Search Results (3,605)

Background/Objectives: Health-related quality of life perception (HRQoL) reflects the impact of individuals’ health conditions on their physical, psychological, and social well-being, and can be compromised after an accident The general aim of this study was to analyze the effect of occupational accident (OA) outcomes on injured workers’ HRQoL. Methods: We conducted a cross-sectional study, using a convenience sample of 101 participants at the end of their recovery and professional reintegration (PR) process. They were submitted to a personal injury assessment (PIA) conducted by medico-legal specialists, and data related to injury severity (IS), permanent professional disability (PD), and PR were collected from the respective forensic reports. Subsequently, they underwent a psychological interview and filled out self-report questionnaires to measure HRQoL (SF-36) and resilience (RSA). For each variable, two groups were defined. Analyses included descriptive statistics, correlations, group comparisons, and multiple linear regression analyses. Results: Injured workers reported lower HRQoL than Portuguese norms across most domains. HRQoL scores were positively associated with resilience and PR, and negatively associated with IS and PD. In multivariable models, IS, and RSA emerged as significant independent associated variables of the physical–social HRQoL component. Conclusions: These findings highlight the importance of a biopsychosocial and multidisciplinary approach to OA victims’ professional reintegration, integrating physical treatment and psychological support with resilience-building and work rehabilitation, before medical discharge and PIA. Full article

Interior built environments influence user behavior through more than deliberate rational evaluation. They shape attention, movement, affective comfort, perceived safety, wayfinding, and well-being through bounded cognition, affective appraisal, heuristics, embodied perception, and automatic approach–avoidance processes. The research gap addressed in this review concerns the fact that prior work on interior environments, wayfinding, indoor environmental quality, neuroarchitecture, atmospherics, and behavioral decision-making remains fragmented across separate studies, and existing reviews rarely explain how these mechanisms can be organized into a design-usable framework for interior built environments. This narrative review synthesizes foundational and recent literature across building design, environmental psychology, neuroarchitecture, virtual reality, indoor environmental quality, wayfinding, and behavioral decision-making to clarify how decision mechanisms translate into interior design variables such as lighting, color, spatial organization, materiality, form, sensory atmosphere, environmental legibility, thermal comfort, and controllability. The review distinguishes bounded rationality, heuristics and biases, dual-process accounts, affective and atmospheric processing, prospect–refuge dynamics, mere exposure, and room-effect research rather than treating them as a single “non-rational” category. It proposes an integrative framework in which interior cues are processed through perceptual and affective appraisal; moderated by individual, cultural, contextual, temporal, and ethical factors; and expressed through behavioral outcomes such as navigation, approach or withdrawal, dwell time, perceived quality, usability, stress regulation, and well-being. The paper contributes to human-centered building design by formalizing a mechanism-based account of how interior environments can support behavior without reducing users to passive recipients of environmental manipulation. It concludes with practical implications for design briefing, post-occupancy evaluation, VR-based testing, healthcare and workplace audits, safety-critical settings, and future longitudinal validation. Full article

Public spaces are important components of urban life, supporting social interaction, recreation, and environmental outcomes. Their success, however, depends not only on their physical provision but also on governance structures that guide their daily operation and maintenance routines. This study examines how operational governance and management practices influence user perception of public spaces by comparing two urban parks in Kathmandu: Ratna Park, a major city-level space, and Nandi Keshwor Bagaicha Park, a neighborhood-scale park. Using a mixed-method approach, the research employed a user survey (n = 191), interviews, and field observations. Survey data were used to develop composite indices for maintenance, safety, amenities, and user comfort. Descriptive statistics, Pearson correlations, independent-samples t-tests, and multiple regression models were used to examine the influence of governance on user perception. The findings reveal notable differences between the two parks. Nandi Keshwor Bagaicha Park scored higher on perceived safety (mean = 4.30) and comfort (mean = 4.01), while Ratna Park showed stronger performance in amenities (mean = 3.91). Although correlations between governance indicators and comfort were weak, regression analyses showed that maintenance, safety, and amenities accounted for only a small portion of the comfort variance (r² = 0.03). These findings indicate that operational variables alone do not fully explain user perception and suggest that broader management practices and patterns of use may also influence perceptions of comfort. This study provides exploratory empirical insight into public space governance and highlights the importance of strengthening operational systems and management practices in contemporary cities. Full article

Accurate detection of field insect pests remains a significant challenge for precision agriculture due to the elongated and variable morphology of the target organisms, their frequent resemblance to complex background textures, and the long-tail distribution of species in natural datasets. While deep convolutional neural networks (CNNs) have advanced the field, they are often constrained by a limited effective receptive field and the entanglement of semantic and spatial features, which can lead to elevated false-positive rates and missed detections for low-contrast or rare targets. This paper introduces a novel detection framework that integrates state space modeling with multi-stream feature disentanglement to address these limitations. First, a visual state space module is employed as the backbone feature extractor, enabling the establishment of a global receptive field with linear computational complexity and thereby improving the perception of long-range morphological structures. Second, a Topological Feature Disentanglement Pyramid Network is proposed. This architecture explicitly separates feature representations into semantic and spatial streams and recombines them through graph convolutional interactions, which serves to suppress background interference and enhance localization precision. A meta-auxiliary detection head, active only during training, is introduced to amplify supervision signals for hard, low-contrast samples via adversarial gradient modulation. Furthermore, an implicit neural radiance field augmentation pipeline is used to generate physically consistent synthetic views of underrepresented pest classes, mitigating the negative effects of long-tail data distributions. Experimental evaluations on the public BAU-Insectv2 benchmark demonstrate that the proposed method achieves a mean average precision (mAP@0.5) of 81.8%, representing a 4.4-percentage-point improvement over a comparable baseline, while maintaining a compact parameter count of 2.33 M and an inference speed of 178.6 FPS. The framework exhibits particular efficacy in detecting elongated, minute, and rare pests, suggesting a promising technical approach for real-time, field-based pest surveillance in precision agriculture. Full article

Ascophyllum nodosum extracts (ANE) are widely used biostimulants associated with improvements in plant growth, productivity, nutrient acquisition, and abiotic stress tolerance. However, the molecular mechanisms linking extract composition to plant signaling and physiological responses remain incompletely resolved. ANE contains a complex mixture of bioactive constituents, including polysaccharides, osmolytes, phenolic compounds, and phytohormone-like molecules. Their composition varies according to biomass source, environmental conditions, and extraction methodology, contributing to variability in biological activity. Current evidence suggests that ANE functions mainly as a signaling modulator rather than a direct nutrient source. ANE treatment has been associated with early cellular responses, including cytosolic Ca²⁺ influx, reactive oxygen species (ROS) generation, and mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK)-associated signaling events. However, many proposed mechanisms remain unresolved, and a considerable proportion of the available mechanistic evidence originates from studies using purified ANE-derived polysaccharides or related elicitor systems. ANE-associated responses include modulation of nutrient transport, primary metabolism, hormonal regulation, transcriptional reprogramming, and stress-responsive pathways, contributing to improved root development, nutrient acquisition, and defense-related responses. Nevertheless, limited knowledge of receptor-mediated perception mechanisms, signaling hierarchies, and extract-dependent variability continues to constrain mechanistic understanding and reproducibility. Future research should prioritize receptor identification, bioassay-guided fractionation, integrated multi-omics approaches, and improved standardization of extraction and formulation procedures. These advances will be essential for establishing robust mechanistic models and supporting the development of evidence-based ANE biostimulants for sustainable crop production. Full article

Image contrast enhancement is widely used to improve visual perception in digital images; however, it often amplifies noise and introduces artifacts that distort structural information. To address this issue, CLAHE-based contrast enhancement is formulated as a constrained optimization problem, in which distortion control is enforced via PSNR constraints. In this work, a behavioral analysis of the decision variables is conducted, revealing distinct objective-function responses that are exploited to guide the optimization process. Based on these observations, a hybrid evolutionary–numerical framework is developed, combining evolutionary search for discrete parameter exploration with numerical optimization for stable adjustment of continuous parameters. The proposed methods are evaluated on a benchmark set of 30 medical images and compared against fully evolutionary, numerical, and recent population-based optimization approaches reported in the literature. Experimental results show that the hybrid variants, particularly NR-EVO, consistently achieve the best overall performance across different computational budgets, producing higher-quality enhancements for the evaluated benchmark problems. On average, the enhanced images exhibit an increase in entropy of approximately 22% while maintaining competitive structural similarity and satisfying the predefined distortion constraints. Full article

Extracellular vesicles (EVs), particularly small extracellular vesicles (sEVs), are lipid bilayer-delimited particles involved in intercellular communication through the transfer of proteins, lipids, and nucleic acids; many products and studies in aesthetic medicine refer to these preparations as exosomes, although endosomal origin is not always demonstrated. This review examines current evidence on the mechanisms, clinical effectiveness, safety, therapeutic applications, and regulatory challenges of EV- and sEV-based interventions, complemented by an exploratory qualitative assessment of physicians’ perceptions regarding clinical implementation. A narrative review of studies indexed in Scopus and PubMed was conducted with emphasis on skin rejuvenation, hair restoration, wound healing, pigmentation disorders, and inflammatory dermatoses, and responses from 12 aesthetic physicians in Colombia were analyzed qualitatively. Available evidence suggests that EVs/sEVs may promote extracellular matrix remodeling, angiogenesis, immunomodulation, and tissue repair, with potential benefits across several aesthetic and regenerative indications. However, the literature remains heterogeneous and limited by variability in biologic sources, isolation and administration protocols, insufficient high-quality clinical trials, and unresolved regulatory issues. Reports of adverse reactions linked to unapproved products marketed as exosome-based formulations further highlight the need for stronger oversight. EVs, particularly sEVs, often referred to as exosomes in the aesthetic literature, remain a promising therapeutic platform, but safe clinical integration requires rigorous validation, technical standardization, and robust regulatory frameworks. Full article

Purpose: Vasomotor, sexual, and musculoskeletal symptoms are common adverse effects of adjuvant endocrine therapy in breast cancer survivors. Social media use has not been investigated with altered symptom perception in patients receiving adjuvant endocrine therapy. This study aimed to investigate whether social media use or addiction independently predicts endocrine therapy-related symptom burden in breast cancer survivors. Methods: A cross-sectional survey study was conducted among 153 breast cancer survivors receiving adjuvant endocrine therapy. The Social Media Use Scale (SMUS) and Bergen Social Media Addiction Scale (BSMAS) were assessed using validated Turkish versions of each scale. Endocrine therapy-related toxicities (specifically hot flashes, vaginal dryness, loss of libido, and musculoskeletal pain severity) were evaluated using specific self-reported 5-point Likert scale items. Results: All of the patients were female and menopausal, either neutral or induced with ovarian function suppression. In the univariate analysis, the BSMAS score showed a weak positive correlation with vasomotor/sexual symptoms (r = 0.194; p = 0.017), but this association disappeared after adjustment for clinical variables. Younger age was associated with greater vasomotor/sexual symptoms in univariate testing. Neither the SMUS nor BSMAS independently predicted musculoskeletal symptom severity in univariate and multivariate models, while higher educational attainment remained the only independent predictor of musculoskeletal pain severity (OR = 1.96; 95% CI: 1.06–3.57; p = 0.031). Conclusions: This study is unique in investigating unstructured social media use and endocrine therapy-related physical symptoms. In this cohort, unstructured social media use was not associated with the endocrine therapy-related physical symptom burden. While these cross-sectional findings do not support social media behavior as a significant predictor, clinical assessments should continue to prioritize established determinants such as age and educational background. Full article

With ongoing urban warming and the increasing frequency of extreme heat events, thermal comfort at highly exposed public spaces like bus stops has attracted significant attention. However, existing studies largely rely on linear assumptions and limited environmental variables, leaving the complex, multidimensional mechanisms driving thermal perception unclear. This study investigates the nonlinear impacts of microclimate, urban morphology, and station design on passengers’ thermal perception during summer in Chongqing, China. Drawing on field measurements, questionnaire surveys, and spatial data, linear regression was first applied to estimate neutral temperatures and acceptable thermal ranges. Subsequently, an interpretable machine learning framework integrating XGBoost and SHAP analysis was developed to explore the nonlinear effects and interactions mechanisms among these variables. The results reveal a dual regulatory pattern. Mechanism variables exhibit distinct nonlinear thresholds, with wind speeds above 0.98 m/s showing cooling associations and PET values exceeding 34.70 °C corresponding to more rapid increases in thermal discomfort. Concurrently, urban morphology and station design factors contextually modify these direct effects by altering their magnitude and direction. Furthermore, significant spatial heterogeneity in thermal adaptation was observed, with neutral temperatures ranging from 23.19 to 31.01 °C. These findings provide a basis for developing adaptive and context-specific thermal environment management strategies for urban bus stops. Full article

Marine biological invasions are rapidly reshaping Mediterranean ecosystems, with growing consequences for biodiversity and fisheries. This study investigates recent changes in the composition of commercially important crustacean assemblages along the south-eastern coast of Sicily (central Mediterranean), focusing on penaeid shrimps (Penaeus aztecus and Penaeus kerathurus) and stomatopods (Erugosquilla massavensis and Squilla mantis). Field surveys were conducted during the fishing seasons of 2021 and 2025 at major landing sites and markets (Portopalo di Capo Passero, Syracuse and Catania), using standardized subsampling protocols applied to catches obtained by trammel nets and bottom trawls. Species composition was quantified through repeated sampling events, and temporal differences were analyzed using non-parametric tests and binomial generalized linear models, incorporating year and fishing gear as explanatory variables. Quantitative data were complemented by local ecological knowledge derived from structured interviews with professional fishers. Across the four-year interval, both taxonomic groups exhibited a pronounced shift in species dominance. The proportion of the invasive shrimp P. aztecus increased from approximately 20% in 2021 to over 80% in 2025, while the invasive stomatopod E. massavensis rose from about 2% to nearly 90% of total landings. These changes were statistically significant and independent of fishing gear. Fishers’ perceptions closely mirrored the quantitative trends, confirming the rapid replacement of native species by non-indigenous taxa and highlighting emerging socio-economic implications for local fisheries. Our findings document a rapid shift in the composition of commercial crustacean landings in Sicilian coastal waters, with invasive species becoming the dominant component of catches within a few years. This study underscores the need for adaptive fisheries management and integrated monitoring frameworks capable of responding to accelerating biological invasions in Mediterranean marine ecosystems. Full article

Background/Objectives: Despite the growing burden of type 2 diabetes in Palestine and the central role of patient-centred care (PCC) in high-quality primary healthcare, evidence on PCC from the perspective of people with diabetes remains limited. This study aimed to assess patient-centredness in governmental primary healthcare centres in the West Bank from the perspective of adults with diabetes. Methods: A cross-sectional study was implemented in three primary healthcare directorates covering north, south, and central West Bank (WB). The perspectives of patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (DM) on patient-centredness were investigated using an Arabic-translated version of the PPPC-R questionnaire. A total of 450 eligible patients were approached using non-probability convenience and quota sampling across the three directorates between August and September 2025. We used R (version 4.5.1) for the analysis. Results: A total of 417 patients completed the questionnaire (response rate 91%). Participants were (50.4%) women and (49.6%) men, with a mean age of 54.6 years (SD = 12.9). Participants reported moderate overall PCC perceptions (M = 2.82, SD = 0.50), with the highest mean scores for Enhancing the Clinician–Patient Relationship (M = 2.90, SD = 0.52), followed by Understanding the Whole Person (M = 2.77, SD = 0.56) and Finding Common Ground (M = 2.71, SD = 0.71). After adjustment for sociodemographic variables in multivariable analysis HC3-robust regression models, no predictor remained independently significant, and the models explained only a modest share of variance (R² ≈ 0.03–0.06). Conclusion: Perceived patient-centredness of diabetes care in governmental PHC clinics in the West Bank was moderate and varied by geographic and contextual factors. Findings suggest a need for targeted quality improvement initiatives to strengthen PCC in diabetes services and to expand the research to other governorates to obtain a clearer picture of the regional disparities within the Palestinian PHC system. Full article

Background/Objectives: Cochlear implantation (CI) represents a well-established intervention for the management of severe to profound sensorineural hearing loss. The co-occurrence of severe hearing loss and Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) presents unique diagnostic and therapeutic challenges that significantly impact post-implantation outcomes. This review aims to synthesize the current literature on cochlear implantation in children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), including diagnostic, audiological, rehabilitative, and functional outcome considerations. Methods: A structured search of PubMed and Scopus was performed for English-language articles published between January 2000 and January 2026, focusing on audiological assessment, rehabilitation challenges, multidisciplinary management, and post-implant functional outcomes in this population. Results: The findings synthesized in this review suggest that cochlear implantation in children with Autism Spectrum Disorder must be interpreted within a broader communicative-ecological framework rather than through auditory metrics alone. These findings highlight a multidimensional model of post-implant outcomes, shaped by the dynamic interplay between auditory access, social engagement, family context, and language-learning environments. Conclusions: Most children with ASD and severe-to-profound hearing loss show improvements in speech perception and production after cochlear implantation, although outcomes are highly variable. A multidisciplinary approach, through coordinated collaboration among specialists, enhances family engagement, optimizes compliance with care plans, and ultimately contributes to improved clinical and developmental outcomes. ASD should not be considered a contraindication for CI; however, careful individual assessment, realistic parental counseling, and a multidisciplinary approach availability to evaluation and rehabilitation are essential. Full article

This study examines how aquarium visitors’ perceived restorative environmental attributes influence leisure life satisfaction, positive emotional experience, and visit intention. Drawing on Attention Restoration Theory, aquariums are conceptualized not merely as indoor exhibition facilities but as restorative indoor blue space leisure settings. Using survey data from 452 Korean adults who had visited major aquariums within the previous 12 months, this study employed structural equation modeling and multi-group analysis. The results show that being away, fascination, and compatibility positively affected leisure life satisfaction, while fascination and compatibility significantly enhanced positive emotional experience. Both leisure life satisfaction and positive emotional experience were found to increase visit intention. Multi-group analysis revealed a significant difference only in the relationship between compatibility and positive emotional experience. Specifically, compatibility had a stronger effect on positive emotional experience among repeat visitors. In this study, Attention Restoration Theory is extended to aquarium-based indoor blue space settings, and restorative environmental perceptions are shown to influence and shape visitor responses through both cognitive and affective pathways. Although the outcome variable primarily captures visitors’ intention to revisit and recommend aquariums rather than direct pro-environmental behavior, the findings offer implications for sustainable marine leisure by showing how restorative and emotionally meaningful aquarium experiences can support conservation-oriented communication and longer-term visitor engagement. Practically, the findings suggest that aquarium managers should move beyond short-term price-oriented strategies and design restorative experiences that enhance fascination and compatibility, thereby strengthening emotionally meaningful and longer-term visitor engagement in sustainability-relevant leisure contexts. Full article

As the global population continues to age, mental health issues such as depression, anxiety, stress, loneliness, and social isolation among older adults are receiving increasing attention. The built environment is closely associated with older adults’ daily mobility, environmental perception, social participation, and mental health and well-being, but the evidence remains heterogeneous across spatial contexts, environmental indicators, and study designs. Previous umbrella reviews have summarized broad links between the built environment and healthy aging, but less attention has been paid to recent original empirical studies published after the COVID-19 pandemic, the distinction between objective environmental exposure and subjective environmental perception, and the role of social participation as a pathway linking environmental conditions to mental health and well-being. This study employs a systematic literature review approach, searching and screening peer-reviewed empirical studies published between 2015 and January 2026 that focus on the associations between the built environment and older adults’ mental health and well-being. PubMed, Scopus, and Web of Science databases were used for searching, supplemented by manual searching. After title and abstract screening and full-text evaluation, a total of 60 studies were included. Subsequently, a comprehensive analysis was conducted on aspects such as research design, spatial scale, environmental indicators, types of mental health outcomes, and potential pathways of action. In this review, core mental health and well-being outcomes included negative outcomes, such as depression, anxiety, stress, psychological distress, loneliness, and social isolation, and positive outcomes, such as life satisfaction, subjective well-being, psychological well-being, and mental well-being. Social participation was examined as a behavioral and psychosocial pathway rather than as a core outcome. Emerging methods, including street-view image analysis, FCN-based semantic segmentation, and XGBoost-SHAP, were examined because they can refine environmental exposure measurement and support variable-importance interpretation, rather than because they provide causal evidence. The main synthesis suggests that several built environment factors are associated with older adults’ mental health and well-being, although the strength and consistency of evidence vary across outcome types, spatial contexts, and study designs. (1) Exposure to green and blue spaces, quality of public open spaces, walkability and accessibility, accessibility of neighborhood facilities and services, housing and living conditions, and positive environmental perception are mostly associated with lower levels of depression, anxiety, stress, and loneliness, as well as higher levels of life satisfaction, subjective well-being, and psychological well-being. (2) Conversely, adverse environmental exposures such as proximity to roads, pollution, non-vegetated spaces, and high-intensity urbanization are more likely to exacerbate negative psychological outcomes. Existing evidence also suggests that social participation is one of the important behavioral pathways through which the built environment is linked to the mental health of older adults, but it is not the only mechanism. (3) In addition, the direction and intensity of environmental associations remain heterogeneous under different spatial scales, indicator types, and research methods. Overall, this review contributes by organizing recent empirical evidence into a built environment–social participation–mental health and well-being framework, while emphasizing that most findings should be interpreted primarily as evidence of association rather than as stable or uniform causal effects. Full article

Existing timetable optimisation models for urban rail transit predominantly adopt operator-oriented objectives with assumed passenger-related weights. This paper proposes a passenger satisfaction-oriented timetable optimisation framework in which satisfaction weights are empirically derived from confirmatory factor analysis and Cramér’s V analysis of survey data collected from 439 passengers on Nanning Rail Transit Line 1. Seven scheduling-related service attributes are formally expressed as functions of timetable decision variables, establishing a direct linkage between passenger perception and scheduling decisions. A multi-objective model minimises a weighted combination of passenger dissatisfaction, operational cost, and stranded passenger ratio, solved by a Passenger Satisfaction-oriented Adaptive Dispatch Heuristic (PS-ADH) integrating simulated annealing with a passenger flow simulation module. Case study results demonstrate simultaneous improvements of 3.78% in composite objective value, 3.25% in passenger dissatisfaction, and 3.25% in operational cost, with a 27.4% reduction in stranded passengers. The optimised strategy is selected consistently across all ten random initialisations (CV = 0.13%). Sensitivity analysis reveals a structural break at cost weight $\beta =0.4$, beyond which the optimal strategy shifts qualitatively toward cost minimisation at the expense of service quality. The framework provides a transferable methodology for integrating passenger perception data into rail transit scheduling for emerging urban rail systems. Full article