Search Results (836)

The proper wearing of safety helmets is critical for worker safety in high-risk construction environments, with the fastening of the chin strap serving as a key indicator of correct usage. However, existing detection methods primarily focus on identifying helmet presence, neglecting the crucial assessment of chin strap compliance. This paper proposes an intelligent detection approach that integrates YOLOv8 object detection, instance segmentation, and skin tone recognition to evaluate chin strap wearing status. The system first employs YOLOv8 to detect workers and helmets, filtering out non-wearers before performing facial and neck region segmentation, thereby concentrating computational resources on compliance verification. To address challenges in distinguishing chin straps from similar skin tones under complex lighting conditions, the method incorporates illumination compensation and YCbCr-based skin segmentation. Finally, strap status is determined through morphological operations and contour analysis, with visual annotation of the detection results. This study utilizes a dataset comprising 2000 safety helmet images, which was partitioned into training, validation, and test sets in an 8:1:1 ratio for model training and evaluation. The experimental results demonstrate that the proposed method achieves an accuracy of 96% in detecting chin strap status, exhibits robust performance across diverse construction site conditions, and holds significant practical value and application potential. Full article

Background: Nurses, the largest segment of the global health workforce, play vital roles in managing disease outbreaks and boosting community resilience during public health emergencies. Purpose: This study explored the experiences of senior nurses in leading health facilities in Ghana during the COVID-19 pandemic. Methods: We employed a qualitative, exploratory, descriptive approach and purposive sampling to recruit 30 senior nurses involved in frontline care during the COVID-19 pandemic. We used telephone interviews to examine how nurses’ roles are changing during public health crises. Results: Nurses navigated challenges related to infection prevention and control, team dynamics and social support, resource limitations, stigma against those affected, and leadership. Some of the nurses drew on their prior experience to navigate the complexities of COVID-19. The significance of inter-professional working and the flexible delegation of tasks is reinforced by the current study, which suggests that professional boundaries became more blurred during the crisis. Optimal responses to outbreaks are influenced by professional preparedness and adaptive learning. Conclusions: Nurses displayed extraordinary resilience and determination, yet faced enormous challenges, including PPE shortages, stigmatization from within their own communities and organizations, and a lack of welfare support. The findings from this analysis are intended to support national and global efforts in pandemic preparedness and healthcare worker assistance, highlighting the essential role nurses play in creating more resilient health systems for future crises. Full article

Background: Pachychoroid pigment epitheliopathy (PPE) is a non-exudative entity within the pachychoroid disease spectrum characterized by increased choroidal thickness and isolated serous pigment epithelial detachment (PED) without subretinal fluid. Although photodynamic therapy (PDT) is established for chronic central serous chorioretinopathy (CSC), its efficacy in isolated pachychoroid-related PED remains insufficiently defined, with available evidence limited to small case series. Purpose: This study aims to characterize symptomatic pachychoroid-related PED and evaluate anatomical and functional outcomes following half-dose PDT (hd-PDT), with additional analysis according to lesion localization and CSC history. Methods: This retrospective study included 34 eyes of 27 patients treated with hd-PDT between June 2022 and December 2024. PEDs were categorized as central (fovea-involving) or paramacular. Best-corrected visual acuity (BCVA) and spectral-domain optical coherence tomography parameters—central subfield thickness (CST), mean subfield thickness (MST), macular volume (MV), subfoveal choroidal thickness (SFCT), and PED height—were assessed at baseline, 1 month, and 6 months. Treatment planning was based on indocyanine green angiography (ICGA) and spectral-domain optical coherence tomography (SD-OCT) findings. Statistical analyses employed non-parametric tests and generalized estimating equations. Results: Central lesions were associated with longer disease duration, worse baseline BCVA, and greater retinal thickness and PED height (p < 0.05). Complete PED resorption occurred in 79.4% of eyes at 1 month and 73.5% at 6 months (central: 86.3% and 81.8%; paramacular: 66.6% and 58.3%). Mean BCVA improved significantly from 0.22 ± 0.24 to 0.10 ± 0.16 logMAR at 6 months (p < 0.0001), with greater functional gain in central lesions. Significant reductions were observed in CST, MST, MV, and PED height, whereas SFCT remained stable. Better final BCVA correlated with younger age, shorter disease duration, smaller baseline retinal volume, smaller PDT spot size, and absence of CSC history. Non-responders had worse baseline BCVA, higher PED height, and larger treatment areas. No treatment-related complications were detected. Conclusions: Half-dose PDT was associated with favorable anatomical and functional outcomes in symptomatic pachychoroid-related PED, particularly in centrally located lesions. Baseline disease severity appeared to influence treatment response. Prospective studies with longer follow-up are warranted to confirm long-term efficacy and safety. Full article

Personal protective equipment (PPE) detection requires architectures balancing accuracy and computational efficiency for real-time safety monitoring. This study presents the first comprehensive benchmarking and systematic comparative evaluation of YOLO26 (released January 2026) against YOLOv11 across diverse PPE detection scenarios, with the primary goal of providing evidence-based deployment guidelines rather than proposing a new architecture. A total of 30 model configurations were evaluated across 5 model scales, 2 architectures, and 3 datasets under rigorously controlled conditions using identical hardware (NVIDIA A100-80GB), hyperparameters, and COCO-pretrained initialization across CHV (133 images, 6 classes), SHEL5K (1000 images, 3 classes), and SH17 (1620 images, 17 classes) datasets. Results reveal consistent scale-dependent patterns: YOLOv11 excels at nano and small scales across all datasets, while YOLO26 achieves superiority at large and X-Large scales with advantages ranging from 1.3 to 3.1 percent mAP50–95. An exploratory negative correlation ($r=-0.98$, $n=3$) between dataset size and YOLO26 performance advantage was observed; given the small number of data points, this should be interpreted as a preliminary finding warranting further investigation rather than a statistically robust relationship. YOLOv11 provides 15 to 20 percent faster training and 9 to 18 percent faster inference, while YOLO26 demonstrates superior parameter efficiency (0.0237 vs. 0.0233 mAP per million parameters). Findings provide evidence-based, conditional deployment guidance for industrial safety applications: YOLOv11 is recommended for latency-constrained edge scenarios at nano/small scales, while YOLO26 is preferred for accuracy-critical applications at large/X-Large scales with limited training data. These recommendations address key challenges in few-shot learning, small object detection, and data-scarce deployment regimes, and are intended as practical guidelines rather than claims of general architectural superiority. Full article

Artificial intelligence (AI) has become the leading technology for digital transformation in various industries. However, the digitalization of construction project management (e.g., cost, time, and safety) in the context of AI technology implementation is still limited. Therefore, this paper aims to conduct a systematic literature review of AI technologies in construction project cost, time, and safety management, and identify mainstream application areas, cross-domain synthesis, challenges, research gaps, and future research directions. By adopting the PRISMA approach, a systematic literature review was conducted to retrieve 392 articles from the Scopus database. The results presented mainstream application areas of construction project cost (i.e., cost estimation, cost prediction, cost index forecasting, cost control, cost optimization), time (i.e., planning and scheduling, delay risk prediction, time optimization, cycle time prediction), and safety (i.e., workers’ safety monitoring, on-site safety monitoring, personal protective equipment (PPE) detection, safety report text analysis, fall risk monitoring, safety accident prediction, and safety hazard identification and risk assessment). Moreover, the cross-domain synthesis, challenges, and research gaps of AI technologies in construction project management were discussed. Based on these findings, this paper suggests future directions to extend research in this domain. This paper would contribute to the construction project management research domain by providing key application areas and useful research directions, thus promoting digital transformation in the sector. Full article

Forestry, nursery, and planting tasks involve repetitive trunk flexion, squatting, and kneeling, as well as manual handling, increasing musculoskeletal load, and the need for mobility-related safety measures. Passive exoskeletons could mitigate postural exposure and reduce the overall body workload. We conducted a preliminary study (n = 14) to test the feasibility of a protocol and estimated model- and task-specific trends during standardized simulated nursery activities in a laboratory setting. Participants simulated planting and seeding tasks (loads of 0.5–2 kg) and material handling and preparation tasks (loads of 5–15 kg) without an exoskeleton (No-EXO) and with three passive models (EXO 1–EXO 3). EXO 3 was excluded from the planting tasks for feasibility reasons. Whole-body kinematics were recorded using an IMU-based motion capture system and converted into time-based ergonomic exposure outcomes (OWAS and RULA). Physiological load was monitored via heart-rate (HR) measurements. Compared to the No-EXO condition, exoskeleton use shifted posture exposure towards lower-risk categories. The largest improvements were observed with EXO 2 and EXO 3 during material handling (OWAS: −18%/−20%; RULA action-level reduction: −25%/−39%) and with EXO 2 during planting/seeding (OWAS: −15%; RULA: −26%). HR_max did not increase across tasks or conditions and HR tended not to rise with higher workload when exoskeletons were used. Overall, the results suggest positive ergonomic and workload trends related to the model and tasks. Field validation on uneven terrain with full personal protective equipment and harness integration is needed to confirm usability and support and to define implementation requirements (fit, compatibility with PPE, and safe-use conditions). Full article

Fire smoke, rich in toxic ultrafine particles and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), poses significant health risks to first responders and vulnerable populations. In this study, a reproducible combustion–smoke simulation platform was developed to mechanistically quantify fire behavior, particle emissions, and PAH toxicity under controlled heat flux and oxygen conditions. Consistent combustion and smoke emissions were achieved by measuring heat release rate, particle mass, particle number concentration, and PAH concentration, with an overall average coefficient of variation below 15%. Systematic experiments with representative biomass (pine, oak) and plastics (PVC, polystyrene) demonstrate that fuel composition, heat flux, and oxygen availability jointly govern particle formation and PAH partitioning. Regardless of the combustion factors, ultrafine particles dominated the particle number concentration (55.5–86.2%). Plastic combustion generated 7 to 59 times particle mass, up to 260 times higher PAH emissions, and up to 58,500 times greater PAH toxic equivalent quotient (PAH-TEQ) than wood. Oxygen-deficient and smoldering regimes shifted emissions toward fine and ultrafine particles enriched in high-molecular-weight PAHs, revealing a coupled physical–chemical hazard not captured by bulk PM metrics alone. These results establish a quantitative framework linking combustion regime, particle size, and PAH toxicity, providing critical insight for exposure assessment, PPE design, and mitigation strategies in ventilation-limited and mixed-fuel fire scenarios. Full article

One of the major current societal challenges concerns the reuse of waste materials and valuable substances to mitigate the environmental impact of human activities, which has led to the increasing release of pollutants, from plastics to pharmaceuticals. In this study, we report a simple recycling strategy for surgical masks to obtain an activated carbon-like material, suitable for the solid-phase extraction (SPE) of Phthalic acid esters (PAEss) from plastic bottled water. The sorbent was produced by high-temperature calcination after sulfuric acid treatment to enhance the thermal stability of polypropylene. The sorbent was characterized by thermal analysis, Raman spectroscopy, FTIR and scanning electron microscopy. SPE was used to preconcentrate the analytes, and the main parameters affecting the extraction, such as pH, sorbent amount, organic modifier percentage, ionic strength and elution volume, were optimized. PAEs were determined by UHPLC-PDA under gradient elution. The developed method was linear in the range 0.25–1000 ng/mL, with LOQs between 0.25 and 0.10 ng/mL and LODs between 0.008 and 0.003 ng/mL. Recovery ranged from 95.9 to 104.7%, the precision expressed as RSD% was below 7.32, and the accuracy expressed as BIAS% ranged from −5.75 to 5.93. The proposed approach provides a simple and low-cost valorization route for PPE waste, while enabling reliable PAEs analysis in drinking water. Full article

Firefighters are exposed to complex combustion products and to contaminants carried on personal protective equipment (PPE). Occupational exposure as a firefighter is classified as carcinogenic. This review summarizes the current evidence on exposure environments, routes of uptake, contamination and secondary exposure from PPE, and the effectiveness and limits of decontamination approaches. Across incident types, smoke composition varies with the fuels and combustion conditions, but fine and ultrafine particles and semi-volatile organic chemicals are common. Biomonitoring confirms uptake after incidents. Self-contained breathing apparatus reduces inhalation exposure during active suppression, yet exposures persist through dermal absorption at ensemble interfaces and post-incident tasks. Protective ensembles can retain soot-bound polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, additive chemicals, and metals; volatiles and particles resuspension in vehicles and stations can extend exposure. Studies show that on-scene preliminary exposure reduction and laundering can lower contaminant burdens on PPE; however, removal remains incomplete and decreases when cleaning is delayed or when gear is aged. Emerging evidence raises additional concern for per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances from foams and coating materials, with limited data on exposure metrics and removability. The field lacks standardized, realistic contamination platforms and a dose-based definition of clean PPE. Integrated intervention studies linking exposure, secondary exposure pathways, biomarkers, and decontamination methods are needed to set performance-based targets and evaluate emerging hazards. Full article

Greek oregano (Origanum vulgare ssp. hirtum) is an important aromatic and medicinal crop grown in Greece, often on marginal lands. Effective weed management is essential for sustainable production, but the use of herbicides raises concerns about potential pesticide residues. Therefore, this study was conducted to evaluate the residue levels of metribuzin + pendimethalin applied and incorporated pre-planting, as well metribuzin + cycloxydim and glyphosate applied post-emergence in oregano crop grown over a three-year period in the Agrinio location in Greece. Herbicide residue analysis in the edible part of the oregano plants was performed using two validated protocols, i.e., QuEChERS and QuPPe coupled with LC-MS/MS. The analytical methods demonstrated high sensitivity, with limits of quantification (LOQ) at 0.01 mg/kg and recovery rates ranging from 71% to 102%. These results indicated that the application of the above herbicides in oregano crop grown under Greek field conditions resulted in no detectable residues above the established LOQs, strongly supporting the potential safe use of these herbicides in oregano crop and their possible use for regulatory assessments and consumer safety assurance. Full article

Background: We aimed to evaluate the impact of a Private Provider Engagement (PPE) model that integrated neighborhood private health providers into the immunization system to improve vaccine uptake and reduce coverage disparities among marginalized communities in Karachi, Pakistan, where health inequities and the risk of vaccine-preventable diseases remain high. Methods: Routine immunization service corners were established at nine private clinics in urban settlements of eight high-risk union councils (HRUCs) in Karachi. A quasi-experimental before-and-after study design was used with a baseline survey conducted in May–July 2022 and an end-line survey in April–June 2024. Households were selected using a multistage cluster sampling approach, and data were collected from parents or primary caregivers of children aged 4–11 months residing in the catchment areas for >3 months, using an adapted WHO immunization coverage questionnaire. The primary outcome was child immunization status for BCG, Polio, Pentavalent (DTP-3), Rotavirus, PCV, TCV, and MR vaccines, categorized as fully vaccinated, partially vaccinated, or unvaccinated, and verified through vaccination cards or caregiver recall. Multinomial and binary logistic regression were used to investigate factors associated with immunization coverage. Results: A total of 2167 children were surveyed (1141 children at baseline; 1026 children at end-line). The proportion of fully immunized children more than doubled across sexes, with significantly higher adjusted odds at endline (aOR: 6.34, 95%CI: 2.45–16.21). Age-appropriate uptake of all antigens improved, with over fourfold odds for receiving the Penta-3 vaccine (aOR 4.55, 95%CI: 3.55–5.82) and more than threefold odds for receiving the MR-1 Vaccine (aOR 3.67, 95%CI: 2.37–5.67). Parental education strongly predicted immunization, with the highest odds among children of fathers with secondary or higher education or skilled labor. Fully immunized Pashto-speaking children increased at endline but had the lowest odds compared to Urdu-speaking children. Conclusion: The PPE model increased vaccination coverage and reduced disparities in Karachi’s urban settlements, demonstrating potential for scale-up to strengthen routine immunization and reduce the number of zero-dose children. Full article

Safety monitoring of scaffolding operations is essential for preventing accidents in high-altitude construction. This study proposes an integrated computer vision and multi-criterion decision-making (MCDM) framework that combines object detection, pose estimation, Analytic Network Process (ANP) and ELECTRE III methods to evaluate safety risks of construction workers. Specifically, computer vision techniques are employed to extract objective visual evidence related to workers’ behaviors, protective equipment (PPE) usage, and working environments, which serve as the basis for subsequent safety risk quantification. A four-criterion system, including action risk, PPE compliance, working height, and structural integrity, is established. Weights are determined via the ANP, and risk ranking is conducted using ELECTRE III. Experiments on a self-built dataset achieved an mAP@0.5 of 92.3%, a segmentation IoU of 67.2%, and a pose OKS@0.5 of 89.6%. The evaluation results correlate strongly with expert assessments (Kendall’s τ = 0.79). The proposed framework effectively identifies unsafe behaviors and quantifies safety risks, providing reliable decision support for intelligent construction safety management. Full article

The integration of optical-network sensing and communication (optical-network ISAC) can effectively utilize resources and meet the demands of intelligent scenarios, becoming a future development trend. This article reviews the fundamental technical principles involved in the optical-network ISAC, including three types of backward-sensing based on Rayleigh scattering, Raman scattering, and Brillouin scattering, respectively. The forward-sensing methods based on power profile estimation (PPE) and the state of polarization (SOP), as well as bidirectional sensing, are compared and analyzed. The technical difficulties and recent solutions to realize the optical-network ISAC are introduced, including the existing solutions implemented at the transmitter side or the receiver side. Finally, we discuss the new opportunities and major challenges of the optical-network ISAC technique for practical applications. Full article

Corporate management and their auditors are required to evaluate whether there is a risk that the company’s ability to continue as a going concern is impaired. For fixed asset-intensive firms, however, regulatory inspections consistently identify problems with auditors’ testing of property, plant, and equipment (PPE), raising doubts about whether auditors understand the risks associated with these assets. This paper examines whether auditors incorporate the risks associated with PPE into their going concern evaluation and the accuracy of that evaluation. Using probit regression on financial and auditing data of U.S. public firms contained in S&P Global Compustat North America, Audit Analytics, and the Center for Research in Security Prices (CRSP) from 2000 to 2019, this paper examines the effects of PPE intensity, impairment, and age on the likelihood that an auditor issues a going concern modification. We test the accuracy of the auditor’s going concern evaluation by comparing it to the client’s subsequent viability or bankruptcy. Our results find that PPE intensity and PPE impairments are positively associated with the likelihood of an auditor issuing a going concern modification, indicating that auditors view PPE as contributing to substantial doubt about the entity’s ability to continue as a going concern. We do not find a significant association between PPE age and going concern modification. Additionally, the going concern evaluation is more accurate for firms with higher PPE intensity. These findings imply that auditors appropriately consider PPE assets in their going concern evaluations. Full article

This article delineates the electrical characteristics and usefulness of a plasticized polymer electrolyte (PPE) manufactured from PVDF/PEO blends, using varying weight percentages of the plasticizer ethylene carbonate (EC) in conjunction with a liquid electrolyte. Micro-porous solid-state polymer electrolyte membranes were fabricated using the non-solvent-induced phase separation (NIPS) method. The polymer composite membranes modified by the incorporation of a plasticizer (40 weight percent of EC) exhibited enhanced porosity and absorbed a significant quantity of liquid electrolyte (313.3%). A N₂ adsorption isotherm study indicates an increase in pore volume and pore size resulting from the incorporation of EC in PPE. This resulted in a satisfactory level of ionic conductivity (2.08 mS/cm) at 25 °C, attributable to the inclusion of 40 wt.% EC-based PPE, which has a high dielectric constant and a rapid relaxation time. The AC/40 wt.% EC-based PPE/LTO hybrid supercapacitor exhibits a superior specific capacitance, reduced internal resistance, and enhanced retention values after 10,000 cycles in comparison to the AC/10 wt.% EC-based PPE/LTO hybrid supercapacitor. Full article