Search Results (6,779)

We study a 1D model of a diffraction-mediated self-structuring instability which can occur when a Bose–Einstein condensate is illuminated by a pump laser and its reflection from a single feedback mirror. We carry out a linear stability analysis and, using numerical simulations, investigate the dynamics of the self-structuring process. Two dynamical regimes are identified: one in which the system behaves as a continuous space-time crystal oscillating between two states (one spatially uniform and one spatially periodic) and another where many condensate momentum states are involved and the condensate density develops chevrons which form and disperse quasi-periodically. We show the dependence of the pattern modulation depth and pattern formation time on pump saturation parameter and compare the simulation results with analytical expressions derived from a quantum Hamiltonian Mean Field model. The results show that this system offers a route to the first experimental realisation of the quantum Hamiltonian Mean Field model and of a continuous space-time crystal with a tunable spatial period. Full article

Chikungunya virus (CHIKV) infection presents a wide spectrum of clinical outcomes, ranging from mild self-limiting disease to severe and fatal manifestations, which are influenced by both host and viral factors. Animal models are essential for elucidating CHIKV pathogenesis and for preclinical evaluation of antiviral strategies; however, a well-characterized model evaluating the effect of different viral doses in AG129 mice remains limited. In this study, we investigated the clinical, virological, and pathological outcomes of CHIKV infection in male AG129 mice inoculated intraperitoneally with different viral doses (10, 100, and 1000 PFU/mL) of a Brazilian strain belonging to the East/Central/South African (ECSA) lineage. Lower-dose inoculation (10 PFU/mL) resulted in a milder disease course, characterized by transient viremia, limited tissue viral dissemination, minimal histopathological alterations, partial survival, and viral clearance. In contrast, higher doses (≥100 PFU/mL) led to rapid systemic viral dissemination, severe histopathological damage in the spleen, liver, and kidneys, and uniform lethality. Viral RNA was detected in serum and multiple organs in a time-dependent manner, with limited differences among inoculum doses in most tissues. Notably, dose-related differences were observed in specific compartments and time points, particularly in hind-limb muscles at early time points and in serum at later stages. Full article

The broad substrate specificity of enzymes, while advantageous for catalytic diversity, often leads to undesired side reactions and reduced product yields in engineered metabolic pathways. To address this challenge, we developed a programmable protein scaffold based on a self-assembled γPFD-SpyCatcher hydrogel for the in vivo co-immobilization of SpyTag-cyclized cascade enzymes, enabling the co-immobilization of cascade enzymes in a spatially organized manner. Enzymes with broad substrate specificities were linearly fused with SpyTags, facilitating their spatial organization on the nanoscaffold within engineered E. coli to ensure directed catalytic flux. Using this strategy, the yields of pinene and caffeoyl-CoA were enhanced by 5.8-fold (reaching 94.5 mg/L) and 2.4-fold (reaching 78.6 mg/L), respectively, compared to free enzyme systems. This work establishes an effective approach to mitigate the limitations posed by broad enzyme specificity and demonstrates its potential for applications in synthetic biology and industrial biotechnology. Full article

Precision-targeted pollination places strict demands on flower organ detection in field environments. In field conditions, pistil detection in Siraitia grosvenorii remains difficult because the targets are small, often occluded, and require accurate localization under lightweight model constraints. To address these challenges, we develop an improved YOLOv11n-based method for Siraitia grosvenorii pistil detection in precision pollination tasks. The model incorporates SCConv, CoordAtt, and SimAM to improve feature extraction and foreground discrimination for small pistil targets in complex backgrounds. The main contribution of this work lies in task-oriented module integration and lightweight optimization for tiny pistil detection, rather than in proposing a new generic detection operator. Experiments on the self-built dataset show that the improved model achieves 82.17% mAP@0.5, 40.38% mAP@0.5:0.95, and 86.20% precision, improving upon the YOLOv11n baseline by 2.92, 2.28, and 9.84 percentage points, respectively. Recall decreases from 78.46% to 76.50%, suggesting a precision-oriented trade-off in the current setting. With only 2.89 M parameters and 7.22 GFLOPs, the model maintains a lightweight architecture while achieving improved detection performance for targeted pollination tasks. These findings support the feasibility of the proposed method for Siraitia grosvenorii pistil detection in intelligent pollination applications. Full article

Background: Despite the introduction in 2017 of mandatory vaccination for the hexavalent and the measles–mumps–rubella–varicella vaccines, childhood vaccination coverage in Sicily (Italy) remains below the recommended and safety threshold of 95%. A catch-up vaccination intervention was implemented for the pediatric population of the 2022–2023 birth cohorts residing in a health district of Palermo (Bagheria) where in 2024, 24-month coverage for polio and measles was 77.29% and 77.62%, respectively. Methods: A cross-sectional study with a before–after component was conducted between June 2025 and December 2025, with the aim of evaluating the increase in vaccination coverage. A questionnaire was administered to the parents of non-compliant children to investigate the determinants of infant vaccine hesitancy. Results: Collaboration with primary care pediatricians and the organization of active call sessions and extra vaccination sessions resulted in an increase in vaccination coverage of approximately 10–12 percentage points in both birth cohorts. The investigation of the determinants of vaccination adherence showed some significant associations: “perception of infectious disease risk” (OR: 7.91; p = 0.009) and “expectations of a positive outcome from vaccination” (OR: 8.62; p = 0.003). Vaccine information sources such as the internet and media were associated with refusal of catch-up vaccination (OR 0.47, p < 0.001; and OR 0.13, p = 0.026, respectively). Conclusions: Despite methodological limitations, such as the self-reported nature of the survey data, the study demonstrated the usefulness of local strategies aimed at vaccination catch-up, representing a valuable example of local public health practice and effectively contributing to improved vaccination coverage in the pediatric population. Full article

Based on hourly reanalysis data during 2010–2020, the Self-Organizing Map method is used to objectively classify convective precipitation events in the Chengdu terminal area. Combined with circulation background characteristics, the results are further grouped into three typical synoptic types. Among these three types, Type 1, characterized by a pattern with strong high pressure and abundant water vapor, yields the most intense precipitation. Type 2, a pattern with moderately strong high pressure and water vapor convergence, produces the second-highest precipitation. Type 3, associated with a low trough and weak water vapor conditions, has the weakest precipitation. Two indicators of the Weather Severity Index (WSI) and Node Coverage Index (NCI), respectively describing the coverage extent of heavy precipitation over the terminal area and over key arrival and departure nodes, are established and calculated based on heavy precipitation samples. The results show that Type 1 exhibits the highest WSI and NCI values, indicating the greatest potential impact. Type 2 displays a lower WSI than Type 1 but retains a relatively higher NCI, suggesting a more directionally biased impact, whereas Type 3 records the lowest values for both indicators, indicating a relatively weak impact. The integration of synoptic weather classification and spatial impact indicators offers a reference for weather-impact identification and scenario-based operational assessment in terminal areas. However, some limitations remain in the current study. The weather classification is primarily based on reanalysis data, and the correspondence between the WSI/NCI and actual airport operational constraints requires further validation. Full article

Platformized markets increasingly organize consumer encounters through adaptive ranking and personalization systems that learn from behavioral traces and reorder what consumers see over time. Although consumer identity theory explains how consumers use marketplace resources to express and negotiate the self, it does not fully explain how recursive ranked exposure shapes identity trajectories. This article develops Algorithmic Consumer Identity Theory (ACIT) to address that gap. ACIT proposes that identity formation in platformized markets is conditioned by three interrelated mechanisms: algorithmic mirroring, through which consumers interpret personalized outputs as self-diagnostic signals; algorithmic steering, through which ranking and recommendation systems structure future exposure; and reinforcement-loop strength, which captures the inertia generated by recursive feedback among behavior, inference, and exposure. Together, these mechanisms produce the steered self, an emergent identity configuration shaped through repeated interaction with curated exposure environments. The theory specifies how adaptive personalization can increase identity salience, strengthen or fragment coherence, intensify dissonance under conditions of misrecognition, and reduce perceived data agency when contestability is weak. By distinguishing representational feedback from directional exposure governance, ACIT offers a mechanism-based and empirically falsifiable framework for understanding identity in AI-mediated markets. The article contributes to consumer identity theory, platformization research, and AI-in-marketing scholarship, and identifies implications for platform governance and identity-safe personalization design. Full article

Oncology nursing is one of healthcare’s most emotionally demanding specialties, characterized by sustained exposure to patient suffering and mortality. While global burnout rates reach 40–60%, emotional intelligence (EI) is a potential protective resource that remains underexamined in Middle Eastern contexts. Despite growing global evidence, little is known about these relationships in Middle Eastern healthcare systems, where cultural norms and workforce structures may shape emotional processes differently. This study examined whether EI was significantly associated with lower burnout across personal, work-related, and client-related dimensions among oncology nurses in Saudi Arabia. Methods: A cross-sectional correlational study enrolled 172 oncology nurses from three tertiary hospitals in Riyadh. Participants completed validated Arabic versions of the Schutte Self-Report Emotional Intelligence Test (SSEIT) and the Copenhagen Burnout Inventory (CBI). Hierarchical regression analyses examined predictive relationships while controlling for age and experience. Results: EI demonstrated significant inverse correlations with personal (r = −0.41), work-related (r = −0.38), and client-related burnout (r = −0.33, p < 0.001). In hierarchical models, EI emerged as a significant predictor of lower scores across all dimensions, explaining 11–17% of unique variance beyond demographic factors. The strongest association was with personal burnout. Causality cannot be inferred from this cross-sectional design. Conclusion: EI functions as a significant protective factor against burnout. Healthcare organizations should integrate EI development into professional training to strengthen workforce resilience and sustain care quality. Full article

In contemporary Japanese workplaces, interpersonal relationship problems have become increasingly serious, leading to heightened psychological stress and declining organizational functioning. One major contributing factor is power harassment (workplace bullying). This study surveyed 1621 Japanese workers to examine how support from supervisors and organizations influences power harassment, with particular attention to differences in self-esteem levels and narcissistic types. Hierarchical multiple regression analyses revealed that among individuals with high self-esteem, supervisor support tended to reduce power harassment in those characterized by the Need for Attention and Praise type, whereas organizational support tended to increase it. Additionally, for those classified as the Sense of Superiority and Competence type, the interaction between ego threat and both types of support showed a tendency to exacerbate power harassment. For individuals with low self-esteem, the interaction between ego threat and both types of support similarly tended to intensify power harassment in the Need for Attention and Praise type. These results suggest that the effects of support are not uniform; rather, they may inhibit or facilitate power harassment depending on individual psychological traits. Therefore, tailoring the method, timing, and source of support to workers’ psychological characteristics is essential for both preventing power harassment and promoting psychological adaptation. Full article

Northeast China’s rust-belt cities have faced persistent concerns about stagnating labor productivity amid structural change. This paper examines how the productivity payoff to urban density depends on local economic structure and ownership composition using an annual panel of prefecture-level cities. We estimate two-way fixed-effects models with city and year effects and city-clustered standard errors, complemented by dynamic specifications and additional robustness checks. The results show a robust positive within-city association between population density and labor productivity. This density premium is structure-conditioned: the productivity payoff to density is significantly larger in city-years that are more industry-oriented. Information-theoretic measures further show that sectoral and ownership composition matter in distinct ways. A normalized entropy measure based on 19 all-city sectoral employment categories is positively associated with labor productivity, while its interaction with density is negative and significant, indicating that the density premium is weaker in more sectorally balanced city-years. A normalized four-category ownership entropy measure, constructed from SOE, private/self-employed, collective, and other employment shares, is positively associated with labor productivity and interacts positively with density, indicating a stronger density–productivity association in city-years with a more balanced ownership composition. Collectively, the findings suggest that urban density is not a uniform engine of productivity: its payoff depends on whether dense city economies are organized around productive sectoral linkages and a sufficiently balanced ownership environment. Overall, the evidence supports a conditional agglomeration view in which productivity dynamics in Northeast China reflect the interaction of density, structural orientation, sectoral dispersion, and ownership mixing. Full article

Background: Autobiographical memory undergoes qualitative changes across the lifespan, influencing self-understanding, emotional regulation, and psychological adaptation. Research shows memory is a dynamic process, reconstructed through retrieval, narration, and social interaction. How narrative construction and empathic engagement shape memory reconsolidation and self-continuity remains insufficiently integrated. Objectives: This narrative review synthesizes theoretical, empirical, and applied findings on autobiographical memory, narrative processes, and empathy, proposing an integrative model linking memory reconsolidation, identity reconstruction, and adaptive functioning. Methods: A theory-oriented narrative review was conducted across psychology, neuroscience, gerontology, and narrative research, drawing on literature from PubMed, PsycINFO, Web of Science, Scopus, J-STAGE, and CiNii. Peer-reviewed empirical studies, systematic reviews, and theoretical papers were organized around three interrelated conceptual domains: (1) autobiographical memory and self-related processes, (2) neurobiological and emotional mechanisms relevant to memory updating and reconsolidation, and (3) narrative construction within empathically mediated social interaction contexts, with additional consideration of evidence from narrative-based and creative interventions. Results: The reviewed literature suggests that autobiographical memory functions as a plastic, socially embedded system supporting self-continuity, although the strength and consistency of evidence vary across studies and contexts. Narrativization within empathically responsive and psychologically safe contexts enhances narrative coherence, emotional integration, and perspective-taking, promoting psychological stability, although these effects are not uniformly observed across all populations and study designs. Creative narrative activities further facilitate retrieval and meaning reconstruction, extending memory updating beyond recall, while the underlying mechanisms and causal pathways remain to be fully established. Conclusions: We propose an empathy-mediated narrative reconstruction model in which creative activity, narration, empathic response, and retelling interact cyclically to support memory reconsolidation and self-narrative updating. By integrating cognitive, social, and creative dimensions, this model provides a theoretically grounded framework with implications for clinical, educational, gerontological, and creative applications. Full article

Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a chronic autoimmune disease characterised by persistent joint inflammation and systemic immune dysregulation. While bone marrow activation has been linked to RA pathogenesis, direct access to bone marrow tissue for progenitor analysis remains limited by ethical and technical constraints. Analysis of progenitor cells in peripheral blood can serve as a surrogate reflecting bone marrow activation. In this study, we analysed peripheral blood cells from 12 RA patients and 9 healthy controls using high-dimensional spectral flow cytometry with a nine-marker panel (CD45, CD31, CD235, CD133, CD34, CD105, CD271, CD90, PDPN). Flow Self-Organizing Map (FlowSOM) clustering identified 20 distinct cell populations. Additionally, a complementary flow cytometry panel was used to assess CD31 expression on immune subsets in peripheral mononuclear cells (PBMCs) from 9 RA and 9 healthy donors of this cohort. RA patients showed increased CD45⁺CD31⁻ immune cells, but not their putative progenitors. Conversely, putative CD45⁺CD31^int progenitors and CD45⁺CD31^int mature cells were reduced, along with CD31 expression on T cells. Levels of CD235a⁺ putative erythroid precursors and CD45⁺CD31⁺ progenitors were significantly increased in RA patients. Three putative stromal cell populations were detected in circulation. Together, these findings reveal expanded erythroid precursor populations and reduced CD31 expression on T cells in RA. Our data underscore broad systemic alterations in cellular homeostasis in RA patients. In conclusion, our results suggest that the loss of CD31 expression on immune cell precursors plays a role in age-associated immune remodelling and immune activation in RA and provides the rationale for further studies on erythroblast differentiation and the functional role of erythroblasts in chronic inflammation. Full article

Brain organoids represent three-dimensional structures that allow for human-specific studies in brain development, pathology and therapeutics. These self-organizing systems, formed through the differentiation of human pluripotent stem cells, can mimic important cellular and molecular events of brain development and therefore serve as a platform for the investigation of neurodevelopmental and neurodegenerative diseases, brain injuries, and tumorigenesis. Although brain organoids show promising perspectives in the study of human physiology, existing brain organoid platforms are hindered by issues of under vascularization, immaturity and protocol variability. Nevertheless, the rapid development of new bioengineering, microfluidic and multi-omics tools and approaches allows us to overcome existing problems and increase the physiological significance of these organoids. Brain organoid transplantation and functional studies further enhance the applications of brain organoids in drug screening, disease modeling and personalized medicine. Here, we provide an overview of recent developments in the field of brain organoid cultures, functional characteristics and translational applications. Full article

Bone marrow(BM) is the primary site of hematopoiesis, supporting the self-renewal and differentiation of hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs). Its function depends on a highly complex microenvironment composed of stromal cells, vascular networks, extracellular matrix components, and dynamic biophysical signals. Traditional two-dimensional culture systems and animal models fail to adequately recapitulate the spatial architecture and dynamic regulatory processes of the human bone marrow niche, thereby limiting in-depth investigations into hematopoietic regulatory mechanisms, disease pathogenesis, and drug-induced bone marrow toxicity. In recent years, advances in microphysiological systems (MPS) have provided novel engineering approaches for the in vitro reconstruction of the bone marrow microenvironment. This review systematically summarizes current construction strategies for bone marrow MPS, including three-dimensional self-organized bone marrow organoids and microfluidic bone marrow-on-a-chip platforms. Particular attention is given to the roles of key cellular components, biomaterial scaffolds, vascularized architectures, and dynamic perfusion systems in biomimetic bone marrow engineering. In addition, we discuss strategies for constructing more complex models, such as vascular niches, vascularized bone tissue constructs, and bone metastasis models. Bone marrow MPS more faithfully recapitulate the hematopoietic microenvironment and provide a physiologically relevant in vitro platform for hematopoietic research, disease modeling, and drug evaluation, thereby supporting future advances in precision and regenerative medicine. Full article

A cross-sectional correlational research design was used to investigate the relationship between organizational safety climate, supervisor safety climate, compliance, safety citizenship behaviors and safety self-efficacy. A sample of 728 workers located in a single Eastern European manufacturing plant completed self-report questionnaires regarding the aforementioned constructs. A path analysis revealed that supervisor safety climate partially mediated the relationship between organizational safety climate and the outcome variables, compliance and safety citizenship behaviors. Additionally, safety self-efficacy was found to be positively related to compliance and safety citizenship behaviors. Safety self-efficacy also moderated the relationship between supervisor safety climate and safety citizenship behaviors, such that a stronger positive correlation between safety citizenship behaviors and supervisor safety climate was present when safety self-efficacy was high. The findings suggest safety self-efficacy may be useful in predicting compliance and organizational citizenship behaviors. Further, it is likely that the presence of safety self-efficacy may serve as an enabling factor, which empowers employees who have been motivated by the supervisor safety climate to actually engage in safety citizenship behaviors. Organizations could aim to increase employee safety self-efficacy by encouraging supervisors to role model appropriate safety behaviors, by implementing adequate safety training programs and ensuring information about safety hazards and previous safety incidents is disseminated. Full article