Search Results (176)

The essay offers an expansive and multi-stratified investigation into the role of esoteric traditions within the development of Russian modernity, reframing occultism not as an eccentric deviation but as a foundational epistemological regime integral to Russia’s aesthetic, philosophical, and political evolution. By analyzing the arc from Petrine-era alchemical statecraft to the techno-theurgical aspirations of Russian Cosmism and the esoteric visual regimes of the avant-garde, this essay discloses the deep ontological entanglement between sacral knowledge and modernist radical experimentation. The work foregrounds figures such as Jacob Bruce, Wassily Kandinsky, and Kazimir Malevich, situating them within broader transnational currents of Hermeticism, Theosophy, and Rosicrucianism, while interrogating the role of occult infrastructures in both late-imperial and Soviet paradigms. Drawing on recent theoretical frameworks in the global history of esotericism and modernist studies, the long-read article elucidates the metaphysical substrata animating Russian Symbolism, Abstraction, Malevich’s non-Euclidian Suprematism and Moscow Conceptualism. This study contends that esotericism in Russia—far from marginal—served as a generative matrix for radical aesthetic innovation and ideological reconfiguration. It proposes a reconceptualization of Russian cultural history as a palimpsest of submerged sacral structures, where utopia and apocalypse, magic and technology, converge in a distinctively Russian cosmopoietic horizon. Ultimately, this essay reframes Russian and European occultism as an alternate technology of cognition and a performative semiotic universe shaping not only artistic modernism but also the very grammar of Russian historical imagination. Full article

Superb Fairy-wren Optimization Algorithm (SFOA) is an animal-based meta-heuristic algorithm derived from Fairy-wren’s behavior of growing, feeding, and avoiding natural enemies. The SFOA has some shortcomings when facing complex environments. Its switching mechanism is not enough to adapt to complex optimization problems, and it faces a weakening of population diversity in the late stage of optimization, leading to a higher possibility of falling into local optima. In addition, its global search ability needs to be improved. To address the above deficiencies, this paper proposes an Adaptive Superb Fairy-wren Optimization Algorithm (ASFOA). To assess the ability of the proposed ASFOA, three groups of experiments are conducted in this paper. Firstly, the effectiveness of the proposed improved strategies is checked on the CEC2018 test set. Second, the ASFOA is compared with eight classical/highly cited/newly proposed metaheuristics on the CEC2018 test set, in which the ASFOA performed the best overall, with average rankings of 1.621, 1.138, 1.483, and 1.966 in the four-dimensional cases, respectively. Then the convergence and robustness of ASFOA is verified on the CEC2022 test set. The experimental results indicate that the proposed ASFOA is a competitive metaheuristic algorithm variant with excellent performance in terms of convergence and distribution of solutions. In addition, we further validate the ability of ASFOA to solve real optimization problems. The average ranking of the proposed ASFOA on 10 engineering constrained optimization problems is 1.500. In summary, ASFOA is a promising variant of metaheuristic algorithms. Full article

This article critically considers sample multigenerational oral traditions of Numic-speaking communities known as the Nüümü (Northern Paiute), Nuwu (Southern Paiute), and Newe (Western Shoshone), written down over the last 151 years. Utilizing the GOAT! phenomenological method to compare the onto-epistemologies of Numic peoples with a wide range of data from (G)eology, (O)ral traditions, (A)rchaeology and (A)nthropology, and (T)raditional knowledge, the author analyzed 824 multigenerational ancestral teachings. These descriptions encode multigenerational memories of potential geological, climatic, and ecological observations and interpretations of multiple locations and earth processes throughout the Numic Aboriginal homelands within California and the Great Basin. Through this layered and comparative analysis, the author identified potential convergences of oral traditions, ethnography, ethnohistory, rock art, and geological processes in the regions of California, the Great Basin, and the Colorado Plateau, indicative of large-scale earth changes, cognized by Numic Indigenous communities as earth birthing events, occurring during the Late Pleistocene/Early Holocene to Middle and Late Holocene, including the Late Dry Period, Medieval Climatic Anomaly, and Little Ice Age. Full article

The Moxi area in the Sichuan Basin hosts abundant deep geothermal resources, but their thermal regime and accumulation mechanisms remain poorly understood. Using 2D/3D seismic data, drilling records, and temperature measurements (DST), we analyze deep thermal fields, reservoir–caprock systems, and structural features. The following are our key findings: (1) Heat transfer is conduction-dominated, with thermal anomalies in Late Permian–Early Cambrian strata. Four mudstone/shale caprocks and three carbonate reservoirs occur, with the Longtan Formation as the key seal. Reservoir geothermal gradients (25.05–32.55 °C/km) exceed basin averages. (2) Transtensional strike-slip faults form E-W/NE/NW networks; most terminate at the Permian Longtan Formation, with few extending into the Lower Triassic while penetrating the Archean–Lower Proterozoic basement. (3) Structural highs positively correlate with higher geothermal gradients. (4) The deep geothermal reservoirs and thermal accumulation mechanisms in the Moxi area are jointly controlled by crustal thinning, basement uplift, and structural architecture. Mantle-derived heat converges at basement uplift cores, generating localized thermal anomalies. Fault networks connect these deep heat sources, facilitating upward fluid migration. Thick Longtan Formation shale seals these rising thermal fluids, causing anomalous heating in underlying strata and concentrated thermal accumulation in reservoirs—enhanced by thermal focusing effects from uplift structures. This study establishes a theoretical framework for target selection and industrial-scale geothermal exploitation in sedimentary basins, highlighting the potential for repurposing oil/gas infrastructure. Full article

Tectonic activity in the Mediterranean region has been driven by the convergence of the confining plates (Nubia, Arabia and Eurasia). This convergence has been accommodated by the consumption of the oceanic domains that were present in the late Oligocene. It is suggested that this process has been enabled by the lateral escape of orogenic belts in response to constrictional contexts. Where this condition was not present, subduction did not occur. This interpretation can plausibly and coherently account for the very complex pattern of tectonic processes in the whole area since the early Miocene. It is also suggested, by providing some examples, that the geodynamic context proposed here might help us to recognize the connection between the ongoing tectonic processes and the spatio-temporal distribution of past major earthquakes. A discussion is then reported about the incompatibilities of the main alternative geodynamic interpretation (slab pull) with the observed deformation pattern. Full article

The Eastern Carpathians are thrust to the east and north over their Eastern European foreland, tectonically covering it over an area several hundred kilometers across. Information about the nature of the underthrust part of the Carpathian foreland can be obtained from the rock fragments preserved in the sedimentary successions of the Carpathian fold and thrust belt, specifically in the Outer Dacides and the Moldavides. Fragments of felsic rocks occurring within the sedimentary units of the Upper Cretaceous successions of the Moldavides have long been attributed to the Cuman Cordillera—an intrabasinal ridge in the Eastern Outer Carpathians. This work is the first complex geochemical and geochronological study on the exotic igneous clasts of the Cuman Cordillera. Igneous clasts from the southern part of the Moldavides (Variegated clay nappe/formation) are investigated here. They include mainly granites and rhyolites. Phaneritic rocks are composed of cumulus plagioclase, albite, amphibole and biotite, and intercumulus quartz and potassium feldspar, with apatite, magnetite, sphene, and zircon as main accessories, while the porphyritic rocks have a mineral assemblage similar to that mentioned above, displayed in a porphyritic texture with a usually crystallized groundmass. SHRIMP U-Pb zircon dating indicated the 583–597 Ma age interval for magma crystallization. Based on calcareous nannofossils, the depositional age of the investigated igneous clasts is Cenomanian to Maastrichtian, implying that the Cuman Cordillera was an emerged piece of land, herein an active source of sediments in the flysch basin for at least 40 Ma, from the Early Cretaceous (Aptian) to the Late Cretaceous (Maastrichtian). The intrusive and subvolcanic rocks show similar trends for trace and major elements, evincing their comagmatic nature. The enrichment in LILE and LREE relative to HFSE and HREE, as well as the element anomalies (e.g., negative Nb, Ta, and Eu and positive Rb, Ba, K, and Pb) suggest a convergent continental plate margin tectonic setting. Mineral chemistry suggests magma crystallization in relatively oxic conditions (magnetite series), during ascent within a depth of 15 km to 5 km. The igneous rocks attributed to the Cuman ridge display compositional and geochronological features similar to Brno and Thaya batholiths in the Brunovistulian terrane, which could be a piece of the Carpathian foreland not covered by the Tertiary thrusts. Our data confirm the non-Carpathian origin of the igneous clasts, revealing a Neoproterozoic history of the Carpathian foreland units, which include a Cadomian/Pan-African continental arc, exposed mainly during the Late Cretaceous as an intrabasinal island of the Alpine Tethys, traditionally known as the Cuman Cordillera. Full article

From the mid-Ming to early Qing dynasties, Mount Jizu 雞足山 in Yunnan achieved unexpected prominence within China’s Buddhist sacred landscape—an event of regional, national, and transnational significance. Employing an explicit comparative lens that juxtaposes Jizu with China’s core-region sacred sites like Mount Wutai and Emei, this study investigates the timing, regional dynamics, institutional mechanisms, and causal drivers behind the rapid ascent. Rejecting teleological narratives, it traces the mountain’s trajectory through four developmental phases to address critical historiographical questions: how did a peripheral Yunnan site achieve national prominence within a remarkably compressed timeframe? By what mechanisms could its sacred authority be constructed to inspire pilgrimages even across vast distances? Which historical agents and processes orchestrated these transformations, and how did the mountain’s symbolic meaning shift dynamically over time? Departing from earlier scholarship that privileges regional and secular frameworks, this work not only rebalances the emphasis on religious dimensions but also expands the analytical scope beyond regional confines to situate Mount Jizu within national and transnational frameworks. Eventually, by analyzing the structural, institutional, and agential dynamics—spanning local, imperial, and transnational dimensions—this study reveals how the mountain’s sacralization emerged from the convergence of local agency, acculturative pressures, state-building imperatives, late-Ming Buddhist revival, literati networks, and the strategic mobilization of symbolic capital. It also reveals that Mount Jizu was not a static sacred site but a dynamic arena of contestation and negotiation, where competing claims to spiritual authority and cultural identity were perpetually redefined. Full article

Rainfall variability in the sensitive Kalahari semi-desert in Southern Africa, a region of strong climatic gradients, has not been much studied and is poorly understood. Here, anomalies in rainfall totals and moderate and heavy rain day frequencies are examined for both the summer half of the year and three bi-monthly seasons using CHIRPS rainfall data and ERA5 reanalysis. Peak rainfall occurs in January–February, with anomalously wet summers marked by a significant increase in the number of rainy days rather than rainfall intensity. Wet summers are linked to La Niña events, cyclonic anomalies over Angola, and a weakened Botswana High, which enhances low-level moisture transport and convergence over the region as well as mid-level uplift. Roughly the reverse patterns are found during anomalously dry summers. On sub-seasonal scales, ENSO and the Botswana High (the Southern Annular Mode) are negatively (positively) significantly correlated with early summer rainfall, while in mid-summer, and for the entire November–April season, only ENSO and the Botswana High are correlated with rainfall amounts. In the late summer, weak negative correlations remain with the Botswana High, but they do not achieve 95% significance. Full article

While rhizosphere microbiome functions in saline soils are well documented, complementary microbial strategies between pioneer and late-successional halophytes remain unexplored. Here, we used 16S rRNA sequencing and FAPROTAX functional prediction to compare the rhizosphere bacterial communities of two key halophytes—Suaeda glauca and Phragmites communis—in a reclaimed coastal wetland. The results demonstrate that both plants significantly restructured microbial communities through convergent enrichment of stress-tolerant taxa (Firmicutes, Pseudomonas, Bacillus, and Planococcus) while suppressing sulfur-oxidizing bacteria (Sulfurovum and Thiobacillus). However, they exhibited distinct microbial specialization: S. glauca uniquely enriched organic-matter-degrading taxa (Promicromonospora and Zhihengliuella) and upregulated aromatic compound degradation (2.29%) and ureolysis (0.86%) according to FAPROTAX analysis, facilitating carbon mobilization in early successional stages. Notably, P. communis selectively recruited nitrogen-cycling Serratia, with increased nitrate respiration (3.51% in P. communis vs. 0.91% in S. glauca) function, reflecting its higher nitrogen demand. Environmental factors also diverged: S. glauca’s microbiome correlated with potassium and sodium, whereas P. communis responded to phosphorus and chloride. These findings uncover distinct microbial recruitment strategies by halophytes to combat saline stress—S. glauca–P. communis synergy through microbial carbon-nitrogen coupling—offering a template for consortia design in saline soil restoration. Full article

Oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC), a major subtype of head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC), is a significant global health burden owing to its late-stage diagnosis and poor prognosis. Recent advancements in molecular biology, genomics, and imaging have transformed the landscape of OSCC diagnosis and treatment. This review provides a comprehensive synthesis of early molecular diagnostic strategies, including biomarker discovery using next-generation sequencing, liquid biopsy, and salivary exosomal microRNAs. In addition, we highlight the emerging role of non-invasive optical imaging technologies and their clinical integration for improved surgical precision and early lesion detection. This review also discusses evolving therapeutic approaches, including immunotherapy, neoadjuvant chemotherapy, and patient-centered multimodal regimens tailored through molecular profiling. We emphasized balancing therapeutic efficacy with the quality of life in patients undergoing chemoradiotherapy. The convergence of multi-omics, artificial intelligence, and precision medicine holds promise for revolutionizing early detection and personalized treatment of OSCC, ultimately improving patient survival and clinical outcomes. Full article

Objective: Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is a neurodegenerative disorder that severely impairs cognitive function across various age groups, ranging from early to late sixties. It progresses from mild to severe stages, so an accurate diagnostic tool is necessary for effective intervention and treatment planning. Methods: This work proposes a novel AD classification architecture that integrates depthwise separable convolutional layers with traditional convolutional layers to efficiently extract features from structural magnetic resonance imaging (sMRI) scans. This model benefits from excellent feature extraction and lightweight operation, which reduces the number of parameters without compromising accuracy. The model learns from scratch with optimized weight initialization, resulting in faster convergence and improved generalization. However, medical imaging datasets contain class imbalance as a major challenge, which often results in biased models with poor generalization to the underrepresented disease stages. A hybrid sampling approach combining SMOTE (synthetic minority oversampling technique) with the ENN (edited nearest neighbors) effectively handles the complications of class imbalance issue inherent in the datasets. An explainable activation space occlusion sensitivity map (ASOP) pixel attribution method is employed to highlight the critical regions of input images that influence the classification decisions across different stages of AD. Results and Conclusions: The proposed model outperformed several state-of-the-art transfer learning architectures, including VGG19, DenseNet201, EfficientNetV2S, MobileNet, ResNet152, InceptionV3, and Xception. It achieves noteworthy results in disease stage classification, with an accuracy of 98.87%, an F1 score of 98.86%, a precision of 98.80%, and recall of 98.69%. These results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed model for classifying stages of AD progression. Full article

Precise detection of potato diseases is critical for food security, yet traditional image segmentation methods struggle with challenges including uneven illumination, background noise, and the gradual color transitions of lesions under complex field conditions. Therefore, a collaborative segmentation framework of Otsu and Sobel edge detection based on the beluga whale optimization algorithm with a danger sensing mechanism (DSBWO) is proposed. The method introduces an S-shaped control parameter, a danger sensing mechanism, a dynamic foraging strategy, and an improved whale fall model to enhance global search ability, prevent premature convergence, and improve solution quality. DSBWO demonstrates superior optimization performance on the CEC2017 benchmark, with faster convergence and higher accuracy than other algorithms. Experiments on the Berkeley Segmentation Dataset and potato early/late blight images show that DSBWO achieves excellent segmentation performance across multiple evaluation metrics. Specifically, it reaches a maximum IoU of 0.8797, outperforming JSBWO (0.8482) and PSOSHO (0.8503), while maintaining competitive PSNR and SSIM values. Even under different Gaussian noise levels, DSBWO maintains stable segmentation accuracy and low CPU time, confirming its robustness. These findings suggest that DSBWO provides a reliable and efficient solution for automatic crop disease monitoring and can be extended to other smart agriculture applications. Full article

Artificial reservoirs formed by hydroelectric dams are young ecosystems requiring water quality monitoring, as they often serve local populations. Traditionally, this is performed through hydrochemical and sanitary assessments, alongside phytoplankton composition analysis. This study aimed to assess the seasonal dynamics of microbial communities—both bacterioplankton and microeukaryotes including phytoplankton—in the Irkutsk Reservoir (IR), which is fed by the cold oligotrophic waters of Southern Baikal (SB). Using parallel metabarcoding of 16S and 18S rRNA gene fragments, we analyzed community composition during the open-water season and evaluated the ecological connectivity between these two freshwater systems. We demonstrated that seasonal changes in microeukaryotic communities were closely linked between SB and IR, with the greatest divergence observed in early summer and progressive convergence by autumn. Metabarcoding confirmed microscopy-based observations while providing higher taxonomic resolution and detecting otherwise overlooked groups. Bacterioplankton communities also exhibited seasonal variation and were shaped by environmental gradients and reservoir characteristics. Cyanobacteria peaked in SB in late summer but did not dominate communities, unlike in mesotrophic lowland reservoirs. These findings demonstrate the value of metabarcoding for freshwater monitoring and provide new insights into microbial community dynamics in river–reservoir systems influenced by oligotrophic lake inflow. Full article

Methanol is a promising low-carbon fuel that can effectively reduce environmental pollution from ships compared to traditional fuels. The timing of methanol injection is a major factor affecting the performance of internal combustion engines, and either too late or too early injection can severely impact the combustion efficiency of an engine. This paper focused on a 4135Aca marine diesel engine produced by the Shanghai Diesel Engine Factory in China. Using CONVERGE/3.0 software for numerical simulation, the study analyzed the impact of methanol injection timing on the combustion and emission characteristics of marine diesel engines. It was found that the determination of methanol injection timing should comprehensively consider the effects of the combustion start point, mixture quality, flame front propagation speed, and evaporation heat absorption. Appropriate methanol injection timing can improve the combustion duration, cylinder pressure, and heat release rate, enhancing the power performance of marine diesel engines. This study shows that methanol injection at −30 °CA can effectively control the in-cylinder combustion process, improve combustion efficiency, and significantly reduce the emissions of pollutants such as soot (by 60.5%), HC (by 3.6%), CO (by 95.3%), etc. However, it can lead to an increase in NOx (by 3.7%) generation under high-temperature conditions. This research can provide a certain reference for the engineering application of methanol direct injection engines for ships. Full article

Background: The brachial plexus is a network of nerves responsible for the motor and sensory innervation of the upper limb. Variations in the formation and course of the brachial plexus are well documented, though combinations of multiple unilateral abnormalities are rare. The complex pathology of this structure nerve may result in clinical consequences. We present a unique set of brachial plexus abnormalities involving the C4–C6 nerve roots, superior and middle trunks, additional communicating branches, and delayed median nerve union. Case Presentation: During the routine dissection of a 70-year-old female cadaver, several unique variations in the brachial plexus anatomy were identified. The C4 root contributed to C5 before the superior trunk formed, resulting in a superior trunk composed of C4–C6. The C5 root was located anterior to the anterior scalene muscle, whereas C6 maintained its usual posterior position. Additionally, an anterior communicating branch from the middle trunk to the posterior cord was observed. A communicating branch between the lateral and medial cords split into two terminal branches: one merged with the ulnar nerve, and the other joined the medial contribution of the median nerve. The median nerve contributions from the lateral and medial cords merged approximately two inches above the elbow. Conclusions: This rare combination of brachial plexus anomalies has not been previously described in the literature and is of significant clinical relevance. The additional anterior communicating branch from the middle trunk may suggest potential flexor muscle innervation by the posterior cord, which typically innervates extensor muscles. Additionally, the delayed convergence of the median nerve may provide a protective mechanism in cases of midshaft humeral fracture. Awareness of these peripheral nerve abnormalities is important for diagnostic imaging, surgery, or peripheral nerve blocks. Knowledge of such variations is critical for clinicians managing upper limb pathologies. Full article