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Keywords = cross-conformal evaluation

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22 pages, 3592 KB  
Article
Conventional Log-Based Formation Element Prediction for Reservoir Characterization in the Jimusar Shale Oil Reservoir Using a Stacked Ensemble Learning Workflow
by Xiaofan Xie, Jinfeng Zhang, Dongji Yang, Yue Shen, Shiliang Nie, Min Hu and Yinghao Shen
Appl. Sci. 2026, 16(11), 5234; https://doi.org/10.3390/app16115234 (registering DOI) - 23 May 2026
Abstract
The Jimusar shale reservoir is characterized by saline lacustrine mixed sedimentation and strong reservoir heterogeneity, making continuous identification of formation elemental composition challenging. Although elemental capture spectroscopy (ECS) logging provides direct elemental measurements, its high cost and limited deployment restrict its large-scale application. [...] Read more.
The Jimusar shale reservoir is characterized by saline lacustrine mixed sedimentation and strong reservoir heterogeneity, making continuous identification of formation elemental composition challenging. Although elemental capture spectroscopy (ECS) logging provides direct elemental measurements, its high cost and limited deployment restrict its large-scale application. This study investigates the feasibility of predicting ECS-derived elemental compositions from conventional logging data to support continuous reservoir characterization. A dataset comprising 115,668 depth-matched samples from three wells in the Jimusar Sag, Junggar Basin, was used. Conventional logging curves served as input features, while ECS-derived elemental concentrations were used as prediction targets. After data preprocessing and feature enhancement, correlation analysis identified seven relevant logging curves as key input variables. Four regression models—Random Forest, XGBoost, CatBoost, and LightGBM—were evaluated and compared with a stacked ensemble learning model. Model performance was assessed using five-fold cross-validation and multiple metrics, including R2, RMSE, MAE, and relative error. The results show that all four individual models achieved satisfactory predictive performance, with R2 values generally around 0.8, whereas the stacked ensemble model provided the highest prediction accuracy and stability. Compared with the individual models, the ensemble model improved R2 by 2–10%, reduced RMSE by 5–15%, and decreased relative error by 8–15% across different elemental predictions. Among the predicted elements, Fe achieved the highest accuracy, with an R2 value of 0.87. As an exploratory engineering application, the predicted elemental compositions were further compared with hydraulic-fracturing response parameters, achieving a conformity rate of 74.8% with fracturing-operation status. These results suggest that predicted elemental data may provide useful auxiliary constraints for fracture-response interpretation and abnormal-risk identification. Nevertheless, further validation using independent well data is required, and the generalizability of the proposed workflow to other wells and lacustrine shale oil systems remains to be further assessed. Full article
22 pages, 6128 KB  
Article
Targeting the Highly Deleterious G161C and Y260C SNP Variants of the AGXT Protein Involved in Glyoxylate Metabolism Using Tauroursodeoxycholic Acid: A Computational Study
by Shruthika Giridharan, Vasundra Vasudevan, Sidharth Kumar Nanda Kumar, Madhana Priya Nanda Kumar and Magesh Ramasamy
Int. J. Mol. Sci. 2026, 27(10), 4590; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms27104590 - 20 May 2026
Viewed by 217
Abstract
Hyperoxaluria Type 1 (PH1) is a rare autosomal recessive metabolic disorder caused by mutations in the AGXT gene, leading to impaired glyoxylate metabolism and excessive oxalate accumulation, resulting in nephrolithiasis, nephrocalcinosis, and end-stage renal disease. As a rare and often neglected disease, PH1 [...] Read more.
Hyperoxaluria Type 1 (PH1) is a rare autosomal recessive metabolic disorder caused by mutations in the AGXT gene, leading to impaired glyoxylate metabolism and excessive oxalate accumulation, resulting in nephrolithiasis, nephrocalcinosis, and end-stage renal disease. As a rare and often neglected disease, PH1 poses a significant challenge to modern healthcare systems due to its progressive nature and limited therapeutic options. In this study, an integrated in silico approach was employed to identify pathogenic single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) and evaluate potential therapeutic candidates. Computational analyses using ConSurf, Align-GVGD, INPS-MD, CUPSAT, and iStable identified G161C and Y260C as highly deleterious variants affecting protein stability. Virtual screening, followed by ADME and toxicity assessments, identified Tauroursodeoxycholic acid (TUDCA) as a promising candidate with favorable pharmacokinetic and safety profiles. Molecular docking revealed that TUDCA exhibited higher binding affinity than the reference drug pyridoxine across native and SNP variants of AGXT proteins. Molecular dynamics simulations (300 ns) demonstrated enhanced structural stability of TUDCA-bound complexes, indicated by reduced RMSD and RMSF, improved compactness, and sustained hydrogen bonding. Furthermore, free energy landscape (FEL) and dynamic cross-correlation matrix (DCCM) analyses confirmed improved conformational stability and coordinated residue motions in SNP variant structures. Overall, these findings suggest that TUDCA may effectively stabilize structural alterations induced by pathogenic AGXT variants, highlighting its potential as a precision medicine-based therapeutic strategy for PH1. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Genetic Variations in Human Diseases: 3rd Edition)
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16 pages, 3210 KB  
Article
Flexible Spectral Sensing Gripper for Real-Time Food Freshness Assessment
by Yuhan Gong, Ruihua Zhang, Chunling Liu, Wei Liu, Wenjing Zhao, Yingle Du, Tao Sun and Xinqing Xiao
Eng 2026, 7(5), 243; https://doi.org/10.3390/eng7050243 - 16 May 2026
Viewed by 126
Abstract
Reliable potato quality monitoring during postharvest handling requires compact sensing systems that can acquire chemically relevant information while operating on irregular tuber surfaces. In this study, a Flexible Spectral Sensing Gripper (FSSG) was developed by integrating a low-cost 12-channel visible/near-infrared (Vis/NIR) spectral sensor [...] Read more.
Reliable potato quality monitoring during postharvest handling requires compact sensing systems that can acquire chemically relevant information while operating on irregular tuber surfaces. In this study, a Flexible Spectral Sensing Gripper (FSSG) was developed by integrating a low-cost 12-channel visible/near-infrared (Vis/NIR) spectral sensor array, electronic components, and an ESP32-S microcontroller onto a flexible printed circuit (FPC) substrate encapsulated with PDMS. By embedding the sensing units into the grasping interface, the FSSG enables conformal, multi-point spectral acquisition during potato handling, reducing optical-coupling uncertainty associated with unstable contact. Spectral reflectance data were collected from potato tubers, and dry matter content (DMC) and starch content (SC) were determined by standard chemical analysis as reference values. Multiple linear regression (MLR) and partial least squares regression (PLSR) models were compared under Norm, SNV, MSC, SNV-Norm, and MSC-Norm preprocessing conditions, and support vector machine (SVM) classification was used to distinguish healthy and artificially induced deteriorated samples. Normalization combined with MLR provided the best performance among the evaluated regression approaches, achieving cross-validation coefficients of determination (RCV2) of 0.847 and 0.817 and RPD values of 2.557 and 2.345 for DMC and SC, respectively. The SVM model achieved 98.67% accuracy for healthy versus artificially induced deteriorated potato samples. Overall, the FSSG demonstrates the value of combining gripper-integrated spectral sensing with interpretable chemometric modeling for potato quality screening. The FSSG enables real-time non-destructive quality prediction and disease-detected classification of potatoes, improves sorting accuracy and production efficiency, and provides general sensing solutions for controlled-environment agriculture, cold-chain logistics, and value-added processing of agricultural products. Full article
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29 pages, 2775 KB  
Article
FADES: Adaptive Drift Estimation via Conformal Signals for Streaming Intrusion Detection
by Seth Barrett, Gokila Dorai, Lin Li and Swarnamugi Rajaganapathy
Electronics 2026, 15(10), 2114; https://doi.org/10.3390/electronics15102114 - 14 May 2026
Viewed by 158
Abstract
Machine learning-based intrusion detection systems (IDS) deployed in real-world environments frequently degrade due to concept drift, where evolving traffic patterns invalidate assumptions learned during training. This challenge is especially pronounced in Internet of Things (IoT) environments, where device behavior changes over time due [...] Read more.
Machine learning-based intrusion detection systems (IDS) deployed in real-world environments frequently degrade due to concept drift, where evolving traffic patterns invalidate assumptions learned during training. This challenge is especially pronounced in Internet of Things (IoT) environments, where device behavior changes over time due to user interaction, firmware updates, and emerging attack strategies. Prior work introduced FIRCE, a framework that integrates conformal evaluation into streaming IDS pipelines to enable uncertainty-aware drift detection and adaptive retraining. In this journal extension, we present FADES, a framework for adaptive drift estimation that generalizes drift monitoring beyond prediction-space uncertainty by supporting both conformal evaluation and representation-space detectors within a unified streaming architecture. FADES incorporates multiple conformal evaluation variants, including Approximate Cross-Conformal Evaluation, which preserves the statistical structure of cross-conformal evaluation while eliminating repeated model training, as well as an Adaptive Chunking Controller that dynamically balances detection responsiveness and computational cost. We extend prior work through three major contributions: (i) a variance-aware evaluation protocol comprising 375 simulations across multiple seeds and runs, (ii) integration of a contrastive autoencoder-based detector to enable direct comparison between prediction-space and representation-space drift detection, and (iii) expanded evaluation across in-domain and cross-dataset transfer settings using UNSW-NB15, CICIDS2018, and a real-world IoT testbed. Approx-CCE achieves performance comparable to standard cross-conformal evaluation across hundreds of simulations, providing empirical evidence that the statistical benefits of CCE derive primarily from its disjoint calibration partition structure rather than fold-specific model diversity, a finding with implications for conformal evaluation in repeated recalibration settings more broadly. In contrast, representation-space drift detection via CADE incurs substantial computational cost under repeated retraining, limiting its practicality in streaming settings. These findings demonstrate that conformal evaluation provides a statistically grounded and computationally efficient foundation for real-time drift-aware intrusion detection, and that FADES enables flexible, unified evaluation of drift detection strategies under realistic deployment conditions. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Security and Privacy Challenges in Integrated IoT and Edge Systems)
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26 pages, 45730 KB  
Review
Preparation, Interaction Mechanism and Application of Functional Ionic Liquid-Mediated Protein Imprinting Technique
by Nan Zhang, Jinrong Zhang, Kaishan Yu, Yang Qiao, Pengfei Cui, Chengzhao Yang and Minglun Li
Polymers 2026, 18(10), 1171; https://doi.org/10.3390/polym18101171 - 9 May 2026
Viewed by 626
Abstract
Protein recognition underpins advances in drug discovery, immunoassays, clinical diagnostics and biosensing. As a biomimetic alternative to natural receptors, molecularly imprinted polymers (MIPs) have been developed to emulate antibody–antigen complementarity by generating binding cavities that mirror the size, shape and functionality of target [...] Read more.
Protein recognition underpins advances in drug discovery, immunoassays, clinical diagnostics and biosensing. As a biomimetic alternative to natural receptors, molecularly imprinted polymers (MIPs) have been developed to emulate antibody–antigen complementarity by generating binding cavities that mirror the size, shape and functionality of target macromolecules through template-directed polymerization and subsequent template removal. However, protein imprinting has historically been hampered by low imprinting efficiency and limited selectivity, rendering conventional protein-imprinted polymers (PIPs) inadequate for many contemporary biomedical applications. Functional ionic liquids (ILs)—a class of designer solvents and materials distinguished by tunable structures, exceptional physicochemical properties and favorable biocompatibility—have emerged as versatile additives to address the principal limitations of traditional PIPs, including poor selectivity, sluggish mass transfer and destabilization of protein conformation. Here, we provide a systematic review of the multifaceted roles that ILs play within protein-imprinting systems, delineating their employment as template-anchoring motifs, functional monomers, cross-linkers, porogens and structural stabilizers, and evaluating the consequent effects on polymer architecture and recognition performance. We further probe the multiplicity of non-covalent interactions between ILs and template proteins—highlighting the synergistic modulation afforded by electrostatic forces, hydrogen bonding, hydrophobic interactions and π-π stacking—and consider how such interplay can be harnessed to fine-tune binding-site fidelity. Consolidating recent progress, we summarize IL-enabled PIP applications in protein-specific recognition, biosensor development and analysis of complex real-world samples, and we critically examine the prevailing technical challenges and prospects for translation. The evidence indicates that ILs, by furnishing abundant interaction sites, accelerating mass transport and stabilizing native protein conformations, can markedly enhance PIP adsorption capacity, target specificity and recyclability, positioning them as a cornerstone for next-generation protein separation and enrichment materials and paving the way toward industrial deployment of protein-imprinting technologies. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Bioinspired Materials: Molecularly Imprinted Polymers)
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29 pages, 954 KB  
Article
Complexity-Aware Progressive Data Error Correction with Distilled Language Models and Conformal Reliability Control
by Chao Liu, Hong Mu, Jingjing Zhou, Enliang Wang and Xuejian Zhao
Mathematics 2026, 14(10), 1599; https://doi.org/10.3390/math14101599 - 8 May 2026
Viewed by 187
Abstract
Reliable tabular data correction is a prerequisite for trustworthy analytics in enterprise information systems. Tabular data in such environments frequently contain formatting errors, semantic conflicts, missing values, and cross-field inconsistencies that degrade downstream analytics and machine learning performance. Rule-based methods efficiently handle structural [...] Read more.
Reliable tabular data correction is a prerequisite for trustworthy analytics in enterprise information systems. Tabular data in such environments frequently contain formatting errors, semantic conflicts, missing values, and cross-field inconsistencies that degrade downstream analytics and machine learning performance. Rule-based methods efficiently handle structural violations but miss context-dependent errors, whereas large language models (LLMs) offer strong semantic-correction capability at inference costs prohibitive for enterprise-scale deployment. This paper formulates data error correction as a progressive decision process and proposes a complexity-aware framework with three processing stages. The first stage applies deterministic rules for low-complexity structural errors. The second stage employs a task-specialized distilled language model for medium-complexity semantic correction. The third stage performs neural probabilistic–logical reasoning on a factor graph for high-complexity cross-field errors. A learnable routing mechanism assigns each record to the appropriate stage based on a lightweight complexity score. Layer-wise conformal prediction is further introduced to construct calibrated prediction sets with coverage guarantees at each stage, together with a rejection mechanism for low-confidence corrections. The framework is evaluated on one enterprise dataset and two public benchmarks (Hospital and Flights). It improves the record-level complete repair rate by 2.1 to 3.1 percentage points over the strongest baseline (GPT-4o-Direct) and by up to 16.8 points over purely rule-based repair, while reducing average inference latency by approximately 80% relative to direct GPT-4o invocation. Ablation studies confirm the critical role of complexity-aware routing and rule-trigger features, and reliability analyses show that hierarchical conformal calibration maintains tighter coverage than single-level alternatives across varying confidence requirements. These results indicate that complexity-aware progressive routing coupled with hierarchical conformal calibration provides a practical path toward high-throughput, auditable, and reliability-controlled data cleaning suitable for enterprise deployment. Full article
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21 pages, 5583 KB  
Article
A 33 GHz Conformal Phased-Array Radar with Linearly Constrained Minimum Variance Digital Beamforming, Circular- Polarization Filtering, and Neural-Network Micro-Doppler Classification for Counter-UAS Applications
by Michael Baginski
Sensors 2026, 26(9), 2883; https://doi.org/10.3390/s26092883 - 5 May 2026
Viewed by 904
Abstract
A compact millimeter-wave radar system operating at 33 GHz is presented for integration on small unmanned aerial systems (UAS) and for ground-based counter-UAS reconnaissance. The design is specifically motivated by civil-sector agricultural applications, where large-payload crop-dusting and precision-spraying drones operating under FAA 14 [...] Read more.
A compact millimeter-wave radar system operating at 33 GHz is presented for integration on small unmanned aerial systems (UAS) and for ground-based counter-UAS reconnaissance. The design is specifically motivated by civil-sector agricultural applications, where large-payload crop-dusting and precision-spraying drones operating under FAA 14 CFR Part 137 require lightweight sense-and-avoid radar that conforms aerodynamically to existing aircraft or ground vehicles. The system is based on a 36-element hemispherical conformal phased array of crossed half-wave dipole radiators that generate right-hand circular polarization (RHCP) on transmit and selectively receives left-hand circular polarization (LHCP) echoes from targets, providing passive first-stage suppression of co-polarized rain and ground clutter. A Linearly Constrained Minimum Variance (LCMV) digital beamformer, applied to per-element analog-to-digital converter (ADC) outputs, delivers closed-form beam weights that enforce a distortionless response at each scan direction while globally minimizing sidelobe power. The formulation resolves the main-beam drift caused by the ill-conditioned re-scaling step in iterative Chebyshev tapering, achieving sidelobe levels below 20 dB with main-beam peaks within 0.1° of their commanded angles across all evaluated positions. Mutual coupling between array elements is modeled analytically using the induced-EMF method, yielding a 36×36 impedance matrix whose off-diagonal entries are at most 8.2% of the element self-impedance at the minimum inter-element separation of 2.70 λ. A closed-form decoupling matrix is applied to the receive manifold prior to LCMV weight computation. Seven simultaneous independent receive beams covering 0°–60° elevation are formed from a single data snapshot. A Scaled Conjugate Gradient neural network classifier, trained on radar-equation-scaled micro-Doppler features following Swerling I–IV radar cross-section (RCS) fluctuation statistics, achieves overall classification accuracy above 85% across five target classes. The five classes comprise two bird-signature classes (SW-I and SW-II), two UAV-signature classes (SW-III and SW-IV), and a clutter class. The design is entirely simulation-based; experimental validation using a sub-array prototype is identified as the primary direction for future work. Full article
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24 pages, 2196 KB  
Article
Regulatory Variation at TERT and TERC Shows Limited Association with Early-Onset Alzheimer’s Disease in Carriers of the Mexican Founder Mutation PSEN1 A431E
by Celeste Patricia Gazcón-Rivas, Iliannis Yisel Roa-Bruzón, Luis Félix Duany-Almira, Cesar Aly Valdéz-Gaxiola, Sofia Dumois-Petersen, Luis Eduardo Figuera-Villanueva, Antonio Quintero-Ramos, Carmen Magdalena Gurrola-Díaz, Daniel Ortuño-Sahagun, Yeminia Valle and Oscar Arias-Carrión
Med. Sci. 2026, 14(2), 228; https://doi.org/10.3390/medsci14020228 - 30 Apr 2026
Viewed by 396
Abstract
Background: Early-onset Alzheimer’s disease (EOAD) caused by autosomal dominant mutations provides a deterministic framework for investigating genetic modifiers of neurodegeneration. Telomere biology has emerged as a central regulator of genomic stability, cellular ageing, and stress response integration, yet its role in EOAD, [...] Read more.
Background: Early-onset Alzheimer’s disease (EOAD) caused by autosomal dominant mutations provides a deterministic framework for investigating genetic modifiers of neurodegeneration. Telomere biology has emerged as a central regulator of genomic stability, cellular ageing, and stress response integration, yet its role in EOAD, particularly in under-represented populations, remains poorly defined. Methods: We conducted a cross-sectional case–control study to evaluate the genetic distribution, disease association, and predicted regulatory consequences of common variants in the telomere maintenance genes TERT and TERC in individuals from Western Mexico. The EOAD group comprised genetically confirmed carriers of the PSEN1 p.Ala431Glu (A431E) founder mutation with clinical EOAD (n = 69), and controls were unrelated individuals without dementia (n = 179). Five common variants were analyzed: rs2242652, rs2853677, rs2736100, and rs10069690 (TERT), and rs12696304 (TERC). Results: Genotype distributions in controls conformed to the Hardy–Weinberg equilibrium. Single-variant analyses showed no significant allele-level associations. Most TERT variants did not show significant allele-level associations with EOAD. However, a preliminary genotype-level enrichment for the GC allele at rs12696304 (TERC) was observed among EOAD cases compared with controls; allele-level associations were not significant. Linkage disequilibrium analysis revealed low r2 values (<0.20), supporting variant independence. Population-level allele frequency comparisons revealed ancestry-dependent divergence across loci; in silico functional annotation localised all variants to non-coding regulatory regions. GTEx-based analyses indicated that rs12696304 acts as an eQTL for ACTRT3 in whole blood and pituitary, as well as for LRRC34 in the cerebellar hemisphere, suggesting a potential regulatory network within the TERC locus (3q26.2). Conclusions: Overall, common regulatory variants in TERT did not show strong independent effects on EOAD susceptibility in PSEN1 A431E carriers. However, the convergence of association patterns, functional annotation, and regulatory evidence provides hypothesis-generating support for the TERC locus (3q26.2), particularly rs12696304, as a candidate region for further investigation. Additional studies integrating telomere dynamics, functional validation, and multi-omics analyses are needed to clarify the role of telomere biology in the pathogenesis of autosomal dominant EOAD. Full article
(This article belongs to the Section Neurosciences)
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23 pages, 2846 KB  
Article
Predicting Emergency Department Patient Arrivals at Hospitals Using Machine Learning Techniques
by Abdulmajeed M. Alenezi, Mahmoud Sameh, Meshal Aljohani and Hosam Alharbi
Healthcare 2026, 14(9), 1191; https://doi.org/10.3390/healthcare14091191 - 29 Apr 2026
Viewed by 382
Abstract
Background/Objective: Emergency Departments (EDs) face persistent challenges with overcrowding, unpredictable patient arrivals, and difficulty forecasting short-term demand. Precise hourly arrival predictions are crucial for effective staffing, optimal resource management, and minimizing entry delays. Methods: This paper develops and evaluates a forecasting framework comparing [...] Read more.
Background/Objective: Emergency Departments (EDs) face persistent challenges with overcrowding, unpredictable patient arrivals, and difficulty forecasting short-term demand. Precise hourly arrival predictions are crucial for effective staffing, optimal resource management, and minimizing entry delays. Methods: This paper develops and evaluates a forecasting framework comparing six approaches (a Seasonal Naive baseline, Exponential Smoothing (ETS), Ridge Regression, LightGBM, a hybrid Temporal Convolutional Network (TCN), and a hybrid Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM) network) using de-identified hourly patient arrival records from an ED in Madinah, Saudi Arabia, covering January–November 2024. A set of 183 engineered features is constructed from cyclical time encodings, weekend and public-holiday indicators, structured autoregressive lags, and volatility measures, with all lag-based features verified to use strictly retrospective information. Models are optimized using Bayesian hyperparameter search and trained under an asymmetric loss function that penalizes underprediction to reflect operational risk. Results: Results on a 14-day hold-out test set show that Ridge Regression achieves the lowest MAE (3.75, R2 = 0.52), with TCN and LSTM essentially tied (MAE 3.80 and 3.85). Diebold–Mariano tests confirm that Ridge, TCN, and LSTM are statistically indistinguishable from one another and that Ridge is marginally significantly better than LightGBM (p=0.028); all four ML models significantly outperform ETS and the Seasonal Naive baseline (p<0.001). On the asymmetric metric, TCN achieves the best AsymRMSE (5.59), reflecting its tendency to err on the safe side of staffing decisions. Robustness is confirmed through sensitivity analysis across penalty factors, feature ablation demonstrating the contribution of each feature group without overfitting, expanding-window cross-validation across three independent monthly test periods, and conformal prediction intervals achieving well-calibrated coverage. Conclusions: These results demonstrate that combining engineered temporal features with either a lightweight linear model or a hybrid sequence model yields accurate hourly ED arrival forecasts; whether the achieved accuracy is operationally sufficient for staffing decisions remains a site-specific question that requires clinical validation beyond the scope of this single-center study. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue AI-Driven Healthcare: Transforming Patient Care and Outcomes)
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26 pages, 3215 KB  
Article
A Conformer-Based Time–Frequency Decoupling Network for Pig Vocalization Behavior Classification
by Jianping Wang, Yuqing Liu, Siao Geng, Feng Wei, Haoyu Wu, Yuzhen Song, Yingying Lv, Shugang Li and Qian Li
Animals 2026, 16(9), 1337; https://doi.org/10.3390/ani16091337 - 27 Apr 2026
Viewed by 311
Abstract
Continuous monitoring of pig behavior is essential for timely health management and welfare assessment in commercial production systems. Although vision-based methods have been widely studied, their practical application in commercial barns is often limited by variable lighting, frequent occlusion, and high stocking density. [...] Read more.
Continuous monitoring of pig behavior is essential for timely health management and welfare assessment in commercial production systems. Although vision-based methods have been widely studied, their practical application in commercial barns is often limited by variable lighting, frequent occlusion, and high stocking density. Acoustic sensing offers a non-contact alternative that is independent of lighting conditions; however, reliable behavior classification from pig vocalizations remains challenging in commercial environments because of background noise and temporal variability in sound patterns. In this study, an attention-guided acoustic framework, termed ATF-Conformer, was developed for pig vocalization classification under farm conditions. A five-class vocalization dataset was collected from finishing Landrace pigs and multiparous sows on a commercial farm, including cough, scream, estrus, feeding, and normal behavior sounds. The proposed framework combined spectrogram denoising with interactive attention to enhance behavior-related acoustic information, while a time-frequency-decoupled Conformer encoder was introduced to improve feature representation under noisy conditions. Final classification was performed using mask-based temporal pooling with an additive angular margin Softmax objective. In five-fold grouped cross-validation, ATF-Conformer achieved an accuracy of 97.34% ± 0.42 and outperformed several existing acoustic models across multiple evaluation metrics. A similar accuracy of 97.38% was obtained on an independent test set, indicating stable performance across datasets. These results suggest that the proposed method can support continuous, non-invasive pig vocalization-based behavior monitoring and may assist farm owners or workers in pen-level screening of frequent cough or abnormal vocal events, thereby supporting targeted on-site inspection in precision livestock farming. Full article
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25 pages, 2026 KB  
Article
Fractional-Order Degradation Modeling for Lithium-Ion Batteries with Robust Identification and Calibrated Uncertainty Under Cross-Cell Transfer
by Julio Guerra, Jairo Revelo, Cristian Farinango, Luis González and Gerardo Collaguazo
Batteries 2026, 12(5), 150; https://doi.org/10.3390/batteries12050150 - 23 Apr 2026
Viewed by 426
Abstract
Accurate and trustworthy prediction of lithium-ion battery aging remains challenging due to multi-mechanistic degradation, cell-to-cell variability, and distribution shift between laboratory calibration and deployment. Fractional-order models have been proposed to capture long-memory effects in electrochemical systems; however, it remains unclear when such memory [...] Read more.
Accurate and trustworthy prediction of lithium-ion battery aging remains challenging due to multi-mechanistic degradation, cell-to-cell variability, and distribution shift between laboratory calibration and deployment. Fractional-order models have been proposed to capture long-memory effects in electrochemical systems; however, it remains unclear when such memory is empirically identifiable and beneficial within the common prognostics abstraction of state-of-health (SOH) versus cycle index. This work develops a fully reproducible computational pipeline for mechanistic battery aging based on a Caputo fractional differential equation (FDE) and evaluates its cross-cell generalization on open NASA cycling data. Parameters are identified using bounded robust nonlinear least squares and validated under a strict transfer protocol: calibration on cells B0005/B0006 and evaluation on held-out cells B0007/B0018 without refitting. The fractional model is benchmarked against a classical ODE surrogate, an ECM-inspired resistance-proxy baseline, and one-step-ahead machine-learning predictors. Uncertainty quantification is performed via parameter bootstrap and subsequently calibrated using conformal correction to target nominal coverage under transfer. Results show that the fractional order tends to collapse toward the integer-order limit (α → 1) in this dataset, indicating limited evidence of additional long-memory at the SOH-versus-cycle level under the considered protocol, while robust identification remains essential for stability. Calibrated prediction intervals achieve near-nominal coverage on held-out cells, highlighting the importance of UQ calibration under cell-to-cell shift. The proposed scripts and environment specifications enable direct replication and facilitate future extensions to stress-aware fractional models and hybrid physics–ML approaches. Full article
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36 pages, 3551 KB  
Article
Early Detection of Short-Term Performance Degradation in Electric Vehicle Lithium-Ion Batteries via Physics-Guided Multi-Sensor Fusion and Deep Learning
by David Chunhu Li
Batteries 2026, 12(4), 116; https://doi.org/10.3390/batteries12040116 - 27 Mar 2026
Viewed by 691
Abstract
Early detection of battery degradation is essential for ensuring the safety and reliability of electric vehicle (EV) systems under real-world operating variability. This paper proposes a physics-guided multi-sensor learning framework, termed SensorFusion-Former (SFF), for early warning of short-term EV battery performance degradation. The [...] Read more.
Early detection of battery degradation is essential for ensuring the safety and reliability of electric vehicle (EV) systems under real-world operating variability. This paper proposes a physics-guided multi-sensor learning framework, termed SensorFusion-Former (SFF), for early warning of short-term EV battery performance degradation. The proposed approach integrates a physics-based baseline model for operational normalization, a multi-sensor fusion attention mechanism to model cross-modality interactions, and a lightweight transformer architecture for efficient temporal representation learning. Weak supervision is derived from physics-consistent residual analysis with temporal smoothing, enabling scalable training without dense manual annotations. To support reliable deployment, evidential uncertainty modeling and conformal calibration are incorporated to obtain statistically controlled decision thresholds. Experiments conducted on a real driving cycle dataset from IEEE DataPort demonstrate that SFF consistently outperforms classical machine learning methods, deep neural networks, and standard transformer models in terms of early-warning lead time, false alarm rate, and inference efficiency while maintaining competitive discriminative performance. Cross-scenario evaluations under diverse thermal conditions further confirm the robustness and generalization capability of the proposed framework. Full article
(This article belongs to the Section Energy Storage System Aging, Diagnosis and Safety)
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29 pages, 3995 KB  
Article
The Geography of Meaning: Investigating Semantic Differences Across German Dialects
by Alfred Lameli and Matthias Hahn
Languages 2026, 11(3), 56; https://doi.org/10.3390/languages11030056 - 16 Mar 2026
Viewed by 727
Abstract
This study reconstructs the geography of meaning of the German perception verb schmecken on the basis of 30 major dialect dictionaries, treating them as a distributed semantic corpus and coding attestations as binary variables reflecting the presence or absence of semantic options. Combining [...] Read more.
This study reconstructs the geography of meaning of the German perception verb schmecken on the basis of 30 major dialect dictionaries, treating them as a distributed semantic corpus and coding attestations as binary variables reflecting the presence or absence of semantic options. Combining a construal-based framework with spatial modeling, the analysis shows that the polysemy of schmecken is structured by three mutually reinforcing forces: embodied sensory organization, construal-based perspectivization, and regionally patterned areal dynamics. The gustatory–olfactory axis forms the semantic core of the verb, from which tactile, visual, affective, and epistemic extensions emerge. These extensions align with systematic pathways constrained by agentive, experiential, emissive, and evaluative construals, demonstrating that semantic extension is channeled through specific construal modes—notably emissive and agentive—rather than determined by sensory modality alone. A detailed areal analysis reveals a pronounced north–south divide. While Low German dialects conform to the cross-linguistically more common tendency to avoid colexifying taste and smekk—itself the outcome of historical change rather than uninterrupted differentiation—Upper German varieties preserve a typologically rare gustatory–olfactory cluster and exhibit the richest range of cross-modal and abstract extensions. The resulting semantic graph formalizes how regional varieties activate different subsets of a lexeme’s semantic potential and demonstrates that semantic networks themselves display spatial organization. The study thus provides an empirically grounded reconstruction of a German geography of meaning and illustrates how dialect data illuminate the interplay between embodied cognition, construal-based lexical architecture, and areal dynamics. Full article
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20 pages, 4104 KB  
Article
Design and Characterization of an HRC-Derived Peptide Inhibitor of Canine Coronavirus Spike-Mediated Fusion
by Valentina Iovane, Rosa Giugliano, Antonio Gentile, Roberta Della Marca, Laura Di Clemente, Annalisa Chianese, Serena Montagnaro, Anna De Filippis, Massimiliano Galdiero and Carla Zannella
Pathogens 2026, 15(3), 315; https://doi.org/10.3390/pathogens15030315 - 14 Mar 2026
Viewed by 718
Abstract
Canine coronavirus (CCoV), an alphacoronavirus belonging to the Coronaviridae family, is primarily associated with enteric infections in dogs. The ongoing evolution of coronaviruses through genetic recombination and mutation leads to the emergence of novel strains with increased pathogenicity, thereby raising the risk of [...] Read more.
Canine coronavirus (CCoV), an alphacoronavirus belonging to the Coronaviridae family, is primarily associated with enteric infections in dogs. The ongoing evolution of coronaviruses through genetic recombination and mutation leads to the emergence of novel strains with increased pathogenicity, thereby raising the risk of cross-species transmission and spillover events. In this context, viral entry inhibitors represent a promising strategy, as they can serve as pivotal tools to prevent initial infection and subsequent viral replication. The S2 subunit of the spike (S) glycoprotein contains two heptad repeat regions (HRN and HRC), which play essential roles in the conformational changes required for viral fusion. In this study, we describe the design, synthesis, and functional evaluation of a peptide derived from the HRC domain of the CCoV S glycoprotein. First, we assessed the cytotoxicity of the CCoV-HRC peptide in two cell lines, HE293T and A72, and determined CC50 values > 100 μM. At non-toxic concentrations, the peptide effectively blocked membrane fusion mediated by the CCoV S glycoprotein and significantly reduced viral infection, as demonstrated both in cell–cell fusion assays and in live virus experiments. These findings were supported by in silico docking and molecular dynamics simulations, which provided structural insight into the interaction between CCoV-HRC and the S fusion core. Then, molecular analyses were conducted to evaluate the expression of the gene encoding the viral S protein, confirming the antiviral potential of CCoV-HRC peptide. Overall, these findings provide a solid foundation for the development of peptide-based therapeutics to treat or prevent CCoV infections. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Current Challenges in Veterinary Virology)
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30 pages, 4440 KB  
Article
Computational Identification of Potential Novel Allosteric IHF Inhibitors Using QSAR Modeling to Inhibit Plasmid-Mediated Antibiotic Resistance
by Oscar Saurith-Coronell, Olimpo Sierra-Hernandez, Juan David Rodríguez-Macías, José R. Mora, Noel Perez-Perez, Jackson J. Alcázar, Ricardo Olimpio de Moura, Igor José dos Santos Nascimento, Edgar A. Márquez Brazón and Yovani Marrero-Ponce
Int. J. Mol. Sci. 2026, 27(6), 2526; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms27062526 - 10 Mar 2026
Viewed by 833
Abstract
The rapid spread of antibiotic resistance through plasmid-mediated conjugation remains a primary global health concern. Despite its critical role in horizontal gene transfer, no approved drugs currently target this process, leaving a critical therapeutic gap. Integration Host Factor (IHF), a DNA-binding protein essential [...] Read more.
The rapid spread of antibiotic resistance through plasmid-mediated conjugation remains a primary global health concern. Despite its critical role in horizontal gene transfer, no approved drugs currently target this process, leaving a critical therapeutic gap. Integration Host Factor (IHF), a DNA-binding protein essential for plasmid replication and mobilization, emerges as a promising yet underexplored target for anti-conjugation strategies. This work aimed to develop a predictive computational model and identify small molecules that disrupt IHF function, thereby reducing plasmid transfer and limiting resistance gene dissemination. A curated dataset of 65 compounds with reported anti-plasmid activity was analyzed using a 3D-QSAR model based on algebraic descriptors computed with QuBiLS-MIDAS. The model was validated through leave-one-out cross-validation (Q2 = 0.82), Tropsha’s criteria, and Y-scrambling. Representative compounds were selected via pharmacophore clustering and evaluated through molecular docking at both the DNA-binding site and a predicted allosteric pocket of IHF. The most promising complexes underwent 200 ns molecular dynamics simulations to assess stability and interaction patterns. The QSAR model demonstrated strong predictive performance (R2 = 0.90). Docking simulations revealed more favorable binding energies at the allosteric site (up to −12.15 kcal/mol) compared to the DNA-binding site. Molecular dynamics confirmed the stability of these interactions, with allosteric complexes showing lower RMSD fluctuations and consistent binding energy profiles. Dynamic cross-correlation analysis revealed that allosteric ligand binding induces conformational changes in key catalytic residues, including Pro65, Pro61, and Leu66. These alterations may compromise DNA recognition and disrupt the initiation of replication. To our knowledge, this is the first computational study proposing allosteric inhibition of IHF as an anti-conjugation strategy. These findings provide a foundation for experimental validation and the development of novel agents to prevent horizontal gene transfer, offering a promising approach to restoring antibiotic efficacy against multidrug-resistant pathogens. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Benchmarking of Modeling and Informatic Methods in Molecular Sciences)
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