Search Results (65,021)

NLRP6 is a member of the NOD-like receptor family that was initially characterized as an inflammasome-forming sensor in the intestine. However, accumulating evidence over the past decade has revealed that the functions of NLRP6 extend far beyond this canonical role. NLRP6 operates in a wide range of tissues, including the intestine, liver, lung, and immune system, where it exerts context-dependent effects that can be either protective or detrimental. In the intestine, NLRP6 is most consistently associated with host protection, contributing to antiviral defense, epithelial barrier integrity, and the maintenance of microbial and metabolic homeostasis through both inflammasome-dependent and -independent mechanisms. In contrast, in systemic infection models and in certain inflammatory settings, NLRP6 can also promote pathology by suppressing NF-κB signaling; inducing IL-18–mediated lymphocyte death, or enhancing inflammatory cell death pathways. Moreover, studies using both conventional and tissue-specific knockout models have highlighted the importance of the gut–organ axis; particularly the gut–liver axis, in shaping NLRP6-dependent disease outcomes. Here, we summarize recent advances in understanding the upstream regulation, downstream signaling, and tissue-specific functions of NLRP6. Full article

Radiation monitoring at contaminated industrial sites is often restricted by safety, access, and operational constraints. Under such conditions, a modelling approach that can use a limited number of field measurements is useful for preliminary screening, route planning, and prioritization of verification surveys. This study presents a sparse spatiotemporal polynomial interpolation model for estimating the gamma radiation equivalent dose rate (EDR) along the perimeter of the Base-S radiation-hazardous industrial site. The model represents EDR as a function of spatial coordinates and time, and uses a reduced measurement structure consisting of four seasonal temporal nodes and five representative spatial nodes. The reduced structure is intended to support conservative preliminary assessment under the ALARA principle, not to replace field measurements. A 2021 case study is presented for 61 numbered perimeter points. The article presents one of the universal mathematical models developed by the authors to determine the impact of gamma radiation on the personnel of tailings facilities and industrial sites through the calculation of the equivalent dose rate during personnel residence stays, depending on time. The proposed polynomial interpolation model for rapid radiation dose assessment at radiation-hazardous industrial sites estimates equivalent dose-rate values for a specific planning case. The model represents the EDR field as a spatiotemporal polynomial f(x, y, t), where x and y are planar coordinates, and t is the day of the year. A conservative reduced scheme uses four seasonal maximum values and five representative spatial points to decrease the number of required field measurements and personnel residence time. For the 2021 case study, the model-estimated EDR at 61 numbered perimeter points ranged from 0.118 to 0.415 µSv/hour, with a mean of 0.242 µSv/hour. This model provides initial data for building a 2D model and, if necessary, a 3D model of radiation contamination within the research-object territory. The resulting 2D and 3D maps are interpreted as model-estimated visualization products. The proposed method, the model form of which is described as a cubic polynomial in t and a quadratic in x,y, allows for effective interpolation of complex multidimensional dependencies of observed data. Full article

Aging and deterioration of urban underground drainage pipelines frequently trigger road collapses, urban waterlogging and groundwater contamination, posing critical challenges to the operation, maintenance and disaster prevention of urban underground infrastructure. Conventional rehabilitation solutions, including cement-based linings and traditional polymer liners, suffer from inherent limitations such as reduced effective flow cross-sections caused by excessive lining thickness, unsatisfactory corrosion resistance and durability, and high construction disturbance. In this study, a modified polyurea (MPU) material was applied to the trenchless rehabilitation of drainage pipelines via spray-applied pipe lining technology. The mechanical properties and interfacial bonding performance of MPU were systematically characterized at the material scale; full-scale external pressure tests were conducted to investigate the effects of 3–8 mm thick MPU linings on the bearing capacity and failure characteristics of structurally damaged concrete pipes; and the anti-seepage repair performance for local perforation defects was evaluated through void-crossing testing. The results demonstrate that MPU lining can meet the engineering performance requirements for pipeline rehabilitation when applied with matched interfacial primer following standard construction procedures. Even the baseline bond strength tested without primer remains sufficient to ensure stable cooperative load bearing between the lining and the host concrete pipe. The 3–8 mm thick linings increase the cracking load of damaged pipes by 61.7–145.7% and the ultimate load by up to 162.2%, while transforming the failure mode from brittle fracture to ductile failure. For local perforation repair, the 3 mm thick MPU lining achieves a critical hydrostatic failure pressure of 1.23 MPa, maintaining favorable structural integrity and interfacial bonding stability under the test conditions. With a well-balanced combination of thin lining thickness, rapid curing and high structural strengthening efficiency, as well as favorable inherent corrosion resistance, the MPU lining provides novel material alternatives and fundamental experimental evidence for the green trenchless rehabilitation of aged underground pipelines and offers technical support for the safe operation and maintenance of urban underground infrastructure. Full article

Food delivery riders face a structural shortage of informal street rest spaces in urban public environments, yet existing facilities often fail to match their highly mobile labor processes. Taking the Hexi University Town commercial district in Changsha as a case study, this research examines how rest-space conditions are associated with riders’ occupational dignity and work environment satisfaction. Based on 365 valid questionnaires, field observations, and informal interviews, structural equation modeling, bootstrap mediation analysis, and grouped regression analysis were conducted within a spatial justice framework. The results show that spatial justice perceptions are associated with satisfaction through differentiated pathways. Spatial embeddedness is associated with work environment satisfaction, while facility suitability operates partly through occupational dignity and has the highest mediation proportion. Procedural justice is insignificant in formal spaces but has a strong effect in informal spaces, revealing a mismatch between institutional provision and practical accessibility. The findings indicate that riders’ rest-space dilemma stems not only from insufficient facilities but also from the disembedding of spatial rights from mobile labor processes. This study extends spatial justice research from resource distribution to labor-process embeddedness and proposes micro-renewal strategies that shift from facility provision to process embeddedness, offering implications for inclusive public-space planning, sustainable urban design, and urban governance. Full article

This study compares the spatial and temporal dynamics of environmental noise in two Colombian municipalities with contrasting urban typologies: Soledad (Atlántico, >600,000 inhabitants; traffic and airport dominated) and Montelíbano (Córdoba, ~86,647 inhabitants; ferronickel mining and heavy transport dominated). A two-tier methodology integrated field monitoring under Resolution 627 of 2006 at 80 points (Soledad) and 30 points (Montelíbano), with calibrated SoundPLAN 6.0 dispersion models implementing ISO 9613-2 propagation. The central finding is that urban typology produces fundamentally different acoustic fingerprints: Soledad exhibits a strong day–night gradient (working-day mean LAeq diurnal = 73.2 dB(A), nocturnal = 68.1 dB(A); mean ΔLAeq = −5.1 dB(A)), while Montelíbano displays a near-flat profile (diurnal = 67.1 dB(A), nocturnal = 67.0 dB(A); ΔLAeq = −0.1 dB(A)), reflecting continuous mining-industrial operations. Non-compliance rates reach 83.8% (Soledad day), 96.2% (Soledad night), 60.0% (Montelíbano day) and 100% (Montelíbano night). Model validation meets international ISO 9613-2 benchmarks for Montelíbano (75% of residuals within ±5 dB(A); mean residuals −2.72/−2.92 dB(A) diurnal/nocturnal); Soledad shows higher scatter (mean residuals +5.78/+1.43 dB(A)), consistent with the greater acoustic heterogeneity of a large metropolitan environment. These results demonstrate that typology-differentiated noise management policies are needed for effective implementation of Colombia’s Anti-Noise Law (Law 2450 of 2025). Full article

Physical climate hazards—floods, storms, heatwaves, and wildfires—are increasingly disrupting banking operations and generating growing litigation and legal-risk exposures, yet operational risk remains one of the least studied channels through which climate change may affect financial institutions. This paper provides a critical review of the emerging literature on climate-related operational risk in banking, covering both physical disruptions and the legal risk dimension explicitly recognised within the Basel operational risk framework. We map the empirical evidence, critically evaluate the methodological toolkit—event studies, fixed-effects regressions, difference-in-differences, dynamic panel estimators, and logit models—and assess their suitability for a domain characterised by data scarcity, rare events, and non-linearity. Building on this assessment, we outline a conceptual methodological roadmap intended to guide future research, organised around three stages: (i) machine learning-based variable selection and anomaly detection applied to operational loss and climate databases; (ii) econometric modelling of climate-related operational events with explicit identification strategies; and (iii) agent-based modelling to simulate system-wide propagation of climate shocks. Each stage can be conceptually related to elements of the Basel operational risk framework, offering a structured research programme for academics and a diagnostic toolkit for supervisors and risk managers. Full article

To address the problems in high-speed railway communication, such as large signal penetration loss through carriages, difficulty in long-distance strip coverage, and limited coverage range of traditional base station antennas, this paper designs a cylindrical Luneburg lens antenna operating at the 1800/FA frequency bands. A dual-polarized feed antenna with a dipole structure is designed, loaded with X-shaped metal strips for out-of-band suppression, and integrated with a four-layer dielectric stratified cylindrical Luneburg lens, which uses its graded permittivity distribution to achieve beam focusing, enhance gain, narrow the horizontal beamwidth, and maintain a wide vertical beamwidth. Simulation results show that the lens can stably improve the gain by about 5 dBi; measured results indicate that the antenna has port isolation higher than 35 dB, good impedance matching, and measured gain of 12.4–13.3 dBi within the 1.7–2.1 GHz band, which is highly consistent with the simulation. This antenna can effectively adapt to the long-distance strip coverage scenario along high-speed railways, reduce the base station deployment density, and provide an engineering solution for the optimization of high-speed railway communication coverage. Full article

Reliable battery state awareness is essential for energy management and power allocation in hybrid electric ships. However, battery management systems are increasingly exposed to False Data Injection Attacks (FDIAs) in intelligent connected environments, which can distort State of Charge (SOC) estimation and compromise the operational reliability of shipboard power systems. To address this challenge, this paper proposes a closed-loop “Modeling-Detection-Defense” framework for secure SOC estimation in marine cyber-physical energy systems. First, a stealthy FDIA model is developed based on battery dynamics and physical consistency constraints. Second, a hybrid detection method combining unsupervised and supervised learning is proposed to identify attacks. Finally, a long short-term memory network is employed to reconstruct compromised measurements and provide reliable SOC information for continuous energy management. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed framework mitigates SOC estimation deviations caused by FDIAs. In addition, it effectively reduces power allocation errors and energy losses, thereby improving the cyber-resilience, operational reliability, and energy efficiency of hybrid ship power systems. Full article

Solar energy has become one of the most important renewable energy sources for reducing dependence on conventional fossil-based energy systems. Rooftop photovoltaic (PV) installations play a key role in the expansion of solar energy, particularly in tropical countries such as Vietnam. This study experimentally investigates the effects of roof material, rear ventilation gap, PV technology, solar irradiance, and wind speed on the power conversion efficiency (PCE) of rooftop PV modules under tropical climatic conditions in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. Three roof types (concrete, tiled, and corrugated metal), three rear ventilation gaps (10, 30, and 50 cm), and two PV technologies (monocrystalline and polycrystalline) were evaluated under real operating conditions. The results indicate that increased module temperature significantly reduces power output and PCE, even under high solar irradiance. PV modules installed on corrugated metal roofs exhibited the highest operating temperatures and the lowest efficiencies, whereas concrete and tiled roofs provided more favorable thermal conditions. Increasing the rear ventilation gap enhanced convective cooling, with the 30–50 cm configurations showing superior heat dissipation compared with the 10 cm configuration, particularly for corrugated metal roofs. The experimentally determined heat transfer coefficient ranged from 23.48 to 67.64 W m⁻² K⁻¹, exceeding the theoretical wind-based coefficient (16.86–17.22 W m⁻² K⁻¹), thereby indicating the contribution of mixed convection, radiative exchange, and roof–module thermal interactions. Monocrystalline modules consistently achieved slightly higher efficiencies than polycrystalline modules. The findings provide practical guidance for optimizing rooftop PV installations and improving energy yield in tropical climates. Full article

Steam-assisted gravity drainage (SAGD) is constrained in deep heavy-oil reservoirs by wellbore heat losses, delayed steam-chamber development and high steam–oil ratio (SOR). This study develops an experimentally parameterized reduced-order screening framework for thermocable-assisted SAGD, formulated as a digital-twin prototype that couples heat transfer, temperature-dependent viscosity, chamber-growth geometry and energy-efficiency indicators. The formulation is evaluated within an experimentally parameterized screening matrix covering steam temperature, oil viscosity, permeability, depth, cable power and early heating time. The graphical dependencies are presented in a unified publication format and supplemented by heat-balance, chamber-field, sensitivity and operating-window analyses. For the reference experimental case, thermocable support increases oil rate from 84.1 to 96.1 t/day and reduces SOR from 2.70 to 2.30 t/t. The cable heat input is small relative to useful steam heat; therefore, its effect is interpreted through local compensation of downstream heat deficit and longitudinal temperature stabilization rather than through bulk energy addition. The strongest sensitivity is associated with steam rate, oil viscosity and depth, whereas cable power shows a beneficial but saturating effect. The proposed reduced-order digital-twin prototype is intended for feasibility screening, preliminary operating-window selection and prioritization of candidate regimes for detailed thermal-reservoir simulation and subsequent field-scale validation. Full article

In underground mining operations, intelligent electronic monitoring and control systems have gradually become essential tools for practitioners to obtain operational information. Because underground mines are characterized by low-light environments that differ substantially from above-ground natural lighting, screen-related factors can strongly affect visual search tasks. It is therefore important to examine how interface layout influences visual search efficiency under low-illuminance mining conditions. This study utilized eye-tracking sensing technology to evaluate user performance within a simulated underground electronic monitoring and control system. Interface layout and ambient illuminance were set as experimental variables to investigate their effects on users’ search efficiency, quantitative eye-movement metrics, and usability satisfaction. The results showed that interface layout and ambient illuminance had significant main effects on task completion time, fixation count, saccade count, and subjective usability score. Among the tested layouts, the Three-Column Layout (THCL) showed the most favorable performance in task completion time, fixation count, and subjective usability score, while visual search efficiency was generally higher under the 50-lx condition. Full article

Road tunnel fires can produce rapid heat accumulation and severe thermal loading, particularly when fixed firefighting systems are not activated during the early stages of fire development. Although previous tunnel fire studies have examined ventilation effects and individual fire scenarios, only a limited number have quantitatively evaluated the performance of water-mist fixed firefighting systems under substantially different fire intensities using identical tunnel geometry and operating conditions. This gap restricts the ability to assess suppression efficiency across both moderate and severe tunnel fire scenarios. Computational fluid dynamics modelling, particularly the FDS–LES framework, enables controlled comparison of such scenarios that would be difficult, costly, or unsafe to reproduce in full-scale tunnel experiments, while providing detailed information on temperature field development and heat propagation. This study evaluates the influence of a water-mist fixed firefighting system on temperature development and the spatial extent of high-temperature zones in a road tunnel. Numerical simulations were performed in PyroSim using the Fire Dynamics Simulator (FDS) and the Large Eddy Simulation (LES) approach. Four scenarios were analyzed under identical tunnel geometry, ventilation conditions, and operational settings, combining two heat release rates (30 MW and 200 MW) with suppressed and unsuppressed fire conditions. The 30 MW case represented a passenger vehicle or light commercial vehicle fire, whereas the 200 MW case represented a severe heavy goods vehicle fire. The results showed that, in the 200 MW scenario, activation of the fixed firefighting system reduced the maximum temperature from 950 °C to 700 °C (−26%), while in the 30 MW scenario the maximum temperature decreased from 310 °C to 160 °C (−48%). Minimum temperatures were reduced from 550 °C to 200 °C in the 200 MW scenario and from 290 °C to 110 °C in the 30 MW scenario. The water-mist system also limited the propagation of the high-temperature layer beneath the tunnel ceiling, with a more pronounced relative effect under the lower heat release rate. Although complete suppression of the 200 MW fire was not achieved, the system reduced peak temperatures and limited the extent of critical high-temperature zones. The main contribution of this study is the quantitative comparison of water-mist suppression performance under moderate and severe tunnel fire conditions using the same tunnel configuration, which provides practical evidence for assessing peak-temperature reduction, high-temperature zone limitation, and thermal loading mitigation in road tunnel fire safety design. Full article

Damage to conductors inside suspension clamps is extremely concealed, and failure to detect it effectively may lead to conductor breakage accidents. However, the engineering field still lacks reliable and efficient inspection methods. To address this, this paper proposes a strand-breakage damage detection method based on modal parameter identification under hammer impact excitation. A full-scale wire experiment is conducted to validate the detection method and investigate its influencing factors. The experiment shows that as the damage to the conductor inside the suspension clamp intensifies, the modal frequency of the conductor decreases, with a more pronounced decline in higher-order modes. Tension is positively correlated with the modal frequency of conductor vibration, and fluctuations in operating tension can cause drastic changes in modal frequency. Such variations can even exceed the modal frequency shift caused by structural damage. During the detection process, it is necessary to consider the impact of tension fluctuations on the detection results. The modal frequency of the conductor decreases slightly as the temperature rises. Specifically, for every 10 °C increase in temperature, the modal frequency of the conductor changes by less than 1%. The small fluctuations in modal frequency caused by temperature are much smaller than the frequency differences corresponding to adjacent degrees of damage. Therefore, there is no need to consider the influence of temperature during the actual detection process. This study verifies the feasibility of using modal identification under impact excitation for detecting strand breakage inside suspension clamps through experiments and analyzes the influencing factors of modal frequency, providing experimental support for the application of detection technology. Full article

Over the years, industrial demands have determined the main course of electric drives research and development. Modern drive trains are forced to provide extremely efficient operation under a variety of unfavorable circumstances. Moreover, the maintenance of the drive is often a critical factor, including both its reliability in the long-term perspective and deployment costs. In addition, the sophistication of up-to-date industrial machinery increases the number of stochastic disruptions that affect the final control quality. Thus, the Control Theory satisfies the need for a novel, robust strategy by proposing the Active Disturbance Rejection Control (ADRC) algorithm. It stands out with great dynamic performance and versatility. It has been widely tested in a variety of different industrial applications, including aviation, autonomous and unmanned vehicles, marine robots, automotive solutions, renewable energy, and power systems. Many of the above-mentioned applications use electric drive units. This paper elaborates on the review of the current state-of-the-art in the field of electric drive control with the ADRC strategy employed. Then, the ADRC designs regarding multi-mass drive trains are reviewed with emphasis on the speed control issue. This paper evaluates its variants and control approaches depending on the application purpose. Moreover, an exemplary dynamic properties analysis is performed to verify the default effectiveness of the algorithm. Then, the summary section is followed by an indication of possible future research directions. Full article

To address the lack of bird perception, ineffective output, and sound-source habituation in conventional orchard acoustic bird-repellent devices, this study develops an image-recognition-triggered acoustic bird-repellent prototype system based on an improved MobileViT-S. The system discriminates between “bird” and “no bird” in orchard images and controls an STM32 terminal via TCP Socket to output audible sound and variable-frequency acoustic waves on demand. To improve performance under small-target, foliage-occlusion, and complex-background conditions, multi-scale feature fusion and the CBAM attention mechanism are introduced into MobileViT-S. Ablation experiments show that the improved model achieves an Accuracy of 93.9% and an F1-score of 92.6%. Eighteen days of field operation show that the system can continuously complete image acquisition, bird-presence discrimination, command transmission, acoustic-terminal start/stop control, and switching among three operating modes, thereby verifying the operational feasibility of the system. Because no concurrent control, randomization, or independent replication was included, and because the three acoustic modes were implemented sequentially over time, the present results can only demonstrate the operational feasibility of the prototype system and should not be interpreted as evidence of bird-repelling efficacy or fruit-damage reduction. These effects require further validation through controlled field trials. Full article