to provide a possible evolutionary interpretation of IMS transformation from standards-driven integration toward connected, intelligent, sustainable, and human-centric governance systems. The DEC taxonomy and its quantitative distribution across the six classes are derived directly from criterion-based coding of the 59 full-text articles; the evolutionary reading of the framework is a conceptual interpretation of this cross-sectional evidence rather than a longitudinally validated developmental sequence. Together, the contributions presented offer a structured view of the digital transformation process of IMSs and provide a foundation of theory and practice for the development of further research. Full article

Multi-target harvesting is an important direction for improving the efficiency of orchard harvesting robots and advancing their engineering deployment. Compared with single-target harvesting, multi-target harvesting is constrained by dense fruit distribution, branch and leaf occlusion, illumination variation, manipulator accessibility, harvesting-sequence planning, and multi-agent conflicts. These factors impose higher requirements on visual perception, state representation, decision-making, and task scheduling. This paper focuses on multi-target harvesting tasks in complex orchard environments. It first analyzes task characteristics and constraint sources and then reviews advances in visual perception and scene understanding for target recognition, attribute identification, spatial localization, and spatiotemporal consistency maintenance. Typical decision-making methods are summarized, including rule- and experience-based heuristics, cost-model-based optimization, and data-driven learning approaches. Progress in multi-arm and multi-robot harvesting systems is further reviewed in terms of perception sharing, task allocation, cooperative operation, and conflict avoidance. Continuous and stable perception under complex occlusion, unified scheduling-oriented state representation, real-time decision-making under strong constraints, collision avoidance in shared multi-agent workspaces, and distributed state synchronization remain key challenges. Overall, multi-target harvesting has shown potential to improve orchard operation efficiency, but efficient collaboration and engineering deployment in complex orchard environments still require further breakthroughs. Full article

Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) have become essential platforms for remote sensing in challenging environments such as high-dynamic-range (HDR) scenes and low-texture areas. However, conventional frame-based visual–inertial simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM) systems often suffer from motion blur and overexposure during high-speed UAV flight, leading to state estimation failure. To address numerical instability in marginalization, weak scene adaptability, and insufficient outlier suppression in event-based stereo visual–inertial SLAM systems for aerial applications, we propose HESVI, a hybrid marginalization and adaptive heterogeneous kernel state estimation method for UAV remote sensing. Our method first establishes a focal-length-driven cross-modal inverse depth consistency constraint to couple image and event inverse depths, providing high-quality priors for optimization. Such lightweight prior generation is designed with the limited onboard computing resources of UAV platforms in mind. A hybrid marginalization strategy is then introduced, employing block-parallel tall–skinny QR (TSQR) acceleration based on Householder reflections alongside dynamic Tikhonov regularization and first-estimates Jacobian (FEJ) linearization to balance computational efficiency and numerical stability. Furthermore, an adaptive heterogeneous Cauchy kernel maps differentiated thresholds to image and event features according to their average effective tracking lengths, enabling dynamic outlier suppression. Experiments on the VECtor, MVSEC, and HKU datasets demonstrate that HESVI achieves the best absolute trajectory error (ATE) on the vast majority of the evaluated sequences, with average ATE reductions of 47.2%, 41.2%, and 26.8% over PL-EVIO, ESIO, and ESVIO, where each average is computed only over the sequences on which the corresponding baseline runs successfully. The method also exhibits excellent performance in complex remote-sensing scenarios and generalization tests. HESVI effectively enhances the numerical stability, scene adaptability, and localization accuracy of event-based stereo visual–inertial SLAM systems in challenging UAV remote-sensing environments. Full article

High-switching-frequency operation substantially reduces the available time for sampling, control computation, modulation mapping, PWM-register updating, and auxiliary interrupt operations in digitally controlled three-phase buck rectifiers. Given this, this paper presents a time-decoupled PWM implementation architecture (TD-PWM) based on predictive duty-cycle sequences that enables sufficient computational redundancy. In the proposed architecture, the sampled information is used to generate an N-element duty-cycle sequence for the following control period. The generated sequence is stored in a buffer and subsequently loaded into the PWM registers one element per switching period. Consequently, prediction, control calculation, and SVPWM mapping are performed at the control frequency, whereas the duty-cycle values are updated at the switching frequency. A two-timescale execution structure is implemented in which the control-period task performs sampling and sequence generation, while the high-priority switching-period task performs sequence indexing and PWM-register loading. Experimental validation is conducted on a 400 W three-phase buck-rectifier prototype with a switching frequency of 100 kHz, a control frequency of 20 kHz, and N = 5. Under the investigated operating conditions, the proposed architecture achieves an input-current THD of 2.06% and shorter measured settling times than the two reference implementations. The results demonstrate the feasibility of the proposed implementation architecture. Full article