Search Results (9,298)

Jadeite and omphacite, both pyroxene-group minerals, are the two most dominant component minerals in fei cui (a rock-origin gemstone that may be dominated by jadeite, omphacite, kosmochlor, or their intermediate compositions), and classifying jadeitic vs. omphacitic domains is key to identification, grading, and evaluation. However, determining their proportion quantitatively often needs destructive analyses, which is not suitable for high-value fei cui samples. In this study, 29 fei cui samples were selected to obtain electron probe micro-analysis (EPMA) data and infrared reflectance spectra. We found that six characteristic peaks and the intensity ratio (I_B/I_C) near 1085–1066 cm⁻¹ and 963–946 cm⁻¹ showed strong linear correlations with the Na/(Na+Ca) atomic ratio in the jadeite–omphacite series of the studied fei cui, upon which an infrared spectroscopy semi-quantitative screening method was then developed. In this method, the I_B/I_C ratio from infrared spectra was derived to provisionally estimate the Na/(Na+Ca) atomic ratio according to statistical models; for jadeite (Na/(Na+Ca) atomic ratio > 0.8), its I_B/I_C ratio > 1.68, whereas for omphacite (Na/(Na+Ca) atomic ratio ≤ 0.8), its I_B/I_C ratio ≤ 1.68. This finding has implications for provisionally discriminating jadeitic from omphacitic domains non-destructively. Furthermore, by FTIR mapping using micro-FTIR, heatmaps based on the calculated I_B/I_C ratio at each scanned spot allow observation of the spatial distribution of jadeite-dominant and omphacite-dominant domains classified as jadeitic or omphacitic according to the Na/(Na+Ca) ratio, providing a semi-quantitative estimate of their mapped areal proportion on the polished surface. The method and its application were reinforced by micro-XRF mapping; Na and Ca elemental heatmaps show the same distribution in the same region, and would satisfy the increasing demand in fei cui testing. Full article

Background: Quality assurance (QA) is a cornerstone of safe and effective postgraduate training in gynecological laparoscopic surgery, where clinical outcomes depend on procedural complexity, equipment sophistication, and the coordinated competence of an entire surgical team. This article is a narrative review of the conceptual, professional, and regulatory foundations of QA in healthcare education, complemented by a structured synthesis of the collective teaching and clinical experience of the author group. It is not an empirical study, and the sections that follow present a conceptual mapping supported by expert perspective rather than original outcome data. Methods: Sources were identified through targeted searches of PubMed/MEDLINE and Google Scholar, supplemented by hand-searching of policy and curriculum documents issued by professional bodies and by backward citation tracking, without date restriction. Approximately 480 records were screened at title and abstract level, 112 were assessed as full text, and 41 sources were retained against predefined inclusion and exclusion criteria, with five further sources added during peer review. In a second and separate step, the ten co-authors, who hold teaching and supervisory roles in gynecological laparoscopy across academic centers in Romania and Germany, each completed the same six-item written prompt on training provision, trainer development, trainee assessment, and institutional QA practice; responses were coded thematically by two authors independently and consolidated into explicit points of convergence and divergence. Results: We describe how QA principles, originally articulated in general quality-management and health-promotion literature, have been adapted by professional and regulatory bodies, including the European Board and College of Obstetrics and Gynecology (EBCOG), European Society for Gynecological Endoscopy (ESGE), American Society for Gastrointestinal Endoscopy (ASGE), and the UK General Medical Council, into concrete standards for training providers, trainers, and trainees. We outline the structures used to monitor and audit training quality, including Kirkpatrick’s four-level evaluation model and periodic institutional review cycles, alongside documentation and certification pathways such as the Gynecological Endoscopic Surgical Education and Assessment (GESEA) program, with governance and financing as cross-cutting determinants of sustainability. The author synthesis converged on a consistent gap between documented standards and their routine enforcement and diverged on whether external review and formal certification should become mandatory. Conclusions: The conceptual architecture of QA in gynecological laparoscopy is coherent and broadly fit for purpose, but we identified no study linking the implementation of a specific QA standard to measurable gains in trainee competency or patient outcomes in this field. Proposals for harmonized, outcome-oriented, and where appropriate, mandatory external review should therefore be read as reasoned positions awaiting prospective evaluation rather than as evidence-based recommendations; generating that evidence, with the trainee’s own perspective collected rather than inferred, is the principal task for future research. Full article

Parenting practices involving violent discipline are a global health concern, particularly among low-income families. While the current literature offers general prevalence data, it lacks a comprehensive global perspective evaluating how diverse sociodemographic, cultural, and historical contexts intersect within disadvantaged households. This scoping review protocol aims to map the global evidence on parenting practices related to physical and psychological violence used as disciplinary practices against children within low-income contexts. Following the JBI Manual for Evidence Synthesis and PRISMA-ScR guidelines, we will conduct a comprehensive search across databases, including MEDLINE/PubMed (via the National Library of Medicine), CINAHL (EBSCO), APA PsycINFO (APA), Embase (Elsevier), ERIC, IBECS (via the VHL) and the WHO Global Index Medicus to capture global evidence published in recent years. Studies published in English, Portuguese, and Spanish between January 2015 and June 2026 that report violent disciplinary practices by parents or caregivers of children aged 1–8 years will be included. Rayyan software will assist with study selection. Mapping these practices across diverse socioeconomic settings may clarify current research gaps and synthesize the characteristics of families globally, shifting the interpretation of violent discipline from isolated parental choices to broader understanding of its social determinants and providing a clearer baseline to support future child protection research. Full article

Background/Objectives: Lebanon is undergoing a rapid demographic transition, with older adults projected to exceed one-fifth of the population by 2050. Supporting healthy and independent aging requires a robust evidence base that extends beyond clinical care to encompass community, environmental, psychosocial, and policy dimensions of aging in place. This bibliometric review maps the landscape of gerontology and geriatrics research in Lebanon to identify research trends, gaps, and future priorities for advancing holistic approaches to aging. Methods: A bibliometric review was conducted of gerontology and geriatrics research published between 2015 and 2026. Publications were retrieved from the Scopus database and screened according to predefined eligibility criteria. Results: A total of 403 publications met the inclusion criteria. Research productivity increased steadily over the study period, reaching its highest level in 2025, although publications remained concentrated among a relatively small number of authors and institutions. The literature was predominantly oriented toward clinical, epidemiological, and public health aspects of aging, with comparatively limited attention to community-based aging, psychosocial well-being, age-friendly environments, policy, social participation, and other determinants that support older adults’ ability to age safely and independently within their communities. Research evaluating interventions outside tertiary healthcare settings was particularly scarce. Conclusions: This review provides the first bibliometric mapping of gerontology and geriatrics research in Lebanon and indicates that, despite substantial growth in scientific output, the identified literature is largely centered on diseases and institutional healthcare. Future research should adopt more holistic and multidisciplinary perspectives to promote psychosocial well-being and aging well in one’s community. These priorities may guide researchers, practitioners, and policymakers in developing strategies for aging well in Lebanon. Full article

Variable-rate pesticide spraying and fertilizer application require coordinated operation of heterogeneous agricultural machines, particularly in irregular fields where task demands, vehicle mobility, payload capacity, energy consumption, and resupply requirements vary spatially. However, most existing studies optimize aerial spraying or ground fertilization separately and do not jointly consider prescription-map demands, air–ground synchronization, pesticide-drift risk, and agricultural vehicle constraints. This study formulates collaborative UAV spraying and UGV fertilization as a multi-objective mixed-integer nonlinear programming problem with three objectives: minimizing system makespan, weighted energy consumption, and pesticide-drift penalty. A prescription-map-guided bi-level planning framework is proposed. At the upper level, the problem-specific TNSAOO solver determines UAV and UGV task sequences and collaborative resupply-point activation. At the lower level, adaptive Theta* and row-constrained Hybrid A* generate UAV spraying and UGV fertilization trajectories, respectively, while prescription-dependent application commands are assigned along active operation segments and a time-window mechanism detects and corrects residual air–ground conflicts. The framework was evaluated using 30 real farmland boundaries and 90 randomized prescription scenarios. Mean geometric coverage rates reached 98.82% for UAV spraying and 98.95% for UGV fertilization, while the mean prescription-compliance errors were 6.21% and 2.13%, respectively. In addition, 96.7% of the batch runs contained no more than one detected air–ground conflict, with a mean corrective waiting time of 1.07 s. Compared with traditional independent operation, collaborative planning reduced mean system makespan by 9.32%, weighted energy consumption by 7.21%, modeled drift penalty by 3.62%, and total path length by 5.79%. In the multi-objective comparison, TNSAOO obtained a mean hypervolume of 0.597 and a mean inverted generational distance of 0.375, showing competitive Pareto-search performance relative to established comparison algorithms, particularly NSGA-II. Additional terrain and drift sensitivity analyses produced systematic changes in energy, completion time, and modeled drift risk under controlled parameter perturbations. These findings demonstrate the simulation-based feasibility of jointly planning heterogeneous variable-rate spraying and fertilization under a shared prescription map. Physical field experiments remain necessary to validate spray deposition, fertilizer-distribution uniformity, terrain effects, and model calibration under environmental uncertainty. Full article

The aerodynamic characterization of propeller-driven UAVs is often constrained by the unfeasibility of testing the complete airframe–propeller assembly in a wind tunnel, since geometric scaling prevents simultaneous similarity of both the airframe and the propeller. To address this limitation, this work presents an integrated experimental–numerical methodology that reconstructs the full-scale free-air aerodynamic behaviour of a tractor-propeller UAV combining wind-tunnel measurements of the scaled airframe (without the propeller) and the full-scale propeller. Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) is not used to predict the full-scale UAV directly; it is used to predict differences between matched configurations, while the absolute aerodynamic level remains anchored to experiments. Dedicated CFD simulations are carried out to isolate three distinct physical contributions: scale effects, wind-tunnel blockage, and propeller installation effects. In the developed methodology, numerical simulations complement the experimental data to obtain corrected full-scale aerodynamic coefficients and propulsive maps together with a longitudinal force-equilibrium model used to determine the longitudinal force-equilibrium operating point. The reconstruction shows that scale and wind-tunnel blockage effects primarily alter the airframe aerodynamic characteristics, with a minor influence on equilibrium incidence, while propeller installation produces a substantial thrust augmentation due to airframe-induced inflow modification. Accounting for these effects leads to an overprediction of the propeller rotational speed by approximately $23\%$ when installation effects are neglected, demonstrating that the installed performance cannot be obtained by a linear superposition of isolated airframe and isolated propeller data. Full article

Digital behavior change tools increasingly integrate constructs from multiple theoretical traditions, yet there is limited cross-domain understanding of how these frameworks are combined and which outcomes they are used to explain. This scoping review therefore aimed to map integrated theoretical frameworks used in digital IT-based behavior change tools from 1999 to 2025, focusing on theory combinations, outcome types, intervention contexts, and research gaps. Following PRISMA-ScR and a registered protocol (PROSPERO CRD42022285741), searches across six databases identified 62 eligible studies. Twenty-nine theories and models were identified, with Self-Determination Theory (35%) and the Theory of Planned Behavior (29%) being the most prevalent. Behavior-change-oriented frameworks were more commonly associated with target behavioral outcomes, whereas technology-adoption-oriented frameworks primarily explained intention, acceptance, continuance, and technology use. Health and fitness interventions dominated the evidence base (44%), followed by online learning (23%) and mobile commerce (11%). Long-term follow-up and explicit theory-to-behavior-change-technique mapping remained limited. Overall, the review provides a 25-year cross-domain synthesis of theoretical integration in digital behavior change tools and highlights the need for clearer theory–intervention alignment, longer-term evaluation, and broader application across underrepresented digital contexts. Full article

Phosphorus (P) is one of the main limiting factors for sugarcane establishment and longevity in tropical soils, requiring biotechnological strategies to improve fertilizer use efficiency. This study evaluated the effects of inoculation with Bacillus velezensis UFV 3918, alone or combined with reduced monoammonium phosphate (MAP) doses, on the morphological, nutritional, and root nutrient uptake responses of sugarcane grown in a dystrophic Red Latosol under greenhouse conditions. The experiment was conducted in a completely randomized design with six treatments and four replicates: absolute control (AC, without MAP), commercial control (CC, recommended MAP dose), B. velezensis alone (Bv), and Bv combined with 1/3, 2/3, or the full recommended MAP dose. Plant growth responses varied across treatments and stages, with Bv promoting greater leaf area than the CC at 120 and 180 DAP, whereas Bv + 1/3 MAP maintained leaf area comparable to the CC throughout the evaluation period. Principal component analysis (PCA) revealed a clear separation among treatments, with Bv exhibiting the most distinct plant response, primarily associated with greater stalk diameter, root and stalk biomass, higher concentrations of potassium and phosphorus in stalks, sulfur and magnesium in roots, and greater boron-use efficiency. Bv + 1/3 MAP displayed an intermediate multivariate profile, mainly associated with phosphorus uptake per unit root length and nutritional attributes related to phosphorus acquisition under reduced fertilizer supply. Correlation analysis further revealed strong positive associations among growth-related traits, biomass accumulation, and phosphorus-related variables, indicating a close relationship between P acquisition and plant responses to bacterial inoculation. Overall, inoculation with B. velezensis UFV 3918 improved early sugarcane growth and nutrient acquisition, and its combination with 1/3 of the recommended MAP rate maintained plant performance. These findings indicate the potential for reducing mineral P inputs during early sugarcane establishment; however, long-term field trials are required to determine whether these responses can be sustained throughout the crop cycle and under commercial production conditions. Full article

Background and Objectives: Accurate identification of the internal opening is a key determinant of success in perianal fistula surgery, as missed openings are strongly associated with persistent infection and recurrence. Although magnetic resonance imaging provides detailed preoperative mapping, intraoperative confirmation relies largely on surgical judgment. This study evaluated the technical feasibility and early observed outcomes of flexible rectoscopy-guided identification of the internal opening during loose seton placement in patients with transsphincteric perianal fistula whose internal opening could not be localized by routine assessment or pelvic MRI. Materials and Methods: This single-center retrospective descriptive feasibility series included 44 adult patients with cryptoglandular transsphincteric perianal fistula who underwent loose seton placement. All included patients had an internal opening that could not be localized by routine preoperative assessment or pelvic MRI. Intraoperative flexible rectoscopy was used to identify the internal opening in relation to the dentate line. The primary endpoint was successful intraoperative visualization of the internal opening. Operative time, healing time, early follow-up outcomes, Wexner continence score and patient satisfaction were descriptively recorded. Results: The mean age was 41.00 ± 12.06 years and the mean BMI was 29.86 ± 3.65 kg/m². The internal opening was successfully visualized using flexible rectoscopy in all 44 patients (100%). Mean operative time was 6.66 ± 1.49 min and mean healing time was 59.45 ± 9.96 days. During the available 3–7-month early follow-up, no complications were documented, while recurrence occurred in one patient (2.3%) at the fourth postoperative month. The exact binomial 95% confidence interval for the observed recurrence rate was 0.06–12.02%. The median postoperative Wexner score was 0 (IQR 0–0; range 0–1). Conclusions: Flexible rectoscopy enabled intraoperative identification of the internal opening in all patients in this descriptive series and may represent a feasible adjunct when routine assessment and pelvic MRI fail to localize the opening. The absence of a comparator and the relatively short follow-up prevent conclusions regarding comparative accuracy, safety or recurrence reduction. Larger prospective comparative studies with long-term follow-up are required. Full article

The muscat aroma of grape is largely determined by terpenoid volatiles. However, its genetic basis in ‘Muscat Hamburg’ remains unclear. We performed comparative volatile metabolomics between ‘Muscat Hamburg’ and ‘Red Globe’ across berry development, identifying 127 differentially abundant metabolites, with upregulated ones enriched in the monoterpenoid pathway. Using an F1 segregating population (264 progeny), we quantified four key monoterpenoids (α-terpineol, linalool, geraniol, and cis-linalool oxide) over two consecutive years. Using a high-density genetic map with 7872 SNP markers generated via SLAF-seq, we detected stable major QTLs for α-terpineol, linalool, and geraniol on LG5, and a novel QTL for cis-linalool oxide on LG14. Expression analysis revealed that the transcript levels of VvDXS and VvGGPPS1 were significantly higher in ‘Muscat Hamburg’ than in ‘Red Globe’ at ripening. Heterologous overexpression in tomato enhanced terpenoid aroma accumulation without affecting fruit development. These results indicate that VvDXS and VvGGPPS1 play a crucial role in the formation of the aroma in the ‘Muscat Hamburg’ variety. Full article

Background/Objective: Enhanced recovery after surgery (ERAS) is a global surgical quality improvement initiative that aims to improve perioperative care based on evidence-based interventions. Although ERAS protocols in gastrointestinal (GI) surgery result in improved patient outcomes, there are variations in protocol adherence and important gaps in understanding the barriers and enablers influencing this adherence. The objective of this scoping review was to map evidence from the relevant literature to identify the barriers and enablers influencing adherence to ERAS protocols in GI surgery. Method: Using the preferred reporting items for systematic reviews and meta-analyses flow diagram, we searched the databases and identified 45 published studies. Results: The scoping review identified staff, patient, and organizational-level barriers and enablers influencing adherence to ERAS protocols. The staff-reported barriers were (1) resistance to practice change, (2) workforce constraints and organizational barriers, (3) interdepartmental coordination barriers, (4) technical barriers, and (5) contextual barriers. The staff-reported enablers were (1) communication and coordination between teams, (2) professional education and a supportive practice environment, and (3) technology-driven patient education. The patient-reported barriers were (1) educational barriers, (2) workforce and clinical barriers, and (3) digital literacy and usability barriers. The patient-reported enablers were (1) patient-centered care and empowerment and (2) multifaceted patient education and delivery. Additionally, this review identified limited resources in smaller hospitals as an organizational-level barrier, whereas participation in national hospital collaborations and ERAS-dedicated hospital status were identified as organizational-level enablers of ERAS protocol adherence. Conclusions: Identifying the determinants of ERAS adherence as barriers and enablers allows healthcare teams to tailor interventions to individual patient needs, promoting greater compliance and improving the effectiveness of ERAS in GI surgery. Full article

Photovoltaic (PV) systems in arid regions experience substantial energy losses from dust accumulation, but automated cleaning can introduce risk when damaged modules are visually misclassified as dirty. Manual inspection is also impractical at utility scale. This study presents an edge-based cleaning-decision architecture in which vision proposes a cleaning request and independent electrical checks determine whether actuation is permitted. The prototype combines a YOLOv8n detector, INA219 voltage/current sensing, photodiode-based shading context, a Raspberry Pi 4, and an Arduino co-processor. Cleaning is allowed only when three conditions are satisfied: persistent dust detection, measured panel power below a predefined threshold, and the absence of an electrical structural-fault signature based on rolling-window voltage depression and instability. The detector was trained using 950 field-recorded frames containing 2850 annotated panel instances and achieved 77.3% mAP@0.5 on the validation set; across five retraining seeds, mAP@0.5 was $77.1\pm 1.1\%$. In a retrospective ablation of the recorded test campaign, the two verification gates reduced false or unsafe cleaning activations from five to one, while both unsafe activations involving the tested cracked module were vetoed. A 13.5 h three-day campaign recorded seven persistent visual dust requests; the power gate rejected six requests that did not justify cleaning, and the remaining request triggered a successful cleaning cycle. In that field event, panel power increased from 0.33 W to 7.48 W, corresponding to a 22.9-fold recovery. An assumption-based sensitivity analysis indicates potential water-cost savings from condition-based cleaning. An offline, template-constrained language model is used only for report generation and has no connection to actuation. Full article

The U.S. Geological Survey collects remote sensing data to support national scientific assessments of natural resources, hazards, and landscape change. Spectrometers and spectroradiometers are essential for gathering point-based spectral measurements used in applications such as uncrewed aerial systems (UAS) multispectral image calibration, validation, and analysis. Evaluating how different instruments perform in laboratory and field environments helps determine whether they provide consistent, interoperable measurements. Such verification can expand access to spectral ground data during UAS operations by allowing scientists to use alternative instruments when budgets, logistics, or field conditions limit options. We propose and test a methodological framework for evaluating spectrometers for measurement consistency during UAS multispectral vegetation mapping applications. There are three central evaluation components to the framework: laboratory, field, and relative to UAS multispectral imagery. By evaluating the instruments in both relatively controlled and uncontrolled environments, we thoroughly examine measurement consistency and when/why measurements may differ. We opportunistically selected two instruments for a case study in a coastal marsh setting: a compact laboratory spectrometer we modified for field use and a field-ready spectroradiometer. The instruments produced consistent measurements in both environments. We found differences between the field spectra and UAS spectra that likely reflect the perspectives of ground vs. aerial data and indicate that further radiometric calibration may be needed. Full article

Reversible data hiding in encrypted media enables auxiliary information to be embedded into protected content while allowing exact recovery of the processed data. Although this technique has been extensively investigated for images and surface-based 3D models, its application to 3D medical volumes remains insufficiently explored. This study presents a residual-distribution-aware capacity analysis for reversible data hiding in encrypted 3D medical volumes with integer-valued voxels. The current framework is restricted to finite, numerically integer-valued voxel samples stored in single-precision format, which can be mapped losslessly to a nonnegative integer domain without quantization. Rather than treating prediction-error minimization as the sole objective, we analyze how residual occupancy across power-of-two bit-length intervals governs leading-zero-count-based embedding capacity. Because the leading-zero count changes only when a residual crosses an interval boundary, reducing the prediction error within the same interval does not necessarily increase embedding capacity. Experiments on nine categories of the Medical Segmentation Decathlon show that pure embedding capacity is jointly determined by representation-derived redundancy, residual-dependent redundancy, and auxiliary information overhead. The benefit of inter-slice prediction is dataset-dependent rather than universal, while homogeneous zero-valued regions can contribute substantially to favorable residual distributions. End-to-end validation at 99% of the available pure embedding capacity achieved error-free secret-data extraction and exact recovery of the processed voxel arrays at both the numerical and bit levels. These results provide a capacity-oriented interpretation of encrypted volumetric reversible data hiding based on residual distribution rather than prediction-error magnitude alone. Full article

Kazakhstan’s sheep portfolio underpins much of the country’s mutton and wool production, yet several of its principal breeds remain genomically uncharacterised. The aim of this study was to characterise the genomic diversity, population structure, and global phylogenetic placement of three economically important Kazakh breeds and to determine whether they constitute separate gene pools requiring independent management. We present the first genome-wide SNP characterisation to include the Degeres (DE), the Etti Merino (EM), and the Kazakh fat-tailed coarse-wool (KKG) breeds simultaneously. A total of 1497 animals (DE = 354, EM = 642, KKG = 501) sampled across seven production households were genotyped and, after quality control, analysed at 42,279 SNPs, of which 22,766 LD-pruned markers were used for principal component analysis and AMOVA. We applied principal component analysis (PCA), pairwise F_ST, analysis of molecular variance (AMOVA), neighbour-joining phylogenetics, model-based ancestry estimation (ADMIXTURE), and Hill-number diversity profiling, and projected the breeds against the global Ovine SNP50 HapMap panel (74 reference breeds, 2819 animals; 37,685 shared SNPs). All three breeds retained uniformly high within-breed diversity (expected heterozygosity 0.413–0.417) with fixation indices at or near zero. AMOVA partitioned 94.03% of variance within breeds (Φ_ST = 0.060, p < 0.001). PCA, phylogeny, and ADMIXTURE concordantly resolved three breed-specific clusters at K = 3, with a maximum interbreed F_ST of 0.038 within the study dataset. Against the global panel, EM was genetically closest to Merino and Merino-derived reference breeds (pooled F_ST = 0.017) and substantially more distant from Southwest Asian sheep (F_ST = 0.045), whereas DE and KKG showed the reciprocal pattern (F_ST = 0.027 and 0.020 to Southwest Asia, 0.052 to the Merino group). DE additionally displayed the heterozygote excess and partial admixture expected of an incompletely consolidated composite. These results delineate three distinct gene pools and carry direct implications for breed management and the conservation of genomic diversity in Kazakhstani sheep. Full article