Search Results (6,139)

Fire plays a central role in shaping regeneration dynamics in Pinus canariensis C. Sm. & DC. forests, yet the relative importance of different fire-related cues and post-fire environmental filters remains poorly understood. We experimentally evaluated the effects of drought, heat, smoke, ash and soil microbial extracts on the germination of seven co-occurring species representing the main functional groups of these forests. Germination responses varied markedly among species, revealing that no single cue dominates early recruitment. Drought emerged as the strongest and most consistent filter, sharply reducing germination success and slowing emergence in P. canariensis and Fabaceae, while Poaceae remained largely insensitive under the imposed water potentials. Ash enhanced germination in P. canariensis and Cynosurus echinatus L., indicating that nutrient-rich post-fire substrates can facilitate emergence when moisture is available. Soil and microbial extracts accelerated germination in fast-emerging grasses, providing the first experimental evidence that post-fire soil legacies influence recruitment in Macaronesian pine forests. In contrast, heat acted as a species-specific cue, with only limited stimulation at moderate temperatures and widespread declines under extreme heat, while the smoke treatment used in this study produced negligible effects across all species. Across treatments, germination timing emerged as a key functional axis, structuring regeneration niches, with rapid-germinating Poaceae favoured under increasing aridity. Our findings highlight the dominant role of hydric stress, the selective relevance of ash and soil legacies, and the functional divergence among species, offering new mechanistic insights into post-fire regeneration under current and future climate scenarios. Full article

Trichoderma virens and plant growth-promoting bacteria (PGPB) are well-known agents that promote plant development and control pathogens. This study assessed the compatibility, biocontrol potential, and plant growth promotion of T. virens in combination with four PGPB strains (Pseudomonas fluorescens UM270, Rouxiella badensis SER3, Bacillus velezensis AF12, and Bacillus halotolerans AF23) against Fusarium brachygibbosum and Arabidopsis thaliana. The results showed that single inoculations significantly inhibited the growth of F. brachygibbosum by the 7th day of confrontation. However, co-inoculating T. virens with PGPB exhibited synergistic effects on the inhibition percentages for the consortia Tv + UM270 (48.94%), Tv + AF12 (67.04%), and Tv + SER3 (78.63%). Plant assays demonstrated that most microorganisms enhanced root development and plant height, with UM270 having the strongest beneficial effect. Expression analysis of T. virens effector genes (sm1, tvsep3, and tvhydii1) indicated early induction of tvhydii1 in the condition of Fb + AF12 at day 3, while sm1 was downregulated. No significant changes in the expression of these genes were detected during interaction with A. thaliana and PGPB. These findings demonstrate that T. virens–PGPB can simultaneously promote plant growth and suppress pathogens, with effector genes such as tvhydii1 contributing to these interactions, highlighting their potential for sustainable agriculture. Full article

The photocatalytic degradation of the 2,5-diphenyl-1,3-oxazole (PPO) and 2-(4-biphenyl)-5-phenyl-1,3,4-oxadiazole (PBD), which are laser dyes and scintillator compounds, was investigated under ultraviolet (UV) light irradiation using pure and rare-earth (Sm³⁺, Eu³⁺, and Gd³⁺)-modified zinc oxide (ZnO) hierarchical flower-like microstructures. The synthesized photocatalysts (powder) were characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS), and X-ray diffraction (XRD), confirming the formation of flower-like ZnO structures and successful modification by the oxides Sm₂O₃, Eu₂O₃, and Gd₂O₃. Residual concentrations of Zn²⁺, Gd³⁺, Sm³⁺, and Eu³⁺ in the treated aqueous solutions were determined by ICP-MS to evaluate catalyst stability, while chemical oxygen demand (COD) analysis was used to assess mineralization efficiency. For both PPO and PBD, the photocatalytic activity followed the order ZnO < ZnO/Gd₂O₃ < ZnO/Sm₂O₃ < ZnO/Eu₂O₃, which can be attributed to the enhanced charge separation and reduced electron–hole recombination caused by rare-earth ions, with Eu³⁺ providing the most effective electron trapping. PPO showed faster degradation than PBD, mainly due to the structure of the PBD molecule, which is more rigid and conjugated, owing to its higher resistance to oxidative degradation. Full article

Incorporating a secondary phase represents a promising strategy for enhancing the thermoelectric performance of materials. In this study, CuInTe₂ was modified with SnTe powders at various weight fractions (0, 0.5, 1, 2, 4 wt%) and subsequently synthesized via rapid microwave melting. The phase composition and microstructure of the resulting materials were systematically characterized. Structural analyses revealed that the introduction of SnTe induced the incorporation of Sn and Te into the CuInTe₂ lattice, accompanied by a progressive contraction in lattice parameters. Owing to the spontaneous formation of intrinsic Sn vacancies in SnTe and the regulation of carrier concentration, electrical conductivity of up to 2.7 × 10⁴ Sm⁻¹ was achieved, representing a 1.7-fold increase over pristine CuInTe₂. Coupled with a notable reduction in lattice thermal conductivity (0.9 Wm⁻¹K⁻¹ at 700 K), a maximum figure of merit of 0.44 was obtained for the CuInTe₂-2 wt% SnTe sample. While the absolute zT value is moderate compared to state-of-the-art CuInTe₂-based materials, this work establishes the feasibility of microwave melting combined with second-phase incorporation as a rapid and energy-efficient synthesis pathway for CuInTe₂ modification. These results demonstrate that the introduction of SnTe is a viable strategy for enhancing the thermoelectric performance of CuInTe₂. Full article

This study investigates the sorption, structural, and morphological properties of an interpolymer system (IPS) based on Amberlite IR120 (H⁺) and KU-2-8 (H⁺) cation exchangers with acidic sulfonic groups (−SO₃H), applied for the selective sorption of dysprosium (Dy³⁺), neodymium (Nd³⁺), and samarium (Sm³⁺) ions from aqueous solutions. The sorption activity was evaluated for seven systems with molar ratios ranging from 6:0 to 0:6 over a contact time of up to 48 h within a pH range of 2.0 to 5.0. The interpolymer pair with a molar ratio of 5:1 demonstrated the highest sorption efficiency at pH 5.0, yielding extraction degrees of 61.8% for Dy³⁺, 62.0% for Nd³⁺, and 64.4% for Sm³⁺. Equilibrium data were accurately described by the Langmuir isotherm model (R² > 0.974), indicating a dominant monolayer chemisorption mechanism. The maximum monolayer adsorption capacities (q_m) followed the order Dy(III) (189.59 ± 31.52 mg/g) > Sm(III) (162.27 ± 52.38 mg/g) > Nd(III) (139.90 ± 35.40 mg/g). The selectivity toward dysprosium was supported by distribution coefficients (Kd) and separation coefficients (β_Dy/Nd = 1.557 and β_Dy/Sm = 1.757 for the 6:0 system). FTIR analysis confirmed the direct coordination of lanthanide ions by sulfonic groups, as evidenced by the shifts in the νas(S=O) bands. SEM-EDX characterization revealed distinct post-sorption morphological changes (surface cracking and flaking) and confirmed significant REE accumulation on the resins (up to 4.04 wt.%) coupled with a stoichiometric decrease in sulfur content, validating the ion-exchange mechanism. These findings provide a deeper insight into the remote conformational effects governing interpolymer interactions and offer a highly promising approach for the selective recovery of REEs in hydrometallurgy. Full article

Background/Objectives: Local anaesthetic systemic toxicity (LAST) is a rare but potentially fatal complication of dental and oral and maxillofacial surgical local anaesthesia (LA). Three amide agents are commonly used in the UK: lignocaine (lidocaine) 2% with adrenaline 1:80,000; articaine 4% with adrenaline 1:100,000 (2.2 mL cartridges); and bupivacaine 0.5%. Clinically significant discrepancies between guideline sources for maximum recommended dosages (MRDs) persist, and the additive toxicity of combined amide agents remains underappreciated. The objectives are: to provide clear, evidence-appraised MRD guidance for dental practitioners; to explain safe combination dosing using the fractional dose rule with acknowledgement of its pharmacokinetic limitations; and to outline recognition and management of LAST, including intravenous lipid emulsion (ILE) therapy, setting-stratified response, and differential diagnosis. Methods: These include the following: narrative review of MEDLINE (via PubMed), the Cochrane Library, and Embase (inception to May 2026), supplemented by key regulatory documents (British National Formulary (BNF) 91; US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) prescribing information; UK Summaries of Product Characteristics (SmPCs)); major guideline documents (American Society of Regional Anesthesia and Pain Medicine (ASRA) 2018; Association of Anaesthetists 2021; Resuscitation Council UK 2021); systematic reviews; and peer-reviewed literature, ranked by a jurisdiction-specific UK prescribing and regulatory source hierarchy. Results: BNF 91 and the FDA both support a 7 mg/kg (500 mg) MRD for lignocaine with adrenaline; in practice, the adrenaline ceiling limits administration to 6–7 cartridges (2.2 mL) regardless of the guideline followed. The principal reasons for caution when combining amide agents are; additive systemic toxicity, more complex dose calculation, absence of proven clinical benefit for concurrent mixing, unnecessary drug exposure, and incremental hypersensitivity risk—not metabolic pathway differences. The fractional dose rule is a pharmacologically justified safety heuristic with acknowledged pharmacokinetic limitations. ILE is a specific rescue therapy for severe or cardiovascular LAST; airway support and oxygenation remain the primary interventions. Patient-specific factors substantially lower the effective toxic threshold. Conclusions: Safe LA administration in oral surgery requires systematic MRD calculation, application of the fractional dose rule for combined-agent appointments, attention to patient-specific risk factors, setting-appropriate emergency preparedness, and structured differential diagnosis to distinguish LAST from more common dental emergencies. Full article

Background: The aim of this study was to compare tumour stage, treatment modalities, post-treatment complications, and survival among patients with sinonasal malignancies (SMs) before, during, and after the COVID-19 pandemic. Methods: This retrospective, two-centre study included 139 patients with SMs who were hospitalised before the COVID-19 pandemic (group 1), during the pandemic (group 2), and after the pandemic (group 3). Results: The study included 32, 41, and 66 patients in groups 1, 2, and 3, respectively. No significant differences were observed between the groups in terms of age, sex, recurrence rate, or the proportion of patients treated surgically. Complications were more common in group 1 than in group 2 (46.88% vs. 24.39%, p = 0.045). Intracranial tumour extension was observed more frequently in group 1 than in group 3 (51.61% vs. 27.27%, p = 0.024). The use of photon radiotherapy (RT) decreased from group 1 to group 3, whereas the use of proton RT increased and became predominant in group 3 (19.4%, 64.1%, and 95.2% in groups 1, 2, and 3, respectively). Group 3 had a higher proportion of T3 tumours than group 1 (33.3% vs. 6.3%) but a lower proportion of T4b tumours (31.8% vs. 56.3%, p = 0.009). Most patients had advanced disease (stage III–IV) in all groups. Kaplan–Meier survival analysis demonstrated a statistically significant improvement in survival in group 3 compared with group 1 (log-rank test, p = 0.048). Conclusions: The observed improvement is more likely attributable to shifts in tumour stage distribution and changes in treatment strategies than to any direct effect of the COVID-19 pandemic. Future research should evaluate longer post-COVID-19 periods, as potential negative effects may emerge later. Full article

Purpose: Breast cancer has been recognised as a chronic condition, with survivors experiencing long-term physical and psychosocial effects following treatment. Supporting breast cancer survivors to self-manage their health can optimise health-related quality of life and reduce symptom burden. Self-management education (SME) has been advocated at the policy and programme level in Australian primary care, but its uptake is often limited. This study explores healthcare professionals’ (HCPs) experiences and perceptions of SME in primary care, aiming to identify factors influencing its implementation and to support survivorship care for breast cancer survivors in Australia. Methods: A qualitative descriptive approach was adopted involving in-depth semi-structured interviews. Convenience sampling was used to recruit HCPs across the three primary care clinics in the Greater Brisbane area. The interviews were conducted based on an interview guide. Each interview was audio-recorded and transcribed verbatim. Descriptive content analysis was used to analyse the data. Results: Fourteen participants were interviewed across three primary care settings, including five general practitioners and nine registered nurses. Three categories were synthesised from the data: (1) Meaning and role of SM/SME; (2) Suboptimal SME in current practice; (3) Perceived factors impacting SME delivery in practice. Each category had two to six subcategories for the participants. Conclusions: The findings highlighted the importance and perceived benefits of SME for breast cancer survivors and HCPs in Australian primary care. However, the integration of SME into primary care remained suboptimal due to a combination of systemic, organisational, and healthcare provider factors. Evidence-based resources, particularly guidelines and training, are essential to equip HCPs to effectively integrate SME into routine care for breast cancer survivors. Full article

Pulmonary hypertension (PH) is a progressive disease that severely compromises right ventricular function, characterized by two major pathological features: pulmonary arterial constriction and pulmonary arterial remodeling. Bellidifolin (BEL), a natural ketone compound, exhibits potent anti-inflammatory and antioxidant effects; however, its role in PH remains unexplored. This study evaluated the impact of BEL on the two pathological processes: pulmonary arterial constriction and pulmonary arterial remodeling. First, the effects of BEL on pulmonary arterial constriction were evaluated using wire myography. The study revealed that BEL (6–96 μmol/L) inhibited the contraction response of intact endothelial and denuded pulmonary arterial rings precontracted with norepinephrine (1 μmol/L) in a concentration-dependent manner. BEL (90 μmol/L) suppressed pulmonary constriction induced by intracellular calcium release and extracellular calcium influx. In cellular experiments, BEL inhibited the proliferation, migration, and phenotypic transformation of pulmonary arterial smooth muscle cells (PASMCs) induced by 10 μmol/L CoCl₂ (72 h), as evidenced by upregulation of the contractile phenotype markers α-SMA and SM22α and downregulation of the synthetic phenotype markers OPN, vimentin, and PCNA. Multi-omics analysis identified Aldh1A1, Mgp, Col4a6, and Igfbp5 as significantly enriched candidates. Among these candidates, Cellular Thermal Shift Assay demonstrated that BEL enhanced the thermal stability of Igfbp5 in PASMCs, suggesting that Igfbp5 may be a potential direct target of BEL. Moreover, KEGG pathway analysis revealed significant enrichment of the PI3K-AKT-mTOR pathway, which is known to be involved in cell proliferation and is regulated by Igfbp5. BEL may inhibit the PI3K-AKT-mTOR pathway by suppressing Igfbp5. The results indicate that BEL may regulate Igfbp5 to inhibit the PI3K-AKT-mTOR pathway, thereby exerting anti-proliferative and inhibitory effects on migration and phenotypic transformation. Full article

Spam detection on SMS messaging has not received as much attention from researchers recently as the spam detection studies on emails or social media platforms. However, spam SMS messaging can be more intrusive, annoying, and harmful. Thus, detecting and filtering spam SMS messages is becoming a priority that saves human productivity. This work aims to introduce a dynamic, accurate, and efficient machine learning-based spam detection technique for SMS messaging. It aims at protecting users and businesses from spam SMS attacks. It aims to detect and identify suspicious messages that contain promotional, misleading, irrelevant, or harmful content. It primarily aims to test and evaluate the impact of feature extraction methods on the performance of machine-learning-based spam detection. Several text feature extraction techniques have been used and tested, including classical, statistical, contextual, and advanced embedding techniques. An extensive set of experiments has been presented on benchmark datasets in this field. From the comparative study, we can infer that all investigated feature extraction techniques have achieved high accuracy (90%+) on the in-domain dataset. However, their performance decreased when they were tested on the out-of-domain dataset (70%+). The advanced embedding techniques achieved the best performance across both datasets compared to the other tested feature extraction models. Full article

We review the role of primordial black holes (PBHs) for illuminating the dark ages of the cosmological evolution and as dark matter (DM) candidates. We elucidate the role of phase transitions for primordial black hole formation in the early Universe and focus our attention on the cosmological QCD phase transition within a recent microscopic model. We explore the impact of physics beyond the Standard Model (SM) on the cosmic equation of state and the probability distribution for the formation of PBHs, which serve as candidates for DM and contribute to present-day binary black hole merger events. Full article

The proliferation of mobile communications has led to a significant increase in SMS spam, posing challenges related to security, privacy, and user experience. Although numerous machine-learning-based spam detection approaches have been proposed, developing systems that are simultaneously lightweight and resilient to adversarial manipulation remains an open problem. This paper proposes an SMS spam detection framework that incorporates multiple feature extraction methods, including bag-of-words (BoW), Term Frequency–Inverse Document Frequency (TF-IDF), and N-gram models with dimensionality reduction using principal component analysis (PCA), followed by classification using decision tree (DT) and Logistic Regression (LogReg) models. Experimental evaluations on the UCI SMS Spam Collection dataset demonstrate that the TF-IDF-PCA-DT pipeline achieves a detection accuracy of 99% while reducing model size by 77% and inference time by 75%. Robustness evaluation under adversarial text perturbations indicates minimal performance degradation, maintaining an accuracy of 96.5%. These findings demonstrate the practicality of the proposed framework for real-world deployment in resource-constrained environments. Full article

Groundwater is an essential natural resource for human societies and ecosystems. Traditional groundwater monitoring relies on in situ wells, which are susceptible to discontinuity, influencing water resource management. To overcome this deficiency, this study proposes a remote sensing-based groundwater level (GWL) monitoring system that uses machine learning (ML) algorithms and remotely sensed hydrological parameters to reconstruct well-specific GWL time series. Four machine learning algorithms, including K-Nearest Neighbor (KNN), Random Forest (RF), Extreme Gradient Boosting (XGBoost), and a weight-mean Ensemble strategy, were adopted to construct the models at each well individually for monitoring GWL. Specifically, the GWL data for ~770 wells across the conterminous United States (CONUS) were modeled using remotely sensed precipitation (P), evapotranspiration (ET), terrestrial water storage anomaly (TWSA), and soil moisture (SM) datasets during the period from 2004 to 2019. Afterwards, the performances of models were evaluated during an independent period from 2020 to 2023. The results show that the Ensemble model outperforms the individual baseline models evaluated in this study (i.e., KNN, RF, and XGBoost), achieving a mean coefficient of determination (R²) of 0.81, root mean square error (RMSE) of 0.34 m, normalized RMSE (NRMSE) of 11.8%, and Nash–Sutcliffe efficiency (NSE) of 0.78. The results demonstrate that the proposed system can effectively reconstruct GWL dynamics for most wells. This can be a compensation for missing records for hydrologically significant wells, which are those with historical groundwater observations. Full article

Detecting a KIT D816V mutation in patients with systemic mastocytosis (SM) needs a high-sensitivity assay. Additionally, high mutant KIT transcriptional activity and multilineage involvement are strong unfavorable prognostic parameters in SM. The current frequently used quantitative PCR-based KIT D816V assays have important analytical limitations, including considerable analytical variation in the low-concentration range, a need for a calibration curve, less multiplexing capabilities, and higher susceptibility to interference by PCR inhibitors. We developed, validated, and explored the diagnostic relevance of a novel multiplex KIT D816V cDNA droplet digital PCR (ddPCR), using ABL1 and KIT as reference genes. Furthermore, we correlated the expressed allele burden (EAB) with variant allele frequency (VAF) and percentage of neoplastic mast cells (nMC%) in bone marrow samples of 79 SM patients. Our assay shows very low background signals and high assay precision, leading to a linear dynamic range spanning five orders of magnitude and very low limits of detection and quantification of 0.062% (EAB/ABL1) and 0.027% (EAB/KIT). The assay detects median 57 times more mutant cDNA copies than mutant gDNA copies in SM patients and positivity in 83% of SM-suspected patients with negative gDNA ddPCR results. Furthermore, correlations between EAB, VAF, and nMC% suggest the presence of KIT D816V in non-MCs, either with or without transcriptional activity. Using our novel high-sensitivity mRNA-based multiplex ddPCR KIT D816V assay returns high diagnostic yield in patients with suspicion for SM. We recommend incorporating our assay in routine SM diagnostics to determine low-burden KIT D816V. Full article

Sapindus mukorossi, known as soapberry, is a multipurpose woody species with oil-rich kernels and saponin-rich pulp, and its kernel oil and pulp saponins have important applications in oleochemicals, detergents, cosmetics, pharmaceuticals, and bioenergy. However, the mechanism by which carbohydrate-derived carbon is differentially allocated to kernel oil biosynthesis and pulp saponin biosynthesis within the same fruit remains unclear. In this study, we integrated morphological, physiological, metabolomic, and transcriptomic analyses to investigate the developmental accumulation patterns of oil and saponins and their relationship with carbohydrate metabolism in S. mukorossi fruit. The fruit reached maturity at approximately 130 days after flowering and was divided into four developmental stages: slow growth, rapid expansion, color transition, and maturation. Kernel oil accumulated in a typical S-shaped pattern and increased rapidly during the middle-to-late developmental stages, whereas pulp saponins increased continuously before maturity and remained stable. At maturity, soluble sugars mainly accumulated in the pulp, while starch was relatively enriched in the kernels, indicating different carbohydrate storage and utilization patterns between the two tissues. Integrated transcriptomic and metabolomic analyses revealed tissue-specific metabolic regulation: lipid metabolism was preferentially enriched in kernels, whereas terpenoid and secondary metabolic pathways were more active in pulp. Several genes related to fatty acid assembly and oil accumulation, including SmACC, SmLACS, SmGPAT, and SmLPAT, showed kernel-biased expression, while genes involved in the mevalonate (MVA)-dependent triterpenoid saponin pathway, including SmACCT, SmMVK, SmIDI, SmSQE, and SmLUP2, were closely associated with pulp saponin accumulation. Hormone-related transcription factors, such as GRAS and BES1 in kernels and MYC2 in pulp, may contribute to the coordination between carbohydrate metabolism and oil or saponin biosynthesis. Overall, these findings suggest that oil and saponin accumulation in S. mukorossi fruit are regulated by distinct tissue-specific metabolic programs closely linked to carbohydrate metabolism. This study provides new insights into carbon allocation between kernel oil and pulp saponin biosynthesis and identifies candidate pathways and genes for the genetic improvement and resource utilization of S. mukorossi. Full article