Search Results (1,432)

Background: The differential diagnosis of respiratory distress syndrome (RDS) and congenital pneumonia (CP) in newborns remains a complex clinical challenge due to the similarity in their clinical manifestations and their potential to coexist. Objective: We aimed to determine differential diagnostic predictors of RDS and CP in newborns by using mathematical modeling and machine learning methods. Methods: A retrospective cohort study was conducted; de-identified medical records of 244 newborns (97 with RDS and 143 with CP) were collected to assess clinical, anamnestic, laboratory, and instrumental data by applying multiple regression analysis, ROC analysis, logistic regression models, and Random Forest. Results: Patients with CP presented with a more severe condition at admission (57.1% vs. 23.3%; p = 0.023), required mechanical ventilation (MV) more frequently (22.4% vs. 8.2%; p = 0.004), and were more often transferred to the intensive care unit (ICU) (77.3% vs. 55.7%; p = 0.001). They further had lower hemoglobin levels (151 ± 28 g/L vs. 164 ± 31 g/L; p = 0.001) and red blood cell counts (p = 0.021). Regression analysis demonstrated that the severity of the condition and the presence of cerebral ischemia were dependent on hemoglobin levels in the case of CP, while gestational age played a determining role in RDS. The machine learning models achieved an accuracy of 0.69 and an area under the curve (AUC) of 0.82 (Random Forest). The key predictors for differential diagnosis of RDS were low gestational age, hyperbilirubinemia, and congenital heart defects, while for CP, they were hemoglobin < 151 g/L, lymphocytes < 4.8 × 10³/μL, oxygen saturation < 90–91%, and cerebral ischemia. Conclusions: The use of mathematical modeling methods made it possible to identify prognostically significant predictors for the differential diagnosis of RDS and CP. The resulting models are best viewed as proof-of-concept tools for hypothesis generation and future research, as external validation is necessary before they can be considered for clinical use. Full article

Pentlandite bioleaching offers a potentially low-energy route for nickel recovery from low-grade sulfide resources, but increasing pulp density may constrain acidophilic microorganisms through metal accumulation, mineral buffering, mass-transfer limitation, and surface-product deposition. This study evaluated pentlandite bioleaching by the nickel-resistant Acidithiobacillus ferriphilus WGS1 at pulp densities of 1%, 5%, and 10% (w/v). Leaching performance and associated interfacial and cellular responses were examined using solution chemistry, mineral and surface characterization, electrochemical measurements under 40 g/L Ni²⁺, and genome-guided transcriptomics. After 30 days at 35 °C, Ni leaching efficiencies reached 99.2%, 97.1%, and 95.7% at 1%, 5%, and 10% pulp densities, respectively, compared with 27.2%, 14.2%, and 0.76% in the corresponding sterile controls. The inoculated systems maintained lower pH and higher ORP than the sterile controls, while the residues showed pentlandite alteration, Ni depletion, secondary Fe-bearing phase formation, and changes in surface sulfur speciation. Under 40 g/L Ni²⁺, the WGS1-containing system showed a lower charge-transfer resistance and a higher corrosion current density than the abiotic system. Transcriptomic comparison between the 10% and 1% pulp-density groups identified 640 differentially expressed genes and highlighted candidate responses associated with Ni homeostasis, Fe/S oxidation, respiratory electron transfer, and energy conservation. Integration of the physicochemical, mineralogical, electrochemical, and transcriptomic results supports a literature-informed working model for WGS1-associated pentlandite bioleaching under high-pulp-density conditions. Full article

The increasing occurrence of pharmaceutical contaminants in aquatic environments has intensified the demand for sustainable and cost-effective water treatment technologies. This study investigated the conversion of potato peel waste into carbonaceous adsorbents through hydrothermal carbonization (HTC) and conventional pyrolysis (PRYR) for the removal of carbamazepine (CBZ) from synthetic wastewater. Hydrochars and biochars were synthesized under varying processing conditions and characterized using scanning electron microscopy (SEM), Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), elemental analysis, and Brunauer–Emmett–Teller (BET) surface area analysis. Adsorption experiments were conducted using a 50 mg/L CBZ solution at pH 6, room temperature, and an adsorbent dosage of 1 g/L. The adsorption performance was evaluated after short contact times to assess rapid-removal capability. HTC-derived hydrochars exhibited significantly superior performance compared with pyrolysis-derived biochars, achieving up to 97% CBZ removal and adsorption capacities approaching 50 mg g⁻¹ within 1 min of contact. In contrast, pyrolysis-derived biochars achieved removal efficiencies between approximately 7 and 55% under similar conditions. Correlation analysis between adsorption behaviour and physicochemical properties revealed that adsorption performance was more strongly influenced by surface chemistry, aromaticity, and mesoporosity than by BET surface area alone. FTIR analysis suggested that hydrogen bonding, π–π electron donor–acceptor interactions, and pore filling contributed to CBZ adsorption. HTC hydrochars retained abundant oxygen-containing functional groups that promoted rapid and stable adsorption, whereas pyrolysis-derived biochars exhibited weaker adsorption interactions despite possessing higher surface areas. The findings demonstrate that hydrothermal carbonization provides an effective low-temperature route for valorising potato peel waste into efficient adsorbents for rapid pharmaceutical removal from water and highlight the critical role of adsorbent surface chemistry in determining adsorption performance. Full article

Ozonation is one of the most widely used methods for wastewater treatment. However, it suffers from several drawbacks, including a low reaction rate, long reaction time, and the formation of intermediate byproducts due to incomplete oxidation. Therefore, in this paper, the ozonation process was improved via the MgO nanocatalyst and honeycomb activated carbon (HAC) as a packing material in the bubble column reactor by using the following methods: (O₃/MgO, O₃/HAC, and O₃/MgO/HAC). The results showed that using ozone alone yielded a low chemical oxygen demand (COD) removal efficiency of 63.33% after 90 min, and the phenol concentration was 15 mg/L. However, when the catalyst was added, the efficiency increased to 73.33%, which is attributed to the enhanced generation of more hydroxyl radicals (OH•). The HAC packing material had a positive effect, as the removal efficiency rose to 76.66% due to its effective role in improving the mass transfer inside the reactor. The integrated (O₃/MgO/HAC) method proved to be the most effective at achieving a COD removal efficiency of about 83%; furthermore, the efficiency reached 91% when the initial phenol concentration decreased to 10 mg/L. Two doses of catalysts were used, 0.05 and 0.1 g/L, and it was found that the higher dose (0.1 g/L) had the highest efficiency. The effect of the initial phenol concentration and ozone gas flow rate were studied. The study concludes that the use of the MgO nanocatalyst and the honeycomb-structured activated carbon packing material plays an effective role in improving the ozonation process by increasing the reaction rate, reducing treatment time, and decreasing the demand for additional ozone gas supplies, thus achieving significant economic benefits. Full article

Microbial resistance to conventional antimicrobials is a growing public health challenge, driving the search for effective and sustainable alternatives. Among emerging strategies, the combination of silver nanoparticles (AgNPs), recognized for their potent antimicrobial action, with biosurfactants, natural, biodegradable compounds capable of interacting with microbial cell membranes and promoting their stabilization stands out. In this context, the aim of this study was to produce a biosurfactant by Candida glabrata UCP 1002 from agroindustrial residues, reducing costs and environmental impacts. The compound exhibited a surface tension of 29 mN/m, a critical micellar concentration of 0.3%, and a yield of 9 g/L; furthermore, it demonstrated stability across wide ranges of temperature, pH, and salinity. The AgNPs were synthesized using the biosurfactant as a stabilizing agent and ascorbic acid as a reducing agent, resulting in stable particles. In antimicrobial assays, the formulation inhibited Gram-positive microorganisms, Gram-negative microorganisms, and fungi. The best results were obtained against Pseudomonas aeruginosa (26.63%) and Candida albicans (28.11%), followed by Staphylococcus aureus (17.58%), Enterobacter sp. (14.42%), and Escherichia coli (13.68%). Although less effective than commercial antibiotics such as streptomycin and moxifloxacin, it showed potential as a complementary alternative in combating multidrug-resistant pathogens. Cytotoxicity assays revealed low toxicity toward normal cells (28.42% inhibition in Vero CCL-81) and minimal activity against tumor cells. The results demonstrate that the BS-AgNPs association combines relevant antimicrobial activity with environmental safety and biocompatibility, establishing itself as a promising and sustainable approach for application in health, industry, and the environment, with potential for scale-up production from low-cost raw materials. Full article

Silts are generally unsuitable for direct use as subgrade fill material due to their low shear strength and deformation resistance. In this study, a novel technique for strengthening silt using enzyme-induced calcium carbonate precipitation (EICP) with the addition of non-fat milk powder is proposed to improve the mechanical properties of silt for use as subgrade fill material. The effect of EICP on the mechanical properties of silt, in terms of internal friction angle and shear strength, was examined through consolidated undrained (CU) triaxial shear tests. The results showed that, with the EICP technique involving non-fat milk powder, the mechanical behaviors of silts were significantly enhanced due to the improved bonding ability of the silt particles. Furthermore, an optimum content of non-fat milk powder of 6 g/L is proposed to increase the mechanical properties. Compared with EICP treatment alone, under the optimum condition of 6 g/L non-fat milk powder and 14 days of curing, the shear strength, cohesion, and internal friction angle increased by 44.1%, 51.86%, and 31.4%, respectively. Finally, microstructural analyses were conducted using Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) and X-ray Diffraction (XRD) to provide insight into the mechanisms underlying the improvement of silt. The findings of this study can provide guidance for the application of silt improvement through the EICP technique involving non-fat milk powder. Full article

Adsorption is a promising technology for phosphate removal to alleviate eutrophication. In this study, thermally modified calcium aluminate decahydrate (TCAH) was prepared via low-temperature thermal treatment of calcium aluminate decahydrate (CAH₁₀) to develop a cost-effective and high-performance phosphate adsorbent. The optimal modification temperature was determined to be 120 °C, which reduced the crystallinity of CAH₁₀, enhanced its porosity, and induced the formation of amorphous calcium aluminate phases. Batch adsorption experiments showed that TCAH exhibited a maximum adsorption capacity of 199.80 mg P/g at 25 °C. The adsorption kinetics followed the pseudo-second-order model, while the adsorption isotherms were well fitted by the Redlich–Peterson model. TCAH maintained high removal efficiency over a wide pH range of 3.0–11.0 and showed high selectivity against common coexisting anions. Characterizations using SEM-EDS, XRD, FTIR and XPS suggested that phosphate removal by TCAH was dominated by synergistic amorphous precipitation and inner-sphere complexation. In tests with real phosphorus-releasing liquor derived from excess sludge, TCAH achieved nearly complete phosphate removal at a dosage of 5 g/L within 6 h. Owing to its readily available raw materials, low preparation temperature, and outstanding phosphate capture performance, TCAH is a promising candidate for efficient phosphate capture and recovery from wastewater. Full article

Steel dust is a waste generated during steelmaking in an electric arc furnace (EAF), which contains a high proportion of iron-bearing compounds, leading to the inclusion of this waste as a resource in the circular economy for steelmaking. In addition to the limitation related to granulation (the waste must be processed to obtain larger particle sizes), a limiting factor is the increasingly high Zn content due to the low-quality ferrous charge. For the recycling of steelmaking dust, preliminary processing is necessary to reduce zinc. The paper presents, in addition to qualitative characterization of steel dust, laboratory experiments on the compositional changes associated with zinc redistribution applying the hydrometallurgical leaching process in an alkaline environment, using sodium hydroxide (NaOH). The changes in the chemical composition were identified and evaluated using X-ray fluorescence (XRF) and energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX). The experiments consisted of treating steel dust samples with 5 M NaOH at 25, 70, 80 and 90 °C for 60 min, using solid-to-liquid ratios of 10, 15, and 25 g/L. The results indicate a reduction in ZnO content ranging from 4.52% to 16.82%, as determined from Na₂O-free normalization data. Room-temperature samples show only marginal changes in ZnO content. The XRF and EDX analyses indicate a moderate and condition-dependent redistribution of zinc in the solid phase after alkaline treatment, as evaluated using Na₂O-free normalized data. These values are derived exclusively from solid-phase measurements (XRF/EDX) and do not include zinc in the leachate; therefore, true zinc extraction efficiency cannot be determined. The research results attest to the viability and efficiency (as a solid-phase compositional transformation process) using NaOH as a leaching agent for the studied steel dust, thus providing a potential pathway for improved waste recycling in the steel industry. Full article

We propose KoSim-GL, a large-scale vision-based geo-localization dataset for drone positioning in GPS-denied environments. Geo-localization estimates a drone’s location by matching drone-view imagery against a geo-referenced satellite image database, offering a reliable alternative to GPS under conditions such as signal jamming, spoofing, or degradation in dense urban canyons. Although this task is challenging due to the domain gap between drone-view and satellite-view imagery, existing benchmarks are built predominantly around urban environments in the United States and China, leaving South Korea largely unrepresented, despite its distinctive landscape in which mountainous terrain coexists with dense high-rise districts and low-rise residential neighborhoods. To address this gap, we introduce KoSim-GL, constructed from drone-view images captured via an AirSim- and ROS-based flight simulator and satellite images collected through the Google Maps Tile API, covering the urban area of Daejeon, South Korea. Its key feature is a multi-view configuration that simultaneously captures five views, one nadir and four oblique, at each flight position across altitudes from 100 m to 600 m, enabling robust localization even in feature-sparse environments where nadir-only matching is prone to fail. In total, KoSim-GL comprises 2,450,315 drone images and 1704 satellite images. We further provide systematic comparisons against five existing benchmarks and baseline evaluations of ten representative geo-localization models under single- and multi-view settings. Experimental results show that the multi-view configuration substantially improves localization performance; for example, FSRA improves Recall@1 from 44.08% (single-view) to 65.37% (multi-view), a gain of 21.29 percentage points. The dataset is publicly available. Full article

The economic viability of second-generation (2G) bioethanol production depends on the availability of robust, multistress-tolerant yeast strains capable of withstanding harsh industrial conditions. This study investigates animal manure as a novel ecological niche for discovering such strains, as microbes in these environments naturally adapt to high organic loading and fluctuating temperatures. From eighty-six initial isolates, twenty-nine demonstrated superior xylose fermentation at 37 °C. Eight high-performing isolates (C2-1, B1-2, B1-6, B2-6, B2-8, G1-4, G1-5, and G2-4) exhibited exceptional tolerance to ethanol, high temperatures, and lignocellulosic-derived inhibitors (acetic acid, formic acid, furfural, and vanillic acid). Molecular identification classified isolate C2-1 as Pichia kudriavzevii and the remaining seven as Candida tropicalis. In synthetic media, C. tropicalis B2-8 produced up to 16.33 g/L of ethanol using xylose (60 g/L) as the sole carbon source. While the undetoxified, highly acidic sugarcane bagasse hydrolysate completely inhibited yeast growth, the industrial potential of these strains was successfully validated using the concentrated, undetoxified enzymatic hydrolysate derived from the acid-pretreated sugarcane bagasse solids, which contained 30.15 g/L glucose and 25.58 g/L xylose. P. kudriavzevii C2-1 achieved ethanol titers of 6.02 g/L and 5.71 g/L at 37 °C and 40 °C, respectively. The C. tropicalis strains outperformed P. kudriavzevii, yielding 6.12–6.35 g/L at 37 °C and maintaining 5.75–6.19 g/L at 40 °C. These findings underscore the potential of manure-derived yeasts as resilient biocatalysts. Although their fermentation yields remain relatively low and require further metabolic optimization, their ability to survive and ferment in this concentrated, undetoxified enzymatic hydrolysate at elevated temperatures makes them promising candidates for further development in high-temperature ethanol fermentation (HTEF), offering a potential pathway toward reducing cooling costs associated with 2G biorefineries. Full article

Cobalt occupies an irreplaceable strategic position in renewable energy and high-end advanced industries. As high-grade mineral resources gradually deplete, associated sulfide minerals have attracted increasing attention as alternative sources of cobalt. This study investigated a selective extraction of cobalt from low-grade cobalt-bearing pyrite using oxygen-pressure acid leaching. The Gibbs free energy (ΔG) of key chemical reactions in the leaching system was calculated to verify the thermodynamic feasibility of the process. The effects of critical parameters, including oxygen pressure, initial acidity, stirring speed, leaching time, and temperature, on cobalt leaching efficiency and phase transformation characteristics were systematically investigated. Under optimal conditions of oxygen pressure 1.5 MPa, H₂SO₄ initial acidity 7.36 g·L⁻¹ (0.82 mol/L), stirring speed 300 rpm, leaching duration 120 min, and temperature 230 °C, the cobalt leaching rate reached 98.2%, whereas the leaching rates of iron and aluminum were only 19.79% and 28.11%, respectively. Combined with SEM-EDS, XRD, and XPS characterization results, oxygen pressure acid leaching effectively destroyed the lattice structure of cobalt-bearing pyrite and liberates lattice-hosted cobalt, thereby facilitating efficient cobalt leaching. At high-temperature and oxygen pressure conditions, Fe³⁺ underwent hydrolysis and precipitated as hematite (Fe₂O₃) or hydronium jarosite (H₃O)Fe₃(SO₄)₂(OH)₆, enabling the selective extraction of cobalt. Aluminum in cobalt-bearing pyrite primarily occurred as the stable boehmite (AlOOH) phase, exhibiting excellent acid resistance and low dissolution during leaching. This study broadens the utilization pathway of low-grade cobalt resources and provides valuable insights and a scientific theoretical basis for the efficient treatment of cobalt-containing sulfide concentrates and tailings. Full article

This study investigated the production of spodumene concentrate and lithium carbonate from a low-grade pegmatite ore containing approximately 0.26 wt.% Li₂O. The ore consisted predominantly of a quartz–feldspar aluminosilicate matrix with dispersed spodumene mineralization, which complicates conventional processing approaches. Preliminary lithium concentration was performed by dense media separation (DMS) using an industrially applicable ferrosilicon-based suspension. The highest separation efficiency was achieved for the −4.0/+2.8 mm fraction, producing a DMS concentrate containing 5.77 wt.% Li₂O with 98% lithium recovery. The obtained spodumene concentrate was subjected to decrepitation at 1000–1100 °C to convert α-spodumene into the more reactive β-modification, followed by sulfation roasting with concentrated sulfuric acid at 250–270 °C. The productive leach solution obtained after water leaching contained up to 12.1 g/L Li₂O. After purification from iron-bearing impurities and precipitation with sodium carbonate, a lithium carbonate product containing at least 98.8 wt.% Li₂CO₃ was obtained. Approximately 53% of the lithium contained in the original ore was recovered into the DMS feed fraction, whereas the overall lithium recovery into lithium carbonate reached about 45% relative to the ore and approximately 70% relative to the concentrate. Full article

Olive mill wastewater (OMW), due to its high organic load and phenolic content, represents both a major environmental challenge and a promising low-cost substrate for microbial bioprocesses. In this study, lipid production by Yarrowia lipolytica using OMW was optimized through a mixed-level Taguchi experimental design. The effects of OMW dilution (%), nitrogen supplementation, NaCl concentration, sterilization, and carbon source (glucose or glycerol) were evaluated in terms of biomass production, lipid accumulation, and fatty acid composition. The results demonstrated a clear inverse relationship between biomass formation and lipid accumulation. The highest lipid content (33.49%) was achieved under nitrogen-limited conditions combined with a high OMW dilution. After 168 h of fermentation, the calculated lipid yield was 0.51 g/L. Biomass and lipid productivities were calculated as 0.22 g/L/day and 0.073 g/L/day, respectively. ANOVA analysis revealed that nitrogen concentration was the dominant factor affecting lipid production (67.71%), followed by NaCl concentration (18.83%). In contrast, OMW dilution, sterilization, and carbon source type were not statistically significant (p > 0.05), indicating that lipid production can be effectively performed under non-sterile conditions with flexible substrate utilization. Fatty acid analysis revealed that the produced lipids were rich in oleic acid (C18:1n9c), reaching up to 57.97%, with unsaturated fatty acids generally accounting for the majority of the total fatty acid composition. Although the carbon source had a limited effect on lipid yield, it contributed to variations in fatty acid composition, suggesting the possibility of tailoring lipid quality through substrate selection. Full article

Jiaodong Peninsula is one of the regions with the most abundant medium–low-temperature convective geothermal resources in the eastern coastal area of China. Analyzing geothermal fluid characteristics can help understand its hydrochemical discharge characteristics and renewal capacity, and these characteristics also exhibit distinct geochemical symmetry that reflects the genesis and evolution of geothermal systems. In this study, we conducted a water quality analysis of 15 natural hot spring geothermal fluids, as well as their adjacent bedrock and Quaternary water, in the Jiaodong Peninsula. We measured deuterium and oxygen isotopes, and the γ Na/γ Cl and γ SO₄/γ Cl ratios of geothermal fluids, focusing on the geochemical symmetry of these indicators to reveal the evolutionary rules of geothermal fluids. The hydrochemical types of geothermal fluids in the Jiaodong Peninsula included Cl–Na, Cl–Na·Ca, HCO₃·SO₄–Na, and SO₄·HCO₃–Na, with mineralization degrees of 0.45–7.68 g/L and pH values of 7.3–8.63. The geothermal fluid primarily originated from the infiltration recharge of atmospheric rainfall and had no hydraulic connection with the shallow Quaternary water and adjacent bedrock water near the geothermal field. The geothermal fluid in the study area had not yet reached water–rock equilibrium. For geothermal fields with higher γ Na/γ Cl and γ SO₄/γ Cl ratios, the corresponding geothermal fluid circulation depth was relatively shallow, indicating a poorly sealed hydrodynamic environment with strong renewal capacity, where the geothermal fluid is in a continuous supply–runoff–discharge process. The γ Na/γ Cl and γ SO₄/γ Cl ratios of some geothermal fields were close to those of seawater; this symmetric difference was caused by the large circulation depth and long residence period of the geothermal fluid, which had experienced a high degree of decarbonization. Our findings on the hydrochemical characteristics and geochemical symmetry of medium–low-temperature geothermal fluids in the Jiaodong Peninsula will help deepen the understanding of the formation and evolutionary mechanism of this type of geothermal resource. Full article

γ-Aminobutyric acid (GABA), a vital bioactive component, is biosynthesized via the decarboxylation of L-glutamate (L-Glu) catalyzed by glutamate decarboxylase (GAD). However, the GADs from various sources commonly suffer from low thermal stability, which hampers their industrial applications. In this work, four ancestral sequences of GAD (Anc19, Anc20, Anc28, and Anc30) were designed via an ancestral sequence reconstruction (ASR) approach. Thereafter, the genes were synthesized and heterologously expressed in the probiotic Escherichia coli strain Nissle 1917 (EcN). Among all variants tested, Anc28 exhibited the highest catalytic performance. The K_m and k_cat values were determined to be 26.80 mM and 57.41 s⁻¹, respectively, yielding a catalytic efficiency (k_cat/K_m) of 2.14 s⁻¹mM⁻¹, which was 2.71-fold higher than that of the wild-type enzyme. Meanwhile, compared with the wild-type GAD, Anc28 exhibited a 6.74 °C increase in T₅₀¹⁵ and a 4.1-fold extension in t_1/2 at 60 °C. Furthermore, the GABA synthesis system using dormant Escherichia coli Nissle (T7)/pET28a-gadB_Anc28 cells as the biocatalyst and pure water as a sole medium was also constructed. Upon completion of the 4 h reaction, the GABA titer reached 307.53 g/L with a conversion ratio of 99.36%. The resulting engineered strains were successfully employed for the efficient biosynthesis of GABA. Full article