Search Results (337)

Real-time wildlife monitoring on edge devices poses significant challenges due to limited power, constrained bandwidth, and unreliable connectivity, especially in remote natural habitats. Conventional object detection systems often transmit redundant data of the same animals detected across multiple consecutive frames as a part of a single event, resulting in increased power consumption and inefficient bandwidth usage. Furthermore, maintaining consistent animal identities in the wild is difficult due to occlusions, variable lighting, and complex environments. In this study, we propose a lightweight hybrid tracking framework built on the YOLOv8m deep neural network, combining motion-based Kalman filtering with Local Binary Pattern (LBP) similarity for appearance-based re-identification using texture and color features. To handle ambiguous cases, we further incorporate Hue-Saturation-Value (HSV) color space similarity. This approach enhances identity consistency across frames while reducing redundant transmissions. The framework is optimized for real-time deployment on edge platforms such as NVIDIA Jetson Orin Nano and Raspberry Pi 5. We evaluate our method against state-of-the-art trackers using event-based metrics such as MOTA, HOTA, and IDF1, with a focus on detected animals occlusion handling, trajectory analysis, and counting during both day and night. Our approach significantly enhances tracking robustness, reduces ID switches, and provides more accurate detection and counting compared to existing methods. When transmitting time-series data and detected frames, it achieves up to 99.87% bandwidth savings and 99.67% power reduction, making it highly suitable for edge-based wildlife monitoring in resource-constrained environments. Full article

Efficient and consistent DNA extraction is crucial for genotyping but often hindered by the limitations of traditional manual processes, which are labour-intensive, error-prone, and costly. We introduce a semi-automated, robotic-assisted DNA extraction (RoboCTAB) tailored for large-scale plant genotyping, leveraging advanced yet affordable liquid-handling robotic systems. The protocol/workflow integrates a CTAB extraction protocol specifically adapted for a robotic liquid-handling system, making it compatible with high-throughput genotyping techniques such as SNP genotyping and sequencing. Various plant parts (leaves, roots, manual seed chip) were explored as the source material for DNA extractions, with the aim of identifying the tissue best suited for collection on a large scale. Young roots (radicle) proved the easiest to harvest at scale, while the harvest of leaves and seed chips were more laborious and error-prone. DNA yield and quality from both leaves and roots (but not seed chips) were similar and sufficient for downstream analysis. Interestingly, root tissue could still be extracted from imbibed seeds, even if the seeds failed to germinate, thus proving useful for DNA extraction. Cost analysis indicates significant savings in labour costs, highlighting the approach’s suitability for large-scale projects. Quality assessments demonstrate that the robotic process yields high-quality DNA, maintaining integrity for downstream applications. This semi-automated DNA extraction system represents a scalable, reliable solution for large-scale genotyping that is accessible to many users who cannot implement highly sophisticated and costly systems as are known to exist in large multinational seed companies. RoboCTAB, a low-cost, optimized method for high-throughput DNA extraction, minimizes the risk of cross-contamination. RoboCTAB is capable of processing up to four 96-well plates (384 samples) simultaneously in a single run, improving cost-efficiency and providing seamless integration with laboratory workflows, potentially setting new standards for efficiency and quality in DNA processing and sequencing at scale. Full article

Background: The number of women veterans has been rising steadily since the Gulf War and many assume the functions of their male counterparts. Women face unique obstacles in their service, and it is imperative that differences in physiology not be overlooked so as to provide better and appropriate care to our women in uniform. Despite this influx and incorporation of female talent, dedicated reports contrasting female and male veterans are rare, outside of specific psychological studies. We therefore attempt to contrast gut constituents, absorption, innate immune system, and nutritional differences to provide a comprehensive account of similarities and differences between female and male veterans, from our single-center perspective, as this has not been carried out previously. Herein, we obtained a detailed roster of commonly used biomedical tests and some novel entities to detect differences between female and male veterans. The objective of this study was to detect differences in the innate immune system and other ancillary test results to seek differences that may impact the health of female and male veterans differently. Methods: To contrast biochemical and sociomedical parameters in female and male veterans, we studied the data collected on 450 female veterans and contrasted them to a group of approximately 1642 males, sequentially from 1995 to 2022, all selected because of above-average risk for CRC. As part of this colorectal cancer (CRC) screening cross-sectional and longitudinal study, we also collected stool, urine, saliva, and serum specimens. We used ELISA testing to detect stool p87 shedding by the Adnab-9 monoclonal and urinary organ-specific antigen using the BAC18.1 monoclonal. We used the FERAD ratio (blood ferritin/fecal p87), a measure of the innate immune system to gauge the activity of the innate immune system (InImS) by dividing the denominator p87 (10% N-linked glycoprotein detected by ELISA) into the ferritin level (the enumerator, a common lab test to assess anemia). FERAD ratios have not been performed elsewhere despite past Adnab-9 commercial availability so we have had to auto-cite our published data where appropriate. Results: Many differences between female and males were detected. The most impressive differences were those of the InImS where males clearly had the higher numbers (54,957 ± 120,095) in contrast to a much lower level in females (28,621 ± 66,869), which was highly significantly different (p < 0.004). Mortality was higher in males than females (49.4% vs. 24.1%; OR 3.08 [2.40–3.94]; p < 0.0001). Stool p87, which is secreted by Paneth cells and may have a protective function, was lower in males (0.044 ± 0.083) but higher in females (0.063 ± 0.116; p < 0.031). Immunohistochemistry of the Paneth cell-fixed p87 antigen was also higher in females (in the descending colon and rectum). In contrast, male ferritin levels were significantly higher (206.3 ± 255.9 vs. 141.1 ± 211.00 ng/mL; p < 0.0006). Females were less likely to be diabetic (29.4 vs. 37.3%; OR 0.7 [0.55–0.90]; p < 0.006). Females were also more likely to use NSAIDs (14.7 vs. 10.7%, OR 1.08 [1.08–2.00]; p < 0.015). Females also had borderline less GI bleeding by fecal immune tests (FITs), with 13.2% as opposed to 18.2% in males (OR 0.68 [0.46–1.01]; p = 0.057), but were less inclined to have available flexible sigmoidoscopy (OR 0.68 [0.53–0.89]; p < 0.004). Females also had more GI symptomatology, a higher rate of smoking, and were significantly younger than their male counterparts. Conclusions: This study shows significant differences with multiple parameters in female and male veterans. Full article

Career planning agencies and other organizations can help workers if they are able to effectively identify related occupations that are relevant to the task at hand. Occupational knowledge bases such as O*NET and ESCO represent mature attempts to categorize occupations and describe them in detail so that they can be used to search for related occupations. Vector databases offer an opportunity to find related occupations based on large pre-trained word and sentence embeddings and their associated retrieval algorithms for similarity search. This paper reports a systematic empirical evaluation of the possibilities of using vector databases for related occupation retrieval using different document structures, embeddings, and retrieval configurations for two popular open source vector databases, and using the O*NET curated database. The objective was to understand the extent to which curated relations capture all the meaningful relations in a context of retrieval. The results show that, independent of the database used, distance metrics, sentence embeddings, and the selection of text fragments are all significant in the overall retrieval performance when comparing with curated relations, but they also retrieve other relevant occupations based on text similarity. Further, the precision is high for smaller cutoffs in the results list, which is especially important for settings in which vector database retrieval is set up as part of a Retrieval Augmented Generation (RAG) pattern. The inspection of highly ranked retrieved related occupations not explicit in the curated database reveals that text similarity captures the taxonomical grouping of some occupations in some cases, but also other cross-cuts different aspects that are distinct from the hierarchical organization of the database in most of the cases. This suggests that text retrieval should be combined with querying explicit relations in practical applications. Full article

Chaperonin 60 proteins plays an important role in plant growth and development as well as the response to abiotic stress. As part of the protein homeostasis system, molecular chaperones have attracted increasing attention in recent years due to their involvement in the folding and assembly of key proteins in photosynthesis. However, little is known about the function of maize chaperonin 60 protein. In the study, a gene encoding the chaperonin 60 proteins was cloned from the maize inbred line B73, and named ZmCpn60-3. The gene was 1, 818 bp in length and encoded a protein consisting of 605 amino acids. Phylogenetic analysis showed that ZmCpn60-3 had high similarity with OsCPN60-1, belonging to the β subunits of the chloroplast chaperonin 60 protein family, and it was predicted to be localized in chloroplasts. The ZmCpn60-3 was highly expressed in the stems and tassels of maize, and could be induced by exogenous plant hormones, mycotoxins, and pathogens; Overexpression of ZmCpn60-3 in Arabidopsis improved the resistance to Pst DC3000 by inducing the hypersensitive response and the expression of SA signaling-related genes, and the H₂O₂ and the SA contents of ZmCpn60-3-overexpressing Arabidopsis infected with Pst DC3000 accumulated significantly when compared to the wild-type controls. Experimental data demonstrate that flg22 treatment significantly upregulated transcriptional levels of the PR1 defense gene in ZmCpn60-3-transfected maize protoplasts. Notably, the enhanced resistance phenotype against Pseudomonas syringae pv. tomato DC3000 (Pst DC3000) in ZmCpn60-3-overexpressing transgenic lines was specifically abolished by pretreatment with ABT, a salicylic acid (SA) biosynthetic inhibitor. Our integrated findings reveal that this chaperonin protein orchestrates plant immune responses through a dual mechanism: triggering a reactive oxygen species (ROS) burst while simultaneously activating SA-mediated signaling cascades, thereby synergistically enhancing host disease resistance. Additionally, yeast two-hybrid assay preliminary data indicated that ZmCpn60-3 might bind to ZmbHLH118 and ZmBURP7, indicating ZmCpn60-3 might be involved in plant abiotic responses. The results provided a reference for comprehensively understanding the resistance mechanism of ZmCpn60-3 in plant responses to abiotic or biotic stress. Full article

Within museum depots, the largest part of all heritage collections is stored. Often, the preservation of highly sensitive objects is an ongoing challenge, as the materials are constantly subjected to and influenced by ever-present environmental factors—above all the surrounding climate and other physicochemical processes. Biological degradation is also a major risk for collections. Fungal infestation poses a particular threat, in many regions increasingly the result of climate change. Models for damage prediction and risk assessment are still underdeveloped and require a more substantial database. Approaching this need, nine museum depots and archives were selected in this study. Two years of monitoring the indoor microclimate with thermohygrometric sensors, investigating fungal abundance and diversity through culture-dependent and -independent (metagenomics) approaches, and the collection of relevant additional information resulted in a vast amount of diverse data. The main fungal genera identified through cultivation were Cladosporium, Penicillium, Aspergillus, Alternaria and Epicoccum. The cultivation-independent approach identified Aspergillus, Pyronema, Penicillium, Xenodidymella and Blumeria as the main taxa. Data analyses indicated that key drivers involved in similarities, patterns and differences between the locations were their geographic location, immediate outdoor surroundings and indoor (micro)climatic fluctuations. The study also sheds light on a possible shift in focus when developing strategies for preventing mold growth in collection depots beyond the prevailing path of tightest possible climate control. Full article

Wild fruits are distributed worldwide, but are consumed mainly in developing countries, where they are an important part of the diet. Still, in many other countries, they are consumed only locally. Blackthorn (Prunus spinosa L.) is an underutilized species rich in fibres and phenolic compounds, making it suitable as a potential functional food for supporting human health. Cold (Cw) and hot (Hw) water-extracted (poly)phenolic polysaccharide–protein complexes, differing in carbohydrate, phenolic and protein contents, were isolated from blackthorn fruits and characterized. The complexes exhibited molecular weights of 235,200 g/mol (Cw) and 218,400 g/mol (Hw), and were rich in pectic polymers containing galacturonic acid, arabinose, galactose and rhamnose, indicating a dominance of homogalacturonan (HG) [→4)-α-D-GalA(1→4)-α-D-GalA(1→]n and a low content of RGI [→2)-α-L-Rha(1→4)-α-D-GalA(1→2)-α-L-Rha(1→]n sequences associated with arabinan or arabinogalactan. Minor content of glucan, probably starch-derived, was also solubilized. Pectic polysaccharides were highly esterified and partly acetylated. Pharmacological testing was performed in male Dunkin–Hartley guinea pigs, a model with human-like airway reflexes. Both complexes affected airway defense mechanisms. Particularly, Hw significantly suppressed citric acid-induced cough, similar to codeine, and reduced bronchoconstriction comparably to salbutamol in a dose-dependent manner. These findings support further exploration of Hw as a natural antitussive and bronchodilatory agent. Full article

Cone snails are a large group of marine gastropods that produce a complex mixture of toxic compounds to hunt prey and defend against predators. The majority of the venom comprises small toxic peptides named conotoxins, which target membrane receptors. In contrast, a smaller part of the venom contains larger proteins and conoproteins, which are thought to be involved in conotoxin maturation and the envenomation process, respectively. Interestingly, many species of cone snails contain conoporins, which are similar to actinoporins—pore-forming toxins found in sea anemones. These actinoporin-like proteins (ALPs) have recently been detected in many molluscan species, and only a few have been experimentally characterized. Due to being highly expressed in the venom gland of many cone snail species, conoporins are thought to play an important part in the envenomation process. Despite this, the exact function of conoporins is currently unknown. We propose several hypotheses aiming to elucidate their biological role. Full article

The electrical installation of a ship includes the generation, transport and distribution of the generated electrical energy to the electrical consumers on board. In recent years, there have been many attempts to replace traditional auxiliary generators with renewable energy sources, in particular solar panels, as this is a highly developed technology on land. Accordingly, this paper analyzes the different energy requirements on board a merchant vessel and carries out a feasibility analysis. The feasibility analysis considers technical, economic and legal aspects. Sustainable aspects are analyzed too, due to their importance nowadays. It is verified that the use of solar panels is only technically feasible for a small part of the ship’s total consumption, as the area required by the panels to cover the total demand would exceed the available area of the ship. Therefore, the possibility of installing solar panels for the fire detection system only was analyzed. This is a technically and legally feasible solution, but not an economically viable one. However, from a sustainability point of view, which takes into account economic, social and environmental aspects, this proposal is appropriate. This study concludes that, while solar panels are not a viable solution for covering all energy needs on merchant ships, they can be used for specific systems such as the fire detection network or similar small consumers, albeit with economic limitations. These findings provide valuable insights for future research and practical implementations of renewable energy solutions in the maritime sector. Full article

The long-term nature of and heterogeneity in industrialization has led to high formaldehyde (HCHO) concentrations with seasonal and regional variation in North China, and this is highly influenced by changes in meteorological and population conditions. Here, we analyzed the spatial and temporal distribution characteristics of tropospheric HCHO VCD (vertical column density) and their key drivers in North China from 2019 to 2023 based on the HCHO daily dataset from TROPOMI. The results showed that the spatial distribution of tropospheric HCHO VCD in North China presented similar variation characteristics in the past 5 years, with the highest in the center, followed by the east and the lowest in the west. Seasonal variations were characterized, with the highest tropospheric HCHO VCD concentrations in summer and the lowest ones in spring. In addition, the effects of meteorological elements on HCHO VCD were analyzed based on the ERA5 dataset, and the correlation of HCHO VCD with temperature and wind was strong. In contrast, the correlation with precipitation and surface solar radiation was low, and the effects were different between the growing and non-growing seasons (the growing season, i.e., March–November, is defined as the period when the plant or a part of it actually grows and produces new tissues, while the non-growing season refers to December–the following February). Population density is directly proportional to tropospheric HCHO VCD. In this study, a higher-resolution spatial and temporal distribution model of tropospheric HCHO VCD in North China is obtained based on TROPOMI, which effectively characterizes the driving factors of HCHO VCD. Our study provides an important reference for developing of air pollution control measures in North China. Full article

This article is used to reconstruct mechanical parts with highly reflective surfaces. Three-dimensional reconstruction based on Phase Measuring Profilometry (PMP) is a key technology in non-contact optical measurement and is widely applied in the intelligent inspection of mechanical components. Due to the high reflectivity of metallic parts, direct utilization of the captured high-dynamic-range images often results in significant information loss in the oversaturated areas and excessive noise in the dark regions, leading to geometric defects and reduced accuracy in the reconstructed point clouds. Many image-fusion-based solutions have been proposed to solve these problems. However, unknown geometric structures and reflection characteristics of mechanical parts lead to the lack of effective guidance for the design of important imaging parameters. Therefore, an adaptive high-precision 3D reconstruction method of highly reflective mechanical parts based on optimization of exposure time and projection intensity is proposed in this article. The projection intensity is optimized to adapt the captured images to the linear dynamic range of the hardware. Image sequence under the obtained optimal intensities is fused using an integration of Genetic Algorithm and Stochastic Adam optimizer to maximize the image information entropy. Then, histogram-based analysis is employed to segment regions with similar reflective properties and determine the optimal exposure time. Experimental validation was carried out on three sets of typical mechanical components with diverse geometric characteristics and varying complexity. Compared with both non-saturated single-exposure techniques and conventional image fusion methods employing fixed attenuation steps, the proposed method reduced the average whisker range of reconstruction error by 51.18% and 25.09%, and decreased the median error by 42.48% and 25.42%, respectively. These experimental results verified the effectiveness and precision performance of the proposed method. Full article

Mining significantly impacts terrestrial ecosystems despite its importance to the global economy. As part of soil ecosystems, fungi are highly responsive to environmental and human-induced drivers, shifting community composition and structure. Indeed, fungi play a key role in maintaining ecosystem resilience. Thus, we aim to address the question of whether soil fungal communities maintain similar ecological functions despite changes in community composition due to the impact of mining across ecosystems. To evaluate the ecological role of fungi across four ecosystems with varying iron mining impact levels, we used the FUNGuild database to assign functional guilds at the genus level. Co-occurrence network and ordination analyses were used to infer ecological relationships among fungal taxa and visualize the correlation between edaphic properties and fungal communities. A total of 22 functional guilds were identified, with dung saprotrophs, wood saprotrophs, fungal parasites, plant pathogens, ectomycorrhizal fungi, animal pathogens, and endophytes being the most abundant. Soil properties such as pH, organic matter, texture, and nutrients drive taxonomic and functional shifts. Our findings indicate that while mining activities shift fungal community compositions across ecosystems, the profiles of functional guilds show overlap between highly, moderately, and lowly impacted ecosystems, indicating functional redundancy. Network analysis reveals that highly connected hub taxa contribute to ecological redundancy across ecosystems and might act as a buffer against environmental disturbances. Our findings emphasize the important ecological role of soil fungi and indicate a potential for using fungal communities as bioindicators of ecological recovery in post-mining landscapes. From a mining and restoration perspective, this offers a low-cost, ecologically meaningful tool for monitoring soil recovery and guiding reclamation efforts. Full article

In developing countries with high seismic activity, a need exists to construct resilient infrastructure and reduce the housing deficit. Industrialized timber construction and the implementation of seismic isolation interfaces may represent a good alternative to respond to these demands. This paper studies the feasibility of constructing cross-laminated timber (CLT) buildings equipped with frictional pendulum bearings in Chile or similar highly seismic regions. The first part of this study shows a first-order approach for modeling the highly nonlinear behavior of CLT walls using a Smooth Hysteretic Model (SHM). An equivalent model of a base-isolated building was developed using the SHM as well as a physical model of the Friction Pendulum System in order to assess the seismic performance of CLT buildings with frictional isolators. The second part of this research presents and discusses the results of a broad parametric analysis concerning the seismic performance of base-isolated CLT buildings. The seismic assessment was carried out by deriving fragility curves and including the uncertainty linked to the seismic input and the friction coefficient of the isolation system. Constructing lateral resistant systems based on CLT walls presents a feasible alternative for buildings in high seismic hazard areas. Excellent seismic performance is achieved if the superstructure’s is designed with a reduction factor of 1, or if the superstructure’s fundamental period ranges from 0.6 to 0.9 s and is designed with a reduction factor of 2 and ductility capacity of 6 or more. An excellent seismic performance can be obtained for larger reduction factor values if the superstructure has middle to high maximum ductility capacity. Full article

Under the framework of the Rural Revitalization Strategy, optimizing the layout of rural settlements in mountainous areas and guiding their sustainable development must be based on a deep understanding of the evolution characteristics of rural settlements and suitability evaluations. This study focuses on Lixian County, located in the southwestern part of China, Sichuan Province, as the research area and employs methods such as the average nearest neighbor index, kernel density analysis, and landscape pattern index to analyze the spatiotemporal evolution characteristics of rural settlements in 2000, 2010, and 2020. Additionally, the Maxent model, based on ecological niche theory, is applied to evaluate the suitability of rural settlements. The results reveal the following: (1) Rural settlements in Lixian County exhibit a spatial distribution characterized by “sparser in the west, denser in the east, and a belt-like pattern”, with a clustered distribution trend. The number and area of settlement patches increased, with settlement distribution becoming more centralized, shapes becoming more complex, and connectivity between settlements improving. (2) The area of highly suitable land for rural settlements has decreased annually, with over 85% of the land classified as unsuitable for rural settlement layout. Suitability transitions mostly occur between adjacent levels, and it is difficult for unsuitable land to become suitable. (3) In earlier years, settlement suitability was significantly influenced by the distance to cultivated land, slope, and distance to geological hazard sites. By 2020, however, the distance to roads had become the second most important environmental factor, following the distance to cultivated land. Natural environmental factors, particularly topographic features such as elevation and slope, were found to exert a greater influence than socioeconomic factors in evaluating the suitability of rural settlements in Lixian County. These findings provide a scientific foundation for optimizing rural settlement layouts in mountainous regions, offering valuable insights into rural transformation and sustainable development not only in the upper Minjiang River area but also for reference in other similar mountainous regions. Full article

Coastal areas are highly dynamic environments, vulnerable to natural processes and human interventions. This study presents the first application of the Integrated Coastal Vulnerability Index (ICVI) in Cyprus, focusing on two major tourism-dependent beaches, Fig Tree Bay and Vrysi Beach, located along the Protaras coastline. Despite their economic significance, these coastal areas face increasing vulnerability due to intensive tourism-driven modifications and natural coastal dynamics, necessitating a structured assessment framework. This research addresses this gap by integrating the ICVI with geographical information system (GIS) and analytic hierarchy process (AHP) methodologies to evaluate the coastal risks in this tourism-dependent environment, providing a replicable approach for similar Mediterranean coastal settings. Ten key parameters were analysed, including coastal slope, rate of coastline erosion, geomorphology, elevation, tidal range, wave height, relative sea level rise, land cover, population density, and road network. The results revealed spatial variations in vulnerability, with 16% of the coastline classified as having very high vulnerability and another 16% as having high vulnerability. Fig Tree Bay, which is part of this coastline, emerged as a critical hotspot due to its geomorphological instability, low elevation, and intensive human interventions, including seasonal beach modifications and infrastructure development. This study underscores the need for sustainable coastal management practices, including dune preservation, controlled development, and the integration of the ICVI into planning frameworks to balance economic growth and environmental conservation. Full article