Search Results (17,059)

Background: Sarcopenia is an aging-related syndrome characterized by loss of skeletal muscle mass, strength, and function, with no approved pharmacological treatment. This study aimed to design, synthesize, and evaluate novel ML-167 derivatives for sarcopenia-associated muscle wasting. Methods: ML-167 derivatives were synthesized and characterized by ¹H NMR, ¹³C NMR, and mass spectrometry. Biological activity was evaluated in C2C12 myoblasts using MTT and Western blot assays. Selected compounds were evaluated in a dexamethasone-induced muscle wasting model. Muscle strength, mass, biochemical parameters, and histopathology were assessed. Structure–activity relationships were analysed using cell viability, molecular docking, and ligand efficiency data, alongside physicochemical properties. Results: Compounds 6b (116%), 3a (115%), 8d (114%), 4c (112%), 3m (112%), and 3c (111%) showed the highest C2C12 viability at 1 μM. Compounds 3a, 3c, and 6b increased MyH3 expression by approximately 1.6–1.7-fold, while MyoG remained near basal levels. In vivo, these compounds improved muscle strength, mass, and biochemical parameters without overt hepatic or renal abnormalities based on assessed serum and histopathological findings. Among the evaluated derivatives, compound 6b emerged as the most promising overall lead candidate, showing the greatest improvement in skeletal muscle mass and metabolic parameters, whereas compound 3c demonstrated the strongest histopathological protection and favourable effects on muscle strength with favourable physicochemical properties. Molecular docking supported the SAR trends, although did not consistently correlate with cellular activity. Conclusions: The findings identify 3a, 3c, and 6b as promising lead compounds and support further investigation of ML-167 derivatives as potential pharmacological approaches for sarcopenia-associated muscle wasting. Full article

The increasing demand for thermal protection materials in new energy vehicle (NEV) systems has stimulated the development of lightweight coatings capable of simultaneously providing thermal insulation and fire resistance. In this study, a lightweight ceramic-like inorganic coating was prepared by incorporating hollow glass microspheres (HGMs), expanded vermiculite, and ceramic fibers into a sodium silicate matrix. The expanded vermiculite/ceramic-fiber ratio and coating thickness were varied to evaluate their effects on thermal protection. Among the investigated formulations, Formulation C showed the lowest mean thermal conductivity, with a value of 0.0649 ± 0.0004 W m⁻¹ K⁻¹ for the 1-mm-thick C-1 coating. The apparent density of the representative Formulation C coating was 0.54 ± 0.02 g cm⁻³ (n = 3). During representative single-specimen direct butane-flame exposure tests, the spatially averaged backside temperature of the 2-mm-thick C-2 specimen was 147.1 °C after 600 s, compared with 420.1 °C for the uncoated aluminum plate, corresponding to a temperature difference of 273.0 °C. Cross-sectional SEM showed non-uniform structural evolution after flame exposure, with more pronounced morphological changes near the flame-facing region and greater retention of microspherical structures in the inner region. The representative Formulation C coating also retained more than 80% of its mass at 800 °C in both nitrogen and air. These results indicate that the combined presence of HGMs, expanded vermiculite, ceramic fibers, and the sodium silicate matrix provides effective resistance to heat transfer under high-temperature exposure. The coating therefore offers a lightweight inorganic approach for high-temperature thermal protection. Full article

This study evaluated the effects of dietary SYNSEA Premium postbiotics on growth, immunity, disease resistance, intestinal microbiota, and host metabolism in Asian seabass (Lates calcarifer). Fish were fed a control diet or diets supplemented with heat-killed Lactiplantibacillus plantarum LP28, L. plantarum LP1008, and Bacillus subtilis at 10⁸ (LSP) or 10⁹ (HSP) cells kg⁻¹ diet for 56 days. Postbiotic supplementation did not significantly affect growth performance, feed efficiency, production, condition factor, or dorsal muscle composition, but significantly improved survival. Fish receiving postbiotics also exhibited higher survival following Vibrio alginolyticus and iridovirus challenges. These protective effects were accompanied by enhanced superoxide dismutase, phagocytic, and lysozyme activities and modulation of immune-related genes, including tgf-β1, tnf, ifn-γ1, c3, and mx. Exploratory microbiome and metabolome analyses, which were restricted to the control and LSP groups, identified differences in the relative abundance of specific intestinal microbial taxa and associations between microbial composition and host metabolic profiles. The LSP group showed lower relative abundances of potential pathogens such as Salmonella enterica, Lactococcus garvieae, and Staphylococcus warneri, although the overall microbial community structure did not differ significantly between groups. Metabolomic analysis of the LSP group further showed changes in D-glucose, pentose phosphate pathway intermediates, reduced glutathione, CoA, and 2-methylacetoacetyl-CoA relative to the control. Collectively, SYNSEA Premium improved survival, immune responses, and resistance to bacterial and viral infections without significantly affecting growth performance, while exploratory omics analysis of the LSP treatment identified associated microbial and metabolic changes. Full article

Most predictive approaches in educational data mining rely on complex models whose opacity limits practical adoption by classroom teachers, creating a gap between model sophistication and classroom usability. This gap is particularly acute at the class-group level, where institutional gradebook data are routinely aggregated for teacher-level planning but rarely modelled with an explicit account of when model complexity is actually justified. This paper addresses that gap: its novelty is to provide a structural explanation, grounded in group-level academic dynamics, for why linear models are highly competitive, rather than merely adequate, for this type of data, and to test this account empirically. An eight-year longitudinal dataset (2013/2014–2020/2021) from a Spanish secondary school—1070 class-group records across 32 subjects—was used to compare linear regression and Random Forest for final grade prediction, a Random Forest classifier against an XGBoost classifier for academic risk detection, and SHAP (SHapley Additive exPlanations)-based explainability, validated through Leave-One-Course-Out (LOCO) cross-validation. Within this dataset, linear regression consistently matches or outperforms Random Forest in both scenarios (R² = 0.857 with two assessments; R² = 0.740 with one), explained by stable cohort dynamics—baseline grades, teaching continuity, group composition—that produce a linear temporal structure (Spearman ρ > 0.81) leaving little predictive return for ensemble complexity in this setting. For the passing class, the Random Forest classifier achieves F1 = 0.972 with high inter-cohort stability (LOCO F1 ∈ [0.944, 0.984]); for the minority at-risk class, it outperforms XGBoost (F1 = 0.69 vs. 0.57), a gap consistent with the benefit of explicit class-imbalance handling, though fully disentangling this from a possible ensemble-family effect is left for future work. The 2019/2020 cohort is statistically anomalous (Mann–Whitney U, p < 0.001), reflecting an exogenous shift in the grade-generating process under emergency evaluation rather than evidence against the linearity account under normal conditions. Simple, transparent models operating on routinely collected gradebook data deliver actionable early-warning signals within the digital competence of most practising teachers; group-level prediction additionally protects student identity by ensuring no individual is labelled at-risk, combining predictive utility with ethical design. Full article

Morchella polysaccharides are commonly labeled as antioxidants because they quench radicals in chemical assays, yet this designation does not establish biological redox efficacy. This critical narrative review reframes these fungal polymers as candidate redox-modulating biomacromolecules. A structured search of PubMed and OpenAlex through 17 August 2026 yielded 84 unique records after deduplication; 31 core Morchella-polysaccharide reports with redox-relevant experimental evidence were mapped, supplemented by five mechanistically adjacent studies. Evidence was graded from chemical assays (E1) to human intervention (E5), with a separate causality score (M0–M2). Structure-resolved studies indicate that molecular weight, branching, charge, conformation, source, and acetylation or degradation can modify activity, but process-related co-variation and incomplete purity controls preclude universal structure–activity rules. Cellular and animal studies repeatedly implicate PI3K/Akt–Nrf2/HO-1, AMPK/Sirt1, mitochondrial apoptosis, NF-κB/NLRP3, and gut-mediated pathways, although most reported links remain associative. Within the databases and search strategy used, no eligible human intervention study was identified. We propose a translational roadmap requiring identity-controlled materials, orthogonal redox endpoints, causal pathway perturbation, exposure and microbiota studies, and standardized early-phase trials. The field should move beyond DPPH-positive claims toward reproducible mechanisms and biologically credible redox protection. Full article

The development of sustainable active food packaging materials with multifunctional protective capabilities is highly desirable for improving food safety and extending shelf life. In this study, sulfur- and nitrogen-rich carbon dots (GLCDs) were synthesized from glycine and lipoic acid through a facile hydrothermal approach and subsequently incorporated into chitosan/poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA) matrices to fabricate multifunctional nanocomposite films. Structural and physicochemical characterization suggested the successful incorporation of GLCDs within the polymer network and suggested favorable interactions between the nanofillers and the chitosan/PVA matrix. The GLCD-incorporated films exhibited enhanced mechanical strength, improved thermal stability, reduced water vapor permeability, and superior UV-shielding performance compared with pristine chitosan/PVA films. Furthermore, the nanocomposite films demonstrated significantly enhanced antioxidant activity, achieving approximately 60% DPPH and 90% ABTS radical scavenging efficiency at higher GLCD loading. The films also exhibited strong antibacterial activity and demonstrated preservation potential based on qualitative observations during storage by reducing visible spoilage and maintaining structural integrity. In addition, the developed films showed excellent cytocompatibility toward NIH-3T3 fibroblast cells with high cell viability after 5 days of culture. The synergistic combination of GLCDs and chitosan/PVA matrices provides an effective strategy for developing biodegradable, multifunctional, and cytocompatible active packaging materials with potential food-packaging applications. Full article

Wildland–urban interfaces (WUIs) are critical zones for wildfire prevention in Mediterranean and semi-arid landscapes, particularly where human settlements interact with continuous combustible vegetation. In Algeria, operational tools for delineating WUI configurations and spatially prioritizing preventive actions remain limited. This study develops a GIS-based structural wildfire-risk prioritization framework for the Djebel El Ouahch massif (Constantine, northeastern Algeria) by combining WUIMAP II settlement typologies with an Aggregation Index (AI) describing the horizontal continuity of arboreal and shrub vegetation derived from Sentinel−2 data. Built-up structures were classified as isolated housing, dispersed housing, main urbanized areas, or peripheral zones and combined with three AI classes to delineate relative structural-priority areas. Dispersed and isolated housing accounted for 55% and 37% of mapped housing structures, respectively, while the WUI contained an estimated 18,100 inhabitants distributed across 3620 housing units. The resulting WUI × AI structural-priority layer covered 0.863 km², of which high- and very-high-priority zones jointly represented 0.544 km² (63.04%). These priority areas identify locations where structurally exposed settlement configurations coincide with greater horizontal fuel continuity, providing a spatial basis for targeted fuel management, surveillance planning, emergency-access improvement, and wildfire-prevention actions. By improving the spatial targeting of preventive measures, the framework can contribute to sustainable forest and land management, disaster-risk reduction, ecosystem protection, and the resilience of WUI settlements. Full article

Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) are central to global ocean conservation, yet the latent thematic organization of three decades of MPA research has not been systematically characterized. This study applies BERTopic, a transformer-based neural topic modeling framework, to 10,735 peer-reviewed publications indexed in Scopus and Web of Science (1992–2025). Eight semantically coherent research themes were identified, and their structural relationships were quantified using the Relative Importance Factor (RIF) Index, a rank-based dominance measure derived from discrete power-law modeling. Marine Conservation Governance and Marine Biodiversity Patterns together account for 64.3% of the scientific output, forming the cognitive core of the field. Temporal analysis reveals that marine pollution, megafauna movement ecology, and Chinese coastal governance are the fastest-growing themes, yet they remain structurally peripheral, a phenomenon described here as accelerated marginality. Geographic analysis further identifies a pronounced epistemic governance gap, whereby countries hosting many of the world’s most valuable marine ecosystems contribute disproportionately little to the knowledge base guiding global conservation policy. Taken together, these findings carry a policy implication: achieving the objectives of the Kunming–Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework will require not only expanding protected areas, but also rebalancing the thematic and geographic architecture of the research that underpins them. Full article

To investigate the corrosion resistance and service life of water-based epoxy-coated reinforcing bars under severe environmental conditions, HRB400 ribbed reinforcing bars were used as the substrate. Four types of water-based epoxy-coated reinforcing bars were prepared, containing 0.3% graphene–polyaniline (PAG), 0.3% iron oxide, 10% zinc phosphate, and 10% zinc–iron powder, respectively, with a bare reinforcing bar control group also included. In accordance with standards such as the ‘Design Standard for Durability of Concrete Structures’, durability tests were conducted under various conditions, including long-term immersion in marine chloride solutions, wet–dry cycling, de-icing salt freeze–thaw cycles, baking and immersion in saline soil, and concrete mixed with seawater. Corrosion current density (I_corr) was monitored using a three-electrode system and the linear polarisation method, and service life was predicted based on the Wiener process. The results indicate that, under all severe environmental conditions, the corrosion current density of the coated reinforcing bars was significantly lower than that of the bare reinforcing bars (BRBs). After 70 cycles of marine wet–dry cycling, the corrosion current density of the bare reinforcing bars reached 0.4569 μA·cm⁻², whilst that of the 0.3% PAG coating was 0.1103 μA·cm⁻², substantially lower than that of the bare bars (0.4569 μA·cm⁻²); after 110 freeze–thaw cycles in a de-icing salt environment, the corrosion current density of the bare reinforcing bars was 0.4480 μA·cm⁻², whilst that of the PAG-coated bars was 0.1003 μA·cm⁻². After 80 cycles of baking and immersion in a saline soil environment, the corrosion current density of the graphene–polyaniline-coated steel increased from 4.97 × 10⁻³ μA·cm⁻² to 0.1021 μA·cm⁻² (approximately a 20-fold increase), whilst that of the bare steel rose to 0.4489 μA·cm⁻². In concrete mixed with seawater, the corrosion current density of bare reinforcing bars reached as high as 8.60 μA·cm⁻² after 120 days, whereas that of coated reinforcing bars was 0.24 μA·cm⁻², markedly lower than 8.60 μA·cm⁻² for the bare bars. Lifespan predictions indicate that, provided that the specifications for concrete strength and protective layer thickness are met, water-based epoxy coatings have the potential to delay the onset of severe corrosion (I_corr ≥ 1 μA·cm⁻²) beyond the 50-year design threshold in seawater wet–dry cycling zones and saline soil environments, and are projected to meet the 100-year design requirements in de-icing salt environments. It should be noted that these projections are based on accelerated tests and require validation through long-term field performance data. Graphene-containing polyaniline nanocomposite coatings exhibited the best overall protective performance, whilst zinc phosphate coatings demonstrated outstanding stability in high-chloride environments. For the specific formulations tested in this study, the enhanced corrosion resistance is attributed to the synergistic combination of the epoxy matrix, inorganic fillers (TiO₂ and BaSO₄) and functional additives; these components collectively provide physical shielding, chemical passivation and dynamic pore-blocking effects. Within the scope of this study, the nanocomposite coating containing 0.3 per cent PAG exhibited the best overall protective performance. Full article

In increasingly complex and uncertain educational contexts, school leadership is expected to foster improvement while responding to both external pressures and internal organizational challenges. This study examines how principal leadership promoted changes in instructional practice and enabled the emergence of teacher leadership and professional engagement in early childhood education. An instrumental qualitative case study was conducted at an early childhood level of a school in Spain, drawing on semi-structured interviews, a focus group, non-participant observations, and document analysis. The findings show that principal leadership played a catalytic role not through prescriptive actions, but by creating organizational and relational conditions, such as trust, protected time and space, professional learning opportunities, and curricular prioritization, that enabled teachers to redesign practice collaboratively. The establishment of expert groups fostered pedagogical experimentation, professional learning, and knowledge sharing, thereby expanding teachers’ agency and leading to the emergence of informal teacher leadership. These processes strengthened professional confidence, ownership, and alignment with the school’s educational project. The study concludes that sustainable improvement in complex times depends on integrating principal and teacher leadership by creating a supportive school climate as interdependent, mutually reinforcing forms of influence that build organizational capacity for continuous learning and change. Full article

Conventional design paradigms for vehicle underbody armor face an inherent trade-off: enhancing blast protection invariably incurs a prohibitive weight penalty. Here, we investigate a mechanical pre-stressing strategy for high-strength steel V-shaped vehicle underbody structures. A conventional V-shaped baseline structure was first subjected to a 6 kg TNT blast test, and the measured response was used to validate the numerical model. Based on the validated numerical model, four mass-equivalent (100 kg) configurations were subsequently compared numerically under escalating threats (2~8 kg TNT): pre-stressed steel, homogeneous steel, and all-metallic honeycomb sandwich panels (comprising high-strength steel face sheets and an aluminum alloy core) with both positive and negative Poisson’s ratios. The numerical results predict that the pre-stressed steel configuration exhibits the smallest maximum permanent floor deformations among the four configurations, with values of 22 mm, 46 mm, 131 mm, and 208 mm under 2, 4, 6, and 8 kg loads, respectively. Mechanistically, we reveal that for V-shaped geometries, residual-stress-induced stiffening and geometric arching are profoundly more effective than core crushing in controlling global bending, while the auxetic steel-faced aluminum honeycomb offers only marginal improvements over its conventional counterpart. This study offers a potential pathway for overcoming the weight–protection trade-off in underbody armor design. While the numerical predictions are encouraging, direct experimental validation of the pre-stressed configuration remains necessary prior to practical application. Full article

Rising antimicrobial resistance and healthcare-associated infections have intensified the demand for antibacterial medical textiles that avoid metal-based or synthetic biocides. The present study is about an entirely plant-derived antibacterial and antioxidant finish for cotton fabric, using Fagonia arabica extract and clove oil as bioactive agents and tragacanth gum as natural polymeric binder. These bioactive loadings were applied via pad-dry-cure at varying percentages (1–5%). FTIR spectroscopy verified the successful bioactive deposition, while polarized optical microscopy showed that the structure of the fibers changed as a function of the amount of extract used, with Fagonia arabica extract causing swelling of the fibers and clove oil forming a coalescing surface film to provide complete web-like fiber coverage at the highest loading. Essential comfort characteristics were maintained together with functionalization, as all treated samples showed hydrophilic wettability with absorption times ranging from 1.8 to 7.5 s depending on different formulations. The Fagonia arabica–clove oil formulation (5% each) demonstrated the best antibacterial activity (in terms of zone of inhibition) and antioxidant activity radical-scavenging capacity using ABTS radical assay as compared to the clove-oil-only and Fagonia-only formulations. Beyond their antibacterial and antioxidant activities, the formulation of Fagonia arabica–clove oil proved to be effective (more than 69%) in all concentrations in repelling mosquitoes, indicating an additional protective function that is useful in environments where insects transmit infections. These results prove the feasibility of a completely natural bioactive-and-binder strategy that can provide relevant antibacterial, antioxidant, and mosquito repellency activity without sacrificing comfort, providing a scalable and sustainable paradigm for antimicrobial, antioxidant, and mosquito-repellent medical textiles. Full article

With the rapid development of the Internet of Medical Things (IoMT), wearable sensors and intelligent medical terminals continue to generate a large amount of sensitive medical data, which needs to be uploaded to the cloud platform for storage and sharing. However, IoMT devices usually have the characteristics of limited computing resources and limited energy, and it is difficult for traditional high-complexity encryption schemes to meet the requirements of security and efficiency. In addition, the existing Proxy Re-Encryption (PRE) scheme has the risk of authorization transfer, and it is difficult to achieve fine-grained and secure sharing of medical data. In response to the above problems, this paper proposes a lightweight non-pairing proxy re-encryption enhancement scheme SM2-PRE+ based on the SM2 algorithm, which is used for the secure sharing of IoMT medical sensing data. The scheme combines the SM2 elliptic curve cipher algorithm and the SM4 symmetric encryption algorithm to achieve data protection through a double-layer key structure, and it uses the re-encryption mechanism of message binding to enhance the authorization control ability. Compared with the traditional PRE scheme, the proposed scheme avoids bilinear pairing operations, reduces the computing overhead of resource-limited equipment, and supports collusion-resistant and authorization non-transferability. Security analysis shows that the scheme meets the security requirements of IND-CCA under the Random Oracle Model (ROM). Performance analysis results show that SM2-PRE+ has low computing overhead and storage burden, which is suitable for wearable medical devices, intelligent sensing terminals, and cloud-assisted IoMT data sharing scenarios. Full article

Acute inflammatory challenge can impair intestinal barrier function and bile acid homeostasis in weaned piglets. Glutamate serves as an important energy substrate and functional amino acid for intestinal epithelial cells, yet the epitranscriptomic mechanisms underlying its potential protective effects remain poorly defined. This study investigated whether dietary glutamate supplementation is associated with m⁶A-dependent regulation of SLC10A2 and bile acid signaling in weaned piglets subjected to an acute LPS challenge, with supporting validation in IPEC-J2 cells. LPS challenge (100 μg/kg body weight) impaired ileal morphological structure, activated the TLR4/NF-κB signaling pathway, and aggravated intestinal inflammatory responses in piglets. In contrast, glutamate supplementation was associated with restored ileal mucosal morphology, up-regulated expression of intestinal tight junction proteins, and suppressed TLR4/NF-κB pathway activation. Further metabolomic analysis indicated that LPS stimulation and glutamate intervention altered ileal bile acid metabolism: LPS decreased total bile acid (TBA) content in ileal tissue while increasing TBA accumulation in ileal chyme, whereas glutamate treatment partially reversed this pattern, by elevating ileal tissue TBA and reducing chyme TBA, suggesting a facilitatory effect of glutamate on intestinal bile acid reabsorption. Glutamate supplementation was also associated with increased ileal ASBT (SLC10A2) and FXR (NR1H4) expression. The SLC10A2 transcript exhibited detectable m⁶A modification; glutamate supplementation rescued the LPS-induced downregulation of m⁶A demethylases FTO and ALKBH5, which was associated with reduced global and SLC10A2-specific m⁶A modification. In vitro experiments in IPEC-J2 cells suggested that inhibition of FTO or glutamate dehydrogenase attenuated the effects of glutamate on m⁶A modification and SLC10A2 expression, and that YTHDF2 may contribute to the degradation of hyper-m⁶A-modified SLC10A2 mRNA. Glutamate-derived α-KG may serve as a cofactor supporting demethylase expression and activity after LPS stimulation. Collectively, these findings suggest that glutamate may alleviate LPS-induced intestinal inflammation in weaned piglets through a pathway involving α-KG-dependent maintenance of m⁶A demethylase expression, reduced m⁶A modification of SLC10A2, and preserved ASBT/FXR signaling. This study provides evidence for a nutritional–epitranscriptomic axis that may contribute to intestinal protection under acute inflammatory stress. Full article

Fish–net contact is a practical concern for exposed offshore aquaculture platforms during severe waves, yet it is seldom assessed together with platform hydrodynamics and mooring response. This study compares two protection strategies for a semi-submersible truss aquaculture platform: add-on flow-guiding structures fitted with hoods and side baffles, and a deepened-netting configuration. Tests on a 1:50 physical model under severe regular waves measured fish-school-boundary displacement, platform surge, heave and pitch, and mooring-line tension. The maximum horizontal displacement of the upwave school boundary served as an engineering proxy for the school’s tendency to approach the netting. Frequency-domain ANSYS-AQWA calculations were also used to compare wave excitation, added mass, and radiation damping. The flow-guiding structures generally reduced school-boundary displacement, but they often increased surge and mooring demand, revealing a trade-off between reduced school-boundary approach and station keeping. Under the tested conditions, the deepened-netting configuration reduced school-boundary displacement, platform motion, and mooring tension. Its fish-school response cannot, however, be attributed to netting depth alone because culture volume increased while stocking density decreased. These results provide a joint assessment of fish-school response, platform motion, and mooring load for the proposed configurations. The findings are limited to the tested severe regular waves and require validation under irregular waves, combined waves and currents, and full-scale conditions. Full article