Search Results (2,932)

Optimizing organic fertilizer substitution is essential for enhancing the sustainability of agriculture and achieving a balance between crop productivity, nutritional quality, and environmental safety. Here, we conducted an 11-year field experiment to evaluate the effects of substituting 50% of mineral fertilizers with pig manure (PM) or cattle manure (CM) on the nutritional quality of wheat grain, heavy metal (HM) accumulation, and associated human health risks. The yield and protein content were highest in the mineral fertilizer (MF) treatment, and grain micronutrients (Fe, Mn, Cu, Zn) were 6.7–13.8% higher under organic substitution (PM/CM) than in the MF treatment. The Ni, Pb, and As contents were 35.4–43.0% higher in the PM treatment than in the MF treatment, which stems from the higher HM content in pig manure. Health risk assessments indicated that the Hazard Index (HI) for children exceeded 1 in the PM treatment, primarily due to As, which accounted for 69.6% of the HI. All treatments remained within safe thresholds, although As and Pb posed detectable carcinogenic health risks. The higher levels of Ni and As in pig manure likewise led to a significant increase in the health risk associated with the PM treatment compared to the MF treatment. We developed a novel Grain Quality Index (GQI) that combined nutrient and HM data, which indicated that the nutritional quality of wheat grain was similar in the CM and MF treatments. The GQI was 9.1% lower in the PM treatment than in the MF treatment. These findings suggest that the substitution of mineral fertilizer with cow manure can help achieve a balance between yield, nutrition, and safety, and more stringent regulation of HMs is required for the use of pig manure. Our findings provide actionable insights with implications for sustainable wheat production policies. Full article

As Earth Pressure Balance (EPB) shield machine crossed with steep slopes beneath an existing highway in sandstone–mudstone alternating strata, case studies of changes in vertical displacement, settlement trough evolution, and tunnel stress induced by shield tunnel construction were investigated. The quality of synchronous grouting was evaluated using ground penetrating radar (GPR) technology. The results showed that highway settlement could be categorized into four stages: initial settlement, uplift, secondary settlement, and stabilization. The secondary settlement caused by shield tail detachment was significantly greater than the initial settlement induced by distant shield construction. The settlement trough evolved throughout construction; the maximum settlement point shifted from the tunnel centerline but it consistently remained within 3 m. During the early phase of shield tail detachment, the circumferential stress of shield tunnel changed rapidly. The circumferential stress was primarily compressive, tensile stress was observed at some monitoring points. The tensile stress at the monitoring points gradually transitioned to compressive stress. After the tunnel undercrossed, the circumferential stress gradually stabilized. The GPR detection revealed that in groundwater-rich strata, poor grouting quality areas were prone to appear at the tunnel crown, while grouting quality in other areas performed better. This engineering case can serve as a positive reference for similar EPB shield tunnels passing in close proximity beneath existing highways. Full article

Offshore platforms need to be made, from the start of their construction, to withstand the extreme environmental conditions they will be facing. This study investigates the welding-induced residual stress and distortion in a Y-shaped tubular joint extracted from an offshore wind turbine jacket substructure. While similar joints are commonly used in offshore platforms, their welding behavior remains underexplored in the existing literature. The joint configuration is representative of critical load-bearing connections commonly used in offshore platforms exposed to harsh marine environments. A finite element model has been developed to simulate the welding process in a typical offshore tubular joint through thermal and mechanical simulation. Validation of the model has been achieved with results against reference experimental data, with temperature and distortion errors of 3.9 and 5.3%, respectively. Residual stress and distortions were analyzed along predefined paths in vertical, transverse, and longitudinal directions. A mesh sensitivity study was conducted to balance computational efficiency and result accuracy. Furthermore, clamped and free displacement boundary conditions are analyzed, demonstrating reduced deformation and stress for the second case. Full article

In open-network environments of smart buildings and urban infrastructure, abnormal traffic from security and energy monitoring systems is critical for operational safety and decision reliability. We can develop malware that exploits building automation protocols to simulate attacks involving the falsification or modification of chiller controller commands, thereby endangering the entire network infrastructure. Intrusion detection systems rely on abundant labeled abnormal traffic data to detect attack patterns, improving network system reliability. However, transmitting such data faces two major challenges: single-feature representations fail to capture comprehensive traffic features, limiting the information representation for artificial intelligence (AI)-based detection models, and unconcealed abnormal traffic is easily intercepted by firewalls or intrusion detection systems, hindering cross-departmental sharing. Existing methods struggle to balance feature integrity and transmission stealth, often sacrificing one for the other or relying on easily detectable spatial-domain steganography. To address these gaps, we propose a multi-channel imaging hiding method that reconstructs abnormal traffic into multi-channel images by combining three mappings to generate grayscale images that depict traffic state transitions, dynamic trends, and internal similarity, respectively. These images are combined to enhance feature representation and embedded into frequency-domain adversarial examples, enabling evasion of security devices while preserving traffic integrity. Experimental results demonstrate that our method captures richer information than single-representation approaches, achieving a PSNR of 44.5 dB (a 6.0 dB improvement over existing methods) and an SSIM of 0.97. The high-fidelity reconstructions enabled by these gains facilitate the secure and efficient sharing of abnormal traffic data, thereby enhancing AI-driven security in smart buildings. Full article

Football, as a team sport, relies on a delicate balance where tactical cohesion and strategic play are as critical as physical prowess. While evidence suggests that European teams often display higher physical intensity, the tactical differences between European and American football are still not well quantified. The aim of this study is to conduct a comparative analysis of passing, possession, and goal-scoring dynamics in Euro 2024 and Copa America 2024. Data from 51 Euro matches and 32 Copa America matches, encompassing all game events with sub-second precision, were obtained from StatsBomb. Analyses were performed in MATLAB, with possession calculated as ‘pure possession,’ excluding inactive periods. Euro 2024 teams demonstrated significantly more total passes per match ($p<0.05$, Cohen’s $d=1.43$), higher pass completion rates ($p<0.05$, Cohen’s $d=1.30$), and longer possession sequences ($p<0.05$, Cohen’s $d=0.24$). They also showed greater possession in the five minutes prior to goals ($p<0.05$, Cohen’s $d=0.63$). In contrast, Copa America 2024 teams favored longer passes ($p<0.05$, Cohen’s $d=0.15$), reflecting a more direct playing style. Possession disparities between teams in individual matches did not differ significantly ($p=0.31$, Cohen’s $d=0.23$), and the distribution of shot distances for goals was also similar across tournaments ($p=0.86$, Cohen’s $d=0.02$). In summary, Euro 2024 teams emphasized control through longer possession and greater passing accuracy, while Copa America 2024 teams relied on more dynamic and direct play. These findings underscore how regional footballing philosophies shape match strategies and outcomes, offering insights into the tactical diversity of international football. Full article

In socio-ecological systems, Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) initiatives play a critical role in enhancing forest multifunctionality, including climate change mitigation and biodiversity conservation. However, corporate integration and disclosure related to forests remain limited. Effective and sustainable ESG implementation for forests requires close collaboration among corporations, governments and NGOs. This study applied the resource-based view to identify the resources and capabilities of corporations, governments, and NGOs. The Delphi method was used to capture multi-sector expert opinions on the roles of governments and NGOs in supporting corporate forest-related ESG activities in the Republic of Korea. Through a three-round Delphi survey, consensus was achieved on 11 government roles and 14 NGO roles. The most frequently agreed-upon roles were related to technological and informational resources. Although these roles were linked to similar resource categories, government roles primarily encompassed macro-level and scientific functions, whereas NGO roles emphasized field-specific information and practical capabilities. To enhance the effectiveness of corporate ESG implementation through such collaboration, stakeholders must further develop both the quantity and quality of their resources and capabilities. Furthermore, an institutional structure that ensures balanced stakeholder participation is essential to minimize potential value conflicts. Full article

This paper presents a baseline study on automatic Uzbek text classification. Uzbek is a morphologically rich and low-resource language, which makes reliable preprocessing and evaluation challenging. The approach integrates Term Frequency–Inverse Document Frequency (TF–IDF) representation with three conventional methods: linear regression (LR), k-Nearest Neighbors (k-NN), and cosine similarity (CS, implemented as a 1-NN retrieval model). The objective is to categorize school learning materials by grade level (grades 5–11) to support improved alignment between curricular texts and students’ intellectual development. A balanced dataset of Uzbek school textbooks across different subjects was constructed, preprocessed with standard NLP tools, and converted into TF–IDF vectors. Experimental results on the internal test set of 70 files show that LR achieved 92.9% accuracy (precision = 0.94, recall = 0.93, F1 = 0.93), while CS performed comparably with 91.4% accuracy (precision = 0.92, recall = 0.91, F1 = 0.92). In contrast, k-NN obtained only 28.6% accuracy, confirming its weakness in high-dimensional sparse feature spaces. External evaluation on seven Uzbek literary works further demonstrated that LR and CS yielded consistent and interpretable grade-level mappings, whereas k-NN results were unstable. Overall, the findings establish reliable baselines for Uzbek educational text classification and highlight the potential of extending beyond lexical overlap toward semantically richer models in future work. Full article

This paper utilizes unique high-frequency, daily electricity consumption data across economic sectors to examine the impact of monetary policy shocks on economic output, with a particular focus on the network spillover effects and sectoral heterogeneity introduced by inter-sector linkages. The study finds that quantity-based monetary policy (e.g., M2) generates significant positive and cascading spillover effects within the production network. However, the total effects of monetary policy shocks are broadly similar across upstream, midstream, and downstream sectors, exhibiting only minor differences. Notably, the proportion of network (indirect) effects increases systematically from upstream to downstream sectors and displays marked sectoral heterogeneity. In contrast, interest-rate-based monetary policy displays insufficient spatial spillover through production networks. These findings offer important insights for policymakers to optimize structural policy design and promote coordinated sectoral chain development, which can guide the pursuit of sustainable economic strategies that balance growth, resource utilization and sectoral interdependencies. Full article

Photoplethysmogram (PPG) signals are increasingly utilized in wearable and mobile healthcare applications due to their non-invasive nature and ease of use in measuring physiological parameters, such as heart rate, blood pressure, and oxygen saturation. Recent advancements have highlighted green-light photoplethysmogram (gPPG) as offering superior signal quality and accuracy compared to traditional red-light photoplethysmogram (rPPG). Given the deterministic chaotic nature of PPG signals’ dynamics, nonlinear time series analysis has emerged as a powerful method for extracting health-related information not captured by conventional linear techniques. However, optimal data conditions, including appropriate sampling frequency and minimum required time series length for effective nonlinear analysis, remain insufficiently investigated. This study examines the impact of downsampling frequencies and reducing time series lengths on the accuracy of estimating dynamical characteristics from gPPG and rPPG signals. Results demonstrate that a sampling frequency of 200 Hz provides an optimal balance, maintaining robust correlations in dynamical indices while reducing computational load. Furthermore, analysis of varying time series lengths revealed that the dynamical properties stabilize sufficiently at around 170 s, achieving an error of less than 5%. A comparative analysis between gPPG and rPPG revealed no significant statistical differences, confirming their similar effectiveness in estimating dynamical properties under controlled conditions. These results enhance the reliability and applicability of PPG-based health monitoring technologies. Full article

Vehicular Ad Hoc Networks (VANETs) support safety-critical and traffic-optimization applications through low-latency, reliable V2X communication. However, securing integrity and auditability with blockchain is challenging because conventional BFT-style consensus incurs high message overhead and latency. We introduce CoCoChain, a concept-aware consensus mechanism tailored to VANETs. Instead of exchanging full payloads, CoCoChain trains a sparse autoencoder (SAE) offline on raw message payloads and encodes each message into a low-dimensional concept vector; only the top-k activations are broadcast during consensus. These compact semantic digests are integrated into a practical BFT workflow with per-phase semantic checks using a cosine-similarity threshold $\theta =0.85$ (calibrated on validation data to balance detection and false positives). We evaluate CoCoChain in OMNeT++/SUMO across urban, highway, and multi-hop broadcast under congestion scenarios, measuring latency, throughput, packet delivery ratio, and Age of Information (AoI), and including adversaries that inject semantically corrupted concepts as well as cross-layer stress (RF jamming and timing jitter). Results show CoCoChain reduces consensus message overhead by up to 25% and confirmation latency by 20% while maintaining integrity with up to 20% Byzantine participants and improving information freshness (AoI) under high channel load. This work focuses on OBU/RSU semantic-aware consensus (not 6G joint sensing or multi-base-station fusion). The code, configs, and an anonymized synthetic replica of the dataset will be released upon acceptance. Full article

Accurate semantic segmentation of high-resolution remote sensing imagery is challenged by substantial intra-class variability, inter-class similarity, and the limitations of single-modality data. This paper proposes MMFNet, a novel multimodal fusion network that leverages the Mamba architecture to efficiently capture long-range dependencies for semantic segmentation tasks. MMFNet adopts a dual-encoder design, combining ResNet-18 for local detail extraction and VMamba for global contextual modelling, striking a balance between segmentation accuracy and computational efficiency. A Multimodal Feature Fusion Block (MFFB) is introduced to effectively integrate complementary information from optical imagery and digital surface models (DSMs), thereby enhancing multimodal feature interaction and improving segmentation accuracy. Furthermore, a frequency-aware upsampling module (FreqFusion) is incorporated in the decoder to enhance boundary delineation and recover fine spatial details. Extensive experiments on the ISPRS Vaihingen and Potsdam benchmarks demonstrate that MMFNet achieves mean IoU scores of 83.50% and 86.06%, outperforming eight state-of-the-art methods while maintaining relatively low computational complexity. These results highlight MMFNet’s potential for efficient and accurate multimodal semantic segmentation in remote sensing applications. Full article

Background/Objectives: Open thoracoabdominal aortic aneurysm (TAAA) repair remains essential despite expanded endovascular options, yet the contemporary open-surgery case-mix has shifted as minimally invasive therapies became widespread. The objective was to evaluate temporal changes in patient demographics, pathology, and perioperative outcomes of open TAAA repair across two decades. Methods: Retrospective, cross border cohort of all open TAAA repairs performed at two high-volume tertiary centers (Aachen, Germany; Maastricht, Netherlands) from 2000–2024. Patients were stratified into Early Era (2004–2013) and Late Era (2014–2024). Primary endpoints were shifts in demographics and perioperative mortality/morbidity; secondary endpoints included major complications (spinal cord ischemia, acute kidney injury, pulmonary and cardiac events). Results: Among 577 open repairs, 376 (65.2%) occurred in the Early Era and 201 (34.8%) in the Late Era, with annual volumes declining to <12 cases/year after 2020. Late Era patients were younger (median 55.9 vs. 63.0 years, $p<0.001$) and had more genetic aortopathy (Marfan 26.9% vs. 11.7%, $p<0.01$) and post-dissection pathology (64.7% vs. 43.1%, $p<0.01$), alongside more prior aortic surgery (59.2% vs. 43.4%, $p<0.01$). Massive transfusion and incidental splenectomy decreased (37.8% vs. 54.5%, $p<0.01$; 5.0% vs. 14.9%, $p<0.01$). In-hospital mortality was similar (18.4% Late vs. 21.8% Early, $p=0.34$); spinal cord ischemia showed a non-significant reduction (5.5% vs. 8.0%, $p=0.26$); myocardial infarction decreased (1.0% vs. 4.3%, $p=0.03$); and ARDS increased (15.9% vs. 5.1%, $p<0.01)$. Conclusions: Despite the shift towards endovascular repair and the changing demographics of patients selected for open TAAA repair, specialized centers can maintain stable outcomes through standardized protocols and concentrated expertise. The preservation of open surgical capabilities remains crucial for specific patient populations, emphasizing the need for a balanced approach that integrates both open and endovascular techniques to provide optimal, individualized care. Full article

Urban flood management is pivotal to the construction of resilient cities. However, investigation into the spatiotemporal evolution of urban flood resilience (UFR) and its influencing factors is insufficient. Aiming to address the challenge, this study establishes a multidimensional UFR indicator system grounded in the disaster resilience of place (DROP) model. Following the calculation of UFR through the entropy weighted technique for order preference by similarity to ideal solution (EW-TOPSIS) method, spatiotemporal evolution evaluation and factor detection are conducted. With panel data from the Yangtze River Delta Urban Agglomeration (YRDUA) over the period of 2012–2021, the results demonstrate overall UFR growth from a dominance of lowest-level and low-level cities to a more balanced distribution. Moreover, significant spatiotemporal heterogeneity is observed, with UFRs in cities adjacent to the Yangtze River higher than peripheral ones. Spatial clustering is significant until 2019, primarily manifested as High-High clusters along the Yangtze River and Low-Low clusters in northern Jiangsu and Anhui. Finally, factor detection identifies economic status, population size, environmental regulation, and drainage infrastructure as key influencing factors. These findings not only advance the understanding of UFR in urban agglomerations but also provide targeted recommendations for policymakers to enhance UFR. Full article

A novel methodology for hybrid energy management in aquaculture is introduced, aimed at enhancing self-sufficiency and optimizing grid-related cash flows. Wind and solar energy generation are modeled using calibrated turbine performance curves and PVGIS data, respectively, with a photovoltaic capacity of 120 kWp. The system also incorporates a 250 kW small hydroelectric plant and a wood drying kiln that utilizes surplus wind energy. This study conducts a comparative analysis between HY4RES, a research-oriented simulation model, and HOMER Pro, a commercially available optimization tool, across multiple hybrid energy scenarios at two aquaculture sites. For grid-connected configurations at the Primary site (base case, Scenarios 1, 2, and 6), both models demonstrate strong concordance in terms of energy balance and overall performance. In Scenario 1, a peak power demand exceeding 1000 kW is observed in both models, attributed to the biomass kiln load. Scenario 2 reveals a 3.1% improvement in self-sufficiency with the integration of photovoltaic generation, as reported by HY4RES. In the off-grid Scenario 3, HY4RES supplies an additional 96,634 kWh of annual load compared to HOMER Pro. However, HOMER Pro indicates a 3.6% higher electricity deficit, primarily due to battery energy storage system (BESS) losses. Scenario 4 yields comparable generation outputs, with HY4RES enabling 6% more wood-drying capacity through the inclusion of photovoltaic energy. Scenario 5, which features a large-scale BESS, highlights a 4.7% unmet demand in HY4RES, whereas HOMER Pro successfully meets the entire load. In Scenario 6, both models exhibit similar load profiles; however, HY4RES reports a self-sufficiency rate that is 1.3% lower than in Scenario 1. At the Secondary site, financial outcomes are closely aligned. For instance, in the base case, HY4RES projects a cash flow of 54,154 EUR, while HOMER Pro estimates 55,532 EUR. Scenario 1 presents nearly identical financial results, and Scenario 2 underscores HOMER Pro’s superior BESS modeling capabilities during periods of reduced hydroelectric output. In conclusion, HY4RES demonstrates robust performance across all scenarios. When provided with harmonized input parameters, its simulation results are consistent with those of HOMER Pro, thereby validating its reliability for hybrid energy management in aquaculture applications. Full article

Tenebrio molitor larvae are a promising source for the next generation of liquid biofuels. However, the conditions and processes required for rearing this insect for biodiesel production need to be investigated. In this study, the effect of dextrose addition to an artificial diet in the oil and biodiesel yield was evaluated. Larvae were fed artificial diets modified with 3, 6, 9, and 15% dextrose. Survival rate, mean dry weight, and oil yield were registered. The 15% dextrose addition resulted in 75% survival, 25 mg individual dry weight, and 29% oil yield. The main components of this oil were palmitic acid (14%), oleic acid (37%), and linoleic acid (20%). With the addition of dextrose, the total saturated fatty acids increased 13% and the polyunsaturated fatty acids decreased 16% compared to the control. However, with the transesterification reaction, the fatty acid methyl esters remained similar for both treatments, with methyl oleate, methyl linoleate, and methyl linolenate as major components. This suggest that the transesterification reaction was incomplete, due to the oil/methanol ratio or the catalyst. Thus, even though a more balanced saturated/unsaturated fatty acid profile can be achieved through dextrose addition, another transesterification method should be tested to obtain a complete reaction. Full article