Search Results (245)

Deep-to-ultra-deep marine carbonate reservoirs represent an important frontier for hydrocarbon exploration in the Tarim Basin, yet fluid sources and accumulation processes in the Ediacaran (Sinian) succession remain poorly constrained due to extreme burial depth and complex tectono-thermal evolution. Here, we investigate fracture–vug reservoirs of the Sinian Qigebulake Formation in Well LT3 (Tabei Uplift) using an integrated dataset including petrography and cathodoluminescence, fluid-inclusion microthermometry, fluorescence and Raman spectroscopy, in situ major/trace element analysis and C–O–Sr isotope geochemistry, and LA-ICP-MS carbonate U–Pb dating of authigenic minerals. The paragenetic sequence comprises early dolomite (Dol-I), later dolomite (Dol-II), co-precipitated calcite (Cal-I) and quartz (Qtz-I), and late solid bitumen (Bit). Dolomite veins show PAAS-normalized REE patterns and 87Sr/86Sr ratios (0.70918–0.70984; average 0.70942) comparable to the surrounding Sinian marine wall rocks, indicating precipitation from diagenetic fluids dominated by closed-system water–rock interaction. In contrast, Cal-I displays LREE enrichment, pronounced positive Eu anomalies (δEu = 4.91–7.21), radiogenic ⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr ratios (0.71161–0.71417; average 0.71256), and negative δ¹⁸O_VPDB values (down to −9.439‰), suggesting a large-scale influx of deep-seated, high-temperature, Sr-rich hydrothermal fluids likely linked to fault-assisted fluid circulation. Fluid inclusions record four hydrocarbon charging episodes, evolving from lower- to higher-maturity oils and ultimately to dry gas. Dol-II hosts pale-yellow to pale-blue oil inclusions, whereas Cal-I and Qtz-I predominantly contain deep-blue oil inclusions and methane-rich gas inclusions (Raman peak near 2917 cm⁻¹). Carbonate U–Pb ages constrain dolomite precipitation to the Middle Ordovician (~468–463 Ma) and hydrothermal-related carbonate filling to the Early Triassic (~247–244 Ma). Collectively, these results support a time-resolved evolution in which early diagenetic fluid circulation in a marine carbonate system was overprinted by a later hydrothermal pulse that modified pore structures and thermal conditions, followed by late-stage deep burial leading to cracking of retained liquids, widespread bitumen formation, and methane charging. This framework provides new information on the constraints for fluid–rock interaction and hydrocarbon evolution in deep marine carbonate successions. Full article

The Chutuan and Jiashan fluorite deposits are situated in the Donghai–Linshu area within the southwestern segment of the Sulu ultrahigh–pressure metamorphic belt. Both deposits share similar mineralization characteristics, with fluorite veins strictly controlled by fault structures and associated with mineral assemblages comprising fluorite, barite, quartz, and calcite. Two mineralization stages have been identified in both deposits: Stage I (quartz–fluorite–barite stage), representing the main ore–forming event, and Stage II (quartz–barite–calcite stage). This study focuses on integrated geochemical and geochronological analyses of fluorite from Stage I, providing new constraints on the genesis and metallogenic processes of these deposits. Direct Sm–Nd isotopic dating of fluorite yields an isochron age of 104 ± 16 Ma, indicating that mineralization occurred during the late Early Cretaceous. Fluid inclusion and stable isotope studies reveal that the ore–forming fluids constitute a complex hydrothermal system characterized by a wide temperature range (112–324 °C) and variable salinities (0.18–21.87 wt% NaCl eq.). The H–O isotopic compositions exhibit a distinct latitudinal trend, supporting a dominant meteoric water component. However, the presence of high–temperature, high–salinity fluid inclusions, along with a shift in some δD values towards the magmatic water field, suggests episodic mixing between meteoric water and deep–seated magmatic–hydrothermal fluids. Sr–Nd isotopic data (⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr = 0.711785–0.713424; εNd(t)= −27.7 to −27.5) potentially demonstrate that the ore–forming materials (Ca and REEs) were not derived from coeval magmatic rocks. Instead, they were primarily leached from the Precambrian Donghai Group metamorphic complex through extensive water–rock interaction. Based on these findings, the Chutuan and Jiashan deposits are classified as hydrothermal vein–type systems. Fluorite precipitation was governed by a combination of fluid cooling, water–rock interaction, and fluid mixing. Finally, a metallogenic model is established, offering important insights into the genesis of fluorite mineralization in the Sulu Orogenic Belt and analogous geological settings in eastern China. Full article

Chronic pancreatitis (CP) is a fibro-inflammatory condition defined by permanent anatomical changes in the pancreas. The causes of CP are described by the TIGAR-O classification system: toxin-related, idiopathic, genetic mutations, autoimmune disorders, episodes of recurrent acute pancreatitis, and obstructions. Pain is multifactorial in nature, and common psychopathological consequences of CP, including depression and anxiety, complicate the clinical picture of chronic pancreatitis. As a result, the quality of life of patients with CP is decreased. This review describes the pathophysiology of pain and its relationship to underlying psychological consequences, with a focus on a long-term, holistic management approach. Strategies that combine physical and psychological management align with SDG 3 (Good Health and Well-being). CP predominantly affects patients from low socioeconomic backgrounds due to disparities in medical care, underscoring the relevance of achieving SDG 10 (Reduced Inequalities). This review emphasizes the importance of targeted research in developing a holistic care model for CP that aligns with the SDGs. Full article

The influence of COVID-19 infection on the association between ABO blood groups and early outcomes in patients with acute pulmonary embolism (PE) remains uncertain. We conducted a retrospective, single-center cohort study including adult patients admitted with a first episode of acute pulmonary embolism (PE). The interaction between ABO blood group (non-O vs. O) and COVID-19 status was evaluated using multivariable logistic regression models adjusted for PE severity assessed by the Pulmonary Embolism Severity Index (PESI). A total of 211 patients were included, of whom 95 (45.0%) were COVID-19-positive. Among COVID-19-positive patients, non-O blood groups were associated with significantly higher odds of invasive mechanical ventilation (IMV) compared with group O (adjusted odds ratio [aOR] 12.87, 95% CI 4.17–39.75), whereas no association was observed among COVID-19–negative patients (aOR 1.20, 95% CI 0.45–3.23). No interaction was identified for 24 h mortality (p = 0.721) or systemic thrombolysis (p = 0.306). Higher PESI class was independently associated with an increased risk of adverse outcomes. ABO blood group modified the association between COVID-19 infection and early respiratory outcomes in acute PE. These findings suggest a potential role of ABO-related differences in coagulation and endothelial biology in the clinical expression of COVID-associated PE and should be interpreted as hypothesis-generating. Full article

Real-world autonomous agents learn under nonstationarity, safety constraints, and finite energetic budgets. We develop a framework for perennial learning—agents that continuously refine their models while provably controlling the cost of forgetting—by unifying three classical pillars: Kolmogorov complexity, which equates scientific discovery with algorithmic compression; Landauer's principle, which assigns a minimal thermodynamic cost of k_BT ln 2 per erased bit to every irreversible model update; and port-Hamiltonian (PH) dynamics, whose (J − R)∇H decomposition separates zero-cost reversible inference from costly irreversible forgetting by construction. The Maxwell demon analogy is formalized: each learning episode is a Szilard cycle in which information acquisition, belief transport, and memory erasure must balance thermodynamically. The information-distance framework, comprising the normalized information distance (NID) and normalized compression distance (NCD), provides a computable geometry for measuring learning progress and guiding curriculum design. We separate the ideal  uncomputable regularizer based on prefix complexity from the  practical  compressor/MDL (minimum description length) surrogate that appears in optimization and prove a calibration lemma linking the two under a mild uniform-accuracy assumption. Under explicit regularity, compact-sublevel, and non-energy-extracting assumptions, we prove a passivity speed limit for curriculum-induced contractions of the effective feasible set. Under local asymptotic normality, we reprove that Fisher information is a   local  posterior codelength proxy rather than an exact theorem about algorithmic entropy. A conditional sequential information-budget proposition shows that the per-stage sample requirement scales as \(\widetilde{O}(\Delta k_t/\lambda_\star)\), where \(\Delta k_t\) is the {number of materially changed model coordinates} (not the total model complexity \(k_t\)); the \(k^3\to\Delta k\) improvement is conditional on a warm-start assumption and a chosen cold-start baseline. A double-integrator running example with a moving obstacle illustrates the architecture. Full article

Background: Air pollution is a major environmental determinant of respiratory health and a significant contributor to the global burden of childhood asthma. Although several recent narrative and systematic reviews have examined environmental triggers of asthma, highlighting air pollution as a consistent risk factor across diverse populations and study designs, recent epidemiological evidence—including multicenter cohort studies and region-specific analyses from Europe and Greece—has not been systematically synthesized. Objective: To systematically review recent epidemiological evidence (2000–2025) on the association between ambient air pollution and childhood asthma incidence and exacerbations, with emphasis on European and Greek populations. Methods: Following PRISMA guidelines, we systematically reviewed observational studies published between 2000 and 2025 in PubMed, Scopus, Web of Science, BMC, and Google Scholar. Studies evaluating quantitative exposure to PM_2.5, PM₁₀, NO₂, O₃, or SO₂ and asthma incidence, prevalence, or exacerbations in children (≤18 years) were included. Evidence was synthesized by pollutant type, exposure window, geographic region, and study design. Results: Twenty-four studies involving more than 3.5 million children were included. Consistent associations were observed across international and European cohorts between long-term exposure to PM_2.5, PM₁₀, and NO₂ and increased asthma incidence. Risk estimates typically ranged from 15% to 30% increases in asthma incidence per 10 μg/m³ increase in long-term exposure to PM_2.5 or NO₂, as reported across multiple cohort analyses. Early-life exposure showed the strongest effects on asthma development and lung function decline. European and Greek studies demonstrated comparable trends, highlighting increased hospitalizations and symptom burden in urban populations despite pollutant concentrations often below current regulatory thresholds. Short-term pollution peaks were additionally associated with increased asthma exacerbations and hospital admissions, particularly during seasonal episodes of elevated particulate matter and ozone concentrations. Conclusions: This review provides an updated synthesis of 21st-century evidence demonstrating that ambient air pollution is a major and modifiable determinant of childhood asthma. The consistency of findings across regions, combined with limited longitudinal evidence from Greece, highlight the importance of improved air-quality management and continued public-health efforts to reduce exposure and the need for enhanced epidemiological monitoring. Full article

Aquaculture is the fastest-growing food production sector, supplying more than half of the world’s seafood and projected to expand further to meet rising global protein demands. Among the various pressures confronting this industry, harmful algal blooms (HABs) rank among the most alarming. Ichthyotoxic flagellates are microalgae known for producing toxins or inducing gill damage that leads to widespread fish mortality. Their increasing frequency poses a critical threat to aquaculture, emphasizing the urgent need for effective and environmentally sustainable strategies to regulate and mitigate these harmful episodes. This study investigated the responses of three ichthyotoxic flagellates renowned for impacting aquaculture operations (Prymnesium parvum, Heterosigma akashiwo, and Fibrocapsa japonica) and tested their susceptibility to two routinely applied chemical agents, hydrogen peroxide (H₂O₂) and copper sulfate (CuSO₄). Mortality, viability, and motility were assessed alongside trajectory-based metrics, including mean squared displacement (MSD) and probability density function (PDF). The results revealed species-specific sensitivities: P. parvum was highly susceptible to H₂O₂, while H. akashiwo and F. japonica were more susceptible to copper toxicity. Ichthyotoxic flagellates exhibited differential sensitivities to chemical treatments, with copper sulfate generally achieving lower EC₅₀ thresholds and greater inhibition of motility than hydrogen peroxide, except in P. parvum. The rapid attenuation of motility at sublethal concentrations highlights swimming behavior as a functional vulnerability, reinforcing the potential for behavior-based mitigation strategies that minimize chemical loading and reduce unintended impacts on cultured fish and surrounding ecosystems. Full article

Mobile robot navigation remains challenging when fast convergence, collision avoidance and deployability must be satisfied simultaneously. The original Q-learning with Artificial Potential Field (QAPF) paradigm is extended in this paper with three coordinated mechanisms that together yield a reported-horizon convergence reduction of approximately four orders of magnitude (from $\sim 3\times {10}^6$ episodes to $\sim 200$ to 230 episodes under the present protocol) and an internal-ablation collision-rate reduction of approximately one order of magnitude ($6.2\%$ to $0.3\%$), and that open a new capability frontier covering dynamic obstacles, multi-robot coordination, energy-aware velocity modulation and embedded-deployable inference timing. The first mechanism is a potential-based reward-shaping schedule whose unclipped fixed-weight form follows the policy-invariant shaping theorem, while the implemented clipped and time-varying form is used as an empirically stable approximation. Under the present experimental protocol, the reported convergence horizon is reduced from the $\sim 3\times {10}^6$ episodes reported for the original QAPF formulation to approximately 200 to 230 episodes; this comparison is protocol-dependent and is not claimed as a controlled one-to-one runtime speedup. The second mechanism is a discrete Control Barrier Function (CBF)-inspired action filter (thediscrete filter described in this paper is inspired by the continuous-time CBF literature, but does not carry a forward-invariance proof; it is used as an empirical safety mechanism rather than as a formal Control Barrier Function in the formal continuous-time sense) with per episode visit memory by which the held-out collision rate is reduced from $6.2\%$ for QAPF alone to $0.3\%$ while $93.8\%$ task completion is maintained, where this collision-rate comparison is internal to the QAPF ablation because the prior QAPF reference does not report a comparable held-out collision metric. The third mechanism is a set of extensions to dynamic obstacles, two-robot cooperative navigation under a centralized scheme (with an explicit $\mathcal{O}(N^2)$ scaling-cost analysis and three decentralization strategies for fleets beyond the small-N regime), curriculum learning and energy-aware velocity modulation. Disturbance robustness tests, empirical timeout/stagnation detection for unreachable-goal cases, i7 reference inference timing with projected embedded-device latencies, multi-axis generalization over obstacle density and grid size, scalability analysis for centralized multi-robot coordination and a scope comparison against A* and RRT* are added by the revised evaluation. Across 30 independent seeds on held-out static maps, $94.5\pm 2.1\%$ success is achieved by adaptive QAPF while $93.8\pm 2.3\%$ success with $0.3\pm 0.4\%$ collisions is achieved by QAPF+CBF. Under a separate finite robustness suite, $85.0\pm 4.1\%$ success is retained by QAPF+CBF in the combined disturbance regime. The timing study indicates that the 20 Hz real-time threshold is comfortably exceeded by all methods on the measured i7 reference platform and by all projected embedded-device equivalents. The results show that a lightweight and safety-oriented navigation policy for grid-based mobile-robot settings can be provided by APF-guided tabular reinforcement learning when it is paired with a discrete safety filter and a clarified energy and robustness analysis. Full article

The reconstruction of detrital flux, paleoclimate, paleosalinity, paleo-primary productivity, paleohydrodynamic conditions, and paleo-water depth enhances understanding of sedimentary processes and their drivers during deep-time greenhouse-icehouse transitions, such as the Eocene–Oligocene transition. This study uses detailed geochemical analyses of major oxides and trace elements in sediment samples collected from the Beni Suef Formation (Bartonian–Priabonian) and the Maadi Formation (Priabonian) in the southern Tethys shelf (Egypt, northeastern Desert). Detrital proxies, including Si/Al, Ti/Al, and Zr/Al, indicate an enhanced influx of terrigenous sediments in the middle portion of the Qurn Member of the Beni Suef Formation, as further supported by noticeable facies variations, particularly the transition from shale to coarser silt- and sand-sized fractions. Paleoclimate indicators (Sr/Ba, Rb/Sr, K₂O/Al₂O₃, and Sr/Cu) point to a climatic shift from humid to arid conditions, consistent with the regional Late Eocene aridification across the Tethyan realm. Paleosalinity proxies (Sr/Ba, Ca/Al, and Mg/Al×100) suggest episodic intensification of open-marine influence and a reduction in freshwater input, with an upsection increase in Sr/Ba ratios, reflecting phases of enhanced marine water settings or decreased terrestrial runoff. Primary productivity was evaluated using multiple geochemical proxies, including P, Ni/Al, Cu/Al, P/Al, P/Ti, and Babio ratios. These collectively indicate generally low primary productivity interrupted by intervals of enhanced paleoproductivity or increased organic matter export to the sediments. This interpretation is further supported by the low total organic carbon (TOC) values. These results highlight the sensitivity of the southern Tethys shelf to Middle–Late Eocene climatic variability and the key role of prevailing paleoenvironmental conditions in controlling sediment supply, water chemistry, and biological productivity. Full article

Urban air quality is a key component of environmental sustainability and public health in large metropolitan areas. Following the substantial but temporary improvements in air quality observed during the COVID-19 lockdowns, it remains unclear whether structural changes in urban air pollution have persisted in the post-pandemic period. This study analyzes the temporal dynamics of major atmospheric pollutants in Mexico City between 2021 and 2024, including CO, NO₂, NO_x, O₃, PM₁₀, PM_2.5, and SO₂, using hourly data from the Mexico City Atmospheric Monitoring System (SIMAT). Annual and monthly median concentrations were computed to reduce the influence of extreme values and short-term pollution episodes. Station-level monotonic trends were evaluated using the non-parametric Mann–Kendall test, complemented by the use of Sen’s slope estimator to quantify the magnitude and direction of change. Absolute and relative changes between 2021 and 2024 were also analyzed to capture incremental variations not reflected by trend significance tests and performed together with hourly monthly analyses to characterize diurnal and seasonal patterns. Results indicate that no statistically significant monotonic trends were detected for any pollutant across the analyzed stations (p > 0.05), suggesting an overall stabilization of air quality levels during the post-pandemic period. Nevertheless, moderate increases in annual median concentrations were observed at specific locations, particularly for PM₁₀, PM_2.5, NO₂, and NO_x, with relative changes ranging from approximately 5% to 35%. Persistent diurnal and seasonal patterns were identified, closely associated with traffic activity, photochemical processes, and meteorological conditions. These findings suggest that, although no robust long-term trends are evident, incremental increases and stable temporal structures remain relevant from a sustainability perspective. Continued monitoring and targeted air quality management strategies are therefore necessary to support long-term urban environmental sustainability. Full article

Cognitive stress, also known as mental workload, constitutes a central topic within the field of psychophysiology due to its role in modulating attention, autonomic regulation, and stress reactivity. Furthermore, it bears direct relevance to practical monitoring systems that employ non-invasive sensing techniques. This study investigates whether a multimodal, non-invasive measurement setup can detect systematic physiological differences between Resting periods and short episodes of cognitive load within the same individuals. Additionally, it explores the capacity of such a system to differentiate tasks characterized by varying cognitive demands. A sequential, within-subject protocol was employed, comprising five consecutive phases (rest 1, Stroop, rest 12, subtraction, rest 3), during which five modalities were recorded concurrently: EEG, heart rate (HR), galvanic skin response (GSR), facial surface temperature, and oxygen saturation (SpO₂). Beyond phase-wise inspection of time-series data, an exploratory assessment of similarity across participants was conducted using correlation coefficients. The maximum cross-participant correlations observed were 0.88 (HR), 0.90 (GSR), 0.83 (facial temperature), and 0.77 (SpO₂); however, these correlations were used only as exploratory descriptors of inter-individual similarity and did not imply a significant phase effect. For inferential analysis, phase-wise epoch means were evaluated through one-factor repeated-measures ANOVA. The heart rate exhibited a robust main effect of phase (F(4, 32) = 10.5862, p_GG = 0.01044, ηp² = 0.5696), with higher HR observed during cognitive load epochs (e.g., 77.841 ± 11.777 bpm at rest 1 versus 83.926 ± 14.532 bpm during subtraction). The relatively large standard deviation reflects variability between subjects rather than variability within epochs. Regarding processed baseline-referenced GSR, the omnibus phase effect was not statistically significant under the conservative Greenhouse–Geisser correction; therefore, GSR was interpreted as exploratory in this dataset. Facial temperature and SpO₂ likewise did not show statistically significant omnibus phase effects under Greenhouse–Geisser correction (e.g., SpO₂: p_GG = 0.1209). EEG-derived measures provide supplementary central evidence of task engagement; entropy variations within an approximate dynamic range of 0.2 to 0.8 were observed, and the α/θ ratios demonstrated nearly a twofold distinction between rest and cognitive load epochs across different leads. Full article

The regulator theorem states that, under certain conditions, any optimal controller must embody a model of the system it regulates, grounding the idea that controllers embed, explicitly or implicitly, internal models of the controlled. This principle underpins neuroscience and predictive brain theories like the Free-Energy Principle or Kolmogorov/Algorithmic Agent theory. However, the theorem is only proven in limited settings. Here, we treat the deterministic, closed, coupled world-regulator system (W,R) as a single self-delimiting program p via a constant-size wrapper that produces the world output string x fed to the regulator. We analyze regulation from the viewpoint of the algorithmic complexity of the output, $K\left(x\right)$ (regulation as compression). We define R to be a good algorithmic regulator if it reduces the algorithmic complexity of the readout relative to a null (unregulated) baseline ⌀, i.e., $\Delta =K\left(O_{W,⌀}\right)-K\left(O_{W,R}\right)>0.$ We then prove that the larger $\Delta$ is, the more world-regulator pairs with high mutual algorithmic information are favored. More precisely, a complexity gap $\Delta >0$ yields $Pr((W,R)\mid x)\le C 2^{M(W:R)}{2}^{-\Delta }$, making low $M(W:R)$ exponentially unlikely as $\Delta$ grows. This is an AIT version of the idea that “the regulator contains a model of the world.” The framework is distribution-free, applies to individual sequences, and complements the Internal Model Principle. Beyond this necessity claim, the same coding-theorem calculus singles out a canonical scalar objective and implicates a planner. On the realized episode, a regulator behaves as if it minimized the conditional description length of the readout. Full article

Hypoxic pulmonary vasoconstriction (HPV) is a rapid and reversible constrictor response of the pulmonary vasculature, and especially its small muscular precapillary arteries, which is initiated by episodes of local alveolar hypoxia. Acting as a protective homeostatic vasomotor mechanism, HPV enables maximal gas exchange by diverting blood from poorly ventilated alveoli into those rich in oxygen, thereby optimizing oxygen uptake and the ventilation–perfusion (V/Q) ratio so as to maintain the arterial oxygen partial pressure (P_aO₂) within the physiological range. HPV is an intrinsic mechanism of pulmonary artery smooth muscle cells (PASMCs), and requires an O₂ sensor which acts through mediator(s) to trigger effector mechanisms within these cells to evoke constriction. Whereas HPV effector mechanisms are reasonably well defined, the nature of the O₂ sensor and mediators remains in dispute, and a number of proposals have been developed to account for these. Some (but not all) of these share a focus on the concept that hypoxia activates effector mechanisms by inducing a change in the PASMC cytoplasmic redox state. Of these, the Redox Theory, first proposed by Kenneth Weir and Stephen Archer in 1995, proposes that hypoxia inhibits mitochondrial production of reactive oxygen species (ROS), thereby causing the cytoplasm to become more reduced. This inhibits ongoing vasorelaxation maintained by the opening of voltage-gated K⁺ channels. In contrast, according to the Mitochondrial ROS hypothesis, introduced by Paul Schumacker and Naveen Chandel in 2001, hypoxia increases mitochondrial ROS production, causing an oxidizing shift in the cytoplasmic redox state that activates several vasoconstricting pathways. In a third redox-based scenario, developed by Michael Wolin and Sachin Gupte, hypoxia evokes contraction by causing a fall in H₂O₂ production by NADPH oxidase and by activating the pentose phosphate pathway. These effects inhibit basal vasorelaxation maintained by the guanylate cyclase and protein kinase G and also stimulate vasoconstricting mechanisms. In this comprehensive review, we first provide a detailed summary of the key studies contributing to the development of these proposals and then subject the evidence supporting them to a critical appraisal, based in part on how well they accord with the wider literature and recent developments in our understanding of how cells shape and deploy redox mechanisms in order to regulate cell function. Full article

Ground-level ozone (O₃) pollution remains persistently high in China, despite the implementation of stringent emission controls targeting primary pollutants. However, understanding of the drivers and formation mechanisms of this secondary pollutant remains limited. Herein, comprehensive field observations of O₃ and its precursors were conducted in a medium-sized city in eastern China. The average O₃ concentration was 93.60 ± 61.98 μg·m⁻³, with severe pollution accounting for 47.05% (high-temperature, low-humidity conditions). The peak O₃ concentration during pollution episodes (207.13 ± 34.93 μg·m⁻³) exceeded that of non-pollution periods (108.77 ± 43.99 μg·m⁻³) by more than twofold. A generalized additive model (GAM) was employed to identify the key drivers of O₃ pollution, revealing relative humidity (RH) (F = 36.95) and volatile organic compounds (VOCs) (F = 8.03) as dominant drivers. Further interaction analysis using the GAM showed synergistic effects between RH and nitric oxide (NOx) as well as the temperature (T) and NOx on O₃ evolution. O₃ formation sensitivity analysis demonstrated that O₃ production was primarily within a VOC-limited regime (VOCs/NOx < 5.5). Alkenes were found to be the most prominent component, contributing 41.20–45.38% to the in situ O₃ formation potential (OFP), especially for ethylene and acetaldehyde (>10 μg·m⁻³). The toluene/benzene ratio indicated that Taizhou’s ambient VOCs were dominated by vehicle exhaust emissions, with minor contributions from solvents, oils, and gases, and LPG volatilization, making vehicle exhaust control the core of VOC reduction. The air mass transport from the Yellow Sea also significantly affected the local O₃. This study quantifies the effects of multiple factors of summertime O₃ pollution and provides scientific support for targeted O₃ control strategies in a medium-sized city in eastern China. Full article

The shoulder may be an effective central site for continuous oxygen saturation (SpO2) monitoring but studies of shoulder-mounted pulse oximetry technology are limited. We hypothesized that an alternative location would be similar in function and user acceptance to a standard FDA-cleared finger-based pulse oximeter. We conducted a quantitative and descriptive pilot study of two prototype biosensor designs in patients with clinical suspicion of hypoxic episodes at an outpatient sleep center. Participants wore two prototype biosensors—the primary a shoulder-mounted adhesive and the secondary a combination ring–bracelet—in addition to a control FDA-approved finger-based pulse oximeter. We assessed the comfort of the devices based on a survey. We monitored 27 patients during an overnight polysomnography study. Participants rated the shoulder-mounted device more highly than the control device on a Likert scale survey of comfort (4.6 out of 5 versus 3.1 out of 5). Open-ended questionnaires showed that the two major criticisms of the control and ring devices were devices falling off and disruption to sleep, while only one participant commented on the shoulder device specifically. We also investigated SpO2 agreement between the primary shoulder-mounted prototype and the control finger-based pulse oximeter. This study confirms that alternative configurations for SpO2 monitoring offer potential as well-tolerated devices with preliminary findings of acceptable agreement. Problems with traditional pulse oximetry, such as false readings of hypoxia due to device removal or noisy data, were encountered less frequently in shoulder-mounted pulse oximetry than in the commercial finger-based device. Future directions include studies of additional populations that are at risk of respiratory collapse and surveys to elicit specific feedback on the configurations, whether positive or negative. Full article