Search Results (2,476)

Malaria in a Greek citizen with prior malaria history residing and working in Cameroon returning in his home country is a medical emergency warranting prompt and accurate diagnosis and effective treatment. We describe a mixed malaria case of a febrile patient, a professional returning to Greece from a malaria-endemic country whose initial diagnosis was a false-negative malaria rapid diagnostic test. Subsequent alternative rapid diagnostic test, malaria thin-film blood examination and molecular diagnosis revealed mixed malaria infection from Plasmodium ovale and Plasmodium malariae. The patient was successfully treated and achieved complete clinical recovery. The case described here highlights important points regarding prompt and accurate malaria diagnosis in returning travelers in non-endemic countries, emphasizing the importance of revealing cryptic mixed malaria cases and providing molecular approaches to malaria diagnosis in combination with the gold-standard microscopy. Full article

To determine a reasonable coal pillar width for gob-side entry driving in extra-thick coal seams and improve roof control under thick top-coal conditions, the No. 50604 return airway of Ti’an Coal Mine was selected as the engineering case. A combined approach involving theoretical calculation, numerical simulation, and field monitoring was adopted. Based on limit equilibrium theory and a modified Kastner formula for rectangular roadways, the reasonable coal pillar width was determined to be 7.13~8.42 m. Sensitivity analysis showed that the calculated width was sensitive to the stress concentration and lateral pressure coefficients. FLAC3D simulations compared the plastic zone and deformation of the gob-side entry under different pillar widths, and 8 m was determined as the reasonable width. Mining-stage simulations indicated that the plastic failure range and deformation increased markedly within 5~10 m ahead of the working face. A roof full-cable deep–shallow collaborative support system was proposed, and reasonable roof support parameters were determined through orthogonal numerical simulation and multi-index evaluation. Field monitoring showed that roadway deformation remained controllable during excavation and mining, verifying the rationality of the 8 m narrow pillar and roof full-cable support parameters. Full article

In this work, we explore a piezoelectric neuron model in deterministic perturbations and stochastic forcing due to its use in mechanically driven sensing systems and neuromorphic sensor design. The model comprises of fast activation and slow recovery behaviors and constitutes a multiscale excitable system, converting external mechanical perturbations into nonlinear electrical responses. We initially examine the deterministic dynamics with phase-space reconstruction, basin of attraction mapping, return map analysis and sensitivity to initial conditions. These findings demonstrate stable limit-cycle oscillations and high nonlinear sensitivity that are crucial to high-resolution sensing and signal amplification. Stochastic forcing is added in order to include realistic environmental effects, and solved numerically with the Euler-Maruyama scheme. Time-series statistics, phase portraits, and recurrence quantification analysis are used to analyze the resulting ensemble dynamics, making it possible to characterize the variability and loss of predictability caused by noise. Comparison of deterministic and stochastic regimes indicates that the intensity of noise can considerably alter the firing patterns and recurrence structures. Full article

High-speed train aerodynamics have mainly been improved by passive design methods, such as streamlined noses, local fairings, and surface smoothing. These methods have achieved clear benefits, but several important aerodynamic problems remain difficult to solve by geometry optimization alone. Open-air drag is still affected by tail flow separation, base-pressure recovery, and disturbances around bogies and the underbody; crosswind safety is influenced by unsteady leeward-side separation and wake asymmetry; slipstream behavior depends on wake vortices, boundary-layer development, and complex near-ground underbody flow; and tunnel-related pressure transients arise from compression-wave generation, propagation, and reflection. These coupled effects mean that one fixed train shape cannot perform optimally in all operating conditions. For this reason, this review proposes that active flow control (AFC) should not be regarded only as a drag-reduction or stability-improvement technique for high-speed trains. Instead, it should be understood as a mission-adaptive aerodynamic control framework, in which different control actions are used for different operating scenarios. This paper first clarifies that passive optimization is increasingly subject to diminishing returns under multi-objective and engineering constraints. It then reviews AFC studies on drag reduction, base-pressure recovery, wake and slipstream control, underbody flow conditioning, crosswind mitigation, and tunnel pressure-wave suppression. Related AFC studies on bluff bodies, road vehicles, and other separated flows are included only when their physical relevance to trains is clear. The review further distinguishes gross aerodynamic improvement from net energy gain and identifies actuator power, durability, maintainability, acoustic impact, validation level, and full-scale transferability as decisive feasibility factors. Current research is still dominated by open-loop numerical studies with simplified actuation. Future work should therefore move toward multi-objective, closed-loop, energy-aware, sensor–actuator-integrated, and explainable machine-learning-assisted AFC. The main message is that the next step in train aerodynamics is not simply a better fixed shape, but a control-enabled train that can selectively redistribute aerodynamic authority across its mission profile. Full article

5G communication commercialization is accelerating in many countries. At present, a large number of communication materials are deployed to transmit millimeter waves for 5G base stations. However, it brings huge energy consumption due to the shortcomings of the current materials. Therefore, a novel soft magnetic material with high magnetic permeability and low dielectric constant is urgently needed to reduce the energy loss of 5G base stations. In this work, a series of CoBiNi alloys were prepared using the hydrothermal reduction method, with bismuth (Bi) as the dopant. The results indicate that Bi can regulate the magnetic permeability of soft magnetic materials; the permeability of the Co20Bi5Ni75 alloy fluctuates stably around 1.50 within the frequency range of 14.00–18.00 GHz. The saturation magnetization exhibits an upward trend with increasing Bi doping, with the Co20Bi5Ni75 sample reaching a saturation magnetization of 73.11 emu/g. The coercivity and residual magnetization characteristics confirm that Co20Bi5Ni75 is a typical soft magnetic material. The microwave return loss (RL) of the Co20Bi5Ni75 alloy was consistently higher than −6.89 dB across the 1.00–18.00 GHz frequency range when the sample thickness was 5 mm. The increased magnetic permeability of the Co20Bi5Ni75 alloy is attributed to the ability of Bi³⁺ to suppress carrier migration, thereby increasing the resistivity of the crystal structure and consequently improving the material’s magnetic permeability. These findings provide new insights into the preparation of high-permeability soft magnetic materials. Full article

This article examines how MongoDB optimizes aggregation pipeline queries, focusing on two mechanisms: a trial-based plan selection process that runs candidate execution plans in parallel and picks the one returning the most results for the least work, and rule-based operator rewriting by the Pipeline Optimizer. The study tests nine aggregation query types on a synthetic e-commerce dataset with 50K documents, using MongoDB versions 6.0.3 and 8.2.5 under identical conditions. For each query, all valid operator orderings are evaluated together with the physical execution plan and the Pipeline Optimizer output. Each test runs 20 times with the plan cache cleared before every run. The study also tests scalability with datasets of 150K and 250K documents. Three cases are identified where the rule-based optimizer falls short: IXSCAN preference bias at low selectivity, where the suboptimal plan is up to nine times slower than the optimal (80 ms vs. 699 ms at 250K under MongoDB 8.2.5), unbounded document multiplication after $unwind, and failure to account for $group output cardinality. MongoDB 8.2.5 improves performance in most cases compared to version 6.0.3. $match + $group queries run up to 28% faster. Queries that rely on IXSCAN improve by up to 18%. Unbounded projection operations run slower in MongoDB 8.2.5 at all tested sizes. The slowdown is +23% at 50K, +3% at 150K, and +14% at 250K, pointing to a change in the projection execution path between versions. Full article

In high-demand financial environments, employees’ capacity to regulate and sustain personal energy may constitute a critical yet underdeveloped organizational resource. Drawing on the Job Demands–Resources (JD-R) model and Conservation of Resources (COR) theory, this study conceptualizes energy management as a multidimensional personal resource that may support adaptive functioning and innovation under demanding work conditions. Despite increasing conceptual attention to energy-related constructs, systematic scale validation and cross-level performance evidence remain limited. This research adopts a two-study design to develop and validate a multidimensional Energy Management Scale within financial institutions. Study 1 (N = 299 employees from 11 financial institutions) examines the factorial structure, reliability, and nomological validity of the scale. Confirmatory factor analysis is used to examine the proposed four-dimensional configuration of physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual energy. The scale demonstrates acceptable internal consistency reliability and evidence of structural validity, including convergent and discriminant validity. Structural modeling results reveal that overall energy management is positively related to innovative behavior and organizational citizenship behavior. However, perceived workload was significantly associated only with physical energy, suggesting that demand-related mechanisms of energy may not operate uniformly across energy components. Additionally, exploratory institution-level aggregation analyses showed preliminary, counterintuitive negative associations between mean organizational energy levels and return on equity (ROE) in some years. Given the limited number of institutional clusters, these cross-level findings are preliminary and intended to provide initial external criterion evidence rather than confirmatory causal inference. Study 2 (N = 148 employees from two institutions) further examines alternative scale versions and external validity through stress coping capacity, job satisfaction, and life satisfaction. Results were discussed to examine the robustness and predictive validity of the scale across samples. Collectively, this study advances energy management research by providing a psychometrically supported measurement instrument and preliminary multilevel evidence of its organizational relevance. The findings position energy management as a measurable human-capital resource with implications for sustainable workforce innovation and performance in financial institutions. Full article

Reconfigurable radio frequency (RF) attenuators are critical passive components for 5G-Advanced and emerging 6G wireless systems. Conventional tunable attenuators rely on solid-state switches combined with fixed resistor networks, which suffer from unavoidable static power consumption and severe parasitic degradation at high frequencies. Here, we systematically demonstrate HfO₂-based non-volatile memristors as RF switches with tunable ON-state resistance (R_ON), enabling a switching-attenuation-integrated multistate attenuator. The fabricated Au/HfO₂/Ag devices exhibit stable bipolar resistive switching with an ON/OFF ratio exceeding 10⁹, reliable retention of 10⁵ s, and programmable R_ON continuously tuned from 5.8 Ω to 197.5 Ω. On-wafer RF characterizations from 10 MHz to 43.5 GHz reveal low insertion loss (−0.53 dB), high isolation (−26.8 dB), and clear scaling laws governing the effects of device geometry and R_ON on RF performance. Leveraging these unique characteristics, we propose a symmetric π-type programmable all-memristor attenuator architecture with a cascaded 2-unit configuration. The design achieves 12 discrete attenuation levels from 2 dB to 24 dB, a return loss better than 10 dB across the full band, and zero static power consumption without additional passive components or bias networks. This work establishes the fundamental material-device-RF performance relationship in HfO₂-based RF switches and provides a compact, low-power, and highly integrable solution for next-generation reconfigurable RF front-ends. Full article

“Theosis in Soloviev and Berdyaev” will look at the deification concepts of these Russian philosophers. Deification ideas in both these writers had a strong social side and included a sharp critique of institutional churches. Sources that influenced each author will be examined. In speaking of deification, both thinkers drew upon the philosophy of Jacob Boehme. Both Soloviev and Berdyaev affirmed Orthodox principles but reacted against the authoritarianism of the Russian Orthodox hierarchy and wanted the church to return to its legitimate spiritual mission of fostering the Kingdom of God on earth. I first examine Soloviev, reacting, in part, to Jeremy Pilch’s penetrating study of Soloviev’s use of Maximus the Confessor during Soloviev’s middle and late periods. Soloviev pictures deification as a restoration of harmony with God. I argue that Soloviev also drew upon Origen’s concept of apokatastasis, which relates to theosis. Boehme’s philosophy is briefly examined in order to highlight what the two philosophers utilized from him. Berdyaev‘s philosophy is studied, including his usage of Boehme’s notion of the Ungrund. Ruth Coates offers a sophisticated analysis of Berdyaev. I argue that Berdyaev’s work is prophetic rather than Nietzschean. Berdyaev articulates a strongly theistic and anti-Nietzschean philosophy of cooperation with God. For both thinkers, deification is initiated by God, but free human cooperation is required for it to be realized. Both authors assert that Christ made deification possible. Both authors speak of a deification of the flesh, although their meaning is unclear. Full article

The spread of multimodal misinformation demands verification that is both accurate and fast while keeping knowledge current. Large language models are powerful but costly and slow, and their static knowledge can lag behind events. We introduce EC-MFR, a hierarchical framework that divides work between edge and the cloud. The system first optionally decomposes the claim into a few targeted sub-claims to guide retrieval, retrieves text and image evidence, and then compresses it into a small set of question–answer items using a lightweight, quantized multimodal language model deployed at the edge. A compact verifier on the edge predicts a label with calibrated confidence. If confidence is high, the decision is returned immediately. If confidence is low, the claim is sent to the cloud where retrieval can be expanded and the reasoning can be redone by a stronger verifier. This design offers three core benefits. It makes reasoning explicit through question–answer items, which shortens prompts and improves auditability. It improves retrieval recall via a light decomposition step that produces targeted sub-queries. Finally, it lets most easy claims finish on the edge to reduce cost and latency while preserving accuracy on difficult claims by allowing the cloud to broaden evidence and refine reasoning. Experiments on MOCHEG and AVERITEC validate the approach. Notably, EC-MFR achieves highly competitive accuracy of 54.10% on the multimodal MOCHEG dataset, and reaches 68.80% on AVERITEC under realistic retrieval settings, outperforming the GPT-4o cloud-only baseline by 6.6 percentage points. Furthermore, system-level profiling on edge hardware demonstrates that EC-MFR reduces processing costs by 51.8% and accelerates inference latency by 2.4× for edge-resolved claims, confirming a highly favorable accuracy–efficiency trade-off compared to existing multimodal fact-checking systems. We also formalize routing and efficiency and analyze calibration and retrieval. Full article

Coal mine dust is a critical hazard that can trigger explosions and cause pneumoconiosis, thereby severely threatening mine safety and occupational health. Although long-forcing and short-exhausting ventilation are commonly adopted in long-distance heading faces, their parameters are often determined empirically, leading to suboptimal dust control efficiency. This study utilizes numerical simulations via FLUENT to investigate dust migration patterns under five key ventilation parameters in the 2-2 Upper Coal Working Face of the Xintai Taigemiao Mining Area. The results reveal a zonal distribution of dust: a high-concentration accumulation zone within 0–15 m, a medium-concentration transition zone between 15 and 35 m, and a low-concentration settling zone beyond 35 m. Diffusion rates vary significantly across zones under different ventilation settings. The optimized parameters for the 20 m² cross-section roadway in this study include: exhausting duct set 0.3 m from the return-side wall, exhausting inlet at a distance of 4 m (0.9√A, A is the roadway cross-sectional area) from the face, forcing inlet at 20 m (4.5√A) from the face, duct installation height of 0.75 times the roadway height, and a forcing-to-exhausting air volume ratio between 1.2 and 1.6. Compared with the non-optimized scheme, this configuration reduces the average dust concentration in the breathing zone (1.2 m height) by up to 62.3%, and restricts 85% of the high-concentration dust within 0–15 m from the heading face, effectively suppressing dust dispersion to the rear roadway. This study provides a quantitative reference and theoretical strategy for engineering applications of dust prevention in similar large-section long-distance heading faces within the scope of numerical simulation. Full article

(1) Background: Asymmetry in strength, movement, and neuromuscular control is common in youth sports, yet its role in anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injury risk in pediatric athletes remains underexamined. (2) Methods: This narrative review synthesized studies that examined lower-limb asymmetry, biomechanics, ACL injury or reconstruction (ACLR), and rehabilitation in participants younger than 18 years, supplemented by key mechanistic and methodological work. (3) Results: Evidence indicates that asymmetry is multifactorial and sometimes functional, arising from limb dominance, sport-specific loading, growth-related morphological change, and neuromuscular variability. However, asymmetry becomes concerning when it coincides with high-risk landing or cutting mechanics, growth-related coordination deficits, or incomplete recovery after ACL reconstruction. Persistent strength and loading asymmetries are linked to secondary ACL injury and early structural joint changes, whereas neuromuscular training and technique-modification programs can improve symmetry and reduce high-risk mechanics. Major gaps include the absence of pediatric-specific asymmetry norms, limited longitudinal and sex-specific data, and heterogeneous measurement approaches. (4) Conclusions: Clarifying when asymmetry is adaptive versus maladaptive, and integrating this knowledge into screening, rehabilitation, and return-to-sport decision-making, will be essential for optimizing performance and promoting lifelong knee health in pediatric athletes. Full article

To address the alternating high- and low-stress cycles observed during the analysis of stress evolution and energy field distribution in the folded structural zone of Working Face No. 2 at a certain mine, a three-dimensional geological numerical model was established using Rhino+HyperMesh, incorporating the geological characteristics of the working face. Additionally, a dual-yield model for the goaf was incorporated into the analysis to accurately capture rock behavior. The analysis reveals that in the folded structural zone, the stress at the advance supports reaches its maximum at each inflection point, when the waste rock in the goaf also exhibits significant hardening behavior. Specifically, during the synclinal upward mining stage, the abutment stress reaches 7.6 MPa. In contrast, stress values reach their minimum at the ridge and trough points. In these inflection points, concentrated stresses are also observed on both sides of the coal face in the goaf. Notably, the stress in the haulage gate, due to its greater curvature, is higher than that in the return air drift. Furthermore, the strain energy peaks at the hinge point between the drift and the axis of the anticline. This concentration of strain energy occurs in areas highly prone to roof collapse, and notably, it is maximized where these three factors intersect. Full article

In this paper, I contribute to the recent dialogue between anthropologists and theologians by focusing on the disciplinary self-understanding of the latter. In the first part, I present the results of an analysis of interviews conducted with thirty theologians and religious studies scholars in the Netherlands and in Germany. I argue that the disciplinary coherence of theology found in these interviews is well captured by theology’s overarching purpose of ‘discerning life lived in God’s presence’. In the second part, I try to put more flesh on the bones of this ‘theology as discernment’. I start by introducing the work of Dutch theologian Erik Borgman, whose theology exemplifies what theology as discernment might look like. I then introduce a central discussion within theologically engaged anthropology, namely that on the relationship between description and judgment. Bringing the reflections of my main anthropological interlocutor, Joel Robbins, in dialogue with Borgman’s theology, I suggest that discernment can uniquely bring description and judgment together. In the final section, I return to the first part by reflecting on discernment as theology’s disciplinary coherence, tying this to the description/judgment discussion and drawing conclusions for what this means for the distinction between theology and anthropology. Full article

Current evidence on traumatic equine wounds are predominantly from expert opinion reviews or referral hospital studies. This study aimed to describe the owner-reported causes, management and outcome of equine wounds. An owner-reported cohort approach was used. Owners of horses with recent traumatic wounds were recruited through snowball sampling. Data were collected from initial injury to final healing and outcome, including horse demographics, wound cause and location, owner- and veterinary-administered treatment, and outcome. Descriptive statistics included frequency percentages (%, x/y) and median and interquartile range. Data were obtained for 219 cases, with outcome data for 139 horses. The most common wound cause was a wire/fence injury (38%, 84/219), and the most common location was distal hindlimb (31%, 79/251). Owners administered initial first aid in 67% (147/219) of cases, and 75% (165/219) of horses received veterinary treatment. A total of 19% (38/201) of owners were not confident in deciding whether veterinary attention was needed. Wound healing time was a median of 60 days (IQR 30.3–157.0), time to return to work was a median of 6.5 weeks (IQR 2.0–16.0), and 3/139 horses were euthanised. Main study limitations were small sample size, self-selection, owner-reporting and attrition bias. Key areas for future resources to support owner preventative care and decision-making were identified. Full article