Search Results (3,160)

Background/Objectives: Ebastine is a second-generation non-sedative antihistamine with potent anti-inflammatory activity. The therapeutic efficacy of ebastine is limited by its low water solubility. Accordingly, this study aimed to formulate nano lipid-based systems to enhance the anti-inflammatory potential of ebastine. Methods: Nanostructured lipid carriers (NLCs) loaded with ebastine were formulated using the micro-emulsification technique. The prepared systems were characterized for particle size (PS), zeta potential (ZP), morphological features using transmission electron microscopy (TEM), entrapment efficiency (%EE), and in vitro drug release. The in vivo anti-inflammatory efficacy was also evaluated employing the carrageenan-induced paw edema model. Results: The constructed NLCs demonstrated negatively charged spherical nanoparticles with average particle sizes ranging from 146.7 nm to 293.0 nm. Ebastine was effectively trapped in the NLCs, with the recorded %EE ranging from 96.4% to 97.5%. All the fabricated NLCs revealed a sustained ebastine release behavior over 8 h compared to the aqueous drug dispersion. In vivo performance evaluations demonstrated a significant improvement in the anti-inflammatory efficacy of ebastine-loaded NLCs compared to unprocessed ebastine aqueous dispersion. This was manifested in the significant reduction of the rats’ paw edema, with the % edema inhibition reaching 31.3%, 40.2%, and 35.2% for F1, F2, and F3, respectively. However, without a blank NLC control, the isolated effect of ebastine could not be fully distinguished from that of the carrier. Additionally, histopathological examinations revealed a remarkable reduction in the inflammation score in thin and thick skin sections for NLC groups compared to the untreated negative control group. Notably, F2 and F3 showed significant improvement in thin-skin inflammation scores. Conclusions: The tested NLCs potentially demonstrated an improved anti-inflammatory efficiency compared to the free drug. The overall findings introduced NLCs as a promising nanoplatform for enhancing the pharmacodynamic efficacy of ebastine. Full article

In this paper, an estimation algorithm for human interaction forces is presented, which can potentially be applied when a Parallel Kinematic Manipulator (PKM) is used on supervised physiotherapy exercises. The estimation algorithm is based on the dynamic model of the PKM, which is calculated with a 3-RRRS configuration (three arms with three rotational joints and a spherical joint); the underline denotes the active joints. The proposed algorithm estimates human interaction forces only in terms of the calculation of the robot dynamic state and control signals of the active joints of the PKM, without the need of force or torque sensors; therefore, the proposed method reduces the complexity, inertia and passive mass associated with the addition of 6-DOF force/torque sensors. A full description of the design of the robotic platform is also presented, followed by a validation test of estimated data against measured forces and relevant experimental results for static and dynamic tests. Full article

Hartmann–Shack wavefront sensors (HSWSs) are widely used for ocular aberration measurements. However, image artifacts introduced during acquisition, such as blinks and undesired reflections, can impair spot detection and lead to inaccurate wavefront reconstruction. Reliable frame selection is therefore essential to prevent corrupted measurements from propagating through subsequent processing stages. This work presents a quality-control framework for ocular HSWS images based on automatic artifact detection prior to reconstruction. Two software-based approaches are investigated: conventional image-processing techniques and lightweight pretrained deep-learning models, evaluated under both two-class (valid/invalid) and four-class (valid, blink, corneal reflection, and lens reflection) classification tasks. Among the evaluated methods, MobileNet achieved the highest numerical performance, reaching accuracies of 99.6% and 99.1% in the two-class and four-class scenarios, respectively, while keeping the average processing time below 25 ms. Real-time evaluation using the four-class MobileNet model further showed that several sudden changes in the estimation of the spherical equivalent occurred in frames classified as containing artifacts, without these changes being representative of the refractive state of the eye. These findings support the integration of the proposed framework into existing HSWS systems as a preprocessing stage before centroid estimation and wavefront reconstruction, without requiring modifications to the optical hardware. Full article

This paper proposes a novel adaptation of a temporal Transformer architecture for two-dimensional electromagnetic propagation and scattering of planar/spherical wavefronts. The model combines residual field prediction and an algebraic conducting-object gate with a weighted Huber objective, gradient-difference regularization, and a discrete Maxwell penalty on source-free scenarios. This integration achieves lower prediction errors and lower recorded total training times than the baseline under the respective experimental configurations. MAE and RMSE prediction values are reduced an average of 45.44% and 44.39% respectively across all simulations. Full article

Real-time monitoring of biomass concentration and cell population structure (cell’s geometry, cell’s concentration, ratio of cell morphotypes, ratio of producer/satellites cells) in methanotrophic consortia cultivated under non-sterile conditions remains challenging for bioprocess control. Conventional offline methods, such as optical density measurement and direct microscopy, are labor-intensive and provide only discrete time-point data. Here, we demonstrate that the physical principle of the $\mu$Check instrument—analysis of the relaxation signal after hydrodynamic orientation of anisotropic suspended particles—can be extended to a complex methanotrophic consortium containing heterotrophic satellite bacteria. We present a mathematical model of the relaxation signal based on a Legendre-polynomial expansion, which reduces to a single-mode approximation and relates the rotational diffusion coefficient to the volume-weighted cell size and, through a polynomial correction for multiple scattering, to the cell concentration. The model was validated on eight samples from two independent cultivations at different stages (growth, stable growth, and degradation). During growth and stable cultivation, $\mu$Check provided cell size estimates within 20% of microscopy values; during degradation, the deviation increased to 28–40%. Cell concentrations from $\mu$Check were systematically higher than microscopy counts by a factor of 4–8, primarily because the method is insensitive to spherical monococci and small satellites. Two-mode decomposition of the relaxation curve for a sample containing rod-shaped satellites resolved the two morphological fractions to within ∼14% and ∼27%, respectively, demonstrating the feasibility of analysing multicomponent suspensions. The method provides rapid at-line trend information on cell morphology and concentration: a measurement cycle takes 1–2 min, at least 18 consecutive measurements are recorded per sample, and the result is available while the cultivation is running. With a process time scale of hours to days, this temporal resolution supports real-time monitoring of high-intensity methanotrophic cultivations. The results confirm that the technology is applicable to a non-sterile methanotrophic process and can be used for at-line monitoring of the culture, provided that method-specific limitations are taken into account. Full article

Time-domain induced polarization (TDIP) is a widely adopted geophysical technique for metallic mineral exploration. Field surveys are frequently carried out under complex topographic conditions such as slopes and valleys. Topographic undulation distorts TDIP responses and may bias the interpretation of ore-related subsurface anomalies. In this work, an unstructured finite-element forward modeling framework for TDIP is constructed using tetrahedral meshes generated by TetGen1.5.1, and the preconditioned conjugate gradient (PCG) solver is employed to solve large sparse linear systems. A spherical model with an analytical solution is adopted to verify the reliability of the algorithm. Numerical experiments are designed for flat, slope and valley terrain conditions to quantitatively evaluate mesh performance and topographic effects. Numerical results indicate that mesh quality acts as a dominant factor controlling simulation accuracy. Local adaptive mesh refinement can effectively reduce relative numerical errors and achieve a good balance between computational accuracy and cost. This study reproduces topographic effects that have been documented in the existing literature: the apparent chargeability exhibits asymmetric distribution over slopes, with attenuated anomaly amplitude and shifted anomaly position as the dip angle increases; current convergence in valleys amplifies secondary IP signals and alters anomaly patterns. Synthetic inversion tests demonstrate that neglecting topographic relief can induce inversion artifacts and misposition the target geological bodies. A field TDIP dataset from a mountainous polymetallic deposit further shows that terrain-constrained inversion facilitates the identification and discrimination of anomalies. The core advancement of this study lies in the establishment of an adaptive meshing workflow for TDIP forward modeling under complex terrain and its systematic quantitative evaluation. The proposed framework provides reliable technical support for high-precision TDIP data interpretation in mountainous mining areas. Full article

Conformationally asymmetric diblock copolymer melts exhibit close competition between conventional body-centered-cubic (BCC) and face-centered-cubic (FCC) sphere packings and more complex Frank–Kasper phases near the order–disorder transition (ODT). How compositional fluctuations reshape this competition remains poorly understood. We use Langevin field-theoretic simulation (L-FTS), with discrete-chain self-consistent field theory (SCFT) as a mean-field reference, to obtain ODT estimates and examine nearby morphological transformations among BCC, FCC, and four Frank–Kasper phases ($\sigma$, A15, C14, and C15). In monodisperse melts at an invariant polymerization index of $\overline{N}={10}^5$, where fluctuations are relatively weak, the estimated transition thresholds remain closely spaced, consistent with small SCFT free-energy differences per chain. At $\overline{N}={10}^4$, stronger fluctuations increase the separation between BCC disordering and Frank–Kasper transformation thresholds. BCC remains ordered at lower segregation strengths, and several Frank–Kasper initial states transform into BCC-like packings before disordering. In disperse systems modeled by binary blends at $\overline{N}={10}^4$, increasing chain-length dispersity narrows the separations between BCC and Frank–Kasper thresholds. Nevertheless, BCC remains ordered at lower segregation strengths than other initial morphologies, even at higher dispersity where SCFT favors FCC. These results suggest that compositional fluctuations and chain-length dispersity affect spherical morphologies differently near the ODT. Full article

This study develops an explicit Listing-consistent reduced-order dynamics and nonlinear feedback control framework for generating biomimetic eye movements. Building on the established relationship between Listing’s Law and the Half-Angle Rule, we give a coordinate-specific necessary-and-sufficient proof for trajectories starting from a compatible orientation within a nonsingular gaze domain. A single holonomic constraint and its velocity relation reduce a spherical-eye model from three rotational degrees of freedom and six states to two rotational degrees of freedom and four states. A fixed-frame torque compatibility condition and an explicit inverse control map convert desired yaw and pitch accelerations into two independent torque components and reconstruct the required torsional component. Human saccade recordings inform representative controller gains, which are held fixed across six trajectory comparisons using measured target displacements. These limited comparisons provide a preliminary qualitative assessment of the framework’s ability to generate saccade-like responses. Torsion is determined by Listing’s Law rather than measured independently. Full article

Random scattering from a rough target surface causes a random phase distribution in the echo light field of a laser Doppler vibrometer (LDV), which in turn affects the interference between the echo light and the reference light. Based on related theories including Gaussian beam propagation and rough surface modeling, theoretical models for light field propagation, random target scattering, and interference intensity were established. Numerical simulation was conducted for a typical application scenario with a laser wavelength of 1550 nm, and a measurement distance of 1 m was used to investigate the effects of transceiver optical system parameters and wavefront aberrations on system performance. The results indicate that both the F-number of the transceiver lens and the wavefront aberrations have a significant impact on the average interference intensity. Under rough target conditions, to achieve a higher average interference intensity, the designed F-number of the transceiver lens should be approximately 70–85% of the F-number of the focusing lens. Regarding wavefront aberrations, defocus, $0^{\circ }$ primary astigmatism, primary spherical aberration, and $0^{\circ }$ secondary astigmatism have a more significant effect on the average interference intensity. For applications involving rough targets, the design tolerance values for the Zernike coefficients of these four aberrations are all higher than those for mirror-finished targets. For these four aberrations, the design tolerance values for ground surfaces are increased by 16.7–66.7%, while the design tolerance values for milled surfaces are increased by 11.1–66.7%, effectively reducing the difficulty of lens design. The results of this study provide a theoretical reference for the design of optical system parameters in LDV and other coherent detection systems. Full article

Rapid charging and high-rate operation generate substantial heat in lithium-ion batteries, and insufficient heat dissipation can cause local heat accumulation and increase the risk of thermal failure. Macroporous metallic gels, represented by high-porosity open-cell metal foams, provide continuous heat transfer pathways and are promising media for battery thermal management. However, surface microdefects inevitably introduced during manufacturing and service can alter their thermal transport properties and consequently affect the accuracy of battery thermal safety prediction. In this study, open-cell aluminum and nickel macroporous metallic gels with spherical protrusions and depressions on the ligament surfaces were investigated. The effects of pore size (1–50 mm), contact angle (0–85°), defect volume fraction (0–10%), defect bottom radius (5–200 μm), and ambient temperature (300–400 K) on conductive, radiative, and total effective thermal conductivity were systematically investigated. The results show that increasing the protrusion content enhances heat conduction, whereas increasing the depression content significantly reduces the total effective thermal conductivity, with the maximum reduction approaching 90% when the defect content reaches 10%. Increasing the defect radius further strengthens the influence of depressions, particularly at smaller pore sizes. The calculated thermal conductivities of aluminum and nickel gels were applied to cylindrical and prismatic battery models to evaluate heating times from 300 to 350 K. Surface depressions slightly shortened the heating time, whereas protrusions generally prolonged it. The largest variation was observed, ranging from 153.415 to 153.500 s for cylindrical cells with nickel gels. These results provide a theoretical basis for defect-aware battery thermal management and safety prediction. Full article

Depth foundation models transfer strong monocular priors across visual domains, but their predictions can still depend on the planar chart used to encode the same 360° scene. We study this sensitivity as a cross-parameterization consistency problem and introduce ChartSym-Depth, a training-free test-time method that reconciles predictions across multiple spherical charts. For each re-parameterized equirectangular projection (ERP), ChartSym-Depth predicts depth, maps the result back to the same physical rays, and fuses the aligned estimates in log-depth space using spatially varying reliability weights. Under the default evenly spaced yaw schedule, exact cyclic shifts, covariant prediction–weight pairs, and fusion invariant to branch order and equivariant to common spatial shifts yield a group-consistent inference operator without assuming intrinsic spherical equivariance of the backbone. Experiments on Matterport3D-360 and Stanford2D3D show lower mean depth and seam errors, improved rotational consistency, and greater robustness to the tested perturbations. Uniform log fusion accounts for most of the gain in depth accuracy, with seam weighting providing a further improvement. The gains extend across Depth Anything 3 Base, Depth Pro, and Metric3D v2 on fixed 100-panorama diagnostic subsets. In-group canonical-reference consistency error is below $5\times {10}^{-5}$ m, while unseen-yaw and pitch consistency errors decrease by 42.0–44.6% and 37.0–38.1%, respectively, relative to Direct ERP. With Depth Anything 3 Large and reference-dependent per-panorama scale alignment after fusion, ChartSym-Depth reaches an absolute relative error (AbsRel) of 0.0693 on Matterport3D-360 and a root mean square error (RMSE) of 0.2509 m on Stanford2D3D. The default six-chart method requires six backbone evaluations, with no panoramic supervision, parameter updates, or architectural changes. Full article

L(−)-borneol (LB), a natural monoterpene, possesses anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties but suffers from poor aqueous solubility, high volatility, and low oral bioavailability. Here, an oral nanoparticle delivery system was developed via horseradish peroxidase-mediated oxidative crosslinking of polyethylene glycol, generating L(−)-borneol -containing PEG nanoparticles (LB NPs). The optimized LB NPs exhibited uniform spherical morphology with an average size of 70.4 ± 4.7 nm, a negative zeta potential of −19.3 ± 0.5 mV, high encapsulation efficiency (95.09 ± 0.44%), and drug loading of 6.47 ± 0.78%. In lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-stimulated macrophages, LB NPs reduced intracellular reactive oxygen species (ROS), malondialdehyde (MDA), and myeloperoxidase (MPO) levels while restoring glutathione (GSH), indicating enhanced antioxidant protection. Following oral administration, LB NPs produced detectable pulmonary-associated fluorescence. In a cigarette smoke/LPS-induced COPD mouse model, oral LB NPs attenuated pulmonary inflammation, collagen deposition, and histopathological injury. Improvements in hepatic and renal biochemical and histopathological abnormalities were also observed. A 21-day repeated oral administration study showed no apparent treatment-related systemic toxicity. These findings suggest that LB-containing PEG nanoparticles improve the pharmaceutical properties and biological activity of LB, supporting further investigation as a potential adjunctive strategy for COPD. Full article

Industrial CFD and DEM benchmarks were reanalyzed to examine how workload characteristics and hardware constraints affect GPU performance in Ansys Fluent and Ansys Rocky. The dataset comprised separate CFD and DEM calculations, not coupled fluid–particle simulations. Fluent cases included a 24-million-cell combustor, a 4-million-cell mixing tank, and a 140-million-cell external-aerodynamics model evaluated using fixed iteration counts. Rocky cases covered spherical and polyhedral particles, particle-count and particle-size sweeps, and selected multi-GPU configurations. Recorded wall-clock times were used to calculate within-case speedups and scaling efficiencies, while out-of-memory (OOM) outcomes were treated separately as feasibility results. Peak FP32 throughput alone did not explain solver performance. Completed workloads showed different sensitivities to memory bandwidth, memory type, solver path, workload size, particle shape, and precision regime. Smaller workloads showed limited separation among high-performance GPUs, whereas larger or more demanding cases benefited more clearly from memory bandwidth and additional GPUs. OOM results showed that VRAM capacity acts primarily as a feasibility constraint, and multi-GPU execution both reduced runtime and enabled otherwise infeasible workloads. The results support a workload-aware hardware-selection framework in which memory feasibility is assessed before runtime and scaling. Because each configuration had a single recorded timing, detailed performance mechanisms and statistical rankings remain unresolved. Full article

Objective: The aim of the study was to compare visual performance and patient-reported visual function among the enhanced monofocal TECNIS Eyhance, conventional monofocal Sensar, and multifocal Synergy intraocular lenses (IOLs) (Johnson & Johnson Surgical Vision, Inc., Santa Ana, CA, USA). Methods: This prospective comparative observational study included patients assessed after cataract surgery with Eyhance, Sensar, or Synergy implantation. Uncorrected and corrected visual acuity were measured at distance, intermediate, and near, and contrast sensitivity was assessed using the Pelli-Robson chart. Participants completed the validated Visual Function Index (VF-14) and three nonvalidated exploratory questions addressing unaided intermediate vision. Eye-level outcomes were analyzed using linear mixed-effects models accounting for fellow-eye correlation and adjusted for age and preoperative spherical equivalent. The VF-14 was analyzed once per participant. Results: Fifty-two participants were enrolled, of whom 51 contributed 84 eligible eyes to the analysis: 40 Eyhance, 26 Synergy, and 18 Sensar eyes. Among the 51 analyzed participants, 31 (60.8%) were women. Mean age of participants was 69.98 ± 7.90 years, with an age range of 48–85 years. Adjusted uncorrected distance visual acuity did not differ among the IOL groups (p = 0.994). Synergy provided better uncorrected intermediate and near visual acuity than Eyhance and Sensar (overall p < 0.001 for both), whereas Eyhance and Sensar did not differ. Corrected visual acuity did not differ significantly among the groups at any distance. Contrast sensitivity differed at distance (p = 0.007) and near (p = 0.011); Synergy had lower values than both monofocal-type IOLs, whereas Eyhance and Sensar were comparable. Adjusted VF-14 scores did not differ among the groups (p = 0.451). Exploratory intermediate-vision responses favored Synergy but demonstrated a pronounced ceiling effect. Conclusions: All three IOLs provided comparable uncorrected distance visual acuity. Synergy was associated with better unaided intermediate and near visual acuity but lower contrast sensitivity, whereas Eyhance showed no objective advantage over Sensar. Overall patient-reported visual function did not differ among the groups, and findings from the additional intermediate-vision questions were exploratory. Full article

Traditional 3-RRS and 3-RPS mechanisms adopt open-chain limbs, where R, P, and S denote revolute, prismatic, and spherical joints, respectively. Although these mechanisms are widely used, they suffer from insufficient stiffness and accuracy under heavy-load and high-precision operating conditions. By contrast, existing configurations equipped with closed-loop sub-chains can offer improved stiffness yet suffer from complex structures. To address these issues, a novel closed-loop actuated 3-(RRRPR)S parallel mechanism is proposed. The configuration consists of a moving platform, a fixed platform, and three identical (RRRPR)S closed-loop actuated limbs. Each limb contains a closed-loop sub-chain composed of a planar five-bar mechanism (RRRPR), in which the prismatic joint P is the actuated joint. The design of the closed-loop actuated limb effectively shortens the transmission chain length of the limb, reduces the overall height of the mechanism, and improves its stiffness and dynamic characteristics. To address the complex constraint relationship imposed by the closed-loop sub-chain (RRRPR) on the moving platform, the equivalent motion screw theory is used to systematically analyze the rationality of the actuated joint selection, thereby ensuring the correctness of the configuration design. Through the analysis of the motion characteristics of the closed-loop sub-chain, the motion mapping relationship between the serial open-chain limb and the closed-loop actuated limb is established. By combining the influence coefficient theory with the Newton–Euler equations in screw form, the kinematic and dynamic models of the mechanism are established in a concise and compact form. A prototype of the 3-(RRRPR)S closed-loop actuated parallel mechanism was developed. Experimental results show that the mechanism can achieve continuous and stable motion under the tested motion groups, providing a practical basis for the engineering application of similar parallel mechanisms. Full article