Search Results (11,254)

Not all particle-size fractions in widely graded granular materials contribute equally to compaction densification. For non-ideal particle-size distributions (PSDs) with local deviations or fine-end disturbances, the full-range fractal index may be influenced by particle-size fractions that contribute weakly to densification and, therefore, may not consistently represent the maximum dry density response. To address this problem, this study proposes a response-constrained truncation framework to identify a more effective PSD fitting range for fractal characterization. First, 20 concave and S-shaped PSDs from previous experiments were re-analyzed to compare full-range and truncated indices. Then, 21 progressively truncated specimens derived from three standard fractal PSDs were tested by relative density experiments. A unit-mass densification contribution coefficient, η_j, was defined from adjacent maximum dry density differences and particle-fraction mass contents. The η_j-d responses exhibited unimodal patterns, and the transition diameter d_c shifted with PSD coarseness. For the two material sources, replacing the full-range index with the truncated index increased the R² values between the fractal index and maximum dry density from 0.195 to 0.886 and from 0.191 to 0.856, respectively. A continuous percentile search showed that the optimal characteristic scale was concentrated near q ≈ 30, with a robust common optimum of q = 30.53. Sensitivity analysis for β = 0.85–0.95 indicated that 0.225d₃₀ falls within the transition region from highly effective filling to reduced densification efficiency. Accordingly, d_L = 0.225d₃₀ is proposed as a preliminary engineering estimate of the lower fitting limit for non-ideal PSDs. The framework is intended for widely graded materials whose full-range fractal parameters are inconsistent with compaction response. Full article

Introduction: Elasmobranchs play a vital role in marine food webs through top-down control and the structuring of ecosystem stability, yet more than one-third of species face extinction. The Maldives, a recognised Indian Ocean hotspot for shark and batoid diversity, designated its EEZ as a shark sanctuary in 2010, but multispecies elasmobranch occurrence patterns and environmental drivers remain poorly characterised in Lhaviyani Atoll in the central Maldives, which hosts two Important Shark and Ray Areas (ISRAs). Recreational SCUBA networks can turn routine dive activity into long-term conservation evidence, already informing nearly 10% of the western Indian Ocean ISRAs. Objective: To characterise spatiotemporal patterns of elasmobranch assemblages in Lhaviyani Atoll (2017–2024), quantify how environmental and geomorphic drivers shape relative abundance, diversity, and hotspots, and provide evidence for targeted elasmobranch conservation. Methodology: A seven-year opportunistic dive-log dataset of 12,732 SCUBA surveys and 142,994 elasmobranch records across 94 dive sites was analysed. Effort-standardised relative abundance and community metrics (Shannon diversity, Pielou’s evenness) were modelled against sea surface temperature (SST), salinity, dissolved oxygen, chlorophyll-a, zonal current velocity, substrate type, and reef geomorphology using generalised additive models (GAMs). Spatial analyses identified persistent northern-rim aggregation areas aligned with ISRAs. Results: Twenty-eight species (14 sharks, 14 batoids) were recorded, including 23 threatened on the IUCN Red List (4 Critically Endangered, 12 Endangered, 7 Vulnerable). Relative abundance and diversity peaked during the late southwest monsoon (August–September) and declined during the northeast monsoon (December–March). After 2021, diversity and evenness increased while overall abundance declined. Relative abundance was primarily driven by SST, salinity, and current velocity; for sharks, dissolved oxygen and chlorophyll-a were additionally significant, whereas batoid abundance was driven mainly by temperature, oxygen, and current velocity. Four persistent hotspots along the northern atoll rim were identified, with sharks concentrated along exposed slopes and channels, and batoids distributed broadly within lagoonal habitats. Conclusions: Long-term citizen science dive-log monitoring is cost-effective for elasmobranch conservation in remote tropical seascapes. These results show how dive-industry partnerships can inform conservation governance over a decade after sanctuary designation, supporting targeted, habitat-focused management as shark and batoid conservation frameworks continue to evolve. Full article

Background: China’s influenza vaccine (InfV) has undergone multiple iterations and numerous technological breakthroughs, providing tremendous impetus and solid support for the development of China’s health sector. As the number of vaccinated individuals continues to rise, the importance of ongoing surveillance and evaluation of vaccine safety has become increasingly prominent, forming part of efforts to maintain public trust in the national immunization program and ensure its sustainability. Methods: From 2016 to 2025, data on suspected adverse events following immunization (AEFIs) related to InfV administration were extracted from the Chinese National Immunization Information System (CNIIS). Data on InfV vaccination doses were obtained from the Anhui Provincial Immunization Information Management System. A descriptive statistical method was used to analyze the distribution characteristics of AEFIs, and the chi-square test was applied to evaluate differences in reporting rates. Results: Between 2016 and 2025, a total of 4026 AEFI reports related to InfV were monitored through the CNIIS. The overall reporting rate was 34.40 per 100,000 doses. Specifically, common adverse reactions and rare adverse reactions accounted for 95.88% (3860 cases) and 3.38% (136 cases), with reporting rates of 32.98 per 100,000 doses and 1.16 per 100,000 doses, respectively. Among common adverse reactions, the reporting rates of fever (axillary temperature ≥ 38.6 °C), local redness and swelling at the injection site (diameter > 5.0 cm), and local induration (diameter > 5.0 cm) were 9.62 per 100,000 doses, 1.96 per 100,000 doses, and 1.20 per 100,000 doses, respectively. Among rare adverse reactions, the reporting rates of allergic rash, angioedema, anaphylactic shock, febrile convulsions, anaphylactoid purpura, thrombocytopenic purpura, epilepsy, Guillain–Barré syndrome, and aseptic abscess were 0.98, 0.05, 0.03, 0.03, 0.02, 0.02, 0.01, 0.01, and 0.01 per 100,000 doses, respectively. No cases were reported for subunit inactivated influenza vaccine (IIV, Subunit). Statistically significant differences were observed in the reporting rates of allergic rash across different types of InfV (χ² = 36.83, p < 0.05), with trivalent inactivated influenza vaccine (IIV3, Split) and trivalent live attenuated influenza virus vaccine (LAIV3) showing the highest reporting rates. Most adverse events following vaccination occurred within 24 h after inoculation. Conclusions: From 2016 to 2025, the overall reporting rate of AEFIs after InfV administration in Anhui Province was within an acceptable range. Common adverse reactions were common, while rare adverse reactions were few, mainly consisting of allergic reactions. These results indicate that InfV has a favorable safety profile, and continuous strengthening of AEFI surveillance for InfV and improvement of surveillance quality are warranted. Full article

Background: Cardiovascular (CV) risk is increased in psoriatic arthritis (PsA), yet vascular assessment has largely focused on carotid arteries, potentially underestimating systemic atherosclerosis. Objective: The objective of this study was to characterize the distribution and concordance of atherosclerotic plaques across carotid, femoral, and aortic territories in PsA and evaluate their incremental value over SCORE2. Methods: In this cross-sectional study, 250 unselected patients with PsA underwent carotid and femoral ultrasound and abdominal X-ray. Plaque prevalence and multiterritorial involvement (≥2 vascular beds) were assessed. Agreement between territories was evaluated using Cohen’s κ. In patients aged 50–69 years, the incremental value of vascular territories over SCORE2 was evaluated using ROC curves, bootstrap-corrected decision curve analysis (DCA), and reclassification metrics (IDI and continuous NRI). Results: Plaques were detected in carotid (36.0%), femoral (62.8%), and aortic (31.6%) territories, with multiterritorial involvement in 43.2%. Agreement between vascular beds was moderate (κ ≈ 0.35). Notably, 48.1% of patients without carotid plaques had femoral involvement. SCORE2 categories showed a strong gradient with plaque prevalence (p < 0.0001). In patients aged 50–69 years, adding vascular imaging improved discrimination for multiterritorial disease (AUC 0.73 vs. 0.86–0.90). Reclassification analyses demonstrated that carotid plaque substantially improved the identification of multiterritorial atherosclerosis (IDI 0.32, 95% CI 0.18–0.50; continuous NRI 1.33, 95% CI 1.08–1.60), with similar results observed for aortic plaque (IDI 0.33, 95% CI 0.20–0.50; continuous NRI 1.24, 95% CI 0.99–1.48). Femoral plaque provided a more modest improvement (IDI 0.26, 95% CI 0.16–0.37; continuous NRI 1.11, 95% CI 0.80–1.33). Conversely, when the outcome was defined as the presence of any plaque, femoral plaque provided the greatest incremental value over SCORE2 (AUC 0.96, 95% CI 0.93–0.99). Bootstrap-corrected DCA confirmed improved net benefit. Conclusions: The incremental value of vascular imaging over SCORE2 appears to be phenotype-dependent. Femoral plaque provided the greatest improvement for detecting the presence of subclinical atherosclerosis, whereas carotid and aortic plaques offered greater incremental value for identifying multiterritorial vascular involvement. These findings support a tailored, multiterritorial approach to cardiovascular risk assessment in patients with PsA. Full article

We introduce a geometric framework for continuous-time quantum walks on graphs by embedding each vertex into a Euclidean space through its time-dependent quantum probability distribution. This construction induces a rich geometry in which quantum transport is characterized by distances, radii, angles, and simplex volumes, allowing interference, localization, and spreading to be analyzed within a unified metric-angular formalism. We prove that, in contrast to classical diffusion, which collapses to a spherical geometry, quantum dynamics generate a generically non-spherical affine geometry with persistent anisotropy. Applying this theory to real-world networks—including transportation systems, semantic graphs, and neuronal connectomes—we show that quantum geometry reveals dynamically meaningful backbones, interference-based “communities”, and vulnerability structures that are invisible to classical random-walk and spectral methods. In particular, angular and radial quantum descriptors isolate functional hubs, control cores, and coherence classes without any topological or dimensionality assumptions. Together, these results demonstrate that quantum-walk-induced geometry provides a powerful new lens for understanding structure and function in complex networks. Full article

Low-carbon operation and reasonable carbon responsibility allocation are essential for improving source-load coordinated emission reduction in park integrated energy systems (PIESs). Existing allocation methods usually trace carbon emissions or calculate marginal contributions, but they still have difficulty distinguishing heterogeneous park users with different load rigidity, demand response (DR) capability, payment capability and real carbon-reduction potential. To address this problem, this paper proposes a carbon responsibility allocation method for PIESs considering user heterogeneity and develops a carbon-cost-feedback-based bi-level low-carbon scheduling model. First, park users are classified into high-energy-consuming industrial users, commercial and public service users, and energy infrastructure users according to quantitative criteria related to energy consumption scale, load continuity, adjustable load proportion and distributed-resource interaction capability. A heterogeneity indicator system is then established, including DR elasticity, electricity utilization efficiency, payment capability, DR potential and actual carbon-reduction potential. Second, an improved Shapley value allocation model is constructed by combining coalition marginal contribution with entropy-weighted heterogeneity correction. The allocation results are converted into user-side carbon responsibility cost signals and embedded into a bi-level optimal scheduling model, where the upper level minimizes the system operating cost and the lower level minimizes users’ integrated energy-use cost. Case studies show that, compared with the conventional economic scheduling scenario, the proposed model reduces the total system cost from CNY 5.0782 million to CNY 4.3258 million and decreases carbon emissions from 14,994.39 t to 10,874.62 t, corresponding to reductions of 14.82% and 27.47%, respectively. The results indicate that the proposed method can coordinate fairness-oriented carbon responsibility allocation with incentive-oriented low-carbon scheduling, supporting both SDG 11 and SDG 12. Full article

Background/Objectives: Re-emergence of Haemophilus influenzae serotype b (Hib) was reported in several European countries. We aimed to characterize the age distribution of H. influnezae carriage before and after Hib vaccination. Methods: We conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis to reassess H. influenzae carriage dynamics in the pre- and post-Hib vaccination eras, focusing on age-specific patterns in childhood. Searches were performed with no date restriction and included PubMed/MEDLINE, Scopus, Web of Science, WHO Global Index Medicus, and the Cochrane Library. Eligible studies reported nasopharyngeal and/or oropharyngeal carriage prevalence and serotype distribution. Pooled estimates with 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were calculated using random-effects models, with age-stratified analyses. Results: Twenty-two studies were included (12 pre- and 10 post-Hib vaccination). Pre-vaccination, pooled H. influenzae carriage prevalence was 24.3% (95% CI, 18.9–30.7%), including 6% (95% CI, 3.4–12.8%) for Hib and 17.5% (95% CI, 12.6–23.9%) for non–type b strains. Post-vaccination, overall carriage remained similar (21.8%; 95% CI, 14.6–31.2%), but Hib carriage declined markedly to 0.67% (95% CI, 0.26–1.71%), while non–type b strains predominated (16.7%; 95% CI, 10.4–25.6%). Meta-analysis showed that carriage peaked around 4–5 years of age and persisted into later childhood. Conclusions: Hib vaccination has reduced Hib carriage, but overall H. influenzae carriage persists due to non–type b strains. Age-related persistence of carriage may have implications for herd protection, particularly in the context of evolving vaccination schedules with early childhood boosters. Continued surveillance integrating carriage and immunological data is needed to inform optimization of vaccination strategies. Full article

Introduction: Skates (Rajidae) are cornerstone elasmobranchs, yet their intrinsic biological constraints, like slow growth, late maturation, and low fecundity, render them exceptionally susceptible to anthropogenic pressure. Despite their ecological and economic importance, tracking their population trajectories is historically hindered by “taxonomic blurring” and aggregated reporting in commercial fisheries. Objective: This study evaluates long-term conservation trends and exploitation dynamics of Rajidae species in the Northeast Atlantic and the Mediterranean Sea. Methodology: We analyzed 31 Rajidae species across the Northeast Atlantic and the Mediterranean Sea (FAO Areas 27 and 37) by integrating IUCN Red List assessments, species-specific life-history traits (maximum body size and depth distribution), and FAO fisheries landing data from 1992 to 2023. Descriptive analyses and Spearman correlations were used to assess temporal trends in conservation status and exploitation patterns. Results: Our synthesis reveals that some species show improvements in IUCN Red List category assessments, likely driven by recent management interventions such as species-specific reporting, catch quotas, and targeted retention bans. However, we also identify a critical mismatch between policy and biology: current Total Allowable Catches (TACs) and minimum landing sizes often do not explicitly incorporate species-specific life-history traits, inadvertently favoring smaller, less-marketable taxa while leaving larger, vulnerable species at risk. While FAO landings offer a valuable broad-scale overview of exploitation, the results highlight the limitations of aggregated fisheries statistics for species-level conservation assessments. Conclusions: These findings underline the need to adopt more precise and species-specific fisheries management approaches for Rajidae, including expanded regional monitoring programs, the use of data collected by on-board observers or electronic monitoring tools, and improved control of data reporting procedures, to prevent continued aggregation of species-level data. Full article

The interplay between special functions and geometric function theory continues to inspire significant advances in the study of analytic and multivalent functions. In this work, we introduce and investigate several new subfamilies of multivalent functions associated with the generalized Mittag-Leffler-type Poisson distribution in the open unit disk. We establish necessary and sufficient conditions characterizing membership in these classes and derive meaningful inclusion relationships among them. Furthermore, we define a novel integral operator linked to the generalized Mittag-Leffler-type Poisson distribution and examine its mapping properties and structural connections with the proposed function classes. The results presented herein not only unify and extend a variety of earlier contributions but also demonstrate the effectiveness of distribution-theoretic methods in the analysis of multivalent functions. Full article

Background: Despite being considered a country with a larger health workforce in Africa, the South African health workforce continues to experience shortages and a maldistribution of health workers across regions and sectors. Current projections suggest that the workforce is expected to decline further, especially among doctors, nurses and midwives, in large part, due to attrition—which could compromise the delivery of primary health and maternity services. These health workforce shortages and uneven distribution threaten the sustainability and effectiveness of health services in South Africa and drives the need to investigate the factors that may be influencing career choice and change decisions among health professionals in South Africa. Methods: A qualitative exploratory study, making use of purposive sampling and semi-structured interviews, was conducted to investigate the factors influencing career choice and change decisions among health professionals in South Africa. The participants were qualified health professionals in the fields of medicine, nutrition, pharmacy, nursing, and psychology working in the private, public, and academic sectors. Data was collected until saturation was achieved and then thematically analyzed using MAXQDA 24. Results: A total of 10 participants made up of three males and seven females were interviewed. These participants worked in different employment sectors with some having dual roles in private practice, public sector, and academia. The analysis revealed three major themes that capture the nature of and factors influencing career choice and career changes occurring in South Africa. The first theme related to factors influencing career choice (including altruism, family influence, personal experiences, financial/job security, academic achievement, career guidance, and opportunity for change). The second theme focused on career change dynamics (nature of career changes and career transitions occurring in the form of specialization, switching health professions, exiting health professions, adding non-health interests, and shifting focus areas). The third theme revealed factors influencing career change. These were categorized into personal and individual factors, workplace or job-specific factors, and administrative factors. This study has contributed to understanding the career choices and career changes taking place within the health professions in South Africa. It has also revealed a need for reforms in policy and practice for the current health professionals who have no intention of changing their careers while highlighting implications for future training of health professionals. Also, addressing the challenges of poor working conditions, lack of support, unemployment and placement delays, and other administrative barriers will help mitigate some of the issues leading to health workforce shortages and inequities in the South African context. Conclusions: The strongest motivator for choosing a career in health professions is the desire to care for others, while retention of the health workforce is challenged by personal, workplace, and administrative factors. Enhancing workplace conditions and support systems, implementing policy reforms, and minimizing administrative barriers is essential for achieving universal health coverage and sustaining a resilient health workforce in South Africa. Full article

Technological advances in hardware and software have enabled the development of novel in situ plankton imaging systems to investigate the spatial and temporal distribution of plankton communities. State-of-the-art machine learning approaches have been applied for automated image classification, effectively handling the complex and highly variable morphology of plankton while maintaining high accuracy. Despite these advances, few instruments can acquire zooplankton images autonomously in a continuous underway mode, which is essential for large-scale oceanographic surveys conducted aboard research vessels or ships of opportunity. Here, we present SiMFlux, an underway shadowgraphic imaging system developed at the University of São Paulo, and report results from the Orient Expedition. Observations were conducted aboard an 80-foot sailing vessel navigating across the Indian and Atlantic Oceans. A total of 193 videos were analyzed from daily route segments, yielding over 1.2 million regions of interest (ROIs) containing organisms and detrital particles. Particles were automatically classified and subsequently validated by plankton experts. Full article

Fine-paste earthenware held symbolic significance in Hindu and Buddhist rituals and domestic use in Southeast Asia. Despite the influx of Chinese glazed ceramics from the ninth century onward, these locally produced vessels continued to circulate widely until the fourteenth century along maritime trade routes extending from northern Sumatra and Java to the southern Philippines and the Thai–Malay Peninsula. Integrated petrographic, Field Emission Scanning Electron Microscopy (FESEM), and Energy Dispersive X-ray Spectroscopy (EDS) analyses were employed to compare fine-paste earthenware from the Kok Moh production center in Songkhla Province, Thailand, and the Kota Cina consumption site in northern Sumatra, Indonesia. Petrographic observations indicate broadly similar mineralogical compositions in samples from both sites, consistent with the use of kaolin-rich clay materials. FESEM reveals that Kok Moh samples exhibit relatively dense and homogeneous microstructures with more continuous matrices, whereas Kota Cina specimens display coarser textures, more distinct mineral inclusions, and less consolidated matrices. EDS elemental mapping further demonstrates a more uniform distribution of major elements in the Kok Moh samples. Although both groups share broadly similar silica–alumina compositions, the observed microstructural differences suggest variations in clay preparation and firing practices rather than major differences in raw material selection. Comparison with published data from Nakhon Si Thammarat supports an association with kaolin-rich clay resources in southern Thailand. In contrast, the examined ceramics differ from fine-paste wares reported from northeastern Thailand, Myanmar, and India. These findings suggest that maritime Southeast Asian fine-paste ware developed as a localized technological tradition shaped by regional resources, production practices, and maritime exchange networks. Full article

Background/Objectives: The stability of complete dentures is strongly influenced by the biomechanical properties of the oral mucosa, whose heterogeneity results in non-uniform load distribution, while its clinical evaluation remains predominantly qualitative. This article proposes a theoretical differential hypothesis aimed at providing a conceptual mathematical framework for interpreting the relationship between mucosal resilience and load distribution in complete dentures. Methods: The denture-mucosa system was represented along a one-dimensional coordinate, defining resilience R(x) and pressure P(x) as continuous functions related by a first-order differential equation, interpreted through elementary principles of differential calculus. Results: A theoretical simulation based on physiological parameters (F = 50 N, Young’s modulus 19.75 MPa, R = 2 mm) highlights that areas of thinner mucosa tend to behave as stress concentration points, while spatial variability of resilience generates deformation gradients potentially associated with prosthetic instability. Conclusions: The model, although simplified and non-predictive, provides a coherent interpretative framework and can support the integration of biomechanical parameters into clinical reasoning and prosthetic planning. No clinical recommendations should be derived from this model until experimental validation has been performed. Full article

We present a novel framework for modeling reaction time distributions in the context of video games aimed at providing a performance tool to support the design of new levels. Modern games generate rich behavioral telemetry (including reaction times, success rates, and interaction patterns) that can be leveraged to understand player behavior and inform adaptive game design. Given a set of general parameters describing a newly designed level, the framework predicts the corresponding reaction time distribution, offering actionable insight during the design process. To address this problem, we employ a combination of statistical fitting via maximum likelihood estimation, weighted approximations, and Lipschitz-based estimators in Wasserstein space. This mathematical framework establishes the groundwork for future AI-based extensions, using metric-space learning to predict distributions for unseen level configurations. The methodology provides theoretical guarantees under mild mathematical assumptions, ensuring bounded estimation errors through the assumption of Lipschitz continuity. Three approaches are proposed, all grounded in a Lipschitz characterization of the metric model parameters, which embeds the vector representation of levels into the 1-Wasserstein space of reaction time distributions. The practical applicability of the framework is demonstrated on a dataset of 480 gameplay observations across 24 participants and 20 distinct trials, testing all three fitting procedures on a set of representative examples. Full article

Sandy coastlines are dynamic geomorphological units supporting dense human populations and intensive economic activities. However, their evolution is increasingly dominated by anthropogenic modification rather than natural processes. This study investigates shoreline evolution along the western Liaodong Bay coast, China, where extensive anthropogenic engineering has potentially altered natural dynamics. A 30-year satellite-derived shoreline (SDS) analysis of 23 sandy beaches (Xingcheng–Suizhong, 1995–2024) was conducted using the CoastSeg framework and DSAS statistical methods across three sub-periods (1995–2005, 2005–2015, 2015–2024). Shoreline change rates ranged from −1.35 to +2.12 m/yr; 11 beaches (47.8%) exhibited net erosion and 12 (52.2%) net accretion or stability, with marked spatial heterogeneity within individual beaches. This complex spatio-temporal pattern shows the strongest spatial correspondence with the non-uniform distribution of anthropogenic structures—including ports, breakwaters, and land reclamation—which generate an “engineering proximity effect” that may fragment natural beach continuity and contribute to a regional alternating erosion–accretion mosaic pattern, though direct mechanistic verification awaits future hydrodynamic modeling. Shoreline evolution along the western Liaodong Bay coast has entered a stage of “multi-layered anthropogenic control,” requiring frameworks that integrate multi-scale, multi-process coupling mechanisms and transcend traditional regional-averaging approaches. These findings provide critical insights for spatially differentiated management of engineering-intensive sandy coasts. Full article