Search Results (196)

Objectives: Surface-Guided Radiation Therapy (SGRT) has been widely adopted in breast cancer radiotherapy, particularly for improving setup accuracy and motion management. Recently, its application in lung cancer has attracted growing interest due to similar needs for precision. This study investigates the feasibility and clinical utility of SGRT in lung cancer treatment, focusing on its effectiveness in patient setup and real-time motion monitoring under frameless immobilization conditions. Materials and Methods: A total of 204 treatment records from 17 patients with primary lung cancer who underwent radiotherapy at Korea University Guro Hospital between October 2024 and April 2025 were retrospectively analyzed. Patients were initially positioned using the Identify system (Varian) in the CT suite, with surface data transferred to the treatment room system. Alignment was performed to within ±1 cm and ±2° across six degrees of freedom. Cone-beam CT (CBCT) was acquired prior to treatment for verification, and treatment commenced when the Distance to Correspondence Surface (DCS) was ≤0.90. Setup deviations from the Identify system were recorded and compared with CBCT in three translational axes to evaluate positioning accuracy and PTV displacement. Results and Conclusions: The Identify system was shown to provide high setup accuracy and reliable real-time motion monitoring in lung cancer radiotherapy. Its ability to detect patient movement and automatically interrupt beam delivery contributes to enhanced treatment safety and precision. In addition, even though the maximum longitudinal (Lng) shift reached up to −1.83 cm with surface-guided setup, and up to 1.78 cm (Lat) 5.26 cm (Lng), 9.16 cm (Vrt) with CBCT-based verification, the use of Identify’s auto-interruption mode (±1 cm in translational axes, ±2° in rotational axes) allowed treatment delivery with PTV motion constrained within ±0.02 cm. These results suggest that, due to significant motion in the longitudinal direction, appropriate PTV margins should be considered during treatment planning. The Identify system enhances setup accuracy in lung cancer patients using a surface-guided approach and enables real-time tracking of intra-fractional errors. SGRT, when implemented with systems such as Identify, shows promise as a feasible alternative or complement to conventional IGRT in selected lung cancer cases. Further studies with larger patient cohorts and diverse clinical settings are warranted to validate these findings. Full article

Polymer composites are of considerable interest due to the possibility of improving the performance parameters of plastics. The filler is a component whose introduction into the rubber mixture can affect the physicochemical and functional properties of the composite. It is present in the largest quantity in the mixture, so its type is of significant importance in the polymer composite production process. Currently, much attention is being paid to the potential use of various materials as fillers to improve the properties of composites. These materials should, among other things, exhibit good adhesion to the polymer matrix and a high degree of dispersion. One example of such a material is dried plant material. In this group, dried leaves of two plants—sage (Salvia officinalis) and lucerne (Medicago sativa)—were introduced into a rubber mixture in several different content variants. The mixtures were subjected to durability and aging tests and the results were compared with a mixture without any plant additives. Of all the test variants with plant filler, the best results were obtained with the lowest proportion of dried plant material, which was 5 Parts per Hundred Rubber (PHR). In this case, most parameters remained at a level similar to the variant without additives. A slight improvement was observed in elongation at break for the mixture with sage (from 550% to 559%), while in the case of the mixture with lucerne, the color improved (from 1.21 to 0.94). Some parameters of vulcanization characteristics and tensile strength deteriorated. For the latter parameter, a decrease of 11% was noted for the mixture with sage (from 4.65 MPa to 4.13 MPa) and 18% for the mixture with lucerne (to 3.82 MPa). Interestingly, as a result of the ageing of the samples, a significant part of the mixtures with dried plants obtained better results in the case of tensile strength than before ageing. This applies especially to the following variants: 30 PHR for the mixture with sage (an increase of 48%) and 5 PHR for the mixture with alfalfa (an increase of 15%). In general, it should be noted that the functional parameters deteriorated with the increase in the proportion of plant additives. Full article

Bone segmentation in magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is crucial for clinical and research applications, including diagnosis, surgical planning, and treatment monitoring. However, it remains challenging due to anatomical variability and complex bone morphology. Manual segmentation is time-consuming and operator-dependent, fostering interest in automated methods. This study proposes an automated segmentation method based on a 3D U-Net convolutional neural network to segment the femur, tibia, and patella from low-field MRI scans. Low-field MRI offers advantages in cost, patient comfort, and accessibility but presents challenges related to lower signal quality. Our method achieved a Dice Similarity Coefficient (DSC) of 0.9838, Intersection over Union (IoU) of 0.9682, and Average Hausdorff Distance (AHD) of 0.0223, with an inference time of approximately 3.96 s per volume on a GPU. Although post-processing had minimal impact on metrics, it significantly enhanced the visual smoothness of bone surfaces, which is crucial for clinical use. The final segmentations enabled the creation of clean, 3D-printable bone models, beneficial for preoperative planning. These results demonstrate that the model achieves accurate segmentation with a high degree of overlap compared to manually segmented reference data. This accuracy results from meticulous fine-tuning of the network, along with the application of advanced data augmentation and post-processing techniques. Full article

The style and overall urban texture of historic districts embody rich social and cultural values. Therefore, how to make relevant environmental elements effectively perceived visually has become the key to protecting and displaying historic streets. Based on this, the non-subjective eye movement data and subjective impression of the subject were collected through an eye-tracking experiment and semi-structured interview. ErgoLAB was used to generate eye-tracking metrics and heat maps based on eye movement data, and ROST-CM6 software was used to generate word frequency and emotional degree data for interview text. Through comparative analysis, it is found that the subjective and objective evaluation indexes of the subjects tend to be consistent in general, but the visual behavior characteristics of different environmental elements’ types are different. The greater the variety of elements involved in visual perception, the longer the time required for participants to identify the relevant elements. The extent of element distribution also influenced differences in visual perception. Additionally, visual perceptions from partial elevation views and overall human perspective angles were largely similar, with distinctive elements attracting more interest. This study has an exploratory nature, and its findings contribute to the preservation and enhancement of the visual quality of historic districts. Full article

This study investigated the conversion of cellulose from rice husk (RH) and straw (RS), two types of agricultural waste, into Carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC). Cellulose was extracted using KOH and NaOH, hydrolyzed, and bleached to increase purity and fineness. The cellulose synthesis yielded a higher net CMC content for RH-CMC (84.8%) than for RS-CMC (57.7%). Due to smaller particle sizes, RH-CMC exhibited lower NaCl content (0.77%) and higher purity. FT-IR analysis confirmed similar functional groups to commercial CMC, while XRD analysis presented a more amorphous structure and a higher degree of carboxymethylation. A biodegradable film preparation of starch-based CMC using citric acid as a crosslinking agent shows food packaging properties. The biodegradable film demonstrated good swelling, water solubility, and moisture content, with desirable mechanical properties, maximum load (6.54 N), tensile strength (670.52 kN/m²), elongation at break (13.3%), and elastic modulus (2679 kN/m²), indicating durability and flexibility. The RH-CMC film showed better chemical and mechanical properties and complete biodegradability in soil within ten days. Applying the biodegradable film for tomato preservation showed that wrapping with the film reduced weight loss more efficiently than dip coating. The additional highlight of the work was a consumer survey in Thailand that revealed low awareness but significant interest in switching to alternative uses, indicating commercial potential for eco-friendly packaging choices and market opportunities for sustainable materials. Full article

Model-Based Systems Engineering (MBSE) prioritizes system design through models rather than documents, and it is implemented with the Systems Modeling Language (SysML), which is the state-of-the-art language in academia and industry. Virtual Reality (VR), an immersive visualization technology, can simulate reality in virtual environments with varying degrees of fidelity. In recent years, the technology industry has invested substantially in the development of head-mounted displays (HMDs) and related virtual reality (VR) technologies. Various research has suggested that VR-based immersive design reviews enhance system issue/fault identification, collaboration, focus, and presence compared to non-immersive approaches. Additionally, several research efforts have demonstrated that the VR environment provides higher understanding and knowledge retention levels than traditional approaches. In recent years, multiple attempts have been made to visualize conventional 2D SysML diagrams in a virtual reality environment. To the best of the author’s knowledge, no empirical evaluation has been performed to analyze the benefits and drawbacks of visualizing SysML diagrams in a VR environment. Hence, the authors aimed to evaluate four key benefit types and drawbacks through experiments with human subjects. The authors chose four benefit types—Systems Understanding, Information Sharing, Modeling and Training Experience, and Digital Twin based on the MBSE value and benefits review performed by researchers and benefits claimed by the evaluations for similar visual formalism languages. Experiments were conducted to compare the understanding, interaction, and knowledge retention for 3D VR and conventional 2D SysML diagrams. The authors chose a ground-based telescope system as the system of interest (SOI) for system modeling. The authors utilized a standalone wireless HMD unit for a virtual reality experience, which enabled experiments to be conducted irrespective of location. Students and experts from multiple disciplines, including systems engineering, participated in the experiment and provided their opinions on the VR SysML implementation. The knowledge test, perceived evaluation results, and post-completion surveys were analyzed to determine whether the 3D VR SysML implementation improved these benefits and identified potential drawbacks. The authors utilized a few VR scenario efficacy measures, namely the Simulation Sickness Questionnaire (SSQ) and System Usability Scale (SUS), to avoid evaluation design-related anomalies. Full article

In recent years, increasing attention in regional and national markets has been given to the Puglia region’s traditional landraces of unripe melon (Cucumis melo L.). However, distinguishing these landraces is challenging due to their significant variability. A detailed morphological characterization is crucial to identify the unique features of each variety, while also assessing their productive potential. This study evaluated nine Puglia landraces of C. melo: ‘Barattiere’, ‘Carosello leccese’, ‘Carosello scopatizzo’, ‘Cucumbr di Martina Franca’, ‘Carosello di Polignano’, ‘Carosello striato tondo di Massafra’, ‘Spuredda bianca’, ‘Spuredda nera’, and ‘Spuredda fasciata’. The aims of the work were to identify specific and distinctive characters for these landraces, subdivided into traditional macro-groups (“Barattiere”, “Caroselli”, and “Spuredde”), and to evaluate productive and quality traits that could be interesting for future commercial promotion. The main findings revealed distinct characteristics among the “Barattiere” group and the other two macro-groups across all the parameters considered. The differentiation of the “Caroselli” and “Spuredde” macro-groups, on the other hand, was more challenging because of similar intragroup characteristics. In particular, a case of synonymy was found between the landraces ‘Carosello leccese’ and ‘Spuredda bianca’, and a high degree of dissimilarity was identified between ‘Carosello di Polignano’ and the other landraces. Full article

In light of the growing interest in antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) as potential alternatives to traditional antibiotics, proteomic research has increasingly focused on this area. Addressing this significant scientific need, we undertook an initiative to review and analyze the available databases containing information on AMPs. These databases play a pivotal role as a foundation for most AMP-related studies, enabling not only the identification of new compounds, but also a deeper understanding of their properties and therapeutic potential. As part of this study, we evaluated the quality of information within selected AMP databases, considering their accessibility, content, and research potential. The initial step of the analysis involved a comparison of the per-database and cross-database peptide sequences. A diamond, high-throughput protein alignment program was used to compare the degree of sequence similarity among peptides across the individual databases. The redundancy of the data was also evaluated. Collected information was used for an in silico evaluation of the selected species’ venom proteomes in order to identify putative antimicrobial peptide candidates. An example candidate was further evaluated via a combination of structural analysis based on the computed homology based structural model, the in silico digestion of the source protein, and the antimicrobial potential. Full article

Urbanisation and densification of the built environment is an important feature of the future sustainable environment, which importantly influences the window view quality. This survey addresses a research gap on unfavourable reactions to window views in dense urban environments, where the distance between buildings enables only the view of the neighbouring façade, and also the question of which architectural visual elements specifically trigger them. The typical variables of the studied window views are the various degrees of maintenance, compositional quality, surface quality, activity dynamics, and complexity. The quantitative data, such as general reactions of the observers to window views, the reasons for the reactions, and the assessment of specific features, were collected by means of a close-ended questionnaire. The targeted population was predominantly the work-active population, the population performing sedentary/office work for at least part of the working day. The analyses of the results are predominantly performed using descriptive statistics and encompass overall reactions to similar window views and correlations between gender, age, and window view preferences. An important finding is that gender and the way the respondents spend their workday do not significantly affect the response to the motifs of the window view. The research further shows that it is very difficult to incite and retain enough visual interest to specific window views with standard architectural approaches and subdued architectural design. Full article

Mitochondria are involved in a wide array of critical cellular processes from energy production to cell death. The morphology (size and shape) of mitochondrial compartments is highly responsive to both intracellular and extracellular conditions, making these organelles highly dynamic. Nutrient levels and stressors both inside and outside the cell inform the balance of mitochondrial fission and fusion and the recycling of mitochondrial components known as mitophagy. The study of mitochondrial morphology and its implications in human disease and microbial engineering have gained significant attention over the past decade. The yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae offers a valuable model system for studying mitochondria due to its ability to survive without respiring, its genetic tractability, and the high degree of mitochondrial similarity across eukaryotic species. Here, we review how the interplay between mitochondrial fission, fusion, biogenesis, and mitophagy regulates the dynamic nature of mitochondrial networks in both yeast and mammalian systems with an emphasis on yeast as a model organism. Additionally, we examine the crucial role of inter-organelle interactions, particularly between mitochondria and the endoplasmic reticulum, in regulating mitochondrial dynamics. The dysregulation of any of these processes gives rise to abnormal mitochondrial morphologies, which serve as the distinguishing features of numerous diseases, including Parkinson’s disease, Alzheimer’s disease, and cancer. Notably, yeast models have contributed to revealing the underlying mechanisms driving these human disease states. In addition to furthering our understanding of pathologic processes, aberrant yeast mitochondrial morphologies are of increasing interest to the seemingly distant field of metabolic engineering, following the discovery that compartmentalization of certain biosynthetic pathways within mitochondria can significantly improve chemical production. In this review, we examine the utility of yeast as a model organism to study mitochondrial morphology in both healthy and pathologic states, explore the nascent field of mitochondrial morphology engineering, and discuss the methods available for the quantification and classification of these key mitochondrial morphologies. Full article

Quantum chemistry offers the formal machinery to derive molecular and physical properties arising from (sub)atomic interactions. However, as molecules of practical interest are largely polyatomic, contemporary approximation schemes such as the Hartree–Fock scheme are computationally expensive due to the large number of electron repulsion integrals (ERIs). Central to the Hartree–Fock method is the efficient computation of ERIs over Gaussian functions (GTO-ERIs). Here, the well-known McMurchie–Davidson method (MD) offers an elegant formalism by incrementally extending Hermite Gaussian functions and auxiliary tabulated functions. Although the MD method offers a high degree of versatility to acceleration schemes through Graphics Processing Units (GPUs), the current GPU implementations limit the practical use of supported values of the azimuthal quantum number. In this paper, we propose a generalized framework capable of computing GTO-ERIs for arbitrary azimuthal quantum numbers, provided that the intermediate terms of the MD method can be stored. Our approach benefits from extending the MD recurrence relations through shells, batches, and triple-buffering of the shared memory, and ordering similar ERIs, thus enabling the effective parallelization and use of GPU resources. Furthermore, our approach proposes four GPU implementation schemes considering the suitable mappings between Gaussian basis and CUDA blocks and threads. Our computational experiments involving the GTO-ERI computations of molecules of interest on an NVIDIA A100 Tensor Core GPU (NVIDIA, Santa Clara, CA, USA) have revealed the merits of the proposed acceleration schemes in terms of computation time, including up to a 72× improvement over our previous GPU implementation and up to a 4500× speedup compared to a naive CPU implementation, highlighting the effectiveness of our method in accelerating ERI computations for both monatomic and polyatomic molecules. Our work has the potential to explore new parallelization schemes of distinct and complex computation paths involved in ERI computation. Full article

The rational spatial layout of retail businesses is the foundation for promoting urban economic sustainable development and meeting the growing material living needs of residents. Meanwhile, the spatial correlation between commercial establishments and the population is one of the key factors in achieving a rational spatial layout. This study explores the spatial distribution of retail businesses and its coupling relationship with group activity levels in the central urban area of Chengdu, using a coupling model based on NPP–VIIRS nighttime light images and points of interest (POI) data from various retail outlets in 2023. Results indicate that the spatial distribution of retail commerce in Chengdu exhibits the characteristics of multi-center agglomeration, which is generally consistent with the population distribution. However, the distribution patterns vary among retail areas with different degrees of coupling. In terms of coupling coordination degree distribution, all retail categories show a similar trend to that of Chengdu. The analysis reveals that the retail category significantly influences the coupling degree distribution, while geographical location greatly affects the coupling coordination degree. This research will offer a reference for optimizing a city’s commercial spatial structure and scientifically planning enterprise outlet layouts. Full article

Microbiota could be of interest in the diagnosis of colorectal and non-small cell lung cancer (CRC and NSCLC). However, how the microbial components of tissues and feces reflect each other remains unknown. In this work, our main objective is to discover the degree of correlation between the composition of the tissue microbiota and that of the feces of patients affected by CRC and NSCLC. Specifically, we investigated tumor and non-tumor tissues from 38 recruited patients with CRC and 19 with NSCLC. DNA from samples was submitted for 16S rDNA metagenomic sequencing, followed by data analysis through the QIIME2 pipeline and further statistical processing with STATA IC16. Tumor and non-tumor tissue selected genera were highly correlated in both CRC and NSCLC (100% and 81.25%). Following this, we established tissue–feces correlations, using selected genera from a LEfSe analysis previously published. In CRC, we found a strong correlation between the taxa detected in feces and those from colorectal tissues. However, our data do not demonstrate this correlation in NSCLC. In conclusion, our findings strongly reinforce the utility of fecal microbiota as a non-invasive biomarker for CRC diagnosis, while highlighting critical distinctions for NSCLC. Furthermore, our data demonstrate that the microbiota components of tumor and non-tumor tissues are similar, with only minor differences being detected. Full article

Trunk-like robots have attracted a lot of attention in the community of researchers interested in the general field of bio-inspired soft robotics, because trunk-like soft arms may offer high dexterity and adaptability very similar to elephants and potentially quite superior to traditional articulated manipulators. In view of the practical applications, the integration of a soft hydrostatic segment with a hard-articulated segment, i.e., a hybrid kinematic structure similar to the elephant’s body, is probably the best design framework. It is proposed that this integration should occur at the conceptual/cognitive level before being implemented in specific soft technologies, including the related control paradigms. The proposed modeling approach is based on the passive motion paradigm (PMP), originally conceived for addressing the degrees of freedom problem of highly redundant, articulated structures. It is shown that this approach can be naturally extended from highly redundant to hyper-redundant structures, including hybrid structures that include a hard and a soft component. The PMP model is force-based, not motion-based, and it is characterized by two main computational modules: the Jacobian matrix of the hybrid kinematic chain and a compliance matrix that maps generalized force fields into coordinated gestures of the whole-body model. It is shown how the modulation of the compliance matrix can be used for the synergy formation process, which coordinates the hyper-redundant nature of the hybrid body model and, at the same time, for the preparation of the trunk tip in view of a stable physical interaction of the body with the environment, in agreement with the general impedance–control concept. Full article

Interest in the use of nanoparticles in agriculture has grown in recent years due to their potential abilities across a range of applications that could increase agricultural production, improve the efficiency of nutrient delivery, or improve pest management. However, as with any application of nanomaterials, concern exists about potential risks to human health. Because many applications might result in the attachment of nanoparticles to produce surfaces, it is important to understand the conditions under which rinsing is likely to remove nanoparticles from surfaces and the degree to which they can be removed. This work explored the rinsing removal of two types of nanoparticles, titanium dioxide (TiO₂) and zinc oxide (ZnO), from spinach leaf surfaces in the absence and presence of biofilms based on extracellular polymeric substances (EPS). A hypothesis driving the work was that the presence of biofilms might enhance the retention of nanoparticles. The work combined experiments to determine surface energy parameters for fresh and rotten spinach, for use in extended DLVO (xDLVO) calculations, as well as direct rinsing experiments to explore nanoparticle removal from spinach surfaces. Nanoparticles were quantified using backscattered scanning electron microscopy using techniques developed for the work. Results of xDLVO calculations suggest that the presence of biofilms may actually be likely to reduce the retention of nanoparticles by produce surfaces, although this effect was not apparent in rinsing experiments, which exhibited similar removal of high-concentration TiO₂ from spinach leaves. Overall, nanoparticles deposited from high-concentration suspensions were found to be removed to a greater degree by rinsing, while those deposited from low-concentration suspensions exhibited no apparent release, even under conditions where release might be favored. Full article