Search Results (6,870)

Meat and meat products are highly susceptible to microbial spoilage, lipid oxidation, moisture loss, discoloration, and sensory deterioration, creating a need for effective, safe, and sustainable packaging solutions. Although previous studies have investigated biodegradable polymers, nanomaterials, and active packaging systems separately, an integrated assessment connecting material design, preservation mechanisms, safety, sustainability, and commercial feasibility remains limited. This review addresses this gap by critically evaluating recent advances in biodegradable nanocomposite films and coatings for meat preservation. Current evidence demonstrates that the incorporation of nanoscale reinforcements and bioactive agents into biopolymer matrices can enhance their mechanical performance, gas and moisture barrier properties, antimicrobial activity, antioxidant capacity, and controlled release behavior. However, these advantages are strongly influenced by the nanofiller characteristics, concentration, dispersion, polymer-nanofiller interactions, food matrix composition, and storage conditions. Excessive nanomaterial incorporation may promote aggregation, induce structural defects, reduce flexibility, and increase migration concerns. Despite promising preservation outcomes, most available studies remain limited to laboratory-scale investigations, variable testing protocols, and insufficient validation under real commercial conditions. Key challenges hindering industrial adoption include nanoparticle migration, long-term safety assessment, regulatory uncertainty, production costs, consumer acceptance, and limited life-cycle evaluation. Future research should focus on safe-by-design formulations, standardized real-food testing, scalable manufacturing approaches, controlled-release technologies, and integrated assessments of preservation efficiency, safety, economic feasibility, and environmental sustainability. Overall, biodegradable nanocomposite packaging represents a promising approach for extending meat shelf life; however, successful commercialization requires balancing enhanced preservation performance with safety assurance and industrial practicality. Full article

Floating Car Data (FCD) are increasingly used to analyse mobility patterns and support transport-system management, but the evidence remains fragmented across heterogeneous applications, sensing technologies, and data-processing methods, particularly regarding road-infrastructure monitoring. This study presents a systematic literature review and structured evidence map of FCD research published between 2010 and 2025. Following PRISMA methodology, Scopus and Google Scholar were searched using the exact expression “floating car data”. The search retrieved 2127 records; after bibliographic harmonisation, duplicate removal, title-and-abstract screening, full-text retrieval, and eligibility assessment, 165 publications were included. The studies were classified through a top-down framework covering application domain, sensing technology, processing approach, validation method, geographical region, deployment scale, and integration with Pavement Management Systems (PMSs). Traffic-state estimation and mobility-planning applications covered 100 publications (60.6%), whereas infrastructure monitoring was the primary domain in 20 studies (12.1%). GPS or GNSS data were used in 128 publications (77.6%), while accelerometers, gyroscopes, or inertial measurement units were reported in 29 studies (17.6%). Only 15 publications (9.1%) described operational or real-time deployment, and explicit PMS-oriented integration was identified in only 9 studies (5.5%). The findings show that FCD research is methodologically mature for traffic and mobility applications but remains comparatively fragmented for pavement-condition assessment. The review therefore proposes an operational pathway linking accelerometric data acquisition, preprocessing, normalization, fleet-level aggregation, validation, data fusion, and PMS decision-making. These results highlight that the principal research gap concerns not sensor availability, but the development of standardized, transferable, and operationally validated frameworks for network-wide pavement monitoring. Full article

Decarbonization has been set as the ultimate target of the European energy policy, and, under this frame, Greece has substantially reformed its electricity mix over the last two decades. Yet, the rapid transition of the country’s electricity production system towards a model that strongly relies on non-controllable renewables, without improving its energy storage means, has caused several adverse impacts that reasonably raise serious concerns about its sustainability. Further questions arise when accounting for the projections and underlying assumptions reported in the National Energy and Climate Plan. In this vein, key policy, societal, technical, sustainability and science issues are discussed, involving the challenges, perspectives and potential drawbacks of Greece’s long-term energy planning . To reveal the critical role of storage, a toy simulation-optimization model is applied at the national scale to evaluate several scenarios of wind and solar P/V development under the premise of a theoretically fully decarbonized mix. This allows the exploration of trade-offs between energy storage and power capacity needs against key performance metrics (frequency and quantity of deficits and percentage of rejected renewable energy). Preliminary feasibility issues are also highlighted by considering alternative configurations of pumped hydropower storage units and associating their approximative investment costs with scale and geometry. Full article

Background: India accounts for one-fifth of global cervical cancer deaths, yet Human Papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination coverage remains low despite the World Health Organization (WHO) recommendations to initiate vaccination at age 9. With the national HPV vaccination campaign in 2026 and its approval for integration into India’s Universal Immunization Programme (UIP), strengthening physician knowledge, beliefs, and confidence in recommending the vaccine is critical. Methods: In 2023, the American Cancer Society and Cancer Foundation of India catalyzed two national medical societies, the Federation of Obstetric and Gynaecological Societies of India and the Indian Academy of Pediatrics, to educate physicians on HPV vaccination using a train-the-trainer (ToT) model. A mixed-methods evaluation, using the RE-AIM Framework, included pre- and post-training surveys assessing changes in knowledge, beliefs, confidence, and intent, as well as monthly engagement surveys and project reports analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics. A fidelity assessment evaluated consistency of training delivery. Twenty in-depth interviews explored physician reactions and implementation of learnings, analyzed using a rapid approach. Results: A total of 18,206 physicians were trained. The post-training respondent group demonstrated higher HPV vaccination knowledge scores and more favorable responses in confidence, beliefs, and intent than the pre-training respondent group. The fidelity assessment demonstrated consistent delivery overall, with some variability in role play facilitation. Interviews highlighted increased physician confidence, peer knowledge sharing, and community engagement following the training. Medical societies reported strong program adoption and plans for continued efforts. Conclusions: A ToT physician training cascaded through medical societies is a feasible strategy to prepare physicians to recommend the HPV vaccine and address parental concerns at scale. Full article

Background: Transthyretin amyloid cardiomyopathy (ATTR-CM) is a progressive infiltrative cardiomyopathy associated with substantial morbidity and mortality. This systematic review evaluates the effects of tafamidis on echocardiographic parameters, cardiac biomarkers, functional outcomes, mortality, and safety in patients with ATTR-CM. Methods: This systematic review was conducted in accordance with PRISMA 2020 guidelines and registered in PROSPERO (CRD420261391553). PubMed, Embase, and Web of Science were searched through 20 March 2026. Eligible studies included adults with ATTR-CM treated with tafamidis and reporting, echocardiographic, biomarker, functional, mortality, or safety outcomes. Randomized controlled trials and observational studies were included. Risk of bias was assessed using the Cochrane RoB 2 tool and Newcastle–Ottawa Scale. Due to substantial heterogeneity, a narrative synthesis was performed. Results: Seventeen studies were included with a total of 1890 patients. Tafamidis treatment was potentially associated with stabilization of global longitudinal strain, preservation of functional status, and lower all-cause mortality compared with untreated or control cohorts. Biomarker findings, including N-terminal pro-B-type natriuretic peptide (NT-proBNP) and high-sensitivity cardiac troponin T (hs-cTnT), were heterogeneous and did not demonstrate a consistent pattern of improvement. Functional outcomes, including New York Heart Association (NYHA) class, 6-minute walk distance (6MWT), National Amyloidosis Center (NAC) staging, and quality-of-life measures, suggested slower clinical deterioration among treated patients. Limited available safety data indicated that tafamidis was generally well tolerated, with no major safety concerns identified. Conclusions: Current evidence may suggest that tafamidis slows disease progression and may potentially be associated with improved survival in ATTR-CM. Further prospective studies with standardized outcome reporting are needed. Evidence was limited by heterogeneity in study design, outcome reporting, and follow-up duration, with most included studies being observational. Full article

Background: Smith–Magenis syndrome (SMS) is a rare neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by severe sleep disturbances, circadian rhythm dysregulation, and prominent behavioral difficulties. Objective: To examine associations between subjective and objective sleep and circadian characteristics and behavioral difficulties in children with SMS in real life. Methods: Children aged 5–13 years with genetically confirmed SMS were included in a prospective single-center cohort study. Sleep and circadian rhythms were assessed using parent-reported questionnaires (Sleep Disturbance Scale for Children (SDSC), Horne and Östberg Morningness–Eveningness Questionnaire (H&O)) and 15-day home-based wrist actigraphy. Behavioral difficulties were evaluated using the Aberrant Behavior Checklist-Community (ABC-C). Associations between subjective and objective sleep and circadian measures with behavioral difficulties were studied using Spearman correlations for each ABC-C subscale. Results: Among the 20 children included (55% female, mean age 10 ± 2.5 years), 75% were carriers of a 17p11.2 microdeletion and 25% had an RAI1 mutation. Overall, 95% of children were treated with melatonin, 55% with psychostimulants and 20% with beta-blockers. According to the SDSC results, pathological sleep disturbances were present in 14/20 (70%) children and concerned mainly complaints of insomnia (10/20, 50%) and excessive daytime sleepiness (8/20, 40%). The H&O chronotypes confirmed the morning type in 70% of patients. Sleep and circadian measures obtained by actigraphy showed reduced total sleep time in 71% of the children, reduced sleep efficiency in 88%, long wake after sleep onset (WASO > 60 min) in 59%, as well as an early L5 onset (5 h period with the least movements < 23:38) and M10 onset (10 h period with the highest activity levels < 09:12) in 92% and 62% of children, respectively. The behavioral domains of the ABC-C with the highest scores were hyperactivity (mean 52.1, range 2.1–97.9) and irritability, agitation, and crying (mean 46.9, range 17.8–82.2). In the analysis of the relationship between behavior and sleep, a positive correlation was found between sleep disorders and stereotyped behaviors (r = 0.472, p = 0.048), insomnia and irritability, social withdrawal and stereotyped behaviors (r = 0.472, p = 0.048; r = 0.701, p = 0.001; and r = 0.648, p = 0.004, respectively), and non-restorative sleep and inappropriate speech (r = 0.476, p = 0.046). No significant association was found between objective sleep measures and behaviors. While subjective assessments suggested that a stronger morning chronotype was associated with lower irritability (r = −0.565, p = 0.015), actigraphy-derived circadian rhythm analyses revealed that an earlier L5 onset was associated with greater social withdrawal and hyperactivity (r = −0.556, p = 0.048 and r = −0.560, p = 0.049, respectively). Conclusions: The present cohort study of children with SMS studied in real-life conditions, using both objective and subjective measures, shows that patients continued to experience sleep and behavioral disturbances despite treatment. Exploratory analyses identified distinct associations between subjective sleep disturbances, circadian rhythm characteristics, and specific behavioral domains. While subjective sleep disturbances were associated with irritability, stereotypic behavior, and inappropriate speech, circadian rhythm parameters are specifically associated with hyperactivity. Both were also associated with social withdrawal. As these findings arise from an exploratory observational secondary analysis, they should be considered hypothesis-generating and require confirmation in larger prospective studies. If confirmed, they may help identify sleep and circadian rhythm characteristics as potential targets for future interventions in children with SMS. Full article

Background/Objectives: Oral healthcare succeeds not only when treatment is biologically sound but when its outcome meets patient expectations, making expectation management a measurable component of care quality. Patient satisfaction in dental implant therapy is strongly influenced by pre-treatment expectations, yet differences between patient expectations and dentists’ perceptions of those expectations remain poorly characterized. This study compared the two using a mirror-design survey. Methods: A cross-sectional survey was administered to adult patients (n = 250) and dentists involved in implant therapy (n = 200). A 16-item questionnaire was developed in two parallel versions covering two domains, outcome expectations and surgical process apprehension, rated on a 5-point Likert scale. Internal consistency, item- and subscale-level differences, and signed and absolute between-group difference scores were analyzed. Results: Significant between-group differences were identified in 13 of the 16 items, while total scale scores did not differ between groups, producing a cancel-out effect at the aggregate level. Within the surgical process apprehension domain, patients were more optimistic than dentists perceived, with procedural pain showing the largest between-group difference (Cliff’s δ = 0.437). The opposite pattern emerged for long-term outcomes, where concern about implant loss yielded the largest difference across the entire instrument (δ = 0.645). Dentists’ clinical experience was negatively correlated with the signed total gap score (ρ = −0.342, p < 0.001), indicating reduced directional bias among more experienced clinicians. Conclusion: Patients’ expectations differed systematically from dentists’ perceptions of those expectations across both domains, but these opposing differences offset at the aggregate level. Aggregate summary scores may therefore obscure clinically relevant item-level differences, and directional item-level analyses may better capture expectation patterns in implant dentistry. Full article

Background: Concurrent use of acetylcholinesterase inhibitors (AChEIs) and medicines with anticholinergic activity is a clinically important medication safety concern in dementia care because these medicines may pharmacologically oppose dementia treatment and increase the risk of avoidable harm. This review systematically synthesised evidence on the prevalence, patterns, predictors and clinical consequences of concurrent use of anticholinergic and anti-dementia drugs (ADDs) in older adults with dementia. Methods: A PRISMA-informed systematic review was conducted employing Ovid MEDLINE, Embase and PsycINFO from January 2010 to April 2026. Observational studies were eligible if they included older adults with dementia and reported concurrent exposure to at least one anticholinergic medicine and an ADD, defined as AChEIs and/or memantine. Study quality was appraised using the Newcastle–Ottawa Scale. Results: Twenty-eight studies were included, spanning community, outpatient memory-clinic, acute hospital, long-term care and population-based settings. Two distinct exposure constructs were identified: (1) temporal co-prescribing and (2) cumulative anticholinergic burden among ADD users. Reported prevalence varied markedly according to the exposure definition and setting. Concurrent use was lowest in studies limited to bladder antimuscarinic overlap, generally around 5–13%,but increased to 20–45% when broader anticholinergic definitions were used. In long-term care and institutional cohorts, concurrent exposure reached 61–67%. Recurring predictors included polypharmacy, fragmented care or multiple prescribers, urinary symptoms, behavioural and psychological symptoms of dementia, Parkinson’s disease and non-geriatric prescribing. One large population-based study reported that high anticholinergic burden was associated with treatment modification of AChEIs (aHR 1.12), delirium (aHR 1.52), and two-year mortality (aHR 1.23). Additional studies reported associations with longer hospital stays or readmission. Conclusions: Concurrent use of anticholinergic medicines and ADDs is a common, clinically important and potentially modifiable medication-safety problem in dementia care. Full article

Food insecurity is a major public health concern among university students. This cross-sectional study examined factors associated with food insecurity during and after the COVID-19 pandemic among 1864 students (mean age: 20.6 ± 2.9 years) from selected public universities in Northwest Mexico. Data were collected in two cross-sectional survey waves: during the COVID-19 pandemic (n = 1188) and after the pandemic (n = 676). Data were collected through online surveys during the pandemic and face-to-face interviews in the post-pandemic period. Food insecurity was assessed using the Food Insecurity Experience Scale (FIES). Multiple linear regression models were used to identify factors associated with food insecurity and to examine its association with body mass index, perceived stress, sleep quality, and academic performance. Overall, 62.2% of students experienced food insecurity. Food insecurity was higher among students surveyed after the COVID-19 pandemic than among those surveyed during the pandemic (73.7% vs. 55.7%, p < 0.001). During the pandemic, higher food insecurity scores were associated with older age, female sex, indigenous self-identification, living alone, academic discipline, study hours, educational financing, and poorer nutritional behaviors. In the post-pandemic period, indigenous self-identification, living arrangements, academic discipline, and poor nutritional behaviors remained associated with food insecurity. In both periods, food insecurity was associated with higher perceived stress, poorer sleep quality, and lower academic performance (p < 0.05). These findings suggest that food insecurity remains a major concern among university students and indicate the importance of developing culturally appropriate strategies to support vulnerable student populations. Full article

Background: The increasing incidence of pediatric food allergy (FA) drives an imperative for mechanistically driven risk stratification beyond descriptive diagnostics. The current systematic review aims to assess the predictive and diagnostic value of early-life non-invasive biomarkers: cord blood IgE (CS-IgE), fecal calprotectin (FC), fecal zonulin (FZ) and secretory IgA (SIgA). Methods: In accordance with the PRISMA guidelines, we performed a systematic literature search on PubMed/MEDLINE and Scopus for English observational studies published in 2009–2025. The titles and abstracts were screened by two independent reviewers and methodological quality was assessed using the Newcastle–Ottawa Scale (NOS). Results: A total of 17 studies met the inclusion criteria. This synthesis demonstrates that CS-IgE reflects a systemic atopic predisposition rather than serving as a highly sensitive predictor for isolated FA. Fecal calprotectin was the most consistent marker of inflammatory activity in non-IgE-mediated food allergies, with median values in food allergy ranging from approximately 200 to 410 µg/g and proven useful in dietary monitoring. Fecal zonulin reflects epithelial barrier dysfunction; however, its clinical utility is limited by suboptimal assay specificity. SIgA primarily reflects mucosal immune maturation and tolerance development rather than serving as a direct diagnostic marker. Conclusions: Although CS-IgE, FC, FZ and SIgA exhibit potential in the risk stratification of early FA, their clinical implementation is complicated by methodological heterogeneity and concerns regarding analytical specificity, especially with respect to zonulin assays. We propose an integrated multi-biomarker risk stratification model as a conceptual hypothesis requiring prospective validation in future large-scale studies. Full article

Rice is a staple food for more than half of the global population, but its production is threatened by insect pests such as planthoppers, stem borers, leafhoppers, and defoliators. The widespread use of chemical pesticides has raised concerns regarding environmental contamination, pest resistance, and negative effects on beneficial arthropods. This review examines the role of biological control and habitat management in sustainable rice pest management. It highlights the diversity and ecological roles of natural enemies, including parasitoid wasps, mirid bugs, ladybird beetles, and spiders, which help suppress pest populations in rice ecosystems. Key habitat management approaches, such as conservation biological control, ecological engineering, banker plant systems, flower strips, and the preservation of non-crop habitats, are discussed for their capacity to enhance the abundance and effectiveness of natural enemies. The review also considers integrating these approaches into IPM programs to reduce reliance on pesticides while maintaining crop productivity. Evidence from rice-growing regions demonstrates the effectiveness of habitat-based strategies in improving pest suppression and strengthening ecosystem resilience. However, challenges related to landscape complexity, farmer adoption, long-term implementation, and the need for a clear roadmap for future landscape-scale entomological research remain. Future research should focus on optimizing habitat management practices and integrating ecological approaches with modern agricultural technologies to support sustainable rice production. Full article

Iron (Fe) and selenium (Se) deficiencies are global health concerns associated with adverse health outcomes. Plants constitute a dietary source of these elements, particularly for individuals following plant-based diets. However, plant Fe availability is limited by soil processes that reduce Fe mobility and uptake, whereas Se accumulation is constrained by the low abundance of Se in soils. Increasing Fe and Se concentrations in edible plant parts through biofortification represents a sustainable strategy to alleviate micronutrient deficiency. This review examines the mechanisms governing Fe and Se uptake, translocation, metabolism, and genetic regulation, and discusses current biofortification strategies, including agronomic practices, natural and microbial-based approaches, conventional breeding and marker-assisted selection, transgenic technologies, and nanoparticles. While cereals remain the principal targets of large-scale biofortification programs, recent advances in horticultural crops are also highlighted because of their growing nutritional and commercial importance. Current evidence indicates that integrated agronomic and genetic approaches are more effective than single interventions, although simultaneous Fe and Se biofortification remains largely underexplored. Successful biofortification is also strongly influenced by soil properties, nutrient interactions, and crop genotype. Emerging tools, including plant–microbe interactions and synthetic biology, offer promising opportunities to enhance micronutrient accumulation and bioavailability. Further research should optimize integrated Fe–Se biofortification strategies while addressing agronomic and socioeconomic constraints to support their large-scale adoption and contribute to sustainable food systems. Full article

Water pollution and its ecological consequences have become central concerns in watershed governance and aquatic ecosystem conservation. Conventional ecotoxicological research on water pollution has long relied on physicochemical monitoring, laboratory-based single-species exposure tests, and morphology-based biological surveys. Although these approaches have provided essential support for pollutant identification, toxicity characterization, and environmental standard setting, they remain insufficient for resolving community-level responses, food-web perturbations, and ecosystem degradation under multiple-stressor conditions. Environmental DNA (eDNA) has emerged as a promising molecular tool because it is non-invasive, highly sensitive, high-throughput, and capable of detecting multiple taxa simultaneously. In aquatic systems, eDNA applications have expanded from biodiversity detection to pollution diagnosis, ecological health assessment, restoration monitoring, and early warning of ecological risk, while increasingly being integrated with eRNA, multi-omics approaches, machine learning, hydrological modeling, and ecological network analysis. However, several challenges still constrain its broader application, including incomplete methodological standardization, false-positive and false-negative detections, insufficient reference databases, limited quantitative capacity, scale mismatches caused by transport and mixing, and difficulties in causal attribution. This review synthesizes recent progress in the use of eDNA for water-pollution research, with emphasis on its technical workflow, major application domains, integrative analytical frameworks, and methodological boundaries. More specifically, three main points are highlighted: (1) eDNA is shifting water-pollution research from single-species toxicity characterization toward community- and ecosystem-level ecological interpretation; (2) its greatest value lies in its integrative role at the interface of biodiversity monitoring, ecological risk assessment, and management-oriented decision support; and (3) future progress will depend on improvements in standardization, quantitative inference, regional reference databases, and multi-source data integration. Overall, this review clarifies how eDNA can contribute to more robust, ecologically meaningful, and management-relevant assessment of water pollution. Full article

Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) is rapidly reshaping higher education, especially in technology-oriented programs where critical thinking and complex problem solving are core outcomes. This study triangulates global and local evidence on performance/efficiency, usage, autonomy, critical-thinking engagement, and ethics by combining a systematized review informed by Kitchenham and structured using selected PRISMA 2020 elements (2020–2025; last search: May 2025; 49 studies; Scopus, ACM Digital Library, IEEE Xplore, and SpringerLink; not prospectively registered) with an anonymous survey of 302 computing and engineering students from a single university in Ecuador. The expert-reviewed instrument showed acceptable internal consistency for most scale-based dimensions (McDonald’s $\omega$), whereas institutional and ethics-related items were analyzed primarily at the item level. Results showed near-universal academic GenAI use (96%), with 47% of students reporting weekly use and 26% daily use. Research-related work was the most frequent application (81.5%), followed by homework (48.3%), report writing (43.7%), and exam preparation (41.7%). Although students reported perceived efficiency gains, concerns persisted about reduced analytical engagement and technological dependence (84.1%). Ethical concerns centered on dependence, authenticity, and data privacy, while institutional responses pointed to the need for formal training (96.7%) and clearer guidance. Based on this triangulation, we propose a context-bounded interpretive framework suggesting that GenAI’s educational value depends on instructional and governance conditions that preserve autonomy, critical thinking, integrity, and equity. Full article

Starting from a semiotic understanding of the city as a stratified and continuously rewritten palimpsest, this paper investigates the relationship between urban heritage, graphic representation, and cultural translation within the current digital scenario. The study introduces and develops a theoretical framework, the “translation triangle” (TT), articulated around three mutually co-determining domains: the cognitive, concerned with the critical identification of relevant signs within the urban text; the technical–digital, concerned with their formalisation through survey instruments, three-dimensional modelling, and visualisation pipelines; and the socio-anthropological, concerned with the mediation of translated content towards its recipient. The framework is tested through two urban contexts: Pavia, Italy, and Gdańsk, Poland, different in scale and research advancement. Both demonstrate that the quality of urban heritage representation depends not solely on geometric accuracy or visual effectiveness, but on the capacity to make explicit the interpretative choices embedded in each translational act and to produce forms of knowledge that are comprehensible, interrogable, and culturally shareable. The paper concludes that every digital representation of urban heritage constitutes a semiotic act, not a neutral technical operation, and that the future of the discipline lies in constructing translations that are conscious, verifiable, and culturally grounded, capable of preserving the historical meaning of heritage without reducing it to spectacle or data infrastructure. Full article