Search Results (3,703)

Demand-side management (DSM) is a security-critical function in residential smart grids. The same communication and sensing infrastructure that enables fine-grained load flexibility also exposes schedulers to corrupted measurements, price manipulation, and delayed control signals. Conventional DSM formulations generally treat cyber and communication impairments as external disturbances, which are addressed only after the schedule has already been calculated. This study proposes and evaluates Cyber-Resilient and QoS-Aware Demand-Side Management (CQ-DSM) as a hierarchical optimization framework that embeds cyber-risk likelihood and communication quality-of-service (QoS) directly into the scheduling objective. Local home energy management systems (HEMSs) solve mixed-integer linear programs at the appliance level, and central aggregators broadcast compact coordination signals based on real-time prices, measured QoS, and a sliding-window GRU-feature MLP risk estimator. The key intuition is to convert uncertainty about trust and actuation reliability into scheduling prices: high cyber risk discourages exposed loads during vulnerable periods, whereas poor QoS increases the value of locally preserving thermal flexibility. Under the simulation conditions (NYISO August pricing, P = 50 prosumers, Seed 42), CQ-DSM reduces overall system costs by 5.75% and imbalance procurement costs relative to an attack-unaware baseline under normal operation, limits the FDI-induced cost increase to 0.46% versus 0.83% (44% reduction in cost overrun), and reduces thermal-violation penalties by 81% under degraded QoS. The ablation results are consistent with cyber-risk pricing and QoS-aware fallback being complementary rather than redundant under the scenarios tested. Full article

This study comprehensively evaluates the mechanical properties, shrinkage behavior, and durability of concrete prepared with limestone- and granite-manufactured sands under standard-curing and steam-curing conditions. The results indicate that limestone-manufactured sand concrete consistently exhibits superior compressive strength and splitting tensile strength across all curing ages, outperforming granite-modified counterparts. The introduction of granite-manufactured sand significantly degrades these mechanical properties, with deterioration intensifying as granite content increases. Dynamic elastic modulus and damping ratio analyses reveal that limestone-based concrete maintains the highest dynamic stiffness and lowest energy dissipation under both curing regimes, suggesting fewer internal defects. In contrast, granite incorporation reduces the dynamic elastic modulus and increases the damping ratio, reflecting structural deterioration and enhanced energy loss. Drying shrinkage tests demonstrate that limestone concrete achieves the lowest shrinkage deformation throughout the testing period, even under steam-curing conditions. Conversely, granite addition markedly elevates shrinkage, particularly under steam-curing conditions, leading to compromised volumetric stability. Durability assessments highlight that manufactured sand concrete exhibits higher capillary absorption, electrical flux, and porosity, attributed to inherent material defects and the surface characteristics of manufactured sand. Granite-modified concrete further weakens interfacial shear strength between aggregates and cement paste, indicating poor interfacial bonding. Steam curing exacerbates microstructural defects, emphasizing the need to optimize curing protocols. The findings propose strategies for enhancing manufactured sand concrete performance: improving interfacial adhesion between aggregates and cement paste, rationalizing supplementary material dosages, and refining steam curing regimes. These measures offer potential pathways to develop high-performance manufactured sand concrete with balanced mechanical and durability properties. Full article

Background/Objectives: Maternal nutrition and physical activity are modifiable behaviours relevant to pregnancy outcomes, but higher activity may coexist with both favourable and unfavourable dietary patterns. This study examined associations between pregnancy physical activity, individualised fruit–vegetable adequacy, energy-dense, nutrient-poor (EDNP) food and beverage intake, and preterm birth. Methods: This cross-sectional study included 1048 postpartum women with singleton live births recruited consecutively at a tertiary maternity hospital in Romania. Physical activity during the last three months of pregnancy was assessed using the Pregnancy Physical Activity Questionnaire and categorised into quartiles of total MET-hours/week. Dietary intake was assessed using an adapted food frequency questionnaire. Fruit–vegetable adequacy was evaluated against individualised recommendations, and EDNP intake was summarised using a composite score derived from fast food, sweets, chocolate, and sugar-sweetened beverages. Preterm birth was defined as delivery before 37 completed weeks of gestation. Results: Preterm birth occurred in 118 cases (11.3%). Higher physical activity categories showed greater fruit–vegetable intake and adequacy, but also higher EDNP intake. After adjustment for maternal age, pregestational BMI, parity, education, and income, physical activity category remained associated with all modelled dietary outcomes. Category 4 had higher odds of fruit–vegetable adequacy than category 1 (OR 2.24, 95% CI 1.55–3.24). In diet-informed models, category 3 had the lowest odds of preterm birth (OR 0.38, 95% CI 0.21–0.68). Conclusions: Total physical activity during pregnancy was associated with a complex dietary profile rather than a uniformly favourable lifestyle pattern. The lowest odds of preterm birth were observed in the third activity category, suggesting a non-linear association. Full article

Background/Objectives: Accurate estimation of nutritional content from food images has important applications in dietary assessment and public health surveillance. While large language models (LLMs) have shown promise for this task, the effects of prompt design and model selection on estimation accuracy remain poorly characterized. Methods: We evaluated three Claude models (Haiku 4.5, Sonnet 4.6, Opus 4.6) for visual estimation of five mandatory nutritional components (energy, protein, fat, carbohydrate, and salt equivalent) across three datasets: NutriImage (691 Japanese meal photographs with dietitian-validated ground truth, after OCR-mask quality filtering), SNAPMe (1463 US meal photographs from a publicly available benchmark), and the Japan Branded Food Database (JBFD; 989–1000 packaged food product images). We systematically compared a default prompt and a visual estimation prompt explicitly instructing the model not to read any text or numbers visible in the image. Results: The visual estimation prompt substantially improved accuracy when paired with a sufficiently capable model (energy R²: 0.23 for Haiku to 0.60 for Sonnet, JBFD). Sonnet and Opus substantially outperformed Haiku across all datasets, while differences between Sonnet and Opus were small (MedAPE difference 1–3 percentage points). Packaged food images (JBFD) yielded higher R² than meal photographs. Salt equivalent showed consistently poor accuracy (MedAPE 34–64%). On SNAPMe, Sonnet achieved lower energy MAE (116.9 vs. 123.0 kcal, −4.9%) and lower MAE for protein (5.9 vs. 7.9 g, −25.7%) and fat (6.6 vs. 8.7 g, −24.5%) compared with a recent ChatGPT-5 study. Conclusions: Claude Sonnet offers the best cost-performance balance for LLM-based nutritional estimation. Prompt design substantially affects accuracy, but only when paired with a sufficiently capable model; model visual recognition capability appears to be a key determinant of performance. These findings highlight the inherent difficulty of this task and provide practical guidance for dietary assessment system development. Full article

Demand for greener and safer chemistries has driven the innovation of bioinspired and enzyme-mimicking catalysts for selective and efficient oxidation and hydrogenation under mild conditions. Natural catalysts, including peroxidases, oxidases, hydrogenases, oxygenases and dehydrogenases, boast remarkable activity, specificity, stability, selectivity, low energy requirements and atom economy. Disadvantages of enzymes, such as poor thermal stability, a narrow operational range, low recovery yield and the expense of purification, are motivating the discovery and design of enzyme substitutes. Several artificial platforms have appeared recently: nanozymes, artificial metalloenzymes, biomimetic metal Complexes, MOFs, atomic catalysts, bioinorganic hybrid systems, among others. These systems aim to replicate key structural and mechanistic features of enzymes while providing greater operational stability, recyclability, and scalability. Recent work has demonstrated the benefit of enzyme mimics in increasing eco-sustainability in reactions such as alcohol oxidation, selective alkane oxidation, waste degradation, catalytic photooxygen activation and biomass waste conversion. Similarly, biomimetic hydrogenation catalysts have shown outstanding activity in asymmetrically hydrogenating chemicals, reducing CO₂ into chemicals, hydrogenation by hydrogen transfer and creating hydrogen through water. Through control of active sites, second coordination sites, defects and electrons/protons in the system, significant gains have been seen in reaction selectivity and frequency of turning over substrate into product. Nanozymes, biohybrid catalysis and artificial catalysts guided by deep learning are further broadening the applications of biomimetic catalysis in oxidation and hydrogenation. The article review aims to provide a summary of the most current progress with bioinspired and enzyme-mimicking catalysts, focusing on catalytic mechanisms, how to design such catalysts, how green chemistry benefits from their development and where further application is likely in the coming years. Full article

Transition-metal sulfides are promising electrode materials for high-performance supercapacitors but are often limited by poor conductivity, particle agglomeration, and insufficient active sites. Herein, Co-doped NiS₂ with tunable sulfur vacancies was directly grown on flexible carbon cloth via a facile one-step solvothermal method by systematically controlling sulfur source ratio, Ni:Co ratio, temperature, and reaction time. Structural analyses reveal that the optimized conditions of S:(Ni + Co) = 3:1, Ni:Co = 2:1, 160 °C, and 15 h promote the formation of phase-pure Co-doped NiS₂ hierarchical microspheres with enhanced crystallinity and abundant active sites from the synergistic interaction between Ni and Co. Consequently, the optimized electrode delivers an impressive capacitance of 1296 F g⁻¹ at a current density of 1 A g⁻¹, along with excellent rate performance, retaining more than 88% of its capacitance after 1500 charge/discharge cycles at current densities ranging from 2 to 20 A g⁻¹. This work highlights the critical role of synthesis parameter engineering in regulating defect chemistry, structure, and electrochemical performance in advanced energy storage applications. Full article

A solar air heater generates heated air using solar energy. This system has a relatively simple design, which reduces the initial cost and facilitates maintenance compared with other solar systems. However, its thermal conversion efficiency is limited by the poor thermal conductivity of air. Previous studies have improved thermal efficiency by enhancing either the heat transfer area or the heat transfer coefficient, but most have applied only one of these approaches. In this work, a novel solar air heater with longitudinal fins and blocks, designed to simultaneously enhance the heat transfer area and heat transfer coefficient, is investigated for various block shapes (rectangular, forward-chamfered, backward-chamfered, and triangular blocks) utilizing computational fluid dynamics. Compared to the smooth fin channel, heat transfer is enhanced by a maximum of 1.61 times with the backward-chamfered block, while the corresponding enhancement factors for the rectangular, forward-chamfered, and triangular blocks are 1.52, 1.46, and 1.54, respectively. The thermo-hydraulic performance parameter, which simultaneously evaluates heat transfer augmentation and frictional penalty, further indicates that the backward-chamfered block is most effective at Reynolds numbers below 6000, while the rectangular block performs best above 9000. Full article

Copper and its alloys are widely used in electrical, automotive, aerospace, and energy applications because of their excellent thermal and electrical conductivity. However, the low hardness and poor wear resistance of pure Cu limit its use under tribologically demanding sliding conditions. In this study, Cu matrix composites reinforced with 1 wt.% boron carbide (B₄C), boron (B), chromium (Cr), cobalt (Co), alumina (Al₂O₃), and graphite (Gr) were fabricated by powder metallurgy and comparatively evaluated under identical processing and testing conditions. Phase constitution and microstructural characteristics were analyzed by XRD, SEM, and EDS, while mechanical and tribological behavior was assessed by Vickers hardness and dry sliding wear tests. All reinforcements improved the hardness of the Cu matrix compared with unreinforced Cu. The hardness increase followed the order Cu–B₄C (68.91%) > Cu–B (66.43%) > Cu–Gr (63.97%) > Cu–Al₂O₃ (61.79%) > Cu–Cr (42.69%) > Cu–Co (36.04%). Dry sliding wear tests, performed under a 10 N normal load, 0.05 m s⁻¹ sliding speed, and 1000 m sliding distance against a 316L stainless-steel ball, showed that all reinforced composites exhibited lower mass loss and more stable sliding behavior than pure Cu. Among all samples, Cu–B₄C displayed the best wear performance, with a 154.8% improvement in wear resistance relative to pure Cu. SEM analysis of the worn surfaces revealed that reinforcement addition reduced severe plastic deformation, groove formation, and delamination, leading to a more stable wear regime. Graphite- and boron-containing composites benefited from interfacial lubrication and contact stabilization, whereas B₄C and Al₂O₃ improved wear resistance through rigid-particle strengthening and enhanced load-bearing capacity. By comparing ceramic, metalloid, metallic, oxide, and solid-lubricating reinforcements at the same low addition level and under identical processing and testing conditions, this study provides a reinforcement-selection framework for Cu-based composites requiring improved hardness and dry-sliding durability. Full article

Environmental stressors such as poor water quality, overstocking, and temperature spikes force shrimp to divert energy from growth and immunity to maintain homeostasis, increasing their susceptibility to opportunistic pathogens. Despite this risk, information on how these conditions affect viral and bacterial abundance, diversity, and community structure in shrimp farms remains scarce. To address this gap, this study offers a broad metagenomic analysis of the viral and bacterial communities in a shrimp farm, uncovering their diversity and ecological significance. In total, 13,572 viral operational taxonomic units (vOTUs) were recovered. Most viruses belonged to the realm Duplodnaviria, with Caudoviricetes dominating the libraries. Additionally, some contigs were linked to the Iridoviridae, a family that can affect fish and shrimp. Taken together, these findings highlight the critical role of virus–host interactions in marine environments and underscore the utility of metagenomic analysis for monitoring and safeguarding aquaculture health. Full article

Treating autosomal dominant polycystic kidney disease (ADPKD) has always been a challenge because the disease is too complex for single-target drugs, which are often held back by side effects. This narrative review explores a different strategy: using plant-derived polyphenols to target multiple disease pathways at the same time. Looking at research from 2005 to 2026, we break down how key compounds like resveratrol, curcumin, naringenin, quercetin, and epigallocatechin-3-gallate (EGCG) actually work. Preclinical studies show these molecules can slow down cyst growth by tackling inflammation, rapid cell division, and tissue scarring all at once, while also resetting the skewed energy metabolism of cystic cells. Some mechanisms are strikingly specific, such as naringenin’s direct interaction with polycystin-2 and quercetin’s ability to clear senescent cells. Yet, the real-world hurdle is poor absorption; a recent clinical trial with standard curcumin fell short simply because the compound could not reach the kidneys in high enough concentrations. Moving forward, the field needs to focus on testing these compounds in realistic animal models, designing smart nanoformulations to improve bioavailability, and exploring combinations that could safely complement current therapies like tolvaptan. Full article

With the large-scale development of renewable energy such as wind, solar and ocean energy, the demand for energy storage is more urgent. Pumped hydro energy storage (PHES) is one of the fundamental solutions to the problem of intermittent supply of renewable energy. The large-capacity/low-head pumped hydro energy storage (LL-PHES) system with the use of tubular pump turbine is a beneficial extension of traditional PHES systems owing to large flow rate and cheaper civil structures. However, the continuous competition between the “static water pressure difference caused by gravity” and the “pressure increase caused by accelerated impeller rotation” leads to prominent instability in the start-up process of the LL-PHES system under pump conditions. An explicit coupling algorithm is proposed for analyzing the transient characteristics in the start-up process of the LL-PHES system under pump conditions. This algorithm is based on the idea of dimensional transformation, and performs 3D flow calculations and 2D rigid body dynamics equation solution in the pump domain and the flap gate domain, respectively. This algorithm avoids the problems of high computational cost and poor convergence that exist in existing fully three-dimensional coupling algorithms and ensures the efficiency of transient hydraulic characteristic calculation. A comprehensive analysis of the transient characteristics of the LL-PHES system during pump start-up process is conducted using the proposed new algorithm. The entire process of the increase in rotational speed, valve opening, flow rate, and the continuous evolution of blade surface pressure during the start-up process is quantitatively described. The amplitude and spectral characteristics of the alternating pressure on multiple blades are clarified. The evolution law of blade load during the stage of severe pressure fluctuations during the start-up process is explained. The load distribution characteristics of “high in the leading and trailing edge areas and low in the middle” in the blade stream direction is presented. The research results have a direct guiding role in improving the hydraulic design and enhancing the operational stability of LL-PHES systems. Full article

The poor thermal stability and inferior ion transport performance of polyolefin separators have been the bottlenecks restricting the development of lithium ion battery (LIB)-based high-power energy storage systems. Thus, the preparation of advanced separators is essential as the alternative of traditional polyolefin for reliable LIB-based large-scale grid energy storage. In this study, a composite polyimide-based separator doped with a lithium-conducting inorganic was prepared by electrospinning combined with in situ thermal imidization as the matrix. The effects of the inorganic and thermal treatment conditions on the structure and performance of the separator were systematically investigated. The results show that the optimized composite separator exhibits excellent comprehensive performance: (1) its thermal stability is significantly better than that of commercial polyolefin separators, with no obvious size shrinkage at high temperatures; (2) the porosity and electrolyte wettability are greatly improved, effectively promoting the uniform transport and desolvation process of lithium ions, and the ion transport performance is significantly enhanced; and (3) the mechanical properties meet the requirements for commercial batteries. In half-cell tests, the composite separator achieved excellent rate performance and cycling stability. Particularly, overcharge tests for the assembled pouch cells with Ah-level were performed, where the low overcharge temperature verified the better thermal stability of the composite separator than that of batteries assembled with traditional commercial separators. This study provides new ideas and technical support for the design and industrial application of high-safety and long-life energy storage battery separators. Full article

Introduction: Coastal fishes can adapt to water warming and hypoxia; however, acute tolerance does not necessarily predict longer-term performance and survival. This may be especially important in sedentary, site-faithful species with limited escape to escape increasingly unfavorable habitats. We assessed the climate-related stress responses of the Lusitanian toadfish, Halobatrachus didactylus, a benthic estuarine fish from the Northeast Atlantic, to water warming and hypoxia. Objectives: We aimed to determine the aerobic energy budget, thermal limits (CTmax), and critical oxygen tension (Pcrit), as well as blood indicators of metabolism, altered physiology and systemic stress, as proxies for whole-organism homeostatic state, thereby informing future ecophysiological assessments and bioindicator development in a context of environmental change. Methodology: We determined standard, routine, and maximum metabolic rates; aerobic scope; and critical thermal maximum (CTmax) and critical oxygen (Pcrit) thresholds on a set of 134 individuals ranging from 12 to 160 g in weight. On a different set of individuals (n = 48; 76.3 ± 2.6 g; 16.1 ± 0.18 cm), we simulated 30 days of seasonal scenarios combining low and high temperature with normoxia or hypoxia, followed by integrated metabolic, hematological, biochemical, and multivariate analyses. Results: Acute trials showed high short-term resilience: H. didactylus had an exceptionally low standard metabolic rate and routine metabolic rate, high CTmax (34.82 ± 0.66 °C), and strong hypoxia tolerance (Pcrit 0.59–1.97 mg O₂ L⁻¹), although smaller individuals were more sensitive. After 30 days, however, warming more than doubled standard and routine metabolic rates, while warm hypoxia reduced metabolic output relative to warm normoxia, consistent with metabolic depression under compounded stressors. This treatment also showed shifts in glucose, liver mass, red blood cell count, and hematocrit, identifying warm, oxygen-poor water as the most physiologically costly scenario for this species. Conclusions: Together, these results show that high acute tolerance does not guarantee resilience to climate change. In sedentary fishes, survival may depend less on surviving extremes than on maintaining energetic balance, oxygen transport capacity, and physiological homeostasis in increasingly warm, oxygen-poor coastal habitats. Full article

In the existing tool wear status monitoring process, the difference in the distribution of tool wear signal characteristics under different processing conditions leads to insufficient generalization of the model and poor accuracy of wear status recognition. Aiming at the problem, a method for monitoring the wear status of milling cutters under variable working conditions based on transfer learning and a lightweight SqueezeNet model is proposed. Firstly, the continuous wavelet transform (CWT) is employed to realize the conversion of the raw vibration signal to a time–frequency energy diagram to completely preserve the joint feature distribution of the vibration signal in the time and frequency dimensions. Secondly, based on the phased transfer learning strategy and the lightweight SqueezeNet, a monitoring model of the wear status of the milling cutter under variable working conditions is established, which realizes the adaptive and accurate identification of the wear status of the milling cutter under different milling conditions. Finally, comparative experiments were performed using three groups of vibration signals under different milling condition as the model inputs. As demonstrated by the experimental results, the recognition accuracy of the test set of the proposed monitoring model under variable working conditions can reach 94.583%, which is higher than the 91.133% of the LSTM-DBO-SVM model, which proves the accuracy and feasibility of the presented approach under variable working conditions. Full article

To date, lithium–ion batteries (LIBs) are considered one of the most promising and market-leading energy storage systems due to their high theoretical capacity and energy density. However, poor thermal and cyclic stability, low electrolyte uptake, and the possibility for frequent short circuits of typical separators and evolution of several gases during long cycle operation pose several problems for LIBs. Metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) have attracted widespread interest as a promising material for improving the cycle stability and safety of rechargeable batteries due to their inherent surface and structural properties such as high specific surface area, high porosity, and ionic conductivity. In this work, the aim is to provide detailed descriptions of the synthesis routes and parameters for obtaining various MOFs such as Zr-MOF-808 and Ni-MOF-74 nanoparticles and the fabrication of those MOF-integrated separators. To optimize the crystallinity, morphological and compositional characteristics, and several material characterizations such as XRD, SEM, and EDX have been applied. Afterwards, the synthesized MOF-integrated glass fiber (GF) separators have been developed for lithium–ion battery (LIB) applications. To investigate the electrochemical performance and the effect of MOF integration into the separators, electrochemical studies in the form of galvanostatic charge–discharge (GCD), electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) have been evaluated by preparing CR2032-type half-coin cells. This MOFs-integrated GF-separators and synthesized LiNi_0.6Mn_0.2Co_0.2O₂ (NMC622) cathode materials-based coin cell LIB exhibited higher cycle stability than bare GF-separator based LIB. This novel approach and extensive research suggest that development of MOF-integrated separators could significantly improve cycle stability by reducing the internal cell degradation for next generation energy storage devices. Full article