Search Results (13,200)

Background/Objectives: To evaluate the diagnostic performance of ultrasound-guided attenuation parameter (UGAP) for the assessment of hepatic steatosis in a population at risk for metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD), using MRI proton density fat fraction (PDFF) as the reference standard, and to also derive optimal population-specific diagnostic thresholds. Methods: In this single-center prospective study, 64 adults at risk for MASLD underwent UGAP measurement and MRI-PDFF. UGAP was performed according to standardized manufacturer-recommended protocols and standardized on the right hepatic lobe. Hepatic steatosis was staged using established MRI-PDFF thresholds. Diagnostic performance was evaluated using receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis. Cohort-UGAP cut-offs were derived using the Youden index. Associations between UGAP and clinical parameters were assessed using correlation and regression analyses. Results: UGAP correlated strongly with MRI-PDFF (ρ = 0.82, p < 0.001). The areas under the ROC curve (AUCs) for detecting mild, moderate, and severe steatosis were 0.86, 0.96, and 0.96, respectively. Right-lobe acquisitions outperformed left-lobe measurements, while four-region averaging yielded the highest diagnostic performance. UGAP values were associated with BMI, waist circumference, and liver enzymes. Conclusions: UGAP provides an accurate noninvasive assessment of hepatic steatosis, demonstrating high overall diagnostic agreement with MRI-PDFF. Right-lobe acquisition and multi-regional averaging further improve its performance. While cohort-specific threshold optimization may enhance clinical applicability, larger studies are needed to fully confirm its accuracy in advanced stages. Full article

Land use planning in the Black Soil Region of Northeast China must be sustainable, taking into account food security, water use, GHG emissions, and economic returns. Current crop suitability mapping and single-objective optimization studies tend to analyze crop occurrence, crop structure, and spatial allocation independently, which is of little value in spatial planning. In this study, a three-stage integrated approach is proposed, involving deep learning crop occurrence mapping, multi-objective crop structure optimization, and suitability-guided spatial allocation. During Stage I, a lightweight U-Net semantic segmentation model, BlackSoilCropNet, is developed to provide per-pixel occurrence probabilities of rice, maize, soybean, and other types of crops based on Sentinel-2 time series and auxiliary environmental predictors. In stage II, NSGA II will optimize the area structure of the crops and reduce water consumption and GHG emissions with the maximum profit under the constraints of the cropland, water, and production. Selected Pareto optimal solutions are transformed to crop allocation maps and transition hotspot outputs in Stage III. The framework resulted in three viable planning options. The economic priority scenario resulted in the highest profit (USD 27.9 billion), with higher water consumption and emissions. The environmental-priority scenario resulted in a reduction in water use to 118.2 × 10⁹ m³ and emissions to 50.9 MtCO₂e, but at the cost of lower production and profits. There was a balance between economic stability and an improved environment in the balanced scenario. The framework provides a reproducible, geospatial decision support approach for sustainable farming planning and black soil conservation overall. Full article

In the context of urban regeneration and the redevelopment of existing urban land and built assets, industrial heritage has become a cross-sectoral policy issue involving heritage conservation, spatial reuse, land governance and public cultural uses. Existing studies have primarily examined individual adaptive reuse projects and spatial strategies, whereas the long-term evolution of policy texts has received less systematic attention. Taking Shanghai as a case study, this paper constructs a clause-level corpus of industrial heritage-related policies issued between 2006 and 2025. The corpus comprises 524 clauses extracted from 86 policy documents covering heritage conservation, historic building conservation, cultural and creative industries, land use, planning, urban renewal and industrial tourism. Overall and stage-based Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA) models are combined with cross-period topic alignment to identify the structure and evolution of policy themes. The results show that Shanghai’s industrial heritage policies have been shaped not only by heritage conservation concerns, but also by industrial land governance, the transformation of underused industrial land, the regeneration of existing industrial spaces (EIS), industrial culture, tourism and public service provision. Four stages are identified: initial exploration, regulatory consolidation, revitalisation and renewal, and integrated consolidation. Across these stages, four major evolutionary pathways can be observed: industrial land supply and governance, renewal of EIS and old industrial areas (OIA), industrial heritage conservation and value recognition and the expansion of industrial culture, tourism and public services. The paper provides clause-level evidence for understanding industrial heritage governance in China’s urban regeneration context and highlights the need for stronger coordination between heritage, land, planning, industry, culture and tourism policies. Full article

Using liquid hydrogen (LH₂) in aviation creates a difficult design problem for cryogenic storage systems, especially in the early design stage. At that point, environmental, economic, and technical aspects need to be considered together. Here, a sustainability assessment framework is presented for LH₂ aircraft storage tank configurations from a life-cycle perspective. The study includes 24 design alternatives. These are obtained by changing the material combinations of the main structural components, while the overall tank architecture is kept unchanged. The environmental and economic dimensions are assessed through life-cycle assessment (LCA) and life-cycle costing (LCC), whereas the technical dimension is represented by the system mass. Since the relative importance of the criteria is usually not fixed at this stage, Unweighted TOPSIS (UW-TOPSIS) is first used to examine the alternatives under different weighting scenarios. The most competitive solutions are then re-evaluated by a standardised TOPSIS variant (vector-normalised weights, Z-standardised distances) with objective weighting methods. The results show that the configurations based entirely on Al2219-T8 for the main structural components remain top-ranked and more stable under the examined scenarios, whereas mixed-material configurations are more sensitive to changes in weighting assumptions. In this way, the exploratory stage is kept separate from the later weighting stage, where the weights are computed from the decision matrix of the reduced set. This is suitable for early aerospace design, where subjective preferences are often not yet available. Full article

Background/Objectives: Chronic kidney disease (CKD) remains underdiagnosed until advanced stages, motivating reliable, clinically deployable screening models that pair high discrimination with an explicit operating threshold and transparent explanations. Methods: In this study, we propose a CKD detection framework that integrates structured preprocessing, class imbalance handling, stratified 10-fold cross-validation with out-of-fold (OOF) prediction, and clinically oriented threshold selection via the Youden index, followed by explainability using SHAP and LIME. Experiments were conducted on two datasets. Across a broad panel of ten machine learning models, gradient boosting methods consistently dominated. Results: LightGBM achieved the best overall clinical composite performance on both datasets. On Dataset 1, LightGBM delivered near-ceiling OOF discrimination (ROC-AUC = 99.98, PR-AUC = 99.98) and an excellent clinically balanced performance at the best Youden threshold (0.41), reaching sensitivity = 99.20, specificity = 99.60, accuracy = 99.40, F1 = 99.40, and MCC = 98.80, with robust cross-validation stability (CV AUC = 99.99 ± 0.04; CV sensitivity = 99.10 ± 1.81; CV specificity = 99.46 ± 1.42; CV MCC = 98.59 ± 2.19), strong calibration (Brier = 0.006), and fast training (0.078 ± 0.019 s/fold). On Dataset 2, LightGBM maintained high generalization (ROC-AUC = 99.72, PR-AUC = 99.64) and clinically deployable balance at the best Youden threshold (0.35), achieving sensitivity = 98.10, specificity = 98.03, accuracy = 98.06, F1 = 98.06, and MCC = 96.13, with consistent fold-wise performance (CV AUC = 99.69 ± 0.25; CV sensitivity = 97.25 ± 1.25; CV specificity = 98.11 ± 1.02; CV MCC = 95.37 ± 1.56), acceptable calibration (Brier = 0.0173), and practical training time (0.742 ± 0.144 s/fold). Conclusions: Finally, SHAP and LIME explanations confirmed that model decisions align with clinically meaningful renal function and symptom/biomarker patterns at both population and patient levels, supporting safer translation of the proposed framework into CKD screening and decision-support workflows. Full article

Background: Metastasis and poor chemotherapy response have stagnated therapeutic progress in osteosarcoma (OS) for the past three decades. Defining the transition from localized to metastatic OS before overt dissemination is fundamental for improving survival. However, effective early diagnostic tools remain scarce, largely due to limited exploitation of the metastasis-associated tumor microenvironment’s own record of prior environmental and stress exposures encoded in cell-intrinsic transcriptional states. Here, we employed a supervised machine learning framework with iterative resampling and multi-stage model selection to identify molecular markers associated with metastasis in osteosarcoma and to develop a computational signature, Auto-RS. Methods: Transcriptomic and clinical data from 139 OS patients with ≥5 years of follow-up were analyzed. A LASSO–Cox framework was applied to derive a gene expression-based risk score, Auto-RS, from which a nomogram integrating age and sex was generated for individualized prognosis. Model interpretability was assessed across six independent single-cell OS patient datasets, and drug sensitivity predictions were inferred by integrating Auto-RS with the Precily algorithm to uncover actionable therapeutic vulnerabilities. Results: Auto-RS, constructed from the expression of four autophagy genes (BNIP3, MYC, PEA15, and SAR1A), served as an independent prognostic factor for overall survival (HR = 1.091; 95% CI, 1.047–1.136; p < 0.001). Time-dependent ROC analysis showed that Auto-RS was the most accurate single predictor (AUC = 0.88), exceeding metastasis (0.83), sex (0.45), and age (0.39). A basic prognostic model (BpM) incorporating metastasis status yielded a C-index of 0.741 (95% CI, 0.679–0.803). The addition of Auto-RS (CpM) improved discrimination (C-index = 0.788; 95% CI, 0.731–0.845), whereas a model without metastasis information (ApM) retained predictive ability (C-index = 0.709; 95% CI, 0.640–0.778). Single-cell analysis confirmed that Auto-RS features aligned with known metastatic trajectories, reflecting the transition from proliferative to invasive tumor states and highlighting coordinated programs among cancer-associated fibroblasts and immune cells. Drug sensitivity integration through Precily identified gemcitabine and cytarabine as FDA-approved agents predicted in silico to show greater sensitivity in the high-risk subgroup. Conclusions: We identified autophagy-mediated transcriptional ‘stress fingerprints’ that are tightly associated with OS metastasis. The Auto-RS signature, composed of BNIP3, MYC, PEA15, and SAR1A, enables early therapeutic stratification of patients independent of overt metastatic status. Moreover, Auto-RS delineates key molecular underpinnings of OS metastasis at single-cell resolution. As a practical laboratory tool, Auto-RS may represent a step toward improved risk stratification, where advances in metastasis prediction and therapeutic guidance converge to improve outcomes in OS. Full article

Background/Objectives: The uniform application of total neoadjuvant therapy (TNT) for locally advanced rectal cancer (LARC) risks overtreatment and surgical complications. We evaluated a novel tailor-made therapy that personalizes radiotherapy and chemotherapy to balance oncological safety with organ preservation. Methods: We retrospectively analyzed 38 patients with cStage II–III LARC treated between 2023 and 2025. Patients were stratified by sphincter preservation feasibility and high systemic risk (cN2, extramural vascular invasion, lateral lymph node enlargement). Group A (sphincter-preserving, n = 20) received induction chemotherapy; long-course chemoradiotherapy (LCCRT) was omitted in favorable responders but added if MRF-positive or to aim for non-operative management (NOM) in exceptional responders. Group B (non-sphincter-preserving, low systemic risk, n = 8) received LCCRT plus consolidation chemotherapy. Group C (non-sphincter-preserving, high systemic risk, n = 10) received short-course radiotherapy plus consolidation chemotherapy. Results: Over a median observation period of 20 months (range, 6–37), NOM was initiated in 7 patients (18% overall; Group A: 10%, Group B: 50%, Group C: 10%), with one local regrowth observed to date, resulting in 6 of 7 patients (85.7%) successfully maintaining NOM. Preoperative radiotherapy was safely omitted in 32% of the total cohort, and notably in 60% of patients in Group A. Surgery was performed in 28 patients (74%), achieving an R0 resection rate of 100% across all groups. Distant metastasis recurrence during preoperative treatment occurred in 5 patients (13%). Risk-stratified, tailor-made therapy for LARC facilitates the highly customized application or omission of radiotherapy. Conclusions: Risk-stratified, tailor-made therapy facilitates the safe omission or targeted application of radiotherapy in LARC. This personalized approach prevents overtreatment, maintains complete surgical curability, and achieves successful organ preservation in appropriately selected patients. Full article

Adjuvant XELOX (capecitabine plus oxaliplatin) and TS-1 (S-1) monotherapy are both guideline-recommended following D2 gastrectomy for gastric cancer, yet head-to-head real-world data exclusively in stage III disease remain scarce. Using Taiwan’s National Health Insurance Research Database linked to the Taiwan Cancer Registry–Long Form, we identified stage III gastric cancer patients who underwent D2 gastrectomy (2010–2019) and received adjuvant XELOX or TS-1 for ≥3 months. Propensity score matching balanced chemotherapy and non-chemotherapy cohorts (1706/group). Overall survival (OS) was the primary endpoint; disease progression was defined as initiation of FOLFOX salvage chemotherapy (used as a pragmatic proxy for disease recurrence). A second propensity score matching was performed directly between XELOX (n = 533) and TS-1 (n = 893) groups, yielding 490 matched pairs with well-balanced baseline characteristics. Multivariable Cox regression was adjusted for sex, age, comorbidities, and Charlson Comorbidity Index. TS-1 was associated with significantly better OS (adjusted HR 0.73, 95% CI 0.61–0.86; p < 0.001) and lower progression (adjusted HR 0.38, 95% CI 0.23–0.62; p < 0.001) versus XELOX; the corresponding 3-year OS was approximately 65.4% for TS-1 versus 56.8% for XELOX, and extrapolated 5-year OS approximately 50.2% versus 41.7%, respectively (note: these 5-year estimates are Kaplan–Meier projections beyond the mean follow-up of ~2.6 years and carry substantial uncertainty; they should be interpreted with caution). Benefits were confined to stage IIIA (OS HR 0.64, 95% CI 0.45–0.89; p = 0.009; interaction p = 0.006; progression HR 0.29, 95% CI 0.11–0.76; p = 0.011), with comparable outcomes in IIIB and IIIC. Adjuvant TS-1 monotherapy was associated with superior OS and lower disease progression versus XELOX in stage III gastric cancer, particularly in stage IIIA; these findings are hypothesis-generating and warrant confirmation in prospective randomized trials, whereas in stage IIIB/IIIC outcomes were comparable between the two regimens. Full article

Superfoods have gained increasing attention for their nutritional and functional properties, with avocado (Persea americana Mill.) among the most prominent examples owing to its health-promoting compounds. However, avocado cultivation is associated with several challenges, including high water demand, environmental impact, seasonal variability, and post-harvest losses. To address these limitations, in vitro plant cell cultures represent a sustainable and controlled alternative for producing avocado-derived material. In this study, avocado var. Hass callus cultures were established and evaluated as a potential source of functional metabolites. Colourimetric assays performed at different growth stages identified 14-day-old callus as the most enriched in phenolic compounds and antioxidant activity; this material was therefore selected for further analyses. LC–ESI–QTOF–MS/MS profiling revealed a phenolic-rich composition, including flavonoids, proanthocyanidins, galloyl derivatives and phenylpropanoid-related compounds, consistent with vegetative plant tissues. Nutritional analysis showed high moisture content and low lipid levels, differing in composition from the avocado pulp, along with a high content of attention-grabbing nutrients, such as protein and fibre. Overall, although further studies are required to confirm compound identity and assess safety for future applications, avocado calli represent a promising sustainable platform for the production of value-added bioactive compounds. Full article

Understanding the curing and molding process of HTPB two-stage solid propellants and their stress and strain distributions is essential for the efficient manufacturing, long-term storage, safe transportation, and reliable operation of solid rocket motors. In this study, the residual stress and strain generated during the curing and molding of HTPB two-stage solid propellants were numerically investigated. The mechanisms responsible for residual stress and strain were analyzed, the relaxation modulus was characterized using a Prony series and the WLF time–temperature superposition equation, and the curing and cooling processes of a two-stage solid propellant grain were simulated. Furthermore, the effects of the modulus m and length-to-diameter ratio n on the residual stress and strain fields were investigated. The results show that at the end of the curing and cooling of the grains, there are high stress and strain zones on the sides close to the core mold and the shell. At the connection point between the first-stage and second-stage grains, due to the different materials, there is a sudden change in stress and strain. The curing stage accounts for 32.1% of the total residual stress and 32.6% of the total residual strain. As the modulus m increases, the overall stress and strain of the grain increase. As the length-to-diameter ratio n increases, the overall stress and strain of the grain decrease. This work provides a basis for the dimensional design of two-stage solid propellant grains and the selection of critical regions for structural safety evaluation. Full article

In this study, four types of anti-ultraviolet aging agents—layered double hydroxides (LDHs), organic montmorillonite (OMMT), titanium dioxide (TiO₂), and ultraviolet absorber (UV326)—were employed to modify asphalt. The modified asphalt samples underwent Rolling Thin Film Oven Test (RTFOT) and xenon-lamp aging treatments, and we examined the evolution of their physical properties, rheological performance, and chemical composition. A principal component analysis (PCA) model built on representativeness, discriminative power, and non-redundancy reduced the multidimensional data to two principal components, which together captured 87.540% of the total variance. The dynamic principal component trajectories, plotted from the reduced-dimension data for the unaged–short-term-aged–xenon-lamp-aged process, revealed that anti-aging agents sharing the same protection mechanism led to comparable rates of high- and low-temperature performance deterioration during xenon-lamp aging, whereas agents with different mechanisms resulted in distinctly different patterns of performance deterioration. In the critical xenon-lamp aging stage, the neat asphalt exhibited a trajectory vector change of ΔPC1 = 0.92 and ΔPC2 = 1.25, corresponding to an angle of 54°, reflecting a low-temperature degradation. By contrast, the physical shielding agents LDHs and OMMT produced much steeper trajectories with angles of approximately −80°, where ΔPC2 values rose to as high as 3.67 and 2.19 respectively despite modest reductions in overall aging. The reflective agent TiO₂ showed a more moderate angle of 84°, with ΔPC1 and ΔPC2 values of 0.16 and 1.45, indicating a slight retardation of high-temperature performance loss. Notably, the UV absorber UV326 maintained the same trajectory angle of 56° as the neat asphalt but with reduced magnitudes of ΔPC1 = 0.63 and ΔPC2 = 0.94, suggesting a balanced delay in aging without altering its relative progression. This study proposes a novel analytical framework for mechanism-based clustering analysis and the precise selection of anti-aging agents for asphalt. Full article

Land-based airborne wind energy systems (LB-AWESs) offer a promising approach to harvesting high-altitude wind resources while significantly reducing costs. However, overall performance is heavily constrained by energy dissipation along the power chain, spanning from aerial traction to ground electromechanical conversion. While existing research and reviews predominantly focus on aircraft configurations or control strategies, comprehensive analyses of the energy transmission efficiency remain scarce. To fill this gap, this paper provides a holistic review of four critical stages: wind energy capture, tether transmission, ground mechanics, and electromechanical coupling. Distinct from traditional reviews centered on individual components, this study adopts a holistic perspective of the transmission chain to prioritize the analysis of loss mechanisms across different stages. In particular, it highlights that internal friction losses within multi-strand braided tethers under large-scale, cyclic loading conditions constitute a significant yet long-overlooked factor affecting energy transmission efficiency. Additionally, the stability and performance factors of umbrella-ladder configurations are qualitatively evaluated. By integrating existing theoretical studies, experimental findings and engineering practices, this paper identifies the key design factors affecting transmission efficiency, comprehensively elucidates the energy dissipation mechanisms of various subsystems, and proposes core efficiency enhancement methodologies, providing a foundational reference for the optimal design of next-generation LB-AWESs. Full article

Background/Objectives: We examined whether guidance on dietary habits or nutrition-related problems from healthcare professionals during cancer treatment was associated with quality of life, after treatment. Methods: Cross-sectional data were drawn from the Icelandic Compass study, conducted in 2020–2021 among adults diagnosed with cancer in 2015–2019. The analysis included participants who had completed treatment for breast cancer (n = 341), prostate cancer (n = 137), or colorectal cancer (n = 132), for a total sample of 610 participants. Quality of life (QL) was assessed using the EORTC QLQ-C30 global health status/quality of life scale. Associations were examined using regression models adjusted for age, marital status, education, number of cancer treatments, stage at diagnosis, body mass index, tobacco and alcohol use, and comorbidities. Results: Overall, 26% of participants reported receiving sufficient guidance on general dietary habits during treatment and 19% on nutrition-related problems. On average, three years had passed since diagnosis. Among all participants, guidance on general dietary habits was associated with higher QL scores (β = 5.6; 95% CI: 0.8 to 10.5), as was guidance on nutrition-related problems (β = 5.7; 95% CI: 0.3 to 11.1). In subgroup analyses, statistically significant associations were observed among prostate cancer survivors for both dietary guidance (β = 12.4) and guidance on nutrition-related problems (β = 14.0), and among breast cancer survivors for guidance on nutrition-related problems (β = 8.4). Conclusions: Patient-reported sufficient discussions about dietary habits or nutrition-related problems during treatment were associated with slightly higher post-treatment QL scores. Full article

The progressive deterioration of surface water quality due to natural and anthropogenic factors, together with the limitations associated with conventional chemical coagulants, has driven the development of natural coagulants as sustainable alternatives for water treatment. In this context, the present study analyzed the production and application of a chitosan-based natural coagulant obtained from Oreochromis niloticus fish scales through a chemical method. The first phase involved biopolymer extraction through depigmentation, deproteinization, demineralization, and deacetylation; the second phase evaluated its performance as a coagulant using jar tests with water from the Magdalena River; and the third phase consisted of statistical analysis of the results using ANOVA. Yields of 78%, 78.20%, 88.52%, and 30% were obtained for each processing stage, and the chitosan achieved a degree of deacetylation of 76.87%, confirming its potential for water treatment applications. Optimal conditions were determined as a coagulant dosage of 300 mg/L and a flocculation time of 30 min, while ANOVA results indicated that both variables significantly influenced turbidity removal (p < 0.05). Under these conditions, a turbidity reduction of 76.30% was achieved. However, the final turbidity and color values did not meet Colombian regulatory standards, which was attributed to the presence of residual minerals and a moderate degree of deacetylation. Overall, the results demonstrate that chitosan derived from fish scales represents a sustainable alternative to chemical coagulants; however, process optimization and complementary treatment stages are required to meet drinking water standards. Full article

Sustainable rabbit production requires effective nutritional strategies to enhance productivity, health status, and immune competence. Following the restriction of antibiotic growth promoters, organic acids (OAs) have gotten increasing attention as promising functional feed additives due to their multiple biological roles. This review aims to offer a comprehensive overview of the functional roles of OAs in rabbit nutrition, with a focus on their effects on gut morphology, nutrient digestibility, intestinal microbiota, antioxidative status, immunity, and growth performance in growing rabbits. The OAs may modulate gut microbiota balance through inhibition of pathogenic bacteria and promotion of beneficial microbial populations, thereby contributing to the establishment of a balanced intestinal ecosystem. This effect is particularly important during the post-weaning period, a critical stage characterized by increased susceptibility to enteric disorders and associated economic losses. The OAs may also enhance digestive enzyme activities, leading to improving nutrient digestibility, feed efficiency, and reducing feed wastage. In addition, OAs have been shown to improve intestinal histomorphology through coordinated effects on epithelial proliferation, mucosal renewal, and tight junction integrity. Furthermore, OAs have been shown to modulate antioxidative status and immune responses, which are essential for maintaining intestinal health and overall production sustainability. Collectively, OAs represent a promising and viable nutritional strategy to enhance the sustainability and efficiency of rabbit production systems through their beneficial effects on gut health, nutrient utilization, immune competence, and antioxidative status. Full article