Search Results (26,263)

Madinah, Saudi Arabia, is a hot-desert pilgrimage city receiving millions of religious visitors annually, yet its fine particulate matter (PM_2.5) has not been chemically characterized. The city whose population is periodically influx by millions of religious visitors, generating concentrated increases in vehicular activity while simultaneously exposing a large transient population to ambient air pollution. Despite this, its fine particulate matter (PM_2.5) has not been chemically characterized. Twenty-four-hour PM_2.5 samples were collected at five urban sites between December 2014 and February 2016 and analyzed for black carbon, water-soluble inorganic ions, and trace elements; sources were resolved by enrichment factors and positive matrix factorization (PMF), and screening-level inhalation risks estimated for eight PM_2.5-bound metals. Site means ranged from 37.7 ± 20.5 µg m⁻³ at Uhad to 103 ± 50.7 µg m⁻³ at Al-Awali, exceeding the World Health Organization 24-h guideline of 15 µg m⁻³ at all sites in every season. Observed site–cycle means ranged from 37.7 ± 20.5 µg m⁻³ at Uhad to 103 ± 50.7 µg m⁻³ at Al-Awali, with concentrations exceeding the World Health Organization 24-h guideline of 15 µg m⁻³ across the monitored site–cycle datasets. Reconstructed mass was dominated by organic matter (53–80.5%) and crustal material (15–53%). Sulfate was the dominant water-soluble ion, but secondary inorganic aerosols contributed only 1–22% of mass, resembling rapidly urbanizing arid cities rather than Asian or European megacities. PMF resolved five sources: crustal dust, industrial mixed dust, oil combustion, vehicular emissions, and secondary aerosols. Hazard quotients remained below unity and cumulative carcinogenic risks below 10⁻⁶, principally from chromium and nickel. Because these measurements precede the Vision 2030 urban-transformation program, they establish a chemically resolved reference state for evaluating future air-quality change in Madinah. Full article

Introduction: Mobile phone text messaging (Short Message Service; SMS) interventions are digital health strategies that may support mental health care. This scoping review examined related study designs, outcomes, and gaps across the literature. Methods: Systematic searches identified 38 eligible studies from 1542 abstracts. Data were extracted and thematically analyzed to identify trends and outcomes. Texting interventions were categorized as cognitive, motivational, instrumental/practical, or combined approaches. Results: Study design included randomized controlled trials (RCTs), quasi-experimental pilots and systematic reviews, with RCTs providing the strongest evidence for improvements in adherence and relapse prevention. Outcomes included behavioral measures (e.g., medication adherence, therapy homework completion, and reduced non-attendance) alongside clinical measures (e.g., symptom reduction and relapse prevention). Cognitive reminders that were most common reduced non-attendance and improved adherence, particularly for medication and appointments, although they were less effective in severe depression. Motivational and combined interventions demonstrated higher acceptability and engagement, particularly in adolescents and high-risk individuals. Success was influenced by diagnosis, age, gender, and social status, including adherence at baseline. Conclusions: Overall, text-based interventions were generally acceptable, accessible, and cost-effective for improving mental health engagement. Limitations included lack of long-term evaluations, technological barriers, and lack of personalization. Future research should address these gaps and include underrepresented populations. Full article

Morphometric information provides quantitative descriptors of cetacean size and shape and may support future assessments of individual condition and population status when combined with appropriate biological calibration. However, conventional contact-based measurements are difficult to apply to free-ranging Yangtze finless porpoises (Neophocaena asiaeorientalis). UAV imagery offers a non-contact means of acquiring porpoise morphometric data, but automated workflows for converting UAV observations into reliable body-surface measurements remain limited. To address this gap, an oriented detection-guided SAM2 morphometric workflow, termed ODG-SAM2-Morph, was developed to automatically extract body-surface morphometric parameters from UAV imagery. The workflow integrates YOLO26-OBB for oriented target localization, SAM2 for prompt-guided body-surface segmentation, and differentiated morphometric extraction strategies for complete-body and partial-body samples. Guided by oriented detections, the small SAM2 model with the R-Box + 1FG prompt generated body-surface masks with mean IoU, mean Dice, Precision, and Recall values of 0.824, 0.901, 0.883, and 0.932, respectively. For complete-body samples, automatically extracted body-length and body-width parameters showed preliminary agreement with manual measurements. For 114 partial-body samples, the automatically extracted maximum visible body width agreed reasonably well with manual measurements, with a MAE of 3.32 cm and a MAPE of 11.93%. Continuous-sequence analysis further showed that the representativeness of maximum visible body width depended on trunk exposure, contour clarity, body posture, and inter-frame stability. By converting UAV observations into quantitative image-derived morphometric measurements, ODG-SAM2-Morph provides a practical basis for non-contact morphometric monitoring of Yangtze finless porpoises under natural survey conditions. Full article

Production scheduling in sustainable manufacturing systems must cope with processing time uncertainty while maintaining operational efficiency and controlling operational costs. This paper proposes a Distributionally Robust Optimization (DRO) model for the permutation flow shop scheduling problem with sequence-dependent setup times (PFSP-SDST), where uncertain processing times are represented through multiple scenarios and evaluated under ambiguous probability distributions. An exact solution approach is developed for small-scale instances. For medium and large-scale problems, the Greedy Randomized Adaptive Search Procedure (GRASP), the proposed Hybrid GRASP (HGRASP), Ant Lion Optimizer (ALO) and Slime Mold Algorithm (SMA) are adapted and compared. Computational experiments show that most methods closely reproduce the exact benchmark solutions on small instances. For large-scale problems, the Friedman test reveals significant differences in both solution quality ($p=9.91 \times {10}^{-6}$) and computational time ($p=3.49 \times {10}^{-6}$). Post hoc comparisons indicate that ALO and SMA achieve the best solution quality performance and are statistically indistinguishable from each other, while SMA obtains the most favorable computational time rank. These findings indicate favorable performance of the population-based metaheuristics under the adopted experimental settings for the considered distributionally robust flow shop scheduling problems under processing time uncertainty. The proposed DRO framework offers a practical approach for generating reliable schedules while reducing operational costs in Industry 4.0 manufacturing systems. Full article

Population ageing and the growing importance of private savings in financing retirement have increased interest in identifying investment strategies that enhance portfolio sustainability and risk-adjusted performance during the retirement decumulation phase. This study examines whether threshold-based rebalancing improves portfolio sustainability relative to a buy-and-hold strategy. Using historical equity and government bond returns for Spain, the United States, and Japan, the analysis considers alternative asset allocations, sustainable withdrawal rates (SWRs), and rebalancing thresholds over a 25-year retirement horizon. Strategy performance is evaluated using two complementary indicators: the average number of years of portfolio sustainability and a risk–return ratio. The results show that intermediate rebalancing thresholds generally provide the most favourable balance between sustainability, return, and risk, although the effectiveness of rebalancing depends on the SWR, portfolio allocation, and the characteristics of the market under consideration. The study provides new empirical evidence on the effectiveness of threshold-based rebalancing during the retirement decumulation phase and offers practical insights for portfolio management and retirement financial planning. The findings are also relevant for public policymakers, providing evidence that may support the design of strategies aimed at helping individuals maintain an adequate standard of living throughout retirement decumulation phase. Full article

Persistence, coexistence, and boundary transcritical relays are usually studied through model-specific analyses in mathematical epidemiology, ecology, population dynamics, and chemical reaction network theory. Although these fields address closely related questions, they have developed largely independently. This separation is reflected, for example, in the limited mentions of the multi-strain epidemiologic models in ecology’s chemostats and gradostats literature, despite the fact that these are revealed to be very similar once the concept of siphons from chemical reaction network theory is integrated. Conversely, the next-generation matrices and invasion graphs from eco-epidemiology are not mentioned in chemical reaction network theory. Our contribution is firstly conceptual, terminological and definitional: we propose a common framework for the study of boundary phenomena in all positive ODE subfields. We introduce and formalize notions like reproduction and invasion functions attached to siphon faces, relay graphs, relay tables, and boundary transcritical relays. Some of these concepts are known in one of the above fields but largely absent from the others, while others appear to be new; taken together, they suggest a common language for the analysis of boundary phenomena in positive dynamical systems. The usefulness of the framework is illustrated on multi-strain epidemic models like the Feng–Gavish model, for which we derive explicit, testable conditions. For example, invasion of the less fit strain into the fitter strain’s equilibrium is sufficient for coexistence—unconditionally under permanent immunity and together with an explicit feasibility condition on a reduced coexistence polynomial otherwise (for this model, mutual invasibility also ensures persistence; whether invasion is also necessary for coexistence, and explicit further assumptions under which one or the other criterion works for a larger class of models, are still open). Our approach rests on four pillars: (i) Siphon (a CRN concept) geometry, namely, the fact that forward-invariant coordinate faces correspond to siphons, with the disease-free face being the intersection of minimal siphons. (ii) The recently established fact that a transversal Jacobian block on a siphon face is Metzler, which puts under spotlight the roles of its Perron eigenvectors. (iii) A bifurcation theorem linking eigenvalue crossing at a boundary transcritical invasion relay to the emergence of a positive branch on an adjacent face. (iv) Next-generation matrices (NGMs), an ME concept: on siphon faces, NGMs may be defined via regular splittings, and invasibility may be determined by comparing their spectral radii to >1. Full article

The Alqueva Multifunctional Project was conceived as a development infrastructure for southern Portugal, promising agricultural modernisation, demographic stabilisation, job creation and territorial cohesion. This article examines the gap between these promises and the project’s outcomes through an analysis of documents, census data, sectoral indicators and a territorial case-study approach. The results reveal a clear paradox, as significant achievements were observed in the water, agriculture, energy and tourism sectors, including the expansion of irrigation, growth in exports, greater water security and innovation in the field of renewable energy. However, these sectoral gains have coexisted with ongoing depopulation, an ageing population, the precarious nature of the migrant workforce, land concentration, poor local value retention and growing environmental pressures. The article argues that this contradiction reflects a development model shaped by neoextractivism, accumulation through dispossession and the limited capture of territorial rent. Alqueva thus demonstrates how technically successful infrastructure projects can fail to generate inclusive territorial development when redistribution, institutional coordination and local integration remain inadequate and when effective mechanisms for spatial justice are lacking. Full article

An HIV vaccine will be a critical tool for ending the epidemic, yet the next vaccine efficacy trial is likely five or more years away as the field focuses on the early-phase evaluation and optimization of vaccines that induce broadly neutralizing antibodies. At the same time, the HIV prevention landscape has evolved substantially, with the discovery of highly effective means of preventing HIV, challenging the identification of HIV prevention trial designs that are ethically sound and scientifically robust. We explore a population-based, individually randomized, proof-of-concept trial design for evaluating the efficacy of a future candidate vaccine to prevent HIV acquisition and to validate the neutralizing antibody marker as an immune correlate. The design is intended to lay the foundation for a subsequent licensure trial and the development and refinement of future HIV vaccine regimens. Key design features include broad, population-based eligibility criteria; the incorporation of external data; decentralized approaches to recruitment, specimen, and data collection; and strong community partnerships. We compare the approach with alternative trial designs and outline their limitations. The population-based design represents a compelling option for generating credible and generalizable evidence, while enabling future HIV vaccine licensure and development. Full article

The gut microbiota is an established modulator of blood pressure, but the oral bacteriome and the fungal mycobiome have been examined largely in isolation from it and from each other. No previous synthesis has evaluated all three compartments within one analytical framework, or treated sex and ethnicity as primary analytical axes rather than adjustment covariates. Systematic review reported according to PRISMA 2020 and, for the synthesis, the SWiM guideline. PubMed/MEDLINE, Embase, Scopus, and Web of Science were searched from inception to 30 June 2026. Observational human studies in adults reporting gut, oral, or fungal microbiota data stratified by blood pressure status were eligible, together with Mendelian randomisation studies and studies with a nested experimental causal component. Two reviewers screened and extracted independently, with a third resolving disagreement. Risk of bias was assessed with the Newcastle–Ottawa Scale and certainty of evidence with GRADE adapted for exposure–outcome questions. Increased abundance of the Ruminococcus gnavus group was the most convergent taxon-level finding, replicated in three independent populations on two continents, including one prospective multi-ethnic cohort with full adjustment and correction for multiple comparisons (OR 1.07, 95% CI 1.01–1.14 for incident hypertension). In the oral compartment, depletion of the nitrate-reducing commensal Neisseria subflava converged across a United States prospective cohort and an Italian case–control study using unrelated methods, and salivary nitric oxide was approximately three-fold lower in hypertensive subjects. Depletion of the short-chain fatty acid producers Faecalibacterium and Roseburia and enrichment of Klebsiella were convergent but geographically restricted. Mycobiome evidence was contradictory: two studies reported fungal dysbiosis, one of them already at the pre-hypertensive stage, while a cross-cohort metagenome-wide study on two independent cohorts from Beijing and Dalian (N = 159 hypertensive patients, 101 healthy controls) identified 61 gut bacterial species with consistent altered abundance across both cohorts while finding no replicable mycobiome signal. Recurring across compartments and kingdoms was the collapse of microbial co-correlation networks in hypertension, alongside a dissociation between null alpha diversity and significant beta diversity. Associations differed by ethnicity within a single multi-ethnic cohort and were generally stronger in women. Certainty of evidence, assessed per individual convergent finding, was very low for every taxon-level finding and low for salivary nitric oxide; these ratings concern the attribution of hypertension to specific organisms, not the existence of a microbiota–hypertension association, which is supported at community level in every compartment examined and by experimental transfer models. That the microbiota differs in hypertension is well supported; which organisms are responsible is not. The most reproducible signal is structural rather than taxonomic, and conventional differential-abundance analysis is not designed to detect it. No individual microbial taxon is currently ready to serve as a marker of hypertension or to inform clinical practice. Full article

The human gut microbiome is a complex adaptive ecosystem whose functions arise from interactions among microbial populations rather than from isolated taxa. Nevertheless, many microbiome-directed interventions still rely on administering individual strains, with limited consideration of the ecological processes governing community assembly, succession, and resilience. This review integrates evidence from microbial ecology, comparative genomics, systems biology, mechanistic physiology, and clinical microbiome research to propose a testable framework for ecologically engineering the human gut microbiome. Within this framework, selected spore-forming probiotics are hypothesized to function as transient pioneer organisms that modify intestinal physicochemical and metabolic conditions, thus facilitating the establishment and activity of functionally complementary microbial populations delivered through rationally designed synbiotic consortia. The proposed process comprises five stages: pioneer activity, niche remodeling, facilitated community assembly, functional-network stabilization, and the emergence of host-associated outcomes. Available genomic, physiological, and clinical observations support the biological plausibility of individual components of this model but do not yet demonstrate directed ecological succession as a complete causal process. Accordingly, the framework distinguishes established evidence from ecological inference and generates experimentally testable predictions of temporal niche modification, metabolic cross-feeding, functional redundancy, resilience after treatment withdrawal, and host metabolic responses. This ecological perspective shifts the objective of microbiome therapeutics from transient strain supplementation toward the predictable modulation of community trajectories, providing an experimental foundation for developing more resilient, mechanism-based interventions. Full article

Background/Objectives: Pharmacogenetic testing of the dihydropyrimidine dehydrogenase gene (DPYD) is increasingly incorporated into clinical practice to identify patients at increased risk of fluoropyrimidine-related toxicity. However, most routine assays target a limited number of well-established variants, whereas the DPYD gene demonstrates substantial population variability and may harbor rare potentially functional alleles that are not detected by conventional targeted testing. Data describing coding and splice-region DPYD variants detectable by whole-exome sequencing in Russian oncology populations remain limited. This study aimed to characterize the frequency and distribution of common, clinically relevant, and rare DPYD variants in a Russian cohort of patients receiving fluoropyrimidine-containing chemotherapy and to compare the observed allele frequencies with European and East Asian reference populations. Methods: Descriptive pharmacogenetic analysis was performed in 339 patients with malignant tumors treated with fluorouracil, leucovorin, oxaliplatin, and docetaxel (FLOT), folinic acid, fluorouracil, and oxaliplatin (FOLFOX), or folinic acid, fluorouracil, irinotecan, and oxaliplatin (FOLFIRINOX) regimens. Whole-exome sequencing was performed using Illumina technology with exome enrichment by KAPA HyperExome and a sequencing depth of at least 100×. Sequence reads were aligned to the Genome Reference Consortium Human Build 38 (GRCh38) reference genome, germline variants were called using Genome Analysis Toolkit (GATK), HaplotypeCaller, and functional annotation was performed with Ensembl Variant Effect Predictor. DPYD variants were classified according to their population frequency, predicted functional effect, ClinVar annotations, and current pharmacogenetic recommendations. Allele and genotype frequencies were calculated and descriptively compared with Genome Aggregation Database (gnomAD) v4.1.1 Non-Finnish European and East Asian populations. Results: Seventeen DPYD variants were identified. The most frequent alternative alleles were rs1801265 (24.93%), rs1801159 (17.70%), rs2297595 (11.06%), rs1801160 (7.08%), and rs17376848 (5.16%). Their distribution was generally closer to that observed in the Non-Finnish European population than in East Asian populations. The established reduced-function variant rs67376798 (c.2846A>T, p.Asp949Val) was detected in one heterozygous patient, corresponding to a carrier frequency of 0.29% and an allele frequency of 0.15%. The HapB3 proxy variant rs56038477 (c.1236G>A) was identified in 13 heterozygous patients, with a carrier frequency of 3.83% and an allele frequency of 1.92%; confirmation of the functional intronic variant rs75017182 would be required for definitive HapB3 assignment. Overall, rs67376798 or rs56038477 was detected in 14 patients (4.13%). In addition, rare variants with a cohort allele frequency below 1% were identified in 11 patients (3.24%). Among these, p.Thr65Ala, p.Thr65Met, p.Asn151Asp, and p.Val691Leu represented potentially relevant findings requiring further functional validation. Conclusions: Whole-exome analysis revealed a heterogeneous spectrum of DPYD variants in the studied Russian oncology cohort, including both established pharmacogenetic markers and rare variants that would not be captured by limited targeted panels. The overall allele-frequency pattern was predominantly similar to that of European reference populations, although several rare variants demonstrated distinct distributions. These findings support the value of population-specific characterization of DPYD and suggest that expanded sequencing approaches may complement conventional pharmacogenetic testing by identifying rare potentially functional alleles. Full article

Diapause serves as an adaptive dormancy strategy in freshwater, hypersaline, and marine crustaceans, allowing them to survive harsh conditions like temperature extremes, salinity fluctuations, hypoxia, and food scarcity. This review focuses on diapause across major crustacean taxa, with particular emphasis on branchiopods and copepods. However, detailed mechanistic evidence is more prevalent in well-studied species like Artemia, Daphnia, and calanoid copepods, leading to an uneven distribution of evidence across these taxa. Thus, the molecular and physiological mechanisms discussed in this review should not be assumed to be universally conserved across Crustacea, and taxon-specific differences and current knowledge gaps are highlighted where appropriate. The review consolidates the current understanding of crustacean diapause, focusing on environmental cues, gene-regulatory networks, hormonal and epigenetic control, metabolic suppression, and stress resilience. In the best-studied taxa, diapause has been associated with changes in the expression and/or activity of antioxidant defenses, small RNAs, energy-storage pathways, heat shock proteins, and FoxO-associated signaling components; however, the evidence for these mechanisms varies among taxa, and their conservation across Crustacea, remains uncertain. The functions of these responses include developmental arrest, energy conservation, cellular protection, and maintaining viability during dormancy. Their significance varies among different groups of organisms and remains incompletely understood in many cases. Diapause also contributes to the persistence of populations by forming dormant propagule banks, coordinating seasonal processes, linking trophic levels, and increasing resilience to environmental changes. The ecological effects of diapause depend on the life stage and habitat. Recent progress in transcriptomics, epigenomics, long-read sequencing, single-cell methodologies, and multi-omics integration present new opportunities for comparing regulatory responses across species. Molecular data primarily focuses on Artemia, Daphnia, and a limited number of copepod species, posing challenges in generalizing to less represented lineages. Previous syntheses have concentrated on individual taxa, physiological dormancy, or specific molecular mechanisms. This review aims to fill this gap by integrating environmental regulation, taxonomic and life-stage contexts, molecular and physiological mechanisms, and ecological and evolutionary implications systematically. This comparative approach distinguishes between shared regulatory features across species and lineage-specific characteristics, while considering variations in the strength of supporting evidence. Future research should prioritize functional validation, broader taxonomic inclusivity, comparative multi-species analyses, multifactorial experiments, and long-term ecological investigations to enhance understanding of crustacean diapause evolution and refine predictions amidst climate-induced environmental shifts. Full article

¹⁸F-fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG) positron emission tomography (PET)/computed tomography (CT) is widely used for oncologic staging, restaging, and response assessment. Its CT component frequently reveals pulmonary lesions that are not the principal target of the examination. In patients with known malignancy, such lesions may have a higher pre-test probability of malignancy than incidental pulmonary lesions detected in the general population and cannot be reliably characterized by CT morphology or FDG uptake alone. Small lesion size, partial-volume effects, respiratory motion, and low tumor cellularity may render metastases metabolically occult, whereas infectious and inflammatory processes may show intense FDG uptake and mimic malignancy. This review presents a case-based, lesion-by-lesion approach integrating thin-section CT morphology, concordance or discordance between FDG uptake and CT findings, interval evolution, and oncologic and clinical context. Illustrative cases demonstrate PET-occult pulmonary metastases, inflammatory mimics, coexisting infection and metastasis, synchronous or metachronous primary lung cancer, and subsolid nodules representing either atypical metastases or primary lung adenocarcinoma. Subsolid or cavitary morphology, waxing-and-waning interval changes, and low FDG uptake should not prompt premature benign labeling. Systematic evaluation of the CT component, followed by lesion-based integration of imaging and clinical data, is essential for characterizing these lesions and may help reduce both false-positive and false-negative interpretations. Full article

The intermittency and seasonal variation of wind and photovoltaic generation complicate the economic–environmental dispatch of microgrids with high renewable-energy penetration. This study develops a grid-connected hybrid microgrid dispatch model that uses min–max normalization to place operating and environmental treatment costs on comparable scales. An improved red-billed blue magpie optimizer (IRBMO) is proposed to solve the resulting nonlinear optimization problem. IRBMO integrates composite chaotic initialization, an anti-predation mechanism, a multi-stage fine foraging strategy, and a simulated annealing acceptance mechanism to improve population diversity and solution accuracy while reducing the risk of becoming trapped in local optima. The algorithm is evaluated on ten CEC2019 benchmark functions and then applied to three microgrid configurations under typical summer and winter conditions. Its performance is compared with the red-billed blue magpie optimizer (RBMO), particle swarm optimization (PSO), snake optimizer (SO), dung beetle optimizer (DBO), hippopotamus optimization (HO), artificial rabbits optimization (ARO), multi-verse optimizer (MVO), and differential evolution (DE). The results show that IRBMO provides competitive solution accuracy and optimization stability. Among the three configurations, the complete system comprising photovoltaic (PV), wind turbine (WT), microturbine (MT), fuel cell (FC), and storage battery (SB) achieves the best overall dispatch performance. Its mean comprehensive costs are 1578.20 Chinese yuan (CNY) in summer and 1535.46 CNY in winter, with corresponding mean pollutant emissions of 850.66 kg and 792.51 kg. Under the profiles considered in this study, retaining both renewable sources reduces the comprehensive cost and pollutant emissions of the grid-connected microgrid. Full article

Criminal behavior has been explained through multiple theoretical frameworks developed independently, including general personality models (FPI, Big Five, HEXACO), maladaptive configurations (Dark Triad/Tetrad, psychopathy), and criminogenic cognitions. However, integrated analysis of this literature suggests the existence of a multilevel architecture of antisocial vulnerability rather than entirely distinct, non-communicating mechanisms. This narrative integrative review synthesizes empirical evidence regarding these frameworks in incarcerated populations, drawing predominantly on literature indexed in Web of Science and Scopus, supplemented by Google Scholar and snowballing searches, as detailed in the Methods section. The analysis identifies a convergent dispositional core—characterized by elevated aggression, emotional excitability, and psychological strain, alongside reduced conscientiousness, agreeableness, honesty–humility, and social integration—that may exert its influence on behavior partly through dynamic mechanisms such as self-efficacy and self-control, together with the more proximal influence of criminogenic cognitions, expressed differentially through maladaptive personality configurations. The persistent heterogeneity of offender profiles and conceptual convergences across models support this same multilevel structure. The findings propose a three-level integrative conceptual model that explicitly links these previously fragmented studies, with implications for directing correctional interventions toward dynamic mechanisms rather than solely toward stable personality traits. Full article