Search Results (4,412)

Greenhouse gas (GHG) fluxes from forests, including carbon dioxide (CO₂), methane (CH₄), and nitrous oxide (N₂O), are regulated by complex interactions of abiotic and biotic factors. A better understanding of these interactions involving GHGs can help manage forests and enhance their sequestration potential. This review examines how soil properties (moisture, temperature, and pH) and tree species-specific traits (litter quality, carbon storage, and microbial regulation) interactively control GHG dynamics in temperate forest soils, moving beyond a single-factor perspective. This literature review confirms that temperate forest soils are CH₄ sinks and sources of CO₂ and N₂O; however, flux direction and magnitude differ across spatial and temporal scales. CH₄ fluxes show high spatial variability and are sensitive to biogeochemical conditions. While soil temperature and moisture are well studied, their combined effects with site-specific variables such as substrate availability, soil texture, and canopy structure remain underexplored. Tree litter plays a dual role: chemically influencing microbial physiological/functional traits through priming, thereby affecting CO₂ and N₂O, and physically limiting CH₄ diffusion. These mechanisms collectively determine whether soils act as GHG sources or sinks, and future research should account for how litter priming may override their carbon sink function while integrating site-specific factors to improve GHG predictions and forest management. Full article

Multiplexed detection of arboviruses using a 4 × 4 Si-based electrolyte-gated transistor (EGT) array functionalized with specific aptamers has been investigated. The Si-based EGTs were fabricated using conventional Si microfabrication processes. The EGTs showed excellent intrinsic electrical characteristics, including a low threshold voltage of 0.8 V, a sub-threshold swing of 75 mV/dec, and a gate leakage of <10 pA, ensuring uniform device performance with low device-to-device variation. Aptamers specific to the yellow fever virus nonstructural protein 1 (YF), dengue virus nonstructural protein 1 (DN), and chikungunya virus envelope protein 2 (CHK) were functionalized on EGT arrays to evaluate individual and multiplexed detection. In individual-target detections, concentration-dependent negative shifts in threshold voltage were observed, and relevant limits of detection (LOD) as low as 38.6 pg/mL, 95.2 pg/mL, and 1.6 ng/mL were extracted for YF, DN, and CHK, respectively. In multiplexed detections, sensitivities decreased and variations increased relative to the individual responses, resulting in higher LODs. The extracted LODs were 0.2 ng/mL, 0.6 ng/mL, and 2.8 ng/mL for YF, DN, and CHK, respectively, which are lower than those reported for other methods. These results suggest that Si-based EGT arrays are promising as a scalable, low-cost, and highly sensitive biosensing platform for multiplexed arbovirus detection and point-of-care diagnostics. Full article

Stable pollination by honeybees (Apis mellifera L.) is essential for the reliable production of strawberries cultivated in winter greenhouses in Korea. Few studies focused on the management of pollination hives within greenhouses during flowering. Thus, this study aimed to investigate the effects of nutritional feed management by supplementing pollen patties and sugar solution on the pollination efficiency and colony longevity of honeybees under greenhouse conditions. In March, the number of foraging bees in the treatment group was 1.94 times higher than that in the control group. The number of bees inside the hive was approximately 2000 greater in February and approximately 2925 greater in March in the treatment group than in the control group. The pollen patties supplemented one time were completely consumed after 53 days, whereas 50% of the patties remained even after 70 days when supplemented three times. The commercial fruit set rate was 5.9% higher, and the fruit weight was significantly heavier, by 1.7 g, in the treatment group than in the control group, although other quality parameters showed no significant differences. Additionally, bee activity was approximately 2.2 times higher in the treatment group with sugar syrup supplementation than in the control group, but the fruit set rate or quality did not significantly differ between the two groups. These findings indicate that the feed management of honeybees during winter greenhouse strawberry cultivation is essential for stable pollination. Proper nutritional supplementation not only enhances bee activity and colony longevity but also improves strawberry productivity, leading to an estimated additional profit of approximately KRW 2.29 million (≈USD 1700) per 0.1 ha. This demonstrates that nutritional management of pollination hives provides both biological and economic benefits for greenhouse strawberry growers. Full article

Background: Esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) typically occurs in older individuals. The etiology and clinical characteristics of ESCC in relatively younger patients under 60 years of age remain unclear. Understanding whether age affects tumor behavior or prognosis is important for improving patient management. This study aimed to analyze the characteristics of ESCC diagnosed before the age of 60. Methods: We retrospectively reviewed the medical records of ESCC patients diagnosed between December 2008 and May 2025. A total of 516 patients were divided into two groups based on whether they were aged 60 or above. Medical history, clinical features, and outcomes were compared between the two groups. Results: There were 100 patients under 60 years and 416 patients aged 60 and above. The median ages were 55 (range 41–59) and 72 (range 60–95), respectively. Younger patients had a significantly stronger association with heavy drinking (72.0% vs. 39.2%, p < 0.001) and smoking (76.0% vs. 55.0%, p < 0.001). There was a trend toward more advanced disease (Stage IV: 26.0% vs. 18.5%, p = 0.094) and metastatic presentation (18.0% vs. 13.9%, p = 0.305) in the under-60 group. Despite being younger with better performance status and fewer comorbidities, their overall survival did not differ from that of older patients (HR 0.92; 95% CI, 0.67–1.26; p = 0.593). Conclusions: Patients diagnosed with ESCC under the age of 60 showed a stronger association with heavy alcohol consumption and smoking and more frequent presentation with advanced-stage disease compared with older patients. Younger age did not confer a better prognosis, highlighting the importance of early detection and timely intervention regardless of patient age. Full article

Background/Objectives: Anti–PD-1/PD-L1 blockers have revolutionized the treatment landscape of non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) lacking oncogene-addicted alterations, particularly in tumors with high PD-L1 expression (tumor proportion score [TPS] ≥ 50%). Cemiplimab is approved as first-line monotherapy in this setting. However, real-world data remain scarce. This study aimed to evaluate the efficacy and safety of single-agent cemiplimab in a multicenter Spanish cohort and compare outcomes with a historical pembrolizumab cohort. Methods: Cemi-SPA is a retrospective multicenter study including 150 patients with advanced NSCLC and PD-L1 ≥ 50% treated with cemiplimab as first-line monotherapy across 21 Spanish centers. Clinical outcomes were analyzed and compared with a historical cohort of 144 patients treated with pembrolizumab. Propensity score matching (PSM) was performed to adjust for baseline differences. Results: Median progression-free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS) were 8.1 and 12.6 months, respectively. ECOG performance status ≥ 2 was independently associated with worse outcomes, whereas the development of immune-related adverse events correlated with improved PFS and OS. After PSM, no significant differences were observed between cemiplimab and pembrolizumab in terms of efficacy. Conclusions: Cemiplimab demonstrated comparable real-world efficacy and safety to pembrolizumab in patients with advanced NSCLC and PD-L1 ≥ 50%. ECOG performance status emerged as the strongest prognostic factor, highlighting the importance of patient selection in routine clinical practice. Full article

Foot gesture recognition using a continuous-wave (CW) radar requires implementation on edge hardware with strict latency and memory budgets. Existing structured and unstructured pruning pipelines rely on iterative training–pruning–retraining cycles, increasing search costs and making them significantly time-consuming. We propose a NAS-guided bisection hybrid pruning framework on foot gesture recognition from a continuous-wave (CW) radar, which employs a weighted shared supernet encompassing both block and channel options. The method consists of three major steps. In the bisection-guided NAS structured pruning stage, the algorithm identifies the minimum number of retained blocks—or equivalently, the maximum achievable sparsity—that satisfies the target accuracy under specified FLOPs and latency constraints. Next, during the hybrid compression phase, a global L1 percentile-based unstructured pruning and channel repacking are applied to further reduce memory usage. Finally, in the low-cost decision protocol stage, each pruning decision is evaluated using short fine-tuning (1–3 epochs) and partial validation (10–30% of dataset) to avoid repeated full retraining. We further provide a unified theory for hybrid pruning—formulating a resource-aware objective, a logit-perturbation invariance bound for unstructured pruning/INT8/repacking, a Hoeffding-based bisection decision margin, and a compression (code-length) generalization bound—explaining when the compressed models match baseline accuracy while meeting edge budgets. Radar return signals are processed with a short-time Fourier transform (STFT) to generate unique time–frequency spectrograms for each gesture (kick, swing, slide, tap). The proposed pruning method achieves 20–57% reductions in floating-point operations (FLOPs) and approximately 86% reductions in parameters, while preserving equivalent recognition accuracy. Experimental results demonstrate that the pruned model maintains high gesture recognition performance with substantially lower computational cost, making it suitable for real-time deployment on edge devices. Full article

Multi-exposure image fusion (MEF) aims to generate a well-exposed image by combining multiple photographs captured at different exposure levels. However, deep learning-based approaches are often highly dependent on the quality of the training data, which can lead to inconsistent color reproduction and loss of fine details. To address this issue, this study proposes a variance-driven hybrid MEF framework based on a U-Net architecture, which adaptively balances structural and chromatic information. In the proposed method, the variance of randomly cropped patches is used as a training weight, allowing the model to emphasize structurally informative regions and thereby preserve local details during the fusion process. Furthermore, a fusion strategy based on the geometric color distance, referred to as the Chroma scale, in the LAB color space is applied to preserve the original chroma characteristics of the input images and improve color fidelity. Visual gamma compensation is also employed to maintain perceptual luminance consistency and synthesize a natural fine image with balanced tone and smooth contrast transitions. Experiments conducted on 86 exposure pairs demonstrate that the proposed model achieves superior fusion quality compared with conventional and deep-learning-based methods, obtaining high JNBM (17.91) and HyperIQA (70.37) scores. Overall, the proposed variance-driven U-Net effectively mitigates dataset dependency and color distortion, providing a reliable and computationally efficient solution for robust MEF applications. Full article

Medication errors pose a significant threat to patient safety. Although Bar-Code Medication Administration (BCMA) has reduced error rates, it is constrained by handheld devices, workflow interruptions, and incomplete safeguards against wrong patients, wrong doses, or drug incompatibility. In this study, we developed and evaluated a next-generation BCMA system by integrating artificial intelligence and mixed reality technologies for real-time safety checks: Optical Character Recognition verifies medication–label concordance, facial recognition confirms patient identity, and a rules engine evaluates drug–diluent compatibility. Computer vision models achieved high recognition accuracy for drug vials (100%), medication labels (90%), QR codes (90%), and patient faces (90%), with slightly lower performance for intravenous fluids (80%). A mixed-methods evaluation was conducted in a simulated environment using the System Usability Scale (SUS), Reduced Instructional Materials Motivation Survey (RIMMS), Virtual Reality Sickness Questionnaire (VRSQ), and NASA Task Load Index (NASA-TLX). The results indicated excellent usability (median SUS = 82.5/100), strong user motivation (RIMMS = 3.7/5), minimal cybersickness (VRSQ = 0.4/6), and manageable cognitive workload (NASA-TLX = 31.7/100). Qualitative analysis highlighted the system’s potential to streamline workflow and serve as a digital “second verifier.” These findings suggest strong potential for clinical integration, enhancing medication safety at the point of care. Full article

Background/Objectives. Type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) has been linked to an increased risk of several cancers. However, the influence of metformin and dipeptidyl peptidase-4 inhibitors (DPP4is) on the risk of cancers remains unclear. We investigated the association between using DPP4is and/or metformin and cancer risk compared with other glucose-lowering drugs (GLDs). Methods. This retrospective multicenter cohort study was performed using 11 hospital databases standardized to the OMOP Common Data Model (CDM) within the Observational Health Data Sciences and Informatics (OHDSI) network. T2DM patients using only DPP4is and/or metformin (DPP4is/Met group) were compared with those using other GLDs (other GLD group). From 413,344 eligible patients, propensity score (PS) 1:1 matching yielded 6674 patients in each group. Cox proportional hazards models were used to analyze cancer risk, and a random-effects meta-analysis was performed to calculate hazard ratios (HRs). Results. The DPP4is/Met group exhibited a significantly lower risk of incident cancer than the other GLD group (HR, 0.54; 95% CI, 0.41–0.69). This association was consistent across all hospitals. Regarding cancer-specific distributions, the DPP4is/Met group showed lower proportions of breast and prostate cancers, whereas the other GLD group showed higher proportions of lower gastrointestinal cancers. Conclusions. In this large multicenter study, using DPP4is and metformin showed a substantial association with a lower risk of cancer in T2DM patients relative to other GLDs. These findings suggest a potential protective effect of metformin and support the neutral-to-beneficial effect on cancer of DPP4is. Full article

This study addresses the operational and environmental pressures of last-mile delivery in dense cities under limited urban logistics hubs. We propose a resource-efficient framework that repurposes existing convenience stores as robotic delivery hubs and formalize its operation via a two-stage optimization coupling truck and robot routing. In controlled simulations, and in a Seoul street network scenario, the approach reduces total completion time relative to a truck-only benchmark and lowers truck activity (truck-kilometers and curb idling), leading to lower estimated CO₂e under standard emission factors. We also observe a nonlinear relationship between the number of hubs and efficiency, suggesting a coverage “sweet spot”. These results indicate that with minimal new infrastructure, reusing commercial assets can improve operational performance and environmental proxies; social and labor outcomes are not measured here and are left for future field evaluation. Full article

Age-related changes in facial ligaments contribute to altered facial shape and soft tissue descent. Radiofrequency (RF) has been utilized for skin rejuvenation by promoting collagen fiber contraction and synthesis through increased expression of heat shock proteins (HSPs). The primary component of ligamentous collagen fibers undergoes structural modifications with age, exhibiting increased fragmentation and a reduced collagen type I/III ratio. This study aimed to investigate whether RF irradiation alleviates senescence-related changes in facial ligaments through HSP70-mediated molecular remodeling using a UV-induced photoaging rat model. In senescent fibroblasts, RF enhanced the interaction between HSP70 and IκBα kinase (IKK)γ while reducing IκBα phosphorylation, which was associated with decreased nuclear factor-kappa B (NF-κB) activation. These RF-mediated changes were attenuated by an HSP70 inhibitor, suggesting that RF reduces NF-κB activity via HSP70 modulation. RF also suppressed expression levels of matrix metalloproteinases and SMAD7 in senescent fibroblasts. Consistent with in vitro findings, RF increased the interaction between HSP70 and IKKγ while decreasing IκBα phosphorylation and NF-κB activity in the UV-induced photoaging (senescent) facial ligaments of rat models. Furthermore, RF enhanced the collagen type I/III ratio and increased collagen fiber density within the ligaments. Scanning electron microscopy revealed that RF irradiation increased collagen fiber bundle diameter and enhanced the helical structure of those fibers. Overall, RF mitigates senescence-related changes in facial ligaments through HSP70 modulation. Considering that facial ligament laxity contributes to soft tissue descent, facial ligament-targeting approaches may promote a more youthful facial structure. RF demonstrates the possibility in reducing senescence-associated changes within facial ligaments. Full article

Background/Objectives: Malnutrition in hospitalized older adults is associated with increased healthcare utilization, prolonged hospitalizations, and higher readmission rates. Specialized oral nutritional supplements enriched with β-hydroxy-β-methylbutyrate (HMB-ONS) have shown benefits in preserving muscle mass, improving functional outcomes, and reducing readmission rates, yet real-world data on their effectiveness remain limited. This study evaluated the association between HMB-ONS use and hospital readmission rates, as well as healthcare costs, in patients with malnutrition or at risk of malnutrition. Methods: This retrospective study analyzed electronic medical records (2015–2021) of hospitalized patients at risk of malnutrition at two tertiary care hospitals in Israel. Patients receiving HMB-ONS during hospitalization were compared with those receiving standard ONS (S-ONS). Propensity score matching (PSM) was employed to reduce potential confounding due to differences in observable characteristics. Primary outcomes were readmission rates at 1-, 3-, and 6-month post-discharge. A cost analysis estimated per-patient hospitalization costs and financial savings from reduced readmissions. Results: Of 391,838 hospitalizations, 16,751 patients met the inclusion criteria. Patients with malnutrition or at risk of malnutrition who received HMB-ONS during hospitalization were PSM-matched to those who received S-ONS (n = 1440, 53.5% female, average age of 78.25 (±15.62) years). Patients who received HMB-ONS had significantly lower odds of readmission compared with those receiving S-ONS at 1 month (OR = 0.698; 95% CI: 0.548–0.888; p = 0.0034), 3 months (OR = 0.772; 95% CI: 0.623–0.958; p = 0.0187), and 6 months (OR = 0.780; 95% CI: 0.633–0.961; p = 0.0195). Based on these differences, the economic analysis estimated net cost savings of EUR 387.61 (USD 403.29) per patient for HMB-ONS versus S-ONS. Conclusions: HMB-ONS was associated with significantly lower readmission rates and healthcare costs compared to S-ONS in patients with malnutrition or at risk of malnutrition. These findings may support the use of specialized nutritional interventions to improve clinical outcomes and optimize hospital resource utilization in patients with malnutrition or at risk of malnutrition. Full article

Centella asiatica, a widely used medicinal herb in Oriental and increasingly Western medicine, is applied for wound healing, dermatological disorders, and gastrointestinal illness. We investigated the effects of fermented C. asiatica extract (FCAE), prepared with Lactobacillus, on airway inflammation in a murine model of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) induced by cigarette smoke extract (CSE) and lipopolysaccharide (LPS). CSE/LPS stimulation caused marked immune cell infiltration in airways. FCAE (100 and 200 mg/kg) reduced neutrophils in the bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BALF) by 26.03% and 70.11%, respectively, and decreased activated T cells and B cells in the lung, mediastinal lymph nodes, and Peyer’s patches, while inhibiting collagen fibrosis. FCAE significantly reduced IL-1α (32.51%), CXCL1 (47.63%), CXCL2 (45.37%), and TNF-α (39.51%) levels in the BALF compared with the control group. It also downregulated the expression of muc5ac (58.39%), CXCL1 (67.32%), CXCL2 (57.60%), and TNF-α (54.61%) and suppressed p-STAT3 activation by 50.22%. Furthermore, FCAE enhanced tracheal phenol red secretion by 229.62%, indicating expectorant activity. UPLC analysis identified nine components, which, together with FCAE, inhibited RANTES, TNF-α, and IL-6 in inflammation-induced BEAS-2B cells. Overall, FCAE attenuates immune activation and airway inflammation, supporting its potential as a candidate therapy or functional food for respiratory diseases. Full article

Son of the “rebellious” Rosanna, and grandson of an obeah woman, ‘Talkee Amy’, Robert Wedderburn was a formerly enslaved ultra-radical prophet, pamphleteer, and anti-abolitionist campaigner who migrated to England from Jamaica in 1778. A recent uptick in Wedderburn scholarship, in the words of Shelby Johnson, centers “Caribbean history in our approaches to Wedderburn, whose career in London looms large in critical assessments of his work.” However, even this tradition overlooks the place of Black political actors in Wedderburn’s audiences. By reading spy reports of “West Indian” attendees at Wedderburn’s debates and his frequent address of “ye Africans” in his periodical The Axe Laid to the Root, I argue there is an important difference between approaching Caribbean history as a means of explaining where Wedderburn’s political orientations came from versus regarding the Caribbean as a place where Afrodiasporic people developed critical apparatuses of their own which were themselves used to interpret Wedderburn’s work in his own time. By reapproaching Wedderburn’s archives through interpretive frameworks that may have been available to his Afro-Caribbean audiences, I argue Wedderburn curated spaces of Black political belonging through which Black political agents circulated Black political thought around the Atlantic world of his time. Full article

Wire Arc Additive Manufacturing (WAAM) enables cost-effective fabrication of complex metallic components but faces challenges in achieving consistent tensile strength for cylindrical parts with intricate internal features (e.g., cooling channels, helical grooves), where conventional machining is often infeasible or prohibitively expensive. This study introduces a novel stacked ring substrate strategy with pre-formed low-carbon steel rings defining complex internal geometries, followed by external WAAM deposition using ER70S-6 wire to overcome these limitations. Five process parameters (welding current: 110–130 A; offset distance: 2.5–3.0 mm; Step Length: rotary to straight; torch speed: 400–500 mm/min; weld thickness: 2.0–3.0 mm) were optimized using a Taguchi L25 orthogonal array (25 runs in triplicate). ANOVA identified Step Length as the dominant factor, with straight paths significantly reducing thermal cycling and improving interlayer bonding, alongside a notable current × speed interaction. Optimal settings achieved tensile strengths of 280–290 MPa, significantly below wrought ER70S-6 benchmarks (400–550 MPa) due to interfacial weaknesses at ring fusion zones and thermal accumulation from stacked cylindrical geometry, a limitation acknowledged in the absence of microstructural or thermal history data. A Random Forest Regressor predicted strength with R² = 0.9312, outperforming conventional models. This hybrid approach significantly enhances design freedom and mechanical reliability for high-value cylindrical components in aerospace and tooling, establishing a scalable, data-driven framework for geometry-constrained WAAM optimization. Full article