Search Results (1,253)

Earthquake-induced soil liquefaction poses a severe threat to the structural safety of underground infrastructure. This paper presents a shaking table model test conducted on sand sites, where two site models—namely, uniform saturated sand and layered dry–saturated sand—are designed to systematically analyze the influences of seismic wave amplitude, seismic wave frequency, and structure burial depth on the development of pore water pressure. The research findings indicate the following: (1) As the input peak ground acceleration (PGA) increases, the output surface peak ground acceleration rises, while the acceleration amplification factor decreases. Under high-intensity earthquakes, sand boiling and water gushing are observed in the uniform saturated sand site, and the overlying unsaturated layer can effectively inhibit the liquefaction development of the underlying saturated sand layer. (2) When the predominant frequency of the input seismic wave is close to the natural vibration frequency of the test site, the surface acceleration response is significantly enhanced, while the resonance effect of low-frequency seismic components is relatively weak. (3) The pore pressure ratio is higher in shallow soil layers, indicating that shallow strata are more prone to liquefaction. Both the pore pressure accumulation rate and the peak pore pressure ratio under uniform saturated sand conditions are higher than those measured in the layered dry–saturated sand site. (4) The sensitivity ranking of the three influencing factors is input PGA > burial depth > seismic wave frequency, where the input PGA is the dominant influencing factor, and the effect of the seismic wave frequency is not statistically significant. The conclusions of this study can provide a reference for seismic response assessment and anti-liquefaction design of shallow-buried structures in liquefiable sites. Full article

Enzymatic browning, a reaction catalyzed by polyphenol oxidase (PPO), occurs when polyphenolic compounds in freshly cut produce are exposed to oxygen, reducing sensory quality and consumer acceptability. This study investigated the use of microencapsulated spent coffee grounds (SCG) as a natural inhibitor of browning in 100% apple juice. Phytochemicals were extracted using ultrasound-assisted solvent extraction and subsequently microencapsulated via freeze-drying with maltodextrin, gum arabic, and their combination (1:1) as carrier agents. The encapsulated extracts were evaluated for phenolic and flavonoid content, antioxidant capacity, and anti-browning activity using colorimetric analysis and molecular docking. At the same time, structural characteristics were confirmed using scanning electron microscopy (SEM), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), and encapsulation efficiency assessment. The results indicated successful encapsulation, with efficiencies exceeding 70%, and morphology and spectra image confirmed the incorporation of phenolic compounds. Amongst the six identified phenolic compounds, trans-ferulic acid was identified as the predominant phenolic compound (14.50 mg/g), while p-coumaric acid was present at lower levels (0.60 mg/g). Application of microcapsules in apple juice significantly reduced the browning index (29.91, 22.43, and 21.48) and increased lightness (78.63, 82.24, and 81.42) over a five-day storage period, demonstrating potential anti-browning of activity. Molecular docking further revealed that flavonoids such as quercetin, luteolin, and apigenin exhibited strong binding affinity for PPO, suggesting their potential as enzymatic inhibitors. Overall, the findings provide primary evidence for the potential use of SCG-derived polyphenols as sustainable, natural antioxidants, contributing to agro-waste valorization. Full article

Background: Brolucizumab is an intravitreal anti-vascular endothelial growth factor (anti-VEGF) agent developed to improve retinal drying and treatment durability in diabetic eye disease. However, its overall efficacy and safety in diabetic macular edema (DME) and diabetic retinopathy remain uncertain because available trials differ in population, comparator, dosing schedule, and follow-up. Methods: We searched PubMed, Cochrane Library, Scopus, and Web of Science from inception to 25 April 2026. Randomized controlled trials evaluating intravitreal brolucizumab in adults with DME, diabetic retinopathy, or proliferative diabetic retinopathy (PDR) were included. Comparators were aflibercept, panretinal photocoagulation, or other active/conventional treatments. The main efficacy outcomes were change in best-corrected visual acuity (BCVA) and central subfield thickness/central subfield foveal thickness (CST/CSFT). Safety outcomes included ocular, non-ocular, serious ocular, and serious non-ocular adverse events. Random-effects meta-analyses were performed. Results: Five reports representing four phase 3 randomized controlled trials were included, enrolling 2132 participants overall; the four-trial primary 6 mg analyses included 1942 participants. Brolucizumab was not associated with a significant improvement in BCVA compared with control treatment (mean difference [MD], 1.21 letters; 95% confidence interval [CI], −1.12 to 3.54; p = 0.3; I² = 85.1%). However, brolucizumab significantly reduced CST/CSFT (MD −24.45 µm, 95% CI −47.43 to −1.47; p = 0.0370; I² = 78.2%). No statistically significant differences were detected between groups in the assessed safety outcomes, including ocular adverse events (risk ratio [RR], 0.88), non-ocular adverse events (RR 1.00), serious ocular adverse events (RR 0.63), and serious non-ocular adverse events (RR 0.89). Separate analyses of brolucizumab-specific ocular events showed no statistically significant differences for intraocular inflammation (RR 2.35, 95% CI 0.36–15.42), retinal vasculitis (RR 2.10, 95% CI 0.22–20.10), or retinal vascular occlusion (RR 2.13, 95% CI 0.46–9.87); however, estimates were imprecise because of the small number of events. Conclusions: Across the four included trials, brolucizumab was not associated with a statistically significant difference in BCVA compared with control treatment. In the three DME trials, brolucizumab achieved a greater reduction in CST/CSFT. It may be useful for selected DME patients, while its role in PDR requires longer-term evidence. Full article

Objectives: To determine whether the superior anatomical control achieved with a treat-and-extend (T&E) anti-VEGF regimen translates into better five-year visual outcomes than a pro re nata (PRN) regimen in treatment-naïve center-involving diabetic macular edema (CI-DME), and to characterize the anatomical–functional relationship. Methods: In this retrospective propensity-score–matched survivor cohort, one eye per patient was analyzed. One-to-one nearest-neighbor matching balanced 14 baseline covariates. Longitudinal best-corrected visual acuity (BCVA) and central subfield thickness (CST) were analyzed using linear mixed-effects models with matched-pair clustering. Absence of a clinically meaningful visual difference was evaluated using two one-sided tests (TOST) with a prespecified ±5-letter equivalence margin. The anatomical–functional relationship was assessed by segmented regression. Sensitivity analyses included inverse probability of treatment weighting, doubly robust estimation, inverse probability of censoring weighting, best-/worst-case imputation, interval-censored recurrence modeling, and E-value analysis. Results: Both regimens improved BCVA, with no clinically meaningful difference at five years (T&E +6.2 ± 14.6 vs. PRN +6.9 ± 14.0 letters; difference −0.7 letters; 90% CI, −2.4 to 1.0; TOST p < 0.001). T&E achieved greater CST reduction (−172.3 vs. −114.2 µm; difference −58.1 µm; p < 0.001), higher dry-macula rates (73.8% vs. 59.5%; p < 0.001), fewer recurrences (2.2 vs. 3.9; p < 0.001), and fewer monitoring-only visits (14.6 vs. 28.4; p < 0.001), but required 53% more injections (25.1 vs. 16.4; p < 0.001). Segmented regression identified a breakpoint at 148 µm CST reduction; additional thinning beyond this threshold was not associated with further visual improvement. Baseline BCVA, ellipsoid zone disruption, and diabetic retinopathy severity, but not treatment regimen, independently predicted five-year vision. Results were consistent across sensitivity analyses. Conclusions: Among patients completing five years of therapy, additional anatomical drying beyond an exploratory, cohort-specific breakpoint of approximately 150 µm CST reduction was not associated with further measurable visual gain in this observational cohort. Regimen selection should therefore reflect treatment burden, monitoring requirements, and patient preference rather than anticipated visual superiority. Because the cohort included only patients completing five years of follow-up, these findings apply to adherent patients and should not be generalized to unselected populations. Full article

In this study, we synthesized a lignin-based superabsorbent hydrogel (LWR) to relieve severe evaporation and structural degradation in inland saline–alkali soils. The LWR was prepared via free-radical graft copolymerization of calcium lignosulfonate (CL) and acrylic acid (AA), with its swelling performance optimized systematically. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) were used to characterize its chemical and microscopic structure, and the soil column was exposed to three drying–wetting cycles to explore the effects of hydrogel dosage on soil evaporation and crack evolution. CL may graft into polyacrylic acid under optimal conditions (60% AA neutralization, 4% CL, 1% initiator, and 0.03% crosslinker) to form a porous hydrophilic 3D network. Consequently, the optimized LWR achieved swelling capacities of 1480 g/g and 122 g/g in deionized water and a 0.9% NaCl solution, respectively, showing high water absorbency and salt resistance. During cyclic drying and wetting, soil evaporation was first dominated by the hydrogel’s water retention capabilities; then, it was controlled physically by soil surface cracks. A moderate LWR dosage of 0.3% was used to maintain stable water retention in soil and the intact soil structure, which likely occurred due to its strong water absorption and hypothesized calcium ion bridging anti-cracking interactions. This work overturns the traditional view that a higher hydrogel dosage yields better water retention. Instead, it highlights the importance of conducting a long-term joint evaluation of the hydrogel’s water retention capacity and its resistance to soil dry–wet deformation stress, thereby offering theoretical support for eco-friendly water retention agent design and saline–alkali land remediation. Full article

Fucoxanthin is a high-value marine xanthophyll with a unique epoxy-allene structure, predominantly produced by brown macroalgae and marine diatoms, and additionally reported in other heterokont lineages including chrysophytes and certain haptophytes. As a core light-harvesting pigment, it exhibits multiple bioactivities including lipid-lowering, antioxidant, and anti-inflammatory effects, with broad applications in functional foods, dietary supplements, and pharmaceuticals. Currently, over 70% of commercial fucoxanthin is extracted from brown macroalgae such as Saccharina japonica and Undaria pinnatifida. However, due to low endogenous pigment content and significant extraction losses, the industrial yield is only 0.05–0.1% of dry weight, failing to meet the growing downstream demand for stable high-purity supply. Marine diatoms, characterized by short growth cycles, high pigment content, and controllable culture conditions, have emerged as a core direction for industrial upgrading. Among them, Phaeodactylum tricornutum and Odontella aurita are the two most systematically studied high-yield strains with outstanding potential. This review adopts volumetric productivity (mg/(L·d)) as the core evaluation metric, which integrates biomass concentration, pigment content, and production cycle, and reflects industrial efficiency more reliably than single intracellular content data. We summarize high-yield induction methods from the dimensions of nutrient regulation, light optimization, exogenous induction, and strain improvement, and systematically compare downstream processing, safety profiles, and regulatory status between the two diatoms. Furthermore, we evaluate multi-product co-production potential and scale-up performance from a techno-economic perspective. This review provides a side-by-side benchmark of these two marine diatoms, offering a data-driven reference for process development and industrial deployment of microalgae-derived fucoxanthin. Full article

Heavy-vehicle Anti-lock Braking System (ABS) controllers are commonly tested using simulations before vehicle testing, but pneumatic actuation and measurement limitations can affect the results in the field. This paper presents the complete design process of a pneumatic ABS controller. System identification tests, estimation experiments, and reverse engineering methods were used to develop the models used for testing, including a vehicle model, pneumatic circuit model, etc. Model-in-the-loop (MIL) and software-in-the-loop (SIL) simulations were used to test and validate the algorithm in the simulation environment. Hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) simulations were also used to test and tune the ABS algorithm using a physical pneumatic circuit before real vehicle testing. Lastly, the ABS controller was deployed to a custom ECU and tested on the real vehicle on dry and wet asphalt. The developed controller prevented sustained wheel lock and produced repeatable deceleration and stopping-distance results during dry- and wet-asphalt testing. Qualitative assessment by the test driver and engineering team also indicated ABS intervention and modulation characteristics broadly consistent with commercial alternatives. Full article

Kaempferol is a natural flavonol compound widely present in various single-herb remedies and compound formulations used for the treatment of ocular diseases. Despite its inherent pharmaceutical limitations, accumulating evidence indicates that kaempferol exerts broad protective effects against diverse ocular disorders through multiple biological pathways, highlighting its potential as a multi-target therapeutic candidate in ophthalmology. However, current evidence regarding kaempferol-based ophthalmic applications remains fragmented across different ocular diseases and mechanistic investigations, and a comprehensive evaluation of its therapeutic potential, translational challenges, and existing limitations is still lacking. This review systematically summarizes the research progress on kaempferol in the treatment of eye diseases, encompassing its source distribution, structural characteristics, ocular delivery strategies, disease spectrum coverage, molecular mechanisms, and safety profile. By critically evaluating currently available evidence, this review further identifies unresolved issues and translational barriers that hinder the clinical application of kaempferol in ophthalmology. Regarding delivery strategies, carriers such as gelatin nanoparticles, porous bovine serum albumin membranes, platelet-derived extracellular vesicles, and polyvinylpyrrolidone-based nanocomposites have preliminarily improved ocular surface retention and corneal permeability of kaempferol in models of corneal neovascularization and alkali burns. In terms of therapeutic indications, kaempferol has demonstrated protective effects in diverse experimental models, including age-related macular degeneration (AMD), diabetic retinopathy, diabetic cataract, dry eye disease, fungal keratitis, corneal transplant rejection, acute glaucoma, and retinoblastoma. At the mechanistic level, kaempferol exerts comprehensive pharmacological actions—anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, metabolic regulation, anti-angiogenic, and immunomodulatory—by modulating multiple signaling pathways, including MAPK, NF-κB, STAT1/IRF7, Nrf2/HO-1, VEGF/PI3K/Src/Akt/ERK, aldose reductase, estrogen-related receptor alpha (ERRα), and the NOD-like receptor family pyrin domain-containing protein 3 (NLRP3) inflammasome. Available safety assessments suggest that kaempferol exhibits a generally favorable safety profile across ocular, cellular, systemic, and genetic evaluations. Despite these advances, the clinical translation of kaempferol in ophthalmology remains limited by insufficient clinical and pharmacokinetic evidence, underdeveloped targeted delivery strategies, and a lack of integrated understanding of its molecular basis in ocular protection. By systematically integrating evidence from ocular disease models, molecular mechanisms, delivery strategies, and safety evaluations, this review bridges fragmented knowledge regarding kaempferol-based ophthalmic applications and provides an integrated framework for understanding its therapeutic potential and translational prospects. Overall, this review highlights kaempferol as a promising multi-target therapeutic candidate for ocular diseases and provides insights into its future translational development. Full article

Flax lignans are abundant plant secondary metabolites in flaxseed, with secoisolariciresinol diglucoside (SDG) content reaching 0.61–1.33% of seed dry weight—substantially higher than levels reported for sesame seeds (0.01–0.03%), cereals (<0.01%), and most legumes (<0.005%). These levels make them natural bioactive compounds with considerable application potential. This review summarizes the biosynthetic pathways, key enzymes, and regulatory mechanisms of flax lignans; describes their major biological activities, including antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, anticancer, cardiovascular protective, and metabolic regulatory effects and possible mechanisms of action; and analyzes current progress in extraction, purification, analytical detection, and application. Key limitations in industrial application include complex extraction procedures, high production costs, lack of unified quality standards, and insufficient clinical evidence. Advanced strategies such as synthetic biology approaches for heterologous production, molecular breeding for high-lignan varieties, and green extraction technologies are discussed as promising solutions. This review is intended to serve as a conceptual reference for subsequent mechanistic studies, product development, and industrial translation of flax lignans in food, pharmaceutical, and cosmetic applications. Full article

In automated dry bulk terminal operations, accurate perception of the spatial pose of portal crane wire ropes is important for grab positioning and can provide geometric information for subsequent anti-sway control research. Vision-based measurements may be affected by metallic reflections, illumination variation, and dust occlusion, whereas inertial or mechanically coupled measurements may be affected by vibration and dynamic coupling. This study proposes a LiDAR-based method for wire rope point cloud segmentation and pose estimation using an improved PointNet++. Dual-LiDAR point clouds are aligned and filtered using a kinematic constraint-based Region of Interest (ROI) to reduce background redundancy. A Spatial Self-Attention (SSA) module is introduced to combine long-range semantic dependencies with local spatial weighting, improving the representation of sparse and fragmented wire rope points. The segmented wire rope points are separated by t–k-means clustering and fitted with spatial lines for pose estimation. The complete acquisition comprises 11,348 annotated frames: a 9458-frame model development dataset from 1000 complete operating cycles, and a separately retained 1890-frame independent engineering test set from 200 condition-specific operating sequences. The development dataset was divided into mutually exclusive training and validation partitions at the level of complete operating cycles, and checkpoint selection was performed only on the validation set. Three independent training runs with fixed random seeds were conducted. On the independent test set, PointNet++ achieved an F1-score of 87.5 ± 0.2% and an mIoU of 79.0 ± 0.2%, whereas the complete proposed method achieved an F1-score of 92.8 ± 0.2% and an mIoU of 86.6 ± 0.2%. These results characterize performance on independent operating sequences collected from the crane and sensor configurations represented in the dataset. The standalone segmentation stage achieved 111.9 FPS, whereas the complete processing pipeline required slightly more than 2 s per frame because of frame-by-frame KD-ICP fine registration. Full article

A key factor that regulates melanogenesis is the activity of tyrosinase, and inhibitors of this enzyme are used as skin-whitening and lightening agents in the skincare and cosmetics industries. The methanolic extract from male inflorescences of Artocarpus altilis (Parkinson) Fosberg (breadfruit) was investigated for its bioactivities which are important for the skincare industry, including anti-tyrosinase activity. Bioassay-guided fractionation led to the isolation of a geranylated dihydrochalcone, 2-Geranyl-2’,3,4,4’-tetrahydroxydihydrochalcone (hereinafter referred to as Artochalcone), present at 1.64% of the inflorescence dry weight. Its structure was determined by a combination of 1D and 2D-NMR and HR-ESI-MS analysis. Artochalcone was found to inhibit tyrosinase with an IC₅₀ value of 28.4 μM, making it sixteen times more effective than the leading commercial skin-whitening agent, arbutin. In addition, Artochalcone displayed significant antioxidant activity determined by 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (IC₅₀ = 20.4 μM) and nitric oxide scavenging assays (IC₅₀ = 20.7 μM). Full article

Background: Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is a leading cause of visual impairment among older adults. Intravitreal anti-vascular endothelial growth factor (anti-VEGF) agents are widely used for neovascular AMD; however, their potential effects on the conjunctival microbiota remain poorly understood. This study evaluated the impact of intravitreal anti-VEGF therapy on conjunctival microbial composition and antimicrobial resistance patterns. Materials and Methods: Ninety patients with AMD were enrolled and assigned to three groups: bevacizumab-treated (n = 30), aflibercept-treated (n = 30), and untreated dry-type AMD controls (n = 30). Conjunctival swab samples were collected two months after the last injection in treated patients and during routine examination in controls. Bacterial identification and antimicrobial susceptibility testing were performed using automated microbiological systems. Results: Culture positivity rates were comparable among groups, although a lower growth rate was observed in the bevacizumab group (83.3%) than in the aflibercept and control groups (100% each). Staphylococcus epidermidis was significantly more prevalent in both treatment groups than in controls (p = 0.014). Most other bacterial species were detected more frequently in controls. Levofloxacin resistance among staphylococcal isolates was significantly higher in the aflibercept group (p = 0.007), whereas erythromycin and fusidic acid resistance were significantly higher in controls (p = 0.040 and p = 0.001, respectively). Resistance in treated eyes was predominantly associated with S. epidermidis and S. hominis. Conclusions: Intravitreal anti-VEGF therapy may be associated with transient alterations in conjunctival microbiota composition and antimicrobial resistance patterns. These findings may have implications for infection prevention in patients undergoing repeated intravitreal injections. Full article

With the rapid advancement of wearable medical technologies, long-term, dynamic, non-invasive high-precision electrocardiogram (ECG) monitoring has emerged as a critical requirement across clinical and civilian healthcare domains in both clinical and civilian applications. However, conventional Ag/AgCl wet electrodes and common flexible dry electrodes suffer from critical limitations, including high electrode–skin interfacial impedance, severe motion artifacts, inadequate biocompatibility, and poor long-term wearing comfort, which severely restrict their practical performance. The performance improvement of ECG electrodes relies on the synergistic realization of low interfacial impedance, strong anti-interference capability, excellent biocompatibility, and satisfactory long-term wearability. Biomimetic design provides a pivotal strategy for addressing the incompatibilities at the electrode–skin interface and breaking through the performance bottlenecks of traditional electrodes. This paper systematically reviews the fundamental theories and key design principles of biomimetic ECG electrodes, and elaborates the biomimetic prototypes, design mechanisms, and typical application cases from five core perspectives: structural biomimetics, interfacial biomimetics, mechanical biomimetics, functional biomimetics, and material biomimetics. Furthermore, the application progress of biomimetic electrodes in civil wearable devices, clinical monitoring, and special scenarios is summarized, together with an analysis of the current industrialization layout and patent status. Finally, future development trends are prospected, including multi-dimensional synergistic biomimetics, intelligent biomimetics, green biomimetics, clinical-grade biomimetics, and low-cost scalable fabrication. This review supplies systematic theoretical underpinnings and practical guidance for the design optimization, performance enhancement, and industrial application of biomimetic ECG electrodes, and is of great significance for promoting the evolution of ECG monitoring toward high precision, long-term operation, and convenient utilization. Full article

Portland cement production accounts for roughly 8% of anthropogenic CO₂ emissions, driving interest in low-carbon geopolymer binders. One-part (“just-add-water”) geopolymers, which replace hazardous liquid activators with a dry, pre-blended solid activator, are especially suited to field deployment where handling safety and logistics are decisive. However, their formulation space is combinatorially vast, and trial-and-error development cannot efficiently navigate it. This paper reviews one-part geopolymer science, presents a new comparative and interpretable ML analysis of a published 80-mixture one-part fly-ash/ground granulated blast-furnace slag (GGBS, hereafter slag) geopolymer dataset from twelve studies, and proposes an AI-assisted design framework. The ML demonstration targets 28-day compressive strength only. Under leave-one-source-out (LOSO) cross-validation—the appropriate test for a literature-pooled dataset—gradient-boosted trees achieved R² = 0.61 (RMSE = 15.5 MPa; 95% bootstrap confidence interval on R², 0.44–0.75), well above a linear baseline (0.36), suggesting that non-linear structure transfers across studies; a random split gives a higher but less reliable R² = 0.90 on only 16 test mixtures. Because fly-ash and slag contents are near-perfectly anti-correlated ($r=-0.99$), we model the precursor axis as a single slag fraction descriptor; SHAP then identifies this precursor balance and the activator’s Na₂O dosage as the dominant statistical predictors of strength in this dataset, an ordering consistent with known activation chemistry; causal confirmation of these associations awaits the experimental validation stage of the proposed framework. Demonstrated for strength only, at paste level, the framework offers a transferable route toward multifunctional low-carbon binders for protective and infrastructure applications; the multifunctional extensions are proposed, but not yet demonstrated. Full article

Despite the traditional application of Sophora moorcroftiana seeds (SMS) in Tibetan medicine for heat-clearing, damp-drying, anti-inflammatory and detoxifying properties, the anti-inflammatory mechanisms of SMS remain insufficiently understood and warrant systematic investigation. This study evaluated the protective effects of an ethanolic SMS extract against lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced oxidative stress and inflammation in RAW 264.7 macrophages, with emphasis on the p62/Keap1/Nrf2 signaling pathway. In vitro, the extract exhibited significant DPPH, ABTS and ·OH radical scavenging activities, as well as ferric-reducing antioxidant power, in a clear concentration dependent manner. An inflammatory model was established by stimulating RAW 264.7 cells with LPS, followed by treatment with graded concentrations of the ethanolic SMS extract. The extract significantly reduced LPS-induced nitric oxide production and decreased the secretion of TNF-α, IL-6 and IL-1β, while suppressing iNOS and COX-2 expression at both mRNA and protein levels. In parallel, the extract alleviated oxidative stress, as evidenced by reduced intracellular reactive oxygen species (ROS) and MDA levels, increased antioxidant defenses including SOD, GSH and CAT, and decreased LDH release. At the protein-expression level, SMS treatment was accompanied by differential changes in p62, Keap1, total Nrf2 and HO-1 expression, suggesting that its effects may involve regulatory processes associated with cellular stress and antioxidant defense. Collectively, the ethanolic extract of SMS attenuated LPS-induced inflammatory and oxidative stress responses in RAW 264.7 macrophages. These effects may be associated with the suppression of inflammatory mediator production, reduction in the cellular oxidative stress burden and modulation of proteins involved in cellular stress responses and antioxidant defense. Full article