Search Results (1,371)

This article explores the nature, extent, and implications of Roman military activity in the western Iberian Peninsula between the Late Republic and the early Empire, from conquest to control and colonisation, analysing how geography, local resistance, and imperial interests shaped the deployment of Roman forces. Drawing on legacy archaeological records, field observations, and the systematic analysis of remote sensing data, it examines the available evidence from a broad region encompassing the modern Portuguese districts of Aveiro, Coimbra, and Viseu, where traditional narratives often emphasise a swift and decisive conquest assumed to have left scarce material traces. The identification of previously unrecorded potential military sites through remote sensing, combined with a re-evaluation of known archaeological findings, including military camps and associated material culture, suggests a more nuanced and protracted process. This study synthesises the existing data and explores new sites to propose a chronological framework and explore possible strategic functions of the Roman military presence in the region. It analyses the interaction between the Roman army and local populations, identifying patterns of resistance, resilience, negotiation, and the subsequent colonisation and integration. The archaeological record from the Central region of Portugal offers critical insights into the logistical challenges, adaptive strategies, and long-term impacts of Roman military operations on the indigenous communities and the broader socio-political transformation of western Iberia. Full article

NdGaO₃ is an orthorhombic perovskite substrate whose response to swift heavy ions remains insufficiently understood. Here, (001)- and (110)-oriented single-crystal wafers were irradiated with 147 MeV ⁸⁴Kr¹⁵⁺ ions to 1 × 10¹³ ions/cm² and examined by symmetric Cu Kα X-ray diffraction. Peak shifts were evaluated using a two-parameter strain/sample-displacement model; PDXL was used for phase identification and diagnostic whole-pattern fitting, while SRIM and NIST attenuation data were used to compare the ion range with the absorption-weighted X-ray depth. Irradiation strongly reduced and broadened the principal reflections and enhanced diffuse scattering near 2θ ≈ 30°. Corrected normal strains were 0.30% for (001) and 1.20% for (110). Reflection-specific apparent microstrains were 0.29–0.61% and 0.69–1.31%, respectively. A broad component already present in the Pristine (110) profile increased in fitted area by approximately 63% after irradiation. Full orthorhombic-cell and Williamson–Hall outputs from unconstrained powder-profile fitting are mathematically underdetermined for these highly oriented wafers and were not used quantitatively. Attenuation calculations establish strong overlap between the probed depth and the SRIM-defined modified region, although depth gradients in crystallinity prevent unique assignment of residual Bragg intensity. The results demonstrate pronounced anisotropic disorder without additional crystalline phases. Full article

Accurate identification of constitutive parameters is essential for reliable finite element simulations of sheet metal forming processes. Conventional inverse identification techniques, such as Finite Element Model Updating (FEMU), generally require iterative optimization procedures involving numerous finite element simulations, resulting in high computational cost. This work proposes a machine learning framework based on a bidirectional Long Short-Term Memory (Bi-LSTM) neural network for the identification of combined isotropic–kinematic hardening parameters from a custom-designed reverse bending test. A synthetic dataset comprising 5000 finite element simulations was generated by systematically varying the parameters of the Swift isotropic hardening law and the Armstrong–Frederick kinematic hardening law using Sobol sampling. The resulting force–displacement histories were used to train the Bi-LSTM network to predict five constitutive parameters (K, ${\sigma }_0$, n, C, and $\gamma$) directly from force–displacement responses. To improve the physical admissibility of the predictions, a physically constrained loss function was introduced by penalizing negative values of the kinematic hardening parameters during training. The proposed model achieved coefficients of determination, $R^2$ above 0.98 for the isotropic and kinematic hardening parameters while reducing the number of physically inadmissible predictions from approximately 30 to a single case. Experimental validation was performed on DP500 and DP780 advanced high-strength steels, where finite element simulations using the Bi-LSTM predicted parameters reproduced the experimentally measured springback angles with good agreement. The proposed methodology provides near-instantaneous constitutive parameter identification after training, eliminating the need for computationally expensive iterative optimization while maintaining high predictive accuracy and physical consistency. Full article

In the digital era, tax compliance served as crucial capital. This study examines the impact of tax compliance, proxied by the effective tax rate (ETR) and validated by book–tax differences (BTD) as an alternative proxy, on the firm value of listed financial institutions in Vietnam from 2018 to 2023. Utilizing a comprehensive panel dataset of 29 listed financial firms, the empirical estimations explore a Fixed Effects Model (FEM) with Driscoll–Kraay robust standard errors to control for heteroscedasticity, autocorrelation, and cross-sectional dependence. The empirical results reveal a statistically significant positive relationship between current-period tax compliance and firm value, supporting Signaling Theory and Stewardship Theory by demonstrating that the market awards a governance premium for tax transparency. Conversely, the prior-period tax compliance exerts a significant negative impact on current valuation, validating the existence of a tax-induced liquidity drain. Under the Information Processing Theory, a legacy of robust tax compliance is conceptually argued to be transformed into a digital credit asset in the digital age. This intangible asset enables financial institutions to seamlessly navigate stringent risk screenings, secure swift access to data-driven supply chain finance systems and effectively resolve short-term cash flow bottlenecks to sustain long-term value growth. Furthermore, firm valuation is significantly shaped by key institutional control parameters. Specifically, chronological firm longevity exerts a statistically significant positive impact on market value, highlighting the pricing of historical resilience, while core accounting profitability remains positive but statistically neutral in the baseline specification. Conversely, traditional revenue expansion scale is negatively valued, signaling market skepticism toward asset-heavy, physical scaling in the digital financial era. Full article

In the recent past, digital twins have seen increasing attention in cultural heritage management studies. Digital twins have emerged as dynamic virtual representations of buildings, streetscapes, and urban environments that by integrating sensors, real-time data, and predictive models can support planning, conservation management, and public engagement. As such, digital twins are seen as a panacea by some urban planners, positing that they can function as archival substitutes for heritage streetscapes to be demolished within the context of increasing urban densification pressures. This paper examines this question by first reviewing the development and purpose of heritage conservation areas (historic districts, conservation areas, conservation districts) internationally, highlighting the longstanding tension between heritage conservation and urban renewal. Drawing on examples from Australia and overseas, the discussion evaluates both opportunities and limitations of digital twins for documenting and conserving heritage streetscapes. The paper argues that, depending on the level of detail recorded, digital twins can effectively replicate many ontic dimensions of heritage environments, including physical form, façades, infrastructure, and environmental conditions, while supporting the modelling of development scenarios and the assessment of their impacts. However, digital twins cannot fully capture the ontological dimensions of heritage, such as authenticity, sensory immersion, cultural meaning, atmosphere, and sense of place. Using the Swift Street Heritage Conservation Area in Albury (New South Wales, Australia) as a minor case study, the paper discusses how fine-grained material and craft details can often be lost in digital representation. The paper concludes that while digital twins are valuable tools for documentation and planning, they cannot fully replace the cultural significance embodied in original heritage fabric. In consequence, they cannot be given equivalency with the originals and thus cannot be used as substitutes. Full article

Over the past several decades, intravenously administered anesthetics such as propofol have gained widespread recognition for their use in inducing and maintaining general anesthesia. As a fast-acting, short-acting anesthetic, propofol exhibits rapid onset, brief duration, excellent induction efficacy, minimal accumulation, and promotes clear-headedness and swift recovery post-anesthesia. However, its poor water solubility necessitates formulation as an emulsion, which may cause injection site pain during administration and potentially lead to allergic reactions and lipid metabolism disorders. In light of this, pharmacologists aim to optimize propofol through structural modification, seeking to develop a systemic intravenous anesthetic that mitigates or improves these side effects. Full article

Background/Objectives: Acinetobacter baumannii is a multidrug-resistant (MDR) nosocomial pathogen associated with significant morbidity and mortality. The emergence of strains resistant to multiple antibiotics has markedly reduced available treatment options. A. baumannii now demonstrates resistance to most first-line antibiotics, resulting in the extensive use of colistin, which in turn has led to the emergence of colistin-resistant strains. There are very limited studies from India on the mechanisms of colistin resistance. In this study, we focused on the molecular mechanisms leading to colistin resistance. Methods: A total of 225 clinical isolates of Acinetobacter baumannii were analyzed in this study. Antimicrobial susceptibility testing was done using the disk diffusion method for various classes of antimicrobial agents as per the Clinical Laboratory Standards Institute (CLSI M100 Ed 35,2025). Susceptibility to colistin was tested by the Microbroth dilution method. Colistin resistance mediated by the mcr gene and alterations in the pmrAB and lpxACD genes were investigated using conventional PCR followed by mutational analysis. Results: Among the 225 isolates, 4 isolates were found to be colistin resistant. All the resistant isolates had an MIC ≥ 16 mcg/mL. Mutations were found in lpxA and pmrB (c.391T > C, c.495T > C, c.516A > G, c.732A > G and c.966T > C). Mutations in pmrA, lpxC, and lpxD were not detected in this study. Mcr-1 gene was not detected in this study. Conclusions: Colistin is the last resort for the treatment of MDR strains, and the increase in resistance to colistin has become a huge concern among the medical community as it reduces the options available for treatment. This is the first report on the molecular mechanisms of colistin resistance in South India using PCR. The study is also the first to report four novel mutations in the genes that may be responsible for resistance. Early detection of resistance and swift control measures can help curb the morbidity and mortality rate among such A. baumannii strains. Full article

Background/Objectives: Food insecurity has been associated with adverse eating patterns, which increase the risk for overweight and obesity. However, most studies measure food insecurity and eating behaviors cross-sectionally, not assessing whether experiencing food insecurity over time influences eating behaviors. Therefore, this study assessed the relationship between cumulative food insecurity and food approach and food avoidance eating behaviors and evaluated the effect of breastfeeding intensity and duration on this relationship. Methods: The Study of Women, Infant Feeding and Type 2 Diabetes after Gestational Diabetes Pregnancy (SWIFT) is a prospective longitudinal cohort of 1033 mothers diagnosed with gestational diabetes and their youth. Breastfeeding intensity and duration were assessed at research visits and through mailed monthly surveys from birth to one year postpartum. The SWIFT study in Youth (SWIFT-Y) was a cohort of 701 SWIFT offspring that consented to participate in a research visit 11–16 years postpartum. Youth’s BMI was measured at 11–16 years old through a research visit or their electronic health record. At each of the four research visits (6–9 weeks, one year, two years, and 11–16 years postpartum), participants were categorized as being food secure (0) or food insecure (1). Scores across the four visits were summed (range 0–4), reflecting the number of assessments one was classified as food insecure. The Child Eating Behavior Questionnaire was used to measure the prevalence of eight eating behaviors in the youth, with higher scores indicating that the behaviors were more apparent. According to the measure, the behaviors were categorized into two groups: food approach and food avoidance. Food approach consists of youth’s food responsiveness, emotional overeating, enjoyment of food, and desire to drink, and has been positively associated with a child’s BMI. Food avoidance includes the youth’s satiety responsiveness, slowness in eating, emotional undereating, and food fussiness, and is negatively associated with BMI. Linear regressions assessed whether cumulative food insecurity was associated with eating patterns, and exploratory analysis analyzed whether this relationship differed by breastfeeding duration (<six months, ≥six months) and intensity (exclusive, not exclusive), controlling for the child’s BMI and sociodemographic characteristics. Results: In this complete-case secondary analysis (n = 321), each additional experience of food insecurity was associated with a higher food approach score (B = 0.30, 95% CI [0.04, 0.57], p = 0.03), but not food avoidance (B = −0.03, 95% CI [−0.21, 0.15], p = 0.74). These results varied by breastfeeding duration (B = −0.74, p = 0.001), as the relationship remained significant among those who were breastfed for <six months (B = 0.73, p < 0.001) but was attenuated among those who were breastfed for ≥six months (B = −0.26, p = 0.18). Conclusions: Experiencing food insecurity more during childhood is associated with adverse eating patterns at 11–16 years old. However, breastfeeding for ≥six months influenced this relationship, suggesting that early-life feeding may impact the effect of food insecurity on one’s eating behaviors later in life. Full article

Background and Clinical Significance: Carbimazole is a widely used medication to treat Graves’ disease, although it can rarely cause acquired aplastic anemia, a complication that happens in less than 0.01% of people. Case Presentation: We report a 36-year-old woman treated with supratherapeutic dose carbimazole who, after approximately six months of treatment, developed high grade fever, severe menorrhagia, spontaneous epistaxis, and pancytopenia. Her bone marrow biopsy showed severe bone marrow failure with only 5% cellularity and trilineage hypoplasia. Other potential causes were ruled out. Immediate discontinuation of carbimazole was done, and supportive care, including blood transfusions, broad-spectrum antibiotics, G-CSF, and eltrombopag, was started. The patient deteriorated during her hospital stay, developed neutropenic sepsis and acute respiratory failure from diffuse alveolar hemorrhage, which required intubation and pulse steroid therapy. She was stabilized and discharged, with a referral to a tertiary medical center for starting antithymocyte globulin (ATG) immunosuppressive therapy, which she subsequently completed; two months after discharge she was transfusion independent with near-normalization of her blood counts. Conclusions: This case serves as a stark reminder of how lethal thionamide-induced bone marrow failure can be, highlighting the vital need for immediate drug cessation, swift intensive care, and thorough patient education on early warning signs. Full article

Porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome (PRRS) represents a critical infectious disease caused by the PRRS virus (PRRSV), posing a substantial threat to the global swine industry. In China, there is currently an epidemic trend characterized by the coexistence of multiple evolving genotypes. Effective prevention and control measures are contingent upon the availability of rapid, precise, and sensitive pathogen detection technologies. Addressing the need for swift differentiation of the predominant circulating strains, including the classical strains (PRRSV-C), the highly pathogenic strains (PRRSV-HP), and NADC30-like strains (PRRSV-NA), this study focuses on the NSP2 region of each lineage. It establishes a triple TaqMan-qPCR method capable of simultaneously genotyping these three lineages. The method demonstrated no cross-reactivity with other viruses, including porcine parvovirus (PPV), porcine transmissible gastroenteritis virus (TGEV), porcine pseudorabies virus (PRV), classical swine fever virus (CFSV), African swine fever virus (ASFV), porcine epidemic diarrhea virus (PEDV), porcine rotavirus (RV), and porcine circovirus (PCV2), thereby fully affirming its specificity. The sensitivity analysis demonstrated that the limit of detection (LOD) for the NSP2 gene in each lineage was 1 copy/μL based on the purified plasmids. Both inter-group and intra-group coefficients of variation (CV) were less than 4%, indicating high reproducibility. Comparative studies with commercial kits revealed that the developed TaqMan-qPCR method exhibited 100% relative sensitivity and a relative conformity rate exceeding 98%, suggesting its potential as a viable alternative to commercial kits. Furthermore, the analysis of 1049 clinical samples using the qPCR method indicated that the PRRSV-NADC30-like strains are currently the predominant circulating strain in clinical settings in Hebei Province. In conclusion, this study developed a triple TaqMan-qPCR method capable of simultaneously identifying PRRSV-C, PRRSV-HP and PRRSV-NA, enabling rapid and accurate identification of the PRRSV genotypes prevalent in pig populations. This provides a robust technical tool for the development of targeted immunization and prevention strategies. Full article

Copper and its alloys are indispensable for electronics, communications, new energy systems, and aerospace engineering due to their exceptional electrical conductivity and mechanical properties. However, the thin cuprous oxide (Cu₂O) layer that naturally forms on copper and its alloys is prone to failure under elevated temperatures and high humidity, particularly in chloride-rich environments, leading to accelerated localized corrosion. While conventional chromate-based passivation has long been the industrial standard for preventing corrosion, its use has been increasingly restricted by global regulations (such as RoHS and REACH) due to its severe toxicity and health risks. To address the conflict between environmental compliance and protective performance, this review systematically evaluates recent advances in environmentally friendly, chromium-free anti-corrosion coatings in the present review. These alternative coatings are critically analyzed and categorized into four mechanistic groups: (i) inorganic conversion coatings (including molybdate, tungstate, rare earth, and phosphate systems); (ii) organic films formed via chemical or physical adsorption (such as organic inhibitors, thiol-based monolayers, and organosilane self-assembled films); (iii) conversion coatings engineered through covalent bonding, coordination chemistry, and microstructural tailoring; and (iv) multifunctional coatings that integrate self-healing capability with high electrical conductivity. Beyond providing a technical summary, this review explored how the swift progression of electronic information technology, new energy infrastructure, and robotics has imposed more exacting, multifunctional demands on copper components. This review provides a strategic roadmap for future research and prioritizes the creation of protection strategies that operate robustly in multi-physics coupling environments—integrating high conductivity, autonomous self-healing, and long-term chemical stability to ensure the reliability of next-generation infrastructure. Full article

Rising temperatures pose daunting challenges for sustainable yield and nutritional quality of rice (Oryza sativa L.), thus putting food security at risk. Limited information exists regarding cis-acting regulatory elements and candidate genes controlling the heat shock transcription factor (HSF) gene family in rice. Therefore, the present study identified HSF genes in the japonica (Nipponbare) and indica (9311) rice cultivars through in silico repositories. Three candidate genes (HSFC2B, HSFB1, and HSFC2A) were selected for qRT-PCR analysis to validate their expression patterns under heat stress (HS). The present findings reported a total of 25 OsHSF genes through in silico genome-wide identification. Comparative analysis illustrated that the OsHSF genes had structural similarities but different expression and transcriptional regulation between the two cultivars. HSF genes were unevenly distributed across the 12 rice chromosomes, suggesting that tandem duplication and gene repetition may have contributed to the evolution of novel genes. Phylogenetic analysis revealed that all OsHSF gene family members have shared common ancestry, but several genes lack introns, potentially facilitating swift stress responses as indicated by gene structure analysis. Expression analysis revealed that candidate genes were active, with HSFC2A exhibiting the highest level of expression in the japonica cultivar compared to indica under heat-stressed conditions. HSFC2B gene showed a higher statistical difference in its response between cultivars, time points, and cultivar vs. time points interactions compared to HSFC2A and HSFB1. These findings offer valuable insights into the function of OsHSF genes that will contribute to the development of climate-resilient rice cultivars. Full article

Accurate sea surface wind speed fields are essential for marine navigation, offshore operations, and air–sea interaction studies. However, limited communication bandwidth makes it difficult to receive forecasts from land-based centers, motivating wind speed reconstruction using sparse observations. To address this challenge, we propose SwiftWind, a coordinate-based deep learning framework for sea surface wind speed reconstruction at arbitrary locations by fusing multi-source observations. SwiftWind embeds non-gridded, variable-length observations through adaptive latent representations and latitude–longitude coordinate encoding. We conduct Observing System Simulation Experiments (OSSEs), real-world observational experiments, and arbitrary-location inference experiments. Under ERA5-based evaluation, SwiftWind consistently outperforms existing data-driven baselines, including Fourier Neural Operator (FNO) and Vision Transformer (ViT) models, demonstrating robustness to observation number, noise level, and spatial distribution. Compared to the GFS 6 h forecast fields, SwiftWind achieves approximately 20–23% reductions in RMSE and 19–22% reductions in MAE under real-world observational settings. In independent buoy validation, SwiftWind performs comparably to ViT and slightly worse than FNO, likely due to differences in scattered-point processing and buoy distribution. These findings indicate that SwiftWind is suitable for near-real-time onboard wind speed reconstruction under sparse-observation conditions. Full article

Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV)-borne laser wavefront sensing technology holds significant application prospects for high-precision vibration detection in the field; however, the acquired signals are highly susceptible to complex, nonlinear environmental noise interference. Existing high-precision deep learning denoising models typically rely on massive computational resources, making them difficult to deploy on resource-constrained edge devices. Consequently, practical engineering exploration is often confined to an inefficient “blind sampling followed by offline processing” mode, incurring a high risk of data invalidation. To explore solutions for real-time quality control at the edge, this paper proposes a lightweight time-frequency state space model (SWIFT-Mamba), aiming to provide an efficient algorithmic foundation and an engineering proof-of-concept for portable devices moving toward in situ verification. Through rigorous evaluation on over 60,000 laboratory-measured and controlled synthetic wavefront vibration data samples, SWIFT-Mamba achieves an average Signal-to-Noise Ratio (SNR) gain of 19.64 dB and a Scale-Invariant Signal-to-Distortion Ratio (SI-SDR) gain of 16.10 dB, with an extremely low computational overhead requiring only 0.066 M parameters and 0.147 GFLOPs. Experimental results demonstrate that while significantly reducing computational costs, the proposed model can effectively extract the physical manifold of the signal and precisely preserve high-frequency phase features. Full article

In this study, we prepared a magnetic University of Oslo-66 (UiO-66) composite material, Fe₃O₄@SiO₂@UiO-66, and applied it as an adsorbent for the effective removal of benzoic acid from wastewater. The resulting magnetic MOF composite retained the structural and property characteristics of MOFs, along with magnetic separation capabilities, allowing for swift recovery from water through external magnetic fields. A potential synergistic effect between magnetic particles and UiO-66 was observed, leading to enhanced benzoic acid adsorption. The adsorption capacity per Zr₆ cluster unit in Fe₃O₄@SiO₂@UiO-66 measured 569.5 g/mol, surpassing that of UiO-66 by more than 26%. We conducted investigations into adsorption properties as a function of initial concentration, contact time, and pH values. The adsorption of magnetic UiO-66 composites was well described by pseudo-second-order and Langmuir models, indicating predominant chemisorption on the homogeneous surface. Thermodynamic studies of adsorption revealed a spontaneous exothermic process. Furthermore, we analyzed possible mechanisms of benzoic acid adsorption, highlighting the contributions of electrostatic interactions, coordination interactions, and π–π stacking interactions. Magnetic UiO-66 exhibited remarkable adsorption capacity, along with reliable regeneration performance and convenient magnetic separation capabilities, making it an exceptional adsorbent for industrial applications in the removal of benzoic acid. Full article