Search Results (20,675)

Accurate and spatially resolved yield estimation is a critical requirement for precision agriculture and orchard management. This paper presents a geometrically consistent, orchard-scale apple yield estimation framework that integrates GNSS–visual-inertial odometry (VIO) fusion, deep learning-based object detection, multi-frame tracking, three-dimensional triangulation, and incremental factor-graph optimization. Camera poses are obtained using ZED GNSS–VIO fusion and subsequently refined using an iSAM2-based nonlinear smoothing approach that incorporates strong relative-motion constraints and soft global ENU (East-North-Up) translation priors. Apples are detected using a YOLO-based model and associated across frames via CoTracker3, enabling robust multi-view landmark reconstruction. Reprojection factors and landmark priors are incorporated into a unified nonlinear factor graph to jointly optimize camera trajectories and 3D apple positions. The reconstructed apples are spatially aggregated into a grid-based mass map, where individual fruit volumes are estimated assuming spherical geometry and converted to mass using density models. The resulting ENU-referenced yield plot provides a structured representation of orchard production variability. Experimental results demonstrate significant reductions in reprojection error after optimization and improved global consistency of the trajectory, leading to stable and spatially coherent 3D reconstructions. The proposed pipeline bridges perception, geometry, and optimization, providing a scalable solution for orchard-scale yield mapping and decision support in precision agriculture. Full article

Autonomous mobile robots operating in outdoor environments must have an understanding of the surrounding terrain geometry to ensure efficient and safe navigation. This article presents a DEM-based intelligent traversability mapping framework to transform open-source geospatial data into slope-aware cost maps for multirobot autonomous navigation within the ROS2 framework. The proposed cv_gdal algorithm automatically processes GeoTIFF elevation data using adaptive slope thresholding based on each robot’s physical capabilities, generating ROS-compatible cell occupancy maps. Six regions of Spain were used to evaluate terrain representation accuracy and navigation performance in kilometer-scale DEMS. This framework enables autonomous perception-to-planning pipelines and supports the deployment of multirobot systems for search and rescue (SAR) tasks. By bridging geospatial analytics with robotic perception and adaptive decision-making, this work contributes to the development of intelligent, self-configuring robotic systems capable of operating safely in complex outdoor environments. Full article

Sustaining employees’ work engagement remains a critical challenge for contemporary organizations, particularly in contexts marked by increasing complexity and changing job demands. Despite extensive attention to engagement, less is known about how leadership behaviors contribute to engagement through employees’ perceptions of it with their organization. Drawing on fit theory, the present study examines the relationship between leadership behaviors and work engagement, focusing on the role of person–organization fit. To this end, the current paper presents a theoretical model positing value congruence (a core element of person–organization fit) as a key factor in mediating the positive relationship between the perceptions of leadership behaviors and work engagement. To test this assertion, a two-wave study using a final sample of 143 employees from a food industry company was designed. Results from structural equation modelling (SEM) supported the hypothesized model, such that, over time, the perceptions of leadership behaviors were associated with higher value congruence, which, in turn, was associated with higher work engagement. In addition, value congruence fully mediated the relationship between the perceptions of leadership behaviors and work engagement, even after controlling for the effect of gender, age, and organizational tenure. Practical implications, limitations, and directions for future research are discussed. Full article

The purpose of this study was to compare the retinal gene expression profiles in canines with Sudden Acquired Retinal Degeneration Syndrome (SARDS) and Cancer-Associated Retinopathy (CAR) and identify shared and distinct molecular pathways. Previously published SARDS and CAR canine retinal microarray data were used for the purposes of retinal transcriptomic pathway analysis, followed by KEGG and GO pathway enrichment analysis using DAVID and MetaCore tools. Gene expression patterns were analyzed to detect the most important signaling pathways. ProteinBERT deep-learning language model, and large language models (LLM-Grok 4, ChatGPT4o) were used for analytical prediction of possible drug targets. Both diseases showed significant upregulation in T-cell co-stimulation and complement activation pathways, including CD86, DLA-79, and C5AR1. Downregulated genes were enriched in pathways associated with visual perception and cardiomyocyte signaling. CAR exhibited upregulation of tumor-related chemokine signaling (e.g., CCR5, CXCR4), while SARDS showed pronounced enrichment in vascular inflammation pathways. Analysis of drug targets identified different classes of drugs, which could be potentially utilized for SARDS and CAR treatment. SARDS and CAR share immune-related molecular signatures but potentially differ in secondary mechanisms—vascular inflammation and endothelial activation in SARDS versus paraneoplastic mimicry in CAR. These data provide potential insight into the pathogenesis of SARDS as well as CAR, and identify potential diagnostic and therapeutic targets. Full article

Excessive intake of sugar-sweetened beverages is a major source of dietary free sugars and is strongly associated with an increased risk of type 2 diabetes mellitus. Sweetened tea beverages, which are widely consumed across many Asian countries including Indonesia, represent an important target for sugar reduction. However, reducing sugar content often results in lower perceived sweetness and diminished consumer acceptance. This study examined the potential of floral aroma cues to support sugar reduction in sweetened green tea beverages. Formulations containing jasmine, rose, or lavender aroma were prepared at 100%, 80%, and 70% of the reference sugar level and evaluated by 182 panelists using hedonic rating, Just-About-Right (JAR) scaling with penalty analysis, and Rate-All-That-Apply (RATA) profiling combined with principal component analysis (PCA). Sugar reduction led to decreased perceived sweetness and liking in control samples, whereas jasmine and rose aromas significantly enhanced sweetness perception at reduced sugar levels. Notably, jasmine and rose maintained sweetness perception and overall liking at up to 30% and 20% sugar reduction, respectively. In contrast, lavender aroma provided limited sweetness enhancement and was associated with increased bitterness and astringency. Overall, these findings indicate that culturally congruent floral aromas, particularly jasmine and rose, can be strategically applied to support sugar reduction in sweetened tea beverages while maintaining consumer acceptance, contributing to sensory-driven reformulation strategies for supporting public health. Full article

Mispronunciation detection (MD) is a key component in computer-assisted pronunciation training (CAPT) and speaking tests. Most MD systems adopt a production view, measuring phone-level deviation from a canonical pronunciation (Native Norm) or the expected pronunciation of a target population (Target Norm). Yet, pronunciation assessment is fundamentally perceptual: listeners map speech to linguistic categories under uncertainty and with individual psychological priors, so judgments are inherently subjective and lack a single gold standard. Labels are therefore often aggregated (e.g., voting), but aggregation rules are themselves subjective, require many annotators, and entangle individual perception with social consensus, complicating model training. In this paper, we propose a “Perception Norm”, which models MD as the decision process of individual annotators and trains models to simulate single listeners rather than an annotator pool. To support this study, we introduce UY/CH-CHILD-MA, a corpus of Uyghur-accented child Mandarin words and phrases with four independent phone-level annotations. Our experiments reveal substantial inter-annotator variation and show that a Transformer with pre-training and fine-tuning can learn annotator-specific patterns with high accuracy. Finally, we present a committee ensemble that combines annotator models using application-matched aggregation rules to produce task-specific assessments. The data and source code will be made publicly available upon publication. Full article

Rapid urbanization-induced extreme rainstorms severely disrupt social functions. Previous research often focused on “de-densification” strategies, which are difficult to adapt to high-density Sponge City Stormwater Management Units (SMUs) that carry core development functions. This study uses Shenzhen as a case study, utilizing Keep movement big data as a “social sensor” for system function perception and introducing the Socio-Ecological-Technological Systems (SETS) theory to construct a “recovery (RCN)–resistance (MI)” binary assessment framework. Through systematic clustering and hierarchical regression models, the driving mechanisms of blue landscape patterns, topography, road networks, and the built environment on social behavioral resilience are systematically parsed. The results show: (1) Road network morphology dominates resistance, while multi-dimensional elements collaborate for recovery. Resistance (MI) is primarily dominated by macro road network detour resistance (TPD2000, β = 0.956), while recovery depends on the synergistic support of blue space interspersion (Blue_IJI), topography, and micro-circulation road networks. (2) Green infrastructure fails in the model due to efficiency bottlenecks, empirical evidence of weakened regulation caused by green space fragmentation in ultra-high-density environments. (3) Low-density, eco-centric built environments provide dual synergistic gains for resilience. Based on this, a “Bidirectional Socio-Ecological Resilience Needs Pyramid” model is constructed, identifying four governance types such as the “Synergistic Balanced Type”. This study provides a quantitative basis for the transition from administrative control to precise morphological governance in high-density cities. Full article

An event-related potential (ERP)-based brain–computer interface (BCI), or P300 BCI, has long been intended for communication access for individuals with severe motor impairments. BCI access to communication tools, websites, and augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) keyboards requires aligning BCI stimuli to screens with differing numbers of various-sized keys in partially populated grid layouts. Six design priorities were defined for creating and ordering flash groups: identifiability, unpredictability, perceptibility, minimality, anti-adjacency, and equality. Building on the checkerboard paradigm, multiple algorithmic approaches were evaluated on simulated AAC screens to create the magic square paradigm (MSP) for flash group creation for irregular key layouts. The MSP algorithm was then used for BCI access to the dynamic screens of a commercial AAC device that combines text-based and icon-based language representations and the resulting flash groups analyzed for design priorities of anti-adjacency and equality. The 126,944 flash groups created for 5778 selections on AAC screens had 0 groups with side-by-side adjacency, 0.02% with adjacency to an amalgamated key, and 6% with diagonally adjacent keys. The average difference between the shortest and longest flash groups was 1.9 keys. The MSP provides a novel method to access dynamic AAC keyboards with irregular layouts and multiple key sizes. Full article

Background: Public satisfaction with public transport infrastructure is a factor in the social legitimacy of infrastructure investment policies. Methods: This study analyzes the determinants of citizen satisfaction with toll roads in Mexico using a hierarchical regression model applied to a nationally representative survey. Results: Satisfaction does not depend primarily on sociodemographic factors, but rather on users’ overall perception of the quality, safety, and management of the road system as a whole. Furthermore, the pattern of predictors varies according to usage experience, suggesting that satisfaction is influenced by different factors among users and non-users of these facilities. These findings support a contextual evaluation model, in which citizen assessments are based more on systemic interpretations than on isolated experiences. Conclusions: The study has direct implications for public policy design and infrastructure management in contexts where the use of toll roads responds to structural constraints rather than voluntary decisions. Although the study focuses on the Mexican case, its contributions offer useful interpretative insights for other countries with similar challenges in terms of mobility and institutional legitimacy. Full article

Flexible wearable electronics have shown strong potential for medical and health monitoring; however, conventional materials often fail to simultaneously satisfy the requirements of signal stability, wear comfort, and environmental adaptability under dynamic use conditions. To address this issue, this study proposes a data-driven material selection framework for flexible wearable sensors based on the extreme gradient boosting (XGBoost) algorithm. The model integrates user perception, material physical parameters, and environmental coupling performance indicators to enable intelligent material matching and recommendation. Experimental results show that the proposed model achieves a recommendation accuracy of 94.5%, outperforming conventional comparison methods. Among the candidate materials, silver nanowires (AgNWs) exhibit superior overall performance, including a higher signal-to-noise ratio, lower skin-contact impedance, and stronger sweat resistance. In physiological monitoring experiments, the maximum deviation of the sensor response was below 3% under both static and motion conditions. In environmental coupling tests, the recommended material improved the system signal-to-noise ratio by 68% and reduced 24-h sensitivity decay by 75%. These results indicate that the proposed XGBoost-based framework can effectively support material selection for flexible wearable sensors and improve signal reliability and environmental adaptability in complex application scenarios. Full article

This study investigated seasonal and sex-based differences in psychological responses and area-of-interest (AOI)-based visual attention, as well as the associations between these variables, using images of the same forest-healing landscape captured in summer and autumn. A total of 40 adults (20 males and 20 females) participated in an eye-tracking experiment combined with psychological assessments, including the Perceived Restorativeness Scale (PRS-11) and semantic differential (SD) evaluations. Mixed-design ANOVA results indicated that perceived restorativeness remained stable across seasons, whereas emotional evaluations were significantly higher in autumn than in summer. Significant interaction effects between season and sex were observed in selected gaze metrics within the sky AOI, while the forest AOI showed a consistent main effect of sex across seasons. Spearman’s correlation analysis revealed a strong positive association between autumn PRS and SD scores, suggesting that aesthetic appreciation contributes to restorative perception. In addition, a significant negative correlation between forest and pond AOIs in autumn indicated a seasonal redistribution of visual attention. These findings highlight the importance of component-level landscape analysis and demonstrate that seasonal variation and user characteristics jointly influence perceptual and attentional responses in forest-healing environments. The results provide empirical implications for evidence-based forest landscape design and seasonal management strategies. Full article

Background and Objectives: Physiotherapeutic Scoliosis-Specific Exercises (PSSE) are recognized treatment methods for idiopathic scoliosis, focused on correcting three-dimensional postural abnormalities. Objective indices such as Angle of Trunk Rotation (ATR), Anterior Trunk Symmetry Index (ATSI), and Posterior Trunk Symmetry Index (POTSI) enable precise assessment of clinical changes, while the Trunk Appearance Perception Scale (TAPS) reflects the patient’s subjective perception of their posture. Combining these data allows for a comprehensive assessment of the effects of therapy after intensive 5-day inpatient rehabilitation. We aimed to assess the improvement in the patients’ clinical appearance and compare objective and subjective trunk assessment indicators after intensive 5-day inpatient rehabilitation, treated by PSSE, according to the Functional Individual Therapy of Scoliosis (FITS) Method. Materials and Methods: This retrospective study included 75 patients with idiopathic scoliosis who participated in a 5-day inpatient rehabilitation, treated by FITS Method. The average age was 13.5 years, and 63% of the girls were after menarche. The mean Cobb angle was 27.41° in single-curve scoliosis and 31.03° in double-curve scoliosis (31.24° in the thoracic spine, 30.82° in the lumbar spine), Risser test 2, and ATR was 7.1° in the thoracic spine and 4.6° in the lumbar spine. Forty-nine patients wore a brace. At the beginning and end of inpatient care, objective assessments were performed, including ATR at the peak of the scoliosis using the Adams test and photoregistration of the trunk in the front and back standing positions—ATSI and POTSI. A subjective assessment was also performed using the TAPS. Results: A statistically significant difference was demonstrated after therapy in the ATSI (p < 0.001) and POTSI (p = 0.008) values. A reduction in the ATR in the thoracic spine was observed (p < 0.001). The TAPS questionnaire demonstrated a statistically significant difference in the values of all indicators measured before and after therapy: in the frontal plane SET 1 (p = 0.002), in the transverse plane SET 2 (p = 0.042), and in the frontal plane SET 3 (p = 0.028). A statistically significant negative correlation was demonstrated between objective and subjective indicators after therapy: ATR Th vs. TAPS-SET 2 (−0.45) (p < 0.001) and ATSI vs. SET 3 (−0.29) (p = 0.011). Conclusions: The subjective assessment of trunk appearance correlates with the objective assessment, except for SET 1 vs. POTSI. Patients who noticed a change in their posture can expect confirmation in objective clinical tests. FITS Method positively influences the improvement of subjective and objective assessments of idiopathic scoliosis patients during the short term of intensive care. Full article

Background: Micro- and nanoplastics (MNPs) are widespread environmental contaminants with growing evidence linking them to adverse health effects, including progression and worsening of allergic diseases. As allergies are rapidly increasing among youth (affecting almost 30% of children), this demographic represents a vulnerable population facing emerging environmental threats. Since no prior study has investigated MNP risks perceptions in an allergic population, this study aimed to assess public awareness and risk perception of MNP in Croatian youth, focusing on the influence of urbanicity, education, and allergy status. Methods: A total of 1155 participants (aged 6–18 years) were recruited from three Croatian regions as part of the EU Horizon 2020 IMPTOX and the Horizon Europe EDIAQI studies. Allergy status was determined via skin prick tests (SPT), and standardized questionnaires were used to collect data on MNP awareness and perception. Results: Awareness was significantly higher among allergic individuals (89.5% vs. non-allergic 79%, FDR p value= 0.036) and those with university-level education (88.3% vs. elementary 63.3%, FDR p value = 0.050). Allergic participants were also more concerned about food contamination by MNPs (87.7%) compared to non-allergic individuals (79.2%), FDR p value = 0.005). Media and social media were the primary sources of information regarding MNPs (FDR p value = 0.026). Conclusions: Education and allergy status are the strongest predictors of MNP awareness and related risk perceptions in the Croatian population. Targeted public health communication and educational strategies are needed to translate basic awareness into informed behavioral and policy engagement. Full article

This study explores the role of organic food within sustainable tourism in Slovenia, with particular attention to consumer expectations, trust in organic certification, willingness to pay a price premium, and the interpretation of sustainability labels, especially the Slovenia Green scheme. Data were collected through an online survey conducted in Slovenia in 2025 (n = 324) and analysed using descriptive statistics, non-parametric tests, and exploratory factor analysis to examine key dimensions of sustainable tourism perceptions. The results show that organic food is generally recognised as an important element of sustainable tourism and is most often associated with environmental protection, health benefits, and food safety. The study also identified a clear gap between consumer expectations and certification requirements, as many respondents associated the Slovenia Green label with certified organic dishes, although organic food is not mandatory within the scheme. Consumer trust in organic food was moderate to high, and most respondents expressed willingness to pay a price premium for certified organic menu items, indicating market potential within the tourism and hospitality sector. The findings highlight the need for clearer communication of certification scope, better alignment between sustainability labels and consumer expectations, and targeted education and capacity building among tourism providers. Overall, organic food remains an underutilised but strategically relevant component of sustainable tourism development in Slovenia. Full article

Social media has become an important venue for health communication. Although prior research has examined the effects of humor, evidence on the mechanisms through which humor shapes communication effectiveness in social media health communication remains fragmented and has not been systematically synthesized. This systematic review examines how humor functions as a communication strategy in social media health communication designed by healthcare professionals, health organizations, and researchers. Following the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines, 32 empirical studies were identified and synthesized. Findings indicate that humor is primarily used in two ways: as a content-level strategy to enhance audience engagement and as a psychological persuasive appeal in health message design and dissemination. Across studies, humor not only enhanced platform-level engagement but also influenced affective responses, attitudes, cognitions, and perceptions, which in turn shaped health-related behavioral intentions. Importantly, the effectiveness of humor was also contingent upon contextual and audience characteristics. This review integrates fragmented evidence into a conceptual framework that clarifies the pathways and boundary conditions of humor-based health communication on social media. It also highlights key limitations associated with the use of humor in health messaging and outlines directions for future research. Overall, this study provides theoretical insights and practical guidance for the strategic use of humor in digital health communication. Full article