Search Results (2,879)

Plate–monopile hybrid foundations, as a potential alternative to monopiles, have demonstrated promising potential in enhancing load-bearing capacity and structural stability. To investigate its load transfer mechanisms and pile–soil interaction in clay, numerical models are developed under varying undrained shear strength (Su), pile diameter (D), and plate-to-pile diameter ratio (R). Through comparative analyses within different parameters configurations, the load-bearing capacity, pile deflection, bending moment and shear force distributions are systematically examined. The results indicate that: (1) Su, D and R are all positively correlated with the load-bearing capacity of the hybrid foundation, which can be expressed as the superposition of the monopile capacity and a quadratic function of R; (2) with increasing R, load transfer shifts from deep to shallow soil, accompanied by an upward pivot shift; increasing D causes a downward shift, more pronounced in weak soils; (3) for small-diameter hybrid foundation, the bending moment decreases progressively with increasing R, while for large-diameter, a stage-dependent response is observed, characterised by local moment concentration near the mudline within a certain range of R; (4) the shear force exhibits a double-peak pattern; increasing R strengthens the shallow peak and weakens the deep one, while increasing D localises the distribution near the mudline. Full article

Conventional Pancharatnam–Berry (PB) phase metasurfaces operate within the two-dimensional SU(2) polarization space of the electric field, fundamentally limiting holographic multiplexing to two independent channels. Here, we propose and numerically demonstrate a four-channel holographic metasurface exploiting the recently discovered Riemann–Silberstein (RS) geometric phase arising from SU(4) polarization evolution in the full electromagnetic field space. The RS vector Ψ = E + icB unifies electric and magnetic fields into a four-dimensional polarization state space. By engineering bianisotropic Huygens meta-atoms with independently controllable electric-dipole orientation angle α and magnetic-dipole orientation angle ψ, four geometric-phase channels—labeled by the joint spin eigenstates |σ,κ⟩∈{|+,+⟩,|+,−⟩,|−,+⟩,|−,−⟩}—are simultaneously addressed from a single aperture. We develop the complete SU(4) transfer-matrix formalism and optimize four quasi-independent phase profiles using an extended Gerchberg–Saxton algorithm with a three-parameter (α,ψ,h) design library, where the pillar height h serves as a third degree of freedom to overcome the linear phase constraint inherent to the two-angle parameterization. Numerical simulations at 0.8 THz demonstrate simultaneous projection of four independent holographic images with mean diffraction efficiency 60.4% and inter-channel crosstalk below 3.2%, doubling the information capacity of conventional dual-channel PB holograms. An intrinsic ~24× common-mode noise suppression arising from electromagnetic duality symmetry is also demonstrated. This work establishes a direct link between fundamental electromagnetic symmetry and high-capacity wavefront engineering. Full article

Background: Stroke is a leading cause of neurological disability worldwide, with upper limb impairment affecting approximately 70% of survivors and only 5–20% achieving complete dexterity recovery at six months. Brain–computer interface (BCI) neurorehabilitation decodes motor intentions from electroencephalographic (EEG) signals to deliver synchronized functional electrical stimulation (FES) and virtual reality feedback, creating a closed-loop neurofeedback system that reinforces motor learning. While existing evidence supports BCI efficacy and safety in chronic stroke, its feasibility, safety, and cost-effectiveness during the acute and subacute phase (2 to 12 weeks post-stroke), when neuroplasticity is heightened, remain underexplored. Furthermore, there is a paucity of data regarding preliminary health economic analyses for BCI rehabilitation in acute stroke rehabilitation settings. Methods: This prospective, open-label, single-arm pragmatic feasibility pilot trial will recruit 12 patients with hemorrhagic or ischemic stroke (2–12 weeks post-stroke) undergoing inpatient rehabilitation from a public healthcare institution. Up to 15 sessions of BCI-rehabilitation of 30 min each using the recoveriX system will be supervised by a trained therapist or clinical research assistant (4–5 sessions/week over 3–4 weeks), followed by standard occupational therapy within 30–60 min of BCI-rehabilitation. Primary outcomes assessing feasibility and adherence include eligibility and recruitment rate (%/screened); tolerability using self-rated System Usability Scale (SUS) score; within-session adherence > 80%/240 trials, summated for completed trials per patient; programme completion number > 80% of scheduled (>12/15) sessions; and training-related adverse events per patient ≤ 17% (≤2/12 sessions). Secondary outcome measures include clinical efficacy by arm impairment scale using hemiplegic Upper Limb Fugl–Meyer Motor Assessment (FMA-UE), hand function using Action Research Arm Test (ARAT), admission and discharge functional status (Functional Independence Measure-FIM (18–126), Modified Barthel Index-MBI (0–100), stroke impact scale (SIS_3.0), arm, participation domains), and economic analysis. All outcomes will be measured by trained therapists/researchers at baseline week 0, week 3–4 (post-BCI-rehabilitation), and week 12 and 24 (follow-up). BCI-rehabilitation EEG-derived electrophysiological correlates of recovery will be extracted to better understand participant progress over time. An incremental cost-utility analysis will compare the BCI-rehabilitation participants against propensity-matched historical controls from the TTSH stroke rehabilitation registry (2017 to 2025), stratified by baseline motor severity. Discussion: This study will provide preliminary evidence on feasibility, tolerability, safety, clinical efficacy, and cost-effectiveness of early BCI-rehabilitation in acute/subacute stroke to better inform clinicians on its implementation. Full article

Sucrose synthase plays a crucial role in sucrose metabolism and flower regulation. By using bioinformatics techniques, 13, 16 and 13 SUS members were identified in Brassica rapa, Brassica nigra, and Brassica oleracea, respectively. The SUS family can be divided into three subfamilies. The SUS II subfamily has three B. nigra genes with significantly reduced motif types. The SUS III subfamily has fewer motif 2 in Arabidopsis thaliana compared to the other species. The interspecific collinearity analysis revealed a “one-to-one, many-to-one” relationship between species. KEGG revealed that Brassica nigra showed significantly higher enrichment in the metabolism pathway, while Brassica rapa and Brassica oleracea exhibited higher significance in carbohydrate metabolism. GO indicated that Brassica nigra had more enriched biological process pathways than the other two species. It reveals that SUS has a higher degree of similarity between the AA genome and the CC genome, while its similarity to the BB genome is lower. The analysis of the response of BraSUSs to different light intensities revealed that the differentially expressed genes BraA07g028740.3C and BraA07g037520.3C had enhanced expression rhythms under high light intensity. Using three diploid basal species with different flowering traits (Chinese cabbage, cabbage, and black mustard) as experimental materials, we conducted a comparative analysis of the SUS gene family. This will lay the foundation for deciphering the molecular regulatory mechanism by which the SUS gene affects flowering through its influence on sucrose synthesis. Full article

Wild boars (Sus scrofa) are reliable bioindicator species for assessing environmental pollution. In this pilot study, we measured concentrations of arsenic (As), cadmium (Cd), copper (Cu), selenium (Se), zinc (Zn), and lead (Pb) in liver, diaphragm, and testicular tissues from wild boars collected across seven districts of Avellino province (liver/diaphragm: n = 87; testicles: n = 50). Pb reached its highest median value in the diaphragm (0.43 mg/kg w.w.; maximum 14.80 mg/kg), while Cd showed a pronounced affinity for hepatic tissue (median 0.15 mg/kg; maximum 0.62 mg/kg). Zn was the most abundant element overall, particularly in the diaphragm (median 20.51 mg/kg; maximum 46.81 mg/kg). Se concentrations were generally below the detection limit (<0.001 mg/kg), with only occasional outliers. Sex-related differences were evident: males accumulated more Pb in the liver, while females had higher levels of Cd and As. Spatial patterns identified AVMFS009 and AVAR009 as hotspots for Cu, Zn, and Cd, while AVCP003 emerged as the main hotspot for As. Overall, the results reinforce the role of wild boars as effective bioindicators in southern Italy. Full article

This article describes the design, development, and user acceptance evaluation of the Monitor CRIS UCSM, a research monitoring system (RMS) built on the Elsevier Pure REST API for the Universidad Católica de Santa María (UCSM), Arequipa, Peru. The study addresses two research questions: (RQ1) can an API-based CRIS monitoring solution be implemented on a commercial Research Information Management System (RIMS) to meet institution-specific regulatory requirements, and (RQ2) to what extent do institutional stakeholders perceive such a system as usable, normatively relevant, and useful for strategic decision-making? The system integrates bibliometric data from Pure into dashboards covering research production metrics, RENACYT-qualified researcher profiles, SDG alignment, and regulatory compliance indicators aligned with Peruvian higher education legislation (Law No. 30220, SUNEDU, CONCYTEC), implemented on a three-tier architecture (Laravel 11/Vue.js 3/MySQL 8.0) with role-based access control. A User Acceptance Test (UAT) conducted with 134 institutional stakeholders, using an instrument adapted from the System Usability Scale (SUS) and structured into four dimensions, showed excellent internal consistency (α = 0.90), a composite SUS-adapted score of M = 81.12 (SD = 5.83), and very favorable ratings across all four dimensions (global M = 4.32; SD = 0.14 on a 1–5 Likert scale). These findings, bounded to the UCSM institutional case, support the technical feasibility of API-based CRIS monitoring within a single institution. The decision-making utility reported here reflects internal stakeholder perceptions gathered through a single UAT administration, not measured organizational outcomes, external adoption, or longitudinal use. Full article

Comprising the greatest proportion of stream networks, headwater streams provide critical ecosystem services to entire river networks by sustaining water quality and biodiversity as well as controlling floods and groundwater recharge. As such, they are important contributors to the environmental pillar of sustainability. Unfortunately, they are also among the most vulnerable ecosystems. In Appalachian headwater streams, larval salamanders represent a critical functional group because of their strong influence on ecosystem function. Wild pigs (Sus scrofa) rank among the most notorious invasive species, with widespread, negative impacts on native habitats and biodiversity. We tested the impacts of wallowing by wild pigs on the salamander larval community in Appalachian headwater streams in northeastern Georgia and found a significant drop in both numbers and diversity of larvae in wallows. Because downstream networks and the communities that depend upon them rely on healthy headwater streams, understanding exactly how the impairment of this functional group by wild pigs impacts energy flow, nutrient cycling, carbon sequestration, and water quality requires further investigation. Full article

Background/Objectives: Hypertensive disorders of pregnancy, particularly preeclampsia and eclampsia, are associated with high maternal and fetal morbidity and mortality, with maternal obesity representing a major, modifiable risk factor. This study aimed to estimate the association between obesity and preeclampsia/eclampsia (PEC) in obstetric hospitalizations in the state of São Paulo, Brazil, and to examine risk trends across maternal age groups and between two distinct temporal cohorts. Methods: This population-based observational study analyzed 2,338,934 obstetric hospitalizations using data from the Hospital Information System of the Unified Health System (SIH/SUS). PEC and obesity diagnoses were coded according to the International Classification of Diseases, 10th Revision (ICD-10). Logistic regression models were applied to estimate associations adjusted for maternal age, complemented by adjusted marginal predictions. Results: PEC occurred more than twice as often among women with obesity than without (5.4% vs. 2.2%; OR 2.13, 95% CI 1.84–2.47) and was associated with longer hospital stays (3.52 vs. 2.70 days) and higher costs (R$797.91 vs. R$602.69). The absolute risk difference between obese and non-obese women declined from 24.7% to 13.6% at age 20 between the 2017–2019 and 2023–2025 cohorts, while the relative risk gradient remained stable across all ages. Conclusions: Obesity is strongly associated with increased PEC risk, longer hospitalization, and higher costs. The observed attenuation in absolute risk differences in the most recent cohort reinforces the need for preventive interventions, nutritional surveillance, and public health policies aimed at reducing hypertensive complications during pregnancy for both obese and non-obese women. Full article

Roll-bonded stainless steel/aluminum laminates are increasingly used in lightweight structural applications; however, their deep-drawing behavior and thickness evolution remain insufficiently understood due to the mechanical mismatch between constituent layers. This study investigates the deep drawing of a SUS304/AA1050/SUS430 laminated sheet through a combined experimental and finite-element approach. The laminate was manufactured by roll bonding and exhibited sound interfacial integrity without observable delamination. To account for load transfer and deformation compatibility among the bonded layers, the material was modeled as an equivalent homogeneous laminate whose constitutive response was identified directly from tensile tests performed on the three-layer sheet. Full-field strain measurements were obtained using digital image correlation (DIC), and anisotropic plasticity was described using the Hill48 yield criterion combined with Swift and Voce hardening laws. Numerical predictions were validated against experimentally measured thickness distributions in cylindrical cup deep drawing. Among the investigated constitutive models, the Voce-RD0 calibration provided the closest agreement with experimental results. The validated model was subsequently employed to evaluate the effects of blank holder force, punch–die clearance, and die radius on thickness evolution. Based on the systematic parametric investigation, the combination of a blank holder force of 14 tons, a punch–die clearance of 3.2 mm, and a die radius of 10 mm yielded the most uniform thickness distribution among the conditions investigated. Under these conditions, localized thinning was reduced and the thickness distribution became more uniform. The finite element predictions agreed well with the experimental measurements, with deviations below 3%. The proposed experimental–numerical approach offers a practical framework for constitutive characterization and process parameter selection in the deep drawing of roll-bonded multilayer sheet materials. Full article

Standard Three-dimensional (3D) Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) segmentation models typically rely on a fixed threshold or argmax-based class selection, providing little or no insight into model uncertainty, which can limit clinician trust. In this work, we developed a framework that integrates a calibrated 3D U-Net into a Virtual Reality (VR) system, enabling clinicians to manipulate confidence thresholds in real time and observe how the segmentation changes. The network was trained to segment mandibular structures (submandibular glands and mandibular canal) on 55 T2-weighted MRI scans from the AAPM RT-MAC 2019 dataset and post hoc calibrated using temperature scaling. The VR application, built in Unity with OpenXR, offers two interaction modes: a single upper-threshold mode and a range mode that controls both lower and upper bounds. A user study with six clinicians was conducted to evaluate both modes using the UMUX-Lite questionnaire (from which a System Usability Scale (SUS)-equivalent score was derived), interaction logs, and qualitative feedback. Both modes were rated as highly usable, and narrower confidence intervals, focusing on the most reliable predictions, were more popular among users. The results suggest that enabling real-time adjustment of confidence thresholds improves the clarity of segmentation outputs and may support clinicians’ perceived confidence, as indicated by participants’ qualitative feedback and stated preferences. Full article

Hypomimia, the reduced facial expressiveness commonly seen in Parkinson’s disease (PD), is clinically relevant, yet routine assessment usually relies on a single ordinal rating item in major rating scales such as the Unified Parkinson’s Disease Rating Scale (MDS-UPDRS). This study aimed to develop and iteratively refine a wearable, cap-mounted device for hypomimia recording during routine inpatient ON/OFF assessments and to examine its usability and technical feasibility. A staged co-development process with four prototypes was conducted. After clinician workflow requirements had been incorporated, Prototype 3 was evaluated during clinical routine using the System Usability Scale (SUS) and short free-text feedback. These findings informed a patient-centered redesign that resulted in Prototype 4. Bench testing confirmed stable operation, robust housing, and reliable closed Wi-Fi streaming. Usability improved from moderate in Prototype 3 (mean SUS 44.7, SD 18.2; n = 15) to good in Prototype 4 (mean SUS 80.0, SD 12.6; n = 50). Mixed-effects regression showed an increase of approximately 33 SUS points for the redesigned device (95% CI 27.7–39.4; p < 0.001). Mean effective sampling rate was 4.79 frames/s (SD 0.33), with face detection in 95.4% of frames. These feasibility and usability results indicate that technical robustness and patient-centered design are critical prerequisites for later clinical validation and support the integration of a wearable hypomimia capture device into routine assessments. Full article

Fine-grained commodity detection is a key visual task in intelligent retail, automatic checkout, and warehouse management. Compared with general object detection, commodity detection is more sensitive to subtle packaging differences, similar colors, local text patterns, and class-dependent appearance variations. These factors lead to unstable recognition for weak classes when a conventional detector is trained directly on a limited product dataset. To address this problem, this study proposes WCA-Det, a weak-class-aware dual-attention enhancement method for fine-grained commodity detection. The detector is built on a YOLO11-based framework and combines efficient multi-scale spatial attention with lightweight channel attention to strengthen discriminative product features. In addition, a weak-class augmentation strategy is introduced during training to improve the robustness of categories with lower mAP50-95, without increasing inference parameters or GFLOPs. Experiments on a self-built 12-class commodity dataset show that the proposed method achieves 0.98640 mAP50 and 0.85535 mAP50-95 at an input size of 640. Compared with YOLO11_EMA, mAP50-95 is improved from 0.84334 to 0.85535, corresponding to a 1.20 percentage-point gain. On the self-built dataset, the final model also outperforms representative YOLO-series detectors, including YOLOv5su, YOLOv8s, YOLOv8m, YOLOv9s, YOLOv10s, and YOLOv10m, while maintaining a compact computational cost. These results indicate that weak-class-aware feature enhancement is effective for fine-grained commodity recognition under practical intelligent retail conditions. Full article

Power grid maintenance tasks often involve sustained arm elevation, asymmetric upper-limb loading, and repetitive pulling, all of which may increase the risk of work-related musculoskeletal disorders. This study evaluated the effects of a passive upper-limb exoskeleton on muscle activity, subjective fatigue, task workload, and usability in three representative power grid maintenance tasks: insulator installation, insulated rod handling, and hand-chain hoist operation. A randomized crossover design was adopted, and twenty-two healthy young male participants completed all tasks under exoskeleton (EXO) and no-exoskeleton (NoEXO) conditions. Surface electromyography was used to quantify muscle activity, and subjective assessments included Borg CR-10, NASA-TLX, an exoskeleton wearing experience questionnaire, and the System Usability Scale (SUS). In the static tasks, the exoskeleton significantly reduced %MVC of the trapezius, deltoid, and biceps brachii, while in the dynamic task, significant reductions were mainly observed in the deltoid and trapezius during the arm-raising phase. The exoskeleton also reduced local discomfort in the shoulders, elbows, and wrists and improved selected workload dimensions, particularly physical demand and effort. The mean SUS score was 74.2, indicating acceptable usability. These findings suggest that the passive upper-limb exoskeleton can effectively reduce proximal upper-limb loading in power grid maintenance tasks, with the greatest benefit observed in static overhead work. Full article

This paper presents a single-company field study on hybrid user memory filtering for Large Language Model (LLM)-based knowledge management systems, aiming to reduce contextual noise from irrelevant or outdated persistent memories. We propose the Hybrid Adaptive Filtering Engine (HAFE), which combines intent classification, ontology-based filtering, behavioral reuse prediction, and collaborative role-level comparison. HAFE was integrated into an industrial KM platform deployed at a major steel producer. In a field experiment with 120 engineers, HAFE reduced irrelevant memory retention by 41%, improved Mean Reciprocal Rank (MRR) by 12.5%, and increased user satisfaction (SUS score) by 18% (all p < 0.01). The results suggest that proactive memory quality control can improve effectiveness and user experience in this specific industrial KMS setting, while further cross-domain validation is required. Full article

While global climate change is fundamentally reshaping thermal regimes, capturing these shifts in topographically diverse regions remains a significant hurdle for standard gridded datasets. This study provides a comprehensive spatiotemporal analysis of 16 extreme temperature indices across Northern Carpathians from 1980 to 2024 using the E-OBS dataset. The QDM framework proved highly effective in neutralizing elevation-induced temperature biases, which reached up to 5.1 °C in raw E-OBS data. Beyond simple bias removal, the correction significantly improved the daily accuracy of the dataset, with RMSE values at high-altitude stations, such as the Chopok summit (1995 m), decreasing from 5.1 °C to 2.3 °C. Both Warm Days (TX90p) and Summer Days (SU) show near-perfect Field Coherence ($C_f$ = 100% and 98%, respectively). A prominent feature of this temporal national average trend is its inherent asymmetry; the Annual Minimum (TNn) is climbing nearly twice as fast (+1.1 °C/decade) as the Annual Maximum (TXx) (+0.6 °C/decade), though the warming of these coldest nights is more localized (74.5% coherence). We also identified a clear signal of Elevation-Dependent Warming (EDW), with absolute maximums surging most aggressively in the Northern Carpathians at +1.6 °C/decade. Conversely, cold-tail indices like Ice Days are in a concurrent nationwide retreat ($C_f$ = 97%), a shift that significantly reduces the physical window for winter tourism and alters the climatic envelope for fragile mountain ecosystems. Ultimately, these results position Slovakia as a high-sensitivity climate region where observed trends often outpace broader Central European averages, highlighting the urgent need for localized, nature-based adaptation strategies. Full article