Search Results (8,201)

“Shetaicui” is a distinctive quartzite jade from the Dashetai area of Inner Mongolia. Its green variety has attracted considerable academic attention because of its characteristic color and relatively high economic value, yet its color genesis and formation process remain poorly understood. Here, green “Shetaicui” was examined by petrographic observation, infrared and Raman spectroscopy, ultraviolet–visible (UV–Vis) absorption spectroscopy, colorimetric measurements, X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy (XRF), and electron probe microanalysis (EPMA). These methods were used to characterize its mineral composition and textures and investigate its color genesis and formation process. The results show that the jade is a fine-grained muscovite quartzite, whereas the wall rock is a fine-grained chlorite–quartz–muscovite schist. Coloration is mainly associated with Cr-bearing muscovite. Cr is the principal chromogenic element, whereas Fe contributes to coloration to a lesser extent. Pearson correlation analysis and multiple linear regression show that Cr₂O₃ is most strongly correlated with a* and C*, whereas FeO^T is most strongly correlated with L* and shows a weaker positive correlation with b*. Petrographic textures and mineral assemblages indicate that the jade and its wall rock underwent regional metamorphism broadly consistent with greenschist-facies conditions. Formation proceeded through three stages: sedimentary protolith formation, regional metamorphism, and jade formation during late fluid alteration. During regional metamorphism, quartz-rich sandy horizons formed a Qtz I-dominated pre-jade quartzite, whereas muddy horizons formed the chlorite–quartz–muscovite schist wall rock. Subsequent fluid alteration led to the formation of Cr-bearing muscovite and Qtz II within the pre-jade quartzite. Cr-bearing muscovite imparted the characteristic green coloration, completing the transformation of the pre-jade quartzite into “Shetaicui” jade. These results clarify the correlations between chromogenic elements and colorimetric parameters in green “Shetaicui” and provide petrographic and mineralogical evidence for this three-stage formation process. Full article

Surface soil moisture forecasting is important for drought monitoring, irrigation management, and land–atmosphere process analysis but remains challenging because near-surface soil moisture is jointly influenced by antecedent precipitation, atmospheric drying, soil properties, vegetation conditions, and irregular multi-source observations. This study proposes an Antecedent-Precipitation-Informed Surface Soil Water Balance and Time-Aware Mamba–Mixture-of-Experts (API-SWB-Mamba-MoE) framework for forecasting in situ volumetric soil moisture at approximately 5 cm depth using only information available before the target time. The framework combines a process-guided API-SWB physical prior, a time-aware Mamba temporal encoder, a context-conditioned MoE residual decoder, and gated residual fusion. The U.S. source-domain stations were evaluated using five independently repeated station-level random holdout splits, with approximately 70%, 15%, and 15% of the stations assigned to training, validation, and testing in each repetition, respectively. The five resulting U.S.-trained models were further applied without target-domain retraining or fine-tuning to six German and French stations for zero-shot transfer evaluation. Across the U.S. test prediction–observation pairs pooled from the five repetitions, the proposed model achieved a Pearson correlation coefficient (R) of 0.934, a root mean square error (RMSE) of 0.035 cm³ cm⁻³, a Kling–Gupta efficiency (KGE) of 0.922, and a mean bias error (MBE) of −0.001 cm³ cm⁻³. Pooled zero-shot predictions yielded RMSE values of 0.036 and 0.038 cm³ cm⁻³ and KGE values of 0.885 and 0.917 for Germany and France, respectively. The pooled U.S. test RMSE was 7.9–22.2% lower than that of the ablation variants and 20.5–32.7% lower than that of the benchmark models. These results suggest that combining a process-guided prior with time-aware sequence modeling and context-conditioned expert routing offers a promising approach for station-scale soil moisture forecasting under irregular multi-source observations. The external results provide preliminary evidence of zero-shot transferability at the six selected sites, although broader regional validation remains necessary. Full article

Background: Cancer remains a growing public health challenge globally, with increasing demand for oncology services, particularly in resource-limited settings. In South Africa’s Eastern Cape Province, tertiary hospitals face rising patient loads amid constrained infrastructure and late-stage presentation. This study assessed temporal trends, gender differences, and cancer-type distribution in oncology service utilisation at Nelson Mandela Academic Hospital (NMAH) from April 2023 to February 2025. Methods: A retrospective quantitative observational time-series design was used. Monthly aggregated oncology service data were extracted from hospital records, including total cancer attendances, gender distribution, cancer types, and service utilisation indicators (new cases, follow-ups, chemotherapy, hormone therapy, palliative care, admissions, referrals, and mortality). Descriptive statistics, Pearson correlation, and simple linear regression were applied to assess temporal trends. Time (months) was the independent variable. Results: A total of 16,368 cancer-related encounters were recorded, with a mean of 706.4 cases per month. Females accounted for 11,816 cases, significantly exceeding males (4552). Breast cancer was the most prevalent malignancy (5763 cases), followed by other cancers (4316) and cervical cancer (3616). Cervical cancer demonstrated a strong and statistically significant increasing trend (r = 0.619, p = 0.002), while lung cancer also showed a significant upward trend (r = 0.549, p = 0.007). Breast cancer showed a positive but non-significant trend (p = 0.163), whereas prostate and oesophageal cancers showed no significant temporal changes. Service utilisation was dominated by follow-up visits (14,761) and palliative care (16,911), indicating a high burden of advanced disease. Overall attendance showed an increasing trend, peaking at 1039 cases in April 2024, with seasonal declines in December–January. Conclusions: Oncology service utilisation at NMAH is increasing, with marked gender disparities and rising trends in cervical and lung cancers. The high reliance on palliative and follow-up care highlights late presentation and advanced disease burden. Strengthening early detection, screening programmes, and decentralised oncology service capacity is essential to address the growing cancer burden in this setting. Full article

This study examined the associations between six dimensions of family strengths and parenting sense of competence (PSOC) among Hong Kong parents of kindergarten children and explored whether these associations differed according to children’s special educational needs (SEN) status. A total of 700 parents and caregivers recruited from local kindergartens completed a self-administered questionnaire comprising the Chinese Family Strength Measure and the Parenting Sense of Competence Scale. Data were analyzed using Pearson correlations, hierarchical multiple regression, moderation analyses, and independent-samples t tests. All six family strength dimensions were positively correlated with PSOC. After controlling for demographic variables, the six dimensions collectively explained significant additional variance in PSOC; however, Positive Communication was the only significant unique predictor. SEN status did not significantly moderate the associations between family strength dimensions and PSOC. Group comparisons indicated that families of children with SEN reported lower levels of PSOC and several family strength dimensions than families of children without SEN, although the effect sizes were small. These findings suggest that family strengths, particularly positive communication, may serve as important relational resources for parenting competence across caregiving contexts. The study highlights the potential value of strengths-based and communication-focused family support for Hong Kong parents. Full article

Mare’s milk is recognized for its nutritional value, but information on the relationships of mare age and number of foalings with body conformation, udder morphology, milk yield, and milk composition in the indigenous Kushum breed remains limited. Forty-one clinically healthy lactating Kushum mares were evaluated in June and classified by age (4–7, 8–11, and 12–16 years) and number of foalings (1–3, 4–7, and 8–11). Body traits were measured once; udder morphometry was available for 30 mares. Milk yield was recorded at 08:00, 10:00, 12:00, 14:00, and 16:00 h on two consecutive days. On Day 2, a 100-mL aliquot was collected after each milking, and the five aliquots were pooled into one 500-mL composite sample per mare; physicochemical composition was available for 40 mares. Age and number-of-foalings effects were evaluated in separate models. Continuous morphometric and physicochemical traits were analyzed by one-way ANOVA with Tukey-adjusted comparisons, with Benjamini–Hochberg false discovery rate (FDR) correction across trait families; two-day milk yield was additionally evaluated with a repeated-measures mixed model. After FDR correction, cannon bone circumference, body weight, udder length, and udder width differed among both age and number-of-foalings groups. Teat shape also differed among groups. The two-day mean daily milk yield did not differ by age (p = 0.483) or number of foalings (p = 0.195), although significant group-by-day interactions were detected. In pooled Day-2 milk, SNF, lactose, glucose, freezing point, acidity, lactic acid, density, and urea differed among both classification factors after FDR correction (q < 0.05), whereas fat, protein, total solids, galactose, citric acid, and casein did not. PCA explained 60.9% of the variance in body/udder traits plus mean milk yield and 68.8% of the variance in physicochemical composition. These findings indicate selective associations of age and number of foalings with Kushum mare phenotype and milk composition, while emphasizing the limitations of small udder subgroups and equal-volume pooled sampling. Full article

This study evaluates the agreement between Carrea’s (1920) odontological method and De Mendonça’s (2000) osteometric method for estimating height in archaeological skeletal remains from an Al-Andalus necropolis (10th–12th centuries) discovered in Zaragoza. Twenty-seven individuals (16 men, 11 women) were selected who had the femur, medial and lateral incisors, as well as the mandibular canine, fully preserved. The results showed that at the population level, both methods provide similar mean estimates of height (mean Bland–Altman differences close to zero). However, at the individual level, agreement was poor: the 95% limits of agreement reached approximately ±25 cm, and both the Lin concordance correlation coefficient (CCC = 0.140–0.156) and the Pearson cross-correlations (r = 0.156–0.171, non-significant) confirmed a weak linear relationship between the two methods. Furthermore, it was found that dental wear correlates negatively and significantly with Carrea’s estimates (r = −0.428; p = 0.026), suggesting that it constitutes a source of bias specific to this method. Greater dispersion of Carrea’s estimates was also observed in males, possibly linked to their higher degree of dental wear. These results indicate that although Carrea’s method may be useful for estimating the average height of a population, its applicability as an individual estimator is limited. Full article

National soil-carbon assessments often emphasize carbon density without fully integrating soil depth and spatial extent. Here, we quantified the soil organic carbon (SOC) stock represented by the complete 1 km CSDLv2 raster domain across mainland China using six depth layers spanning 0–5, 5–15, 15–30, 30–60, 60–100, and 100–200 cm. Across 13,810,230 valid grid cells, the 0–200 cm soil profile stored 215.82 Pg C, of which 57.72 Pg C occurred in the upper 0–30 cm and 158.09 Pg C in the 30–200 cm subsoil. Although 73.2% of the total stock occurred below 30 cm, this large contribution primarily reflected the greater cumulative thickness of the subsoil interval; thickness-normalized SOC storage was substantially higher in the surface layer than in the subsoil (20.34 vs. 9.83 kg C m⁻² m⁻¹). Northwest China contained the largest integrated SOC stock (90.79 Pg C), whereas Northeast China exhibited the highest mean profile carbon density (33.17 kg C m⁻²), revealing a clear regional reversal between carbon density and total stock. Surface–subsoil decoupling and relative subsoil-carbon distance (CSD) further characterized regional differences in vertical SOC organization. Cross-dataset evaluation against an independent 2010–2024 SOC compilation comprising 17,990 depth intervals from 5870 profiles yielded an original-scale RMSE of 4.73 kg C m⁻², a mean bias of 0.44 kg C m⁻², and a Pearson correlation of 0.44. Replacing the 1 km layers with 90 m layers changed the national stock estimate by only 0.02%, while alternative DI thresholds and CSD reference quantiles affected screening magnitudes but preserved the broad regional patterns. These results highlight pronounced regional differences in the amount and vertical organization of soil carbon and support differentiated management priorities, including deep-carbon conservation in Northeast China, profile-structure diagnosis in North China and the Loess Plateau, water–soil coordination in Southern China, context-dependent water–carbon management in Northwest China, and disturbance avoidance and natural recovery in Southwest China and Tibet. Full article

Background/Objectives: The omega-3 index, defined as the percentage of eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) in erythrocyte membranes, is an established biomarker of long-term omega-3 fatty acid status and cardiometabolic disease risk in clinical populations. The primary purpose of this cross-sectional study was to determine the prevalence of National Collegiate Athletic Association Division III men’s and women’s collegiate athletes with an Omega-3 Index below the recommended threshold of 4%. Methods: Fifty (male, n = 21; female, n = 29) collegiate athletes completed a single testing session including anthropometrics, body composition, resting heart rate (HR) and blood pressure assessment, and venous blood sampling for determination of Omega-3 Index, complete blood counts, and lipid profiles. The cardiovascular risk factors examined were total cholesterol, HDL, LDL, body mass index, body composition, waist-to-hip ratio, resting hemodynamics, and blood glucose. Results: Overall, 54% of athletes exhibited an Omega-3 Index < 4%, while 100% had an Omega-3 Index < 8%. Male athletes demonstrated significantly higher Omega-3 Index, total omega-3 fatty acid levels, and lower omega-6:omega-3 ratios than females (p ≤ 0.005; ηp² = 0.154–0.194). Pearson correlation analyses revealed few significant correlations between Omega-3 Index and cardiometabolic disease risk factors, with only weak relationships observed for systolic blood pressure (r = 0.284, p = 0.046) and triglycerides (r = −0.348, p = 0.035). Conclusions: Suboptimal omega-3 status was highly prevalent among collegiate athletes, with no participant achieving the cardioprotective Omega-3 Index threshold of ≥8%. Although male athletes demonstrated a more favorable omega-3 fatty acid profile than females, Omega-3 Index exhibited limited correlations with traditional cardiometabolic disease risk factors in this young, healthy population. Full article

Existing architectural backdoors embed malicious logic directly into model structures to persist after clean training, but they typically rely on handcrafted trigger patterns vulnerable to preprocessing and lack the mechanism to dynamically update attack targets. Addressing these limitations, this paper proposes ArchLock, a dynamic-target architectural backdoor framework designed exclusively for stateful inference deployments that maintain persistent mutable state across requests. ArchLock comprises two core components: a correlation-based statistical trigger detector that utilizes local red-green channel Pearson correlations as the activation signal, thereby reducing dependence on absolute pixel values and exhibiting theoretical invariance to linear transformations; and an Adaptive Confidence Calibration module, which maintains a persistent memory buffer to enable post-deployment target switching through a two-phase protocol. Extensive experiments on CIFAR-10, CIFAR-100, Tiny-ImageNet, and ImageNet-100 demonstrate that ArchLock achieves a dynamic target success rate exceeding 90% while preserving clean accuracy. Furthermore, the method exhibits robustness against fine-tuning and pruning and evades three behavioral detectors under the stated stateful deployment assumptions. This work highlights the security risks of mutable architectural components in stateful inference services while explicitly discussing the limitations of the proposed approach under stateless deployment and aggressive preprocessing conditions. Full article

Lithium aluminosilicate (LAS) ultra-low-expansion glass ceramics are core materials for precision optical systems, whose quality and dimensional stability are critically constrained by the uniformity of the coefficient of thermal expansion (CTE). This work proposes a nondestructive ultrasonic immersion pulse reflection (UIPR) method for rapid and low-cost characterization of the CTE in LAS glass ceramics. Key parameters of the ultrasonic measurement system are optimized via finite element method (FEM) simulations and experimental validation. Employing the correlation method, the ultrasonic longitudinal wave velocity is measured in LAS glass ceramic samples with distinctly different CTE values. The proposed method achieves an ultrasonic longitudinal wave velocity measurement uncertainty of 0.49 m/s, contributing 4.78 ppb/°C to the overall uncertainty of ultrasonic CTE determination. Within the investigated sample set, a negative relationship is observed between ultrasonic longitudinal wave velocity and the mean CTE (0–50 °C). The linear fit yields a slope of −9.75736 (ppb/°C)/(m/s), with a Pearson correlation coefficient of −0.84303. Featuring noncontact and nondestructive capabilities, this method lays a solid methodological foundation for CTE evaluation and efficient iterative optimization of material fabrication processes. Meanwhile, it shows great potential for rapid full-aperture characterization of CTE uniformity in large-size LAS glass ceramics. Full article

This study aims to evaluate young people’s perceptions, attitudes, and behaviors regarding food waste in the North-West region of Romania. It seeks to identify key factors influencing awareness and practices, quantify the attitude–behavior gap, and propose targeted educational and policy interventions. A cross-sectional survey was conducted between July and October 2024 using a 17-item questionnaire. Snowball sampling via social media and educational networks yielded 955 valid responses from participants aged 14–33 across six counties. Descriptive statistics, chi-square tests, Kruskal–Wallis tests with Dunn’s post hoc comparisons, Pearson and Spearman correlation analyses, and effect size calculations were performed, guided by the Theory of Planned Behavior. Respondents showed high knowledge (89.47% aggregated positive responses) and strongly positive attitudes (>90% on all items). However, a significant attitude–behavior gap emerged: while 93.51% intended to reduce food waste, only 50.05% consistently adapted portions to appetite. Family was the primary source of awareness (42.41%), whereas formal schooling contributed minimally (3.35%), despite 92.46% supporting school-based education. Knowledge correlated strongly with attitudes (r = 0.624) but only moderately with practice (r = 0.326). Results highlight the need to integrate food waste education into formal curricula and develop targeted programs bridging the gap between positive attitudes and actual behavior change among Romanian youth. Full article

The paper shows the effect of organic fining agents on the formation of the elemental composition of young white wine of the Chardonnay variety. Substances of plant and animal origin and their mixtures were used as fining agents in the clarification of wines. The results were compared with clarification with activated calcium bentonite. In the untreated young wines from different areas of grape cultivation the concentrations of macroelements were 707–837 mg/L; minor elements—5.05–9.67 mg/L; microelements—0.033–0.058 mg/L; and rare earth elements (REEs)—0.001–1.350 µg/L. It was noted that organic agents have a smaller effect on the mineral composition of wine. The content of macroelements in wine decreased, regardless of the fining agent used (p < 0.01). After treatment with organic agents, the concentrations of Ti, Sr, Na and Ca increased, while the concentrations of Cu, Zr, Mo, Cs, Ba, W, Fe, Rb and K decreased. No increase in the REE content was observed. A moderate correlation (Pearson r = 0.69, 95% CI: 0.44–0.85, n = 30, p < 0.0001) was established between the applied concentration of Na in wine and its concentration in the fining agent. Despite changes, the elemental “image” of wine allows us to correctly determine the geographical origin of the drink. The most reliable markers were Li and Mn. Full article

Background: Adhesion G protein-coupled receptor D1 (ADGRD1), formerly known as GPR133, has been implicated in tumor-associated signaling; however, its histology-specific clinicopathologic and prognostic significance in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) remains incompletely characterized. Methods: Clinical and survival data from The Cancer Genome Atlas lung adenocarcinoma (TCGA-LUAD) and lung squamous cell carcinoma (TCGA-LUSC) cohorts were integrated with harmonized gene-expression data obtained from the Genomic Data Commons (GDC). ADGRD1 expression was dichotomized using a cohort-specific median cutoff and additionally analyzed as a continuous standardized variable. Clinicopathologic associations, Pearson correlations with prespecified subtype-associated genes, Kaplan–Meier survival analyses, and univariate and multivariable Cox proportional hazards regression analyses were performed. Benjamini–Hochberg false-discovery-rate correction was applied to molecular correlation analyses. Independent validation was performed using GSE30219 and GSE50081, followed by random-effects meta-analysis and proportional hazards sensitivity analyses. Results: High ADGRD1 expression was associated with favorable overall survival (OS) in LUAD in both univariate (HR = 0.542, 95% CI = 0.400–0.734, p < 0.001) and clinically adjusted Cox analyses (HR = 0.543, 95% CI = 0.398–0.740, p < 0.001). Continuous-expression analyses showed concordant results, and the association remained significant in an additional LUAD model incorporating EGFR mutation status (HR = 0.611, 95% CI = 0.391–0.956, p = 0.031). High ADGRD1 expression was also associated with favorable recurrence-free survival (RFS) in LUAD. In contrast, high ADGRD1 expression was associated with adverse OS in LUSC in both univariate (HR = 1.444, 95% CI = 1.099–1.898, p = 0.008) and clinically adjusted analyses (HR = 1.501, 95% CI = 1.137–1.982, p = 0.004), whereas RFS was not significantly different. After false-discovery-rate correction, ADGRD1 correlated positively with TP53 expression in LUAD and inversely with CDKN2A, SOX2, and PIK3CA in LUSC. Independent GEO validation supported the favorable LUAD association (pooled HR = 0.675, 95% CI = 0.538–0.847, p < 0.001), whereas the adverse LUSC association was not independently reproduced (pooled HR = 0.909, 95% CI = 0.686–1.204, p = 0.504). Conclusions: ADGRD1 shows histology-dependent prognostic associations in NSCLC. Its favorable association with survival in LUAD was robust across dichotomized and continuous analyses, multivariable adjustment, EGFR-mutation sensitivity analysis, and independent GEO cohorts. In contrast, the adverse association observed in TCGA-LUSC was not reproduced externally. These findings support further evaluation of ADGRD1 as a subtype-specific prognostic marker, particularly in LUAD. Full article

Spatial transferability remains a major limitation in erosion modelling across environmentally heterogeneous catchments. This study evaluated climatic, vegetation, and morphometric predictors and compared a linear model, Extreme Gradient Boosting (XGBoost), and a hybrid stacking ensemble using 93 catchment–year records from three semi-arid Mediterranean catchments in southern Spain. The methodological contribution lies in jointly evaluating hierarchical variance partitioning and targeted predictor interactions, comparing the linear and XGBoost models under leave-one-catchment-out (LOCO) validation, and examining an internally fitted stacking ensemble based on pooled LOCO base-model predictions. Precipitation was the strongest statistical predictor of the Universal Soil Loss Equation (USLE)-derived annual erosion estimates. Targeted linear interactions did not consistently improve LOCO performance, and the estimated catchment-level variance approached zero after inclusion of the environmental predictors. Under pooled LOCO validation, the linear model yielded a squared Pearson correlation of 0.39, and root mean square error (RMSE) of 47.9 t ha⁻¹ yr⁻¹. XGBoost reduced RMSE to 27.9 t ha⁻¹ yr⁻¹, while the squared correlation was 0.35. he internally fitted stacking meta-model yielded an apparent RMSE of 23.6 t ha⁻¹ yr⁻¹ and a squared correlation of 0.53 on the same pooled predictions used for meta-model estimation. Transferability was catchment-dependent and poorest for Casasola. Because the response was model-derived, only three catchments were available, and the meta-learner lacked an outer spatial validation layer, the stacking results represent an internal comparison rather than definitive evidence of regional transferability. Lower prediction error did not necessarily imply broader spatial generalization or improved process understanding. Full article

The North China Plain is a core grain-producing region in China. Under the dual pressures of global warming and intensifying human activities, frequent agricultural droughts pose a serious threat to regional food security and sustainable agricultural development. Based on ERA5-Land root-zone soil-moisture data (1982–2022), this study constructed the Standardized Soil Moisture Index (SSMI) and applied an MMK trend test, Partial Wavelet Coherence (PWC), and sub-regional Pearson correlation to investigate drought evolution and driving mechanisms. Groundwater-level and effective-irrigated-area datasets were further incorporated to complement soil-moisture-based analysis and investigate the anthropogenic drivers behind drought variations. The results show that: (1) The regional-average SSMI showed a significant decreasing trend at a rate of −0.013 decade⁻¹ (p < 0.001), indicating the intensification of agricultural drought. Meanwhile, the SPEI presented a non-significant increasing trend of 0.145 × 10⁻² decade⁻¹ (p < 0.001), revealing the existence of hysteresis between the two drought types. Spring suffered the most severe drought, while drought is alleviated by precipitation replenishment in summer, which highlighted the association between seasonal differences and regional climatic characteristics. (2) Groundwater level (GW) is identified as the dominant explanatory factor for agricultural drought (POSC = 70.53%, AWC = 0.93), far exceeding precipitation (16.66%) and evapotranspiration (8.71%), which underscores the pivotal role of groundwater in regulating soil moisture. (3) The driving mechanisms of agricultural drought exhibit remarkable north–south differentiation: southern sub-regions are predominantly driven by meteorological factors, whereas northern sub-regions are closely associated with intensive groundwater irrigation. Anthropogenic groundwater over-extraction shows strong statistical associations with agricultural drought variability. Future work should combine groundwater dynamics, irrigation and crop phenology. These findings support refined drought early-warning and region-tailored mitigation for the North China Plain. Full article