Search Results (4,924)

Selecting a sensing architecture for knee osteoarthritis (OA) screening requires balancing biomechanical information, system complexity, and reproducibility. We audited a public Korean multimodal gait dataset and performed a leakage-resistant internal evaluation. The release contained 180 participants (90 normal, 90 knee OA) measured using a smart insole, instrumented gait mat, and inertial measurement units (IMUs); all 1080 JavaScript Object Notation (JSON) files were checked for structural, value, provenance, and duplication errors. The primary benchmark was a fixed class-balanced L2 logistic regression model using nine gait mat variables, evaluated with subject-level repeated stratified five-fold cross-validation and 10,000 outcome-stratified bootstrap resamples. The audit identified 14 source-path metadata errors and one opposing-label duplicate smart insole payload, but no parsing, schema, range, or cross-partition subject errors. The gait mat model achieved an area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUROC) of 0.924 (95% confidence interval [CI], 0.879–0.962), balanced accuracy 0.883 (0.833–0.928), sensitivity 0.856, specificity 0.911, and Brier score 0.102. Adding smart insole and/or IMU features did not improve AUROC. Provider-model reproduction was descriptive because the public Validation partition informed model selection. In this release, the compact gait mat feature set provided the most favorable observed balance of discrimination, interpretability, and sensing complexity; external prospective evaluation is required before clinical use. Full article

Early-season winter wheat mapping is crucial for agricultural management and food security, but reliable identification remains challenging under weak spectral conditions during early growth stages. To address this challenge, this study developed a CNN–LSTM with a lag-aware gated fusion model (CL-LGFM) for winter wheat mapping in the Chaohu Basin, China, using a reconstructed 5-day Sentinel-2 NDVI time series and precipitation data from the Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) mission. The model employs a dual-branch architecture to jointly learn vegetation and precipitation features and introduces a lag-aware dynamic gated fusion module to capture the delayed response of vegetation to precipitation and enhance multi-source feature fusion. The results show that the proposed method achieved reliable early-season winter wheat mapping (OA ≥ 0.90, Kappa ≥ 0.80) on 26 January, at least 10 days earlier than traditional methods, including SVM, RF, DTW, and TCN, using the same reconstructed 5-day NDVI time series. Optimal performance uses a 7 × 7 patch size and 30-day precipitation window. Full article

Background: Inherited metabolic disorders (IMDs) are a heterogeneous group of genetic diseases, some of which require lifelong disease-specific dietary management. Children with phenylketonuria (PKU), organic acidemias (OAs), and glycogen storage diseases (GSDs) are particularly susceptible to nutritional imbalances and metabolic disturbances that may adversely affect bone metabolism and skeletal health. However, data regarding bone turnover markers and bone health in these pediatric IMD populations remain limited. Objective: This study aimed to evaluate bone metabolism by assessing biochemical parameters, bone turnover markers, and bone mineral density in children with PKU, OA, and GSD receiving long-term dietary treatment. Methods: This cross-sectional study included 95 children, comprising 25 patients with PKU, 20 patients with organic acidemias, 20 patients with glycogen storage diseases, and 30 healthy age-matched controls. Demographic characteristics, anthropometric measurements, and dietary intake were recorded. Biochemical evaluation included serum calcium, phosphorus, alkaline phosphatase (ALP), parathyroid hormone (PTH), and 25-hydroxyvitamin D levels. Bone turnover was assessed using C-terminal telopeptide of type I collagen (CTX), procollagen type I N-terminal propeptide (P1NP), and osteocalcin (OC) levels. Bone mineral density was evaluated by dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA). Results: Age and sex distributions were similar among the groups. Height was lower in OA than in controls and PKU, and in GSD than in PKU; weight and BMI were lower in both OA and GSD than in controls and PKU (p < 0.05). Significant differences were observed in dietary energy and macronutrient intake according to disease-specific nutritional regimens. Serum calcium, phosphorus, and 25-hydroxyvitamin D levels were significantly lower in all IMD groups compared with healthy controls (p < 0.001). ALP and PTH levels were significantly higher in PKU, OA, and GSD patients than in controls (p < 0.001). Among bone turnover markers, P1NP and osteocalcin levels significantly differed among groups, with the highest values observed in PKU patients (p = 0.006 and p = 0.028, respectively). CTX levels did not significantly differ among the groups (p = 0.183). DXA Z-scores were significantly lower in all IMD groups than in controls, with the lowest mean Z-scores observed in GSD patients. Conclusions: Children with PKU, OA, and GSD receiving long-term dietary treatment exhibited significant alterations in bone metabolism, characterized by lower vitamin D, calcium, and phosphorus levels, higher ALP and PTH concentrations, differences in bone formation markers, and lower DXA Z-scores compared with controls. Significant differences were observed in the bone formation markers P1NP and osteocalcin, whereas CTX levels remained comparable among the study groups. These findings underscore the importance of regular assessment of bone health and optimization of nutritional management in children under dietary treatment, while acknowledging that disease-specific mechanisms of skeletal involvement may differ among these conditions. Full article

Osteoarthritis (OA) is increasingly recognized as a mechanically driven whole-joint disease in which abnormal mechanotransduction initiates a cascade of mitochondrial dysfunction, chronic inflammation, and progressive cartilage degeneration. Among the mechanosensitive molecules identified to date, Piezo1 has emerged as a key mechanosensitive regulator linking pathological mechanical loading to intracellular calcium signaling and downstream cellular responses. Growing evidence indicates that persistent Piezo1 activation promotes mitochondrial calcium overload, excessive reactive oxygen species production, ATP depletion, mitochondrial membrane depolarization, and impaired mitophagy, ultimately amplifying chondrocyte dysfunction and extracellular matrix degradation. In parallel, mitochondrial damage triggers immunometabolic reprogramming through activation of the cGAS–STING pathway and the NLRP3 inflammasome. It also promotes pro-inflammatory cytokines, including interleukin-1β, tumor necrosis factor-α, and interleukin-6. Together, these responses may contribute to a self-perpetuating cycle of inflammation and tissue destruction. This review provides a comprehensive synthesis of recent advances regarding the role of Piezo1 in OA, focusing on the mechanistic links between mechanotransduction, mitochondrial dysfunction, mitophagy, and immunometabolic dysregulation. We further discuss the contribution of mitochondrial quality-control pathways, including PINK1/Parkin-, BNIP3-, and FUNDC1-mediated mitophagy, as well as alterations in mitochondrial dynamics involving DRP1, MFN1, MFN2, and OPA1. Emerging experimental models are discussed as valuable tools for accelerating therapeutic discovery. Finally, we critically evaluate current therapeutic strategies targeting the Piezo1–mitochondria axis, including mechanosensitive channel modulation, mitochondrial protection, mitophagy enhancement, gene therapy, biomaterial-assisted delivery, and nanomedicine. Collectively, current evidence supports the Piezo1–mitochondria–immune axis as an important mechanistic framework contributing to OA pathogenesis and as a potential therapeutic target. Integrating mechanobiology, mitochondrial medicine, and precision-engineered experimental models may facilitate the development of next-generation disease-modifying therapies capable of slowing or preventing osteoarthritis progression. Full article

Plants grown in arid environments can produce distinct secondary metabolite profiles as adaptive stress responses. This study evaluated the antimicrobial, antioxidant, and antibiofilm activities of essential oils (EOs) from two Ocimum species cultivated in Qatar: Ocimum basilicum L. (OB-S, sweet basil) and Ocimum africanum Lour. (OA-L, lemon basil). GC-MS analysis revealed distinct chemotypes: OB-S was linalool-rich (31.53% linalool and 12.91% eucalyptol), while OA-L was citral-dominant (78.34% geranial/neral). OB-S exhibited superior biological activity, showing a lower minimum inhibitory concentration against Listeria monocytogenes (MIC = 5 mg/mL) than OA-L (MIC = 10 mg/mL). Consistent with its higher total phenolic content (999.06 ± 8.30 vs. 37.77 ± 3.25 µg GAE/g EO), OB-S demonstrated significantly greater antioxidant capacity (DPPH EC₅₀ of 162.69 ± 0.78 vs. 939.38 ± 0.68 µg/mL). Further evaluation of OB-S EO and its major constituents (linalool, eugenol, estragole, eucalyptol) against L. monocytogenes biofilms revealed that while the whole EO reduced biofilm viability at 2MIC, isolated phytocompounds were more potent. Eugenol achieved the greatest reduction (reaching up to 5 log CFU/cm²), suggesting that it may be a major contributor to OB-S EO’s antibiofilm activity. These findings highlight the distinct chemotypic and bioactive profiles of these Ocimum species cultivated under arid conditions while also demonstrating eugenol’s potential for food-safety applications as a natural food preservative. Full article

Germanium is a critical rare-dispersed metal with irreplaceable applications in infrared optics, fiber-optic communications, and semiconductor industries, making its efficient recovery from secondary resources of great strategic importance. This study investigates the selective recovery of germanium from complex zinc smelting leachates using a novel hydroxamic acid extractant, BGYW, in synergistic combination with P204. The feed solution contained approximately 360 mg/L Ge, 10,790 mg/L Fe²⁺, and 98,530 mg/L Zn, representing a highly complex matrix. Continuous counter-current extraction was performed in a 30-stage miniature mixer-settler. Under optimized conditions of 10% BGYW + 5% P204 in white oil, an O/A ratio of 1:1, and 8 mol/L NH₄F as strippant, the single-stage germanium extraction efficiency reached 99.4%. Over 16 consecutive cycles, the extraction system maintained stable performance with average germanium extraction above 99%. A 3-stage scrubbing section using 50 g/L H₂SO₄ effectively removed co-extracted Zn, Cu, and Al impurities. Iron co-extraction, a major challenge, was successfully mitigated through a 2–3 stage iron scrubbing step using a chloride-containing scrubbing solution, which reduced the iron concentration in the strip liquor from approximately 600 mg/L to below 4 mg/L, and decreased the Fe/Ge mass ratio from 0.197 to below 0.01. The overall germanium recovery across the entire 30-stage continuous process reached 98.82%, and the dissolution loss of BGYW in the aqueous phase was reduced by over 85% compared to the conventional YW100 extractant. Third-phase formation caused by residual organic flocculants from the leaching step was eliminated through enhanced pre-treatment, while ferric fluoride precipitation in the stripping section was resolved by incorporating the iron scrubbing stage. This study demonstrates that the BGYW-P204 extraction system with the integrated iron scrubbing step offers an efficient, stable, and industrially viable approach for germanium recovery from zinc smelting leachates, providing a practical solution to the long-standing challenge of germanium–iron separation and contributing to the sustainable supply of this critical metal. Full article

Background: Malnutrition is prevalent among older adults (OAs), ≥65 years, receiving home care services. Despite recommendations for early detection and multifactorial interventions, a gap remains between routine practice and evidence. We therefore developed a complex intervention for early detection of malnutrition risk in a Danish home care setting, comprising an implementation strategy with staff learning activities and a screening procedure with a start-up conversation and follow-up screenings. This article outlines the feasibility test and process evaluation of the intervention. Methods: Guided by the Medical Research Council (MRC/NIHR) framework for complex interventions and MRC process evaluation guidance, the evaluation was conducted in two parts. Part 1 focused on case-level feasibility, while Part 2 examined implementation feasibility within routine home care practice. Qualitative data were collected through participant observations, informal interviews, semi-structured individual interviews, focus group interviews, and a participatory workshop. Quantitative data were extracted from the electronic patient record (NEXUS, Systematic A/S, Aarhus, Denmark). Qualitative data were analysed using qualitative content analysis, and quantitative data using descriptive statistics. Results: All eligible OAs (12/12) received a start-up conversation in Part 1 compared with 5/16 (31%) in Part 2, while follow-up screenings declined from 61/71 (86%) to 37/50 (74%). Overall, staff perceived the learning activities as useful and were able to deliver the screening procedure. However, delivery and implementation were influenced by time constraints, leadership support, workplace culture, and organisational infrastructures. OAs showed willingness to participate, yet their prerequisites for engagement were more limited than anticipated. Conclusion: The intervention could be delivered in a real-world home care setting, but delivery, implementation, and activation of proposed mechanisms were constrained by resource limitations, competing priorities, workplace culture, and organisational infrastructures. To improve uptake, intervention adaptations and a stepwise implementation approach are recommended. Full article

Mechanical stress is thought to be involved in the pathogenesis and pathophysiology of osteoarthritis (OA). However, much remains to be elucidated regarding how chondrocytes sense and respond to mechanical stress (stress sensing and response factors). Additionally, it still remains unclear whether there are defensive responses and mechanisms to protect against pathological agents and mechanical stress in articular cartilage tissue. This study was designed to determine whether repetitive mechanical force, at physiologic levels, affects the expression of factors regulating autophagy such as the autophagy-related proteins ATG5, Beclin-1, and Parkin, and the autophagy process as well as cellular activity in cultured chondrocytes. Three-dimensional cultured tissue was generated from human chondrocytes using a collagen sponge scaffold. After physiological mechanical loading of the 3D cell–collagen sponge construct, comparative analyses of expression levels of ATG5, Beclin-1, and Parkin were performed in human chondrocytes. Chondrocyte activity and Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM) analysis for detecting autophagy process were also analyzed with or without repetitive compressive loading. In chondrocytes, 60 min or 180 min repetitive compressive loading significantly decreased the expression of ATG5, Beclin-1 and Parkin in comparison with the non-loading group. TEM analysis indicated that, in normal chondrocytes of the non-loading group, the autophagy process was shown to be progressing. In contrast, repetitive loading decreased the number of autophagosomes and autolysosomes in chondrocytes. In addition, numerous degenerated organelles that had not undergone autophagy were observed within the chondrocytes under repetitive loading. The ATG5 and Beclin-1 proteins are known to play crucial roles in regulating cellular autophagy. Furthermore, repetitive mechanical loading caused a decreased expression of Parkin, a mitophagy regulator in chondrocytes. Our results indicate for the first time that a decrease in mitophagy, as well as cellular autophagy, in response to mechanical stress, even at the physiologic level, leads to the accumulation of defective mitochondria and abnormal cellular proteins, resulting in reduced chondrocyte activity and affecting the maintenance of cartilage tissue homeostasis, ultimately contributing to the progression of OA. Full article

Background: The development of osteoarthritis (OA), a whole-joint disorder that is increasingly recognized, depends on subchondral trabecular bone. Variations in the viscoelastic characteristics of trabecular bone have been proposed to affect load distribution and potentially lead to joint degradation. The viscoelastic response of human trabecular bone in both healthy and osteoarthritic situations was investigated using constitutive modeling and stress-relaxation testing. Fifteen tibial trabecular bone specimens were evaluated using Standard Linear Solid (SLS) models and two-branch generalized Maxwell models following uniaxial stress-relaxation testing. Mechanical, energy, and relaxation-related traits were retrieved and compared between groups. Results: Healthy bone tended to relax stress more slowly and to bear mechanical loads over time to a slightly greater extent than osteoarthritic bone, which tended to relax stress more quickly and had poorer mechanical endurance; these differences were not statistically significant. The Generalized Maxwell model suited the experimental data better than the SLS model (R² > 0.98), capturing both short- and long-term relaxation mechanisms. Sensitivity analysis revealed higher parameter variability in OA specimens, suggesting possible differences in mechanical heterogeneity and load-dissipation behavior that require further investigation. Conclusions: Although the observed differences were not statistically significant in this exploratory study, the results suggest potential trends toward altered viscoelastic behavior between healthy and osteoarthritic trabecular bone. Future studies with larger cohorts are needed to further investigate osteoarthritis-related biomechanical alterations. Multi-branch viscoelastic modeling may provide sensitive mechanical descriptors for characterizing the relaxation behavior of subchondral bone. Full article

Background: The clinical translation of cell-based therapies for knee articular cartilage repair is fundamentally restricted by the severe biological unpredictability of autologous cell sources, inherent manufacturing bottlenecks, and the rapid phenotypic dedifferentiation of cells expanded in conventional 2D monolayers. To overcome these translational hurdles, this study engineered a scaffold-free, 3D formulation of highly characterized allogeneic FE002-Cart chondroprogenitor spheroids. Methods: We systematically investigated the specific microenvironmental cues and Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) formulation parameters required to direct functional chondrogenesis. The structural and biochemical performance of this allogeneic formulation was benchmarked against multiple primary adult autologous chondrocyte types. Finally, we evaluated the phenotypic resilience of the microtissues in simulated osteoarthritic (OA) environments and investigated both short-term liquid storage and advanced terminal preservation strategies to establish off-the-shelf logistical viability. Results: Precise microenvironmental regulation proved to be a critical biological prerequisite. The synergistic combination of physiological hypoxia (2% O₂) and stringent glucocorticoid limitation (10 nM dexamethasone) induced robust glycosaminoglycan (GAG) deposition and a > 200-fold upregulation of ACAN and COL2, while suppressing the terminal hypertrophic drift observed in adult chondrocytes. Benchmarking revealed that the allogeneic FE002-Cart formulation substantially mitigates the profound morphological and biochemical unpredictability inherent to adult autologous cell sources. Furthermore, the scaffold-free spheroid geometry yielded a 10-fold increase in GAG production per cell compared to traditional matrix-seeded (MACI) platforms. Transitioning to a GMP-compatible manufacturing process revealed extreme cellular sensitivities; excipients within standard pharmaceutical-grade dexamethasone severely aborted chondrogenic differentiation, emphasizing the necessity of rigorous raw-material qualification. Functionally, the 3D architecture acted as a protective physical shield, sustaining high cellular viability when subjected to severe inflammatory stress and 100% OA patient synovial fluid. Logistically, the viable spheroids maintained matrix integrity and inter-spheroid fusion potential for up to 7 days at ambient temperature in transport medium. Finally, advanced spheroid preservation via lyophilization and high-dose gamma irradiation eliminated biological viability but successfully transitioned the microtissues into highly organized, terminally irradiated matrices capable of heterologous in vitro structural merging. Conclusions: These findings define the critical biological thresholds for manufacturing, demonstrate the enhanced in vitro biosynthetic efficiency of 3D allogeneic microtissues compared to specific autologous and matrix-dependent baselines, and establish a highly practical, off-the-shelf logistical framework for the regenerative treatment of large knee chondral defects. Full article

In karst regions, sugarcane mapping faces challenges from fragmented fields, undulating terrain, spectral confusion, and persistent cloud cover, which limit traditional optical remote sensing. To address these issues, we propose a fine-scale extraction framework that integrates Sentinel-2 optical and Sentinel-1 synthetic aperture radar (SAR) imagery through image-level fusion, and introduces a UNet-DFH network with a Multi-Scale Edge Fusion (MSEF) module and an Attention-Deformable Fusion Module (ADFM). This study makes three core contributions: (1) we construct a dedicated optical–SAR collaborative sugarcane extraction dataset for typical karst regions, alleviating the scarcity of multimodal labeled samples; (2) we propose the UNet-DFH network, where MSEF enhances boundary preservation and topological detail in shallow decoding stages, while ADFM improves robustness to geometric deformation and local misalignment in deep semantic stages; (3) we demonstrate that the joint mechanism of edge-preserving filtering and deformable adaptation yields a synergistic effect in addressing the precision–recall trade-off. Experiments in a typical karst area of Guangxi, China, demonstrate that optical–SAR fusion achieves an IoU of 80.08% and an OA of 92.09% during the sugar accumulation and maturity stage. During the more challenging tillering stage, UNet-DFH maintains relatively stable performance under optical-only conditions, with an IoU of 72.98%, Recall of 82.78%, and OA of 92.12%. Moreover, optical–SAR fusion improves Recall by 5.5 percentage points over optical-only inputs (from 83.54% to 89.04%), while Precision exhibits a moderate decrease from 91.89% to 88.84%, reflecting the expected trade-off associated with speckle noise. These results confirm the complementary value of multimodal data and the effectiveness of the proposed modules in preserving fragmented plot boundaries and improving segmentation performance in complex karst terrain. The framework offers a promising approach for high-precision crop mapping in the studied karst agricultural landscape. Full article

Change detection under Gaussian noise is challenging because noise perturbs spectral clustering and posterior inference. This study presents a scene-adaptive weakly supervised framework that combines self-supervised single-image restoration with posterior-probability change modeling. A channel-spatial attention aggregation network (CAANet) is optimized jointly from the observed bitemporal scene by masked reconstruction without clean-image targets. The observed and restored images are coupled in a restoration-guided fuzzy decomposition, after which a normalized context-sensitive Bayesian network converts soft signal evidence into land-cover posterior vectors. Their temporal displacement is measured in a normalized semantic evidence space. Experiments on five remote-sensing datasets use zero-mean Gaussian noise with variance v ∈ {0.01, 0.03, 0.05, 0.07, 0.09}. At v = 0.05, FCC_CAANet achieves OA values of 0.9280–0.9659 and Kappa values of 0.7296–0.9521, obtaining the highest OA and Kappa on all five datasets among the implemented methods. The claims are limited to this controlled synthetic Gaussian-noise setting. Full article

In multilayer ceramic capacitors, the internal electrodes are fabricated by printing thin layers of nickel paste, which contains a dispersant to prevent the agglomeration of nickel powder particles within the paste. We used molecular dynamics simulations and cryogenic focused ion beam-scanning electron microscopy to investigate the effects of microscopic structures in the adsorbed dispersant layer on the steric stabilization of nickel powder particles. Three dispersants were considered with different molecular structures. The simulation results indicated that stearic acid (SA) resulted in the highest steric stabilization efficiency, followed by lauric acid (LA) and oleic acid (OA). The high crystallinity of the SA and LA layers resulted in compressed molecular chains that induced strong repulsion between nickel powder particles, and the high effective thickness of the SA layer induced a stronger repulsion. The OA layer offered less steric stabilization because the molecular chains exhibited interpenetration rather than compression. The experimental results confirmed that the steric stabilization of nickel paste samples qualitatively aligned with the simulation results. Thus, multicomponent nickel pastes containing a polar solvent require a dispersant that forms a thick and highly crystalline adsorbed layer on nickel powder particles for effective steric stabilization. Full article

The effects of ultrasonic amplitude (A; 50–80%), sonication time (T; 5–10 min), and pumpkin seed oil (PSO) concentration (C; 10–30%) on the physicochemical and rheological properties of gelatin–acetic acid polymer solutions and their corresponding PSO emulsions prior to electrospinning as well as on properties including morphology, thermal properties (DSC and TGA), FTIR spectra, fiber diameter (FD), and the encapsulation efficiency (EE%) of fatty acids (FAs) and carotenoids (TC) of the resulting electrospun fibers were evaluated. Stirred agitation (24 h) was used as a control. The viscosity of the polymeric solutions was significantly reduced by A for short time periods (p < 0.05). The addition of PSO increased the emulsion viscosity, affecting morphology, FD, and the EE%. The EE% of TC, oleic (OA), palmitic (PA), and stearic (SA) acids showed no significant difference compared to the control. However, for linoleic acid (LA), the EE% was lower with ultrasound treatment. Treatments with A = 50% for 10 min with 10% PSO resulted in homogeneous fibers (0.29 µm) without agglomerates with thermal stability and an EE% of 42% and 26–34% for TC and FAs, respectively. These results show that ultrasound is an effective alternative for homogenization that promotes the formation of nanofibers with PSO via electrospinning. Full article

Harmful algal blooms (HABs) are recurring problems in New Jersey (NJ). Some HABs produce organic phycotoxins that are detrimental to both ecosystem organisms and human health. While most studies on HABs and phycotoxins focus on freshwater in NJ, comparative measurements of phycotoxins in marine coastal environments are understudied. In the summer of 2025, surface water from 11 freshwater, 3 brackish rivers, and 10 coastal sites in northern and central NJ was collected and analyzed for 12 dissolved phycotoxins using a combination of solid phase extraction and liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry. Phycotoxin concentrations and distribution varied spatially among sampling sites. Total okadaic acid (OA) and total dinophysistoxin-1(DTX-1) were present with the highest concentrations, followed by brevetoxin and microcystin. Cluster analysis revealed separation of phycotoxin patterns mostly between freshwater and brackish/marine sites. Correlation analysis revealed significantly positive correlations among total OA, total DTX-1, and pectenotoxin-2 concentrations, revealing their potential common source from the same HAB species. Temperature, dissolved oxygen, and pH were mostly correlated with multiple phycotoxins, suggesting their important role in shaping HABs and phycotoxin production. This study detects phycotoxins at low levels, which can help to provide early warnings of HABs to establish water quality baselines and maintain environmental health. Full article