Search Results (191)

Understanding how primary structural features and secondary material properties adapt to functional loads is essential to determining their effect on changes in joint biomechanics over time. The objective of this study was to map and correlate spatiotemporal changes in primary structural features, secondary material properties, and dentoalveolar joint (DAJ) stiffness with age in rats subjected to prolonged chewing of soft foods versus hard foods. To probe how loading history shapes the balance between the primary and secondary features, four-week-old rats were fed either a hard-food (HF, N = 25) or soft-food (SF, N = 25) diet for 4, 12, 16, and 20 weeks, and functional imaging of intact mandibular DAJs was performed at 8, 12, 16, 20, and 24 weeks. Across this time course, the primary structural determinants of joint function (periodontal ligament (PDL) space, contact area, and alveolar bone socket morphology) and secondary material and microstructural determinants (tissue-level stiffness encoded by bone and cementum volume fractions, pore architecture, and bone microarchitecture) were quantified. As the joints matured, bone and cementum volume fractions increased in both the HF and SF groups but along significantly different trajectories, and these changes correlated with a pronounced decrease in PDL-space from 12 to 16 weeks in both diets. With further aging, older HF rats maintained significantly wider PDL-spaces than SF rats. These evolving physical features were accompanied by an age-dependent significant increase in the contact ratio in the SF group. The DAJ stiffness was significantly greater in SF than HF animals at younger ages, indicating that food hardness-dependent remodeling alters the relative contribution of structural versus material factors to joint function across the life course. At the tissue level, volumetric strains, representing overall volume changes, and von Mises bone strains, representing shape changes, increased with age in HF and SF joints, with volumetric strain rising rapidly from 16 to 20 weeks and von Mises strain increasing sharply from 12 to 16 weeks. Bone in SF animals exhibited higher and more variable strain values than age-matched HF bone, and changes in joint space, degrees of freedom, contact area, and bone strain correlated with joint biomechanics, demonstrating that multiscale functional biomechanics, including bone strain in intact DAJs, are colocalized with anatomy-specific physical effectors. Together, these spatiotemporal shifts in primary (structure/form), and secondary features (material properties and microarchitecture) define divergent mechanobiological pathways for the DAJ and suggest that altered loading histories can bias joints toward early maladaptation and potential degeneration. Full article

Recurrent depressive disorder (RDD) and bipolar disorder (BD) are the most common affective disorders worldwide. However, the pathogenesis of these disorders remains far from understood. Macromolecular proton fraction (MPF) mapping is a sensitive and specific quantitative MRI method for the assessment of brain tissue myelination, but its clinical value for affective disorders remains unknown. This cross-sectional study employed fast MPF mapping on a 1.5 T MRI scanner using the single-point synthetic reference method to investigate myelin abnormalities in white matter of RDD and BD patients. ANOVA revealed a significant main effect of the group (RDD vs. BD vs. two age-matched control groups; F (3.76) = 7.42, p < 0.001, η² = 0.227). MPF values were significantly reduced in RDD versus BD patients (p < 0.001). BD showed elevated MPF compared to controls (p = 0.01). MPF levels showed significant weak-to-moderate correlations with clinical scales of affective disorders. These findings demonstrate divergent cerebral myelination patterns—hypomyelination in RDD versus an increased myelin content in BD. In conclusion, MPF mapping demonstrated a promise as a marker of myelin content changes in affective disorder. Full article

The convergence rate of the Caputo fractional difference logistic map of nilpotent matrices is investigated in this paper. The divergence rate of the auxiliary parameters governing the dynamics of nilpotents is exponential and is multiple to the Lyapunov exponent of the scalar non-fractional map. However, the convergence of the Caputo fractional difference logistic map of nilpotent matrices to a stable fixed point is governed by the interplay between the convergence rate of the scalar fractional map (the power law rate) and the exponential convergence induced by the nilpotent matrices. It is demonstrated that convergence is determined by the competition between the power law and exponential mechanisms, a feature not captured by scalar fractional maps, with higher-order auxiliary parameters diverging exponentially at increasingly higher rates. This paper provides insight into the complex dynamics of fractional maps of nilpotent matrices. Full article

Solid–liquid stirred tanks are widely used in multiphase processes, including bioreactors for mesenchymal stem cell (MSC) culture, yet simultaneous experimental data for both dispersed and carrier phases remain limited. Here, a refractive index-matched (RIM) suspension of PMMA microparticles ($d_p=168\mathrm{\mu m}$, ${\rho }_p/{\rho }_l\approx 0.96$) in an NH₄SCN solution is studied at an intermediate Reynolds number ($Re\approx 5000$), low Stokes number ($St=0.078$), and particle volume fractions $0.1\le {\alpha }_p\le 0.5$ v%. This system was previously established and studied for the effect of addition of particles on the carrier phase. In this work, a dual-camera PIV set-up provides simultaneous velocity fields of the liquid and particle phases in a stirred tank equipped with a three-blade down-pumping HTPGD impeller. The liquid mean flow and circulation loop remained essentially unchanged with particle loading, whereas particle mean velocities were lower than single-phase and liquid-phase values in the impeller discharge. Turbulence levels diverged between phases: liquid-phase turbulent kinetic energy (TKE) in the impeller region increased modestly with ${\alpha }_p$, while solid-phase TKE was attenuated. Slip velocity maps showed that particles lagged the fluid in the impeller jet and deviated faster from the wall in the upward flow, with slip magnitudes increasing with ${\alpha }_p$. An approximate axial force balance indicated that drag dominates over lift in the impeller and wall regions, while the balance is approximately satisfied in the tank bulk, providing an experimental benchmark for refining drag and lift models in this class of stirred tanks. Full article

Indonesia faces growing pressure to strengthen waste management while expanding renewable energy generation, particularly from high-moisture biomass such as palm oil mill effluent (POME) and the organic fraction of municipal solid waste (OFMSW). Anaerobic digestion technology (ADT) is technically suitable for both feedstocks; however, its deployment depends on broader operational, financial, social, and institutional conditions. This study evaluates ADT readiness for biomass waste-to-energy (BWTE) development in Indonesia using a multistakeholder Japanese Technology Readiness Assessment (J-TRA) framework. The results and discussion are supported by a literature review, secondary data analysis, and interviews with government agencies, industry actors, financiers, non-governmental organizations, and researchers. The results reveal a clear divergence in readiness outcomes. POME-based ADT reaches Technology Readiness Levels (TRLs) of 6–8, supported by a stable and homogeneous feedstock supply, established industrial operations, and corporate incentives to mitigate methane emissions. Key remaining constraints relate to high capital costs for smaller mills, low electricity purchase tariffs, and competing export incentives for untreated POME. In contrast, OFMSW-based ADT remains at TRL 2–4, constrained by inconsistent waste segregation, insufficient operation and maintenance capacity, limited municipal budgets, residential safety concerns, and fragmented governance across waste and energy institutions. Across both cases, readiness is shaped by five interacting forces. The first three are technical: feedstock characteristics, operations and maintenance (O&M) capability, and financial certainty. The remaining two are enabling conditions: social acceptance and institutional coordination. This study concludes that Indonesia’s BWTE transition requires integrated technological, behavioral, and policy interventions, supported by further research on hybrid valorization pathways and context-specific life-cycle and cost analyses. Full article

Background: Early risk stratification in acute decompensated heart failure with reduced ejection fraction (ADHF-rEF) remains challenging. The Endothelial Activation and Stress Index (EASIX)—a composite of lactate dehydrogenase, creatinine, and platelet count—reflects endothelial dysfunction, a pathophysiological contributor to early deterioration in ADHF-rEF. This study evaluated the prognostic utility of admission-based EASIX for in-hospital mortality. Methods: In this retrospective single-center cohort, 850 consecutive patients hospitalized with ADHF-rEF between January 2022 and June 2025 were analyzed. EASIX was calculated from first-day laboratory values. Logistic regression, ROC analysis, restricted cubic splines, and Kaplan–Meier survival methods were used to assess the association between EASIX and in-hospital mortality, and to evaluate its incremental value beyond established clinical and laboratory predictors. Results: In-hospital mortality was 12.4%. Higher EASIX values were significantly associated with mortality in both univariable and multivariable models (adjusted OR 1.273; p < 0.001). EASIX demonstrated moderate discriminative performance among evaluated biomarkers (AUC 0.751) and showed a clear dose–response risk gradient, with mortality rising from 1.4% in the lowest tertile to 26.2% in the highest. Incorporating EASIX into clinical and laboratory prediction models yielded substantial continuous net reclassification improvement (0.59 and 0.38, respectively). Survival curves diverged early and remained distinctly separated across EASIX strata. Conclusions: Admission EASIX is an independent predictor of in-hospital mortality in ADHF-rEF and provides complementary prognostic information beyond conventional models. This is the first study to demonstrate the prognostic value of EASIX in the ADHF-rEF setting, supporting its potential utility as an accessible endothelial stress biomarker for early risk stratification. Full article

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) is developing analytical methods to characterize extracellular vesicles (EVs) to support the urgent need for standardized EV reference materials (RMs). This study used orthogonal techniques, cryogenic electron microscopy (Cryo-EM), particle tracking analysis (PTA), asymmetrical flow field-flow fractionation (AF⁴), and microfluidic resistive pulse sensing (MRPS), to evaluate particle size distributions (PSDs) and particle number concentrations (PNCs) of human mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) and LNCaP prostate cancer cell EVs. Proteomic profiles were assessed by mass spectrometry (MS), and microRNA (miRNA) content of LNCaP EVs was evaluated by small RNA-seq at two independent laboratories. A commercial green fluorescent protein exosome served as a control, except in Cryo-EM, proteomic, and miRNA analyses. Cryo-EM, regarded as the gold standard for morphological resolution, served as PSD reference. PSDs from all methods skewed larger than Cryo-EM, with MRPS closest, AF⁴ most divergent, and PTA intermediate with broader distributions. All techniques reported broad PSDs (30 nm to >350 nm) with PNCs decreasing with increasing particle size, except for AF⁴. Quantitative discrepancies in PNCs reached up to two orders of magnitude across methods and cell sources. MS identified global and EV-specific proteins, including syntenin-1 and tetraspanins CD9, CD63, and CD81. RNA-seq revealed notable inter-laboratory variation. These findings highlight the variability across measurement platforms and emphasize the need for reproducible methods to support NIST’s mission of developing reliable EV reference materials. Full article

Atherosclerosis, a leading cause of cardiovascular disease, is driven by a complex interplay of dyslipidemia, inflammation, and arterial plaque formation and progression. Animal models are indispensable to elucidate the pathogenesis and develop novel therapies. Rodent models are widely utilized due to their cost-effectiveness, reproducibility, and rapid disease progression. However, notable species differences exist in lipoprotein composition and lipid metabolism pathways. Mice and rats exhibit an HDL-dominant profile, whereas Syrian golden hamsters express cholesteryl ester transfer protein (CETP) and display a higher LDL fraction, but lower than that of humans, offering a model closer to human metabolically. Divergent CETP activity across species further complicates the translational relevance of the findings from these models for atherosclerosis and related metabolic disorders. This review systematically examines the key factors in rodent model selection and optimization, with consideration on the roles of sex and age. We focus on three commonly used and well-characterized rodent strains prone to atherosclerosis: C57BL/6J mice, Sprague-Dawley (SD) rats, Wistar rats, and golden hamsters. On Apoe^−/− or Ldlr^−/− backgrounds, male C57BL/6 mice, owing to their pronounced hypercholesterolemia and extended survival with high-fat diet, are preferentially used in late-stage plaque stability studies. In contrast, male SD or Wistar rats develop atherosclerosis slowly with limited lesion progression, while hamsters, despite their human-like lipid metabolism, exhibit substantial individual variability and lesions that typically arrest at early fatty streaks with poor reproducibility. Therefore, rats and hamsters are better suited for studies focusing on early disease mechanisms and human-mimetic lipid metabolism. Full article

In this research work, we present findings on fractional stochastic systems characterized by fractional Brownian motion, which is defined by a Hurst parameter $\mathbb{H}\in \left(\frac{1}{2},1\right)$. These systems are crucial for modeling complex phenomena that diverge from Markovian behavior and exhibit long-range dependence, particularly in areas such as financial engineering and statistical physics. We utilize the fixed-point iteration method to demonstrate the existence and uniqueness (Ex-Un) of mild solutions. Additionally, we investigate the approximate controllability of the system. We establish all results within the framework of the $\mu$-Caputo fractional derivative. This study makes a meaningful contribution to the existing body of literature by rigorously establishing the existence, uniqueness, and approximate controllability of mild solutions to generalized Caputo fractional stochastic differential equations driven by fractional Brownian motion. Full article

This paper is devoted to the analysis of boundedness for fractional integral operators, Calderón–Zygmund singular integral operators, and their corresponding commutators on generalized local Morrey spaces associated with ball Banach function spaces. These foundational results are then applied to establish the local regularity within the $L{M}_X^{\phi }$ Morrey spaces for the solution gradients of second-order elliptic equations expressed in divergence form. Full article

In this study, we introduce and rigorously formalize the notion of (P, m)-superquadratic stochastic processes, representing a novel and far-reaching generalization of classical convex stochastic processes. By exploring their intrinsic structural characteristics, we establish advanced Jensen and Hermite–Hadamard ($\mathbb{H}.\mathbb{H}$)-type inequalities within the mean-square stochastic calculus framework. Furthermore, we extend these inequalities to their fractional counterparts via stochastic Riemann–Liouville ($\mathbb{RL}$) fractional integrals, thereby enriching the analytical machinery available for fractional stochastic analysis. The theoretical findings are comprehensively validated through graphical visualizations and detailed tabular illustrations, constructed from diverse numerical examples to highlight the behavior and accuracy of the proposed results. Beyond their theoretical depth, the developed framework is applied to information theory, where we introduce new classes of stochastic divergence measures. The proposed results significantly refine the approximation of stochastic and fractional stochastic differential equations governed by convex stochastic processes, thereby enhancing the precision, stability, and applicability of existing stochastic models. To ensure reproducibility and computational transparency, all graph-generation commands, numerical procedures, and execution times are provided, offering a complete and verifiable reference for future research in stochastic and fractional inequality theory. Full article

Background: Left ventricular (LV) mechanics assessed by speckle-tracking echocardiography provides sensitive markers of cardiac adaptation to exercise. Different training modalities—endurance, high-intensity interval training (HIIT), and acute exercise tests—impose distinct hemodynamic loads, yet their comparative effects on LV deformation remain unclear. Importantly, acute and chronic endurance exposures may elicit divergent myocardial responses that must be interpreted separately. Methods: A systematic search of PubMed, Scopus, and EMBASE (through September 2025) identified studies evaluating LV mechanics in response to endurance, HIIT, or acute exercise among healthy or recreationally active individuals. Echocardiographic parameters of strain and torsion were extracted, and methodological quality was appraised using the NIH Quality Assessment Tool. Results: Twenty-three studies (859 participants) met inclusion criteria. Acute prolonged endurance exercise—particularly marathon and ultra-endurance events—was associated with transient, fully reversible reductions in global longitudinal, circumferential, and radial strain and torsion, despite preserved ejection fraction, reflecting short-term myocardial fatigue rather than maladaptive remodeling. In contrast, chronic endurance training maintained or improved LV mechanics without evidence of dysfunction, while HIIT interventions consistently enhanced LV systolic strain and rotational indices across diverse age groups and sexes, reflecting improved contractile efficiency and physiological remodeling. Acute exercise produced heterogeneous, load-dependent strain responses, with isometric stress increasing regional strain and maximal exertion inducing temporary global reductions. Between-study heterogeneity was moderate, methodological quality generally good, and small-study effects varied by modality, being most evident in endurance studies, borderline for HIIT, and limited for acute tests due to sample size. Conclusions: Acute endurance exercise produces transient, reversible LV deformation changes, whereas chronic endurance training preserves mechanical efficiency. HIIT reliably enhances systolic strain and torsional mechanics, and acute exercise elicits variable but physiologically meaningful responses. These findings clarify that transient post-race strain reductions reflect physiological fatigue, not chronic maladaptation, and underscore the modality-specific nature of myocardial adaptation to exercise. Full article

The present work consisted of a comparative analysis, followed by an extensive narrative literature review, of the structural profiles of bioactive polysaccharides from edible fruits representing different terrestrial biomes, relating them—with a focus on their monosaccharide fractions—to the abiotic variables of each biome, such as temperature, rainfall, annual water regimes, and physicochemical characteristics of the soil to provide an accurate landscape regarding the patterns and divergences surrounding the development of edible fruits around the world. The present review also provided a focus on the various analytical methods used to obtain data related to the glycosidic profile of the analyzed edible fruits, allowing for a comparison of issues relating to the biomes and the quantitative composition of the existing polysaccharides, together with the associated macromolecular parameters, such as degree of esterification, branching, and average molecular weight. From the analysis performed, recurrences of characteristics were identified in different biomes, such as high concentrations of galacturonic acid and arabinose in fruits from cold regions; abundance of xyloarabinan and galactan in fruits from arid areas; and greater branching, acetylation, and a lower degree of esterification in fruits subject to water variations that favor water retention and cell wall stability. These profiles suggest a strong association between the structure of polysaccharides and ecological adaptations that are crucial for their full development. The insights presented here are of the utmost importance in both basic and applied food science, indicating possible structural targets for selecting and engineering resistance in edible fruits under various abiotic stress conditions and guiding and providing direction for experimental studies that extend beyond classical methodologies. Full article

Water-extractable carbon is thought to originate from labile organic carbon pools and has been used as an active carbon indicator for soil evaluation in numerous studies. This study aims to explore the regional variation patterns of water-extractable organic carbon (WEOC) and the environmental impact factors associated with it. It examines the variability of WEOC under different climatic conditions and land use types, including grasslands and woodlands, thereby enhancing our understanding of WEOC. We measured the WEOC in the surface soil layers (0–10 cm) of woodlands and grasslands in arid and semi-arid regions. Additionally, we analyzed the effects of varying climatic conditions and land use types on WEOC based on data from literature research. WEOC distribution patterns diverged spatially from soil organic carbon (SOC). WEOC fractions decreased with increasing precipitation, and surface soil WEOC accumulation was observed in arid regions. This accumulation was more pronounced in forest-land, resulting in a more marked divergence in WEOC concentrations between woodlands and grasslands in arid regions. We inferred that the inconsistent correlation between WEOC and SOC across regions arises from their distinct distribution patterns along environmental humidity gradients. Owing to the climate sensitivity of WEOC, its surface soil accumulation in arid areas may increase the vulnerability of soil ecosystems, rendering them more susceptible to environmental disturbances. Such susceptibility could drive organic carbon loss and soil quality degradation. These findings hold promise for improving our understanding of WEOC dynamic, and will also give insight into refining soil carbon balance models and soil management strategies to address environmental changes. Full article

We investigate the three-dimensional incompressible fractional Navier–Stokes system with directional fractional diffusion: a vertical dissipative operator of order $2\alpha \in (0,2]$ acting on the full velocity field together with a horizontal fractional operator of order $2\beta \in (0,2]$ applied to the vertical average of one horizontal component. This anisotropic, nonlocal structure captures media in which smoothing acts with unequal strength by direction. For small, divergence-free initial data in an anisotropic energy class, we establish global well-posedness and stability of the zero state, including uniqueness and continuous dependence on the data. The analysis crucially relies on an average oscillation decomposition in the vertical variable, a fractional Poincaré inequality aligned with the vertical direction, and sharp product/commutator bounds compatible with the anisotropic splitting. We provide explicit estimates for direction-dependent smoothing and algebraic decay governed by $(\alpha ,\beta )$, and we show that the conclusions persist under small perturbation of the dissipation parameters. Full article