Search Results (3,450)

Analysing the need for homogenisation of organisations and the incorporation of institutional theory in public administration is a relevant topic, given that it is a process that reflects the historical characteristics of an organisation built by the people who work there and the way in which it establishes relationships with its environment. The need to incorporate existing practices between organisations, which leads them to come closer together and converge, is a phenomenon known in the literature as isomorphism. This entry triggers a review of significant literature in the field, based on sound scientific principles, with the aim of contributing to the sharing of information for a better understanding of the structure and functioning of organisations against the backdrop of institutional isomorphism. In this way, it sought to convey the need to advance institutional theory in public administration based on isomorphism. Full article

Shellfish are an essential component of the human diet, yet their safety is increasingly compromised by contamination with heavy metals, petroleum hydrocarbons, and pathogenic microorganisms, such as Vibrio, which pose significant health risks. This study examined shellfish samples from seafood markets, assessing the levels of heavy metals (e.g., cadmium, copper) and petroleum hydrocarbons, while isolating and identifying Vibrio species carried by the shellfish. The antimicrobial resistance profiles, resistance genes, and biofilm-forming capacities of these strains were further characterized. Results revealed significant seasonal fluctuations in heavy metal concentrations, with some samples exceeding regulatory limits, indicating potential health risks for long-term consumers. Likewise, Vibrio abundance and resistance varied seasonally, with a notable prevalence of multidrug-resistant strains, likely influenced by antibiotic misuse and environmental pressures in coastal regions. Correlation analyses suggested potential links between heavy metal contamination and Vibrio resistance, as well as biofilm formation, supporting the hypothesis that metal-induced stress may facilitate resistance gene transfer and enhance biofilm-mediated resistance. This study reveals the seasonal dynamics of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) in shellfish-derived Vibrio species and elucidates the dose–response effects of heavy metals and petroleum hydrocarbons, as well as their synergistic selection mechanisms. These findings provide a scientific foundation for assessing shellfish safety, deciphering AMR transmission, and developing ecosystem-based strategies for aquaculture monitoring. Full article

The decline in the injectivity of injection wells is a serious problem in geothermal systems. In this article, we analyse the mechanisms responsible for the reduction in permeability in Lower Jurassic sandstones during the injection of cooled formation brine. Flow experiments were conducted on rock cores using three types of brines with varying degrees of contamination. The studies included microscopic analysis, scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and mercury intrusion capillary pressure (MICP) before and after the experiments. The results showed that the main factor in the decrease in permeability is the formation of a filter cake from secondary iron minerals on the front surface of the core. Filter cake formation was observed in all samples, with ferrous sediment penetrating to a maximum depth of 1.5 cm from the core front. In addition, the mobilisation of clay particles was observed, which accumulate in pore constrictions, causing additional flow restriction. Mercury porosimetry revealed significant increases in hysteresis values in the front zone (from 16.5 to 42%), indicating complex pore connectivity changes without substantial porosity reduction. The rate of injectivity decline correlates strongly with the fluid flow velocity. The results of the study provide a scientific basis for optimising reinjection processes in geothermal systems and developing strategies to prevent formation damage. Full article

Chronic wounds present a major clinical challenge, often aggravated by infection and rising antimicrobial resistance. This study investigated the wound-healing efficacy of Lobelia alsinoides Lam., an ethnomedicinal herb, formulated as a topical ointment containing its ethanolic extract (LT). Phytochemical profiling identified high levels of phenolics, terpenoids, and tannins, while in vitro assays demonstrated strong antioxidant, broad-spectrum antimicrobial, and cytocompatible properties. Wound-healing potential was evaluated using excision and incision wound models in rats treated with 5% or 10% LT ointments, with Silverex™ as the reference standard. The 10% LT formulation significantly outperformed Silverex™, accelerating wound contraction (99.33 ± 0.55% by Day 16), shortening epithelialization time (16.1 ± 0.8 days), and enhancing tensile strength (837.36 ± 16.37 g; p < 0.001). Biochemical and histological analyses confirmed improved collagen deposition, extracellular matrix remodeling, and angiogenesis, without hepatic or renal toxicity. Overall, LT exhibited statistically superior wound-healing efficacy compared with Silverex™, supporting its potential as a safe, affordable, and sustainable phytotherapeutic alternative. These findings provide strong scientific validation for L. alsinoides as an evidence-based herbal candidate for integration into modern wound care, with future studies warranted to establish mechanistic and clinical efficacy in chronic and infected wounds. Full article

This study systematically assessed the regulatory effects of Yunnan Lufeng aromatic vinegar (LFAV) on the intestinal microbiota composition, short-chain fatty acids, and cecal metabolites in mice. 16S rRNA high-throughput sequencing revealed that LFAV intervention significantly altered gut microbiota diversity; the M-L group exhibited 19.98% unique operational taxonomic units, while both Chao1 (496.63 ± 42.14) and Shannon indices (6.68 ± 0.32) increased by 37.46% and 3.25%, respectively, compared to the blank group, indicating enhanced microbiota richness. Species composition analysis demonstrated that the relative abundance of Firmicutes reached 75.4% in the M-L group, a 24.4% increase over the B group, whereas Bacteroidetes abundance decreased to 8.2%. GC-MS analysis detected peak butyric acid levels in the M-L group. Untargeted metabolomics identified 520 metabolites, of which 60 were significant differential metabolites. Cluster heatmap and Z-score analyses demonstrated that LFAV intervention significantly modulated mouse metabolites. KEGG pathway enrichment analysis indicated the upregulation of pathways including neuroactive ligand–receptor interactions and renin secretion. Pearson correlation analysis showed a strong positive correlation (p < 0.01) between Lactobacillus and acetic acid/butyric acid; concurrently, increased Lactobacillus proliferation and elevated butyric acid levels were observed in the M-L and M-M groups. These findings suggest that LFAV intervention promotes the proliferation of beneficial bacteria, which may improve intestinal health. Collectively, LFAV significantly modified gut microbiota structure and metabolites in mice, highlighting its potential as a natural prebiotic or functional food ingredient and providing a scientific basis for developing functional vinegar products. Full article

The aim of this study was to rigorously quantify and analyse the concentrations of atmospheric pollutants (PM₁₀, PM_2.5, SO₂, NO₂, CO, H₂S, and O₃) emitted by artisanal brick kilns in Juliaca City, Peru. The AERMOD dispersion model and a network of low-cost sensors (LCSs) were employed to characterise air quality at specific receptor sites. A georeferenced inventory of kiln operations was created to determine their parameters and operational intensity, providing a foundation for estimating emission factors and rates. Data were obtained from the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and supplemented with locally gathered meteorological records, which were processed for integration into the AERMOD model. The findings revealed that brick kilns are a principal source of atmospheric pollution in the region, with carbon monoxide (CO) emissions being especially pronounced. The LCSs facilitated the identification of pollutant concentrations at various locations and enabled the quantification of the specific contribution of brick production to ambient aerosol levels. Comparative assessments determined that these sources account for approximately 85% of CO emissions within the study area, underscoring a significant adverse impact on air quality and public health. Background pollutant levels, emission rates, spatial distributions, and concentration patterns were analysed within the assessment zones, resulting in solid model performance. These results provide a sound scientific basis for the formulation and implementation of targeted environmental mitigation policies in urban areas and the outskirts of Juliaca. Full article

NPs have become a concerning global environmental problem. Dietary exposure to NPs can cause microbial dysbiosis. However, the risks of NPs to animals, particularly poultry species such as chickens, remain poorly understood. In this study, chickens were continuously exposed to 100 nm NPs via dietary inclusion from 18 weeks of age for 120 days to evaluate the effects of NPs on intestinal health. We found that NPs accumulated in chicken intestinal tissues, leading to adverse alterations in the intestinal mucosal structure, such as villus atrophy and goblet cell depletion, and significantly altering intestinal length. The 16S rRNA sequencing revealed significant gut microbiota dysbiosis, characterized by a loss of diversity and shifts in key bacterial groups. Functional predictions of the microbiota revealed impairments in metabolic pathways, especially carbohydrate and amino acid metabolism. Furthermore, network analysis showed that microbial interactions were disrupted and key functional hubs were lost. Most importantly, NPs exposure led to a significant decline in egg quality parameters, including eggshell thickness and strength, yolk color, weight, shape index, and Haugh units. Correlation analyses connected specific taxa, such as Methanobrevibacter, Rikenellaceae_RC9_gut_group, and Prevotellaceae_UCG-001, to intestinal damage and declines in egg quality. These findings provide a scientific basis for assessing the health risks of NPs in animals and offer insights into the development of gut health interventions. Full article

Depression is among the most prevalent mental disorders, and its early detection is essential to improving therapeutic outcomes in psychotherapy. This systematic review and meta-analysis evaluated the accuracy, interpretability, and generalizability of supervised algorithms (SVM, Random Forest, XGBoost, and GCN) for clinical detection of depression using real-world data. Following PRISMA guidelines, 20 studies published between 2014 and 2025 were analyzed across major scientific databases. Extracted metrics included F1-Score, AUC-ROC, interpretability methods (SHAP/LIME), and cross-validation strategies, with statistical analyses using ANOVA and Pearson correlations. Results showed that XGBoost achieved the best average performance (F1-Score: 0.86; AUC-ROC: 0.84), although differences across algorithms were not statistically significant (p > 0.05), challenging claims of algorithmic superiority. SHAP was the predominant interpretability approach (70% of studies). Studies implementing combined SHAP+LIME showed higher F1-Score values (F(1,7) = 8.71, p = 0.021), although this association likely reflects greater overall methodological rigor rather than a direct causal effect of interpretability on predictive performance. Clinical surveys and electronic health records demonstrated the most stable predictive outputs across validation schemes, whereas neurophysiological data achieved the highest point estimates but with limited sample representation. F1-Score strongly correlated with AUC-ROC (r = 0.950, p < 0.001). Considerable heterogeneity was observed for both metrics (I² = 74.37% for F1; I² = 71.49% for AUC), and Egger’s test indicated a publication bias for AUC (p = 0.0048). Overall, findings suggest that algorithmic performance depends more on data quality, context, and interpretability than on the choice of model, with explainable approaches offering practical value for personalized and collaborative clinical decision-making. Full article

Climate change affects both the quantity and quality of water resources, amplifying the water crisis, slowing progress toward achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and contributing to the needs of future generations. To address these challenges, this study presents an interdisciplinary synthesis of the literature on the subject, highlighting the impact of climate change on water resources (surface water and groundwater). The escalating global demand for water, driven by factors such as population growth, urbanization, and industrial development, is placing significant pressure on water resources. This situation needs sustainable management solutions to mitigate the environmental impacts associated with increased water consumption and climate change. The methodology included bibliometric analysis using VOSviewer version 1.6.19, a software tool for constructing and visualizing bibliometric networks, and systematic analysis according to the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines. 155 records were used in this review from a total number of 1344 documents searched in Science Direct, Scopus and Google Scholar databases. The results indicate that research on the consequences of climate change on water quality remains in its infancy. This study highlights the effects of climate change on water quality indicators, including physicochemical, microbiological, and micropollutants, as well as the implications for human health and water supply infrastructure. Climatic factors, such as rising temperatures and changing precipitation patterns, are particularly important because they control processes fundamental to sustaining life on the planet. The main conclusions are that climate change accelerates the degradation of drinking water quality and amplifies public health risks. These findings highlight the need for rigorous assessments and the development of integrated adaptation strategies involving collaboration among water operators, decision-makers, the scientific community, and climate change specialists. Full article

This study explores the effects of afforestation in infertile mountainous areas on soil microbial communities and functional nutrient cycling genes in young Cyclobalanopsis gilva forests, aiming to provide a scientific basis for promoting C. gilva growth. Employing metagenomic sequencing coupled with integrative analyses of microbial community structure and functional genes, this study took 7-year-old C. gilva forest stands in infertile mountainous areas of Shouchang Forest Farm, Zhejiang Province as the research object, using adjacent 7-year-old C. gilva forest in woodland areas as a control, to analyze the differences in soil microbial community structure and nutrient cycling functional genes in the rhizosphere (SCG) and non-rhizosphere (SNR) of infertile mountainous areas, as well as from the rhizosphere (FCG) and non-rhizosphere (FNR) of control woodland areas, and further explore their relationships with the growth of C. gilva. The results indicated that the contents of soil organic carbon (SOC), total nitrogen (TN), total phosphorus (TP), and microbial biomass nitrogen (MBN) in SNR were significantly lower than those in FNR by 59.50%, 39.57%, 29.32%, and 53.13%, respectively. Bradyrhizobium and Trebonia were the dominant genera in both site conditions; however, the relative abundance of these genera was lower in infertile mountainous areas compared to the control. Notably, the Shannon and Simpson indices of SCG were significantly lower by 0.49 and 0.01 than those of SNR (p < 0.05), respectively. Additionally, the relative abundances of carbon fixation and nitrogen fixation of SCG were significantly higher than those of SNR. And the relative abundances of functional genes involved in carbon cycling (glyA, fdhA), nitrogen cycling (nasA, narfC, narC, and nirB), and phosphorus cycling (phoB) in infertile mountainous areas were significantly higher than those in the control. The nutrient cycling processes and the expression of functional genes in SCG are coordinately regulated by soil nutrients (SOC and TN) and microbial biomass [MBC (microbial biomass carbon) and MBN]. This work provides a mechanistic foundation for optimizing afforestation strategies and ecological restoration in nutrient-limited mountainous ecosystems, highlighting the critical role of microbial functional plasticity in overcoming edaphic constraints. Full article

Changes in nearshore water quality directly influence ecosystem stability and the sustainability of aquaculture production. Among these factors, rapid fluctuations in dissolved oxygen (DO) can compromise the physiological functions of aquatic organisms, often leading to mass mortality events and significant economic losses. To enhance the predictive capability of DO in marine ranching areas, this study evaluates multiple forecasting approaches, including AutoARIMA, XGBoost, BlockRNN-LSTM, BlockRNN-GRU, TCN, Transformer, and an ensemble model that integrates these methods. Using hourly DO observations from coastal buoys, we performed multi-step rolling forecasts and systematically assessed model performance across multiple evaluation metrics (MAPE, RMSE, and R²), complemented by residual and error distribution analyses. The results show that the ensemble model, based on deep learning techniques, consistently outperforms individual models, achieving higher forecast robustness and more effective variance control, with MAPE values maintained below 4% across all three buoys. Building upon these findings, we further developed and deployed a DO forecasting and early-warning system centered on the ensemble framework. This system enables end-to-end functionality, including automatic data acquisition, real-time prediction, hypoxia risk identification, and alert dissemination. It has already been applied in marine ranching operations, providing 1–3 day forecasts of DO dynamics, facilitating the early detection of hypoxia risks, and significantly improving the scientific support and responsiveness of aquaculture management. Full article

Animal emotions have been debated since Darwin’s pioneering work on the expression of such states in humans and other animals. Lately, interest in measuring animal emotions has been growing. Hence, a scientific discussion on this topic was needed, which translated into the organisation of the first International Workshop on Research Methods for Animal Emotion Analysis (RM4AEA). The current work aims to provide a concise yet critical examination of the current knowledge and methodological approaches discussed during the workshop, with a primary focus on visual behaviours. Although establishing conceptual definitions poses an initial challenge when studying animal emotions, the key challenges are found when collecting data sets, and when interpreting and analysing the information contained therein. This work also offers insights and recommendations to address these challenges, drawn from the closing panel discussion. By synthesising recent developments and expert perspectives shared during the workshop, this report aims to foster continued dialogue within the scientific community. Full article

Bidens pilosa L. extract (BPE), a traditional medicine known for its antimicrobial properties, has not been thoroughly investigated for its potential against avian pathogenic Escherichia coli (APEC), a major pathogen responsible for severe economic losses and high mortality in poultry. This study aimed to comprehensively assess the antibacterial activity of BPE against APEC through both in vivo and in vitro experiments and to explore its underlying mechanisms. In a chicken infection model, BPE treatment led to an 80% cure rate and 20% mortality, in contrast to the 90% diarrhea and 70% mortality observed in the untreated model group. BPE also significantly alleviated intestinal tissue damage and reduced serum levels of inflammatory cytokines IL-6 and IL-1β (p < 0.01). In vitro analyses revealed a minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) of 625 mg/mL. BPE dose-dependently suppressed bacterial motility, swarming, and biofilm formation (p < 0.01) and markedly increased membrane permeability, indicated by elevated release of nucleic acids, proteins, and alkaline phosphatase (p < 0.001). Moreover, PCR results showed that treatment with BPE at 1/2 MIC for 24 h significantly downregulated multiple virulence-associated genes, including aatA, papC, ibeB, vat, ompA, iss, fyuA, and irp2 (p < 0.01). These results demonstrate that BPE exerts its anti-APEC effects by damaging cell membrane integrity, inhibiting biofilm formation and motility, and suppressing virulence gene expression. Our findings support the potential of BPE as a natural alternative for controlling APEC infections and contribute a scientific basis for the use of traditional herbal medicine in combating bacterial diseases. Full article

Contemporary research on electric vehicle (EV) consumption is predominantly focused on the vehicle’s powertrain and battery technology. However, the analyses indicate that the actual state of the various electrical subsystems in the vehicle can have a significant impact on the overall consumption figures. The primary objective of this article is to demonstrate the capabilities of our vehicle simulation model, which was developed with a particular focus on the electrical subsystems of vehicles, when employed in a 3D digital representation of a real environment. The central scientific contribution of this work is the systematic quantification of subsystem-level energy usage in real-world scenario simulation. This provides a novel framework for the evaluation of EV energy distribution, thereby informing future strategies and models. Full article

Grifola frondosa is a rare fungus valued for its nutritional and medicinal properties; however, its bacterial spot disease has been largely overlooked. Thus, this study systematically investigated, isolated, and identified the pathogen and evaluated control strategies for bacterial spot disease affecting G. frondosa cultivation in Qingyuan County, Zhejiang Province. Through integrated morphological, physiological and biochemical analysis, and multi-locus phylogenetic analyses (16S rRNA, gyrB), Priestia aryabhattai was identified as the causal pathogen. This pathogen exhibited host specificity, infecting only G. frondosa and Pleurotus ostreatus, inducing primordial growth arrest and causing spots on the stipe of mature fruiting bodies. Control assessments revealed significant antimicrobial efficacy for four chemical agents, benziothiazolinone, copper sulfate, ethylicin and tetramycin, three plant extracts, garlic, leek and onion, and two biocontrol strains, Chlorophyllum molybdites and Aspergillus fumigatus. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) demonstrated that these treatments caused ultrastructural damage to the pathogen’s cells, including membrane shrinkage, depression, and perforation. These findings establish key pathogenic characteristics and provide a scientific foundation for integrated disease management, supporting sustainable G. frondosa cultivation. Full article