Search Results (5,052)

Hemorrhagic shock remains a leading cause of preventable death in trauma, yet traditional vital signs may fail to reflect early blood loss before physiological compensatory mechanisms are no longer able to maintain hemodynamic stability. The Compensatory Reserve Measurement (CRM) algorithm offers early detection capability using physiological waveforms but requires testing with emerging wearable sensor technologies for operational deployment. This study tested the Epicore Epidermal Patch for Imperceptible Care (EPIC) wearable healthcare device (WHD) for CRM-based hemodynamic monitoring during progressive central hypovolemia induced by lower-body negative pressure (LBNP) to simulate hemorrhage. Twenty participants underwent progressive LBNP while photoplethysmography (PPG) signals were recorded from EPIC sensors placed at the clavicle and triceps alongside a clinical-grade finger pulse oximeter for reference. Signal quality, heart-rate accuracy, and CRM predictions were evaluated across multiple filtering approaches. The triceps placement achieved signal quality comparable to the pulse oximeter reference when Chebyshev Type II filtering was applied, as well as high heart-rate accuracy. CRM derived from the EPIC sensor placed at the triceps tracked compensatory trends during progressive hypovolemia, but prediction magnitudes were inaccurate compared to calculated CRM values. In contrast, the clavicle placement consistently performed poorly across all measurements, regardless of the signal-processing approach. These findings support the feasibility of soft, flexible wearable sensors for continuous hemorrhage monitoring at the triceps location in operational environments where traditional finger-based pulse oximetry is impractical. Full article

This study investigates how environmental consciousness motivations—grounded in Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) theories (instrumental, political, integrative, and ethical)—influence environmental management performance (MP) and indirectly affect operational performance (OP). Specifically, the research examines these motivations under the intensifying pressure of the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) within manufacturing firms in Türkiye. From a cost–benefit perspective, the study addresses whether dominant instrumental (cost-oriented) consciousness acts as a barrier to innovation-led gains predicted by the Porter Hypothesis. Analyzing data from 400 managers using the PLS-SEM method, findings reveal that while ethical and political consciousness positively enhance MP and OP, instrumental consciousness—driven by short-term cost-compliance pressures—exerts a significant negative impact. Furthermore, the statistical insignificance of integrative consciousness highlights a strategic integration gap for manufacturing enterprises in Türkiye. These results demonstrate that perceiving environmental regulations merely as a “cost burden” creates a structural barrier that breaks the strategic productivity cycle. The study concludes that to achieve a positive multiplier effect on competitiveness, firms must transition from instrumental compliance to integrated strategic commitment, guiding managers to distinguish between short-term instrumental efforts and long-term strategic commitments. Full article

Polycrystalline La_2−xBi_xNiMnO₆ (x = 0.2, 0.5, 1.0) samples were synthesized via a high-temperature and high-pressure method, with their structural, magnetic, and electrical properties systematically characterized. X-ray diffraction (XRD) confirms a monoclinic double perovskite structure (space group P2₁/n) for all samples, while Bi³⁺ induces a lattice volume expansion trend inferred from XRD peak shifts due to its larger ionic radius than La³⁺. Magnetically, all exhibit ferromagnetism and soft magnetic features, with magnetization decreasing as Bi content increases. The x = 0.2 and 0.5 samples show two distinct Curie temperatures, both decreasing with Bi substitution, whereas the higher Curie temperature vanishes in the x = 1.0 sample, likely due to Bi-induced structural changes. Electrically, all display semiconducting behavior (resistivity: x = 0.5 > x = 0.2 > x = 1.0) and negative magnetoresistance (MR) at 200 K, peaking at 12% (x = 0.5) and 7.5% (x = 1.0). For the x = 1.0 sample, negative magnetoresistance strengthens with decreasing temperature (130–200 K), with magnetoresistance-field (MR-H) curves showing herringbone and arc shapes. Full article

The distribution and evolution of complex formation pressures fundamentally control natural gas accumulation patterns and the prediction of favorable zones. To elucidate the controlling factors behind complex pressure distribution in tight sandstone gas reservoirs with source-reservoir separation, this study investigated the Shaximiao Formation in the central-western Sichuan Basin. Integrating statistical, physical, and rock mechanics analyses with reservoir properties and gas compositional data, this study characterized the present-day pressure regime using seismic interpretation, well logs, measured pressure data, and drilling records. This study clarifies the genetic mechanisms, establishes a differential enrichment model, and identifies future exploration targets. Results reveal a present-day pressure distribution trending from high in the north and west to low in the south and east. Erosional unloading and strata cooling, mechanisms that lead to an average pressure reduction of about 4–15 MPa, jointly contribute to the development of abnormally negative pressure in the central Sichuan Basin. Vertically, pressure magnitude within sand groups shows a positive correlation with productivity. The pressure evolution is governed by a quadruple mechanism: hydrocarbon-generation pressurization, fault-mediated transmission, gas charging, and uplift-induced release. Consequently, future exploration should prioritize areas where high-quality reservoirs adjacent to active hydrocarbon kitchens, significant source-reservoir pressure differentials, and effective fault-sandbody transport pathways are optimally combined. Full article

The produced water from the No. 1 Oil Production Plant of Xinjiang Oilfield is rich in divalent ions, including Ca²⁺, Mg²⁺, and SO₄²⁻, leading to extremely high scaling tendency that fails to meet the reinjection standard. Therefore, highly efficient water softening technology is urgently required for such wastewater treatment. In this study, a novel negatively charged nanofiltration (NF) membrane was fabricated via interfacial polymerization using 2-carboxypiperazine and trimesoyl chloride as monomers. The membrane was systematically characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), and Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), and its rejection performance was investigated under various conditions. Results show that the maximum rejection rates of the NF membrane reached 99% for SO₄²⁻, 81% for Ca²⁺, and 94% for Mg²⁺, respectively. With increasing ion concentration, the removal efficiencies of Ca²⁺ and Mg²⁺ decreased, while that of SO₄²⁻ increased slightly. Higher operating pressure significantly enhanced both ion removal and membrane flux, which was mainly attributed to the synergistic effects of Donnan electrostatic exclusion, membrane surface adsorption, and mass transfer resistance. When applied to treat real produced water from the No. 1 Oil Production Plant, the membrane achieved 100% removal of SO₄²⁻, and 91% and 95% removal of Ca²⁺ and Mg²⁺, respectively. The scaling tendency of the treated effluent was completely eliminated. This work provides theoretical and technical support for the engineering application of nanofiltration technology in oilfield wastewater treatment. Full article

This paper utilizes panel data of Chinese A-share listed manufacturing firms from 2006 to 2022 and measures regional digital infrastructure by the number of internet broadband access ports per capita. It systematically examines the moderating role of digital infrastructure in the relationship between labor protection policies and firms’ labor productivity. The findings are as follows: (1) Digital infrastructure exhibits a positive moderating effect on the relationship between the Labor Contract Law and firms’ labor productivity. This conclusion remains generally robust across multiple robustness tests and endogeneity treatments, and the direction of the results remains consistent after applying an instrumental variable approach to alleviate endogeneity concerns. (2) The digital transformation channel exhibits a negative relationship, indicating that compliance pressure associated with the institutional reform generates a short-term “crowding-out effect” on firms’ digital investment; the human capital channel shows a positive relationship, indicating that digital infrastructure strengthens the institutional effect by improving the level of urban human capital. (3) The moderating effect is particularly pronounced in cities with strong digital industry foundations, abundant fiscal resources, and firms that have not received government digital subsidies. These results provide empirical support for optimizing the supporting environment of labor protection policies, accelerating digital infrastructure development, and enhancing enterprise adaptability to institutional changes. Full article

This study investigates the heterogeneity of pore structures in lacustrine shale gas reservoirs, with a specific focus on shales from the Lower Cretaceous Shahezi Formation in the Lishu Fault Sag of the Songliao Basin. By integrating multi-scale characterization techniques—including high-pressure mercury intrusion, N₂/CO₂ adsorption, and nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR)—we examined the pore networks across five identified lithofacies: organic-rich clayey shale, organic-rich mixed shale, organic-rich siliceous shale, organic clayey shale, and organic mixed shale. The results indicate that mesopores (2–50 nm) constitute the dominant fraction of pore volume (31.7%–56.6%), followed by micropores (<2 nm) and macropores (>10 μm). Notable lithofacies-dependent variations were observed: organic-rich clayey shale exhibits abundant organic pores, clay interlayer pores, and intragranular dissolution pores with favorable connectivity; organic-rich siliceous shale is mainly dominated by inorganic pores with limited organic porosity; mixed shales are characterized by clay mineral contraction fractures and intergranular pores. The key controlling factors are mineral composition and organic matter abundance: clay content shows a positive correlation with pore volume and surface area in organic-rich clayey shale, but a negative correlation in organic mixed shale. Brittle minerals (quartz and feldspar) generally reduce porosity through compaction. Total organic carbon (TOC) displays a weak positive correlation with mesopore volume, while thermal maturity (Ro = 1.2%–1.73%) exerts influences that vary by lithofacies. In contrast to marine shales—which are dominated by high-maturity (Ro > 2.0%) organic pores and quartz-supported frameworks—terrestrial shales primarily rely on inorganic pores derived from clay minerals (e.g., illite). This study clarifies the relationships among lithofacies, pore structure, and controlling factors, thereby providing a basis for evaluating the gas potential of terrestrial shales. Full article

Improving environmental sustainability while maintaining economic viability is a major challenge for Mediterranean cereal production, where conventional systems are associated with high input use, elevated greenhouse gas emissions, and strong cost pressures. Although Conservation Agriculture (CA) and Precision Agriculture (PA) are widely promoted as promising solutions, evidence on their combined environmental and economic performance under real farming conditions remains limited. This study evaluated CA, PA, and their combined application (CPA) in winter cereal systems in Greece, using three years of farmer-managed field data from four representative sites. Agronomic and environmental performance and economic outcomes were assessed under actual farm sizes and a scaled 300 ha scenario. Across sites and years, no systematic yield differences were observed among CA, PA, and CPA, indicating that alternative systems can maintain yield stability under real farmer-managed conditions. Environmental performance was driven primarily by tillage intensity: CA reduced CO₂eq emissions by 212–238 kg ha⁻¹ relative to conventional tillage, while CPA achieved the largest reductions (262–332 kg ha⁻¹), accompanied by surface-layer SOM increases of 0.30–0.56% over three years. PA applied within conventional tillage resulted in only modest emission reductions (41–82 kg ha⁻¹), but consistently improved NUE, with variable-rate fertilization increasing NUE by approximately 5–7% relative to uniform application. Despite these environmental benefits, economic performance remained constrained due to high fixed machinery costs, high input prices, and low grain values resulting in negative net profits across all systems. CA reduced total costs by 3.8–11.8%, PA delivered only marginal improvements, while CPA achieved the largest cost reductions (5.0–12.6%) delivering also the most stable net profit mitigation. Carbon credit revenues increased profitability by only 2–3%. Scaling to 300 ha improved competitiveness through fixed-cost dilution, but profitability remained unattainable. Overall, integrated CA–PA systems offer substantial environmental benefits but require targeted policy support, cooperative machinery use, and service-based solutions to enable economically viable adoption in Mediterranean cereal systems. Full article

This study investigates how environmental gradients shape the structure and interactions of coastal biotic assemblages in the Romanian Black Sea. A multi-trophic analysis was conducted across a network of stations in June 2023, integrating phytoplankton, microzooplankton, mesozooplankton, macrozooplankton, ichthyoplankton, and macrozoobenthos with key physico-chemical parameters. Principal component analysis revealed strong north–south contrasts: the northern sector was characterized by nutrient enrichment (nitrate, ammonium, and silicate) supporting phytoplankton blooms and microzooplankton peaks, while the southern sector showed more saline conditions and extended trophic coupling from phytoplankton through mesozooplankton to ichthyoplankton. The central sector appeared transitional, with community structure more closely related to oxygen and phosphate levels. In the north and south, plankton dynamics were strongly linked to nutrient availability, while macrozooplankton consistently aligned with salinity and silicate, reflecting their preference for more marine waters and partial decoupling from nutrient-driven pathways. Fuzzy Cognitive Map analysis indicated combined bottom-up and top-down control, with phytoplankton supporting mesozooplankton and macrozooplankton exerting strong negative pressure. Phytoplankton functioned as the main network driver, with mesozooplankton as the central mediator, and the persistent negative macrozooplankton effect suggests direct biological regulation beyond salinity influence. These findings highlight the dual structuring of Black Sea food webs and provide an integrative, multi-trophic baseline for ecosystem-based management and Marine Strategy Framework Directive Descriptor 4 (Food webs) implementation. Full article

Rising greenhouse gas concentrations have exacerbated global warming, elevating the importance of land use and land cover (LULC) changes in achieving carbon neutrality. This is especially true in coastal areas, which face dual pressures from rapid urbanization and the need to protect carbon sinks. This study developed an SD-MCCA coupling framework to predict the dynamic changes in LULC in four SSP scenarios (SSP126, SSP245, SSP370, SSP585) in the coastal zone of Zhejiang Province from 2020 to 2100. Among them, the carbon storage was estimated by the InVEST model, and the dual-target optimization was carried out using the NSGA-II algorithm. Results indicated that construction land expanded significantly across all scenarios (50.3–110.2%), leading to a decline in carbon storage. However, outcomes were highly scenario-dependent; by 2100, carbon storage under the SSP126 pathway (1032.94 Mt) was notably higher than under the SSP585 pathway (1012.90 Mt). Coastal wetlands and forests emerged as major contributors to carbon storage, exhibiting high positive contribution scores, while construction land sites show significant negative correlations. Dual-target optimization achieved collaborative improvement: the optimized SSP126 scenario increased carbon storage by 1.16%, while economic benefits increased by 9.05%. The policy proposal emphasizes the priority of the SSP126 scenario, restricts the expansion of construction land, and enforces the ecological red line of wetlands and forests, guided by the phased Pareto optimal strategy. Full article

Pasture ecosystems in the arid regions of Kazakhstan are highly vulnerable to the combined effects of climatic variability and increasing grazing pressure, while long-term spatial assessments of degradation remain limited. This study develops an integrative remote sensing-based framework for assessing pasture degradation in Atyrau Oblast by combining long-term NDVI time series (2000–2023) with grazing pressure indicators ($K_{sust}$ and LIPS), field observations, and climatic data. The results show that 49.3% of pasturelands are degraded, with statistically significant negative NDVI trends observed across most administrative districts. Areas experiencing pasture overload ($K_{sust}$ > 1.2) spatially coincide with persistent vegetation decline, and significant negative relationships between NDVI and livestock numbers are identified in several districts. The analysis also reveals spatial heterogeneity and lagged responses of vegetation dynamics to grazing pressure under varying climatic conditions. The proposed approach provides a novel integrative framework that links spectral vegetation indicators with climate-adjusted grazing metrics, enabling the identification of degradation hotspots and supporting spatially differentiated pasture management. This framework can be applied in regional land monitoring systems to improve decision-making for sustainable rangeland use under climate change. Full article

To study the wind load characteristics of the construction steel platform of the high-rise core tube, considering the influence of safety net permeability and core tube interference, a large eddy simulation was used for unsteady numerical simulation. The pressure jump method was used to model the safety net, and the entrance turbulence was generated through the synthesis turbulence method to obtain the wind field distribution, wind pressure coefficient, and shape coefficient of the construction steel platform. The results indicate that there is a sudden drop in internal wind pressure at the entrance of the construction steel platform, and there are strong shear vortices and vortex shedding downstream of the platform. At 0° wind direction, the net wind pressure coefficient reaches a maximum of 1.3 at the center of the windward side, and a maximum negative value of −1.2 appears at the corners; as the wind direction angle increases, the maximum wind pressure coefficient decreases from 6.4 to about 5.3. The body shape coefficients of the windward side under three different wind directions are 0.563, 0.378, and 0.153, respectively. This indicates that the ventilation of the safety net reduces the wind load on the construction steel platform, resulting in a result lower than the standard value, and the standard value is conservative. The results of this study can provide data support and engineering reference for wind resistant design and structural optimization of construction steel platform structures. Full article

Background/Objectives: Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of adult deaths globally and has recently been reported to be on the rise in younger adult women. The present study examined the impact of physical and lifestyle predictors of vascular health in 125 apparently healthy premenopausal East Asian volunteers. Methods: Vascular health outcomes included carotid–femoral pulse wave velocity (cfPWV), central augmentation index (cAIx), and mean arterial pressure (MAP). Body composition/anthropometric predictors included total adiposity, visceral adipose tissue (VAT) and skeletal muscle mass (SMM), as well as body mass index (BMI) and waist circumference (WC). Lifestyle predictors included the International Physical Activity Questionnaire (IPAQ) and dietary recall. Multivariate linear regression was used to identify independent predictors of combined vascular health and individual vascular outcome variables. The analysis for independent vascular outcomes was repeated after age stratification (<35 years versus $\ge$35 years). Results: VAT showed a significant multivariate effect on combined vascular health outcomes (p = 0.002) and independently contributed to cfPWV (p = 0.013). WC positively predicted cAIx (p = 0.010) while SMM was inversely related to cAIx (p = 0.024). BMI positively predicted MAP (p = 0.039) in the multivariate analysis. After age adjustment however, only BMI emerged as a significant independent predictor of both cfPWV (p = 0.040) and MAP (p = 0.024). Furthermore, WC remained positively associated with cAIx (p = 0.042) while SMM remained inversely related to cAIx (p = 0.038). After age stratification, IPAQ was inversely related to cfPWV while BMI was positively associated with MAP (p = 0.035) in women < 35 years only. However, in older women, total adiposity (p = 0.040) and total cholesterol (p = 0.011) were both positively, while SMM (p = 0.046) was negatively associated with cAIx. Conclusions: With the exception of age, VAT was the single best predictor of general vascular health in East Asian women. Independent of age, however, BMI, WC, and SMM significantly contributed to independent vascular outcome measures and in combination with age, substantially add to the prediction of vascular risk. Furthermore, stratifying younger versus older premenopausal women resulted in different associations with independent vascular outcome measures demonstrating that across a large age range of premenopausal women, it is important to consider age in the evaluation of vascular health. Full article

Pore structure and multifractal characteristics are two critical indicators for evaluating the heterogeneity of tight sandstone reservoirs. An integrated analysis comprising physical property tests, X-ray diffraction, casting thin sections, scanning electron microscopy, high-pressure mercury intrusion (HPMI), and constant-rate mercury intrusion (CRMI) is conducted on five samples from the Jurassic Sangonghe Formation in the northern Turpan-Hami Basin to investigate the full-scale pore size distribution (FPSD) and its multifractal characteristics. The results indicate that the pores in tight sandstone are mainly residual intergranular pores, dissolution pores, intercrystalline pores, and microfractures. The FPSD exhibits a bimodal or trimodal pattern, with dominant pore sizes ranging from 0.00516 μm to 1.15 $\mathsf{\mu }\mathrm{m}$. Two key multifractal parameters, the multifractal dimension range ($D_{min}-D_{max}$) and the relative dispersion ($R_d$), were utilized to effectively characterize pore structure heterogeneity and asymmetry. Higher $D_{min}-D_{max}$ values correspond to stronger heterogeneity, whereas lower $R_d$ values indicate a dominance of nanoscale pores. Furthermore, $D_{min}-D_{max}$ and $R_d$ exhibit negative correlations with permeability and clay mineral content, and positive correlations with feldspar content. This study demonstrates the utility of FPSD in characterizing pore structure and highlights the applicability of multifractal theory in assessing the heterogeneity of tight sandstone reservoirs. Full article