Search Results (28,683)

Cytochalasin B (CB) inhibits actin polymerization and modulates cytoskeletal dynamics, but its role in mastitis remains unclear. This study investigated the protective effects of CB against mastitis and its association with PI3K/N-WASP/ARP2/3-related molecular alterations. Transcriptomic analysis of mammary tissues from healthy cows and cows with subclinical or clinical mastitis revealed extensive transcriptional remodeling during mastitis progression. Validation showed enhanced inflammatory responses accompanied by increased expression of PI3K, N-WASP, CLTC, ARP2, and ARP3 in mastitic tissues. In LPS-stimulated bovine mammary epithelial cells (MAC-T), CB reduced pro-inflammatory cytokine expression, increased IL-10 expression, and attenuated the abnormal elevation of PI3K/N-WASP/ARP2/3-related molecules. Consistently, in an LPS-induced mouse mastitis model, CB alleviated mammary tissue injury and inflammatory cell infiltration, improved inflammatory cytokine profiles, and reduced the expression of PI3K, N-WASP, CLTC, ARP2, and ARP3. Collectively, CB attenuates LPS-induced mammary inflammation and tissue injury, and these effects are associated with alterations in PI3K/N-WASP/ARP2/3-related cytoskeletal molecules. These findings provide new evidence linking cytoskeleton-related molecular alterations to mastitis inflammation and the anti-inflammatory effects of CB. Full article

This study investigates the Jurassic successions of the Foligno Mountains by tracing tectono-sedimentary contacts across the study area, with particular attention to the relationships between pelagic deposits and the Calcare Massiccio carbonate platform substrate. It provides new constraints on the role of syn-sedimentary extensional faulting in the evolution of the Umbria-Marche Basin. The results reveal an organized network of normal faults interpreted as already active during the final stages of carbonate-platform development, based on the distribution of permanently subtidal facies. From the Sinemurian onward, minor depocenters developed between structural highs controlled by conjugate faults, accompanied by widespread pelagic sedimentation during the Pliensbachian. Fault-bounded paleo-escarpments and condensed successions record the persistence of bathymetric relief into the Middle and Upper Jurassic, with progressive attenuation of these reliefs and the expansion of basinal deposits onto the paleo-escarpments. The results better support an organized extensional framework than a chaotic fault pattern mainly related to Triassic evaporite flow or halokinesis. Full article

Medical ultrasound transducers require acoustic impedance matching layers to bridge the gap between piezoelectric ceramics (~30–38 MRayl) and biological tissue (~1.5–1.7 MRayl). Existing solutions—such as alumina–epoxy, anodic aluminum oxide–epoxy 1–3 composites, magnesium alloys, and gradient nanocomposites—rely on high-temperature curing, precision machining, or multi-step fabrication, which increase production costs and limit design flexibility. Viscoelastic suspensions offer a potential low-cost alternative, but prior to any clinical assessment, manufacturing protocols must be bounded at the exploratory stage. This study does not demonstrate impedance matching, quarter-wavelength performance, or immediate clinical relevance. This work defines a Stage 1 pre-pilot (Technology Readiness Level 2–3) exploratory study to bound manufacturing protocols, rank formulations, and identify candidate parameters for future Quality by Design implementation. Six formulations were tested in open-cell polyurethane foam matrix: thick cornstarch–water (50:50 wt%), thin cornstarch–water (66:33 wt%), polystyrene sulfonate (50:50 wt%), polyethylene glycol–fumed silica (40:60 wt%), boric acid–simethicone, and a boric acid–cornstarch hybrid. The 5 mm prototypes function as bulk composite samples rather than functional matching layers, and all testing was performed at audio frequencies (50 Hz–20 kHz) with uncalibrated consumer-grade instrumentation. At 50–1000 Hz, boric acid–simethicone exhibited the lowest attenuation (32 dB). At 10,000–20,000 Hz, polystyrene sulfonate and thin cornstarch showed the lowest attenuation (97 dB at 20 kHz). Attenuation increased with frequency; a dip between 100 and 1000 Hz was attributed to fixture interference. Two independent recordings were obtained per condition (n = 2). No inferential statistics, confidence intervals, or variance estimates were computed. The results establish a descriptive baseline but do not demonstrate impedance matching or immediate clinical relevance; the 5 mm prototypes function as bulk composite samples rather than quarter-wavelength matching layers. Should subsequent high-frequency validation prove promising, future work includes factorial or definitive screening designs, hydrophone calibration per international standards, Z = ρc measurements, substrate deconvolution, 0.5–1.0 mm layers for 650 kHz, phantom validation, and ISO 10993 biocompatibility screening. Full article

Ovarian follicular development is essential for reproductive performance in sows, with granulosa cells playing a central role in follicular growth and function. This study investigated the function and regulatory mechanism of lncRNA-ALDBSSCT0000005583 (lncRNA-5583), previously identified as differentially expressed in M2-stage follicles (5.0–6.9 mm in diameter) between Meishan and Duroc sows. Overexpression and loss-of-function experiments were performed in porcine granulosa cells, and candidate microRNA interactions and downstream targets were examined using bioinformatic prediction, dual-luciferase reporter assays, and molecular and functional analyses. Porcine granulosa cell experiments were performed using three independent pooled granulosa-cell isolations (n = 3). LncRNA-5583 was identified as a 588-nucleotide non-coding RNA. Its overexpression promoted granulosa cell proliferation and reduced apoptosis, accompanied by corresponding changes in PCNA, BAX, Bcl-2, and the BAX/Bcl-2 ratio; miR-193a-5p overexpression attenuated these effects. LncRNA-5583 interacted with miR-193a-5p in a sequence-dependent manner, and miR-193a-5p directly targeted ACVR1. Inhibition of miR-193a-5p increased ACVR1 expression and was accompanied by increased Smad3 phosphorylation, whereas lncRNA-5583 knockdown decreased both ACVR1 expression and Smad3 phosphorylation. These findings support the involvement of the lncRNA-5583/miR-193a-5p/ACVR1 regulatory axis in porcine granulosa cell proliferation. Full article

Background/Objectives: Magnesium (Mg) is an essential micronutrient that participates in more than 300 enzymatic reactions, with well-established functions in glucose and lipid metabolism and cardiovascular health. Although serum Mg is routinely used in clinical practice, circulating concentrations may not accurately represent total body Mg status because of tight physiological regulation. The present study evaluated the associations of serum Mg concentration and dietary Mg intake with cardiometabolic outcomes in a cohort of Saudi adolescents. Methods: This cross-sectional study involved 234 Saudi adolescents (166 girls, 68 boys; mean age 14.8 ± 1.7 years) who were assessed for anthropometrics, biochemical parameters and dietary intake. Hypomagnesemia was classified as serum Mg <0.75 mmol/L, while inadequate dietary Mg intake was based on age- and sex-specific cutoffs for children. Results: Hypomagnesemia was present in 87 participants (37.2%) and was more common among boys than girls (50% vs. 31.9%, p = 0.011). No significant differences in the assessed cardiometabolic measurements were observed across serum Mg tertiles. Absolute dietary Mg intake was strongly correlated with total energy and other dietary intakes and was inversely associated with body mass index. Associations based on absolute dietary Mg intake were attenuated after energy adjustment for overweight/obesity. For elevated triglycerides, the highest vs. lowest tertile of residual-adjusted Mg showed a nominal inverse association in the age- and sex-adjusted model (OR: 0.40; 95% CI: 0.17–0.96). However, the corresponding trend did not remain statistically significant after false discovery rate correction. Conclusions: Serum Mg showed limited associations with cardiometabolic outcomes, while associations between dietary Mg and cardiometabolic outcomes were sensitive to energy adjustment and multiple-comparison correction. The inverse association between residual-adjusted Mg and elevated triglycerides should therefore be considered exploratory. These findings highlight potential differences between serum and dietary Mg as indicators of Mg status and underscore the importance of accounting for total energy intake when examining dietary Mg in relation to cardiometabolic health in adolescents. Full article

During downhill walking, the human knee joint is subjected to a relatively high transient flexion velocity and impact load during the initial foot-contact phase, whereas low motion resistance is required during the subsequent knee-extension recovery phase. To address the difficulty that conventional bidirectional-damping knee exoskeletons have in simultaneously providing effective impact attenuation and preserving freedom of knee extension, an asymmetric-damping knee exoskeleton is proposed in this study. The proposed exoskeleton is based on the coaxial series integration of a magnetorheological (MR) damper and a one-way bearing. The mechanical characteristics of the one-way bearing, which locks in the knee-flexion direction and overruns freely in the knee-extension direction, are exploited so that direction-selective damping is enabled, characterized by high resistance for impact attenuation during knee flexion and low resistance during knee-extension recovery. In addition, an event-triggered control strategy based on the jerk signal measured by a shank-mounted inertial measurement unit (IMU) is employed so that the MR damper is driven into a high-damping state only after a landing impact is detected; thus, dependence on complete gait-phase recognition is reduced. Based on a single-degree-of-freedom human–exoskeleton coupled dynamic model and a Bingham constitutive model, MATLAB R2024a simulations were conducted under three conditions: without an exoskeleton, with a symmetric-damping exoskeleton, and with the proposed asymmetric-damping exoskeleton. In addition, finite element analysis of the magnetic-field distribution within the damper was performed using COMSOL 5.6. The results indicate that, under the representative operating conditions considered in this study, the peak angular velocity of the knee joint is reduced by the asymmetric-damping configuration compared with the condition without an exoskeleton. Although the peak-suppression performance of the proposed configuration is slightly lower than that of the symmetric-damping configuration, the sustained resistance during the knee-extension recovery phase is substantially reduced, and a trade-off between impact attenuation and freedom of motion is demonstrated. These findings indicate that direction-selective impact attenuation can be enabled by partially transferring damping-direction selection from the control layer to the mechanical structure, without reliance on accurate and complete gait-phase recognition, while the risk of sustained damping during knee extension caused by control delays or misclassification is reduced. This structure–control collaborative approach provides a new design pathway for semi-active exoskeletons to reduce control complexity, improve the determinacy of the damping direction, and support the development of lightweight and low-power assistive technologies for downhill walking. Full article

Background/Objectives: Adnexal torsion causes ovarian ischemia/reperfusion injury and may impair ovarian reserve. This study evaluated the protective effects of Fetuin-A in a rat torsion/detorsion model. Methods: Twenty-eight female Wistar rats were assigned to Sham, T/D, T/D+Fetuin-A treatment, and Fetuin-A pretreatment+T/D groups. Bilateral ovarian torsion was induced for 3 h followed by 2 h of detorsion/reperfusion, and Fetuin-A was administered intraperitoneally at 100 mg/kg. Serum cytokines and AMH, qRT-PCR markers, histopathological injury, and immunohistochemical expression of Fetuin-A, HIF-1α, GPx, and Bcl-2 were evaluated. Results: T/D induced a systemic inflammatory response, reduced AMH, increased HMGB1/TLR4-associated and cell-stress markers, and caused marked ovarian histopathological injury. Fetuin-A attenuated inflammatory and molecular stress responses, while pretreatment produced the most consistent protection, preserving AMH, reducing histopathological injury and HIF-1α immunoreactivity, and restoring GPx, Bcl-2, and Fetuin-A immunoreactivity. Exploratory STRING analysis identified functional enrichment related to oxidative stress, autophagy, apoptosis, and HIF-1 signaling, providing hypothesis-generating context without establishing causal pathway activity. Conclusions: These findings indicate that Fetuin-A administration, particularly before torsion, was associated with reduced inflammatory and tissue-stress responses during early ovarian ischemia/reperfusion injury. Further studies are needed to determine optimal dosing, clinically feasible timing, and long-term reproductive outcomes. Full article

Microcystin (MC) risk is often assessed within bloom-affected lakes and reservoirs, although hydrological connectivity can extend exposure into downstream river and estuarine networks. We synthesize evidence using a lake–river continuum framework that treats connected reaches as active processing environments. The framework separates the source pool, export flux, and downstream exposure, and distinguishes advective redistribution, reversible retention, irreversible transformation, and source or remobilization processes. Hydrology sets reaction opportunity, while phase partitioning, photochemical and microbial transformation, sediment exchange, and biological uptake determine how MC mass and bioavailability change during transport. Field evidence shows that downstream occurrence cannot be inferred reliably from visible source blooms: reaches may attenuate, retain, redistribute, or locally renew MC exposure depending on hydraulic state and process coupling. These dynamics shift exposure among water, particles, sediments, cells, and biota. Consequently, source-lake indicators or water concentrations alone can mischaracterize ecological exposure, and drinking-water guideline values are not ecological protection thresholds. Key priorities are flux-resolved monitoring, direct field estimates of process rates and transformation products, chronic ecotoxicology matched to realistic exposure routes, and hierarchical transport–biogeochemical models. This continuum perspective links source, process, pathway, receptor, and effect within a single source-to-risk framework. Full article

Accurate attitude control of small spacecraft becomes challenging when inertia variations, imperfect state estimates, environmental disturbances, and limited actuator authority simultaneously affect the closed-loop response. This study presents an estimation-aware robust attitude-control framework for a three-axis rigid 6U CubeSat equipped with three orthogonally mounted reaction wheels. The nonlinear simulation model incorporates coupled spacecraft–wheel dynamics, payload-dependent inertia variations, sensor noise, gyroscope bias, environmental disturbance torques, and reaction-wheel torque, speed, and momentum constraints. A multiplicative extended Kalman filter (MEKF) estimates the quaternion attitude and gyroscope bias from gyroscope, magnetometer, and Sun-sensor measurements. Using the estimated attitude and angular rate, a gain-scheduled ($H_{\infty }$) estimated-state-feedback controller is synthesized over a four-vertex inertia polytope. Discrete-time linear matrix inequality conditions are imposed on all 16 plant–controller vertex combinations to establish quadratic stability and a prescribed disturbance-attenuation bound for the embedded polytopic error model. An MEKF-based linear-quadratic regulator and a fixed-gain ($H_{\infty }$) controller are employed as benchmarks. Performance is assessed through four deterministic scenarios and 200 paired Monte Carlo simulations. Under combined inertia uncertainty, sensor degradation, external disturbances, and actuator constraints, the proposed controller reduces the root-mean-square attitude error to 1.350°, compared with 2.001° for fixed-gain ($H_{\infty }$) and 2.988° for MEKF–LQR. It also decreases the tracking-error settling time to 31.68 s and limits maximum wheel-momentum utilization to 57.9%. The proposed method achieves a 99.0% Monte Carlo success rate, compared with 94.0% and 82.5% for the respective benchmarks. These results indicate that physically informed gain scheduling improves the preservation of tracking performance and actuator authority across payload-dependent operating conditions. Full article

Objective: Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a chronic autoimmune disease with the abnormal accumulation of pro-inflammatory macrophages within the synovial joints. Total flavonoids of Rhizoma Drynariae (TFRD), the major bioactive constituents of the traditional Chinese medical herb Drynariae rhizome, have shown potent activities in treating RA, but their effect and underlying mechanism in modulating macrophage behavior remain unknown. This study aimed to evaluate the therapeutic potential of TFRD in regulating macrophage polarization during RA, and to further elucidate the underlying mechanism. Methods: The therapeutic effects of TFRD were assessed by utilizing a collagen-induced arthritis (CIA) mice model in vivo. A macrophage polarization model was employed to investigate the effect of TFRD on the macrophage pro-inflammatory polarization and glycolytic activity in vitro. Additionally, the role of hypoxia-inducible factor-1α (HIF-1α) in the TFRD-mediated regulation of macrophage glycolysis was examined via plasma transfection. Results: Administration of TFRD significantly reduced the arthritis severity scores and ameliorated joint swelling and bone destruction in CIA mice. The therapeutic efficacy of high-dose TFRD (TFRD-H) was broadly similar to that of MTX in CIA mice. Further, TFRD decreased the proportion of pro-inflammatory macrophages and the expression of HIF-1α within the joints of CIA mice. The in vitro experiments indicated that TFRD inhibited the lipopolysaccharide-induced macrophage pro-inflammatory polarization. Mechanistically, TFRD attenuated glycolytic metabolism and downregulated HIF-1α expression during pro-inflammatory polarization, while HIF-1α overexpression partly reversed these effects. Furthermore, 16S rRNA sequencing analysis revealed the mitigated dysbiosis of the gut microbiota and increased relative abundance of Parabacteroides in CIA mice. Conclusions: These findings indicate that TFRD alleviated RA, which was partly dependent on downregulating pro-inflammatory macrophages and mitigating HIF-1α-associated glycolysis. This study could provide a scientific basis for further research and the clinical use of TFRD. Full article

The primary objective of a parabolic distributed solar collector system (P-DSCS) is to regulate fluid heat generation so that it tracks a reference trajectory despite non-uniform solar irradiance. Fractional-order proportional-integral-derivative (FOPID) controllers offer superior dynamic flexibility to handle these complex thermal transients. However, existing tuning strategies for P-DSCS collapse frequency-domain requirements into an optimization problem solved by standard algorithms, masking critical trade-offs between competing performances and omitting closed-loop stability verification. To overcome these limitations, this paper presents an original multi-objective optimization framework for FOPID controlled P-DSCS. The tuning problem is formulated as a three-objective Optimization Problem that simultaneously minimizes phase-margin slope sensitivity for iso-damping robustness, peak sensitivity for low-frequency disturbance rejection, and complementary sensitivity for high-frequency noise attenuation. The Multi-Objective Imperialist Competitive Algorithm (MOICA) extracts a three-dimensional Pareto front, offering optimal control trade-offs. Comparative simulations against PID and literature algorithms (Multi-objective Particle Swarm Optimization (MOPSO) and Non-dominated Sorting Genetic Algorithm II (NSGA-II)) validate the superior performance of the MOICA-FOPID framework. MOICA consistently outperforms all algorithms across all metrics, improving iso-damping robustness by 38.99%. It also reduces high-frequency noise by 25.66%, while enhancing low-frequency disturbance rejection by 10.87%. Moreover, the optimal MOICA-FOPID controller maintained superior robustness despite P-DSCS gain and time-constant fluctuations. Full article

Senescence is an adaptive state activated in cells when external or internal damage exceeds the homeostatic capacity of background resilience mechanisms. It is characterized by a stable cell-cycle arrest, chromatin reorganization, and the acquisition of a senescence-associated secretory phenotype (SASP). While senescence can have beneficial roles in tissue repair, the accumulation of senescent cells contributes to inflammation, stem cell dysfunction, and tissue degeneration. In this context, the identification of compounds able to modulate the threshold between tissue resilience and cellular senescence, by partially eliminating senescent cells to preserve tissue function, is a major target of biomedical research. Here, we present a novel ingredient consisting of a combination of Galega officinalis extract, Hippophae rhamnoides fruit oil, and resveratrol (Metforhair^®, MFH). We report that MFH partially reduces senescence-associated features, using human primary dermal fibroblasts as an experimental validation model. Consequently, we used ex vivo cultures of human hair follicles to evaluate the ability of MFH to attenuate senescence markers. Our results support the use of MFH as a hair follicle therapy, which modestly reduces hallmarks of cellular senescence. Full article

As digital heritage platforms become increasingly immersive and information-rich, digital enrichment may offer experiential benefits while also being associated with greater cognitive demands. Drawing on Cognitive Load Theory and an intertemporal perspective, this study develops a cognitive–intertemporal framework linking perceived digital complexity, perceived spatial narrative richness, cognitive load, temporal discounting tendency, and sustainable decision-making intention. Using Digital Dunhuang as the empirical context, a cross-sectional survey of 603 users recruited through non-probability social media sampling was analyzed using structural equation modeling and bias-corrected bootstrapping. The results showed that perceived digital complexity and perceived spatial narrative richness were positively associated with cognitive load, which was positively associated with temporal discounting tendency, while temporal discounting tendency was negatively associated with sustainable decision-making intention. Although cognitive load was negatively associated with sustainable decision-making intention in the hypothesized model, this direct association became nonsignificant in the better-fitting extended partial-mediation model. The sequential indirect associations remained significant. Significant sequential indirect associations with sustainable decision-making intention were observed for both perceived digital complexity through cognitive load and temporal discounting tendency and perceived spatial narrative richness through cognitive load and temporal discounting tendency. Digital literacy attenuated the associations of perceived digital complexity and perceived spatial narrative richness with cognitive load, whereas future self-continuity attenuated the association between cognitive load and temporal discounting tendency but not that between cognitive load and sustainable decision-making intention. These findings identify a theoretically coherent cognitive–intertemporal pattern linking perceived digital heritage characteristics with sustainability-oriented intention, extending digital heritage research while underscoring the need for longitudinal or experimental evidence to establish temporal and causal ordering. Full article

The conventional attenuation-ratio feature R remains affected by particle thickness, material heterogeneity, and beam hardening in practical dual-energy X-ray transmission (DE-XRT) measurements. This study proposes an ore-sorting method based on multi-feature fusion of dual-energy X-ray transmission responses. An aluminium step wedge was used to establish a reference relationship between R and high-energy attenuation ${\alpha }_H$. The deviation from this relationship was defined as the residual feature $R_c$. Particle-level statistics of R, ${\alpha }_H$, and $R_c$ were combined in a linear support vector machine (SVM) classifier. For lead–zinc ore, the SVM was compared with a conventional double-threshold R-value rule. In batch-grouped out-of-fold evaluation, the SVM increased combined Pb–Zn recovery from 90.99% to 97.42% and reduced the combined Pb–Zn grade of the tailings from 2.101% to 0.357%. In an independent 216-particle sorting-and-assay test, the SVM recovered 98.78% of Pb–Zn at 22.03% mass rejection, compared with 90.72% recovery at 26.05% rejection for the conventional R-value rule. Full article

Background: Traditional scalp electroencephalography (EEG), though clinically validated, presents significant limitations, including lengthy setup, patient discomfort, and limited mobility. These factors hinder its utility for long-term ambulatory monitoring. In-ear EEG offers a promising alternative by leveraging the ear canal’s anatomical proximity to the temporal lobes and natural mechanical stability. To address this, we developed SeizEAR, a standardized, three-size in-ear EEG system using paste-based electrodes with cross-ear referencing. Methods: This pilot study evaluated SeizEAR devices featuring small, medium, and large earpieces with superior and inferior paste-based electrodes in each ear, configured in a cross-ear reference scheme. It included five healthy adults who underwent recording sessions of approximately three hours (2.4 to 3.3 h). Electrode impedance was monitored against the acquisition system’s threshold indicator, with simultaneous scalp EEG from T7/T8 electrodes serving as the reference. Participants rated comfort on a 0–5 Likert scale every 30 min. Results: In-ear recordings showed moderate, band-dependent correspondence with ipsilateral temporal scalp electrodes, strongest in the delta and alpha bands and weakest in beta, and correspondence was consistently higher against a geometrically matched T7–T8 bipolar derivation than against a single referenced electrode. In-ear alpha reactivity to eye closure was present but attenuated relative to scalp. Comfort ratings remained high over the final two hours of wear, with no reported adverse events. Conclusions: SeizEAR acquired in-ear EEG that corresponded moderately with temporal scalp EEG and was well-tolerated over multi-hour wear in healthy adults. These preliminary findings support further development of a standardized in-ear EEG system and require confirmation in an adequately powered sample. Full article