Search Results (15)

This article develops theoretically an integrative analytical construct (InMeDiT Capital, acronym for informational, media, digital and technological capital) derived from Pierre Bourdieu’s social field theory framework to expand its conceptual capacity to interpret and explain specific relational dynamics within a hyper-digitised social context that directly affects families. Based on Bourdieu’s social field theory, different types of classic capital and other more novel types (informational, media, digital, or technological) have been defined. The characteristics of 21st-century society require that the latter be addressed from an integrative perspective. Methodologically, the work is based on a critical and systematic review of the literature. Based on this analysis, a process of conceptual abstraction and theoretical modelling was carried out that can be described as phenomenological in its attempt to capture the depth of the concepts. This consisted of (1) defining the ontological and relational assumptions of the original framework, (2) isolating the analytical mechanisms relevant to the phenomenon under study, and (3) reorganising these elements into a coherent conceptual structure. The result is an updated conceptual framework (InMeDiT Capital) that maintains epistemological consistency with social field theory, but introduces a novel conceptual articulation through its hybridisation, the dimensions that comprise it, and an operational framework for diagnosing and mobilising capital in the family context. Full article

The aviation sector faces the challenge of reducing emissions while meeting growing demand for passenger transport. Recent research has proposed a hybridised axial compressor concept using a vaneless, counter-rotating configuration with independently electrically driven rotors. Earlier work showed the aerodynamic feasibility of this approach and identified the need for extended compressor maps to capture performance variations with hybridisation degree and speed ratio. This study explores the operational potential of such compressors in greater depth, focusing on how variable rotor speeds can unlock aerodynamic benefits and expand the operating envelope for hybrid-electric propulsion in regional aircraft and rotorcraft. Using mean line analysis, it is shown that independently driven rotors can operate effectively across a wide range of speed ratios. This flexibility enables the compressor to maintain high efficiency over diverse operating conditions, including part-load scenarios, typical of hybrid-electric missions. Independent speed control also offers a means of actively managing compressor stability. Compared to the conventional design the operating range can be significantly increased without relying on traditional stability measures such as variable stator vanes or bleed valves, reducing system weight and complexity. In this way the operating range of the hybrid compressor could be increased by up to 50%, while the number of blade rows could be reduced by up to 30% and the mass flow range increased by up to 33%. Together with the potential efficiency gains of counter-rotating concepts, this underscores its promise for future low-emission propulsion systems. Full article

To recast Theodosius Dobzhansky’s famous 1973 quote: ‘nothing in coral taxonomy makes sense except in light of reticulate evolution’. Coral species evolve through the continual intermixing of ancestral lineages forming a network of changing genetic interconnections rather than stable hierarchical trees. Most species are not discrete units but rather are components of continua with variable genetic, morphological, and geographic boundaries. Hybridisation and introgression are key processes maintaining reticulated networks, making polyphyletic species (those with mixed evolutionary origins) potentially the norm. This creates grey zones of speciation where taxonomic divisions are uncertain and gene flow is ongoing. With this understanding, we critically review: (1) Sources of information for taxonomic decisions, including biology, population dynamics and the need for comprehensive field and foundational molecular studies capturing environment-correlated and geographic variations; (2) Nomenclature (a human construct) and taxonomy (which endeavours to reflect nature’s organisation): (3) Synonymy, including serial errors stemming from historical publications; (4) Type specimens, their use and misuse as a basis for taxonomic decisions; (5) Genus and species level agreements and disagreements between morphological and molecular taxonomies; (6) Use of the terms ‘cryptic species’, ‘cryptic variant’ and ‘cryptic lineage’; (7) Taxonomic decisions based on inferences beyond the scope of individual studies, creating nomenclatural instability and concern, not least among those working to address the impacts of climate change. This review also provides context for an extensive array of Factsheets and linked documentation about each of the species included in CoralsOfTheWorld.org (2026 in prep.). Full article

Genetic variability in terrestrial mammals is essential for understanding population and evolutionary dynamics, as well as for establishing effective strategies in conservation biology. This comprehensive review aimed to critically analyze invasive and non-invasive techniques used to assess genetic variability in wild terrestrial mammals. Using the PICO (Population, Intervention, Comparison, Outcome) format and following PRISMA guidelines, a comprehensive literature search was conducted in Web of Science, Scopus and Science Direct databases, including articles published in English from January 2015 to April 2025. Thirty-one experimental studies were selected that met specific criteria related to genetic evaluation using invasive (direct blood or tissue collection) and non-invasive (stool, hair and saliva collection) techniques. The results indicate that invasive techniques provide samples of high genetic quality, albeit with important ethical and animal welfare considerations. In contrast, non-invasive techniques offer less disruptive methods, although they present significant challenges in terms of quantity and purity of DNA obtained, potentially affecting the accuracy and confidence of genetic analysis. Detailed analysis of selected studies showed diverse patterns of heterozygosity and inbreeding coefficients between different taxonomic orders (Carnivora, Artiodactyla, Proboscidea, Primates and Rodentia). In addition, the main anthropogenic threats and current conservation strategies implemented in different species were identified. An overall genetic variability ranging from high to moderate was observed, with large species being more vulnerable to genetic reduction due to changes in habitat and human activities. Rather than a static comparison, our synthesis traces a clear methodological arc from small short tandem repeats (STR, or microsatellites) panels towards SNP-based approaches enabled by next-generation sequencing, including reduced representation (ddRAD), amplicon panels (GT-seq), and hybridisation capture tailored to degraded DNA from hair, faeces, and environmental substrates. Over 2015–2025, study designs shifted from presence/absence and coarse diversity estimates to robust inference of relatedness, assignment, effective population size, and gene flow using hundreds–thousands of SNPs and genotype-likelihood frameworks tolerant of allelic dropout and low coverage. Laboratory practice converged on multi-tube replication, synthetic blocking oligos, and capture-based enrichment; bioinformatics adopted probabilistic genotype calling, error-aware filtering, and replication-based consensus. This review provides a solid basis for optimizing genetic sampling methods, allowing for more ethical and efficient studies. Furthermore, it contributes to strengthening conservation strategies by underlining the importance of adapting the sampling method to the biological and ecological particularities of each species studied. Ultimately, these findings can significantly improve genetic conservation decision-making, benefiting the sustainability and resilience of wild land mammal populations. Full article

The dry-bulb temperature is a critical parameter in weather forecasting, agriculture, energy management, and climate research. This work proposes a new hybrid prediction model (FBSE-GA-LSTM) that integrates the Fourier–Bessel series expansion (FBSE), genetic algorithm (GA), and long short-term memory (LSTM) networks together to predict the dry-bulb air temperature. The hybrid model FBSE-GA-LSTM utilises the FBSE to decompose time series data of interest into an attempt to remove the noise level for capturing the dominant predictive patterns. Then, the FBSE is embedded into the GA method for the best feature selection and dimension reduction. To predict the dry-bulb temperature, a new model (FBSE-GA-LSTM) was used by hybridising a proposed model FBSE-GA with the LSTM model on the time series dataset of two different regions in Saudi Arabia. For comparison, the FBSE and GA models were hybridised with a bidirectional LSTM (BiLSTM), gated recurrent unit (GRU), and bidirectional gated recurrent unit (BiGRU) models to obtain the hybrid FBSE-GA-BiLSTM, FBSE-GA-GRU, and FBSE-GA-BiGRU models along with their standalone versions. In addition, benchmark models, including the climatic average and persistence approaches, were employed to demonstrate that the proposed model outperforms simple baseline predictors. The experimental results indicated that the proposed hybrid FBSE-GA-LSTM model achieved improved prediction performance compared with the contrastive models for the Jazan region, with a mean absolute error (MAE) of 1.458 °C, a correlation coefficient (R) of 0.954, and a root mean squared error (RMSE) of 1.780 °C, and for the Jeddah region, with an MAE of 1.459 °C, an R of 0.952, and an RMSE of 1.782 °C, between the predicted and observed values of dry-bulb air temperature. Full article

Accurate gold price forecasting is essential for informed financial decision-making, as gold is sensitive to economic, political, and social factors. This study presents a hybrid framework for multivariate gold price prediction that integrates classical econometric modelling, traditional machine learning, modern deep learning methods, and their combinations. The framework incorporates financial, macroeconomic, and sentiment indicators, allowing it to capture complex temporal patterns and cross-variable relationships over time. Empirical validation on an eleven-year dataset (2014–2024) demonstrates the framework effectiveness across diverse market conditions. Results show that advanced supervised techniques outperform traditional econometric models under dynamic market environment. Key advantages of the framework include its ability to handle multiple data types, apply a structured variable selection process, employ diverse model families, and support model hybridisation and meta-modelling, providing practical guidance for investors, institutions, and policymakers. Full article

This study investigates the novel role of yarn-level fibre hybridisation in tailoring thermomechanical properties and thermal residual stress (TRS) fields in the resin at both micro- and meso-scales of 3D orthogonal-woven flax/E-glass hybrid composites. Unlike previous studies, which primarily focus on macro-scale composite behaviour, this work integrates a two-scale homogenisation scheme. It combines microscale representative volume element (RVE) models and mesoscale repeating unit cell (RUC) models to capture the effects of hybridisation from the fibre to lamina scale. The analysis specifically examines the cooling phase from a curing temperature of 100 °C down to 20 °C, where TRS develops due to thermal expansion mismatches. Microstructures are generated employing a random sequential expansion algorithm for RVE models, while weave architecture is generated using the open-source software TexGen 3.13.1 for RUC models. Results demonstrate that yarn-level hybridisation provides a powerful strategy to balance mechanical performance, thermal stability, and residual stress control, revealing its potential for optimising composite design. Stress analysis indicates that under in-plane tensile loading, stress levels in matrix-rich regions remain below 1 MPa, while binder yarns exhibit significant stress concentration, reaching up to 8.71 MPa under shear loading. The study quantifies how varying fibre hybridisation ratios influence stiffness, thermal expansion, and stress concentrations—bridging the gap between microstructural design and macroscopic composite performance. These findings highlight the potential of yarn-level fibre hybridisation in tailoring thermomechanical properties of yarns and laminae. The study also demonstrates its effectiveness in reducing TRS in composite laminae post-manufacturing. Additionally, hybridisation allows for adjusting density requirements, making it suitable for applications where weight and thermal properties are critical. Full article

Modern diagnostic techniques based on DNA sequence similarity are currently the gold standard for the detection of existing and emerging pathogens. Whilst individual assays are inexpensive to use, assay development is costly and carries risks of not being sensitive or specific enough to capture an increasingly diverse range of targets. Sequencing can provide the entire nucleic acid content of a sample and may be used to identify all pathogens present in the sample when the depth of coverage is sufficient. Targeted enrichment techniques have been used to increase sequence coverage and improve the sensitivity of detection within virus samples, specifically, to capture sequences for a range of different viruses or increase the number of reads from low-titre virus infections. Vertebrate viruses have been well characterised using in-solution hybridisation capture to target diverse virus families. The use of probes for genotyping and strain identification has been limited in plants, and uncertainty around sensitivity is an impediment to the development of a large-scale virus panel to use within regulatory settings and diagnostic pipelines. This review aims to compare significant studies that have used targeted enrichment of viruses to identify approaches to probe design and potential for use in plant virus detection and characterisation. Full article

Mitochondrial introgression raises questions of biogeography and of the extent of reproductive isolation and natural selection. Previous phylogenetic work on the Sorex araneus complex revealed apparent mitonuclear discordance in Iberian shrews, indicating past hybridisation of Sorex granarius and the Carlit chromosomal race of S. araneus, enabling introgression of the S. araneus mitochondrial genome into S. granarius. To further study this, we genetically typed 61 Sorex araneus/coronatus/granarius from localities in Portugal, Spain, France, and Andorra at mitochondrial, autosomal, and sex-linked loci and combined our data with the previously published sequences. Our data are consistent with earlier data indicating that S. coronatus and S. granarius are the most closely related of the three species, confirming that S. granarius from the Central System mountain range in Spain captured the mitochondrial genome from a population of S. araneus. This mitochondrial capture event can be explained by invoking a biogeographical scenario whereby S. araneus was in contact with S. granarius during the Younger Dryas in central Iberia, despite the two species currently having disjunct distributions. We discuss whether selection favoured S. granarius with an introgressed mitochondrial genome. Our data also suggest recent hybridisation and introgression between S. coronatus and S. granarius, as well as between S. araneus and S. coronatus. Full article

A novel hantavirus, named Kiwira virus, was molecularly detected in six Angolan free-tailed bats (Mops condylurus, family Molossidae) captured in Tanzania and in one free-tailed bat in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Hantavirus RNA was found in different organs, with the highest loads in the spleen. Nucleotide sequences of large parts of the genomic S and L segments were determined by in-solution hybridisation capture and high throughput sequencing. Phylogenetic analyses placed Kiwira virus into the genus Mobatvirus of the family Hantaviridae, with the bat-infecting Quezon virus and Robina virus as closest relatives. The detection of several infected individuals in two African countries, including animals with systemic hantavirus infection, provides evidence of active replication and a stable circulation of Kiwira virus in M. condylurus bats and points to this species as a natural host. Since the M. condylurus home range covers large regions of Sub-Saharan Africa and the species is known to roost inside and around human dwellings, a potential spillover of the Kiwira virus to humans must be considered. Full article

In this work, we developed a sandwich DNA-immunosensor for quantification of the methylated tumour suppressor gene O-6-methylguanine-DNA methyltransferase (MGMT), which is a potential biomarker for brain tumours and breast cancer. The biosensor is based on aminated reduced graphene oxide electrode, which is achieved by ammonium hydroxide chemisorption and anti-5-methylcytosine (anti-5mC) as a methylation bioreceptor. The target single-strand (ss) MGMT oligonucleotide is first recognised by its hybridisation with complementary DNA to form double-stranded (ds) MGMT, which is then captured by anti-5mC on the electrode surface due to the presence of methylation. Raman spectroscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) techniques were used to characterise the electrode surface. Cyclic voltammetry (CV) and differential pulse voltammetry (DPV) techniques were used for electrochemical measurements. Under optimised conditions, the proposed biosensor is able to quantify a linear range of concentrations of the MGMT gene from 50 fM to 100 pM with a limit of detection (LOD) of 12 fM. The sandwich design facilitates the simultaneous recognition and quantification of DNA methylation, and the amination significantly improves the sensitivity of the biosensor. This biosensor is label-, bisulfite- and PCR-free and has a simple design for cost-efficient production. It can also be tailor-made to detect other methylated genes, which makes it a promising detection platform for DNA methylation-related disease diagnosis and prognosis. Full article

With demand rising, pigs are the world’s leading source of meat protein; however significant economic loss and environmental damage can be incurred if boars used for artificial insemination (AI) are hypoprolific (sub-fertile). Growing evidence suggests that semen analysis is an unreliable tool for diagnosing hypoprolificacy, with litter size and farrowing rate being more applicable. Once such data are available, however, any affected boar will have been in service for some time, with significant financial and environmental losses incurred. Reciprocal translocations (RTs) are the leading cause of porcine hypoprolificacy, reportedly present in 0.47% of AI boars. Traditional standard karyotyping, however, relies on animal specific expertise and does not detect more subtle (cryptic) translocations. Previously, we reported development of a multiple hybridisation fluorescence in situ hybridisation (FISH) strategy; here, we report on its use in 1641 AI boars. A total of 15 different RTs were identified in 69 boars, with four further animals XX/XY chimeric. Therefore, 4.5% had a chromosome abnormality (4.2% with an RT), a 0.88% incidence. Revisiting cases with both karyotype and FISH information, we reanalysed captured images, asking whether the translocation was detectable by karyotyping alone. The results suggest that chromosome translocations in boars may be significantly under-reported, thereby highlighting the need for pre-emptive screening by this method before a boar enters a breeding programme. Full article

The Asiatic wild dog (Cuon alpinus), restricted today largely to South and Southeast Asia, was widespread throughout Eurasia and even reached North America during the Pleistocene. Like many other species, it suffered from a huge range loss towards the end of the Pleistocene and went extinct in most of its former distribution. The fossil record of the dhole is scattered and the identification of fossils can be complicated by an overlap in size and a high morphological similarity between dholes and other canid species. We generated almost complete mitochondrial genomes for six putative dhole fossils from Europe. By using three lines of evidence, i.e., the number of reads mapping to various canid mitochondrial genomes, the evaluation and quantification of the mapping evenness along the reference genomes and phylogenetic analysis, we were able to identify two out of six samples as dhole, whereas four samples represent wolf fossils. This highlights the contribution genetic data can make when trying to identify the species affiliation of fossil specimens. The ancient dhole sequences are highly divergent when compared to modern dhole sequences, but the scarcity of dhole data for comparison impedes a more extensive analysis. Full article

In this work, we propose an electrochemical DNA aptasensor for the detection of profenofos, an organophosphorus pesticide, based on a competitive format and disposable graphite screen-printed electrodes (GSPEs). A thiol-tethered DNA capture probe, which results to be complementary to the chosen aptamer sequence, was immobilised on gold nanoparticles/polyaniline composite film-modified electrodes (AuNPs/PANI/GSPE). Different profenofos solutions containing a fixed amount of the biotinylated DNA aptamer were dropped onto the realized aptasensors. The hybridisation reaction was measured using a streptavidin-alkaline phosphatase enzyme conjugate, which catalyses the hydrolysis of 1-naphthyl -phosphate. The 1-naphtol enzymatic product was detected by means of differential pulse voltammetry (DPV). The aptasensor showed itself to work as a signal off sensor, according to the competitive format used. A dose response curve was obtained between 0.10 μM and 10 μM with a detection limit of 0.27 μM. Full article

Structural variation in the human genome is likely to be an important mechanism for neuronal diversity and brain disease. A combination of multiple different forms of aneuploid cells due to loss or gain of whole chromosomes giving rise to cellular diversity at the genomic level have been described in neurons of the normal and diseased adult human brain. Here, we describe recent advances in molecular neuropathology based on the combination of slide-based cytometry with molecular biological techniques that will contribute to the understanding of genetic neuronal heterogeneity in the CNS and its potential impact on Alzheimer´s disease and age-related disorders. Full article