Search Results (4,928)

Low-frequency alternating-current (LFAC) transmission has attracted significant attention for medium- and long-distance offshore wind integration due to its ability to mitigate the substantial charging currents and reactive power burdens associated with long submarine cables. This paper investigates the frequency-dependent electrothermal behaviors of a 500 kV three-core XLPE submarine cable using a coupled electromagnetic–thermal finite-element model. The simulation framework evaluates the current distribution, power losses in metallic components, temperature rise, and ampacity across various frequency regimes. To validate the numerical model, a thermal-circuit approach based on the IEC 60287 standard is developed, with comparisons confirming that deviations remain within acceptable engineering margins. The study reveals that operating at lower frequencies effectively mitigates skin and proximity effects, leading to reduced conductor and sheath losses. Quantitative results demonstrate that reducing the operating frequency from 50 Hz to 5 Hz results in a 30.6% reduction in total power losses and a 14.2% increase in current-carrying capability. These findings confirm that LFAC transmission offers a viable pathway to enhance the efficiency and capacity of submarine power transmission systems. Full article

The imperative for EMC-optimized gate drivers in Gallium Nitride (GaN)-based automotive DC-DC converters stems from the stringent CISPR 25 standards and GaN’s intrinsic high-speed switching characteristics, which paradoxically exacerbate electromagnetic interference (EMI). This review distinguishes itself by proposing a novel frequency-domain classification framework (Zone I: <50 MHz for conducted harmonics; Zone II: >50 MHz for switching noise and ringing), which systematically organizes and assesses gate driving techniques against the triad of fundamental GaN EMC challenges: pronounced capacitance nonlinearity, low threshold voltage, and extreme parasitic sensitivity. Unlike prior surveys that primarily catalog techniques, the analysis elevates the gate driver from a simple switch interface to the central “electromagnetic actuator” of the power stage, explicitly elucidating its pivotal role in mediating the critical trade-offs among switching speed, loss, and EMC performance. A comprehensive evaluation and comparison of advanced techniques—from spread-spectrum modulation for Zone I to adaptive current shaping and resonant topologies for Zone II—are provided, alongside an analysis of their design trade-offs. Furthermore, this review presents a first-of-its-kind, phased implementation roadmap towards holistic EMC compliance, integrating intelligent hybrid control, heterogeneous integration, and system-level co-design. This review bridges the gap between device physics and system engineering, offering structured design methodologies and a clear future direction for achieving electromagnetic integrity in next-generation automotive power electronics. Full article

Background: Common variable immunodeficiency is a heterogeneous disorder characterized by defects in antibody production and immune dysregulation, associated with infections and autoimmunity. Although structural and cognitive effects of CVID on the central nervous system have attracted attention in recent years, studies jointly addressing volumetric brain imaging and neurocognitive evaluation remain limited. Materials and Methods: In this retrospective cross-sectional study, 35 patients with common variable immunodeficiency and 40 age- and sex-matched healthy controls were evaluated. Cognitive performance was assessed in all participants using the Montreal Cognitive Assessment. High-resolution T1-weighted brain magnetic resonance imaging scans underwent automated segmentation using the volBrain platform, yielding quantitative volumetric measurements of cortical, subcortical, and cerebellar structures, as well as ventricles and cerebrospinal fluid. Intergroup comparisons were performed using independent t-tests and analysis of variance. Results: MoCA scores were significantly lower in patients with CVID. Volumetric analysis revealed prominent reductions in the volumes of total brain tissue, gray matter, cerebrum, cerebellum, limbic system, thalamus, and basal ganglia. Paralleling these findings, cerebrospinal fluid and lateral ventricle volumes were increased. Additional volume losses were detected in CVID patients with low MoCA scores. In CVID patients with autoimmunity, volume loss affected broader areas. Conclusions: CVID appears to be associated with structural brain changes and cognitive impairments. Chronic inflammation and immune dysregulation may contribute to these neurodegenerative processes. Regular neurocognitive monitoring and further prospective studies are warranted in patients with CVID. Full article

Solid-state microwave technology has emerged as an alternative to conventional magnetron-based microwave systems due to its precise frequency control and potential to improve heating uniformity. The objective of this study was to evaluate the effects of solid-state microwave cooking at 912–913 MHz on the quality characteristics of beef steak and minced beef in comparison with conventional oven cooking and traditional microwave cooking (2450 MHz). Meat samples were cooked to an internal temperature of 75 °C, and cooking time, weight loss, moisture content, lipid oxidation (TBARS), total soluble protein (TSP), color attributes, and texture properties were evaluated. Solid-state microwave cooking resulted in shorter cooking times compared to conventional oven cooking. However, it caused significantly higher cooking loss in beef steak (48.1%) compared to conventional (34.8%) and microwave cooking (42.4%) (p ≤ 0.05). In minced beef, solid-state microwave cooking led to significantly higher TBARS values (1.56 mg MDA/kg) than conventional cooking (1.07 mg MDA/kg) (p ≤ 0.05), indicating increased lipid oxidation. No significant differences were observed among cooking methods for total soluble protein content and several texture parameters (p > 0.05). Solid-state microwave cooking produced improved color development compared to traditional microwave cooking. Overall, solid-state microwave cooking shows potential advantages in processing time and color formation; however, increased cooking loss and lipid oxidation indicate that optimization of processing conditions is necessary to limit undesirable quality changes. Full article

The recognition of targets in ship remote sensing images is crucial for ship collision avoidance, military reconnaissance, and emergency rescue. However, climatic factors such as clouds and fog can obscure and blur remote sensing image targets, leading to missed and false detections in target detection. Therefore, it is necessary to study ship remote sensing target detection that considers the impact of cloud and fog occlusion. Due to the large scale and vast amount of information in remote sensing images, in order to achieve high-precision target detection based on limited resource platforms, a comparison of the detection accuracy and parameter quantity of the YOLO series algorithms was first conducted. Based on the analysis results, the YOLOv8s network model with the least number of parameters while ensuring detection accuracy was selected for lightweight network model improvement. The FasterNet was utilized to replace the backbone feature extraction network of YOLOv8s, and the detection accuracy and lightweight level of the resulting FN-YOLOv8s network model were both improved. Furthermore, structural improvements were made to the AOD-Net dehazing network. By introducing a smoothness loss function, the halo artifacts often generated during the image dehazing process were addressed. Meanwhile, by integrating the atmospheric light value and transmittance, the accumulation error was effectively reduced, significantly enhancing the dehazing effect of remote sensing images. Full article

Modern gastronomy strives to combine high-quality food with the preservation of nutritional value, microbiological safety, and the sustainable use of raw materials. With the development of culinary technologies, precise heat treatment methods are gaining increasing importance, enabling better process control and more consistent quality results. This analysis aims to present the effects of the sous-vide (SV) method on the quality of vegetables in comparison with conventional heat treatment methods, such as boiling in water, steaming, cooking under increased pressure, cooking in a microwave oven, baking, grilling, and the cook-vide method. Analysis of the scientific literature has shown that the sous-vide method usually allows for the retention of greater amounts of vitamins (especially vitamin C), phenolic compounds and minerals, resulting in products with higher nutritional value and bioavailability of bioactive ingredients. Maintaining a controlled, low temperature in a vacuum environment reduces the loss of water and volatile components, which has a positive impact on the process yield as well as the color, texture, and aroma of vegetables. SV processing enhances product digestibility, preserves natural appearance, and improves food safety. Due to its hermetic packaging and limited oxygen access, this method ensures good microbiological quality and extends product shelf life. In the food service industry, SV allows for repeatable results, high sensory and technological quality, and reduced food waste. In the context of contemporary nutritional challenges and the experiences of the COVID-19 pandemic, sous-vide technology is gaining importance as a method supporting food safety, sustainability, and efficient resource management in the food service industry. Full article

This study addresses the challenge of automating cocoa pod ripeness classification from drone imagery through a comprehensive and statistically rigorous investigation conducted on data collected from Ghanaian cocoa fields. We perform a direct comparison by subjecting a curated set of seven deep learning models to an identical, advanced algorithmic framework. This pipeline incorporates high-resolution ($384\times 384$) imagery, aggressive TrivialAugmentWide data augmentation, a weighted loss function with label smoothing, a unified two-stage fine-tuning strategy, and validation with Test Time Augmentation (TTA). To ensure statistical robustness, all experiments were repeated three times using different random seeds. Under these demanding experimental conditions, modern architectures demonstrated strong and consistent performance on this dataset: the Swin Transformer achieved the highest mean accuracy ($79.27\%\pm 0.56\%$), followed closely by ConvNeXt-Base ($79.21\%\pm 0.13\%$). In contrast, classic architectures such as ResNet-101 ($55.86\%\pm 4.01\%$) and ResNet-50 ($64.32\%\pm 0.94\%$) showed substantially reduced performance. A paired t-test confirmed that these differences are statistically significant ($p<0.05$). These results suggest that, within the evaluated setting, modern CNN- and transformer-based architectures exhibit greater robustness under challenging, statistically validated conditions, indicating their potential suitability for drone-based agricultural monitoring tasks. Full article

Background and Objectives: Periodontal disease, characterized by progressive destruction of tooth-supporting tissues, often results in substantial alveolar bone loss, necessitating regenerative interventions such as guided bone regeneration (GBR). Insulin-like growth factor 2 (IGF-2) has emerged as a promising biomolecule for periodontal regeneration because of its osteogenic and immunomodulatory properties. Materials and Methods: A comprehensive literature search was conducted across five electronic databases (Scopus, ScienceDirect, PubMed, Wiley, and EBSCO). Studies examining the use of IGF-2 in periodontal or alveolar bone regeneration, including randomized controlled trials, animal studies, and in vitro experiments, were included. Results: Three studies met the inclusion criteria. In vitro, IGF-2 was associated with enhanced osteogenic differentiation and mineralization of mesenchymal stem cells, along with upregulation of key osteogenic markers. In animal models, IGF-2 treatment was associated with increased osteogenesis, greater bone volume, and a shift in macrophage polarization toward a less inflammatory phenotype. However, heterogeneity in study designs, protocols, and outcome measures limited direct comparisons. Conclusions: In vitro, IGF-2 was associated with enhanced osteogenic differentiation and mineralization of mesenchymal stem cells, accompanied by upregulation of key osteogenic markers. In animal models, IGF-2 treatment was associated with increased osteogenesis, greater bone volume, and a shift in macrophage polarization toward a less inflammatory phenotype. Full article

This study presents a multi-objective optimization framework for China’s North-to-South Grain Transportation (NSGT), balancing costs, time, carbon emissions, and grain quality loss to promote sustainable logistics. We propose a hybrid algorithm combining genetic optimization with reinforcement learning to identify efficient routes and evaluate trade-offs. Compared to standard methods, our approach achieves better solution diversity and robustness, as validated by sensitivity analysis, scalability tests, and statistical comparisons. The findings advance carbon accounting in multimodal transport and provide practical guidance for policymakers to enhance eco-friendly grain distribution. Full article

Background: Active-fluidics phacoemulsification can maintain anterior chamber stability at lower intraoperative intraocular pressure (IOP) levels. However, whether reducing IOP alone—without additional stabilizing technologies such as the Active Sentry handpiece—can decrease surgical invasiveness during Eight-Chop phacoemulsification remains unclear. Methods: In this prospective fellow-eye comparative study, 56 non-diabetic patients (112 eyes) underwent Eight-Chop technique phacoemulsification using the Centurion Vision System with active fluidics. One eye was randomly assigned to a standard-IOP setting (55 mmHg; high-IOP group) and the fellow eye to a reduced-IOP setting (28 mmHg; low-IOP group). Intraoperative parameters—including operative time, phaco time, aspiration time, cumulative dissipated energy (CDE), and irrigation volume—were recorded. Postoperative outcomes included aqueous flare (laser flare photometry), corneal endothelial cell density (CECD) and CECD loss, corneal morphology (central corneal thickness [CCT], coefficient of variation [CV], percentage of hexagonal cells [PHC]), and IOP. Linear mixed-effects models with patient ID as a random effect were used for all paired-eye comparisons. Results: Lowering the intraoperative IOP did not reduce surgical invasiveness. Phaco time was significantly longer in the low-IOP group (16.2 ± 5.22 s vs. 13.9 ± 4.40 s; p = 0.001), and aspiration time was also longer (75.0 ± 18.3 s vs. 69.0 ± 17.9 s; p = 0.033). No significant differences were found in operative time (5.08 ± 1.10 min vs. 4.82 ± 1.13 min; p = 0.082), CDE (5.93 ± 1.87 vs. 5.56 ± 1.90; p = 0.099), or irrigation volume (26.6 ± 7.71 mL vs. 25.2 ± 7.35 mL; p = 0.214). Postoperative outcomes were similarly comparable. Aqueous flare showed no significant differences at any time point (e.g., day 1: 14.8 ± 5.10 vs. 14.5 ± 4.76 ph/ms; p = 0.655). Mean CECD loss remained small in both groups and did not differ significantly (7 weeks: −0.82 ± 1.05% vs. −0.98 ± 1.16%, p = 0.460; 19 weeks: −0.93 ± 1.38% vs. −1.28 ± 1.69%, p = 0.239). Corneal morphological parameters (CCT, CV, PHC) and postoperative IOP also showed no significant differences between settings. Conclusions: In this fellow-eye comparative study, lowering intraoperative intraocular pressure from conventional to near-physiologic levels under active-fluidics control did not reduce surgical invasiveness during Eight-chop phacoemulsification. No additional benefits were observed in terms of endothelial cell preservation, postoperative inflammation, or overall surgical performance. These findings indicate that, when chamber stability is already ensured by a low-invasive fragmentation strategy, further reduction in intraoperative IOP alone does not confer measurable short-term clinical advantages. Full article

Many fields or disciplines (e.g., uncertainty analysis in measurement science) require a combination of probability distributions. This technical note examines three methods for combining probability distributions: weighted linear pooling, geometric pooling, and the law of combination of distributions (LCD). Although these methods have been discussed in the literature, a systematic comparison of them appears insufficient. In particular, there is no discussion in the literature regarding the potential information loss that these methods may cause. This technical note aims to fill this gap. It provides insights into these three methods under the normality assumption. It shows that the weighted linear pooling method preserves all the variability (including heterogeneity) information in the original distributions; neither the geometric pooling method nor the LCD method preserves all the variability information, leading to information loss. We propose an index for measuring the information loss of a method with respect to the weighted linear pooling method. This technical note also shows that the weighted linear pooling method can be used as an alternative to the traditional random-effects meta-analysis. Three examples are presented: the combination of two normal distributions, the combination of three discrete distributions, and the determination of the Newtonian constant of gravitation. Full article

Chicken respiratory diseases represent multifactorial conditions resulting from viral, bacterial, mycoplasmal pathogens, and environmental factors, causing significant economic losses within the poultry industry. A specific respiratory disease characterized by breathing difficulties and bronchial occlusion due to caseous exudates is termed chicken bronchial obstruction. However, the absence of rapid, precise, and highly sensitive diagnostic methods for differentiation of primary respiratory disease pathogens or opportunistic pathogens, including avian influenza virus (AIV), infectious bronchitis virus (IBV), Pseudomonas aeruginosa (P. aeruginosa), and Escherichia coli (E. coli), constitutes a substantial challenge. This study developed a quadruplex droplet digital polymerase chain reaction (ddPCR) method that targeted the HA gene of H9 subtype AIV, the M gene of IBV, the Pal gene of P. aeruginosa, and the UidA gene of E. coli. Following the optimization of annealing temperature, sensitivity, and repeatability, the minimum detectable concentrations were determined as 3.02 copies/μL for the HA gene of H9 subtype AIV, 3.08 copies/μL for the M gene of IBV, 3.19 copies/μL for the Pal gene of P. aeruginosa, 3.39 copies/μL for the UidA gene of E. coli. No cross-reactivity was observed with Newcastle disease virus (NDV), H5 subtype AIV, H7 subtype AIV, fowl adenovirus serotype 4 (FAdV-4), infectious laryngotracheitis virus (ILTV), Avibacterium paragallinarum, Streptococcus, Salmonella, Pasteurella multocida, and Staphylococcus aureus. The method demonstrated excellent repeatability, with a coefficient of variation (CV) below 9%. The 185 clinical samples collected in Hebei Province China are tested by both quadruplex ddPCR and quadruplex qPCR method and the results compared. The sensitivity of the quadruplex ddPCR method (57.30%; 106/185) slightly exceeded that of the quadruplex qPCR method (49.73%; 92/185). Pathogens or opportunistic pathogens positive rates obtained via the quadruplex ddPCR were 40.00% for H9 subtype AIV, 33.51% for IBV, 24.32% for P. aeruginosa, and 27.57% for E. coli. In comparison, the positive rates of H9 subtypes AIV, IBV, P. aeruginosa, and E. coli from the quadruplex qPCR were 36.22%, 30.81%, 21.62%, and 24.32%, respectively. The coincidence rates between the two methods were 96.22% for H9 AIV, 97.30% for IBV, 97.30% for P. aeruginosa, and 96.76% for E. coli. These results demonstrated that the quadruplex ddPCR method represented a highly sensitive, specific, and rapid technique for identifying H9 subtype AIV, IBV, P. aeruginosa, and E. coli. Full article

Road marking lines can be extracted from aerial images using semantic segmentation (SS) models; however, in this work, a conditional generative adversarial network, RoadMark-cGAN, is proposed for direct extraction of these representations with image-to-image translation techniques. The generator features residual and attention blocks added in a functional bottleneck, while the discriminator features a modified PatchGAN, with an optimized encoder and an attention block added. The proposed model is improved in three versions (v2 to v4), in which dynamic dropout techniques and a novel “Morphological Boundary-Sensitive Class-Balanced” (MBSCB) loss are progressively added to better handle the high class imbalance present in the data. All models were trained on a novel “RoadMarking-binary” dataset (29,405 RGB orthoimage tiles of 256 × 256 pixels and their corresponding ground truth masks) to learn the distribution of road marking lines found on pavement. The metrical evaluation on the test set containing 2045 unseen images showed that the best proposed model achieved average improvements of 45.2% and 1.7% in the Intersection-over-Union (IoU) score for the positive, underrepresented class when compared to the best Pix2Pix and SS models, respectively, trained for the same task. Finally, a qualitative, visual comparison was conducted to assess the quality of the road marking predictions of the best models and their mapping performance. Full article

Accurate reservoir identification from well-logging data is crucial for hydrocarbon exploration, yet challenges persist due to a series of factors, including limitations such as low efficiency and subjectivity of manual processing for massive datasets, as well as class imbalance and its impact on machine learning model training. This study develops an intelligent identification model using a Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) enhanced with Focal Loss, applied to real well-logging data from the Chang 8 Member of the Yanchang Formation in the Jiyuan Oilfield, Ordos Basin. A well-based data partitioning strategy is adopted to ensure the model’s generalization ability to new wells, avoiding the overoptimistic performance associated with random sample splitting. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed model achieves an Accuracy of 84% and a Recall of 83% for oil-bearing layers. In comparison, the Random Forest model achieves a lower Recall of 56% for oil-bearing layers, and the CNN-LSTM model achieves 77%. The key influential well-logging parameters identified are bulk density (DEN), spontaneous potential (SP), true resistivity (RT), and natural gamma ray (GR). The findings confirm that the Focal Loss-enhanced CNN effectively mitigates class imbalance issues and provides a reliable, automated method for reservoir identification, offering significant practical value for the secondary interpretation of well logs in similar tight sandstone reservoirs. Full article

Fusarium verticillioides is a common pathogenic fungus of corn since it causes severe yield losses and produces mycotoxins to threaten the health of both humans and livestock. Although extensive research has characterized specific genetic and environmental factors influencing mycotoxin production, a systematic understanding of the temporal transcriptional dynamics governing its developmental progression remains lacking. This study addresses this critical knowledge gap through a time-series transcriptomic analysis of F. verticillioides at four key cultivation stages (3, 5, 7, and 9 days post-inoculation). Transcriptomic analysis identified 1928, 2818, and 1934 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) in the comparisons of FV3 vs. FV5, FV5 vs. FV7, and FV7 vs. FV9, respectively. Gene Ontology enrichment revealed 76, 106, and 56 significantly enriched terms across these comparisons, with “integral component of membrane” consistently being the most enriched cellular component. Pathway analysis demonstrated “amino acid metabolism” and “carbohydrate metabolism” as the most significantly enriched metabolic pathways. Notably, the fumonisin (FUM) and fusaric acid (FA) biosynthetic gene clusters exhibited coordinated peak expression during the early cultivation, followed by progressive decline. Mfuzz clustering further delineated 12 distinct expression trajectories, highlighting the dynamic transcriptional networks underlying fungal adaptation. This work provided the first comprehensive temporal transcriptome of F. verticillioides, establishing a foundational resource for understanding its stage-specific biology and revealing potential time-sensitive targets for future intervention strategies. Full article