Search Results (1,236)

Smartphone GNSS metadata remains an underexplored source for evaluating navigation-signal integrity in real-world conditions. We investigated GPS behavior recorded by a Samsung Galaxy A72 smartphone across two European flights (EXP03: Rome–Bucharest, n = 377; EXP10: Bucharest–Lisbon, n = 78) and 275 terrestrial reference photographs (Cabo da Roca, Portugal). A total of 730 photographs were analyzed using a seven-indicator taxonomy, conceptually inspired by Receiver Autonomous Integrity Monitoring (RAIM) principles, covering anti-spoofing, anti-sniffing, and anti-tampering checks. GPS capture rates reached 100% (Timestamp Camera) and 83.3% (native camera) up to 11,439 m WGS84, among the highest EXIF altitude profiles reported to date. Velocity spikes (1560–1875 km/h), one at cruise altitude and one during landing, were indistinguishable from GPS spoofing at the EXIF level, and their physical origin is undetermined. Phantom geolocation was absent in flight (0/442) versus 37.3% on the ground, consistent with GPS constellation visibility as the primary factor. In total, 88% (n = 920) of JPEG files lacked the standard EOI marker, generating false positives in integrity validators. Findings are device-specific, derived from non-independent observations, and require replication before generalizing to other GNSS receivers or latitudes. The framework offers a methodological basis for EXIF integrity analysis relevant to EU AI Act Article 10(3) data quality and UAV precision-agriculture georeferencing. Full article

The study of galactic dynamics remains fragmented across three competing paradigms—Dark Matter ($\Lambda CDM$), Modified Newtonian Dynamics (MOND), and Yukawa-type modifications. This work relies on Enhanced Newtonian Dynamics (END), a parameter-free gravitational framework that derives rotational velocities exclusively from observable baryonic mass distributions and geometric configurations. Applying END to 39 high-quality galaxies from the SPARC database via a three-oblate spheroid composite model (core, bulge, and disc), we achieve mean velocity errors below 3% for 71.79% of the sample, with a median ${\chi }^2=1.77$. The fundamental END relation, $M{T}^2=\kappa V$ (where $\kappa \approx 1.4121\times {10}^{11}{\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{kg}}{{\mathrm{m}}^3}}{\mathrm{s}}^2$), successfully reproduces observed rotation curves without invoking non-baryonic dark matter haloes or modified gravity interpolation functions. Notable exceptions (e.g., IC2574, ${\chi }^2=51.56$) arise from geometric mismatches between the assumed exponential decay profiles and the actual density structures of dwarf irregular systems. Classical Newtonian Dynamics, applied to identical mass distributions, accounts for only 20% of observed velocities, suggesting the “missing mass” problem reflects limitations in how gravitational law relates enclosed mass to orbital motion rather than unseen matter. END’s zero-parameter architecture renders it strictly falsifiable, offering a parsimonious alternative to parameter-heavy competing models while requiring future iterations to incorporate adaptive geometric baselines for morphologically diverse galaxies. Full article

The galaxy size–mass relation (SMR) is a key scaling relation used to constrain the physical processes that build galaxy structure, yet it is almost always measured in a single rest-frame optical band, where the light traces the bulk of the old stellar mass. Tracing younger populations with flux-weighted ages of ∼100–500 Myr and low-metallicity stars, the rest-frame near-ultraviolet opens a new stellar window on this scaling relation. Because each process redistributes the light of young and old stars differently, the same mechanism shifts the slope and zero point of the SMR by different amounts in the two wavelength regimes. Here we review and synthesize the effects of main physical processes on the form of the SMR for star-forming and quiescent galaxies in the rest-UV and optical. For each process, we start from its underlying physics, the galaxy stellar masses it affects, and the light it adds/removes/rearranges, anchoring the predictions to observations and simulations. We validate the predicted imprints with forward Monte Carlo modelling. The two-wavelength view breaks several degeneracies that single-band analyses cannot, most notably between minor mergers, dry major mergers, and adiabatic expansion. These results motivate joint rest-UV and optical SMR measurements with current and upcoming wide-field imaging surveys. Full article

Smartwatches offer new opportunities for extending mobile gameplay through wearable input, but their integration into real-time game interactions requires communication frameworks capable of maintaining low and stable latency. This study evaluates ${\mathrm{Smart}}^2$, a smartwatch–smartphone communication module designed to integrate Wear OS input into Unity-based mobile games. The framework was evaluated through five minigames implementing Tap, D-Pad, Hold, Joystick, and motion-based input. A quantitative latency evaluation was conducted across five Android smartphones using a Samsung Galaxy Watch 7 as the smartwatch input device. Latency was estimated through a round-trip time approach and reported as estimated one-way latency. Results showed stable connectivity and no observed message loss, as verified through sequential event identifiers and their corresponding acknowledgments. A two-factor main-effects ANOVA showed statistically significant differences in mean estimated one-way latency between the five experimental tests and between minigames, indicating variability in the evaluated test conditions and interaction modalities. These findings suggest that ${\mathrm{Smart}}^2$ can support real-time smartwatch-based interaction in Unity gameplay while highlighting the importance of evaluating latency in relation to both test conditions and interaction design. Full article

The fifth edition of the Roma-BZCAT catalog (5BZCAT) contains 227 blazars of the uncertain type (BZU), whose available data do not support an unambiguous assignment to the BL Lacertae object (BZB), flat-spectrum radio quasar (BZQ), or host-galaxy-dominated blazar-like source (BZG) categories. We construct a machine-readable value-added catalog for these sources using 1151 BZB, 1909 BZQ, and 274 BZG catalog entries as the supervised reference sample. The compact input set contains redshift, optical magnitude, radio, X-ray, and gamma-ray measurements; missingness indicators; and spectral slopes connecting the radio, optical, and X-ray bands. Redshift and its availability are explicitly treated as optical-spectroscopy-related label proxies. Cross-validation shows that the Light Gradient Boosting Machine (LightGBM) provides the most reliable probability scores among the tested models, although the stacking ensemble gives a slightly higher balanced accuracy. The final catalog reports LightGBM probabilities and contains 61 BZB-like, 120 BZQ-like, and 46 BZG-like sources; 17 are flagged for low probability separation. These probabilities quantify similarity to existing 5BZCAT labels conditional on catalog measurements, rather than an independent physical taxonomy. Full article

Merging galaxy clusters represent one of the most powerful macroscopic laboratories in the Universe for searching for new physics within the dark sector. High-velocity cosmic collisions inherently separate the dark matter and stellar components from the highly collisional, X-ray-emitting intracluster gas. These massive systems provide an ideal environment to probe the fundamental nature of dark matter, specifically testing whether it behaves as a strictly collisionless particle or exhibits non-zero self-interactions. While pioneering systems like the Bullet Cluster historically demonstrated the macroscopic decoupling of dark and ordinary matter, the field has evolved into a sophisticated discipline driven by multi-disciplinary methodologies. This review synthesizes recent theoretical and empirical advances in interpreting post-collision dynamics. It examines how the synergy of combined approaches—integrating multi-wavelength observations from gravitational lensing and X-ray mapping with high-fidelity N-body hydrodynamical simulations—allows the translation of macroscopic spatial observables into stringent constraints on microscopic particle properties. Through this synthesis, the work evaluates how leveraging heterogeneous merger ensembles can reliably advance the ongoing search for physics beyond the standard cosmological model. Full article

Narrow-line Seyfert 1 (NLS1) galaxies host active galactic nuclei (AGN) with narrow optical emission lines of the broad-line region. This is often explained with a relatively lower mass of the central supermassive black hole and super-Eddington accretion. We compared the radio properties of large samples of NLS1 and broad-line Seyfert 1 (BLS1) galaxies compiled from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. We cross-matched the NLS1 and BLS1 samples with the Faint Images of the Radio Sky at Twenty-Centimeters (FIRST) sky survey at $1.4$ GHz and the first and second epoch data of the Very Large Array Sky Survey (VLASS) at 3 GHz. We calculated the radio spectral indices, the $1.4$-GHz radio power, and the radio loudness. We found lower $1.4$-GHz radio detection rates for the NLS1 galaxies. The median radio loudness values, the fraction of radio-loud AGN, and the median $1.4$-GHz radio power are also lower for the NLS1 sample. The median spectral indices imply a slightly steeper radio spectrum for the NLS1 sample than for the BLS1 sample. Comparison of the star formation rates estimated from the radio data and the infrared measurements of the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer satellite indicated that more than half of the FIRST- and VLASS-detected NLS1 and BLS1 galaxies contain radio-emitting AGN. Full article

We constrain the difference in gravitational potential between our location and sources at $z\gtrsim 0.3$ using datasets at those redshifts. Our motivation is that the Hubble tension might be caused by a local void, as suggested by galaxy number counts. This would increase the redshift through outflow and gravitational redshift (GR). Only the latter is important at high redshift, where a void contributes a fixed additional GR contribution of $z_0$ due to our location on a potential hill. This $z_0$ model has various subtle effects that were not previously considered, including a hotter CMB and reduced BAO scale $r_{\mathrm{d}}$. We test whether $z_0$ can have the previously expected value of 0.84%, which was based on the fitting of void parameters to galaxy number counts and local $H_0$ measurements. Combining BBN, CMB, BAO, and CC datasets at $z>0.5$, we find that $z_0$ = $-{0.4}_{-0.9}^{+0.8}\%$, which rises to $-0.1\pm 0.7\%$ when extending our analysis down to $z>0.29$. Although the results prefer the standard value of $z_0=0$, the best-fitting model with $z_0=0.84\%$ fits the data almost as well as $\Lambda$CDM, with $\Delta {\chi }^2<2$. We find that $\Lambda$CDM faces a $3.07\sigma$ BAO anomaly in the standard $(H_0{r}_{\mathrm{d}},{\mathsf{\Omega }}_{\mathrm{m}})$ parameter space, where different regions are preferred by BAO and non-BAO datasets from $z>0.29$. Fixing $z_0=0.84\%$ reduces this to $2.79\sigma$. This suggests that a local void large enough to solve the Hubble tension cannot be ruled out by higher-redshift datasets, despite its novel impacts on them. Full article

Smartphone-based augmented reality (AR) may help dentists visualize an implant axis during treatment or training. Before a virtual overlay can be displayed, however, the application must first recognize the real target reliably. This in vitro study tested how five lighting conditions affected recognition of a two-colored, 3D-printed polylactic acid (PLA) dental model by a Unity/Vuforia smartphone application. The application ran on a Samsung Galaxy S22. A GoPro HERO10 recorded the smartphone display at 240 frames per second, and the videos were evaluated frame by frame. Red, green, blue, daylight-like light-emitting diode (LED) and halogen illumination were tested at a central and an eccentric model position, with ten repetitions per condition and position. The model was not recognized under red or blue illumination within the predefined observation interval. Recognition was successful in all repetitions under green, daylight-like and halogen illumination. Recognition speed differed among these successful conditions, and the eccentric position delayed recognition under daylight-like and halogen illumination. A supplementary region-of-interest analysis also showed lighting-dependent differences in image brightness and contrast. These findings indicate that lighting should be standardized and documented when smartphone-based dental AR systems are developed and tested. Full article

The properties of luminous evolved stars in nearby resolved galaxies are briefly reviewed with emphasis on recent results for the low-metallicity dwarf irregulars. Highlights and recent discoveries of some of the more extreme examples with high rates of mass loss such as the yellow and red hypergiants, LBVs, and giant eruptions are summarized. Some of the most interesting new results are the evidence for high-luminosity stars at high redshift and at very low metallicities with mass loss. The presence of an empirical upper luminosity limit at very low metallicities similar to what we observe in the Milky Way and Local Group galaxies is presented. Its implications for the first stars in the early Universe and mass loss mechanisms at very low metallicity are discussed. Full article

The observed ratio of Wolf–Rayet (WR) star subtypes (e.g., WC/WN) in M31 is significantly higher than the predictions of standard stellar evolution models, yet this key diagnostic discrepancy remains unresolved. This is partly due to incomplete census and the challenge of resolving individual stars in compact clusters with ground-based telescopes. In this work, we report a young cluster with WR features with the (R.A., Dec) = (00:43:39.36, +41:10:08.7), discovered with LAMOST spectra. We use the high spatial resolution of the HST imaging data to resolve the cluster members, leading to the identification of four WR star candidates, four OB stars, and one yellow supergiant. Based on the current known WR sample in M31 observed in the HST F275W filter, about one-third of WRs are contaminated by other sources within a ${1.}^{″}1\times {1.}^{″}1$ aperture, while this fraction can reach up to two-thirds for the LAMOST fiber size of ${3.}^{″}3$. Applying the approach demonstrated in this work to a larger sample of crowded regions in M31 will yield a more complete census and allow for the measurement of a definitive WC/WN ratio, corrected for contamination. Whether this refined ratio increases or decreases the current tension with models remains to be seen, but it will provide the essential observational constraint needed to advance our understanding. Full article

Colorectal cancer (CRC) kills approximately 850,000 people annually and is the second leading cause of cancer mortality worldwide. After curative-intent surgical resection, recurrence rates of 15–20% in stage II and 30–40% in stage III diseases highlight the fundamental limitations of pathological staging as the sole basis for adjuvant treatment decision-making. Circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA), which comprises tumor-derived cell-free DNA fragments shed into the bloodstream by dying cancer cells, offers a direct and dynamic readout of molecular residual disease (MRD) in the postoperative period. Because ctDNA clears within hours of macroscopically complete surgery, any persistently detectable postoperative signal reflects viable microscopic disease rather than surgical contamination. Over the past decade, evidence has matured rapidly from proof-of-concept observational studies to completed randomized clinical trials, culminating in the recent publication of DYNAMIC-III and ALTAIR in 2025–2026. The DYNAMIC trial established that ctDNA-guided management reduced adjuvant chemotherapy use from 27.9% to 15.3% in stage II colon cancer while maintaining an equivalent five-year recurrence-free survival (88% vs. 87%; difference 1.1%, 95% CI 5.8% to 8.0%). The GALAXY study confirmed ctDNA as the most powerful prognostic biomarker in resected CRC, with a disease-free survival hazard ratio of 11.99. Critically, DYNAMIC-III demonstrated that escalating chemotherapy intensity in ctDNA-positive stage III patients did not improve recurrence-free survival (HR 1.11, p = 0.6), and the phase III ALTAIR trial showed that trifluridine/tipiracil failed to significantly improve disease-free survival at the point of molecular recurrence (HR 0.79, p = 0.107). This review critically synthesizes the current evidence for ctDNA-guided treatment decisions in resected CRC across three therapeutic strategies: de-escalation in ctDNA-negative patients, escalation in ctDNA-positive patients, and post-adjuvant therapy at the point of molecular recurrence. Future progress requires biomarker-matched escalation strategies, adaptive trial designs, and formal validation of ctDNA clearance as a surrogate endpoint for predicting patient outcomes. Full article

Despite the small mass fraction typically observed for the interstellar medium, dust plays a significant role as a key component of galaxies, affecting a wide range of properties. This review focuses specifically on how dust grains influence interstellar chemical abundances and on the processes that regulate the evolution of the galactic dust budget. I describe the main physical processes regulating dust evolution, including production by stars and other sources, destruction in supernova shocks and interstellar growth, and the ways in which they are included in galactic chemical evolution models. I discuss the main effects of interstellar dust on the abundances measured in various high-redshift systems that include Damped Lyman $\alpha$ absorbers, detected along the lines of sight of distant quasars and in the absorption spectra of Gamma Ray Burst afterglows. I discuss the measure of dust masses in galaxies and review its global budget, evaluated through the study of the evolution of the comoving dust mass density, for which I present an up-to-date compilation of data chosen from the literature. Interstellar dust growth plays a critical role in regulating the dust budget, for which I present a list of evidence both in favour of it and against. The dust budget at high redshift is one aspect that requires attention to drive significant progress in the future, along with the investigation of the properties of dust in local, low-metallicity systems. Our poor theoretical knowledge of basic aspects related to dust evolution evidences the need for a new high-sensitivity space telescope operating in the far-infrared regime, still awaited by the community since the demise of Herschel. Full article

H9N2 avian influenza virus (AIV) continues to mutate, leading to immunosuppression and secondary infections in poultry. Traditional inactivated vaccines mainly induce humoral immunity and have limited cross-protection efficacy against various subtypes of virus strains. In this study, we targeted the HA2 and M1 proteins of H9N2 as antigens and used immunoinformatics methods to design a broad-spectrum multi-epitope vaccine (MEV) that can simultaneously activate humoral and cellular immunity. Firstly, through systematic evolutionary analysis and sequence comparison, highly conserved amino acid sequence regions were selected from HA2 and M1 proteins. B-cell epitopes were predicted in the HA2 conserved sequence, and cytotoxic T lymphocyte (CTL) and helper T lymphocyte (HTL) epitopes were predicted in the M1 conserved sequence. Three candidate vaccines containing different epitope combinations were constructed. After secondary structure and physicochemical property comparisons, HM1 was determined as the optimal scheme. HM1 contains three B cell epitopes, two CTL epitopes, and three HTL epitopes, and was connected to chicken β-defensin at the N-terminus as a molecular adjuvant; a dendritic cell-targeting peptide was added at the C-terminus. The HM1 tertiary structure optimized by GalaxyRefine met the standards of a reliable model. The molecular docking results indicated that HM1 can form stable binding with chicken TLR2, TLR4, MHC I, and MHC II molecules, with binding free energies of −7.1 kcal/mol and −6.1 kcal/mol, respectively, and can form multiple hydrogen bonds and salt bridges. Normal mode analyses revealed that the HM1–TLR complex exhibits favorable dynamic properties at the computational level. The immune simulation prediction results showed that after vaccination with HM1, specific antibodies can be induced, B cells, helper T cells, and cytotoxic T cells can be activated, and IFN-γ and IL-2 can be secreted. In summary, the HM1 designed based on the conserved regions of HA2 and M1 proteins has good physicochemical stability and immunogenicity, providing a theoretical basis for the development of broad-spectrum and highly effective H9N2 vaccines. Full article