Search Results (51,757)

Browning and microbial spoilage are major constraints on the shelf-life of fresh-cut potatoes, yet the concentration-dependent effects of sodium metabisulfite (SM) on product quality and bacterial dynamics are poorly understood. In this study, the impact of SM on the quality and bacterial dynamics of fresh-cut potatoes during storage was investigated. This study evaluated the concentration-dependent effects of SM on the quality of fresh-cut potatoes. The results showed that 0.3% SM treatment effectively delayed browning. Subsequently, the quality and bacterial community of fresh-cut potatoes of CK and 0.3% SM-treated groups were further investigated. The results indicated that a 0.3% SM treatment could inhibit the activities of polyphenol oxidase (PPO), peroxidase (POD) and phenylalanine ammonia-lyase (PAL) as well as the growth of Duganella. On day 7 of storage, the L* values of the control group (CK) and 0.3% SM groups decreased by 17.02% and 7.68%, respectively, while their total plate counts were 4.33 and 4.21 log CFU/g, showing a significant difference between the two groups (p < 0.05). Furthermore, SM treatment extended the shelf-life of fresh-cut potatoes to approximately 7 days, decreased the loss of soluble solids and weight, and maintained textural characteristics (firmness and elasticity). These findings demonstrate that SM treatment is an effective strategy for preserving the quality of fresh-cut potatoes and provide new insights into its role in inhibiting enzymatic browning during storage. Full article

Neuroinflammation plays an essential role in the pathogenesis of several associated brain diseases, including neurodegenerative disorders (Alzheimer’s disease (AD), Parkinson’s disease (PD), multiple sclerosis (MS)), and traumatic brain injury (TBI). In these diseases, persistent microglial and astrocyte aggregates, elevated proinflammatory cytokines, and oxidative stress drive neuronal injury and cognitive disability. Rho GTPases, in particular the Rho family members Ras homolog family member A (RhoA), Ras-related C3 botulinum toxin substrate 1 (Rac1), and cell division control protein 42 homolog (CDC42), regulate neuroinflammation, cytoskeletal dynamics, immune responses, and the maintenance of BBB integrity. These proteins are involved in many neuropathological diseases due to dysregulation, making them interesting therapeutic targets. Bioactives used in herbal care have attracted interest for their ability to influence neuroinflammation and even their anti-neurodegenerative activity. Studies show that flavonoids, alkaloids, polyphenols, and other botanical compounds alter Rho GTPase activity, which, in turn, leads to decreased inflammation. This review critically summarizes current evidence regarding phytochemical regulation of Rho GTPase signaling in neurodegenerative disorders such as Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and Parkinson’s disease (PD), with particular emphasis on the underlying molecular mechanisms, context-dependent signaling responses, and current translational challenges. Furthermore, existing knowledge gaps and future research priorities are discussed to facilitate the development of mechanism-based therapeutic strategies targeting Rho GTPases. Full article

Considered by some to be the largest metabolic organ of the body, the functional integrity of skeletal muscle is highly dependent on its exceptional plasticity, which is primarily governed by mitochondrial quality control. The signaling axis composed of AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK), sirtuin 1 (SIRT1), and peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor gamma coactivator 1-alpha (PGC-1α) serves as a critical hub that senses cellular energy status, coordinates mitochondrial biogenesis, regulates muscle fiber type switching, and maintains protein homeostasis. This review systematically delineates the structural functions and synergistic regulatory network of the AMPK/SIRT1/PGC-1α signaling axis. It further elucidates the regulatory roles of this pathway under physiological conditions—such as exercise adaptation and muscle fiber-type transformation—and its dysregulated mechanisms in the pathogenesis of various skeletal muscle disorders, including sarcopenia, disuse atrophy, cachexia, neurogenic atrophy, muscular dystrophy, and type 2 diabetes mellitus-related myopathy. Building on this foundation, this review critically analyzes current multifaceted therapeutic strategies targeting this pathway, encompassing exercise and physical therapy, nutritional and natural products, and small molecule drugs, as well as gene and cell-based therapies. Finally, this review delves into the challenges facing clinical translation in this field, such as the complexity of the signaling network, individual variability, and bioavailability issues. It also proposes future research directions focused on developing precision intervention tools, establishing effective biomarker systems, and exploring combination intervention strategies. Collectively, the AMPK/SIRT1/PGC-1α signaling axis is central to maintaining skeletal muscle metabolic homeostasis, and targeting this pathway provides a robust theoretical foundation and broad application prospects for the prevention and treatment of skeletal muscle-related diseases. Full article

Attitude tracking constitutes one of the most essential functions for rigid spacecraft operating in orbit. Nevertheless, the performance of spacecraft attitude control systems strongly depends on the operational integrity of onboard actuators, and actuator malfunctions can severely deteriorate tracking accuracy or even destabilize the entire system. Such adverse effects become particularly critical during transient maneuvers, where the spacecraft undergoes rapid rotational acceleration to achieve a prescribed attitude command. To cope with these demanding operating conditions, this work develops a fault-tolerant attitude tracking framework that combines a non-singular fixed-time controller with an adaptive fixed-time fault estimation mechanism. By treating actuator faults and external disturbances as a unified lumped uncertainty term, the proposed approach enhances system robustness under both nominal and faulty operating conditions. The adaptive estimation mechanism serves a crucial role in identifying the upper bound of the lumped uncertainty, thereby enabling reliable fault compensation and improving the overall fault-tolerant capability of the closed-loop system. In addition, rigorous stability proofs based on Lyapunov theory are provided to demonstrate that all closed-loop signals remain bounded and that the tracking errors converge within a fixed settling time independent of initial conditions. Furthermore, theoretical investigations reveal that the proposed non-singular fixed-time formulation achieves faster convergence characteristics compared with a class of existing fixed-time control strategies while simultaneously eliminating singularity-related issues. Finally, comprehensive experimental studies are carried out on a practical spacecraft test platform to verify the feasibility, robustness, and effectiveness of the proposed control methodology. Full article

To improve the efficiency of AD for tetracycline-containing wastewater, this study systematically investigated the effects of ZVI and PAC on pollutant removal, VFA metabolism, biogas production, and sludge physicochemical characteristics. RSM was employed to optimize the co-dosing conditions of ZVI and PAC. The results suggested that ZVI and PAC could significantly facilitate COD degradation, and the optimal dosages for COD removal were 1000 mg/L ZVI and 2000 mg/L PAC with a removal efficiency of 61.03% and 56.9%, respectively. Both additives effectively accelerated the catabolism of typical VFAs, thereby mitigating the accumulation of intermediate metabolites that may cause AD system instability. In terms of biogas production, 1000 mg/L ZVI and 2000 mg/L PAC enhanced methane yield by 55.9% and 35.0% compared to the control group, with ZVI exhibiting a more prominent enhancement effect. Mechanistic analysis suggested that ZVI and PAC reinforced the AD process through multiple pathways: enhancing the electrical conductivity of the AD system, possibly facilitating the electron transfer pathways, and stimulating the secretion of EPSs by anaerobic microbes. RSM optimization yielded the optimal co-dosing parameters: 1000 mg/L ZVI and 1200 mg/L PAC. Under these conditions, the methane yield was increased by 71.18% relative to the control group, and the model validation accuracy reached 97.94%. This study provides a viable technical strategy and theoretical basis for enhancing the efficiency of anaerobic treatment of tetracycline-containing wastewater. Full article

Gestational diabetes (GDM) is a frequent health problem associated with both short- and long-term adverse outcomes for mother and child. Standard management includes lifestyle interventions and, when necessary, pharmacologic therapy. However, the effectiveness and timely initiation of pharmacological therapy depend on accurate glucose monitoring. Continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) systems have emerged as valuable tools in diabetes care, providing real-time information on glycemic variability and enabling more individualized therapeutic interventions. In this narrative review, we explore the role of CGM in the early detection of dysglycemia, its diagnostic and prognostic value, and its ability to identify specific glycemic patterns during pregnancies complicated by GDM. We also assess its role in optimizing lifestyle interventions and guiding pharmacotherapeutic strategies. Current evidence suggests that CGM supports clinical decision-making and patient engaging by providing real-time glucose data. This facilitates earlier identification of hyperglycemic patterns, more precise treatment changes and improved glucose control. Furthermore, CGM use has been associated with improved neonatal and maternal outcomes. Despite these promising findings, barriers such as cost and limited access persist. Although the existing evidence remains relatively limited, it supports the integration of CGM into routine care of women with GDM as part of a comprehensive and personalized treatment strategy. Larger clinical trials are needed to fully understand the benefits and optimal use of CGM in GDM, as well as its impact on pregnancy outcomes, glycemic control and psychological well-being. Full article

Recently, deep learning has enabled unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) to detect human bodies in aerial imagery, which is of particular importance in post-disaster situations such as floods and storms. Yet progress in this domain remains constrained by a familiar obstacle: the shortage of annotated training data. Neural networks, while powerful, are highly sensitive to data volume and diversity. Existing augmentation strategies help reduce this gap but typically introduce only incremental novelty, especially with respect to viewpoint variation, thereby limiting dataset richness. In this work, we propose a complementary strategy that leverages three-dimensional human models reconstructed via photogrammetric techniques. By situating these models within a controlled rendering environment, we generate synthetic imagery across a broad range of elevations and camera angles—perspectives that are rarely captured in conventional UAV datasets. These additions are designed to increase both the variability and the resilience of the training corpus. To evaluate the contribution of this approach, a custom CNN deep convolutional neural classifier was trained and benchmarked on a UAV human vs. non-human patch dataset of 4000 baseline images (128 × 128 px; 2800 train, 600 validation, 600 test), expanded with 3000 photogrammetry-derived synthetic patches (balanced by class) to 7000 total images for the 3DG setting. The primary metric was classification accuracy on the held-out test set, consistent with patch-level evaluation practice; detection-style metrics such as AP/IoU were not applicable to this binary classification protocol. Averaged over five independent training runs, the proposed augmentation improved classification accuracy by 3.02 percentage points over the baseline (88.06 ± 0.97% → 91.08 ± 1.03%), with consistent gains in precision, recall, and F1-score. When combined with standard augmentations (rotation, translation, scaling, flipping), accuracy reached 95.21 ± 0.61%, a gain of 7.15 percentage points over the baseline. These results suggest that photogrammetry-based augmentation offers a practical and effective enhancement for UAV-based human detection pipelines where timely, reliable identification is critical. Full article

This study investigates how family firms adjusted their tax strategies following Brazil’s 2023 alignment with the OECD transfer pricing guidelines, using nonfamily firms as a benchmark. The analysis adopts a blended socioemotional wealth (SEW) and implicit theory perspective, which explains family firms’ behavioral responses to institutional change by linking SEW intensity to owners’ cognitive orientations. The sample comprises 1239 firm-year observations from 177 nonfinancial companies listed on Brazil’s stock exchange between 2018 and 2024. Before the transfer pricing reform, family firms displayed a more aggressive approach to corporate income tax (CIT) minimization than their nonfamily counterparts. After the reform, only nonfamily firms, typically more internationalized, intensified their CIT minimization, indicating greater responsiveness to the new OECD-aligned rules. Family firms, by contrast, exhibited no significant change. Exploiting the new rules requires cross-border operations, which family firms tend to limit to preserve family control. With little such exposure, they were not positioned to benefit from the reform and their tax behavior remained unchanged. This inertia is consistent with an entity-oriented mindset, indirectly inferable from the firms’ muted tax response to the reform. The study contributes to family business and international taxation research by revealing that ownership structure conditions firms’ responses to regulatory change, extending the SEW–implicit theory framework to explain heterogeneous tax behavior, and offering policy insights that standardized enforcement may yield uneven outcomes across ownership types. Full article

Oxidative stress significantly impairs wound healing by prolonging inflammation and damaging surrounding tissue. l-(+)-Ergothioneine (EGT), a naturally occurring thione–thiol antioxidant transported by OCTN1, exhibits potent cytoprotective and anti-inflammatory properties. The aim of the study was to investigate whether EGT applied topically to the periwound region can accelerate healing via transdermal antioxidant action. Full-thickness excisional wounds were created on the dorsum of Wistar rats. Animals were divided into three groups: the untreated rats (control), the rats treated with EGT at concentrations of 130 or 650 μg/cm² applied on gauze positioned in the periwound region. Wound areas were measured over 15 days. Healing kinetics were analyzed using Logistic and Weibull models. The results showed that in the EGT-treated groups wound closures accelerated compared with controls. The Logistic model predicted ~ 70% healing in controls vs. > 90% in EGT-treated animals by day 15. The 130 μg/cm² dose of EGT achieved near-maximal efficacy, while its higher loading had no substantial additional benefit. Topically applied EGT in the periwound region significantly enhances healing, supporting its role as a transdermally active antioxidant and a promising strategy for advanced wound care. Full article

Existing deep-well multi-node observation instrument hoisting and lowering systems suffer from poor compartment coupling adaptability, fuzzy anti-jamming judgment criteria, non-standard operation procedures, and lack of classified hoisting control strategies, which easily cause compartment jamming. Aiming at the above research gaps, this study proposes a standardized full-process hoisting/lowering technology tailored for deep-well multi-node observation instruments. This paper first summarizes and classifies mainstream instrument compartment coupling and hoisting schemes and quantitatively compares their application boundaries, operational risks and applicable borehole conditions. Then it optimizes the integral system layout, compartment installation mode and unified standardized operating workflow for downhole instrument deployment. Furthermore, the downhole jamming mechanism and rapid identification means of instrument compartments are clarified. Classified collaborative control strategies are also established to match different hoisting/lowering working conditions. The research results fill the gap in standardized anti-jamming operation specification for deep-well multi-node instrument deployment and can effectively reduce downhole fault handling time and observation operation interruption frequency, providing feasible technical support for the safe and efficient deployment of downhole observation equipment. Full article

A sustainable method of improving soil fertility and developing climate-resilient cropping systems is vermicomposting agricultural waste. This study hypothesized that vermicompost derived from mixed organic agricultural wastes would significantly improve soil fertility, crop productivity, and drought resilience compared to single-substrate treatments and the unamended control. The effects of vermicompost generated from mixed organic wastes using Eisenia fetida on soil quality, crop performance, and drought resilience of lettuce (Lactuca sativa, Eden variety) were evaluated in this study using a randomized complete block design. Crop performance indicators included germination, growth characteristics, biomass, SPAD chlorophyll content, and yield, while soil physicochemical properties, including pH, organic carbon, total nitrogen, available phosphorus, exchangeable potassium, electrical conductivity (EC), and cation exchange capacity (CEC), were assessed both before and after amendment application. The effects of drought stress were evaluated using leaf surface temperature, wilting score, recovery time, and survival rate. The results demonstrated that vermicompost application significantly improved soil fertility and crop performance relative to the control treatment (p < 0.05). The best-performing treatment (T2) increased soil organic carbon by approximately 22–28%, total nitrogen by 18–24%, available phosphorus by 20–27%, and exchangeable potassium by 16–21% compared with the control. Fresh biomass increased by approximately 14–17%, marketable yield improved by 16–24%, and SPAD chlorophyll values increased by nearly 20%, indicating enhanced photosynthetic efficiency and nutrient uptake. T2 showed the most resilience under drought stress, with ~94.9% survival rate, reduced wilting severity, shortened recovery time and sustained stable leaf temperature (~27.8 °C), whereas low-performing treatments and the control recorded survival rates of only ~70–78%. Mixed organic waste substrates consistently outperformed single-substrate treatments, demonstrating synergistic effects on nutrient cycling, microbial activity, soil structural quality, and drought tolerance. These findings provide quantitative evidence that vermicomposting can simultaneously enhance soil fertility, crop productivity, and drought resilience, highlighting its strong potential as a scalable climate-smart strategy for sustainable agriculture, circular bioeconomy development, and organic waste valorization in smallholder farming systems. Full article

Screening for cultivars with low Cd in edible organs but high Cd accumulation in non-edible organs represents a sustainable strategy for “producing while remediating”. However, the potential of potato cultivars to achieve this dual goal in high-geogenic-Cd karst areas remains unclear. A field experiment was performed to investigate biomass, Cd concentration, bioconcentration factor (BCF), translocation factor (TF) and Cd removal amount (R) in various organs of 26 potato cultivars, which were then classified into different Cd risk types. The results showed that in soils with 2.05–2.98 mg·kg⁻¹ Cd, fresh tuber Cd concentrations ranged from 0.021 to 0.132 mg·kg⁻¹, with nearly 90% of tubers complying with FAO/WHO and Chinese food safety standards. Cd levels in stems, leaves and roots were 1–2 orders of magnitude higher than in tubers, supporting potato as a suitable staple for safe production in such regions. BCF followed the order stem and leaf > root > tuber, while TF followed the order root to stem and leaf > stem and leaf to tuber. Tuber Cd was jointly controlled by Cd uptake, translocation and biomass dilution, with TFstem and leaf–tuber as a key predictor. Annual Cd removal by whole plants ranged from 1082.99 to 7283.64 mg·hm⁻². Principal component analysis classified the cultivars into four types: edible-safe, safe remediation, risky remediation and high-risk types. Notably, cultivars V2, V6, V9, V13, and V18 had tuber Cd concentrations below 50% of the permissible limit, while V16, V8, and V25 achieved >5000 mg·hm⁻² Cd removal without exceeding safety limits. These findings support the dual goal of safe potato production and in situ Cd remediation in high-background karst regions by selecting cultivars with low Cd accumulation in tubers but high Cd accumulation in non-edible organs. Full article

Background/Objectives: Ovarian cancer (OC) is a leading cause of cancer-related mortality in women, largely driven by late-stage diagnosis. Five-year survival is just 30% for advanced-stage (III-IV) disease but exceeds 90% for early-stage disease, underscoring the critical need for effective early detection tools. Current standard-of-care biomarkers show limited sensitivity for early-stage OC and lack specificity in symptomatic populations. Most biomarker studies in OC serum evaluate single molecular classes or compare OC to healthy controls, limiting understanding of coordinated biological alterations in circulating proteins, lipids, and metabolites in clinically relevant populations. Methods: We performed integrated multi-omics profiling of serum from a retrospective, case–control cohort of women presenting with vague abdominal symptoms (VAS), including early- and late-stage OC, borderline tumors, benign gynecologic conditions including adnexal masses, GI disorders, and healthy controls. Protein biomarkers were quantified by ELISA, lipidomic profiling was performed by untargeted LC-MS, and ganglioside and metabolomic profiling were performed by semi-targeted LC-MS with metabolite annotation performed against a curated reference library. Results: Consistent with known limitations for early-stage OC detection, CA125 and HE4 levels overlapped substantially with benign gynecologic conditions. Additional proteins also showed limited separation in their expression between early-stage OC and symptomatic controls. In contrast, OC showed unique lipid and metabolite profiles: phospholipids and glycerolipids were decreased, and sphingolipid composition was altered. Borderline and benign conditions exhibited lipid profiles that fall between healthy and OC groups, suggesting a continuum of metabolic changes rather than distinct states between OC and non-OC controls. Sphingolipid alterations included changes in ceramides and sphingomyelins, along with broader dysregulation of ganglioside profiles, including an elevated GD2;O2-to-GD1;O2 ratio. Metabolic profiling showed decreased amino acids and enriched cysteine metabolism in OC, consistent with altered redox balance, along with changes in fatty acids and acyl-carnitines, suggesting altered lipid metabolism and inflammatory mechanisms. Lower levels of glycolytic and TCA cycle intermediates in OC suggested altered mitochondrial metabolism and energetic reprogramming. Pairwise comparisons revealed a gradient of significance between groups, with differences between OC and healthy controls across lipid classes (LPC, PC, PE, TG, SM), gangliosides (GD1, GD2, GD2/GD1 ratio), and metabolites (amino acids, Cys/CySS, TCA cycle); borderlines occupied an intermediate space. Integration of these datasets revealed coordinated cross-omics relationships, identifying links between metabolite, lipid, and protein features. Together, these connections highlight structured, system-level alterations related to lipid remodeling, redox balance, immune signaling, and energy metabolism that no single modality would have revealed in isolation. Conclusions: This study presents an integrated analysis of the lipidome, gangliosome, metabolome, and protein biomarkers within a single clinically relevant symptomatic cohort enriched with multiple stages and subtypes of OC. This multi-omics framework demonstrates that molecular alterations in OC are biologically interconnected across molecular classes. While these findings are discovery-based and require independent validation prior to clinical application, they support the development of clinically deployable multi-omics biomarker strategies for early detection and potential pathways for therapeutic intervention. Full article

Carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology can play an important role in meeting net-zero ambitions; however, its successful deployment depends on the transport and storage infrastructure for CO₂, as they are the backbone of the carbon management industry. Among the key integrity threats for dense-phase and supercritical CO₂ pipelines, acid precipitation or dropout in CO₂-rich streams containing reactive impurities (SO_x, NO_x, H₂S, H₂O, O_2, etc.) is one of the most serious. These impurities can alter phase behavior, promote formation of highly acidic liquid-phase condensates, and trigger severe localized corrosion and rapid wall-thickness loss. This review focuses on understanding the effects of specific combinations of impurities on CO₂ phase envelopes, acid formation, and corrosion mechanisms in pipelines under realistic flow and operating conditions. It further assesses mitigation and design strategies, including impurity specification and control, deep dehydration, operational envelope management, corrosion-resistant alloys, internal linings and advanced coatings, and emerging modeling tools for predicting corrosive dropout. The knowledge gap in long-term performance under multi-impurity conditions, thermo-hydraulic transients, and coupled corrosion damage is highlighted. Additionally, the importance of future experimental, modeling, and standards development work to enable safe, cost-effective material solutions for CCS technology deployment is proposed. Full article

Urinary tract infections (UTIs) sit at a leading edge of the antimicrobial-resistance (AMR) crisis, and Romania ranks among the most affected European countries, yet large single-center series of urinary isolates with complete antibiograms remain scarce. We describe the full resistance landscape of urinary pathogens at a Romanian tertiary hospital, with particular attention to multidrug-resistant Klebsiella and to the often-overlooked urease-positive organisms. We analyzed all positive urine cultures processed over 13 consecutive months (February 2025–February 2026). The first isolate per patient was the primary unit of analysis (n = 2331); the full isolate-level dataset (n = 3348) was analyzed secondarily. Resistance phenotypes (putative ESBL, carbapenem resistance, MDR, VRE) were derived from per-agent susceptibility data following Magiorakos et al., and resistance rates were calculated only on tested isolates. Associations were tested with chi-square/Fisher tests and Benjamini–Hochberg correction. A total of 3348 isolates from 2331 unique patients were analyzed (median age 68 years; 55% male). Escherichia coli predominated (40.5%), followed by Enterococcus spp. (22.2%) and Klebsiella spp. (18.9%). Among the first isolates, 15.3% were MDR; 16.7% of E. coli, Klebsiella and Proteus showed a putative ESBL phenotype; and 3.9% of Enterobacterales were carbapenem-resistant. Resistance was concentrated in Klebsiella (36.2% MDR, 22.8% putative ESBL, 14.7% carbapenem-resistant; all higher than E. coli, p < 0.001) and in Pseudomonas spp. (48.1% carbapenem-resistant). E. coli retained excellent activity to nitrofurantoin (1.2%), fosfomycin (1.2%; tested in a subset) and ertapenem (0.1%) despite high trimethoprim–sulfamethoxazole (31.5%) and fluoroquinolone (24.3%) resistance. Urease-positive organisms formed a distinct subgroup with high trimethoprim–sulfamethoxazole resistance but preserved carbapenem activity. The urinary resistance burden was substantial but uneven, concentrated in Klebsiella and Pseudomonas. These findings support a stratified, locally guided empirical strategy and combined stewardship–infection control efforts. Full article