Search Results (29,116)

When high-altitude aircraft operate in a low-density environment, the flow instability within their internal ducts poses a severe challenge to aerodynamic design and operational safety. Especially in the intake system of the tandem dual-fan configuration, the asymmetric flow caused by rotating machinery coupled with the low-density effect exacerbates flow distortion, momentum dissipation, and efficiency loss and may even trigger system instability risks such as rotational stall or surge. To address these challenges, this paper establishes a high-fidelity dynamic model of the internal flow field of the aircraft, based on the Reynolds-averaged Navier–Stokes equations and the SST k-ω turbulence model, combined with dynamic mesh technology. It reveals the unstable mechanism caused by angular momentum accumulation under co-rotation conditions and its intrinsic correlation with the degradation of aerodynamic performance. Inspired by the concept of micro-flow regulation, an active flow control strategy integrating discrete auxiliary injection and local geometric shape optimization is proposed. Numerical results show that by reasonably arranging auxiliary injection holes in the intake duct and optimizing local geometric fillets, the uniformity of intake flow can be effectively improved, and the formation of large-scale vortex structures can be suppressed. This method increases the system’s flow capacity by approximately 47.4%, significantly improves the total pressure recovery coefficient and fan aerodynamic efficiency, and reduces the amplitude of low-frequency pressure fluctuations by approximately 23.1%. Research shows that in high-altitude low-Reynolds-number conditions, micro-flow regulation combined with geometric reconstruction can effectively suppress flow instability induced by rotating machinery. This achievement provides a theoretical basis and feasible engineering path for aerodynamic stability design and optimization of key components, such as the aircraft intake and exhaust systems and thermal management systems, and is of significant value for improving the overall performance and reliability of high-altitude long-endurance aircraft. Full article

Cross-view image geolocalization aims to achieve accurate localization of geo-tagged images without geo-tagging by matching ground-view images with satellite images. However, there are huge imaging differences between ground and satellite viewpoints, and existing methods usually rely on a large number of accurately labeled cross-view image pairs. Therefore, to address issues such as significant perspective differences, high annotation costs, and low utilization of unpaired data, this paper proposes a cross-view generation model that integrates multi-scale contrastive learning and dynamic optimization, designs a multi-scale contrast loss function to strengthen the semantic consistency between the generated images and the target domain, adaptively balances the quality and quantity of pseudo-labels according to a dynamic threshold screening mechanism, and introduces a hard-sample triplet loss to enhance the model discriminative ability. Ablation experiments on the CVUSA and CVACT datasets show that the BEV-CycleGAN+CL (Bird’s-Eye View Cycle-Consistent Generative Adversarial Network with Contrastive Learning) model proposed in this paper significantly outperforms the comparative models in PSNR, SSIM, and RMSE metrics. Specifically, on the CVACT dataset, compared with the BEV-CycleGAN, BEV, and CycleGAN baselines, PSNR increased by 2.83%, 16.02%, and 42.30%, SSIM increased by 6.12%, 8.00%, and 18.48%, and RMSE decreased by 9.28%, 15.51%, and 25.35%, respectively. Similar advantages are observed on the CVUSA dataset. Compared with current state-of-the-art models, the dynamic threshold pseudo-label localization method in this paper demonstrates overall superiority in recall metrics such as R@1, R@5, R@10, and R@1%, for example achieving an R@1 of 98.94% on CVUSA, outperforming the best comparative model, Sample4G^†, which reached 98.68%. This study provides innovative methodological support for disaster emergency response, high-precision map construction for autonomous driving, military reconnaissance, and other applications. Full article

Bladder cancer (BCa) is a major global urinary tract malignancy characterized by high incidence, frequent recurrence, and significant mortality. Early diagnosis is crucial for improving prognosis and minimizing invasive procedures; however, current standard techniques, cystoscopy and urine cytology, are limited by invasiveness, cost, low sensitivity, and subjectivity. This has spurred the development of non-invasive diagnostic strategies based on urine analysis. This review highlights five emerging approaches: AI-augmented urine cytology, genomic biomarker assays (e.g., PCR and NGS for mutations and copy-number variations), DNA methylation profiling, RNA biomarkers (mRNA, miRNA, lncRNA), and protein/peptide/metabolite detection utilizing ELISA, SERS, nanozymes, and mass spectrometry. We assess the diagnostic accuracy, innovations, and clinical potential of each, while addressing persisting issues such as lack of standardization, high costs, and insufficient sensitivity for early-stage lesions. Future directions include integrating multi-omics data with AI, advancing point-of-care devices, and conducting large-scale multicenter trials. Together, these developments promise to shift BCa management toward molecular-based early detection, enabling more precise, non-invasive, and personalized patient care. Full article

Professional basketball entails high physical demands and a complex injury profile in which injury burden and time-loss distribution critically affect player availability. This study explored the association between preseason anthropometric body composition and in-season injury burden in male professional basketball and explored body phenotypes linked to greater injury accumulation. A retrospective longitudinal cohort design was applied using official injury records and standardized ISAK anthropometric assessments collected during preseason. Players from two male professional teams (first team, ACB; second team, LEB Plata) were included. Outcomes were the number of injuries and observed days lost during the season. Associations were assessed using Pearson correlations, principal component analysis (PCA), team-stratified logistic regression, and unsupervised k-means clustering. Injury burden demonstrated a highly skewed distribution, with a small subset of players accounting for a large proportion of total days lost. Preseason adiposity markers showed strong internal coherence, with PCA identifying a dominant component reflecting an adiposity gradient. Higher preseason body fat percentage was associated with a greater likelihood of high injury burden (≥3 injuries/season) in both teams. Clustering revealed two phenotypes: a higher-adiposity, higher-burden profile and a lower-adiposity, lower-burden profile. These exploratory findings suggest that preseason body composition, particularly adiposity, may be related to injury burden in male professional basketball. However, given the limited sample size and exploratory design, the results should be interpreted cautiously and considered hypothesis-generating. Precompetitive body phenotyping may therefore provide preliminary information for identifying players potentially at elevated risk of recurrent injury accumulation and reduced competitive availability. Full article

Background: Timely treatment is critical for patients with bone and soft tissue tumors, but access to care may not be equitable across all populations. While treatment delays have been well studied in other cancers, disparities in time to treatment remain underexplored in orthopaedic oncology. This study aimed to determine whether racial or ethnic disparities exist in the timing of surgery, chemotherapy, or radiation for patients with sarcoma or metastatic bone disease. Methods: A retrospective cohort study was conducted using the TriNetX US Collaborative Network, a multi-institutional electronic health record database. Adult patients undergoing biopsy and subsequently diagnosed with bone sarcoma, soft tissue sarcoma, or metastatic bone disease were identified. Time to treatment was defined as the number of days between biopsy and the first recorded surgery, chemotherapy, or radiation. Patients were stratified by race and ethnicity, and statistical comparisons were performed using Mann–Whitney U tests and t-tests. Results: A total of 63,087 patients met inclusion criteria (55,697 with metastatic bone disease/bone sarcoma and 7390 with soft tissue sarcoma). In the metastatic/bone sarcoma cohort, Hispanic patients had shorter mean time to resection (58 ± 94 vs. 82 ± 239 days, p = 0.008) and fixation (35 ± 142 vs. 72 ± 315 days, p < 0.001) compared to non-Hispanic patients, although median times did not differ significantly. Among black patients, time to fixation was shorter than in White patients (mean 22 ± 103 vs. 114 ± 468 days, p < 0.001; median 0 days in both groups), while delays were observed in time to radiation (median 13 vs. 7 days; mean 85 ± 284 vs. 43 ± 203 days, p < 0.001). In the soft tissue sarcoma cohort, Black patients experienced longer mean times to resection (142 ± 293 vs. 79 ± 216 days) and radiation (141 ± 514 vs. 96 ± 364 days), though comparisons were limited by sample size. Conclusions: This large, multi-institutional study demonstrates that disparities in orthopaedic oncology differ by treatment modality and clinical context. Shorter wait times to surgery among Hispanic and Black patients in metastatic disease likely reflect more advanced disease presentation and barriers to early access, whereas delays in resection and radiation highlight inequities in accessing non-emergent, coordinated oncologic care. Reporting both means and medians provides a more complex understanding of treatment delays and underscores the need for interventions that expand early access to orthopaedic oncologists and ensure timely, equitable care. Full article

This study aims to reveal the mechanism of a novel method for fabricating hierarchical microstructured hydrophobic surfaces. Specifically, plasma shock waves induced by laser ablation are applied to the workpiece to replicate the microstructures on the mold surface, thus obtaining primary microstructures. Meanwhile, the material splashing effect induced by laser ablation is utilized to form secondary microstructures on the basis of the primary microstructures. Subsequently, fluorination treatment and aging treatment are adopted to alter the chemical composition of the hierarchical microstructures on the workpiece surface, thereby reducing the surface energy and enhancing hydrophobicity. In addition, this study investigates the effects of a different number of laser shocks, laser fluence and mold periods on the forming results. Under a laser fluence of 28.97 J/cm², within the range of one to five laser shocks, the forming effect of the aluminum foil workpiece improves with the increase in the number of laser shocks. When the number of laser shocks is set to 3, within the laser fluence range of 19.1–76.39 J/cm², the forming result of the aluminum foil workpiece is enhanced as the laser fluence increases. The larger the mold period, the better the forming effect of the workpiece. An analysis of aging treatment and fluorination treatment reveals their impacts on the workpiece through assessments of wettability, surface chemical composition, and surface morphology. The findings reveal that both aging and fluorination treatments significantly enhance the contact angle of the aluminum foil workpiece, all while preserving its original surface structure. The main changes occur in terms of element content and chemical composition, and a large number of non-polar groups are generated on the workpiece surface after the modification treatments. Full article

Background: Colorectal cancer (CRC) is a major global health concern and a leading cause of cancer-related mortality. In Saudi Arabia, it is the most common cancer among men and the third most common among women. The disease affects predominantly older adults, with an increasing number of cases reported in younger populations. Emerging evidence suggests a potential association between Vitamin D deficiency and CRC risk and progression. Aim: This study aimed to investigate the relationship between serum Vitamin D levels and colorectal cancer, and to evaluate its association with clinicopathological characteristics. Methodology: A retrospective case–control study was conducted on newly diagnosed CRC patients between January 2021 and August 2024 at King Abdul-Aziz Specialist Hospital, Prince Muteb Hospital, and the Oncology Center in Al Jouf, Saudi Arabia. A total of 100 CRC cases and 50 healthy controls were included. Serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D levels were measured and categorized as deficient (<20 ng/mL), insufficient (21–29 ng/mL), and normal (≥30 ng/mL). Histopathological features and tumor characteristics were analyzed. Statistical analyses included independent t-test, one-way ANOVA, and chi-square tests. Results: During the four-year period, 5399 gastrointestinal specimens were analyzed, of which 2111 (39.1%) were colorectal specimens. CRC was diagnosed in 107 cases (5.1%), and 100 patients met the inclusion criteria. The mean age of patients was 53.07 ± 13.3 years, and 69% were older than 50 years. Males represented 58% of cases (male-to-female ratio 1.4:1). Invasive adenocarcinoma was the predominant histological subtype (81%), with the sigmoid colon being the most common tumor site (39%). Vitamin D deficiency was significantly more prevalent in CRC patients (59%) compared to controls (22%). The mean serum Vitamin D level was significantly lower in cases (18.7 ± 11.3 ng/mL) than in controls (34.9 ± 15.6 ng/mL) (p < 0.001). No significant difference in Vitamin D levels was observed between males and females. Lower Vitamin D levels were significantly associated with advanced tumor grade (p = 0.004), lymphovascular invasion (p < 0.001), lymph node involvement (p = 0.001), and distant metastasis (p < 0.001). Representative histopathological images confirmed invasive moderately differentiated adenocarcinoma with characteristic malignant glandular architecture. Conclusions: Vitamin D deficiency was highly prevalent among colorectal cancer patients and was significantly associated with advanced tumor characteristics, including higher grade and metastatic features. These findings suggest a strong inverse relationship between serum Vitamin D levels and CRC development and progression. Further large-scale prospective and interventional studies are warranted to clarify the causal role of Vitamin D and its potential therapeutic implications in colorectal cancer prevention and management. Full article

Lysin motif (LysM) domain-containing proteins are widespread in prokaryotes and eukaryotes, and play crucial roles in microbe-host interactions. In recent decades, a large number of LysM domain-containing proteins have been identified and confirmed to participate in various biological processes, including microbial growth, fungal pathogenesis, and recognition of pathogens by plant immune receptors. Emerging evidence has shown that some LysM domain-containing proteins in plant pathogenic fungi have evolved as key virulence factors. They manipulate host immune responses mainly by interfering with the plant’s perception of chitin, a core pathogen-associated molecular pattern (PAMP) of fungal cell walls. However, the functions of LysM domain-containing proteins in plant pathogenic fungi have not been systematically summarized. In this review, we discuss the latest advances in the structural characteristics, classification, and functional mechanisms of these proteins, as well as their applications in plant disease control. We also propose the current challenges and future research directions in this field. This review aims to deepen the understanding of the molecular mechanisms underlying plant-fungal interactions mediated by LysM domain-containing proteins and provide theoretical references for developing novel and environmentally friendly strategies for fungal disease management in agriculture. Full article

Silicone rubber is extensively used in engineering applications due to its toughness and impact resistance; however, traditional characterisation methods fail to capture its nonlinear deformation characterisation and triaxial mechanical behaviour. To address this, we derived a constitutive model within the framework of continuum mechanics that assumes a condition of near incompressibility and conducted uniaxial, planar, and equibiaxial tension tests to fit the model parameters. Through systematic analysis of triaxial mechanical responses under these three loading modes, we determined the material’s nonlinear large-deformation behaviour and sensitivity to the biaxiality ratio. Comparative analyses with classical hyperelastic models show that the proposed model achieves a good balance between the number of parameters and fitting accuracy. After the parameter-fitting process, we performed finite element simulations of the three loading modes. The simulation results show good agreement with experimental data in terms of deformation patterns and stress–strain curves. This study provides a novel theoretical tool for evaluating the mechanical properties and structural designs of soft materials. Full article

Large-scale forest ecological restoration is commonly expected to improve habitat quality and promote population growth of forest-dependent herbivores. Yet, whether vegetation recovery facilitates or constrains herbivore growth and habitat use at local scales within nature reserves remains unclear, as vegetation recovery and canopy closure might alter forage availability and lead to ecological mismatch between vegetation features and population dynamic. Here, we used the endangered species South China sika deer as the study species, and its dominant distribution region—Qingliangfeng Biosphere Reserve—as the study area. Using decadal camera-trapping data (2015–2024) and extracted vegetation and other environmental variables, we quantified decadal trends in sika deer activity intensity and interannual variation in vegetation (leaf area index, LAI, and normalized difference vegetation index, NDVI). We incorporated topographic and anthropogenic disturbance variables and applied generalized linear mixed models and generalized linear models to analyze its habitat use. We found that: (1) Numbers of independent photographs and the relative abundance index of sika deer increased significantly and consistently from 2015 to 2024. (2) LAI exhibited substantial interannual variability without a stable trend. In contrast, segmented regression identified a clear temporal breakpoint in NDVI, with a significant increasing trend before 2021 followed by a pronounced decline thereafter. (3) In all years, distance to settlement had a significant and negative effect on activity intensity, whereas distance to road, elevation, and year had significant positive effects. LAI and NDVI showed negative and weak effects on sika deer activity intensity. In specific years, LAI had a significantly negative effect in early periods whereas NDVI became significantly negative in mid and late periods. Other environmental variables exhibited interannual heterogeneity. Our findings demonstrate that vegetation recovery within the reserve does not automatically improve habitats for forest-dependent herbivores and could lead to a potential ecological mismatch. Full article

The stable and accurate output of the inertial measurement unit array (IMU) of a micro-electro-mechanical system (MEMS) is the key to ensuring the data fusion of the MEMS IMU array. However, due to the large number of MEMS IMUs contained in the MEMS IMU array, it is susceptible to interference and has difficulty avoiding failures. The output of the MEMS IMU contains noise, outliers, and other related errors, which can seriously lead to low fault detection and isolation accuracy in the MEMS IMU. In this study, a new method of fault detection and isolation based on multivariate variational mode decomposition (MVMD), a whale optimization algorithm (WOA), and a generalized likelihood test (GLT) is proposed, which is called WOA-MVMD-GLT. Firstly, a multi-index fitness function WOA is proposed to optimize the parameters of MVMD. Secondly, MVMD is used to extract the features of the MEMS IMU’s signals. Finally, a GLT is used to construct a fault detection function and a fault isolation function to detect and isolate the faults of gyroscopes and accelerometers. The experimental results show that the method proposed in this paper can significantly reduce the false alarm rate and false isolation rate. Full article

On 12 July 2016, the ruling on the South China Sea Arbitration was announced and rapidly drew worldwide attention, turning the event into a major international hotspot. Quantifying the dynamics of such hotspot events and understanding the evolution of media-based inter-actor networks during major shocks are of substantial research interest. Viewing these interactions as dynamic networks, we analyze the time-varying actor interaction structure surrounding the arbitration using the Global Database of Events, Location and Tone (GDELT), a large-scale media-based event database with global coverage since 1979. We extract nearly 30,000 events related to the arbitration from 5 July to 25 July 2016, constructing daily cooperation and conflict networks to quantify structural changes via network size and degree-entropy dynamics. To further reveal actor-level structural roles, we learn node embeddings on each daily network via an entropy-driven graph representation learning scheme and perform embedding-based clustering with automatically selected cluster numbers, visualized via t-SNE. The results show that key dates in the event window are associated with pronounced structural shifts in the networks, including changes in participation breadth, degree-distribution heterogeneity, and clearer differentiation and reconfiguration of actor roles, with distinct patterns between cooperation and conflict networks. These findings demonstrate the potential of massive media event data for characterizing structural responses and actor-role evolution in event-driven inter-actor networks. Full article

Suction anchors are widely used in offshore wind power foundations, where their penetration behavior critically influences installation efficiency and safety. Existing studies mainly focus on homogeneous soils, while the mechanisms of suction-assisted penetration in layered seabed remain less understood. This study establishes a numerical model based on the Material Point Method (MPM) to simulate suction anchor penetration in saturated soils, accounting for large deformations and hydro-mechanical coupling. The model is validated against physical tests, confirming the reliability of MPM. A series of simulations is conducted to examine penetration behavior under layered conditions, emphasizing the effects of stratigraphic sequence and configuration, including sand-over-clay (SC), clay-over-sand (CS), sand–clay–sand (SCS), and clay–sand–clay (CSC) profiles. The analysis reveals complex mechanical responses during penetration, including excess pore water pressure, soil displacement, effective stress, and penetration resistance. The results demonstrate that penetration behavior is governed by both the stratification sequence and the number of soil layers. Overall, this study clarifies the complex mechanical responses of suction caissons in layered soils, verifies the suitability of MPM for simulating large-deformation and hydro-mechanical coupling problems, and provides insights for the design and safe installation of suction caissons in stratified seabeds. Full article

Rice straw as a growth substrate for soilless sod production not only avoids the damage to farmland soil deterioration but also solves the difficulty in disposing of a large amount of agricultural straw waste. This study was designed to explore the feasibility of using rice straw as a soilless sod production for seashore paspalum. The results showed that both fermented rice straw and raw rice straw significantly promoted the creeping growth and tillering of seashore paspalum, shortening the sod production period, when compared to the conventional soil sod. Rice straw sod significantly reduced sod weight to 50% and 52% of the soil sod, but increased sod strength to avoid tear damage in handling and transportation. Rice straw sod had 2 d longer shelf life than the soil sod, with slower decline of sod quality and maintained higher root and leaf emergence vigor during the sod storage. After sod installation, rice straw sod showed higher numbers of root and leaf emergence, and higher green leaves, stolons, new roots, aboveground and underground biomass, but lower thatch biomass, compared to the soil sod. Our results demonstrated that using rice straw as a growth substrate to produce soilless sod is feasible and significantly better than conventional soil sod production. Full article

Quantifying the complex spatial–temporal correlations and generating representative high-dimensional coupled scenario sets are essential for the robust planning and risk assessment of large-scale hybrid energy systems (HESs). Although numerous models have been developed for this purpose, as the number of plants scales up to hundreds, existing approaches suffer from the curse of dimensionality, often resulting in high computational burden, posterior collapse, and distributional oversmoothing. To address this gap, this paper proposes a Spatial-Clustering Conditional Variational Auto-Encoder (SC-CVAE) framework, which employs spatial clustering to decompose the high-dimensional global problem into tractable subproblems and integrates adaptive deep networks to accurately capture high-dimensional spatiotemporal complementarity. Case studies on the Yalong River energy base, featuring massive wind and solar integration, demonstrate that SC-CVAE reduces global spatial correlation error by 56% compared to the Independent Baseline, while achieving a 2.4-fold computational speedup over the monolithic Global Baseline. Crucially, by mitigating posterior collapse to alleviate oversmoothing effects inherent in high-dimensional VAEs, the proposed framework improves the capture rate of high-impact extreme events by 3.4-fold and reduces the Energy Score error by 65%. This high-fidelity reconstruction of tail characteristics provides a more reliable basis for identifying supply-deficit risks in basin-wide HESs. The proposed framework enables scalable and high-fidelity generative modeling, establishing a robust methodology for stochastic optimization and long-term security assessments in the global transition toward decarbonized power systems. Full article