Search Results (1,532)

This work addresses the problem of synurbization, with its causes and effects specified using the example of wild boar (Sus scrofa). It presents basic biological parameters of the species, including those that promote its synurbization—small habitat demands, omnivorism, as well as ecological, behavioral, and demographic flexibility. It also discusses intra-species transformations stemming from wild boar adaptation to the urban space and pinpoints habitat fragmentation, ecological restoration, and phenotypic flexibility as the underlying causes of people–wild boar interactions. These interactions are primarily negative because wild boars attack humans and domestic animals and cause many traffic accidents. An analysis of the literature included in this study shows that, unfortunately, there are currently no fully effective methods that could protect urban areas and their inhabitants from the threats posed by wild boars. In order for sustainable urban development policies to be effectively implemented, there is a need for intensive, holistic research and cooperation between experts in many fields: wildlife, economics, public health, sociology, ethics, psychology, and urban planning. The synurbanization of wild boars is a large and growing social problem, but from an ecological perspective, there is a need to take action and develop methods to mitigate human/wild animal conflicts, not only from a human perspective. A one-sided view and action can be a threat to many animal species. Full article

This article examines the legal and practical dimensions of religious education (RE) in Austria with a particular focus on interreligious education as an emerging pedagogical and societal response to increasing religious and cultural diversity. It begins by situating the discussion within Austria’s historical and constitutional framework, in which RE is governed as a res mixta—a joint responsibility shared between the state and legally recognized churches and religious societies (CRSs). The analysis highlights how this model of power-sharing is enshrined in both constitutional and ordinary legislation, granting CRSs extensive autonomy in the organization, content, and supervision of denominational RE. Despite the absence of explicit legal provisions for interreligious education, the article demonstrates that interreligious teaching practices can be implemented through cooperative arrangements between CRSs, particularly when aligned with national educational goals and international commitments to tolerance, religious freedom, and other human rights. It further analyses curricular references to interreligiosity across various denominational RE programs and discusses the institutional potential for integrating interreligious competencies into teacher training and school practice. Drawing on the example of the project Integration through Interreligious Education at the University Graz, a cooperative initiative between the Catholic Church and the Islamic Religious Society in Austria (IGGÖ) from 2017 to 2023, the article outlines how interreligious education was legally contextualized and contractually formalized. The article concludes that interreligious education, though legally unregulated, is both feasible and desirable within Austria’s current legal and educational framework. It calls for greater normative clarity and policy support to ensure the sustainability and broader implementation of such models, which foster mutual understanding and peaceful coexistence in a pluralistic society. Full article

Natural and unconstrained locomotion remains a fundamental challenge in creating truly immersive virtual reality (VR) experiences. This paper presents the design and control of a novel robotic omnidirectional treadmill (ODT) based on the bilateral symmetry of two cooperative five-bar planar mechanisms designed to replicate realistic walking mechanics. The central contribution is a human in the loop control strategy designed to achieve stable walking in place. This framework employs a specific control strategy that actively repositions the footplates along a dynamically defined ‘Line of Movement’ (LoM), compensating for the user’s motion to ensure the midpoint between the feet remains stabilized and symmetrical at the platform’s geometric center. A comprehensive dynamic model of both the ODT and a coupled humanoid robot was developed to validate the system. Numerical simulations demonstrate robust performance across various gaits, including turning and catwalks, maintaining the user’s locomotion center with a maximum resultant drift error of 11.65 cm, a peak value that occurred momentarily during a turning motion and remained well within the ODT’s safe operational boundaries, with peak errors along any single axis remaining below 9 cm. The system operated with notable efficiency, requiring RMS torques below 22 Nm for the primary actuators. This work establishes a viable dynamic and control architecture for foot-tracking ODTs, paving the way for future enhancements such as haptic terrain feedback and elevation simulation. Full article

Dyadic co-construction, the mutual adaptation that occurs between dogs and their owners, is often discussed in terms of cooperation and participation, yet it remains poorly defined and under-conceptualized in the literature. This review proposed that self-determination theory (SDT), with its three core psychological needs—autonomy, competence, and relatedness (attachment)—offers a valuable framework for understanding this phenomenon within a dyadic context. The objectives of this review were twofold: (1) to conceptualize co-construction in owner–dog interactions through the lens of SDT, and (2) to propose methodological approaches for studying this process, while acknowledging their current limitations. Dyadic co-construction emerges as a dynamic, evolving process of mutual influence, shaped by biopsychosocial factors, individual and shared experiences, and the physical and social environments of both human and dog, as well as the dyad as a unit. Depending on the nature of the interaction, co-construction can be beneficial or detrimental. Positive training practices and secure attachment patterns in both humans and dogs tend to foster more harmonious co-construction, whereas aversive methods and insecure attachment may hinder it. Although existing methodologies offer promising insights into this process, they often lack standardization, statistical robustness, and true bidirectionality. This review underscores the need for more integrative, longitudinal, and empirically grounded approaches to fully capture the complexity and clinical relevance of owner–dog dyadic co-construction. Full article

This article deals with the analysis and exploration of the concept of integrating human knowledge (HK) and artificial intelligence (AI) in the management process. The authors point out that the implementation of advanced AI technologies into already functioning and often complex systems, such as enterprise resource planning (ERP), presents significant technical challenges and requires a well-thought-out integration strategy. The complexity arises from the need to align new solutions with existing processes, resources, and data. Using the example of a fuel distribution system, the authors present the concept of integrating human knowledge (HK) and artificial intelligence (AI) in the management process. The article presents a comprehensive analysis of the smart upgrade of fuel delivery management (FDM) architecture by incorporating an AI app to solve complex problems, such as predicting demand or traffic flows, as well as correctly detecting near-miss events. Technological convergence enables the mutual pursuit of improving the management process by developing soft skills and expanding knowledge managers. The authors’ findings show that an important factor for successful convergence is horizontal and vertical matching of the human knowledge and artificial intelligence cooperation for archive max positive synergy. Some recommendations could be useful for tank truck operators as a starting point to predict demand patterns, smart route planning, etc., where an AI app could be very successful. Full article

The Niokolo-Koba National Park (NKNP) was inscribed on the World Heritage List in 1981 for its exceptional biodiversity and unique ecosystem. However, due to poaching, livestock grazing, and dam construction projects in the Sambangalou area, the site was added to the List of World Heritage in Danger in 2007. Through regional and international cooperation, enhanced monitoring, and community engagement in conservation efforts, the site was removed from the List of World Heritage in Danger in 2024. As a typical case of the entire process from inscription on to removal from the World Heritage List in Danger, the NKNP’s threats and successful removal experience profoundly reveal complex internal and external challenges and governance needs in heritage conservation. Its successful experience can provide valuable lessons for World Heritage sites around the world facing similar threats. As part of our qualitative research, we reviewed the literature from UNESCO and IUCN, which annually assessed the state of conservation of the NKNP between 2007 and 2024. In 2024, a field mission assessed on-site conservation progress and discussed challenges and responses to the NKNP management with 30 stakeholders. Our results highlight the lengthy and potentially costly process of removal, such as Senegal’s EUR 4.57 million Emergency Plan, the threats to the park’s integrity by the State itself, and the value placed on World Heritage status, further emphasizing the need for long-term investment from both the national government and international partners. Therefore, ensuring returns on such investment, whether through increased ecotourism, international recognition, or strengthened ecosystem services, is essential for sustainable conservation financing. The case of the NKNP also illustrates the positive impact of improved national governance and partnerships involving international and local NGOs, as well as the private sector, on conservation efforts. It also highlights the importance of a new collaborative governance paradigm for heritage sites facing severe human interference (poaching, illegal development) and governance challenges, particularly in ecologically fragile or socio-economically pressured regions, by strengthening national responsibility, leveraging international mechanisms, and activating local participation. Full article

The bulb of Fritillaria species called “Bei Mu” is a well-known traditional Chinese medicine. We have reported some potential off-target effects of “Bei Mu” due to peimine’s blockade of hERG (human Ether-a-go-go-Related Gene) channels. This research investigated the modulatory effects of three major alkaloid analogs of “Bei Mu” and their cooperative effects on hERG channels using manual whole-cell patch-clamp techniques. Results showed that peiminine and sipeimine blocked hERG currents with IC₅₀s of 36.8 ± 2.5 μM and 47.6 ± 9.8 μM, which were close to that of peimine (26.1 ± 3.5 μM). Peiminine-induced blockade increased with increasing depolarizing strengths, durations, and frequencies, which suggested a preferential binding to open or inactivated states. The reduced blockade by the less inactivating S631A mutation supported peiminine‘s inactivation preference. Molecular docking and dynamics simulations confirmed the hERG-blocking activities of the three alkaloids and provided further insight into potential mechanisms. We also discovered antagonistic effects of the three alkaloids at nearly all concentrations tested, which might help reduce potential cardiotoxicities. To our knowledge, this is the first study to investigate combination effects of chemicals from one herb on hERG channels. In conclusion, peiminine and sipeimine can block hERG channels in a way similar to peimine, but antagonistic effects exist among them. Full article

Biofilm-dwelling cells construct communities by secreting extracellular polysaccharide (EPS). In bacteria, EPS can act as cooperative public goods or competitive traits, yet the social nature of EPS in fungi remains poorly understood. Galactosaminogalactan (GAG) is an EPS produced by the human-pathogenic fungus Aspergillus fumigatus. The study of social characteristics of GAG revealed that under basal conditions, GAG can be shared between GAG production strain (GAG⁺) and non-production strain (GAG⁻) in mixed biofilms. This led to significant competitive advantages for GAG⁻, with fitness outcomes dependent on initial inoculum ratios, cultivation duration, and nutrient availability. Conversely, under cell wall stress induced by antifungal drug caspofungin, GAG confers a competitive advantage for GAG⁺ in the mixed biofilms. Further investigation revealed that GAG⁺ cells are able to retain higher levels of GAG on the hyphal surface compared to GAG⁻ in the mixed biofilms. This hyphal surface-associated GAG layer might protect GAG⁺ from caspofungin-mediated damage, creating a lineage-specific competitive advantage. Overall, GAG has a dual-trait social nature in biofilms, functioning as a public good at the population level and as a competitive trait for the producing lineage, switching according to environmental conditions. Full article

The transition toward human-centered innovation models, as reflected in Industry 5.0 frameworks, calls for the integration of sustainability and digital ethics into higher education. Despite the growing international discourse, little is known about how systematically these dimensions are embedded in curricula in Central and Eastern Europe. This study addresses this gap by analyzing the extent to which Polish higher education institutions (HEIs) incorporate elements of sustainable development and digital ethics into their educational programs. Drawing on survey data from 187 Polish HEIs, we employed Cramér’s V and chi-square tests to explore bivariate associations, multiple correspondence analysis (MCA) to examine patterns among categorical variables, and ordinal logistic regression to identify key predictors of curricular integration. The results reveal that institutions offering Industry 5.0-oriented specializations and maintaining regular cooperation with enterprises are significantly more likely to achieve full integration of sustainability and ethics, whereas many others remain at a stage of only partial adoption. These findings underscore the uneven progress of curricular reforms and highlight the importance of institutional capacity and external partnerships. This study contributes to theory by extending institutional and resource-based perspectives to curriculum innovation, and it contributes to practice by recommending targeted accreditation standards, cross-sector partnerships, and interdisciplinary modules (e.g., “Artificial Intelligence and Society,” “Sustainable Technology Futures”) as concrete mechanisms for embedding ethical and sustainable innovation competencies in higher education. Implications for policy, institutional practice, and future research are discussed. Full article

Cardiopulmonary bypass (CPB) is one of the most groundbreaking medical innovations in history, enabling safe and effective heart surgery by temporarily replacing the function of the heart and lungs. This review starts with ancient concepts of cardiopulmonary function and then traces the evolution of CPB through important physiological and anatomical discoveries, culminating in the development of the modern heart–lung machine. In addition to examining the contributions of significant figures like Galen, Ibn al-Nafis, William Harvey, and John Gibbon, we also examine the ethical and technical challenges faced in the early days of open heart surgery. Modern developments are also discussed, such as miniature extracorporeal systems, off-pump surgical techniques, and the increasing importance of extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) and extracorporeal life support (ECLS), while the evolving role of perfusionists in diverse cardiac teams and the variations in global access to CPB technology are also given special attention. We look at recent advancements in CPB, including customized methods, nanotechnology, artificial intelligence-guided perfusion, and organ-on-chip testing, emphasizing CPB’s enduring significance as a technological milestone and a living example of the cooperation of science, medicine, and human inventiveness because it bridges the gap between the past and the future. Full article

Under large-scale farming conditions, automated sow estrus detection is crucial for improving reproductive efficiency, optimizing breeding management, and reducing labor costs. Conventional estrus detection relies heavily on human expertise, a practice that introduces subjective variability and consequently diminishes both accuracy and efficiency. Failure to identify estrus promptly and pair animals effectively lowers breeding success rates and drives up overall husbandry costs. In response to the need for the automated detection of sows’ estrus states in large-scale pig farms, this study proposes a method for detecting sows’ vulvar status and estrus based on multi-dimensional feature crossing. The method adopts a dual optimization strategy: First, the Bi-directional Feature Pyramid Network—Selective Decoding Integration (BiFPN-SDI) module performs the bidirectional, weighted fusion of the backbone’s low-level texture and high-level semantic, retaining the multi-dimensional cues most relevant to vulvar morphology and producing a scale-aligned, minimally redundant feature map. Second, by embedding a Spatially Enhanced Attention Module head (SEAM-Head) channel attention mechanism into the detection head, the model further amplifies key hyperemia-related signals, while suppressing background noise, thereby enabling cooperative and more precise bounding box localization. To adapt the model for edge computing environments, Masked Generative Distillation (MGD) knowledge distillation is introduced to compress the model while maintaining the detection speed and accuracy. Based on the bounding box of the vulvar region, the aspect ratio of the target area and the red saturation features derived from a dual-threshold method in the HSV color space are used to construct a lightweight Multilayer Perceptron (MLP) classification model for estrus state determination. The network was trained on 1400 annotated samples, which were divided into training, testing, and validation sets in an 8:1:1 ratio. On-farm evaluations in commercial pig facilities show that the proposed system attains an 85% estrus detection success rate. Following lightweight optimization, inference latency fell from 24.29 ms to 18.87 ms, and the model footprint was compressed from 32.38 MB to 3.96 MB in the same machine, while maintaining a mean Average Precision (mAP) of 0.941; the accuracy penalty from model compression was kept below 1%. Moreover, the model demonstrates robust performance under complex lighting and occlusion conditions, enabling real-time processing from vulvar localization to estrus detection, and providing an efficient and reliable technical solution for automated estrus monitoring in large-scale pig farms. Full article

Decision-making algorithms based on big data, artificial intelligence and other technologies are increasingly being applied to urban emergency decision-making, and urban smart emergency response is gradually appearing to be transformed from traditional empirical decision-making to human–machine collaborative decision-making. This paper explores the motivations for cooperative decision-making between leaders (human) and followers (machines) in urban emergency management in the presence of science and technology input spillovers. It focuses on the impact of human–machine cooperative decision-making on urban emergency response capacity, science and technology inputs and total urban emergency response benefits and discusses how to maximize the total benefits of urban emergency response under different levels of spillovers. In this paper, a three-stage dynamic game model is constructed: leaders and followers decide whether to establish a cooperative decision in the first stage; decide the level of science and technology inputs in the second stage; and compete for sequential decisions in the third stage. It was found that, firstly, unlike the case of static games, in sequential games, leaders and followers develop a willingness to cooperate in decision-making only when the spillover coefficients are in the lower range. Second, cooperative human–machine decision-making may diminish the importance of human experience in urban emergency management. Finally, the effectiveness of collaborative human–machine decision-making in urban emergencies deserves further research. The research in this paper provides recommendations for smart urban emergency management. Full article

Robust control techniques are crucial for deploying robotic solutions in real applications and handling model uncertainties in robotic manipulators. The inertial parameters are fundamental to implementing control algorithms. While theoretical approaches to compute the system dynamics and the regressor matrix are well-established, they are computationally expensive and a practical implementation framework is still lacking. To address this challenge, we developed a new and efficient method to compute the Coriolis matrix based on Christoffel’s symbols. The result forms the basis of Thunder Dynamics, an open-source software package able to create standalone libraries that compute the system kinematics and dynamics for real-time adaptive control implementation. Thunder Dynamics enables users to create and compile user-defined functions on a robot, which can then be used in C++ or Python 3. To test the proposed framework, we implemented a Cartesian adaptive backstepping controller with axis-angle orientation using our tool. We tested the controller on a seven-degrees-of-freedom manipulator in both simulation and real-world scenarios, varying the levels of uncertainties in the inertial parameters. The results demonstrated that Thunder Dynamics is capable of meeting computational constraints given by the control loop frequency of real systems, permitting, for example, the implementation of advanced controls on commercial manipulators. Full article

Under the context of the “dual carbon” goals, the synergistic development of green finance and low-carbon innovation plays a significant role in driving the green transformation of the economy and high-quality development. This paper, based on provincial panel data from China from 1990 to 2022, employs the coupling coordination degree model, Dagum Gini coefficient, spatial autocorrelation model, and spatial Durbin model for empirical analysis. The research findings indicate the following: (1) the level of synergistic development of green finance and low-carbon innovation shows an upward trend, with the eastern region performing well, while the western region’s development remains weak, leaving much room for improvement; (2) the spatial differences in the synergistic development of green finance and low-carbon innovation are mainly due to inter-regional differences, followed by intra-regional differences, with the impact of super-variation density being relatively small; (3) regarding spatial correlation, there is a significant spatial autocorrelation in the synergistic development of green finance and low-carbon innovation, with the eastern region showing high-level clustering, while the western region exhibits low-level clustering; (4) the positive driving factors influencing the synergistic development of green finance and low-carbon innovation are ranked as follows: Government policy support > Human capital > Economic development, with industrial structure having a significant negative impact. Based on these conclusions, recommendations are made to strengthen differentiated policy support mechanisms, build cross-regional innovation collaboration networks, systematically promote the green transformation of industrial structures, expand markets, and strengthen regional cooperation. Full article

In human cells, the biogenesis of membrane proteins, which account for one quarter of polypeptides and sixty percent of human drug targets, is initiated at the membrane of the endoplasmic reticulum (ER). This process involves N-terminal signal peptides or transmembrane helices in the membrane protein precursors. Over one hundred proteins enable membrane-targeting and -insertion of the precursors as well as their folding and covalent modifications. Four targeting pathways to the Sec61 channel in the ER membrane with their effectors and three cooperating or independent membrane protein–insertases have been identified. We combined knock-down of individual components of these pathways and insertases in HeLa cells with label-free quantitative mass spectrometric analysis of the proteomes. Differential protein abundance analysis in comparison to control cells was employed to identify clients of components involved in the targeting or membrane insertion of precursors. Alternatively, knock-out cells or relevant patient fibroblasts were employed. The features of the client polypeptides were characterized to identify the client types of the different components and, ideally, their rules of engagement. In this review/article-hybrid, the focus is on global lessons from and limitations of the proteomic approach in answering the cell biological question, as well as on new aspects, such as N-terminal acetylation of membrane protein precursors. Full article