Search Results (1,648)

Background/Objectives: We conducted this study to develop a generic amiodarone tablet pharmaceutically equivalent to the reference drug. This development is crucial for securing a stable supply chain for this orphan drug, which currently faces domestic market instability. Amiodarone, a national essential medicine, often experiences unstable supply due to its limited profitability. Methods: To secure this stable supply chain, we employed a factorial design, utilizing a Quality by Design (QbD) approach, to create the most suitable formulation. Initially, we observed a limitation where the formulation exhibited a flowability of 25% based on the Carr’s Index, which exceeded the target of 20%. To address this challenge, we incorporated lactose monohydrate during the pre-mixing stage rather than the post-mixing stage. Subsequently, we identified the binder content and the amount of granulation solvent as Critical Material Attributes (CMAs), and we performed a Design of Experiments (DoE). Result: Based on these investigations, we determined that the optimal prescription utilizes 5.71% povidone K25 and 40 mg/T of purified water. The final formulation successfully achieved an excellent flowability of 15.8%. Furthermore, this formulation showed a dissolution and bioequivalence PK profile equivalent to the reference drug in pH 1.2, 4.0, and 6.8 buffer solutions, each containing 1% Tween 80. Conclusion: Ultimately, the developed formulation is anticipated to establish a stable domestic supply chain and concurrently reduce national healthcare costs. These research findings also establish the groundwork for future continuous manufacturing implementation. Full article

Against the backdrop of global population and food security challenges, improving crop nitrogen use efficiency (NUE) is essential for sustainable agriculture. Conventional nitrogen fertilizers suffer from low utilization rates and significant environmental pollution. In contrast, controlled-release nitrogen fertilizers (CRNFs) synchronize nutrient supply with crop demand, offering significant advantages in enhancing yield, efficiency, and environmental sustainability. This review systematically outlines the developmental types of CRNFs, with a focus on their agronomic and ecological benefits. Key quantitative outcomes include yield increases of 3.0–15.3% in winter wheat, 12.38–22.67% in cotton, and maintained or improved maize yield even with a 20% reduction in nitrogen input. CRNFs also reduce ammonia volatilization by 20–43% in paddy fields. The review further elucidates the synergistic mechanisms through which CRNFs optimize root growth, enhance photosynthetic efficiency, and improve NUE. Major challenges such as high costs, release control precision, and coating material sustainability are critically assessed. Future directions include developing biodegradable coatings, smart fertilization systems, and stronger policy frameworks to facilitate broader adoption. This work provides a comprehensive theoretical and practical foundation for advancing the efficient and sustainable use of CRNFs in modern crop production. Full article

Superheated liquid detectors (SLDs) exhibit strong sensitivity to fast neutrons and intrinsic insensitivity to gamma radiation, making them promising candidates for detecting shielded nuclear materials in security and non-proliferation applications. This work evaluates the feasibility of octafluoropropane-based superheated droplet detectors (SDDs) for identifying neutron-emitting materials concealed behind common attenuators. A combined acoustic and optical readout system was implemented, including a validated pulse-shape analysis method and a machine-learning-based bubble detection algorithm using YOLOv5. The optical system achieved a detection precision of approximately 80% within the defined region of interest. While the acoustic system remains the primary and more mature detection channel, the optical approach demonstrates feasibility but is not yet operationally ready for field deployment. Experiments with an AmBe neutron source and various shielding materials demonstrate that SDDs reliably detect fast neutrons under realistic inspection conditions while remaining insensitive to gamma radiation. These results support the feasibility of SLD-based systems as low-cost, passive tools for detecting shielded nuclear materials in field environments. Full article

Perinatal mental health (PMH) conditions are the most common complications of pregnancy and the first postpartum year. Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) are increasingly recognized as important contributors to PMH, particularly postpartum depression and anxiety (PPD/A). This study examines a broad range of ACEs—including parental mental illness and substance use, incarceration, death, divorce, discrimination, economic hardship, and forced migration—to assess their influence on PPD/A. Using a modified explanatory sequential mixed-methods design, phase I included an online survey of racially, ethnically, and socioeconomically diverse U.S. women (n = 306) who delivered a live infant in the past year. Hierarchical regression showed that while ACEs initially predicted PPD/A, this association was no longer significant when social support, material hardship, and discrimination were added to the model. These current life circumstances emerged as stronger direct predictors of PPD/A than ACEs. In phase II, purposive and stratified sampling identified participants with ACE scores ≥ 4 for interviews (n = 22). Qualitative findings identified social support, financial security, work flexibility and choice, and time for self-care as central protective factors in adjustment to motherhood when these resources aligned with mothers’ individual needs and values. Results can inform clinical counseling, ACEs screening, and policies to strengthen PMH support. Full article

Platinum group metals (PGMs)—comprising platinum (Pt), palladium (Pd), rhodium (Rh), iridium (Ir), ruthenium (Ru), and osmium (Os)—are indispensable strategic materials for key industries, including automotive manufacturing, petrochemical engineering, and the new energy sector. Given the uneven global distribution of primary PGM reserves and the widening supply–demand gap, recovering PGMs from secondary sources—primarily metallurgical by-products and spent catalysts—has become a strategic priority. synergistic smelting, leveraging “multi-feedstock complementarity” and “multi-technology coupling,” offers an efficient approach to overcoming challenges associated with secondary resources, such as low grades, complex matrices, and refractory separation. This paper systematically reviews the technological evolution of synergistic smelting for PGMs recovery, focusing on three aspects: the characteristics and processing bottlenecks of PGMs-bearing secondary resources, the development trajectory of traditional metallurgical technologies, and innovative breakthroughs in microwave-assisted synergistic smelting. A comparative analysis between traditional and microwave-based technologies is conducted across four dimensions: resource adaptability, technical performance, environmental sustainability, and industrial maturity. Finally, the core challenges currently confronting microwave-assisted synergistic smelting and future directions for industrial demonstration are elaborated on. This study serves as a comprehensive reference for the efficient and sustainable recovery of PGMs, with significant implications for the circular economy and strategic resource security. Full article

Modern DevSecOps environments face a persistent tension between accelerating deployment velocity and maintaining verifiable compliance with regulatory, security, and internal governance standards. Traditional snapshot-in-time audits and fragmented compliance tooling struggle to capture the dynamic nature of containerized, continuous delivery, often resulting in compliance drift and delayed remediation. This paper introduces the Continuous Compliance Framework (CCF), a data-centric reference architecture that embeds compliance validation directly into CI/CD pipelines. The framework treats compliance as a first-class, computable system property by combining declarative policies-as-code, standardized evidence collection, and cryptographically verifiable attestations. Central to the approach is a Compliance Data Lakehouse that transforms heterogeneous pipeline artifacts into a queryable, time-indexed compliance data product, enabling audit-ready evidence generation and continuous assurance. The proposed architecture is validated through an end-to-end synthetic microservice implementation. Experimental results demonstrate full policy lifecycle enforcement with a minimal pipeline overhead and sub-second policy evaluation latency. These findings indicate that compliance can be shifted from a post hoc audit activity to an intrinsic, verifiable property of the software delivery process without materially degrading deployment velocity. Full article

Rice processing generates substantial residual biomass globally—about 170 million tons of husk, 62–71 million tons of bran and 23–39 million tons of broken rice annually—which remains largely underutilized and creates environmental burdens and lost economic opportunities. This study was conducted to address the necessity for integrated sustainability assessments of rice mill biorefineries. The focus of this study is on transitioning from a global context of residual biomass generation to a local-scale application in small and medium mills (100–300 tons/day). We apply a resource-centric framework, combining process simulation, techno-economic analysis, and Life Cycle Assessment (LCA—selected for its capacity to quantify trade-offs and avoid burden-shifting across multiple impact categories) with Social-LCA. Five valorization scenarios are assessed. Results demonstrate that biorefinery pathways fundamentally alter supply provision: husk cogeneration boosts energy self-sufficiency (SGI = 12.54), displacing fossil fuels, while silica and nutrient recovery create new, local material flows, substituting for virgin resources. However, chemically intensive routes increase human toxicity impacts (up to 4.0 × 10⁻¹ kg 1,4-DB eq/kg) despite product diversification. Social analysis reveals a tension between worker preferences for advanced technology and community priorities for low-chemical, employment-generating options. Probabilistic sensitivity analysis identifies a diversified configuration (oil, flour, feed, cogeneration) as most robust, optimizing overall resource productivity and circularity. This work transitions the conceptual model of a rice mill from a linear processor to a multi-output bio-resource hub, offering actionable pathways to enhance regional energy, mineral, and nutrient security through circular economy implementation. Full article

Background and Objectives: Professional burnout among primary education teachers (including kindergarten and primary school grades 1–6 educators) threatens educator mental health, wellbeing, and educational quality through emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and reduced personal accomplishment. Understanding burnout patterns and risk factors is essential for developing mental health promotion interventions in educational settings. This study investigated burnout prevalence, demographic correlates, and psychometric properties of the Maslach Burnout Inventory-Educators Survey (MBI-ES) among Greek primary teachers to document burnout levels and identify well-being vulnerabilities during the post-acute pandemic recovery period (September–November 2022). The cross-sectional design, without pre-pandemic baseline data, precludes causal attribution of burnout patterns to pandemic effects. Materials and Methods: A convenience sample of 126 primary education teachers (102 female, 24 male) from Aitoloakarnania, Greece completed the 22-item MBI-ES assessing emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and personal accomplishment during September–November 2022. Confirmatory factor analysis validated the three-dimensional structure. Independent-samples t-tests examined differences in burnout by employment status (permanent vs. substitute), school type (kindergarten vs. primary school), and demographic characteristics. Results: Confirmatory factor analysis supported the three-factor MBI-ES structure with acceptable model fit (χ²(162) = 8785.41, p < 0.001; CFI = 0.900; TLI = 0.880; RMSEA = 0.080 [0.065, 0.090]; SRMR = 0.080). Teachers reported moderate emotional exhaustion (M = 20.3, SD = 8.9), low depersonalization (M = 4.8, SD = 4.2), and moderate-to-high personal accomplishment (M = 38.2, SD = 6.7). Substitute teachers demonstrated significantly higher emotional exhaustion (M = 23.7, SD = 9.1) compared to permanent teachers (M = 18.4, SD = 8.2), t(124) = −3.36, p = 0.001, d = 0.62, indicating employment precarity as a mental health risk factor. Conclusions: The study validates the MBI-ES for Greek primary education contexts and identifies employment precarity as a significant risk factor for compromised teacher mental health and wellbeing. Findings suggest mental health promotion strategies targeting job security, professional development support, and administrative assistance may enhance psychological well-being and reduce burnout vulnerability, particularly among substitute teachers facing employment uncertainty. Supporting teacher mental health represents a critical investment in both educator wellbeing and educational quality. Full article

Achieving sustainable rice production is essential for food security, rural livelihoods, and the resilience of rice-based food systems that supply raw materials to the food processing industry. Improving technical efficiency (TE) at the farm level is a key pathway to reduce resource use and environmental pressures per unit of output while ensuring a stable supply of high-quality rice for downstream processing and value-added products. Drawing on micro-survey data collected in 2021–2022 from 455 rice farmers selected through a multi-stage sampling strategy in Jiangsu Province, China, this study investigates how agricultural productive services (APSs) affect stage-specific technical efficiency along the production process and discusses the implications for sustainable rice production and the rice-based food industry. We apply a stochastic frontier production function to estimate overall and stage-specific TE and examine the effects of different APS combinations for land preparation, sowing, fertilization, pest control, and harvesting. The results show that overall participation in APSs significantly improves rice farmers’ TE. Stage-specific analysis reveals that APSs in land preparation, sowing, and harvesting are associated with higher TE, supporting more sustainable use of machinery and labor, while APSs for fertilization and pesticide application do not consistently improve TE and may reflect potential overuse of chemical inputs. Multi-stage service combinations that include both production and pest-control operations can further enhance TE. These findings suggest that well-designed APSs can contribute to sustainable intensification and low-carbon transformation of rice production, thereby strengthening the sustainability of rice-based food systems. Policy interventions should guide APS providers and farmers toward integrated, precision-oriented, and environmentally friendly service packages that support both farm-level efficiency and the sustainability goals of the broader food industry. Full article

This article scientifically addresses the challenges related to data security and stakeholder privacy faced by companies operating in the European Union. These challenges stem largely from the global digital transformation, within which the European Union imposes regulations governing data protection and stakeholder privacy. The digital transformation in the European Union focuses on the integration of people and technology, sustainable development, and the resilience of management systems, which are the pillars of Industry 5.0. From a practical perspective, the paper examines the current level of awareness among employees of the enterprise in Poland regarding data and privacy risk management in today’s economic environment. The paper presents both a theoretical review and, in the empirical section, the results of primary research. The study was conducted in Poland on a sample of 556 enterprises from various economic sectors. The paper begins with Introduction. Background presents a literature review conducted on the conditions for enterprise functioning in the evolving paradigm of Industry 5.0, as well as the fundamental legal requirements regarding data security and stakeholder privacy across business activities. Materials and Methods presents the research methods employed to assess how respondents perceive threats to data security and stakeholder privacy. Results summarizes the research findings. In Discussion, both practical business implications are addressed, and the role of technology and organizational procedures in responsible data and privacy management is highlighted. Furthermore, the importance of creating ethical cyber–physical environments as an element of sustainable enterprise transformation is emphasized. Finally, Conclusions presents the results and key findings regarding the level of awareness among employees of Polish enterprises about data security and stakeholder privacy in the context of digital transformation. Full article

Background: Multidrug-resistant bacteria have quadrupled globally, impacting effective treatment of infectious diseases. A growing concern is that many Gram-negative and Gram-positive bacteria harbor genes conferring resistance to various antibiotics including colistin. The alarming emergence of colistin resistance is exacerbated by the growing threat of MDR Salmonella species and Listeria monocytogenes (LMO), which pose an escalating risk to global public health. Materials and Methods: In the present study, red meat samples were collected from randomly selected key retail markets in the Eastern Cape province, South Africa, and were evaluated for the incidence of LMO and the Salmonella species using standard culture-based and molecular methods. The confirmed isolates were subjected to antibiotic susceptibility testing. Results: This study demonstrated the occurrence of multidrug-resistant LMO (62%) and Salmonella species (spp.) (58%) in the red meat specimen. There were high resistance rates in both LMO and Salmonella isolates, with LMO exhibiting resistance to penicillin (89%), colistin (81%), nitrofurantoin (78%), and erythromycin (29%), while Salmonella showed resistance to trimethoprim (96.87%), tetracycline, and colistin (90.62%). Antibiotic resistance genes were also detected including BlaTem, erm, Sul1, Sul2 and mcr 1–6. Notably, Salmonella did not harbor any mcr genes that were screened in this study, whereas Listeria isolates harbored the mcr 2 (10%), 3 (7%), 4 (10%), and 6 (3%), with mcr 5 being the most prevalent with 57%. Conclusions: These findings highlight a threat to food security and public health, emphasizing the need for sturdier food handling procedures to ensure safety, enhanced antimicrobial stewardship, and alternative therapeutic strategies to combat antibiotic-resistant pathogens. Full article

In this paper, the effects of Poland’s forest management evolution after 1945 on forest biodiversity at the genetic level were analysed. Forest biodiversity changes across the two politically and economically different eras (socialism, 1945–1989, and democracy, from 1990) are interpreted using three indirect indicators: forest regeneration and expansion, tree genetic resources, and threatened forest species. In the era of socialism, the total area of regeneration and reforestation gradually decreased, with these activities relying almost exclusively on cultivated reproductive material. After 1990, there was a relative stabilisation in the total area, with a noticeable increase in the use of natural processes to diversify the tree gene pool. Work on verifying and protecting the forest tree seed base, as well as on assessing the conservation status of an increasingly wide range of organisms, began in the era of socialism; however, it was intensified only in the era of democracy. In the latter case, the increase in the number of endangered species suggests a potentially negative trend. However, the actual assessment of the changes is not entirely clear due to subsequent changes in threat classification and increased knowledge of the occurrence of individual species. Dilemmas and problems related to the following issues require further discussion and resolution or implementation of further measures: the consequences of past choices regarding planted trees; the use of natural regeneration; the reduction in the forest tree gene pool as a result of artificial selection; incomplete knowledge about threats to the forest gene pool; the continued impact of threats and the possibilities for counteracting them; and securing funding for measures to protect biodiversity at the genetic level. Full article

Plastics have emerged as a significant pollutant, posing a serious threat to the sustainability of the soil ecosystem and food security because of their long-term persistence, resilience, and robustness under different environmental conditions. The present investigation explored the impact of different doses of polypropylene (PP) on lentil plants and attenuation of the adverse impacts of PP by the application of pineapple fruit peel biochar (PBC). Lentil (Lens culinaris) plants exposed to PP treatment reduced morphological traits and relative water contents, reflecting photosynthetic injuries, a rise in lipid peroxidation, and electrolyte leakage. Utilization of PBC derived from waste biomass enhanced the growth attributes of lentils and alleviated PP-incited oxidative stress impacts. Polypropylene stress enhanced oxidative stress and increased enzymatic and non-enzymatic antioxidant variables in lentil plants. Antioxidant enzymes superoxide dismutase, catalase, ascorbate peroxidase, glutathione reductase, and glyoxalase enzymes were markedly upregulated in lentil after PBC amendment in PP3-treated soil. There was a significant reduction in methylglyoxal content by the activities of glyoxylase enzymes, minimizing the negative impacts of PP. Therefore, soil amendment with PBC protected lentil plants from PP-instigated oxidative disruption by modulating activities of antioxidant defense and glyoxalase system. Production of PBC from biomass wastes results in a safe, cost-effective, and ecofriendly material that can be used at the industrial level for the cultivation of crops in PP-contaminated soil. The novelty of the present research lies in promoting soil management practices and fostering our understanding of waste materials reutilization as renewable assets to combat the ecological implications of plastic pollution, and it emphasizes the treatment of plastic wastes with other waste materials and their practical applications to overcome plastic pollution. Full article

The biophilic city concept has been proposed as an approach to mitigate the negative impacts of urban growth under global warming, which increasingly affects people’s mental health. As architecture occupies a substantial proportion of urban areas, biophilic architecture plays a crucial role in supporting urban well-being, contributing to sustainable development in line with Sustainable Development Goal 3 (SDG 3) (Good Health and Well-being). Previous studies have identified a research gap regarding the integration of exterior biophilic architectural attributes within urban contexts. Therefore, this study aims to identify exterior biophilic architectural attributes that can enhance urban mental well-being, using buildings in Singapore as case studies. A questionnaire survey was conducted to evaluate architectural attributes and people’s emotional responses, with the aim of analyzing their relationships. The results indicate that exterior biophilic architectural attributes contribute unequally to urban mental well-being. Natural features emerged as the most influential attribute, exerting comprehensive positive effects on attentiveness, inspiration, and self-assurance. Natural forms and natural colors also demonstrated significant contributions by promoting relaxation, cognitive engagement, and inspiration. In addition, natural spaces supported attentiveness and confidence, while natural materials, despite being less prevalent, exhibited strong qualitative effects on inspiration and psychological security. Accordingly, this study provides biophilic architectural design guidelines that support the mental sustainability of urban populations affected by global warming. Full article

The problem of the post-harvest loss of perishable products has been a loss facing food security, especially in areas that lack adequate cold chain facilities. This issue is directly connected with sustainability objectives because post-harvest losses are the major source of food wastage, unneeded energy use, and related greenhouse gas emissions. Cold storage with phase-change material (PCM) is a promising alternative, as it aims at stabilizing temperatures and enhancing energy consumption, but current analyses of performance have been conducted through experimental testing and computational fluid dynamic (CFD) simulations, which are precise but computationally expensive. To handle this drawback, the current work constructs a machine learning predictive model to predict the dynamics of charging and discharging temperature of PCM cold storage systems. Four regression models, namely Random Forest, Extreme Gradient Boosting (XGBoost), Support Vector Regression (SVR), and K-Nearest Neighbors (KNNs), were trained and tested on experimental datasets that were obtained for varying storage layouts. The various error and accuracy measures used to determine model performance comprised MSE, MAE, R², MAPE, and percentage accuracy. The findings suggest that Random Forest provides the best accuracy during both the charging and the discharging process, with the highest R² values of over 0.98 and with minimal mean absolute errors. The KNN model was competitive in the discharge process, especially in cases of consistent thermal recovery patterns, and XGBoost was consistent in layout accuracy. However, SVR had relatively lower robustness, particularly when using nonlinear charged dynamics. Among the evaluated models, the Random Forest algorithm demonstrated the highest predictive accuracy, achieving coefficients of determination (R²) exceeding 0.98 for both charging and discharging processes, with mean absolute errors below 0.6 °C during charging and 0.3 °C during discharging. This paper has proven that machine learning is an efficient surrogate to CFD and experimental-only methods and can be used to predict the thermal behavior of PCM quickly and precisely. The proposed framework will allow for developing cold storage systems based on energy efficiency, low costs, and sustainability, especially in the context of decentralized and resource-limited agricultural supply chains, with the help of quick and data-focused forecasting of PCM thermal behavior. Full article