Search Results (24)

Exploratory lag-resolved correlation analysis is widely used when potential dependence between concurrently recorded signals may be delayed, transient, or weak. In autocorrelated time series, however, scanning across candidate lags creates a multiple-comparison problem, while temporal dependence invalidates naive permutation or parametric correlation tests. This paper presents a practical dependence-aware scan-level inference procedure for exploratory lag-resolved correlation analysis under temporal autocorrelation. The procedure combines baseline standardisation, lag-resolved Pearson correlation, dependence-preserving surrogate construction (here implemented using block permutation), and max-statistic correction so that inference is performed on the largest absolute correlation observed across the scanned lag domain rather than on post hoc selected lags. The contribution is integrative rather than metric-driven: established components are assembled into a fixed, auditable inference pipeline that preserves within-channel temporal structure while controlling familywise error across exploratory lag scans. The procedure is intended for multi-sensor stochastic systems in which weak synchrony must be distinguished from artefacts of temporal dependence and analytical flexibility. Synthetic null simulations illustrate false-positive inflation under naive lag scanning, characterise calibration through a block length sensitivity analysis, and compare complete inference pipelines, demonstrating that, under the dependence regimes examined here, valid exploratory lag inference requires scan-level multiplicity control in addition to dependence-preserving surrogate generation. Full article

This study addresses the significant increase in gas content and gas pressure caused by the rising proportion of high gas, low-permeability coal seams under high geostress conditions. This problem not only limits the efficient extraction of coalbed methane (CBM) but also poses a serious threat to mining safety. To overcome this challenge, a novel water-based ultrasonic cavitation-enhanced coalbed methane recovery (WUC-ECBM) is proposed. A self-developed multimodal ultrasonic cavitation reaction system is used to treat coal samples at different cavitation power levels (0–1100 W). Mechanical tests are then performed, and the damage evolution process is synchronously characterised using a multichannel acoustic emission monitoring system. Permeability tests are also conducted to evaluate the effect of ultrasonic cavitation on coal seepage performance. The results show that ultrasonic cavitation systematically alters the mechanical behaviour of coal, driving the evolution from microstructural modification to macroscopic mechanical response. The compressive strength decreased by up to 53.71%, and the elastic modulus fell to 1.34 GPa, indicating a marked reduction in coal stiffness. The cumulative acoustic emission energy decreased to 0.77 × 10⁶ mV·ms, demonstrating that ultrasonic cavitation promoted the initiation, propagation, and coalescence of internal microcracks, thereby accelerating damage evolution from microscale to macroscale. A progressive failure mechanism, characterised by primary cavitation-induced damage followed by secondary loading-induced damage, is ultimately formed. In addition, ultrasonic cavitation significantly enhanced coal permeability, with a maximum increase of 504.22%. These findings provide a theoretical basis for the further development of WUC-ECBM and for the efficient extraction of CBM. Full article

Hotel distribution decisions are commonly analysed through objective performance indicators such as costs, profitability, and revenue outcomes. However, in multichannel environments characterised by attribution challenges and overlapping customer journeys, managerial evaluations and realised booking outcomes may reflect different dimensions of channel importance. This study examined the relationship between perceived channel efficiency and realised booking allocation in urban hotels. Survey data were collected from 54 three- to five-star hotels in Madrid, Spain, of which 49 provided complete channel-level information. Using non-parametric analyses, the study investigates whether managers’ evaluations of channel efficiency are associated with observed booking-share allocations across distribution channels. The results reveal two complementary patterns. First, perceived channel efficiency is positively associated with realised booking share within individual channels. Second, a notable divergence emerges between perceived channel efficiency and realised booking allocation: direct channels receive the highest efficiency evaluations, whereas online intermediaries account for the largest share of bookings. This finding suggests that channels most valued by managers are not necessarily those generating the greatest booking volumes. The study contributes to hospitality distribution research by linking managerial evaluations to observed allocation outcomes and by highlighting a distinction between perceived channel efficiency and realised channel dependence. Rather than viewing channel allocation solely as a performance-optimisation problem, the findings suggest that managerial evaluations are closely associated with observed allocation patterns in multichannel environments. The results also underscore the value of complementing managerial judgement with systematic channel-performance benchmarking. Full article

Thailand’s Provincial Electricity Authority (PEA) is rolling out Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) under its smart-grid initiative, requiring a reliable last-mile wireless network across heterogeneous propagation environments. Narrowband IoT (NB-IoT) is a leading candidate, but per-area deployment decisions have lacked a data-driven framework anchored to measured Thai propagation. Building on our sixteen-site composite-channel characterisation, this study presents a machine-learning feasibility-prediction framework integrating measured channel parameters (n, σ_sh, $\widehat{m}$), an OpenStreetMap-derived synthetic meter-density layer, and a benchmark of Random Forest, Gradient Boosting (GB), and Multi-Layer Perceptron classifiers trained on Monte-Carlo coverage labels to predict 95% RSRP-coverage feasibility per spatial cell. Across 411 cells from four Thai sites spanning Urban Dense, Urban Outdoor, Suburban, and Rural environments, GB achieves accuracy 0.971 and F1 0.969 at 1.7 ms inference latency—four orders of magnitude faster than direct Monte-Carlo simulation. The ML predictor approximates the Monte-Carlo engine under the assumed composite-channel model. A theoretical LPWAN comparison places NB-IoT as recommended for Suburban and Rural AMI; Suphan Buri (Rural) is the only RECOMMENDED case (88.5% cells feasible), with hybrid PLC backhaul suggested for dense urban areas. Full article

The reliable identification of impairment relevant to safety-critical activities remains a significant challenge for public safety, motivating the exploration of unobtrusive and widely accessible sensing technologies. This study examines the viability of utilising inertial data acquired from consumer-grade smartphones to characterise gait disturbances associated with simulated visual impairment. The study simulates intoxication-related effects using alcohol-impairment goggles and does not involve the measurement of real alcohol intoxication. Two supervised experimental protocols were conducted in which participants traversed predefined walking routes under normal conditions and while wearing alcohol-impairment simulation goggles representing five manufacturer-declared blood alcohol concentration (BAC)-related goggle conditions plus a no-goggles control condition. An initial indoor trial, conducted in a structured corridor environment, yielded limited discrimination of gait dynamics due to strong spatial and visual stabilisation cues. To address this limitation, a subsequent outdoor experiment was conducted along a 100 m path lacking prominent visual reference points, resulting in motion patterns that more closely reflect unconstrained, real-world locomotion. Tri-axial accelerometer and gyroscope signals were recorded using smartphones, followed by artefact removal, segmentation, and standardisation to ensure inter-trial comparability. The resulting curated dataset comprises 290,919 multi-channel samples derived from 96 walking trials involving 16 participants and is released as an openly accessible resource to support further research in gait analysis and classification of gait alterations associated with simulated impairment. Model evaluation was performed using an 80/20 train–test split conducted within each traversal, with training and test windows originating from the same participant and walking session. Consequently, the reported results reflect within-subject performance instead of subject-independent generalisation. Multiple deep learning architectures combining convolutional feature extraction, bidirectional long short-term memory layers, and self-attention mechanisms were systematically evaluated. Using a subject-dependent evaluation protocol, the best-performing architecture achieved an accuracy of 71.4% and a weighted F1-score of 71.5% in distinguishing gait patterns associated with different levels of simulated visual impairment. The best-performing architectures yielded classification performance consistent with exploratory, low-stakes assessment of gait alterations associated with simulated visual impairment, using accelerometer data alone. These findings illustrate the feasibility of using smartphones as auxiliary tools for exploratory, low-stakes screening or educational applications and contribute a publicly released dataset and benchmark results to facilitate methodological advancement in inertial sensor-based gait impairment analysis. Full article

In the context of the transformation of welfare systems, and following the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, communication and social marketing have taken on a strategic role in community social services. This study aims to analyse communication and social marketing campaigns developed from 2020 to the present, in order to identify the social issues addressed, the communication objectives and the strategies employed, as well as their link to Community Social Services. A qualitative, exploratory and descriptive design is adopted based on analysing the content of a corpus of 60 campaigns selected through intentional sampling from international public sources. The results show a clear intensification of campaigns in the post-COVID-19 period, with a predominance of themes such as gender violence, mental health, unwanted loneliness and social exclusion. The communication strategies are characterised by the use of emotional narratives, storytelling, audiovisual formats and multi-channel dissemination, combining awareness-raising, prevention and guidance towards social resources. It is concluded that community social marketing is consolidating its position as a transformative tool that reinforces access to rights, social cohesion and the role of Community Social Services as active agents of social change. Full article

The cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator (CFTR) is a member of the atypical ATP-binding cassette (ABC) family that functions as a phosphorylation-regulated epithelial anion channel. Cystic fibrosis (CF) is characterised by variants in the CFTR gene that lead to impaired epithelial chloride–ion transport and increased mucus viscosity. Although CFTR modulators such as Trikafta^® have transformed the care of many CF patients, individuals harbouring rare CFTR variants still have no effective treatment options. In this study, we used primary air–liquid interface (ALI) airway cultures obtained from 21 CF patients (pwCF) and 21 healthy controls (HC) to evaluate the therapeutic efficacy of CFTR restoration based on chitosan-mediated CFTR mRNA and modulators. While modulators restored CFTR channel function in most cultures derived from CF patients, those with class I or other rare variants showed no improvement. Chitosan-mediated CFTR mRNA delivery successfully restored CFTR function in ALI cultures of patients carrying rare CFTR variants with limited or no observed clinical response to modulator therapy, assessed by electrophysiology using our newly developed Multi Transepithelial Current Clamp (MTECC) Ussing chamber. This was then confirmed by morphological visualisation of CFTR protein expression in modulator-responsive patient samples using immunofluorescence (IF) staining. IF revealed an increase in CFTR signal and the restoration of epithelial barrier integrity following chitosan-mRNA and modulator treatment as a secondary outcome alongside CFTR functional measurements. Notably, MUC5AC expression, a major gel-forming mucin expressed by airway goblet cells and mucus viscosity were elevated in CF cultures, but were markedly reduced following successful intervention, approaching the levels seen in HCs. These findings establish the potential of chitosan-mRNA delivery as a therapeutic approach for CF patients, particularly those who do not respond to modulators. They also provide a practical, comparative evaluation of advanced mRNA-based treatments in patient-derived airway models. Full article

Background/Objectives: Atrial fibrillation (AF) is currently the most common arrhythmia worldwide, and it is linked to increased mortality and morbidity, hence the need for a better clinical stratification of AF patients. Histone complexes or nucleosomes, released into the blood circulation, are found elevated in acute conditions such as stroke, trauma, and sepsis. The aim of this pilot single-centre study was to assess whether circulating histone levels could be used for diagnostic purposes in patients with AF. Methods: A total of 40 patients, well characterised for their biochemical and clinical characteristics, were recruited from outpatient clinics. Patients were randomly recruited into two groups (n = 20 per group), i.e., persistent AF and hypertensive controls. A multi-channel flow imaging methodology based on ImageStreamX was used with a well-optimised protocol to image and quantify five individual histones (H2A, H2B, H3, H4, and macroH2A1.1) together with the dimers (H2A/H2B, and H3/H4). Results: In the AF groups, plasma levels of histone dimers H2A/H2B and H3/H4 were elevated compared to hypertensive controls, 1.8% vs. 1.06% (p-value = 0.03). H2A/H2B dimer levels were increased in AF patients irrespective of gender, smoking status, diabetes, and pharmacological therapy. In the overall population, an inverse correlation between H2A and BMI was detected. Conclusions: Our pilot study, although limited in sample size, suggests that circulating histone complexes may be epigenetic sentinels for AF, offering mechanistic insights while addressing unmet needs in risk stratification. Full article

In February 2024, the European Union published its Industrial Carbon Management Strategy, setting ambitious goals for carbon capture and storage (CCS), carbon capture and utilisation (CCU), and related technologies. Industrial decarbonisation will require a mix of solutions, CCUS, electrification, hydrogen and hydrogen-derived fuels, and energy efficiency, which are all dependent on affordable clean energy. Although carbon management technologies could contribute substantially to climate targets, their deployment has been slowed by technical barriers and public concerns. Sotacarbo has created a research centre dedicated to developing and testing carbon capture, utilisation, and storage technologies. Within this framework, the new Sotacarbo Fault Laboratory (SFL) was designed to investigate gas migration in faults and to test monitoring systems capable of detecting potential short- and long-term CO₂ leakages. This paper presents a preliminary study, including seismic full-waveform simulations for time-lapse surveys before and after CO₂ injection, and a suite of geophysical methods used to characterise the Matzaccara Fault within the Eocene Sulcis Basin. The results of the application of integrated geophysical methods support the selection of a safe and suitable injection-well location and demonstrate the value of these methods for detailed fault characterisation in CCUS applications. Full article

Quasi-one-dimensional systems with multiple conduction channels are essential for describing a range of physical phenomena. In this paper, we analyse transport in wires where electrons are subject to arbitrary number of strong multi-particle backscattering terms. We present an exact calculation of the system’s scattering matrix and derive a formula for the two-terminal conductance. We find the conductance is reduced from its ideal value by a term corresponding to the projection of current fields onto the subspace of integer-valued vectors characterising the gapped channels created by the perturbations. Applying this result, we establish the minimal model required to reproduce the recently observed, yet unexplained, fractional conductance plateaus with even denominators. Full article

Riverbed dynamics are natural processes that are strongly driven by human and climatic factors. In the last two centuries, the anthropogenic influence and impact of climate change on European rivers has resulted in significant degradation of riverbeds. This research paper aims to determine the historical evolution (1856–2021) and future trends of the Ialomița riverbed (Romania) under the influence of anthropogenic impact and climate change. The case study is a reach of 66 km between the confluences with the Ialomicioara and Pâscov rivers. The localisation in a contact zone between the Curvature Subcarpathians and the Târgoviște Plain, the active recent tectonic uplift of the area, and the intense anthropogenic intervention gives to this river reach favourable conditions for pronounced riverbed dynamics over time. To achieve the aim of the study, we developed a complex methodology which involves the use of Geographical Information System (GIS) techniques, hierarchical cluster analysis (HCA), the Mann–Kendall test (MK), and R programming. The results indicate that the evolution of the Ialomița River aligns with the general trends observed across Europe and within Romania, characterised by a reduction in riverbed geomorphological complexity and a general transition from a braided, multi-thread into a sinuous, single-thread fluvial style. The main processes consist of channel narrowing and incision alternating with intense meandering. However, specific temporal and spatial evolution patterns were identified, mainly influenced by the increasingly anthropogenic local influences and confirmed climate changes in the study area since the second half of the 20th century. Future evolutionary trends suggest that, in the absence of river restoration interventions, the Ialomița riverbed is expected to continue degrading on a short-term horizon, following both climatic and anthropogenic signals. The findings of this study may contribute to a better understanding of recent river behaviours and serve as a valuable tool for the management of the Ialomița River. Full article

A multi-channel microfluidic system was designed and fabricated with an integrated electrode array to be capable of trapping and analysing single cells or populations in the individual channels in a controlled chemical environment. The analytical system was interfaced with a dedicated printed circuit board designed for parallel EIS and optical screening. The continuous impedance measurement also monitors the adequate filling of the channels and the cell trapping events. Yeast cells were characterised by recording the EIS spectra of individual channels, allowing the differentiation between the populations considering their size, viability, or proliferation. The EIS analysis was supported by fluorescent optical microscopy, also using cell staining. Full article

In this paper, we develop a tractable mathematical model and an emulation framework for communicating information through water using acoustic signals. Water is considered one of the most complex media to model due to its vastness and variety of characteristics, which depend on the scenario, the type of water body (lakes, rivers, tanks, sea, etc.), and the geographical location of the water body being considered. Our proposed mathematical model involves the concept of damped harmonic oscillators to represent the medium (water); Milne’s oscillator technique is used to map the interaction between the acoustic signal and water. Wave equations formulated for acoustic pressure and acoustic wave velocity are employed to characterise the travelling acoustic signal. The signal strength, phase shift, and time delay generated from the mathematical model are then inputted into a Simulink-based emulator framework to generate channel samples and channel impulse responses. The emulator utilises the wide sense stationary uncorrelated scattering (WSSUS) assumption and a finite sum-of-sinusoids (SOS) approach with a uniformly distributed phase to generate the channel samples. By utilising this emulator platform, it becomes feasible to generate profiles for amplitude variation, the Doppler shift, and spread experienced by any travelling signal in various underwater communication scenarios. Such a platform can be employed to simulate different communication scenarios, underwater network topologies, and data for training various learning models. Additionally, it can predict the performance of different modulation, multiplexing, error correction, and multi-access techniques for underwater acoustic communication (UWAC) systems. Full article

Small and medium-sized towns in the high mountain regions of South Asia are characterised by rapid and mostly unplanned urbanisation processes, regularly resulting in an increased risk of urban agglomerations being exposed to natural hazards. After the administrative capital of Leh, Kargil town is the second-largest urban centre in the Union Territory (UT) of Ladakh. This article discusses the development and dynamics of the Trans-Himalayan town in terms of its historical development, expansion and population; land use and land cover (LULC) change; and the specific role of tourism. Based on a multi-temporal approach using high-resolution satellite images, statistical data and field surveys, the urban landscape dynamics of Kargil town are analysed. The total population of this town increased almost tenfold from 1681 in 1961 to 16,338 in 2011, which resulted in an increase in the urban population from 3.7% to 11.6%, while the population of the entire Kargil district only tripled from 45,064 to 140,802 over the same period. Migration from rural villages to Kargil town has been a major cause for the construction and growth of new residential colonies and settlements. The built-up area increased more than ninefold from 0.25 km² (1.3%) to 2.30 km² (11.7%) between 1965 and 2020. During the same period, irrigated land and hygrophilous vegetation increased considerably from 4.51 km² (23.0%) to 8.56 km² (43.6%) due to the construction of new water channels. Similarly, the barren area decreased significantly from 14.88 km² (75.8%) to 8.78 km² (44.7%) between 1965 and 2020. Moreover, the massive increase in tourist arrivals has led to the construction of more hotels, guesthouses and travel agencies. These key factors play a significant role in the emergence, growth and development of this high-mountain town. Full article

Earth flows are complex gravitational events characterised by a heterogeneous displacement pattern in terms of scale, style, and orientation. As a result, their monitoring, for both knowledge and emergency purposes, represents a relevant challenge in the field of engineering geology. This paper aims to assess the capabilities, peculiarities, and limitations of different remote sensing monitoring techniques through their application to the Pietrafitta earth flow (Southern Italy). The research compared and combined data collected during the main landslide reactivations by different ground-based remote sensors such as Robotic Total Station (R-TS), Terrestrial Synthetic Aperture Radar Interferometry (T-InSAR), and Terrestrial Laser Scanner (TLS), with data being derived by satellite-based Digital Image Correlation (DIC) analysis. The comparison between R-TS and T-InSAR measurements showed that, despite their different spatial and temporal resolutions, the observed deformation trends remain approximately coherent. On the other hand, DIC analysis was able to detect a kinematic process, such as the expansion of the landslide channel, which was not detected by the other techniques used. The results suggest that, when faced with complex events, the use of a single monitoring technique may not be enough to fully observe and understand the processes taking place. Therefore, the limitations of each different technique alone can be solved by a multi-sensor monitoring approach. Full article