Search Results (271)

Academic stress in higher education is strongly influenced by workload structure and scheduling decisions, yet academic planning sometimes remains static and does not incorporate behavioural or physiological indicators. While existing research focuses on stress measurement and prediction, these approaches are rarely integrated into decision-support mechanisms capable of restructuring academic schedules. This work introduces a Course Digital Twin (CDT) framework that integrates multimodal student data with simulation-based academic planning. The proposed system models course scheduling as a decision-support problem, where alternative configurations are evaluated using a structured stress model combining wearable-derived physiological signals, self-reported stress measures, and contextual academic workload indicators. The framework employs a hybrid approach in which machine learning is used for physiological stress estimation, while schedule adaptation is performed through transparent rule-based mechanisms. The system was implemented as an end-to-end platform including mobile sensing, course configuration interfaces, and instructor analytics dashboards, and was evaluated through a pilot deployment across multiple postgraduate courses. Preliminary results indicate that simulation-based schedule adjustments are associated with reductions in projected peak stress levels and improved workload distribution patterns. The findings demonstrate the feasibility of integrating multimodal stress modelling and Digital Twin simulation into academic planning workflows. The proposed framework provides a foundation for future stress-aware scheduling systems, although further large-scale validation is required to establish its effectiveness and generalizability. Full article

Autophagy, also referred to as the “self-eating machinery”, is a crucial process where organisms maintain intracellular homeostasis through recycling or degrading non-essential and damaged cellular components. It is important in numerous biological functions such as cellular differentiation, aging, nutrient sensing, stress response, tissue homeostasis, immunity, and programmed cell death. Autophagy induction occurs with the formation of a double-layered membrane structure called “autophagosome”. The autophagosome wraps damaged organelles or proteins and transports them to the vacuole or lysosome for degradation. Autophagy is beneficial to organisms, and it should be optimally regulated because elevated or decreased levels are detrimental for survival. To date, more than 40 autophagy-related genes (ATGs) have been identified in the budding yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae, with most having homologs in fungi and higher eukaryotes. Majority of the ATGs in industrial and pathogenic fungal species have been characterized and known to play vital roles in growth, development, and virulence. In this review we provide a comprehensive overview of ATGs in various fungal species and highlight how autophagy is regulated and controls various functions in plant, human, and industrial fungal species. Full article

Wearable devices increasingly capture biosignals such as electrocardiograms, photoplethysmograms, inertial signals, and electrodermal activity during daily life, enabling earlier detection and continuous monitoring outside the clinic. Real-time edge machine learning can convert these streams into timely, privacy-preserving inference by placing computation on a wearable (device-only) or a paired phone, with intermittent cloud assist used selectively for dashboards, summarisation, and lifecycle management. Clinical adoption remains uneven because free-living data are noisy, labels are often delayed, and device ecosystems evolve over time. This narrative review organises the literature as an end-to-end deployment pathway: sensing and artefact management, streaming windowing and multimodal alignment, and model families suited to on-device inference. We compare classical feature-based pipelines with learned representations, including compact CNN/TCN and recurrent and efficient attention-based models, and discuss when self-supervised pretraining and distillation are most useful in low-label settings. We then synthesise deployment engineering levers (quantisation, pruning, and distillation) and benchmarking requirements, emphasising runtime constraints that determine feasibility: latency per update, peak RAM, energy per inference, duty cycle, and thermal behaviour. Applications are grouped across cardiovascular monitoring, blood pressure and haemodynamics, sleep and respiration, and movement and stress, with explicit attention to false-alert burden, adherence, and workflow integration. To support translation, we provide a validation ladder and a reliability toolkit covering calibration, uncertainty-aware thresholds and deferral, drift monitoring triggers, and safe update governance. The novelty of this review is a deployment-oriented synthesis that ties modelling choices to edge tiers and resource budgets and provides reusable reporting templates, including an edge-cost card and comparative tables spanning modalities, models, deployment levers, applications, and reliability requirements. Full article

Rising temperatures, driven by global climate change, are profoundly altering high-latitude ecosystems, influencing vegetation phenology and productivity. However, understanding the long-term, nuanced responses of these ecosystems remains a critical challenge. Soil warming experiments have served as useful tools for understanding these shifts. However, many of these studies have relied on a single measure, predominantly the Normalized Difference Vegetation (NDVI), measured at a single level of warming. This approach often fails to separate structural greening from underlying physiological responses. To address these gaps, this study provided a comprehensive snapshot assessment of growing season vegetation dynamics in a subarctic grassland ecosystem in Iceland that had been exposed to continuous geothermal soil warming for over 60 years. Using high-resolution multispectral drone imagery, twelve different vegetation indices (VIs) were derived to assess not only greenness but also physiological stress and photosynthetic efficiency across a range of mean annual soil temperatures (MATs). Using linear regression and redundancy analysis (RDA), the responses of these indices to warming and their relationships with other environmental drivers, such as standing biomass and plant nutrient concentrations (nitrogen and phosphorus), were analyzed. The results revealed significant positive linear relationships between most of the indices and MATs across the 5 to 11 °C range. This indicated that higher MATs led to increased biomass and structural growth, without revealing any significant thresholds or tipping points in vegetation response within the observed warming range. However, the Photochemical Reflectance (PRI) showed a significant negative relationship with warming, suggesting a decoupling between structural greening and photosynthetic light-use efficiency. Furthermore, RDA results indicated that, while most of the VIs were primarily driven by biomass, the decline in PRI was likely a compounding effect of physical canopy self-shading and plant phosphorus constraints. Ultimately, this study demonstrated that, while these subarctic grasslands exhibited local evidence of “Arctic greening” under further warming, multispectral drone remote sensing could detect underlying physiological adjustments and nutrient constraints that traditional greenness indices might overlook, providing a more nuanced understanding of ecosystem response. Full article

Background: Self-efficacy is an important psychological factor for healthy aging, but how long-term sport participation builds self-efficacy in older adults is not fully understood. This study explored how playing tennis for many years shapes self-efficacy in older South Korean adults and identified the key mechanisms. Methods: In-depth interviews were conducted with 11 older male adults (aged 65–75 years) who had played tennis for 15–25 years and remained active at least twice per week. Participants were recruited from tennis clubs in South Korea through purposive sampling. Data were analyzed using Braun and Clarke’s reflexive thematic analysis. Results: Four themes emerged. (1) Mastery Through Progressive Achievement: gradual skill development and competitive success were perceived to support confidence that extended beyond the tennis court; (2) Social Embeddedness and Collective Efficacy: peer encouragement and observing similar others succeed were described as supporting participants’ belief in their own capabilities; (3) Physical Vitality as Confidence Foundation: sustained physical fitness and functional independence derived from tennis participation were perceived to support broader self-confidence in daily life; and (4) Mental Resilience and Cognitive Engagement: the strategic demands of tennis and its stress-relieving effects may contribute to psychological resilience and a continued sense of purpose in later life. Conclusions: Long-term tennis participation was perceived to support self-efficacy through multiple interconnected pathways consistent with Bandura’s social cognitive theory. These findings suggest that structured, community-based tennis programs may contribute to supporting psychological well-being and promoting healthy aging in rapidly aging societies. Full article

Background/Objectives: Sickle cell disease (SCD) is the most prevalent inherited pediatric hematologic disease. Pain is the most common complaint and primary reason for emergency care. Effective coping is critical to improved quality of life for individuals with SCD and other chronic illnesses. Hope, engendered by provision of comprehensive care, may explain the positive impact of effective coping and improved health outcomes. The relevance of effective coping skills and hope’s impact on repeated hospitalizations and/or length of hospitalization stay (LOS) among adolescents with SCD is considered. A regional, comprehensive pediatric sickle cell center (RCPSCC) provided the services. Methods: Patients with SCD, ages 13 through 21 years seen in a university RCPSCC (URCPCC-SCD), completed surveys: a general scale providing a broad range of positive and maladaptive coping-related issues, and KIDCOPE, a standardized scale measuring pediatric coping strategies. Medical records were reviewed for frequency of hospitalization and length of stay (LOS) for the eight months before study entry. Results: Thirty-four URCPCC-SCD outpatients, mean/median age of 16 years, entered the study, and data were analyzed for 33. All reported some sense of future hopefulness, and almost half reported feeling “tense or wound up” most of the time. Use of avoidant or negative coping strategies in response to daily stress correlated positively with increased LOS. Conclusions: Youths with SCD require effective coping strategies to improve self-efficacy and related hope for brighter futures. Individualized, comprehensive treatment and support to families and individuals at risk for sickle cell crisis are uniquely offered in a URCPCC-SCD. Their contributions to service delivery and clinical outcome are expected to enhance hope, mitigate prolonged hospitalizations, and improve adherence to treatment (N = 268). Full article

Previous studies indicate that the main predictors of stress-related disorders in firefighters are pre- and post-trauma factors, rather than intensity or type of traumatic event. This study aimed to identify risk and protective factors contributing to the development of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and other stress-related conditions in Portuguese firefighters who battled the 2017 forest fires. To assess the prevalence of PTSD and related conditions, a set of self-report measures—including PHQ-15 (somatic symptoms), PCL-5 (PTSD), PSQI (sleep quality), and DASS-21 (depression, anxiety, stress)—was completed by 96 firefighters and 96 individuals from the general population, who served as a comparison group. In addition, semi-structured interviews were conducted with 79 firefighters, focusing on their perceptions of PTSD, exposure to duty-related traumatic events, and coping strategies employed to manage stress. Findings indicated that firefighters reported higher levels of somatic symptoms, sleep disturbance, and PTSD than the general population. Organizational support, working conditions, professional experience and training were identified as protective factors, while a sense of belongingness and peer relationship were considered resources for managing stress reactions. Firefighters also associated social and media pressures with the development or exacerbation of stress-related symptoms. Collectively, these results highlight the relevance of both subjective and contextual factors and may inform prevention, intervention, and treatment strategies for stress-related psychopathologies. Full article

Background: Human health is closely interconnected to our ecosystem. Several studies found evidence that nature-based interventions improve mental health. Very recently, these approaches have started including mindfulness practices. Nature-based mindfulness interventions (NBMIs) combine contemplative practices with exposure to natural environments and are increasingly recognised as promising tools for supporting mental health and resilience within a One Health perspective, fostering physio-psychological wellbeing whilst promoting nature awareness and a sense of connection with our planet—“biofilia”, as defined by American biologist Edward Wilson. Given the growing psychological impacts of climate-related stressors, NBMIs may offer particular value for regions with high climate-risk and ecological vulnerability. Methods: A narrative literature review was conducted following established principles for high-quality non-systematic reviews. A non-systematic but structured search of PubMed, Scopus, Web of Science and Cochrane Library (January 2018–November 2025), complemented by grey literature, identified studies involving adolescents and adults participating in interventions integrating mindfulness practices with natural environments. Extracted data included study context, participant characteristics, intervention type, mental health and resilience outcomes. Results: Across heterogeneous designs, NBMIs consistently reduced stress, anxiety, depressive symptoms and rumination, while improving sleep, vitality, attention and self-regulation. Most studies reported enhanced nature connectedness—an important mediator of wellbeing and pro-environmental behaviour. Programmes delivered to disaster-affected populations showed reductions in distress. Conclusions: NBMIs are feasible, low-cost and adaptable interventions with dual benefits for mental health and ecological awareness. They offer promising One Health-aligned strategies for strengthening psychological resilience in climate-vulnerable regions, warranting further research and context-specific adaptation. Full article

Self-sensing refers to structural material sensing by auxiliary devices without intelligent features. The analysis of the electrical parameters of a single carbon fiber is the foundation of CFRP self-sensing. Focusing on electrical-resistance-based strain, this study conducts a theoretical analysis of the electrical parameters of a single carbon fiber. The relationship between stress-induced strain and resistance is established, yielding the gage factor (GF) under the load effect. Drawing upon the impurity scattering mechanism, the relationship between thermal-induced strain and resistance is formulated, leading to the GF under thermal effects. According to the quasi-static equivalent superposition principle, strain vs. resistance in the effect of thermal–mechanical coupling was established, and a GF model is proposed. The analysis of a single carbon fiber demonstrates that under load effect the contribution of the piezoresistive effect reaches 13.4%, which is non-negligible. Thermal-resistance tests were conducted on a single carbon fiber with different initial states. The thermal-resistance analysis indicated that the resistance of a single carbon fiber decreased with an increase in temperature. The initial state had a significant impact on the GF. The thermal resistance of a free single carbon fiber can be expressed by two types of models, each with an error of less than 0.2% from 223 K to 473 K. Based on four-point bending specimens, the force-resistance test of a single carbon fiber was conducted indirectly. The improvement in the production process has led to an increase in the graphitization degree of carbon fibers. The $K_{\mathrm{S}}^{\mathrm{F}}$ values of A3 and B3 are 1.411 and 1.405, respectively, both of which are higher than those of carbon fibers in the earlier literature. The strain-resistance analysis showed that the stress-induced GF of a single carbon fiber is lower than the thermal-induced GF. When the deformation was constrained, the stress-induced GF of the single carbon fiber was reduced. Together, the thermal and mechanical properties of a single carbon fiber make it more suitable as a temperature sensor than as a damage sensor. Full article

Masonry arch bridges are critical assets in aging transportation networks, yet their Structural Health Monitoring (SHM) remains challenging. Smart bricks—piezoresistive sensing units compatible with masonry structures and capable of acting simultaneously as load-bearing components and strain sensors—offer a promising solution for embedding self-sensing capability directly within the masonry. While previous work by the authors has investigated their use in masonry walls, their application to arched structures remains unexplored. This gap is particularly significant given that arches, characterized by a predominantly compressive stress state, represent a natural context for smart-brick implementation. This study presents a numerical investigation assessing the potential of smart bricks for strain-based SHM of masonry arch bridges. A Finite Element (FE) model, derived from a validated experimental benchmark representative of typical Italian railway arch bridges, was used to virtually embed smart bricks at selected cross-sections along the arch. Damage progression was simulated through cyclic loading–unloading stages, enabling direct correlation between strain evolution and structural deterioration. Results demonstrate that smart bricks accurately capture damage-driven strain redistributions, closely mirroring both the sequence of damage formation and the associated collapse mechanism. These findings support the use of smart bricks for early detection of localized structural changes in masonry arches, providing a foundation for future experimental validation and real-world deployment of minimally invasive SHM systems. 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

Flexible and wearable electronics require soft sensing materials that balance mechanical compliance, stable signal transduction, and durability for human–machine interfaces (HMIs). To address the limitations of single-filler systems, we propose a poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA)/aramid nanofiber (ANF)/MXene organogel (PAM) as a multifunctional soft platform. This design integrates a PVA physically crosslinked network with ANF for mechanical reinforcement and MXene for electrical functionality. The optimized PAM composite exhibits outstanding mechanical properties, including a fracture stress of 2931 kPa, a fracture strain of 676%, and a fracture toughness of 9.04 MJ m⁻³. Importantly, PAM serves as a single material platform configurable into three sensing modalities. The resistive strain sensor achieves a gauge factor of 3.1 over 10–100% strain and enables the reliable recognition of human joint movements and gestures. The capacitive pressure sensor delivers a sensitivity of 0.298 kPa⁻¹, rapid response/recovery times of 30/10 ms, and is integrated with a wireless module to control a smart car. Furthermore, the PAM-based triboelectric nanogenerator (TENG) delivers excellent electrical outputs (V_oc = 123 V, I_sc = 0.52 μA, Q_sc = 58 nC) and functions as a self-powered smart handwriting pad, achieving a machine-learning-based recognition accuracy of 97.6%. This work demonstrates the immense potential of the PAM organogel for advanced, self-powered HMIs. Full article

A recent publication proposed that the main biological function of chromosomal toxin–antitoxin systems (TASs) in free-living bacteria is to optimize fitness by mediating K Sensing and Control via a Nutrient-Responsive Cybernetic System. Viable cell density data were consistent with analog (continuous) regulation of population dynamics and cellular physiology throughout the life cycle; however, exactly how bacteria utilize TASs to regulate this was not explained in that publication. Two different concepts of injury have been proposed in the field of microbiology: (1) injury due to external physical and chemical stresses, which lead to sublethal (reversible) or lethal (irreversible) injury depending on the degree of injury, and (2) injury due to internal, self-inflicted stresses mediated by TA toxins. While self-inflicted injury due to TA toxins has been recognized as playing a role in growth arrest and dormancy, which can be reversed by repair, there is little support for TA toxins causing irreversible programmed cell death under normal physiological conditions. The purpose of the present paper was to explain how merging the above two concepts of injury might reveal how TASs optimize the fitness of free-living bacteria under normal physiological conditions by continuously regulating the ratio of injury: repair throughout the life cycle. Full article

This study explores how school leadership styles are perceived to relate to teacher resilience during crises in Arab schools in Israel. Drawing on twenty semi-structured interviews with principals and vice-principals, findings show that transformational and participative leadership, characterized by emotional support, accessibility, active listening, and shared decision-making, are perceived to foster teachers’ sense of security, self-efficacy, and collective resilience. In contrast, authoritarian and rigid approaches are described as contributing to increased stress, reduced motivation, and diminished coping capacity. The study highlights the significance of socio-cultural and political contexts, indicating that effective leadership in crises involves not only professional guidance but also cultural awareness, flexibility, and responsiveness to staff needs. These findings underscore the value of integrative leadership approaches and targeted professional development to support teacher well-being and organizational resilience in crisis-prone settings. By focusing on leaders’ perspectives, the study contributes to understanding how culturally sensitive and adaptive leadership practices may support educational stability under conditions of uncertainty. Full article

A self-powered graphene-enhanced hydrogel sensor (SGHS) with high contact-pressure sensitivity and mechanical robustness was developed for precise dynamic biomechanical and material contact sensing. The device generates transient electrical signals via contact electrification and electrostatic induction during contact–separation events, eliminating the need for any external power supply. The optimized SGHS achieves a maximum peak power density of 0.23 mW·m⁻², with contact-pressure sensitivities of 0.6 kPa⁻¹ and 0.26 kPa⁻¹ in the pressure ranges of 0.25–5 kPa and 5–25 kPa, respectively, which is competitive with or exceeds that of other externally powered and self-powered flexible dynamic stress sensors in the low-pressure range. Comprehensive analyses reveal that the pressure response originates from the enhanced piezodielectric effect in the graphene hydrogel layer under compression. The SGHS exhibits excellent mechanical durability, maintaining stable output after 10,000 loading–unloading cycles. Moreover, the pulse intensity, width, and waveform of its self-generated output provide distinctive features for identifying the type and surface characteristics of contacting objects. These results highlight SGHS as a promising candidate for next-generation intelligent, self-powered, and flexible dynamic sensing systems. Full article