Search Results (841)

Precision livestock farming (PLF) integrates sensing technologies, data acquisition (DAQ) systems, and machine learning (ML) frameworks to continuously monitor individual animals and support welfare assessment through physiological and behavioral observations. Advances in infrared thermography, radar sensing, vision-based systems, acoustic monitoring, and wearable technologies have substantially expanded the ability to collect high-resolution data describing animal responses to internal and external stimuli. However, despite considerable technological progress, a persistent gap remains between sensing performance demonstrated under controlled experimental conditions and reliable deployment within commercial livestock environments. This gap is characterized by environmental variability, unrestricted animal movement, and operational constraints within commercial environments. Using a structured review methodology, this review examines sensing modalities, embedded DAQ architectures, communication strategies, ML methodologies, data privacy, farmer adoption, and an illustrative engineering workflow through the lens of welfare-relevant physiological characteristics. Emphasis placed on the distinction between direct sensor measurements and the biological processes they represent. Sensor outputs do not directly quantify welfare, stressors, or management outcomes; rather, they provide measurements of physiological and behavioral responses that require appropriate biological context for meaningful interpretation. As a result, welfare assessment does not depend solely on the ability to acquire data, but also on the ability to accurately relate those data to underlying physiological mechanisms. Within this framework, ML serves as a critical bridge between measurement and interpretation by enabling the analysis of complex, multimodal datasets. Future advancement of welfare-oriented PLF systems will require stronger alignment among sensing methodologies, physiological understanding, and practical deployment realities to generate meaningful, scalable, and biologically grounded welfare assessments. Full article

Soccer requires rapid tactical decision-making, perceptual-cognitive processing, and coordinated physical execution, making it a relevant application domain for virtual reality (VR). VR systems integrate head-mounted displays, inertial measurement units, eye-tracking sensors, and electroencephalographic interfaces to support training, assessment, rehabilitation, and engagement. However, evidence remains fragmented across populations, study designs, sensing configurations, and research purposes, limiting conclusions about effectiveness and real-world application. Following PRISMA 2020, this systematic review synthesized 20 empirical studies published between January 2020 and 16 August 2026 involving school, academy, collegiate, and selected indirect adult soccer populations. Studies were classified by sensor modality, tracking configuration, evidence purpose, and outcome domain. Controlled intervention studies reported possible short-term improvements in selected sensorimotor, tactical, perceptual-cognitive, technical, and motivational outcomes. In contrast, cross-sectional and profiling studies showed that some VR tasks distinguished players by expertise, age, or competitive level; these findings support assessment or discriminative validity but do not demonstrate that VR training improves performance. Rehabilitation and injury-related evidence was limited and partly derived from adult or clinical populations, whereas engagement studies suggested potential benefits for motivation, attention, and participation. Six-degrees-of-freedom HMDs, 360° projection systems, eye tracking, and EEG generated different types of evidence, but no study directly compared hardware configurations within the same sample. The main contribution of this review is an integrated evidence-purpose and sensor-based synthesis that distinguishes training effectiveness from assessment validity across student-soccer applications. Overall, evidence remains promising but preliminary because of small and mixed populations, methodological heterogeneity, incomplete technical reporting, possible publication and language bias, short follow-up, and limited transfer to full-match performance. Standardized sensor reporting, controlled interventions, and longitudinal transfer assessments are required. Protocol registration: OSF. Full article

Most active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) reach their target by passive systemic distribution, so the dose required for efficacy at the lesion is set by what healthy tissue can tolerate; conventional dosage forms consequently produce pharmacokinetic profiles that oscillate between toxic peaks and sub-therapeutic troughs. Nanoparticulate carriers (liposomes, lipid nanoparticles, polymeric and inorganic systems, and biomimetic carriers) and hydrogels (natural, synthetic, supramolecular, and microgel-assembled) have emerged as the dominant strategies to address this, increasingly combined as hybrid nanoparticle–hydrogel constructs in which the gel provides locoregional retention and the nanoparticles provide cargo protection, intracellular delivery and stimuli responsiveness. Stimuli-responsive chemistries (pH, redox, enzyme, ROS, hypoxia, temperature, light, magnetic, ultrasound, glucose, and multi-stimuli logic) translate the molecular signatures of a disease into spatiotemporally controlled cargo release. This narrative review consolidates the state of the art (prioritizing 2022–2026) and departs from the conventional carrier-type survey in one respect: the literature is read along an explicit chain—disease cue, sensing chemistry, carrier architecture, release mechanism and kinetics, administration route, and clinical readiness—which exposes a variable that classification by carrier type conceals. Across all three material classes, what governs release behavior is not primarily the carrier chemistry but the identity of the released species (dissolved drug, drug from an embedded nanoparticle, an intact nanoparticle, and a matrix fragment) and the transport step that limits it. This is why power-law exponent analysis developed for dissolved drug fits particulate release poorly, why statistical goodness-of-fit cannot by itself establish a release mechanism, and why carrier class predicts clinical readiness less well than administration route and regulatory product type. Translational hurdles—CMC complexity, regulatory fragmentation, anti-PEG immunogenicity, and the structural mismatch between preclinical promise and clinical efficacy—are critically appraised in light of previously reported <1% delivery efficiency analysis. This review identifies converging strategies that could move stimuli-responsive controlled release from an aspirational outcome to a routine clinical reality. Full article

The article reflects on the care for the work of creation within Benedictine spirituality and within the broader tradition of the Cistercian Order. It seeks to demonstrate that monastic spirituality, though developed in a pre-modern context, contains enduring theological and ethical intuitions that remain relevant for contemporary ecological reflection. The starting point of the analysis is the Rule of Saint Benedict written by Benedict of Nursia, which, although it does not employ the modern vocabulary of ecology or environmental ethics, nevertheless articulates a coherent vision of human life characterized by reverence, moderation, and responsibility toward the created world. Particular attention is given to key spiritual and anthropological dimensions of the Benedictine tradition, such as attentive listening (obsculta), humility, moderation, stability, and responsible work, expressed synthetically in the principle ora et labora. These elements are interpreted not only as monastic disciplines shaping individual and communal life, but also as forming a relational anthropology in which the human person is understood as fundamentally embedded within a network of relationships with God, other people, and creation. In this sense, Benedictine spirituality already implies a non-exploitative attitude toward the natural world. The article then examines how concern for creation has been deepened and concretized in the spirituality, institutional practice, and historical development of the Cistercian Order. Drawing on selected Cistercian documents as well as contemporary monastic reflections, the study shows that care for the natural environment is inseparably linked with spiritual attentiveness to God, interior silence, openness of heart, and readiness to serve. The Cistercian tradition, with its emphasis on simplicity of life, manual labor, and harmonious integration with the surrounding environment, develops these Benedictine intuitions in a particularly concrete and historically embodied form. From this perspective, a pro-ecological attitude is not interpreted merely as a reactive response to contemporary environmental crises, but rather as a structural consequence of a theologically grounded vision of reality. It emerges from a deep relationship with God as Creator and from a sense of entrusted responsibility for creation understood as a gift rather than as an object of domination. Ecological sensitivity is thus presented as an intrinsic dimension of monastic spirituality rather than an external adaptation to modern concerns. The main research question of the article is: to what extent and in what way do Benedictine and Cistercian spiritual traditions provide theological, anthropological, and ethical foundations for an ecological attitude toward creation within the framework of contemporary integral ecology. To address this problem, the study employs qualitative research methods grounded in theological inquiry. The primary method is textual analysis of the Rule of Saint Benedict and selected Cistercian documents, complemented by theological–hermeneutical interpretation aimed at identifying key spiritual principles and their implicit ecological implications. In addition, the study applies a historical–critical perspective in order to situate monastic sources within their original cultural and theological context, as well as a comparative theological approach, which enables a dialogue between classical monastic spirituality and contemporary ecological theology. These methods are used not only to reconstruct historical meanings, but also to interpret monastic texts in light of contemporary debates on integral ecology, sustainability, and the ethics of responsibility for our common home. In this way, the article highlights a significant continuity between monastic wisdom and modern ecological reflection, showing their mutual capacity for enrichment. Full article

High-velocity baseball pitches place demands on the shoulder, requiring precise sensorimotor control to maintain joint stability and consistent throwing mechanics. Immersive virtual reality (IVR) has emerged as a platform for sensorimotor training, offering controlled, interactive environments, although its immediate effects on shoulder joint position sense remain unknown in overhead athletes. This preliminary within-subject pilot study evaluated whether a brief IVR-based closed kinetic chain (CKC) task using the ICAROS Lightning device could acutely improve active joint position sense (AJPS) in the dominant arm of collegiate baseball players. Nine male collegiate baseball athletes completed baseline AJPS testing during shoulder internal and external rotation before a 2-min immersive flight simulation task, then repeated AJPS assessment. Absolute angular error was the primary outcome. Following the intervention, AJPS error was significantly reduced in both rotational directions. Mean internal rotation error decreased by 4.22° (95% CI: 3.02° to 5.42°; p < 0.001; Cohen’s dz = 2.70), while mean external rotation error decreased by 4.73° (95% CI: 3.10° to 6.37°; p < 0.001; Cohen’s dz = 2.23). These preliminary findings suggest IVR-based CKC exercise acutely improves shoulder joint position sense, which may have implications for restoring proprioception following throwing-induced fatigue. Further validation is warranted in randomized controlled studies with larger, heterogeneous samples in order to determine whether these findings have meaningful effects on throwing performance or recovery. Full article

Traditional rural landscape evaluations have generally relied on ground-level photographs or videos. However, these approaches have limitations in spatial continuity, depth cues, and interactivity. Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) photogrammetry and immersive virtual reality (VR) were integrated into a comparative rural landscape evaluation framework to assess landscape aesthetic quality. UAV-derived 3D village models were generated and deployed on PICO 4 headsets through Unity 3D and the Cesium plugin, providing evaluators with spatially continuous and 6DoF-enabled immersive representations of village scenes. The evaluation included ten landscape feature factors, including color harmony, vegetation richness, building layout harmony, openness of view, and sense of spatial depth. Ratings were collected from 75 valid participants across 17 villages, with village-level mean scores serving as the primary unit of inference. Paired-samples t-tests, subgroup sensitivity analysis, expert-only presentation-order sensitivity analysis, Pearson correlations, Steiger tests for dependent correlations, stepwise multiple linear regression, nested leave-one-village-out cross-validation (LOOCV), and bootstrap variable-selection stability analysis were conducted to examine differences between the 2D photo-based and VR-based conditions. The results showed that: (1) overall satisfaction was significantly higher in the VR-based condition than in the 2D photo-based condition (3.46 vs. 3.24); (2) the condition-specific regression models retained different landscape feature factors: sense of spatial depth and color harmony in the 2D photo-based model, and vegetation distribution pattern and environmental comfort in the VR-based model; and (3) the VR-based regression model had a higher condition-specific internal $R^2$ than the 2D photo-based model ($R^2=0.784$ vs. 0.569). Within the present dataset, the VR-based model also showed lower SD-normalized prediction error under nested LOOCV, while bootstrap resampling showed higher selection frequencies for the predictors retained in the VR-based model. Overall, the findings demonstrate the potential of UAV-derived immersive VR for rural landscape evaluation and provide new evidence on how presentation conditions influence landscape perception and evaluation. Full article

Level 3 automated driving necessitates rapid driver reengagement following a takeover request, making human–machine interface design critical for safety. As a sensor-based in-vehicle interface, the augmented reality head-up display (AR-HUD) integrates real-time environmental sensing with visual information delivery, yet how different information presentation strategies influence driver visual attention during takeover remains underexplored. We examined the effects of presentation form (static/dynamic) and presentation timing (concurrent/progressive) using a 2 × 2 within-subject design. In the experiment, twenty-one licensed drivers viewed prerecorded automated driving takeover scenarios. Eye tracking measured mean fixation duration, mean saccade amplitude, time to first fixation, and fixation count, while ratings assessed usability, acceptance, and intention comprehension. Progressive presentation significantly reduced all eye-tracking measures and improved perceived usability ratings compared with concurrent presentation. This pattern indicates more concentrated and orderly gaze allocation and is consistent with lower visual-search and information-integration demands. However, the lower fixation count may partly reflect reduced information exposure. Static presentation reduced mean fixation duration but showed no consistent overall advantage on the remaining measures. Significant form-by-timing interactions showed that progressive presentation reduced saccade amplitude and time to first fixation and improved intention comprehension under static, but not dynamic, presentation. Among the four combinations, static-progressive presentation yielded the most favorable overall pattern. Overall, presentation timing affected more measured outcomes than presentation form. These findings provide preliminary evidence that presentation form and presentation timing shape gaze behavior and subjective evaluations of AR-HUD takeover displays. Full article

Cybersickness remains a barrier to sustained use of head-mounted display (HMD) virtual reality (VR) and is often evaluated as a post-exposure outcome rather than as a changing user state requiring intervention during immersion. This focused narrative review used structured searches of Google Scholar, Scopus, and Web of Science to examine evidence for sensing, state estimation, mitigation, reassessment, and adaptive control; 47 sources were included in the final synthesis. Physiological, ocular, kinematic, behavioral, and content-derived signals can support estimation of cybersickness-related outcomes, but their usefulness depends on the reference measure, temporal alignment, validation design, and operating context. Visual, locomotion, rendering, and multisensory interventions can reduce symptoms, but no strategy is consistently superior, and mitigation can impose costs to visual access, usability, or task performance. Existing architectures demonstrate connected estimation and adaptation, but evidence remains limited for prospective reassessment, de-escalation, responses to failure to improve, generalization, and safety supervision. The review organizes these findings within a framework linking dynamic user state, sensing, preprocessing, actionable state estimation, intervention selection, system adaptation, reassessment, and updated user state. Reliable closed-loop mitigation requires prospective validation of the feedback cycle, including total latency, control-error consequences, user override, limits on intervention magnitude and adjustment rate, and exposure-termination criteria. Full article

Design education places strong emphasis on fostering students’ creativity, and the rapid development of embodied immersive technologies presents new opportunities in this regard. This exploratory study recruits 34 university students with different levels of expertise (17 novices and 17 experienced learners). Each participant completes a 3D conceptual design task using three design platforms with varying levels of embodiment: desktop, Mixed Reality (MR), and Virtual Reality (VR). Data on self-reported sense of embodiment, design creativity, and behavioral patterns are collected and analyzed. The results suggest that the VR platform, which provides the highest level of embodiment, is associated with significantly higher overall creativity as well as six creativity dimensions: fluency, flexibility, elaboration, originality, aesthetics, and requirement fulfillment. In addition, students using the VR platform exhibit more frequent and interconnected transitions between design behaviors, suggesting more exploratory and flexible design processes. No significant interaction is observed between design platform and expertise level in the present sample, suggesting that the effects of platform embodiment are broadly similar for novice and experienced learners. Based on these findings, this study proposes action-based metaphor and contextual consistency as potential explanatory factors that may contribute to creativity enhancement in highly embodied design platforms. Practical implications are discussed from the perspectives of platform design, learner differences, and pedagogical strategies. Overall, this exploratory study provides preliminary empirical evidence for understanding how embodied design platforms may support creativity in immersive design education and offers a foundation for future research. Full article

Background: Subjective experience is increasingly recognised as an important component of brain–computer interface (BCI) performance in extended reality (XR) environments. Although embodiment and simulator sickness are known to influence user experience, their relationships with cortical activity during XR–BCI operation remain poorly understood. Building upon our previous investigations of embodiment and simulator sickness in XR–BCIs, the present study examined whether these subjective dimensions are associated with distinct neurophysiological patterns during repeated XR–BCI use in a participant with chronic spinal cord injury (SCI). Methods: Seventeen XR–BCI sessions performed by a participant with chronic complete SCI were analysed. Bayesian correlation analyses examined associations among embodiment, simulator sickness, BCI performance, and EEG activity. Multiple linear regression was used to identify variables independently associated with sensorimotor beta activity, and the robustness of the regression findings was evaluated using bootstrap estimation and leave-one-out sensitivity analyses. Results: Bayesian analyses identified two principal patterns of association. Sense of embodiment was positively associated with frontal theta activity (F3), whereas simulator sickness showed a negative association with sensorimotor beta activity (C3–C4). As expected, classifier acquisition accuracy was strongly associated with subsequent BCI performance. Multiple regression demonstrated that simulator sickness was the only variable independently associated with C3–C4 beta activity after accounting for embodiment and BCI performance. This association remained robust following bootstrap estimation and leave-one-out sensitivity analyses. Conclusions: Although limited to a single participant, these findings suggest that different dimensions of subjective experience during XR–BCI operation are associated with partially distinct neurophysiological correlates. In particular, simulator sickness was the variable most consistently associated with sensorimotor beta activity across all analyses. These findings provide a foundation for future longitudinal investigations of the neural mechanisms linking subjective experience and cortical dynamics during XR–BCI use. Full article

In recent years, the application of virtual reality (VR) in rehabilitation medicine has gained increasing attention. VR is generally classified into two types: non-immersive and immersive systems. Non-immersive VR allows patients to interact with virtual environments through screens while maintaining a connection with the real world. Several studies have reported that the combined application of non-immersive VR and adjunctive technologies such as transcranial direct current stimulation and hand exoskeleton devices could facilitate functional recovery of hemiparetic limbs after stroke. In contrast, immersive VR is applied with the use of head-mounted displays to encompass the user’s visual field, providing a high level of immersion and an enhanced sense of presence. This enhanced experience has been shown to promote patients’ attention and motivation, which are important factors in motor learning. Emerging evidence suggests that immersive VR is effective for improving upper limb motor function in post-stroke hemiparetic patients. Furthermore, rehabilitative training performed in immersive virtual environments may facilitate the transfer of acquired motor skills to real activities of daily living. Future research should aim to generate high-quality evidence through large-scale, multicenter randomized controlled trials to better establish the clinical efficacy and optimal implementation of VR-based interventions in stroke rehabilitation. Full article

Racial bias emerges early in life: explicit bias is often observable in childhood but tends to decline with age, whereas implicit bias typically persists through adolescence, shaped by stereotypes, peer dynamics, and identity development. Given adolescents’ heightened sensitivity to peer exclusion and discrimination, interventions targeting implicit bias during this stage may have important implications. Prior studies suggest that embodying avatars of different races in virtual reality (VR) can influence implicit attitudes, with effects depending on surrounding social context: positive interactions may reduce bias, whereas negative experiences may exacerbate it. This study extends this work, examining whether implicit racial bias changes from pre- to post-exposure following embodiment in a Black virtual body presented in either a positive or negative social context among White adolescents and adults. Participants experienced a strong sense of embodiment, with adolescents reporting greater perceived agency, while adults exhibited stronger emotional reactions to social cues. Nevertheless, no statistically detectable changes in racial bias were found from pre- to post-exposure, and these changes did not differ significantly by social context condition or age group. Overall, in this brief, single-session, and primarily non-interactive embodiment scenario with non-reciprocal crowd exposure, we found no statistically significant short-term changes in racial bias. However, the intervention elicited strong embodiment and selective, age-dependent differences in socio-affective experience, suggesting that more intensive, socially interactive, and tailored VR designs may be required for attitude change. Full article

Virtual reality (VR) is increasingly used in psychiatry to treat mental disorders. Virtual reality-based therapy (VRT) has been investigated across diverse clinical populations and therapeutic approaches. Because VRT replicates real-world environments, the sense of presence and appreciation of the immersive experience have emerged as key components that may influence treatment outcomes. Individual characteristics may contribute to these experiences. Therefore, the objective of this study was to examine sociodemographic and clinical predictors of the sense of presence and appreciation of the immersive experience among users of two VR platforms, separately in 23 individuals with severe mental disorders (SMDs) and 20 individuals without a diagnosed mental disorder diagnosis. In this exploratory, crossover, double-blind study, 43 participants completed assessments of sociodemographic and clinical characteristics, the sense of presence, and appreciation of the immersive experience. Multivariate linear mixed-effects models showed that among individuals with SMDs, employment status was significantly associated with appreciation of the immersive experience (B = −15.235; p = 0.026). No other sociodemographic or clinical characteristics were significantly associated with the sense of presence or appreciation of the immersive experience. Among individuals without a mental disorder diagnosis, no predictors were significantly associated with a sense of presence or appreciation of the immersive experience. Although most examined associations were not statistically significant, these findings may suggest that VR experiences are perceived relatively consistently across participants. However, this hypothesis should be interpreted with caution because of the limited sample size. Future studies with larger samples encompassing a broader range of clinical characteristics are needed, and these findings should be replicated in future studies of VRT. Full article

CORINE Land Cover (CLC) is one of the most used land databases intended for pan-European-scale analysis. Despite periodic updates, the data suffer from generalization, subjectivity, and inconsistent local knowledge, leading to a distorted representation of reality. In this study, we raise awareness of the use of CLC data in local analysis, for which it was never intended. Our study investigates whether incorporating auxiliary spatial data and local geographical knowledge can yield a higher-accuracy CLC product, without departing from the official CLC definitions and standards. We critically remapped polygon by polygon the 1990, 2000, and 2006 CLC layers, for Iași County (NE Romania), using topographic maps (1972–1989), aerial imagery (1978–2008), and satellite data (1980–2006), and compared it to the original CLC, through change detection analysis. The new maps revealed several issues imposed by (a) generalization—cartographical omissions among settlements, due to the application of a 25 ha minimum mapping unit and a 100 m minimum mapping width; (b) confusions between land cover and land-use classes, such as pasture and wetlands, especially under varying climatic conditions, or imposed by landforms, where we suggest the use of complementary data, such as a Digital Elevation Model (DEM); and (c) the inconsistencies of mapping between successive CLC editions. Our results indicate that the CLC should not be used for downscaling analysis. Therefore, the authors advocate integrating multiple temporal remote sensing layers to achieve a more accurate assessment of land cover classes, thereby compensating for the data’s top-down character. Based on these findings, we propose an error classification approach to serve as a reference for risk mitigation in downscaled spatial analysis. We emphasize the need for CLC data users to validate their data against ground truth to mitigate analytical uncertainties. Full article

Robotic teleoperation is a core enabling technology spanning remote surgery, industrial inspection, and virtual-reality applications. Despite growing deployment, operator experience assessment still relies almost exclusively on post hoc subjective questionnaires, which preclude real-time monitoring and adaptive intervention. Here, the wearable IMU chain is considered not only as a command interface but also as an implicit sensing channel for operator state. We test whether end-effector kinematics generated by the IMU-to-robot mapping contain information about ten post-task workload and user-experience dimensions, comprising NASA-TLX-inspired workload scales together with usability, responsiveness, realism, intuitiveness, and perceived performance. A secondary analysis of a publicly available dataset (16 participants, 144 motion recordings, simulated UR10e arm) is conducted through a three-stage pipeline: bivariate correlation analysis (Pearson and Spearman), multivariate regression (10 model families, 16 feature-set combinations, Leave-One-Subject-Out validation), and binary classification (median-split). Statistical validity is assessed via 1000-permutation nested testing. Target-specific regression models reach $R^2\ge 0.50$ on seven out of 10 subjective dimensions, with a peak of $R^2=0.787$ for usability; permutation testing confirms significance for eight out of 10 targets. Binary classification achieves AUC $\ge 0.75$ on nine out of 10 targets, with three dimensions reaching perfect AUC. SHAP analysis identifies temporal irregularity and distributional shape descriptors as the dominant kinematic explanatory families. These results support the feasibility of kinematics-based inference of operator experience and provide an offline proof of concept toward future real-time adaptive teleoperation systems. Full article