Search Results (13,029)

Background/Objectives: Streptococcus parasuis is an under-recognized member of the Streptococcus suis complex that can be misidentified by routine diagnostic methods. Human clinical isolates remain sparsely characterized. This study investigated the antimicrobial phenotype, genomic features, population position, and larval pathogenicity of a human pleural-fluid isolate. Methods: Strain HUGSPH was recovered during the care of a patient with pneumonia. Hybrid whole-genome sequencing (WGS), average nucleotide identity analysis, multilocus sequence typing (MLST), core-genome phylogenetics, comparative pan-genomics, and an exploratory host-origin association analysis were performed. Minimum inhibitory concentrations (MICs) were determined using the VITEK 2 Compact system with an AST-ST03 card, and virulence was evaluated in Galleria mellonella larvae. Results: Genome-based analysis confirmed HUGSPH as S. parasuis and assigned it to the novel sequence type (ST) 181. The isolate clustered within a predominantly human-origin phylogenetic clade. Because species-specific clinical breakpoints are unavailable, the MICs were interpreted provisionally using explicitly stated surrogate Clinical and Laboratory Standards Institute (CLSI) criteria; erythromycin, clindamycin, and levofloxacin were categorized as resistant under those criteria. Several predicted antimicrobial-resistance-associated genes were detected. In a restricted comparison of seven human-origin and nine swine-origin genomes, eight genes were present in all included human-origin isolates and absent from all included swine-origin isolates, whereas metQ, metP, and metN showed the reciprocal pattern. HUGSPH caused dose-dependent larval mortality, reaching 100% at 10⁷ colony-forming units (CFU) by 96 h. Conclusions: HUGSPH expands the genomic record of human clinical S. parasuis and highlights the diagnostic and surveillance relevance of antimicrobial resistance in this species. The susceptibility categories, source-associated genes, and larval phenotype require validation by reference susceptibility testing, broader phylogenetically balanced collections, comparative strains, and mammalian models. Full article

Background: This pilot clinical study aimed to evaluate the mandibular position at the maximum intercuspal position (MIP) obtained with a virtual interocclusal record using an intraoral scanner across different dental chair backrest inclinations, in order to establish a protocol for future larger studies. Methods: In this single-center pilot study, 10 fully dentate participants underwent maxillary and mandibular full-arch intraoral scans. Virtual interocclusal records at MIP were obtained with an intraoral scanner at three dental chair backrest inclinations (90, 120, and 180 degrees). Conventional vinyl polysiloxane interocclusal records were made at the same inclinations. All scans were printed into physical models and mounted using the conventional records. Digitized casts and intraoral scans were superimposed onto a single common reference, the virtually mounted 90-degree scan, using metrology software. Because all deviations were expressed relative to that reference, the virtual 90-degree condition is zero by construction and was excluded as a data level from inferential models. Separate linear mixed-effects models were fitted for each translation and rotation axis, with participant as a random intercept and recording method, inclination, and their interaction as fixed effects; p values were Holm-adjusted across the six axes. Equivalence was explored with two one-sided tests against margins of ±0.5 mm and ±1.0 degrees; because these margins were specified post hoc, the equivalence analysis is exploratory. Results: Chair inclination did not detectably affect either recording method: no inclination main effect or method × inclination interaction survived multiplicity correction, and virtual records at 120 and 180 degrees differed by no more than 0.05 mm and 0.08 degrees. Recording method did differ. Conventional records were displaced relative to virtual records by 0.27 mm along the Y axis (95% CI 0.19 to 0.34; Holm-adjusted p < 0.001), in the same direction in 9 of 10 participants. The corresponding X-axis offset was 0.23 mm (95% CI 0.06 to 0.40) and did not survive multiplicity correction in the primary analysis (Holm-adjusted p = 0.060). The exploratory equivalence criterion was met, that is, the 90% confidence interval fell entirely within the post hoc equivalence margin, for 11 of 18 method × inclination comparisons, rising to 16 of 18 in the sensitivity analysis. Conclusions: In this pilot sample, no statistically detectable effect of dental chair backrest inclination between 90 and 180 degrees on the recorded mandibular position at MIP was observed for either recording method in healthy, fully dentate individuals; virtual and conventional records met the exploratory post hoc equivalence criterion in most rotational axes but showed a small, systematic translational offset of approximately 0.23 to 0.31 mm, most clearly along the Y axis. These preliminary findings require confirmation in a larger, prospectively powered and randomized equivalence trial with a prospectively defined equivalence margin. Full article

The rhizosheath is a dynamic plant–soil interface in which root traits, microbial activity, and soil physical properties jointly regulate plant adaptation to drought and nutrient limitation. Despite the growing interest in this field, it remains conceptually fragmented. This study mapped the development, structure, and emerging directions of rhizosheath research at the intersection of microbiome interactions, stress adaptation, and root-trait genetics. Bibliometric and science-mapping analyses were performed on 136 publications (2015–2026) retrieved from the Web of Science Core Collection. Using the Bibliometrix framework, we examined publication dynamics, collaboration networks, citation patterns, keyword co-occurrence, and thematic structures. The dataset comprised 136 publications, 6366 cited references, and 723 authors, with 54.41% international co-authorship. Logistic modeling described the accumulation of publications through 2025, identifying a growth inflection at 2022.54; a reliable saturation level could not be estimated because the 2026 data cover only a partial year. Document coupling resolved nine clusters dominated by soil–root interface processes (n = 51; 1358 citations) and plant–microbe interactions (n = 18; 895 citations). Thematic analysis positioned soil and rhizosheath as central domains and identified water stress as a key motor theme, whereas mucilage, hydraulic functioning, and microbiome assembly emerged as recent trends. Rhizosheath research is transitioning from descriptive characterization toward more integrated, mechanistic perspectives linking root traits, soil processes, and microbial dynamics. Progress will depend on resolving genotype × soil × microbiome interactions and advancing field-based cross-scale phenotyping to support climate-resilient cropping systems. Full article

Background/Objectives: Scabies is a disease that disproportionately affects young children. Oral ivermectin is a mainstay of scabies therapy, yet children <15 kg are excluded due to insufficient safety data and the lack of age-appropriate formulations. To address this gap, we developed CHILD-IVITAB, a 1 mg ivermectin orodispersible tablet based on the Template Inverted Particle technology, which enables rapid disintegration and intrinsic taste masking in a mechanically robust tablet. Methods: We report the pharmaceutical characterization of CHILD-IVITAB tablets. The EPIC-15 trial (NCT06404333) was a randomized clinical trial administering CHILD-IVITAB to children weighing 5 to <15 kg with uncomplicated scabies in Brazil. Acceptability was assessed at two administrations (D0, D7) using the ClinSearch Acceptability Score Test (CAST^®), wherein CHILD-IVITAB was compared to a reference dataset. Results: The 40 mg tablets had a tensile strength of 1.87 ± 0.16 MPa, and met Ph. Eur. requirements for uniformity of mass and dosage units. CHILD-IVITAB tablets disintegrated in vitro in 18.3 ± 1.1 s and released >50% of the dose within 1 min in artificial saliva. Thirteen children were enrolled in the trial. The full dose was taken in 100% of the 26 evaluations, 73% of administrations elicited a neutral or positive reaction, and no dosage form alteration, food/drink co-administration, or extra device was required. The barycenter of all evaluations fell within the positive zone of the CAST^® framework. Conclusions: These results support CHILD-IVITAB as a child-friendly ivermectin formulation suitable for children 5 to <15 kg, a population currently excluded from ivermectin treatment and prevention programs. Full article

Pesticide contamination in fruits and vegetables remains a critical food safety concern in Northern Thailand, posing risks to environmental and human health. Improving knowledge, attitude, and behavior (KAB) in food safety is essential for reducing pesticide exposure, particularly among migrant workers. This cross-sectional study evaluates food safety knowledge, attitude, behavior, and pesticide exposure among Myanmar migrant workers in Chiang Mai Province. Face-to-face interviews were conducted with 137 participants between August and September 2025 in Mueang, Mae Rim, and San Sai districts. Mann–Whitney U test and linear regression were used to explore demographic differences and associated factors of knowledge, attitude, and safety behavior. Most participants demonstrated adequate knowledge (65.7%) and positive attitude (80.3); however, 78.1% reported only moderate safety behavior. Higher knowledge and more favorable attitudes were observed among non-Shan ethnic groups and participants with higher education (p < 0.001). Women and non-farming workers exhibited significantly safer behavior (p < 0.05). Knowledge and attitude were strongly correlated (ρ = 0.556, p < 0.01), but neither was associated with safety behavior. Most participants had cholinesterase activity within the normal reference range (73.0% cellular AChE; 81.0% plasma BChE). Low enzyme activity was observed in 13.9% and 6.6% of participants, respectively. Enzyme activity did not differ significantly by occupation, sex, or ethnicity and was not significantly associated with KAB scores. Linear regression analyses identified ethnicity as significantly associated with knowledge and attitude; whereas, sex and occupation were significantly associated with safety behavior. These findings suggest that individual-level knowledge and attitude may not be sufficient to drive protective behavior among migrant workers, though the cross-sectional study design limits causal inference and generalizability. Full article

The ring laser gyroscope (RLG), a representative type of optical gyroscope, exhibits a lock-in region in which very small angular velocity inputs cannot be measured due to backscattering from the mirrors. Generally, this lock-in effect is mitigated by applying a high-amplitude sinusoidal vibration to the gyro body. The mechanical device used to induce this sinusoidal vibration is referred to as a dither. Dithers vary in configuration depending on the size of the gyro; while single-axis dithers are applied to gyros with relatively large optical paths, a cluster dither—which simultaneously applies sinusoidal vibrations to three-axis gyroscopes—is used for those with smaller optical paths. Unlike in the single-axis dither, the gyro body is mounted on the cluster dither at a specific angle. Furthermore, while the dither fixing hole in a single-axis dither is located at the center of the gyro body, it is positioned on the periphery in a cluster dither. Consequently, the center of rotation for a cluster dither is located at the center of the dither itself, rather than coinciding with the center of the gyro body. To increase the natural frequency of the cluster dither with such a configuration, this paper proposes a design employing a partially tapered non-uniform and heterogeneous cantilever beam, rather than the uniform and homogeneous cantilever beam used in conventional single-axis dither spokes, and presents a corresponding natural frequency analysis method. The accuracy of the proposed natural frequency analysis method is validated through modeling and simulation (M&S) and through experimental testing of fabricated prototypes. Full article

Previous studies have yielded inconsistent conclusions regarding the relationship between challenge stress and work creativity, suggesting that the effects may depend on contextual and individual conditions. Drawing on the strategy–situation fit hypothesis, this study examines the joint effects of challenge stress and problem-solving pondering on work creativity and further investigates the mediating role of cognitive flexibility. Using a two-wave time-lagged design with a two-month interval, this study ultimately obtained 568 valid responses. The results showed the following: (1) Work creativity was higher when challenge stress and problem-solving pondering were jointly high than when both were low, as indicated by the significant positive slope along the CS = PSP reference line. The curvature along the reference line was nonsignificant, indicating that creativity increased approximately linearly as the two variables increased simultaneously. Along the CS = −PSP reference line, a significant asymmetrical, U-shaped misfit effect emerged. Specifically, creativity was severely hindered when challenge stress exceeded problem-solving pondering, whereas the decline was less pronounced when problem-solving pondering exceeded challenge stress. These findings indicate that work creativity varies across different joint configurations of challenge stress and problem-solving pondering. (2) Cognitive flexibility mediated the relationship between the joint effects of challenge stress and problem-solving pondering and creativity (indirect effect β = 0.17, 95% CI [0.0923, 0.2931]). The findings suggest that higher joint levels of challenge stress and problem-solving pondering are associated with greater cognitive flexibility, which may in turn contribute to greater creativity. Organizations seeking to enhance employees’ creative performance should not focus solely on increasing external challenges but should also cultivate employees’ problem-solving pondering and cognitive flexibility. Full article

Background: Cell-free DNA non-invasive prenatal testing (NIPT) is recommended by the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) and the American College of Medical Genetics and Genomics (ACMG) for fetal aneuploidy screening in all pregnancies, yet most testing is performed by centralized reference laboratories. We evaluated whether a whole-genome sequencing (WGS) NIPT assay implemented in a high-complexity clinical laboratory can achieve a performance consistent with established reference laboratories. Methods: We retrospectively analyzed 11,235 evaluable clinical NIPT samples processed in a single Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments (CLIA)-certified, College of American Pathologists (CAP)-accredited laboratory using the Illumina VeriSeq NIPT Solution v2, which reports trisomy 21 (T21), trisomy 18 (T18), trisomy 13 (T13), and sex chromosome aneuploidies (SCA). Results were compared with the diagnostic and clinical follow-up; the performance was calculated overall and by maternal age with 95% confidence intervals (CIs). Results: Of 11,318 accessioned samples, 83 (0.73%) were not reportable and excluded. The sensitivity was 100% for all conditions (T21 95% CI 92.1–100%); per-condition specificity exceeded 99.9% (99.81% for any reported aneuploidy overall), with no false-negative results among cases with available follow-ups. Observed positive predictive values (PPVs) were 91.8% (T21), 85.7% (T18), 63.6% (T13), and 79.3% (SCA), consistent with published ranges for this routine, unselected screening population. Conclusions: A high-complexity clinical laboratory can deliver WGS-based NIPT at this level of performance, supporting broader, more timely access to guideline-recommended screening. NIPT remains a screening test, and high-risk results require diagnostic confirmation. Full article

Large language models can produce fluent requirements refinements and planning artifacts while still leaving information unresolved for implementation, testing, or planning commitment. This paper presents ReqPlan-Eval, an evidence-aware human-in-the-loop architecture that connects NFR disagreement, weak-word cues, planning-relevant ambiguity, and role-specialized hypotheses to inspectable planning-support records and configurable review routes. The empirical study evaluates the principal mechanisms and role-based routing signals on separate datasets; it does not constitute an end-to-end evaluation of the complete pipeline on a common set of requirements. A held-out 500-requirement NFR diagnostic achieved exact-match accuracy of 0.716, micro F1 of 0.702, and quality accuracy of 0.874. Pattern-aware arbitration increased weak-word specificity from 0.572 to 0.676 and review precision from 0.678 to 0.724, while component/goal gating increased ambiguity specificity from 0.380 to 0.908 and F1 from 0.748 to 0.855; both mechanisms lost recall. In Experiment 3, four role-specialized outputs were compared with a model-seeded reference reviewed and adjudicated by three human reviewers. On the 20 public stories, role-level exact agreement for validation_needed was 0.825, and a two-or-more-vote policy reviewed 12 stories and captured 12 of 14 reference positives without routing any of the six reference negatives. Open-ended planning artifacts showed very low exact normalized-item overlap with the reference for tasks, acceptance criteria, and test ideas, so no semantic-agreement claim is made for those artifacts. Seven external participants provided initial face-validity evidence for selective review and human control. The results support the evaluated component mechanisms and selective review routing under the frozen configurations, but they do not establish end-to-end workflow effectiveness, model invariance, better planning decisions, or industrial effectiveness. Full article

To address the challenges of susceptibility to interference and limited accuracy inherent in conventional gas flow rate measurement methods, this paper proposes and investigates a laser Doppler gas flow rate measurement method based on synchronous three-point velocity measurement. This method simultaneously measures the flow velocities at three characteristic points within the pipeline cross-section, subsequently fits and reconstructs the velocity distribution across the entire profile, and ultimately achieves high-precision flow measurement. The feasibility of selecting the center point, the quarter-width point, and the near-wall point as the three characteristic measurement positions is analyzed through computational fluid dynamics simulations, and the full-profile velocity distribution is fitted accordingly. A three-point synchronous velocity-flow rate measurement system is designed and constructed, employing a transmitting optical path based on the “three beam splitters and two mirrors” scheme and a receiving optical path based on the “multi-lens independent reception” scheme, and experimental validation is conducted. Experimental results demonstrate that the system operates stably with good repeatability. In contrast to the flow calculation method using a single-point Pitot tube combined with an empirical formula, the proposed system, which directly fits the velocity profile and integrates it for flow calculation, effectively avoids the significant model errors caused by using fixed empirical coefficients in non-circular pipe flows, and is inherently more universally applicable in principle. Through comparison with the TSI reference standard (3D LDV), the measurement results of the proposed system are in close agreement with the reference values, with relative errors all below −0.8%. This paper provides an effective solution for high-precision gas flow measurement in square pipelines. Full article

Vertical-axis wind turbines (VAWTs) could be a good alternative to horizontal axis turbines for offshore applications. However, the variability of the aerodynamic forces with the blade azimuthal position subjects the blade to fatigue stresses and generates typical power periodicity. Extreme wind conditions, such as gusts, could aggravate the aerodynamic load peaks, compromising the system durability. We analyze the transient aerodynamic loads generated under gusty winds for a 5 MW offshore troposkein-shaped VAWT. The behavior of the turbine at its equatorial plane is simulated by 2D-CFD assuming gusts characterized by different periods and amplitudes. Since the turbine is stall-regulated, a range of wind velocities going from the maximum efficiency velocity to the nominal power velocity are considered. The instantaneous overloads of power, blade radial force, and total force on the shaft are analyzed. An increase in the peak values up to 119% (power) and 51% (force on the shaft) are predicted relative to the most severe steady condition, depending on gust characteristics and the blade position when the gust crest occurs. These results refer to the equatorial plane, rather than the entire turbine. It is demonstrated how the passive stall load regulation method protects the turbine from excessive overloads. Full article

Accurate stereo visual–inertial measurement is essential for mobile robots operating in Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS)-denied and structurally complex environments. In stereo visual–inertial odometry (VIO), pose and trajectory outputs depend strongly on the point measurements delivered by the visual front end before sensor-fusion update. In sparse-texture but structurally regular scenes, tracked point features may exhibit poor persistence, uneven spatial distribution, and local tracking noise, even when informative line structures are present. Existing point–line VIO methods can improve positioning accuracy by introducing line landmarks or line residuals, but they usually modify the estimator state, measurement model, and Jacobian treatment. We present a scene-adaptive line-aware visual measurement conditioning method for stereo VIO front ends with point-measurement updates. The method uses 2-D image-line segments as lightweight structural priors and applies bounded normal-direction conditioning to reliable point measurements before a fixed-interface VIO back-end update. A sparse pruning safeguard removes only highly inconsistent long-lived tracks under strong structural support, while a scene-level confidence gate attenuates the intervention when line evidence is weak or unstable. The method is instantiated and evaluated in an S-MSCKF pipeline. On the reported EuRoC MAV sequences, it reduces the sequence-averaged absolute trajectory error (ATE) RMSE by approximately 13% relative to S-MSCKF, with 3–27% reductions on machine-hall sequences. On three real-world robot measurement sequences with an RTK-aided inertial reference, the mean Sim(2)-aligned planar position error decreases from 8.72 m to 7.31 m, and the mean yaw error decreases from $8.{02}^{\circ }$ to $6.{76}^{\circ }$; an additional scale-preserving SE(2) evaluation reveals sequence-dependent planar behavior and residual metric-scale sensitivity. Candidate-level stereo-consistency diagnostics show subpixel mean and 95th-percentile image-domain perturbations without systematic vertical-stereo bias, while the final reliability-weighted primary-view update is analytically bounded by approximately 0.221 pixels in the reported implementation. Runtime profiling reports an average front-end time of 33.34 ms on the tested CPU platform, close to the 33.3 ms frame period of the 30 Hz stereo input, although the $\mu +3\sigma$ runtime of 47.23 ms exceeds a strict frame-by-frame 30 Hz budget. These results suggest that line-aware front-end conditioning can improve visual measurement quality in structured stereo visual–inertial sensing without modifying the evaluated back-end interface. Full article

This paper proposes a super twisting observer-based fast terminal sliding mode control scheme with a novel dual-term reaching law for output voltage regulation of a DC–DC buck converter under disturbances. The proposed reaching law replaces the discontinuous sign function with a continuous hyperbolic tangent function, resolving the fundamental chattering–convergence trade-off inherent in classical reaching laws. The first term employs an exponential gain structure to accelerate convergence when system states are far from the sliding surface, while the second fractional-power term ensures rapid terminal-phase positioning in the vicinity of the surface. A fast terminal sliding surface is incorporated to further reduce settling time, and a super-twisting observer estimates matched disturbances arising from load and input voltage variations using only the output voltage measurement, eliminating the need for additional current sensors. Lyapunov-based stability proofs are provided for both the observer and the controller. Simulation results demonstrate that the proposed reaching law achieves a convergence time of 0.0403 s with the lowest tracking error among all compared methods: RMSE and MAE are reduced by 45.3% and 58.4%, respectively, relative to the exponential reaching law, while the chattering rate value decreases by 13.0%. Real-time experimental validation on a dSPACE1104 platform confirms that the proposed controller achieves fast reference voltage tracking, maintains tight output voltage regulation under load variations, and effectively rejects input voltage disturbances, demonstrating superior convergence speed, chattering attenuation, and disturbance rejection capability. Full article

In the face of the challenges of the dual carbon strategy, emerging digital technologies are reshaping the landscape of the supply chain and are also transforming the long-term stability and adaptability of green innovation in supply chain firms. Drawing on stakeholder theory and limited-attention theory, this study established a theoretical framework of opportunism behavior and environmentalism behavior on digitization and examined the nonlinear relationship between supply chain digitization and firms’ green technology innovation. Additionally, this study used the machine learning method to construct a supply chain data based on 12,466 firm-year observations from manufacturing firms on supply chain networks. The findings suggest that digitization of upstream and downstream firms has a U-shaped effect on green technology innovation of focal firms from the dual perspectives of opportunism behavior and environmentalism behavior. Importantly, opportunism behavior has a negative mediating effect on the relationship between digitization of upstream and downstream firms and green technology innovation of focal firms. Environmentalism behavior has a positive mediating effect on the relationship between digitization of upstream and downstream firms and green technology innovation of focal firms. Also, we find that media attention and institutional investors positively regulate the nonlinear relationship between digitization of upstream and downstream firms and green technology innovation of focal firms. These findings provide theoretical insights and practical references for the study of digital spillover effects from a supply chain perspective and promoting the development of green supply chains. Full article

Credit default prediction is a standard risk-management task, and large language models (LLMs) have been proposed as prompt-based alternatives, without task-specific parameter updating, for institutions that cannot deploy full machine learning (ML) pipelines. This study evaluates the Informed GPT on Colombian solidarity-sector cooperative lending data, benchmarking gpt-4o-mini against five tuned tree ensemble and gradient boosting classifiers on native imbalanced data (17.3% default rate, 12,861 loans). Six additions relative to the seminal reference are reported: (i) a new empirical domain (Colombian solidarity-sector cooperatives regulated by the SES); (ii) a multi-model benchmark rather than a logistic-regression-only baseline; (iii) a leakage-mitigation prompt design that excludes supervised-analysis-derived hints, causal directions, and target-distribution disclosures; (iv) a calibration analysis using Brier score, log loss, expected calibration error (ECE), reliability diagrams, and calibration slope and intercept; (v) bootstrap 95% confidence intervals, DeLong tests, and McNemar tests for paired significance; and (vi) matched label-budget learning curves for logistic regression, XGBoost, and LightGBM. Tuned ML models attain AUC $\approx 0.96$ (bootstrap CI $[0.94,0.98]$), while the LLM operates in the AUC 0.67–0.74 range across few-shot sizes $N\in \{0,10,20,40,80\}$. Under matched budgets, the LLM outperforms logistic regression at every N but is surpassed by gradient boosting once training samples reach approximately 40–80 observations. LLM probabilities are miscalibrated (ECE 0.11–0.21 vs. ≈0.03 for ML) and over-predict default (mean predicted probability 0.28–0.38 vs. observed base rate 0.17); threshold optimisation and post hoc calibration (Platt scaling, isotonic regression) are required for operational use. The findings qualify earlier claims about LLM auditability and position the approach as an assessment tool for cooperatives with fewer than ≈100 labelled defaults, rather than as a substitute for a well-resourced ML pipeline. Full article