Search Results (148)

Background: New Zealand blackcurrant (NZBC) is an anthocyanin-rich supplement with reported ergogenic effects in endurance exercise; however, its effects in resistance-trained adults remain largely unexplored. Objective: This study aimed to examine whether seven days of low- or high-dose NZBC supplementation improves resistance exercise performance, anaerobic capacity, and cognitive function in resistance-trained adults. Methods: Twenty resistance-trained adults completed a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled crossover trial with four conditions: no-capsule control (CON), placebo (PL), low-dose blackcurrant (LDBC; 250 mg·day⁻¹), and high-dose blackcurrant (HDBC; 600 mg·day⁻¹), each for seven days. Outcomes included bench press and leg press 1RM, total lifting volume, Tendo-derived bench press power, 30 s Wingate performance, Stroop Color–Word Test scores, readiness, perceived exertion, hemodynamic responses, and adverse events. Results: LDBC and HDBC increased bench press 1RM versus CON and PL, with increases versus CON of +3.33 kg (ES = 0.72; p = 0.005) and +2.34 kg (ES = 0.49; p = 0.041), respectively. Leg press 1RM was higher in PL, LDBC, and HDBC versus CON, with the largest effects observed for LDBC (+37.2 kg, ES = 1.33; p < 0.001) and HDBC (+25.8 kg, ES = 1.11; p < 0.001). Leg press total lifting volume was substantially higher with LDBC (+2627 kg, ES = 1.56; p < 0.001) and HDBC (+1025 kg, ES = 0.74; p = 0.004) versus CON. Bench press volume showed no significant overall treatment effect (p > 0.05). For Tendo-derived power, HDBC exceeded PL for peak (+79.5 W; p = 0.006) and mean power (+46.2 W; p = 0.026). Wingate outcomes did not differ across conditions (all p > 0.05). LDBC exceeded PL on Stroop Color, Color–Word, and total scores (all p < 0.05); HDBC exceeded PL on Color–Word only. Hemodynamic responses and adverse events were comparable across all conditions. Conclusions: Short-term NZBC supplementation improved selected resistance-exercise and cognitive outcomes, with the strongest evidence observed for outcomes that exceeded both CON and PL. The PL response relative to CON suggests that non-specific capsule, expectancy, repeated testing, or period effects may have contributed to some of the lower-body improvements; therefore, placebo-controlled contrasts should be emphasized when interpreting NZBC-specific efficacy. Wingate performance was unaffected, and both doses were well tolerated over the short-term supplementation period. Full article

This paper presents the design of shock control bumps on a double-fuselage aircraft with a natural laminar flow (NLF) wing section. Both two-dimensional (2D) and three-dimensional (3D) bumps were investigated to identify the high-impact factors on both shock control and natural laminar flow for the aircraft, and to understand the associated flow physics. Firstly, two key geometric parameters, namely the bump crest location and the bump height, were optimized to trade off shock control and laminar flow. The optimized 2D bump results in 8.19% total drag reduction in the wing section, specifically, 8.61% pressure drag reduction and 6.23% viscous drag reduction. The total drag coefficient of the aircraft reduces by 8.12 counts while the lift slightly increases. Then, the robustness of the bump at off-design conditions was verified as well. Finally, the 2D bump was converted to 3D bumps according to the transonic area rule to explore more alternative designs, and it was found that the two have similar performances, confirming the effectiveness of the transonic area rule applied in the shock-control-bump design. Full article

Every stable 4-sphere is identified with the double branched covering space of a trivial surface-knot space. As a result of Wall, it is known that any two orthogonal bases of every stable 4-sphere are transformed into each other by an orientation-preserving diffeomorphism of the stable 4-sphere. In this paper another proof of Wall’s result is presented, and strengthened in the sense that the lift of an equivalence of the trivial surface-knot space can be taken as the diffeomorphism. Two applications are made. The first shows that every orientation-preserving diffeomorphism of every stable 4-sphere is nothing but the double branched covering lift of an equivalence of a trivial surface-knot space up to a smooth isotopy and a composition with an identity-shift. The second gives a similar result for TOP stable 4-spheres. Here, even if it is a smooth 4-manifold, unless it is diffeomorphic to the stable 4-sphere, the TOP trivial surface-knot space cannot be smooth. Full article

We extend the classical Euler-type integral representations for the Appell functions $F_1$, $F_2$, and $F_3$, to the appropriate Kampé de Fériet functions by using integration against the Meijer–Nørlund G-function. In particular, these representations provide analytic continuation of the corresponding Kampé de Fériet functions. We further focus on the following two applications. First, we obtain sufficient conditions for complete monotonicity on the positive quadrant for three families of the Kampé de Fériet functions. These conditions can be expressed directly in terms of parameters and imply, among other things, joint log-convexity and related inequalities for partial derivatives of the Kampé de Fériet functions. Second, we show how known reduction and transformation formulas for the Appell and the generalized hypergeometric functions can be lifted to Kampé de Fériet functions by concatenating parameter arrays via the integral representations. This yields several reduction formulas, including extensions of some classical and new product identities. Further combining integration against the Meijer–Nørlund G-function with Slater’s double series transformation we obtain several exotic identities for infinite sums of the generalized hypergeometric functions. Full article

Drone-based smart sensing increasingly relies on Vision–Language Models (VLMs) for real-time scene interpretation, obstacle detection, and autonomous navigation reasoning. Deploying such systems at scale demands not only high perceptual accuracy but also energy efficiency, a critical constraint on battery-powered Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) platforms, and linguistic flexibility for multinational operational contexts. We present a systematic benchmarking framework that jointly evaluates perception performance and inference energy for five open-source VLMs across thirteen languages spanning six language families, including three low-resource varieties (Arabic, Basque, and Luxembourgish). Using imagery sampled from the Berkeley DeepDrive 10K (BDD10K), each model is evaluated on four sensing tasks of increasing difficulty scored via a sentence-transformer backbone, with energy measured following the AI Energy Score methodology (Wh per 1000 queries) through continuous NVML-based GPU power sampling. Across 65 language–model observations, LLaVA-1.6 achieves the highest perception score ($\overline{S}=0.160$) while Phi-3-Vision attains the best energy efficiency ($66.3$ Wh/1000 queries); energy consumption and task accuracy are statistically uncorrelated (Spearman $\rho =0.001$; $p=0.995$). A formal UAV inference energy model instantiated for four commercial platforms confirms LLaVA-1.6 as Pareto-optimal on heavy-lift platforms (DJI Matrice 300/350 RTK) and LLaVA-1.5 on the energy-constrained Matrice 30; compact UAVs such as the Mavic 3 Enterprise exceed the budget of all evaluated models at standard query rates. Friedman tests reveal significant cross-language variability in energy demands (${\chi }^2=40.43$; $p=3.5\times {10}^{-8}$) and navigation reasoning performance (${\chi }^2=13.35$; $p=0.010$). Critically, we document a double penalty for low-resource languages, which simultaneously incur higher inference energy costs and lower task accuracy, with direct implications for equitable multilingual UAV deployments. Full article

In rural South Africa, many households lack access to clean and reliable water sources and are therefore forced to rely on contaminated sources for their daily needs. This study presents the design of a manually operated hand water pump with an integrated filtration system. The design makes use of a double-acting cylinder and is optimized for a 50 m static lift, as this depth provides an optimal balance between structural integrity and ergonomic limits. SolidWorks Flow Simulations 2020 and numerical analysis show that the system overcomes a dynamic head of 51.44 m and a pump pressure of 503,063.62 Pa while maintaining a mechanical advantage of 4.8. Through the use of anthropometric data, a crank radius of 0.396 m was deemed optimal, resulting in a peak hand force of 158.38 N. This design proves that deep well water extraction can be achieved without any compromise to user ergonomics. By integrating filtration, unlike existing designs, this pump offers a practical solution for the water challenges faced in rural communities. Full article

The overall swing dynamics of rigid slender payloads lifted in a vertical orientation deviate significantly from the ideal point-mass pendulum model, leading to severe performance degradation of feedforward control strategies designed based on this simplified model. This paper focuses on the bridge crane system and establishes a double-pendulum dynamic model that accounts for the payload’s mass distribution effect. To compensate for the theoretical error of the linearized model, a data-driven payload swing frequency correction strategy is proposed. Based on this corrected model, a dual-mode Zero Vibration Derivative (Corrected-Dual-ZVD) input shaping feedforward controller is designed. Simulations under eight typical operating conditions were conducted using the Matlab/Simulink control system simulation software. The results show that compared to the controller designed based on the traditional single-pendulum model, the proposed Corrected-Dual-ZVD controller, based on the corrected double-pendulum model, can significantly reduce the maximum residual swing angle of the payload. The average swing angle suppression rate reaches 68.9% across seven valid operating conditions, and it can reach 98.9% under the extreme condition of high speed and short rope length. When model parameters are subjected to ±10% disturbances, the proposed method demonstrates good robustness. Full article

The intermittent nature of photovoltaic (PV) energy, especially under nonlinear and unbalanced loading situations, has made it more difficult to ensure steady operation as it is increasingly integrated into modern power systems. The Power Quality (PQ) issues cause severe degradation of both system performance and device lifetime. A novel Neural Power Quality Network (NeuPQ-Net) controlled Unified Power Quality Conditioner (UPQC) combined with a Quasi Z-Source Lift (QZSL) converter for PV applications is presented in this research as a novel solution for addressing these issues. The QZSL converter, which is controlled by a Maximum Power Point Tracking (MPPT) algorithm based on Perturb and Observe (P&O), increases the PV source voltage to the necessary DC-link level. A Zebra Optimisation Algorithm tuned PI (ZOA-PI) controller continually adjusts PI gains for quick and accurate regulation, ensuring steady DC-link voltage. Unlike conventional Synchronous Reference Frame (SRF) or Decoupled Double Synchronous Reference Frame (DDSRF)-based reference generation, the proposed NeuPQ-Net operates directly in the abc domain, eliminating Phase-Locked Loop (PLL) dependency and reducing computational complexity. Simulation and hardware prototype validations demonstrate that the proposed system achieves significant improvements in PQ indices, including reduced Total Harmonic Distortion (THD), faster response to transients, and enhanced voltage regulation, while complying with IEEE-519 standards. Full article

This work presents a comparative analysis of six airfoil profiles for small-scale vertical axis wind turbines (VAWTs) operating under low wind speeds (2–8 m/s) typical of urban environments. Aerodynamic performance during startup and nominal operation is investigated using two widely adopted modeling approaches, the Double Multiple Streamtube (DMST) and the Lifting Line Free Vortex Wake (LLFVW) methods, implemented in the open-source QBlade framework. The objective of the study is to evaluate relative airfoil performance and the consistency of observed trends across aerodynamic models commonly used in early-stage VAWT design. The results demonstrate a fundamental trade-off between self-starting capability at low tip-speed ratios ($\lambda <2$) and power efficiency at nominal operating conditions ($2\le \lambda \le 4$). Low-Reynolds-number and VAWT-oriented airfoils (S1210, E387, and DU 06-W-200) show enhanced startup torque under weak inflow conditions, whereas symmetric NACA airfoils (NACA 0015 and NACA 0018) deliver higher power coefficients once operational tip-speed ratios are achieved. Comparison with experimental benchmark data indicates that the transient LLFVW model yields improved agreement relative to the stationary DMST approach, which tends to overestimate performance at moderate and high tip-speed ratios. Overall, the study provides practical guidance for airfoil selection in micro-scale VAWTs intended for urban applications, where reliable self-starting and efficient operation must be carefully balanced. Full article

Background/Objectives: Limited residual bone height in the atrophic posterior maxilla complicates implant placement. Transcrestal sinus elevation can be used to correct bone shrinkage after sinus pneumatization or crestal bone loss. This study evaluated a minimally invasive, one-stage transcrestal sinus lift using a double-layer crosslinked collagen scaffold (MCCS) with autogenous bone from the implant osteotomy site in patients with RBH ≤ 6 mm. Methods: In this prospective series, 11 patients (48–64 years, mean RBH 4.75 mm, SD 0.95 mm) underwent one-stage transcrestal sinus floor elevation with simultaneous implants. After osteotomy, autogenous bone chips collected during drilling were compacted into the site, and two layers of MCCS were placed under the elevated Schneiderian membrane. Buccal and palatal bone heights were measured on CBCT before and after surgery to assess vertical bone gain (ΔRBH). Results: All implants achieved stable osseointegration. Mean ΔRBH was approximately 3.1 ± 0.9 mm (combined buccal–palatal). No postoperative complications occurred. Two small Schneiderian membrane perforations were sealed intraoperatively by MCCS placement, with uneventful healing. Follow-up imaging showed maintenance of the augmented bone around the implants. Conclusions: This double-layer MCCS plus autogenous bone approach is a safe, effective, and minimally invasive transcrestal sinus lift for atrophic maxillae. It yielded crestal bone gains even with minimal initial RBH, leveraging the palatal sinus wall’s osteogenic potential and the implant’s tent-pole effect. The MCCS scaffold maintained space for bone formation and enabled immediate sealing of any membrane perforations. This one-stage protocol is viable for implant placement in low-RBH sites. Full article

The “Double High—Double Extra High” stage of offshore oilfields, where large pumps lift liquids, leads to a rapid rise in water concentration, which triggers a decrease in rock strength and exacerbates the risk of sand production; this leads to a blockage of the reservoir, thus restricting the release of production capacity. In this paper, for the typical weak cementation strength of unconsolidated sandstone of a Class I reservoir in the P oilfield, numerical simulation and indoor experimental methods are utilized to explore the plugging mechanism and law of the water-contenting conditions, with micro-sand and mud conditions, on the screen. Considering the combined effects of reservoir particulate transport plugging and near-well sand control media plugging, the additional pressure drop and skin factor calculation model is constructed, and a dynamic capacity prediction model for sand control wells is formed. By matching the physical properties of the target reservoir and optimizing the sand control method, the production capacity prediction model and the sand control optimization design method for the high water-content period of the unconsolidated sandstone reservoir are finally obtained. The results show that the median sand size of well A1 in the P oilfield Class I reservoir is 220 μm, the sand transportation diameter is about 15–20 m, the serious plugging area near the well is distributed in 2–2.5 m, and the predicted loss of production capacity is about 18%. The use of a foam metal screen can significantly reduce the plugging pressure and increase the flow of crude oil, which is 2.2 and 1.2 times higher than that of the precision mesh and pre-filled screen, respectively. These research results can provide technical support and theoretical guidance for the sustained, efficient, and stable production of sand reservoirs in the Bohai Oilfield. Full article

This paper presents Hy-LIFT (Hybrid LLM-Integrated Fault Diagnosis Toolkit), a multi-stage framework for interpretable and data-efficient fault diagnosis in 5G/6G networks that integrates a high-precision interpretable rule-based engine (IRBE) for known patterns, a semi-supervised classifier (SSC) that leverages scarce labels and abundant unlabeled logs via consistency regularization and pseudo-labeling, and an LLM Augmentation Engine (LAE) that generates operator-ready, context-aware explanations and zero-shot hypotheses for novel faults. Evaluations on a five-class, imbalanced Dataset-A and a simulated production setting with noise and label scarcity show that Hy-LIFT consistently attains higher macro-F1 than rule-only and standalone ML baselines while maintaining strong per-class precision/recall (≈0.85–0.93), including minority classes, indicating robust generalization under class imbalance. IRBE supplies auditable, high-confidence seeds; SSC expands coverage beyond explicit rules without sacrificing precision; and LAE improves operational interpretability and surfaces potential “unknown/novel” faults without altering classifier labels. The paper’s contributions are as follows: (i) a reproducible, interpretable baseline that doubles as a high-quality pseudo-label source; (ii) a principled semi-supervised learning objective tailored to network logs; (iii) an LLM-driven explanation layer with zero-shot capability; and (iv) an open, end-to-end toolkit with scripts to regenerate all figures and tables. Overall, Hy-LIFT narrows the gap between brittle rules and opaque black-box models by combining accuracy, data efficiency, and auditability, offering a practical path toward trustworthy AIOps in next-generation mobile networks. Full article

The parametric design of a low-power (<1 kW) H-type vertical-axis wind turbine tailored to the wind conditions of the Yucatán Peninsula is presented. Nine airfoils were evaluated using the Double Multiple Streamtube method and Qblade Lifting-Line Theory numerical simulations, considering variations in solidity (σ = 0.20–0.30), aspect ratio (A_r = H/R = 2.6–3.0), number of blades (2–5), and a swept-area constraint of 4 m². The parametric study shows that fewer blades increase Cp, although a three-blade rotor improves start-up torque, vibration mitigation, and load smoothing. The recommended configuration—three blades, A_r = 2.6, σ = 0.30 and S1046 (or NACA 0018) operated near λ ≈ 3.75—balances efficiency and start-up performance. For the representative mean wind velocity of 5 m/s, typical of the Yucatán Peninsula, the VAWT achieves a maximum output of 136 W at 220 rpm. Under higher-wind conditions observed in specific sites within the region, the predicted maximum output increases to 932 W at 380 rpm. Full article

The development of solar-powered UAVs offers major advantages, such as extended mission autonomy, marking a significant technological advance in the aerospace industry. In this context, the study demonstrated the feasibility of additive manufacturing of a solar-powered UAV by successfully completing all the steps necessary for the development of an aeronautical product. The conceptual design was the initial phase in which the needs were defined, and the basic vision of the UAV model was outlined, exploring multiple possible solutions to identify the concept capable of meeting the mission requirements (search and rescue and surveillance). The preliminary design stage included aerodynamic analysis of the aircraft and preliminary sizing of the propulsion system and solar cells. The preliminary design stage included aerodynamic analysis of the UAV model, resulting in a lift coefficient of 1.05 and a drag coefficient of 0.08 at an angle of attack of 15°. A major advantage of the design is the integration of the electrical circuit, where solar input reduced battery consumption from 92.5 W to just 40.4 W in standard operational conditions, thereby more than doubling the UAV’s autonomy (from 48 min to approximately 110 min). The detailed design stage consisted of the final design of the solar UAV model for additive manufacturing, after which the final electrical architecture of the energy system was established. The model was subsequently validated by a finite element analysis, which confirmed the strength of the wing structure by achieving a safety factor of 6.6. The use of additive manufacturing allowed the rapid and accurate production of the structural components of the UAV model, ensuring that their subsequent physical assembly would be straightforward. Full article

Not enough attention has been paid to the artistic approach of depicting human figures at the center of double-scroll patterns in Chinese Buddhist art. Originating from Greco-Roman culture, this motif entered China from the overland Silk Road around the late 5th century, evolving into two systems. The Hexi Corridor system, centered on Dunhuang, predominantly features lotus-born beings holding vines. The figural types evolved from lotus-born beings to celestial beings, bodhisattvas, and buddhas, with postures ranging from vine-holding to mudra-forming, lotus-tray-lifting, music-playing, and dancing, demonstrating a clear trajectory of development. The Northern Central Plains system, successively centered in Pingcheng, Qingzhou, and Yecheng, developed a relatively complete sequence only in buddha figures. The motif first spread through the Hexi Corridor before influencing the Northern Central Plains. It was adapted from its original Mediterranean context of mythological themes and funerary or temple use to illustrate Buddhist doctrines in China, absorbing elements of Han, Western Regions, and Central Asian cultures. By clarifying the motif’s origin, spread, evolution, and adaptation through systematic analysis of material evidence, this article reveals an intrinsic connection between Greco-Roman culture and Chinese Buddhist art, enriches the history of Sino-foreign cultural exchange, and reflects how Buddhism absorbed diverse cultural elements to achieve Sinicization. Full article