Search Results (367)

Background/Objectives: The co-occurrence of diabetic peripheral neuropathy and depression increases the symptom burden and risk of long-term complications. Methods: This cross-sectional study enrolled 131 patients with type 1 (age: 58.47 years; duration of diabetes: 35.61 years) and type 2 diabetes (age: 63.60 years; duration of diabetes: 11.49 years). All patients underwent assessment of socioeconomic status and evaluation using the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale, the Mental Component Score of the Short Form Healthy Survey Questionnaire, neuropathy disability score, nerve conduction studies, corneal confocal microscopy and intraepidermal nerve fibre density (IENFD) assessment. Results: The prevalence of foot pain (45% vs. 23.9%, p = 0.019), tingling (56.7% vs. 32.9%, p = 0.013), weakness (35% vs. 9.9%, p < 0.001), ataxia (40% vs. 16.9%, p = 0.001), and upper limb symptoms (45% vs. 19.7%, p = 0.001) were statistically significantly higher, while cold perception threshold (22.50 ± 8.47 vs. 26.34 ± 3.08, p = 0.007), corneal nerve fibre density (20.49 ± 7.55 vs. 24.16 ± 5.68, p = 0.002) and length (20.06 ± 6.98 vs. 22.95 ± 6.22, p = 0.014) were statistically significantly lower, but no differences in nerve conduction studies or IENFD were observed in patients with depression compared to patients without depression. Furthermore, patients with depression were from a lower socioeconomic class (51.7% vs. 21.1%, p < 0.001), had lower educational attainment (37.9% vs. 12.9%, p < 0.001), had lower income < £37,000 (29.3% vs. 11.4%, p = 0.010) and lived in areas of high deprivation (62.1% vs. 31.4%, p < 0.001). Conclusions: Comorbid depression in people with diabetes was linked to increased socioeconomic deprivation and a greater prevalence of neuropathic symptoms and small fibre pathology. Full article

Positive mental health (PMH) has recently become a key topic in biomedical research. Previous studies have explored the correlation between biological and psychological measures, but only a few have focused on the relationship between PMH and aging. This study aimed: (i) to explore the association between PMH and biological aging; (ii) to determine if and to what extent the observed association could be explained by shared genetic and environmental effects. A total of 401 twins (age 19–81 years, 32% male) from the Italian Twin Registry were recruited, and the twin study design was applied. A self-report psychological test battery was used to evaluate several PMH components. Blood samples were collected from participants to determine telomere length (TL) and mitochondrial DNA copy number (mtDNAcn). TL was negatively associated with attachment anxiety (r = −0.11, p = 0.037). A bivariate twin model provided heritability estimates of 0.14 (95% CI 0.001–0.43) for TL and 0.32 (0.16–0.45) for attachment anxiety, and a substantial negative genetic correlation [r_g = −0.55 (−1.00–0.00)] between them. Under the limitations of a cross-sectional study with a self-report wellbeing assessment, these results suggest that anxiety in a relationship with a partner may contribute to accelerated TL shortening, and shared genetic factors may underlie this link. Full article

Deposits of insoluble protein plaques, which are mostly composed of fibrils from disease-specific amyloid proteins, are histological markers of various human disorders. These range from non-neuropathic amyloidosis such as light chain amyloidosis or type II diabetes to well-known neuro-degenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s Disease and Parkinson’s Disease. There are indications that these types of fibrillar suprastructures display biological activity distinct from the individual fibrils they are composed of. Yet, little is known about the mechanisms underlying the assembly of fibrillar suprastructures. An understanding of secondary fibril self-assembly into mesoscopic and macroscopic suprastructures is also critical for their application as novel biomaterial. The paucity of experimental data and theoretical models on fibrillar supra-assembly likely relates to the experimental and conceptual challenges in following this type of assembly on multiple length- and timescales, and in characterizing the distinct morphologies formed. Here, we report that the amyloid dye thioflavin T (ThT) is augmented during self-assembly of isolated lysozyme fibrils. We provide evidence that this augmentation of ThT fluorescence results from the unquenching of fibril-bound ThT during fibril binding. Combining ThT fluorescence, optical density, and fluorescence quenching kinetics with optical and electron microscopy, we propose that fibril self-assembly is driven by a transition from reaction-limited ordered assembly to diffusion-limited random cross-linking of fibrils. Full article

Background/Objectives: Growing evidence suggests that disruption of circadian rhythms contributes to the pathogenesis of inflammation and inflammatory bowel disease; however, clinical data linking circadian gene variants to ulcerative colitis remain limited. In this study, we aimed to investigate associations between key circadian rhythm gene polymorphisms and clinical and treatment-related characteristics in ulcerative colitis. Methods: A total of 107 patients with ulcerative colitis and 80 healthy controls were included in this single-center cross-sectional study. The BMAL1 rs7950226, CLOCK rs1801260, and CRY1 rs2287161 polymorphisms were analyzed using the polymerase chain reaction–restriction fragment length polymorphism (PCR-RFLP) method. Genotype and allele frequency distributions were compared between patients and controls, and associations with clinical characteristics were evaluated within the ulcerative colitis cohort. Results: Genotype distributions of BMAL1 rs7950226 and CLOCK rs1801260 were similar between patients with ulcerative colitis and healthy controls; however, the G allele of BMAL1 was more frequent in patients (p = 0.028). Within the ulcerative colitis cohort, CLOCK rs1801260 genotypes were significantly associated with inflammatory and treatment-related characteristics, with the CC genotype linked to higher C-reactive protein levels (p = 0.021) and the TT genotype associated with increased azathioprine use (p = 0.006). Conclusions: These findings suggest a potential association between circadian rhythm gene variants and clinical features of ulcerative colitis, particularly in relation to inflammatory activity and treatment requirements, and provide preliminary clinical insight that warrants further investigation in larger and longitudinal studies. Full article

Growing interest in developing sustainable materials that reduce dependence on fossil resources has led to increased development of bio-based elastomers that can compete with traditional materials in terms of performance when reinforced with additives. This study shows that functionalizing graphene oxide with different alkylamine chains (C8, C12, and C16) enables precise, multidimensional modulation of polymyrcene rubber (PMy) composite behavior. The main finding is that there is a critical concentration of ~1.5–2.0 phr and an optimal chain length of C16 that maximizes mechanical strength, elongation, and toughness simultaneously, thus avoiding the classic trade-off between stiffness and extensibility. Additionally, the study reveals biphasic behavior of graphene oxide modified with dodecylamine (GO_A12) on curing kinetics. At low concentrations, GO_A12 slows vulcanization by competing with accelerators, while at higher concentrations, it accelerates vulcanization via Zn–amine–sulfur complexes. This duality is reflected consistently in the crosslink density, Payne effect, and tensile properties, establishing a coherent structure–property correlation. Identifying an optimal crosslinking regime of ~8.5 × 10⁻⁴ mol/cm³ as the common denominator of the best formulations provides a rational design guide for high-performance elastomers based on renewable matrices and graphene-derived reinforcements. The decrease in tan δ observed through mechanical dynamic analysis suggests potential applications in the tire industry due to increased energy dissipation, which would improve fuel efficiency. Full article

We present an innovative, cost-effective framework integrating laboratory Hyperspectral Imaging (HSI) of the Bechar 010 Lunar meteorite with ground-based lunar HSI and supervised Machine Learning (ML) to generate high-fidelity mineralogical maps. A 3 mm thin section of Bechar 010 was imaged under a microscope with a 30 mm focal length lens at 150 mm working distance, using 6x binning to increase the signal-to-noise ratio, producing a data cube (X × Y × $\lambda$ = $791\times 1024\times 224$, $0.24$ mm × $0.2$ mm resolution) across 400 nm to 1000 nm (224 bands, $2.7$ nm spectral sampling, $5.5$ nm full width at half maximum spectral resolution) using a Specim FX10 camera. Ground-based lunar HSI was captured with a Celestron 8SE telescope (3 km/pixel), yielded a data cube ($371\times 1024\times 224$). Solar calibration was performed using a Spectralon reference (99% reflectance < 2% error) ensured accurate reflectance spectra. A Support Vector Machine (SVM) with a radial basis function kernel, trained on expert-labeled spectra, achieved 93.7% classification accuracy (5-fold cross-validation) for olivine (92% precision, 90% recall) and pyroxene (88% precision, 86% recall) in Bechar 010. LIME analysis identified key wavelengths (e.g., 485 nm, 22.4% for M3; 715 nm, 20.6% for M6) across 10 pre-selected regions (M1 to M10), indicating olivine-rich (Highland-like) and pyroxene-rich (Mare-like) compositions. SAM analysis revealed angles from $0.26$ rad to $0.66$ rad, linking M3 and M9 to Highlands and M6 and M10 to Mares. K-means clustering of Lunar data identified 10 mineralogical clusters (88% accuracy), validated against Chandrayaan-1 Moon mineralogy Mapper (${\mathrm{M}}^3$) data (140 m/pixel, 10 nm spectral resolution). A novel push-broom HSI approach with a telescope achieves 0.8 arcsec resolution for lunar spectroscopy, inspiring full-sky multi-object spectral mapping. Full article

As the hybrid offspring of cattle and yak, cattle–yaks suffer from male sterility, manifesting as cascading spermatogenic failure. Despite the Y chromosome’s pivotal role in spermatogenesis, the absence of a high-quality yak Y assembly has long impeded mechanistic understandings from this perspective. Here, a near-complete 42.4 Mb yak Y chromosome is constructed through a multi-stage assembly strategy that integrates de novo assembly with pangenome graph construction and Hi-C guided refinement. By developing a rigorously standardized gene annotation pipeline for precise cross-species comparison, we find that yaks have undergone a greater expansion of Y-linked ampliconic genes than cattle. Integrating this ampliconic landscape with short-read and full-length transcriptomics further demonstrates that yaks exhibit a drastic 2-to-4-fold increase in transcriptionally active copies of spermatogenesis-related ampliconic genes (including TSPY1, ZNF280BY, HSFY and PRAMEY) relative to cattle. Given negligible homology outside the pseudoautosomal region and conservation of key meiotic proteins, we propose a ‘cis-trans regulatory mismatch’ model driven by divergent Y-linked amplification as a working hypothesis to explain the primary genetic mechanism of cattle–yak male sterility. Together, these findings offer critical insights for addressing cattle–yak male sterility and establish the Y chromosome as an active driver of reproductive isolation beyond its traditional degenerate characterization. Full article

Background/Objectives: Patients after cardiac surgery admitted to the intensive care unit (ICU) are exposed to environmental, procedural, and psychological stressors that may affect comfort and recovery. This study aimed to assess perceived ICU stressors in postoperative cardiac surgery patients, identify the most and least distressing factors, and examine associations between stressor intensity and selected clinical and organizational variables. Methods: A single-center cross-sectional survey was conducted in an ICU in Poland (January 2024–February 2024). Adult patients after cardiac surgery who provided informed consent and had no cognitive impairment were included; cognitive status was screened using the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA). Perceived stressors were measured using the Intensive Care Unit Environmental Stressor Scale (ICUESS; 40 items; 4-point Likert scale). Results: The highest-rated stressors were sleep problems (M = 2.30; SD = 0.86) and hearing heart monitor alarms (M = 2.16; SD = 0.82). The lowest-rated stressors were not knowing what day it was (M = 1.46; SD = 0.54) and nurses not introducing themselves (M = 1.50; SD = 0.54). Longer respiratory support and higher pain intensity were associated with higher stressor ratings for multiple ICUESS items, whereas age showed no significant association. Higher room occupancy was linked to higher perceived stress related to environmental disturbances. ICU length of stay showed only limited item-level associations. Conclusions: Postoperative cardiac surgery patients experience a multifactorial burden of ICU stressors, with sleep disruption and alarm-related noise among the most distressing. Prioritizing modifiable environmental factors, symptom control (particularly pain), and patient-centered communication may help reduce perceived stress, especially in shared-room settings and among patients requiring longer respiratory support. Full article

Background/Objectives: Inclusion complexes among drugs and cyclodextrin-modified polymers are a topic of recent interest in pharmaceutical research and industry as they might expand the solubility, bioavailability, and stability of the guest molecules. Polyurethanes derived from cyclodextrins show some biomedical applications. In this study, two cross-linked polyurethane networks based on hydroxypropyl-β-cyclodextrin (HPβCD) and polyethylene glycols (PEG 2000 or PEG 6000) were synthesized with NCO/OH molar ratio 4.3 and 6.3 by the typical two-step polymerization method. Methods: Inclusion complexes of clotrimazole (CLOT) with two HPβCD-modified polyurethane networks and their corresponding physical mixtures were prepared using kneading methods and physical mixing in a 1:6 weight ratio of CLOT:HPβCD. Results: Obtained prepolymers, previously end-capped with isocyanate groups forming urethane links with HPβCD, which were confirmed by FTIR analysis. TGA results indicate a slight increase in thermal stability of the prepared complexes. The characteristic endothermic peak of the CLOT at around 145.90 °C did not appear in the DSC curve of the drug-loaded inclusion complexes. The XRD patterns of physical mixtures showed specific peaks corresponding to pure clotrimazole. SEM micrographs confirmed an elliptical/spherical- and plate-shaped particles without phase segregation, indirectly confirming that CLOT is not separately present due to inclusion into HPβCD and entrapment into polyurethane networks. Novel complexes PUR2/HPβCD-CLOT-IC and PUR3/HPβCD-CLOT-IC were applied as drug carriers, and diffusion-controlled kinetics of CLOT release were best described using Higuchi model. Conclusions: The obtained in vitro results showed surprisingly slow/prolonged clotrimazole release from modified polyurethane networks due to the significant influence of NCO/OH molar ratio and the chosen polyol soft segments chain length with potential in vivo applications. Full article

Komagataeibacter strains are important bacterial cellulose producers, yet closely related isolates can differ in cellulose yield, pellicle properties, and genetic stability during propagation. Such variability suggests that lineage structure and mobile genetic elements both contribute to strain-level genomic divergence. Here, complete genome comparisons were used to integrate vertical relatedness, gene-content structure, cellulose-associated signatures, and mobilome heterogeneity across 22 closed Komagataeibacter assemblies. A maximum likelihood phylogeny inferred from 642 single copy core genes provided the lineage scaffold. An anvi’o pangenome analysis defined a constant core gene cluster component across genomes and a noncore fraction that accounted for most of the genome differences in gene content. Targeted features linked to cellulose biosynthesis and local c-di-GMP-associated context were extracted from each genome. These features captured differences in bcs neighborhood composition and the presence of nearby GGDEF and EAL domain signals. The resulting feature matrix was projected by principal component analysis to summarize between-genome variation. Mobilome profiles were strongly strain dependent. Plasmid homology clustering identified 12 clusters comprising 36 plasmids from 13 genomes, including two dominant clusters of seven and six plasmids. Mash-based distance summaries further distinguished clusters consistent with conserved backbones from clusters consistent with heterogeneous, module-driven relationships. Prophage sequences, assessed as VIBRANT-predicted regions, were widespread but sparse per genome and dominated by medium length fragments. Insertion sequence burden ranged from 50 to 181 elements per genome, indicating substantial differences in transposition-associated sequence content. Pairwise association tests did not support robust cross module covariation beyond expected relationships among pangenome composition metrics at the current sampling depth. Overall, these results provide a complete genome reference framework linking lineage structure and mobilome heterogeneity, and they define reusable resources for comparative studies in bacterial cellulose biotechnology. Full article

With the increasing number of failures in high-voltage cross-linked polyethylene cables caused by buffer layer ablation, it is of great significance to investigate the electro–thermal coupling characteristics and ablation driving mechanisms under different defect conditions. Based on a multiphysics coupling model, an electro–thermal coupled simulation of the cable buffer layer and corrugated aluminum sheath was carried out, considering three typical defect types: air-gap barrier, moisture ingress, and white-powder barrier. The distributions of air-gap electric field, interfacial current density, temperature, and heat source were systematically analyzed. From the perspective of ablation mechanisms, the maximum air-gap electric field and its spatial location, as well as the maximum temperature of the buffer layer and its corresponding region, were investigated under different defect conditions. Meanwhile, the probabilities of electrical ablation and thermal ablation, together with their corresponding threshold parameters, were quantitatively evaluated. The results show that when an air-gap barrier exists between the buffer layer and the aluminum sheath, air breakdown may occur when the air-gap thickness is approximately 0.01–0.05 mm. When the buffer layer is moisture-contaminated and the defect length exceeds approximately 2 m, the buffer layer temperature may exceed 165 °C. When white-powder precipitates in the buffer layer, partial discharge may be initiated at the early stage. With the increase in powder barrier proportion, the buffer layer temperature may exceed approximately 220 °C. It should be noted that these critical characteristics are obtained under the simulation conditions of this study. The specific values depend on material parameters and operating conditions and can provide theoretical support for cable operation condition assessment. Full article

Anthropogenic pressures and climate change are accelerating the degradation of seagrass ecosystems and the ecological services they provide. In temperate systems, the decline of eelgrass (Zostera marina) has raised noticeable concern, particularly as restoration actions (e.g., transplantation) require accurate, nondestructive estimates of leaf biomass. Allometric power-law models can provide such proxies, but their applied value depends on whether fitted parameters remain transferable across sites and sampling periods. Here, using two extensive and independently collected datasets from San Quintín Bay (SQ) and Punta Banda estuary (PB), we evaluate three formulations: M1 (biomass–length), M2 (biomass–length–width), and M3 (biomass–area surrogate). All three models produced consistent fits in both datasets, and parameter-comparison tests detected no significant between-site differences. Reciprocal cross-projections of monthly mean leaf biomass showed high concordance, supporting practical parameter stability within the SQ–PB domain. A model-selection analysis based on goodness of fit and parsimony further identified the bivariate model M2 as the best-performing proxy across sites. Taken together, these results support a practical interpretation in which eelgrass may express phenotypic plasticity through shifts in trait distributions (length and width), while the scaling relation linking morphology to biomass remains effectively stable. For applied restoration-comparison purposes, we therefore recommend using M2—preferably with site-fitted parameters, or pooled/mean parameters when supported by reproducibility tests—to estimate aerial production non-destructively and cost-effectively. Full article

Short-term photovoltaic (PV) power forecasting is crucial for secure and economical grid operation, yet remains challenging under fast and nonstationary irradiance fluctuations. This paper presents a plant-level TA–SH–LSTM framework that integrates temporal attention into an LSTM encoder to highlight informative subsegments for improved ramp tracking and peak localization and applies budget-aware Successive Halving to jointly tune window length and key hyperparameters under a fixed training budget. To enhance PV-engineering interpretability, we establish a first-order thermal inertia surrogate that explicitly links module temperature to ambient temperature and irradiance, and evaluate robustness across irradiance-tercile regimes within the observation window. Experiments on two real PV plants from the Kaggle Solar Power Generation dataset demonstrate consistent gains over a baseline LSTM and an SH-tuned LSTM. On Plant 1, MAE/RMSE decreases from 1141.1/2066.6 kW to 223.4/424.6 kW and $R^2$ increases from 0.932 to 0.997. Without retraining, the model transfers to Plant 2 with 286.1 kW MAE, 477.1 kW RMSE, and $R^2$ = 0.993, confirming strong cross-site generalization and practical utility under varying operating conditions. Full article

In this work we investigate the behavior of a toroidal photoacoustic resonator to provide compact, physics-guided analytical relationships that link its geometry to two key parameters: resonance frequency and quality factor. Finite-element data are combined with reduced-order analytical models to refine a corrected toroidal-resonance frequency model that accounts for effective propagation length and thermo-viscous effects. For the quality factor, a simple law motivated by a boundary-layer dissipation model is proposed. Derived models are validated by experimental tests performed using three 3D printed toroidal resonators in different sizes. Experimental results confirm the prediction both for the first and third resonance frequencies with an average relative error below 1%, outperforming cylindrical and uncorrected baseline models available in the literature. The results also confirm the predicted trend of the quality factor with respect to the torus’s minor radius, highlighting a direct relationship between the cross-sectional area and acoustic losses, which governs the balance between stored acoustic energy and thermo-viscous dissipation. Overall, the framework provides quick, interpretable design rules that reduce dependence on extensive finite-element method simulation campaigns for first-pass estimation of resonant behavior during the early design phase and guiding the optimization of high-performance PAS devices while preserving accuracy. Full article

Filled elastomers often exhibit a low-frequency power-law storage modulus (G-prime), yet quantitative links between molecular interfacial structure and macroscopic reinforcement remain unresolved. This gap is addressed using a hierarchical multiscale framework that integrates coarse-grained molecular dynamics (MD) and dynamic mechanical analysis (DMA). Overall, MD contributes transferable structural descriptors rather than direct macro-rheology prediction. MD simulations yield a bound-layer scaling relation for chain length $N=50$ in coarse-grained simulations serving as a structural probe. For EPDM master curves, the single-phase fractional Maxwell model is statistically preferred (Delta AICc > 147, n = 56), reflecting limited statistical power; larger datasets (e.g., PC/ABS, n = 952) favor the dual-phase formulation. For cross-scale prediction, an MD-derived effective-volume-fraction baseline (MAPE = 54.1%) provides a structural prior; the regime-partitioned bridge model absorbs relaxation physics not resolved at the MD scale, reducing error to 7.3% (blocked-CV MAPE = 9.5%, with a 2.3% fold-to-fold spread). Linear-viscoelastic constraints improve nonlinear PTT calibration, reducing die-swell error by 87%. Full article