Search Results (896)

Medical logistics often face constraints of distance, terrain, and damaged infrastructure, necessitating the evaluation of new technologies, such as Uncrewed Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) or drones, as solutions. However, translation of this technology into the clinical space requires not only proof of time efficiency but also the ability of the payload to reach its destination with preserved viability—maintaining the stability, sterility, and potency of the medical supplies after transport. The authors conducted a systematic search of nine databases from 2010 to 2026, surfacing 38 peer-reviewed studies examining UAV transport of medical devices, pharmaceuticals, and biological specimens including blood products. Viability of payloads was maintained in the majority of trials. No significant differences comparable with ground transport were shown with pharmaceuticals. All medical devices remained clinically usable, and a majority of biological samples maintained their viability. The existing body of literature consists primarily of small studies conducted in real, but still favourable operating conditions, with a mix of flight distances and visual or beyond line-of-sight rules. These studies report substantial heterogeneity in methodology, outcome definitions, and reporting, which limits the direct comparison of results. Before any integration into the clinical space, this technology requires testing under standardized protocols, validation in real-world and high-impact settings such as disasters and emergency medicine, and the definition of a clear distinction between statistically significant and clinically meaningful changes in payload parameters. Future primary work should dive into the granularity of identifying and characterizing which payloads, operational conditions, and environmental stressors pose genuine risks to the clinical utility of specific medical payloads. Full article

Epilepsy is associated with recurrent seizures and behavioral and cognitive disturbances, highlighting the importance of assessing behavioral outcomes alongside seizure severity. Caffeic acid phenethyl ester (CAPE) has shown neuroprotective activity, whereas evidence for the neurobehavioral effects of 10-hydroxy-2-decenoic acid (10-HDA) remains limited. This study investigated their individual and combined dietary effects on seizure-like behavior and behavioral test performance in adult zebrafish (Danio rerio) challenged with pentylenetetrazol (PTZ). Fish received experimental diets for 8 weeks before exposure to 15 mM PTZ. A dietary valproic acid group was included as a comparator. Outcomes included behavioral seizure scores, the area under the seizure score–time curve (AUC), and performance in the novel tank diving and Y-maze tests. Compared with PTZ alone, CAPE, 10-HDA, and their combination reduced seizure scores and AUC values and increased upper-zone and novel-arm exploration (p < 0.05). The combined group spent more time in the novel arm than either single-compound group (p < 0.05), although its advantages varied across endpoints and pharmacological synergy was not established. Overall, dietary CAPE and 10-HDA were associated with lower behavioral seizure scores and improved test performance following acute PTZ challenge. Further studies are needed to distinguish these responses from independent effects on baseline behavior and the influence of seizure severity and motor function. Full article

Navy divers are essential personnel for the operations of the fleet, supporting underwater ship maintenance, deep-sea salvage, and special naval warfare. Their effectiveness, however, is limited by heat loss in conventional wetsuits. Traditional neoprene wetsuits progressively lose insulating performance at depth because the increasing hydrostatic pressure compresses the neoprene’s closed-cell foam structure. To solve this problem, we developed a series of segmented wetsuits (K-suits) built by enhancing a neoprene undercoat with external pockets containing composite material plates made of incompressible hollow microspheres embedded in silicone. The K-suits significantly outperformed traditional 7 mm neoprene suits in field tests. Herein, we report on improved composites. A combination of 30 elastomers and additives was evaluated using American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM) methods, including thermal conductivity testing (C518-21), compression testing (D575-91), slow-rate penetration testing (F1306-21), and custom impact testing. The results showed that multiple material combinations improve insulation, compressive strength, and resistance to puncture. Among all tested options, Sylgard 527 (S-527) with embedded 3M K1 glass microsphere had the best thermal insulation performance. Furthermore, its high flexibility makes it well suited for use in multilayer K-suits. Full article

Diving accidents remain frequently fatal, and most stem from preventable human factors: panic, failed buoyancy control, and disorientation. Underwater human–robot interaction research has focused on observing the diver and offers little help when a diver must be pulled to safety. This paper presents the design and sea validation of NADIA, an autonomous underwater robot that combines diver guidance and following with diver-commanded physical assistance. A rear handle converts the diver’s grip into thrust and springs back to neutral on release; a diver-facing display shows depth, distance, battery state, and warnings. Six vector thrusters, with mounting angles optimized by gradient descent against drag-model thrust-ratio targets, are driven by an operational-space time-delay controller (TDC-OSF) that keeps the robot in the diver’s view; stereo vision and imaging sonar are fused for diver detection. In test-bed, tank, and sea trials, surge and heave thrusts matched design targets within 5–7%; approval-gated guidance held the robot 1–2 m from the diver with position and heading errors below 0.15 m and 3.5°; and the robot towed a diver at about 1 m/s and rose from 5 m to the surface in about 4 s. An underwater robot can thus serve as a physical safety layer for divers. Full article

Sexual dimorphism is a major source of intraspecific variation that might complicate the taxonomic interpretation of fossil penguins, potentially leading to an overestimation of species diversity when sex-related morphological variation is misinterpreted as taxonomic differences. Bone histology and microanatomy provide an independent line of evidence for sexual differentiation, as they preserve records of physiological processes associated with skeletal development and reproduction. In this study, we analysed the osteohistology and microanatomy of 37 thin sections from appendicular elements of Eocene Antarctic penguins from Marambio (Seymour) Island, including Delphinornis, Marambiornis, Anthropornis, Palaeeudyptes, Archaeospheniscus, Notodyptes, and undetermined specimens. The histological observations focused on bone matrix organisation across tissue regions, vascularisation, secondary remodelling, medullary microstructure, and the condition of the inner circumferential layer (ICL), particularly in the hindlimbs, to assess its possible significance for sex determination. No evidence of medullary bone was identified in any specimen, probably reflecting the transient nature and low preservation potential of this reproductive tissue. However, variation in ICL development and remodelling revealed three microstructural states associated with the reproductive cycle in extant penguins. Remodelled ICLs, interpreted as evidence of females that had completed at least one reproductive cycle, were identified in Delphinornis arctowskii, Anthropornis nordenskjoeldi and Palaeeudyptes gunnari. The presence of an unremodelled ICL, as observed in Anthropornis grandis, does not allow reliable sex determination because it may correspond either to males or to females outside the oviposition period. Likewise, the lack of ICL in Delphinornis larseni and Palaeeudyptes klekowskii could indicate that they are females. Comparisons among skeletal elements further indicate that hindlimbs preserve more informative histological signals than forelimbs, whose microanatomy is more strongly modified by biomechanical adaptations related to wing-propelled diving. These findings show that osteohistological and microanatomical evidence can substantially improve the recognition of sex-related variation in fossil penguins, providing a framework for interpreting morphological diversity. Incorporating these criteria into systematic studies may reduce taxonomic bias and refine the delineation of fossil species within Sphenisciformes. Full article

Contemporary global tourism is undergoing a structural transformation toward immersive, experiential “diving” modalities, establishing the countryside as a critical axis for constructive and regenerative travel. Despite this shift, academic literature remains bottlenecked by informational fragmentation, routinely prioritizing consumer demand over supply-side operator agency. To resolve this empirical deficit, this study utilizes a qualiquantitative, multi-sited, sequential mixed-methods research design across Europe and Oceania, focusing on agritourism as a significant sub-sector. The empirical findings reveal that while global agritourism is unified by a profound biographical territorial embedding, its operational architecture splits into two polarized configurations. The European Institutionalized Mature Model is highly market-driven, demand-responsive, and insulated by top-down public policy frameworks, yet it is severely constrained by generational succession grids and an aging demographic. In contrast, the Oceanian Decentralized Identity Frontier Model represents a youth-centric, female-dominated structure born of necessity within Small Island Developing States, driven by intrinsic cultural pride but exposed to a complete policy vacuum and severe climate variability. The research diagnoses an advanced sub-specialization training shortfall in Europe regarding environmental and social agriculture, and a foundational corporate capacity deficit in Oceania concerning financial risk hedging, compliance, and direct-to-consumer digital infrastructure. Full article

Temperature is a major environmental factor influencing fish behaviour and physiological function. In the present study, adult zebrafish were exposed to 18 °C for 21 days and compared with controls maintained at 26 °C to evaluate the behavioural effects of chronic low-temperature exposure. Behaviour was assessed using four individual-based paradigms—the novel tank diving test, light–dark preference test, social preference test, and mirror biting test—covering locomotion, exploration, social behaviour and anxiety-related responses. Chronic exposure to 18 °C was associated with a behavioural profile characterised by increased immobility, reduced exploratory activity, enhanced bottom-dwelling, and reduced active engagement with the mirror stimulus, whereas social preference towards conspecifics was largely preserved. Comparison with behavioural responses previously reported after 4 days of exposure to 18 °C suggests that several behavioural differences are still detectable after 21 days, indicating that the behavioural profile of fish maintained at 18 °C remained distinct from that of controls within the time window examined. These findings should be interpreted in light of the absence of independent tank-level replication. Previous studies conducted under comparable thermal conditions have reported molecular changes in the brain and in other neural-derived structures, such as the eye. Although these molecular findings were not generated in the present experiment and cannot be directly linked to individual behavioural endpoints, they provide a broader context for interpreting the behavioural effects of prolonged low-temperature exposure. Overall, the present findings show that chronic exposure to 18 °C is associated with persistent differences in locomotor, exploratory, and stimulus-directed behaviours, while social preference is comparatively preserved. Full article

Decompression sickness (DCS) is a severe condition caused by rapid reductions in ambient pressure during diving, altitude exposure, or aerospace operations, with circulating gas bubbles serving as a central initiating event. Stable nanobubbles on active hydrophobic spots along the vascular lumen can grow under decompression-induced supersaturation, detach, and enter the circulation. Their subsequent behavior is shaped by blood flow, vessel geometry, and coagulation and may lead to thrombosis and microvascular stasis. DCS pathogenesis involves three linked interfaces: the blood–bubble interface activates coagulation and complement; the bubble–endothelium interface causes mechanical injury, endothelial dysfunction, oxidative stress, and cell death; and the endothelium–immune interface, which promotes neutrophil recruitment and NETosis, driving sterile inflammation and microthrombosis. Experimental approaches reproduce different stages of this pathogenic sequence and can be broadly distinguished according to the origin of the bubbles. Whole-animal decompression models and whole-blood decompression systems incorporate pressure reduction or gas supersaturation and can therefore generate bubbles within the experimental system. Many endothelial-cell, vessel-based, and microfluidic platforms use pre-existing or externally generated gas bubbles that are introduced directly into the experimental system. These directly introduced-bubble models do not reproduce decompression-induced bubble genesis; however, they provide precise control over bubble size, flow, vascular geometry, and cellular interactions. They are therefore valuable for dissecting post-formation processes shared by decompression-generated and directly introduced intravascular bubbles, including bubble transport, vascular retention, endothelial injury, thrombosis, and inflammation. Recognizing this distinction in bubble origin is essential for defining the translational relevance and limitations of individual experimental models. Full article

Finswimming is a high-intensity aquatic sport in which performance is influenced by the interaction between biomechanical and physiological factors, particularly during underwater apnea sprint events. This study compared performance, kinematic characteristics, cardiovascular responses, metabolic responses, and perceived exertion during a maximal 50 m monofin sprint performed under three conditions: underwater apnea swimming (UW), surface swimming without a snorkel (SN), and surface swimming with a closed snorkel (SC). Ten highly trained young male national-level finswimmers completed a randomized repeated-measures protocol. Performance time, dolphin kick number and frequency, heart rate (HR), blood lactate concentration, blood glucose concentration, and rating of perceived exertion (RPE) were assessed. Sprint performance was significantly faster during UW (17.38 ± 1.32 s) than during both SN (19.20 ± 1.64 s) and SC (19.39 ± 1.53 s; p < 0.001), with a very large condition effect (ηp² = 0.882). This was accompanied by fewer dolphin kicks during UW (40 ± 5) than during SN (44 ± 6) and SC (44 ± 5), with a large condition effect (ηp² = 0.651), whereas kick frequency did not differ significantly among conditions (~137–140 kicks·min⁻¹; ηp² = 0.038). HR exhibited a biphasic recovery pattern across all conditions, declining rapidly from peak exercise values (HRpeak: ~169–171 bpm) to HRlow (~141–147 bpm) before increasing to HRhigh (~160–162 bpm) during early recovery, with a very large main effect of time (p < 0.001; ηp² = 0.823). Post-exercise blood lactate concentration increased significantly in all conditions from ~1.3–1.5 to ~10.7–11.9 mmol·L⁻¹ (p < 0.001), with a very large time effect (ηp² = 0.954) and no significant between-condition differences. Blood glucose concentration (~5.4–5.9 mmol·L⁻¹) and RPE (7–8 a.u.) showed no statistically significant condition-specific differences. In conclusion, underwater apnea swimming was associated with faster 50 m sprint performance and fewer dolphin kicks than the surface swimming conditions in highly trained young male national-level finswimmers. These performance and kick characteristics are consistent with potential biomechanical and hydrodynamic explanations described in previous research, although propulsive efficiency and hydrodynamic resistance were not directly measured in the present study. A biphasic HR recovery pattern was observed across conditions; however, the autonomic mechanisms underlying this response cannot be determined from the present measurements. Full article

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia launches the Saudi Architecture Map, which includes 19 architectural styles for the country’s main regions. These architectural styles are shaped by distinct climatic, material, and cultural determinants across the country. A deep dive into the architectural elements that define these styles reveals many similarities and nuances, making manual classification of modern buildings challenging. Despite the kingdom’s rich heritage, and since the launch of the Saudi Architecture Map and its contained styles and corresponding design guidelines, no operational digital pipeline currently exists for automated, quantitative, and reproducible classification of façade imagery against these styles. This limits heritage documentation and compliance monitoring at scale. This study attempts to fill this gap. We developed a deep-learning classification framework for building façade imagery considering the Saudi architectural styles. We curated a dataset of 3750 façade images, comprising 2320 full-building façade images and 1430 architectural-element images. We collected the data from online heritage repositories. We benchmarked five convolutional backbones (ResNet50, EfficientNetB0, EfficientNetV2M, ConvNeXtBase, and InceptionV3) under a unified two-stage transfer learning strategy. The first stage trained classifier heads on architectural-element images with frozen backbone weights, and the second stage fine-tuned the top 30% of backbone layers on full-building façade images. Among the five CNN backbones, ConvNeXtBase achieved the strongest performance across all four metrics, achieving 90.75% in overall accuracy, 88.06% in F1-Score, 92.05% in producer accuracy, and 86.65% in user accuracy. Ten of the eighteen styles exceeded 90% F1, and two styles—Bisha Desert and Tabuk Coast, both with very small corrected test counts (n = 6 and n = 1, respectively)—fell below 70%. These results indicate that ConvNeXtBase with two-stage transfer learning is a promising step toward automated documentation of Saudi architectural styles. Yet, further validation through ablation testing or calibration is needed before deployment for compliance monitoring. Full article

Cognitive impairment and anxiety-like behavior associated with cholinergic dysfunction and oxidative stress remain important experimental targets for neuropharmacological screening. Mentha spicata essential oil (MEO, 150 or 300 µL/L) was administered daily by immersion from experimental day 1 through day 22; the first behavioral assessment occurred after 7 days of pre-exposure. Scopolamine hydrobromide trihydrate (SCO, 100 µM) was administered for 30 min before each behavioral assessment and again before euthanasia, whereas galantamine (GAL, 1 mg/L) was administered 30 min before each SCO challenge. Behavior was evaluated using the novel tank diving test (NTT), novel approach test (NAT), Y-maze, and novel object recognition test (NOR). Brain acetylcholinesterase (AChE) activity, antioxidant defenses, and oxidative damage were assessed. GC-MS identified a carvone-rich profile dominated by carvone (67.8%), limonene (10.6%), and 1,8-cineole (4.2%). MEO attenuated several SCO-associated behavioral and biochemical changes. The 150 µL/L concentration showed the most consistent memory-related improvement, whereas 300 µL/L also reduced selected oxidative markers but was associated with reduced exploratory activity in some tasks. Treatment-adjusted behavior–biomarker analyses were considered exploratory; only the inverse association between malondialdehyde (MDA) and the NTT top/bottom ratio remained significant after false-discovery-rate correction. In silico descriptors were treated as hypothesis-generating and do not demonstrate zebrafish brain exposure. These findings support further investigation of carvone-rich MEO within a rescue/protection framework, with confirmation in independently replicated exposure tanks and inclusion of MEO-only controls. Full article

Fire drills are considered very useful in different professional environments and public buildings, so they could also help to train citizens in domestic fire safety. According to the last available data, 172 deaths were reported during one year in the 19,411 domestic fires that occurred in Spain. Drills could be convenient in domestic fire safety training to reduce these fatal data. This pilot study, with 20 participants, explores the integration of smoke-diving drills in a safety training programme, developed at the Citizen School for Risk Prevention, in Zaragoza (Spain), to improve citizens’ knowledge and safe behaviour in domestic settings. A fire in a small apartment was simulated and, during this experimental smoke-diving drill, participants had to successfully escape in a limited time. This drill started in a room with zero visibility (very common in domestic fires) and (breathable, non-toxic) smoke, combined with high temperature. Due to the absence of light, two thermal cameras were used to record the participants’ behaviour. Two surveys, before and after the drill, were used to assess the acquired knowledge, in addition to the analysis of the thermal videos. Results revealed both positive and negative aspects of this experimental drill, thanks to the collaboration with professional firefighters, who participated as citizen scientists. Full article

Group 3 pulmonary hypertension is a common and clinically significant complication of chronic lung disease and hypoxia that is associated with impaired functional capacity, right ventricular dysfunction, and increased mortality. Historically viewed as a consequence of underlying parenchymal lung disease, Group 3 pulmonary hypertension is now recognized as a complex disorder involving pulmonary vascular remodeling, dysregulated molecular signaling, and maladaptive cardiopulmonary interactions. Advances in translational research have improved our understanding of the mechanisms driving disease progression and have informed the development of targeted therapeutic strategies. This review provides an overview of the current understanding of Group 3 pulmonary hypertension, including its pathophysiology, diagnostic evaluation, and evolving treatment landscape. Specifically, this review dives into the reason behind limited therapeutic success, the outcomes of previous clinical trials, and the emergence of lung-selective approaches that seek to balance pulmonary vascular benefit with preservation of gas exchange. Collectively, these developments highlight both the progress made and the ongoing need for improved phenotyping and novel therapeutic approaches in the Group 3 pulmonary hypertension patient population. Full article

This decade-long surveillance study (2016–2025) investigates the acquisition of multidrug-resistant (MDR) bacteria in South Atlantic cetaceans to evaluate how ecological niches modulate exposure to biological pollution. Analyzing clinical isolates from stranded cetacean carcasses (n = 346), we used Generalized Linear Mixed-Effects Models (GLMMs) to mitigate multi-center analytical biases and compare resistance profiles across coastal and oceanic species. We observed a significant, progressive upward trend in the overall MDR probability over the decade. Although raw MDR was higher in the demersal-feeding Pontoporia blainvillei (58.2%) than in the sympatric, water-column-foraging Sotalia guianensis (22.0%), multivariate modeling revealed that this difference was primarily driven by the geographic stranding location rather than by intrinsic foraging ecology. High gastrointestinal MDR (73.9%) suggests dietary intake as a primary biological gateway. Demographic modeling revealed a significant sex-based association in P. blainvillei, with females facing a higher risk (p = 0.009), although the specific ecological or physiological mechanisms underlying this difference remain unknown. High MDR rates in deep-diving Lagenodelphis hosei (70.8%) and Kogia breviceps (67.9%) suggest that resistant pathogens may reach bathypelagic food webs, potentially via vertical trophic pathways. These findings suggest that spatial environmental contamination, alongside foraging and reproductive ecologies, is a key driver of exposure to the anthropogenic resistome. Because carcass-based sampling inherently targets a diseased or senescent fraction, these high prevalences may overestimate the resistome burden of healthy free-ranging populations. The detection of human pathogens across coastal and offshore habitats indicates persistent deficiencies in terrestrial effluent management, reinforcing cetaceans as One Health sentinels. Full article

The identification of visible submerged hazards, including shallow-water shipwrecks and associated debris, is important for maritime safety, coastal management, environmental monitoring, and marine archeology. The scope is restricted to wrecks that remain optically visible from above in shallow or intertidal water. This study presents Submerged Hazard Identification and Processing using Augmented Image-based Detection (SHIP-AID), a modular GeoAI evaluation framework for high-resolution RGB imagery. Following site-level quality control, the independent source dataset contains 695 images from 403 wreck sites. The dedicated group-disjoint holdout contains 150 images from 88 sites and 184 annotated wreck objects. Five detector backbones and one task-aware underwater-enhancement baseline were evaluated using ten matched training seeds. Under the standard benchmark evaluation protocol, in which precision and recall are reported at the internally determined maximum-F1 point of the confidence sweep, the best configuration achieved precision 0.896, recall 0.861, mAP@50 0.927, and mAP@50–95 0.668 on the locked holdout. At the fixed, validation-selected operating threshold of 0.45, the primary detector produced threshold-specific precision 0.922 and recall 0.837. Site-clustered bootstrap intervals were 0.895–0.951 for mAP@50 and 0.625–0.704 for mAP@50–95. Physically informed attenuation and backscatter augmentation improved stricter-IoU performance relative to generic augmentation, whereas global Otsu thresholding reduced recall and localization accuracy. Performance remained stable under mild degradation, declined under moderate and strong degradation, and became unreliable under severe low visibility. SHIP-AID is therefore positioned as a decision-support framework for prioritizing optically visible shallow-water sites, with sonar, diving, hydrographic, or archeological evidence retained as the confirmation standard. Full article