Search Results (30,210)

Background/Objectives: Bereavement in childhood, adolescence, and young adulthood is associated with a range of grief responses, and a subset of bereaved individuals develop persistent or severe grief symptoms. Understanding the prevalence and risk factors of prolonged grief symptoms is important for guiding supportive care. Methods: We systematically searched PubMed, MedLine, Embase and PsycINFO for all studies comparing the prevalence and prognostic factors of prolonged grief-related symptoms among young individuals following parental or sibling death from cancer. Young individuals were defined as those not more than 25 years old before losing a parent or sibling to any cancer. Prolonged grief-related symptoms were defined as the presence of grief symptoms at least six months following the death of a parent or sibling of the bereaved person. Retrospective cross-sectional studies were included for evaluating prognostic factors affecting prolonged grief-related symptoms, but were not used for meta-analyses. Random-effects meta-analyses were conducted for the primary analysis. Results: From 1561 records identified, thirteen studies were included with five for quantitative pooling in meta-analysis. The pooled prevalence of self-reported prolonged grief-related symptoms was 48% (95% CI: 29–67%). Stratified analyses suggested a prevalence of 28% (95% CI: 7–65%) after parental death and 59% (95% CI: 45–72%) after sibling death. Factors associated with elevated prolonged grief-related symptoms included pre-existing depression, emotional difficulties, and insomnia. As no included studies conducted diagnostic clinical interviews, prolonged grief disorder according to the ICD-11 or DSM-5-TR criteria could not be assessed. Conclusions: Prolonged grief-related symptoms appear common among young individuals bereaved by loss of a parent or sibling to cancer, especially after sibling loss. However, interpretation remains limited by substantial heterogeneity, such as outcome measures, symptom thresholds, assessment time window, non-validated symptom measures, and predominance of cross-sectional studies. Future larger and methodologically rigorous studies using validated grief instruments across diverse settings are needed to clarify grief trajectories and guide developmentally appropriate intervention strategies. Full article

Soil texture is recognised as one of the key physical properties of soil. Although traditional laboratory testing methods can determine soil texture information with high accuracy, they are often considered time-consuming and costly. To achieve rapid and accurate acquisition of soil texture information, this study proposes RVFM, a hybrid deep learning model designed for soil texture detection using microscopic images. The model integrates a CNN branch for extracting multi-dimensional texture features with a Transformer branch for capturing global positional information, fused via a cross-attention module. This architecture effectively captures microscopic distribution characteristics to estimate soil composition proportions. Experimental results demonstrate high precision, with prediction coefficients (R²) for sand, silt, and clay reaching 0.971, 0.954, and 0.931, respectively. Corresponding Root Mean Square Errors (RMSE) were recorded at 3.789, 2.842, and 2.780. The test results outperform those of other classical network models, and the model shows better fitting performance in generalisation tests, demonstrating certain practical value Full article

Background/Objectives: Rural older adults are exposed to multiple chronic stressors that may heighten depressive symptoms, and these effects can be intensified by social disconnection, particularly in resource-constrained settings. This study examined whether global and dimension-specific perceived social support—an indicator of perceived social connection—mediates and/or buffers the association between perceived stress and depressive symptoms in rural older adults from northern Peru. Methods: A cross-sectional survey was conducted with 166 community-dwelling adults aged ≥60 years in a rural coastal district. Perceived stress (PSS-4), depressive symptoms (GDS-15), and perceived social support (MOS-SSS) were assessed. Regression-based mediation and moderation models with bootstrapped confidence intervals were estimated, adjusting for age, sex, marital status, education, income category, and chronic medical conditions. Results: Higher perceived stress was associated with greater depressive symptoms. Greater overall social support was associated with lower perceived stress and fewer depressive symptoms. Indirect effects supported a stress-process pathway for overall support, particularly socioemotional dimensions (positive social interaction and affectionate support). No buffering effect was observed for overall support; however, tangible (instrumental) support attenuated the association between stress and depressive symptoms. Conclusions: Mediation analyses supported an indirect pathway linking perceived stress to depressive symptoms via socioemotional support, whereas tangible (instrumental) support moderated the stress–depression association. Interventions that strengthen social connectedness and practical assistance may help protect mental health in rural older adults. Full article

Introduction: Pre-eclampsia (PE) is a pregnancy-related hypertensive condition defined by the onset of hypertension after 20 weeks of gestation that is associated with proteinuria and maternal organ damage or uteroplacental dysfunction. It continues to be a leading cause of maternal and perinatal morbidity and mortality globally. PE is linked to systemic inflammation, endothelial dysfunction, and oxidative stress, which may compromise hepatic function. Aim: This meta-analysis assesses the impact of PE on maternal liver function by evaluating hepatic biomarkers, including aspartate aminotransferase (AST), alanine aminotransferase (ALT), alkaline phosphatase (ALP), and total serum bilirubin. Methods: This meta-analysis of observational studies in Epidemiology (MOOSE) involved a search of PubMed and Scopus and manual screening of studies published between 2000 and 2025. Eligible studies included cross-sectional, case–control, and cohort designs. The quality of the studies was evaluated using the Newcastle–Ottawa Scale. Statistical analysis was conducted using the online meta-analysis, Jamovi version 2.6.44, and IBM SPSS Statistics version 30, and effect estimates were reported as standardized mean differences (SMDs) with 95% confidence intervals (CIs). Results: Forty-five studies, comprising 257,929 women 9420 with PE; 248,509 normotensive, were included. Women with PE had elevated AST, MD = 1.81 (95% CI: 1.51 to 2.10; p < 0.0001) and ALT, SMD = 1.73 (95% CI: 1.38 to 2.07; p < 0.0001); ALP, SMD = 1.43 (95% CI: 0.97 to 1.88; p < 0.0001); and total serum bilirubin (TSB), SMD = 0.62 (95% CI: 0.36 to 0.88; p < 0.0001) in comparison to normotensive controls. In the meta-regression, maternal age and quality were significant moderators, with older age and high-quality studies associated with smaller and larger effect sizes, respectively, for ALP (β = −0.720 and β = 1.444) and TSB (β = −0.304 and β = 0.761). For every 1-unit increase in body mass index, there was a significant 0.406-unit decrease in ALT effect size. Conclusions: PE is significantly associated with elevated maternal hepatic enzyme levels, indicating hepatocellular damage and impaired liver function. These findings emphasise the necessity for routine liver function monitoring in pregnant women with hypertensive disorders. Full article

For addressing the challenge that cross-interconnection of metal sheaths in long-distance high-voltage cables complicates the monitoring of cable insulation faults, it is proposed a fault diagnosis scheme based on resistive current, dielectric loss factor, and sheath current. The voltage and current signals at both ends of the cable are collected, as well as the current signals at the outlet of the grounding box and the transposition box. By establishing an equivalent model of the cross-connected cable, the calculation method for fault diagnosis is derived, and an implementation scheme for fault diagnosis is provided. The insulation monitoring method proposed in this paper is simulated and verified using MATLAB/Simulink software, with simulations conducted to investigate four typical faults: cable insulation fault, sheath open-circuit fault, transposition box immersion short-circuit fault, and cable intermediate-joint breakdown fault. The circuit model of the cross-connected unit is established in the laboratory to verify the method proposed in this paper. The results show that the simulation results are consistent with the test results, and the fault types can be correctly reflected, which verifies the correctness and effectiveness of the insulation monitoring method. Full article

Background/Objectives: Sugar-sweetened beverage (SSB) consumption has been linked to obesity, metabolic diseases, and rising healthcare costs. This study aimed to assess the impact of a 20% excise tax on SSBs in Brazil on obesity/overweight prevalence, seven musculoskeletal and cardiovascular diseases, and related healthcare costs, with their associated impacts on health inequalities. Methods: Using 2017/2018 Brazilian Household Budget Survey data for baseline consumption and own- and cross-price elasticities for taxed beverages, we estimated changes in caloric consumption for the entire population and for lower- and upper-income quartiles. The PRIMEtime dynamic individual-level simulation model projected body weight changes, lifetime Quality-Adjusted Life-Years (QALYs), healthcare costs (discounted at 5%), and disease cases (20-year horizon). Results: A 20% excise SSB tax was projected to reduce obesity prevalence by 1.7 percentage points in men and 1.5 percentage points in women, from baseline rates of 19.8% and 23.6%, respectively. Lifetime gains were estimated at 17,878 QALYs per million men and 12,181 per million women, alongside healthcare cost savings of Int$520 million. Impacts varied by income, with smaller health gains in the lowest quartile and higher among the wealthiest. Over 20 years, the tax could avert 1784 cases of type 2 diabetes mellitus/100,000 adults (52% in men) and 1070 cases of ischemic heart disease/100,000 adults (80% in men). Conclusions: A 20% excise SSB tax in Brazil could yield large health and cost benefits. With the recent approval of the Selective Tax under Complementary Law 214/2025, Brazil has a timely opportunity to translate these projected benefits into effective public health policy. Full article

In this paper, a microwave metasurface sensor integrated with artificial intelligence (AI) for breast tumor detection is presented. The sensor’s sensitivity is estimated by analyzing shifts in magnitude and the phase of the reflection coefficient ($S_{11}$) obtained from normal and abnormal breast phantoms. The ($S_{11}$) responses of 137 anatomically realistic 3D numerical breast phantoms in standard classes, C1—mostly fatty, C2—scattered fibroglandular, C3—heterogeneously dense, and C4—extremely dense, incorporating different tumor sizes are used as input features. A custom neural network is developed to detect tumor presence using the recorded ($S_{11}$) responses. The model is trained with cross-entropy loss and the AdamW optimizer. The dataset is split into training (70%), validation (15%), and test (15%) sets. The model achieves 99% accuracy, with perfect precision, recall, and F1-score across individual classes. For paired class combinations, accuracies of 71% (C1 with C2) and 65% (C2 with C3) are obtained, while performance degrades to approximately 50% when all four classes are combined. The sensor is fabricated and experimentally validated using two physical breast phantoms, demonstrating reliable detection of a 10 mm tumor. These results highlight the effectiveness of combining microwave metasurface sensing and AI for breast tumor detection. Full article

The efficacy of Underwater Camouflaged Object Detection (UCOD) is fundamentally constrained by severe boundary ambiguity, where biological mimicry blends targets into complex backgrounds and aquatic optical degradation erodes edge details. We propose a lightweight boundary perception detector named CAR-YOLO (Camouflage Ambiguity Resolution YOLO). Specifically, a frequency-domain dual-path mechanism (FRM-DWT/EG-IWT) leverages selective wavelet aggregation and dynamic injection to recover high-frequency edges. Subsequently, these high-frequency cues are synergized with low-frequency semantic information via the Low-level Adaptive Fusion (LAF) module. To further address noisy samples, an Uncertainty Calibration Head (UCH) refines supervision via prediction consistency. Finally, we constructed specialized datasets based on public data for training and evaluation, including UCOD10K and UWB-COT220. On UCOD10K, CAR-YOLO achieves 27.1% mAP50–95, surpassing several state-of-the-art (SOTA) methods while reducing parameters from 2.58 M to 2.43 M and GFLOPs from 6.3 to 5.9. On the challenging UWB-COT220 benchmark, the model attains 30.7% mAP50–95, marking a 7.7-point improvement over YOLOv11. Furthermore, cross-domain experiments on UODD demonstrate strong generalization. These results indicate that CAR-YOLO effectively mitigates boundary ambiguity, achieving an optimal balance between accuracy, robustness, and efficiency. Full article

Capacitive sensors are widely adopted in compact robotic systems due to their simple structure, ease of fabrication, and scalability for miniaturized designs. However, sensor miniaturization inevitably leads to reduced sensitivity and increased sensitivity imbalance, particularly in torque measurements, due to limited electrode area and spatial constraints. To address these limitations, this paper presents a compact six-axis force/torque (F/T) sensor based on a redundant capacitive sensing architecture. The proposed sensing architecture employs a symmetric arrangement of multiple capacitive electrodes, providing redundant capacitance measurements that enhance sensitivity while reducing coupling errors under multi-axis loading conditions. By exploiting redundant capacitive responses rather than relying on complex mechanical separation, the proposed design effectively improves measurement robustness. Based on this architecture, a compact six-axis F/T sensor with a diameter of 20 mm and a height of 12 mm is developed. Experimental validation demonstrates that the proposed sensor achieves linearity (>98.2%) with reduced cross-axis interference, confirming improved sensitivity and reliable multi-axis F/T measurement. This work provides a practical and scalable solution for integrating high-performance six-axis F/T sensing into space-constrained robotic systems. Full article

Background/Objectives: The effect of proanthocyanidins (PAs) on neuroinflammation through the modulation of colonic microflora and their metabolites was investigated in obese mice fed a high-fat diet (HFD). Methods: Thirty healthy male C57BL/6J mice of similar body weight were randomly divided into control (CON), high-fat diet (HFD), and proanthocyanidin (PA_HFD) groups. HFD and PA_HFD groups were fed an HFD, whereas the CON group was fed a basic diet for 8 weeks. Subsequently, the CON and HFD groups were administered equal doses of saline, and the PA_HFD group was administered PA (100 mg/kg/day) daily. We evaluated microbial changes through gut microbiota richness and probiotic relative abundance, analyzed metabolite variations via non-targeted metabolomics and pathway enrichment, assessed neuroinflammation via related gene expression, and measured cognitive function using platform crossing frequency and target quadrant time in the Morris water maze, where longer duration and more crossings indicate better cognition. Results: Body weight was significantly lower in the PA_HFD group than in the HFD group. In the PA_HFD group, fewer inflammatory and hepatic fat cells were observed, and hepatocellular edema was alleviated. PA significantly decreased total cholesterol, low-density lipoprotein, IL-1β, TNF-α, lipopolysaccharide, and Lc3 expression and increased Sirt1 and FGF21 expression in hippocampal tissue (p < 0.01). PA significantly altered the abundance of colonic microbiota (p < 0.01), including phyla Patescibacteria and Bacteroidota and genera Lactobacillus and Akkermansia. KEGG analysis revealed that differences in metabolite profiles between CON and HFD groups were reflected in glycerophospholipid metabolism, while those between HFD and PA_HFD groups were in steroid hormone biosynthesis and tryptophan metabolism. Metabolomic analysis demonstrated that changes in metabolites and microbiota were significantly correlated with neuroinflammation. Conclusions: In conclusion, PAs play a role in modulating neuroinflammation, colonic microflora, and colonic metabolites in mice and have a mitigating effect on cognitive decline in HFD-induced obese mice. Full article

Background/Objectives: There is still limited understanding of how psychotic symptoms and sexual risky behaviors (SRBs) are related to each other. Gaining more knowledge of the mechanisms involved in this relationship could inform interventions to reduce or prevent SRBs. This study aims to deepen comprehension of the relationship between psychotic experiences (PEs) and SRBs by examining the moderating effects of depression and childhood trauma. Methods: A web-based survey and a cross-sectional design were adopted to collect data from 466 young general population adults (aged 18–35 years) from Tunisia during the period January–March 2024. The snowball sampling technique was used to recruit participants. Results: Moderation analyses were adjusted over age, sex, household crowding index, marital status, and living situation. The interaction PEs by childhood trauma was significantly associated with SRB scores. At high and moderate levels of child abuse, higher PEs were significantly linked to higher SRBs. Furthermore, the interaction PEs by depression was significantly associated with SRB scores. At high, moderate, and low levels of depression, higher PEs were significantly associated with higher SRBs. Conclusions: Clinicians should consider including assessment of childhood trauma and depression in young adults with PEs who are engaged in sexual risk-taking behaviors. Findings may imply that strategies addressing these two factors can be effective in mitigating the association between PEs and SRBs. Full article

Background/Objectives: Electroencephalography (EEG) and functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) can objectively capture the spatiotemporal dynamics of brain activity during affective cognition, and their combination is promising for improving emotion recognition. However, multi-modal cross-subject emotion recognition remains challenging due to heterogeneous signal characteristics that hinder effective fusion and substantial inter-subject variability that degrades generalization to unseen subjects. Methods: To address these issues, this paper proposes DC-AGIN, a dual-contrastive learning attention graph isomorphism network for EEG–fNIRS emotion recognition. DC-AGIN employs an attention-weighted AGIN encoder to adaptively emphasize informative brain-region topology while suppressing redundant connectivity noise. For cross-modal fusion, a cross-modal contrastive learning module projects EEG and fNIRS representations into a shared latent semantic space, promoting semantic alignment and complementarity across modalities. Results: To further enhance cross-subject generalization, a supervised contrastive learning mechanism is introduced to explicitly mitigate subject-specific identity information and encourage subject-invariant affective representations. Experiments on a self-collected dataset are conducted under both subject-dependent five-fold cross-validation and subject-independent leave-one-subject-out (LOSO) protocols. The proposed method achieves 96.98% accuracy in four-class classification in the subject-dependent setting and 62.56% under LOSO. Compared with existing models, DC-AGIN achieves SOTA performance. Conclusions: These results demonstrate that the work on attention aggregation, cross-modal and cross-subject contrastive learning enables more robust EEG-fNIRS emotion recognition, thus supporting the effectiveness of DC-AGIN in generalizable emotion representation learning. Full article

The growing importance of cross-border scientific collaboration reflects its role in strengthening regional innovation systems and supporting sustainable socio-economic development. This study examines cross-border scientific research collaboration between Shenzhen and Hong Kong, with particular attention to how institutional differences impact the sustainable development of such cooperation. Drawing on the analytical framework of the cross-border regional innovation systems (CBRIS), this study employs qualitative research methods—including fieldwork interviews, focus groups, and thematic workshops—to systematically examine the key challenges and emerging opportunities arising from institutional differences between the two regions. The findings show that there are significant institutional differences in four areas, including research integrity systems, scientific resource sharing mechanisms, project management processes, and talent development frameworks. These distinctions not only undermine the effectiveness of cross-border collaboration, but they also offer opportunities for institutional coordination and policy innovation meant to promote a more inclusive and sustainable regional research cooperation system. By analysing the experiences of researchers and research administrators, the study emphasises the crucial importance of institutional coordination in ensuring the long-term sustainability of the CBRIS. The results offer data-based evidence and policy insights that can inform the development of policy innovations to strengthen cross-border scientific collaboration and promote the sustainable evolution of the CBRIS. Full article

Sepsis is defined as life-threatening organ dysfunction caused by a dysregulated host response to infection. The kidney is among the organs most susceptible to sepsis-induced injury, and acute kidney injury frequently develops in this context, thereby markedly increasing mortality in affected patients. With continued advances in research, a more comprehensive understanding has been achieved regarding the clinical risk factors, pathophysiological mechanisms, therapeutic responses, and renal recovery processes associated with sepsis-associated acute kidney injury (SA-AKI). These advances have strengthened the capacity for prevention, early detection, and effective management of SA-AKI. Despite this progress, substantial gaps remain in the overall understanding of SA-AKI pathogenesis, including the complex interplay among pathophysiological mechanisms and the extensive cross-regulation of multiple signaling pathways. Consequently, SA-AKI remains a major clinical challenge and imposes a substantial global healthcare burden. There is therefore an urgent need for further research to elucidate the underlying mechanisms of SA-AKI and to identify more effective therapeutic strategies. Unlike previous reviews that primarily focused on individual mechanisms or isolated therapeutic targets, the present review synthesizes the most recent evidence on SA-AKI. Particular emphasis is placed on its pathogenic processes, associated molecular mechanisms and signaling pathways, and emerging therapeutic targets. Special attention is given to the hierarchical relationships among distinct mechanisms during disease progression and their implications for clinical translation. This review aims to inform clinical practice and to identify future research directions, thereby providing valuable insights for both researchers and clinicians in this field. Full article

The present work explores the effects of dental splints from a mechanical standpoint, aiming to provide a practical tool for the surgical decision-making process regarding splint cross-section dimensions. Our investigation centers on the anatomical structure of a pentamorphic dental arch encompassing central and lateral incisors and one canine on each side. Using parametric in silico models built up by means of an ad-hoc procedure, geometry, material properties, and boundary conditions are defined on a parametric anatomical model that can be tailored using RX-derived geometrical information. Two general cases have been considered, one with the splint and the other splintless, and a sensitivity analysis has been performed by varying the splint section height and thickness. The results show the diminishing mobility at the apex and basis of the diseased incisors, demonstrating the effectiveness of the periodontal treatment. Moreover, the stress due to physiological loads moves away from diseased teeth toward the healthy ones due to the splint effects, focusing on the splint–glue–canine contact zone and highlighting the crucial role played by the canine in fixing the entire dental structure. To establish a preliminary mechanical assessment of the dental structure’s safety and to confine its actual value within a mechanically reasonable range, a synthetic “traffic-light” indicator of stress-based failure risk is proposed. It is felt that the tool proposed in this study can help surgeons assess the pre-operative patient-specific mechanical effects of the splint treatment, driving the design and choice of periodontal splints. By linking splint geometry to mechanical safety via a stress-based indicator, the method supports the optimized design and selection of splints, improving treatment reliability while preserving comfort and clinical effectiveness. Full article