Search Results (97)

Diabetes, projected to affect over 1.3 billion people by 2050, presents significant healthcare burdens and environmental challenges, necessitating innovative and sustainable solutions to manage complications effectively. This study applies life cycle assessment to evaluate the environmental impacts of two semiconductor-enabled diabetes care devices: (1) a single-use urine-based C-peptide measurement strip aligned with the reduce strategy and (2) a reusable smart wound dressing for chronic wound monitoring under the reuse strategy. Integrating green electricity reduced the total lifecycle global warming potential by 16.2% for the urine strip and 0.4% for the smart wound dressing. The results emphasize the importance of tailored design strategies, showing that the impact of green integrated circuits is substantial for single-use reduce systems, while long-term treatments benefit more from reuse strategies paired with durable, complex designs that extend component lifespan and limit new manufacturing burdens. Full article

With the conclusion of proton–proton collision data-taking in 2025, the ATLAS experiment has now integrated a luminosity exceeding 300 ${\mathrm{fb}}^{-1}$ during the Run 3 period, which began in July 2022 following Long Shutdown 2 (LS2). During LS2, a series of detector upgrades were implemented, including the installation of the New Small Wheel (NSW) in the innermost stations of the Muon Spectrometer end-caps. The ATLAS Muon Spectrometer, the largest muon system ever built at a collider, now comprises both established gaseous detectors—Monitored Drift Tubes, Thin Gap Chambers, and Resistive Plate Chambers—and newer detectors like Micromegas and small-strip TGCs in the NSW. These new systems are now in stable operation following an extensive phase of construction and commissioning, providing enhanced muon tracking and trigger capabilities. This presentation covers the performance of the muon system, focusing on the stability of the established detectors over time, their ability to handle increasing luminosity and associated irradiation levels, and studies on detector aging. Emphasis will be placed on the NSW upgrade, including the strategies adopted for alignment, track reconstruction, and trigger. The performance results presented in this contribution are based on Run 3 data collected up to 2024. Full article

Background/Objectives: Interproximal reduction (IPR), also known as dental stripping, is a commonly used orthodontic technique to gain space, avoid extractions, and correct tooth size discrepancies, particularly in contemporary orthodontics and clear aligner therapy. The aim of this systematic review was to update the evidence from the last 10 years regarding the dental and periodontal effects associated with IPR. Methods: A systematic review of the literature was conducted including studies published between January 2015 and July 2025. Searches were performed in PubMed, SciELO, LILACS, Cochrane Library, and Google Scholar. Primary studies reporting dental and/or periodontal outcomes related to IPR were included. Study selection and data extraction were performed following PRISMA guidelines. Results: Twelve studies met the inclusion criteria, comprising in vitro and in vivo designs. The available evidence indicates that IPR is associated with transient changes in enamel surface roughness and minimal increases in pulp temperature, which remains below critical thresholds when appropriate techniques and cooling measures are used. No consistent evidence of increased caries risk, periodontal deterioration, or tooth sensitivity was reported. Surface polishing and fluoride application were frequently associated with more favorable outcomes. Conclusions: Based on the available evidence from the last decade, IPR appears to be a clinically safe orthodontic procedure when performed with proper technique, adequate case selection, and appropriate finishing protocols. However, heterogeneity among study designs highlights the need for further well-designed clinical studies to strengthen the evidence base. Full article

This study presents the design and experimental evaluation of a low-cost parabolic solar concentrator fabricated primarily from recyclable materials. Three reflector configurations—aluminum foil, Plexiglass mirror tiles, and a hybrid design with a peripheral aluminum foil strip—were experimentally assessed to examine their effects on solar concentration performance. A novel foldable and adjustable tripod-mounted receiver was introduced to improve focal alignment, portability, and mechanical stability by isolating the receiver load from the dish structure. Results indicate that Plexiglass mirror tiles significantly enhance thermal performance compared to aluminum foil, while the hybrid configuration achieved the highest receiver temperature of 53 °C under controlled radiation conditions. The findings demonstrate that efficient and portable parabolic solar concentrators can be developed using inexpensive and recyclable materials for small-scale solar thermal applications. Full article

As a highly representative traditional plant dye, the pigment composition of Cotinus coggygria Scop. (CCS) and its dyeing mechanisms require further study. In this work, pigments were extracted from the trunk of CCS using environmentally friendly solvents, namely ethanol and water. A systematic analysis of the components in the CCS extract and the stripping solutions from dyed cotton fabrics was conducted using LC-MS and UV-Vis spectroscopy, enabling an exploration of how different solvents influence the dissolution of CCS pigments and their dyeing effects on cotton fibers. The results indicated that water is more effective for extracting flavonoid glycosides and proanthocyanidins, whereas ethanol demonstrated superior efficacy in extracting flavonols and flavonol glycosides. Additionally, the dyed samples exhibited significant antibacterial activity against Staphylococcus aureus. The water–ethanol extraction and dyeing technology developed in this study aligns with the principles of sustainable development in green chemistry, providing an environmentally friendly solution for the industrial application of CCS and offering substantial ecological and economic value. Full article

Drivable area (DA) detection in unstructured off-road environments remains challenging for unmanned ground vehicles (UGVs) due to limited field-of-view, persistent occlusions, and the inherent limitations of individual sensors. While existing fusion approaches combine aerial and ground perspectives, they often struggle with misaligned spatiotemporal viewpoints, dynamic environmental changes, and ineffective feature integration, particularly at intersections or under long-range occlusion. To address these issues, this paper proposes a cooperative air–ground perception framework based on multi-source data fusion. Our three-stage system first introduces DynCoANet, a semantic segmentation network incorporating directional strip convolution and connectivity attention to extract topologically consistent road structures from UAV imagery. Second, an enhanced particle filter with semantic road constraints and diversity-preserving resampling achieves robust cross-view localization between UAV maps and UGV LiDAR. Finally, a distance-adaptive fusion transformer (DAFT) dynamically fuses UAV semantic features with LiDAR BEV representations via confidence-guided cross-attention, balancing geometric precision and semantic richness according to spatial distance. Extensive evaluations demonstrate the effectiveness of our approach: on the DeepGlobe road extraction dataset, DynCoANet attains an IoU of 61.14%; cross-view localization on KITTI sequences reduces average position error by approximately 10%; and DA detection on OpenSatMap outperforms Grid-DATrNet by 8.42% in accuracy for large-scale regions (400 m × 400 m). Real-world experiments with a coordinated UAV-UGV platform confirm the framework’s robustness in occlusion-heavy and geometrically complex scenarios. This work provides a unified solution for reliable DA perception through tightly coupled cross-modal alignment and adaptive fusion. Full article

Newborns are unable to reliably express changes in their physical condition due to their physiological immaturity and limited capacity for communication; therefore, continuous and systematic monitoring during phototherapy is essential to ensure timely detection of adverse responses and maintenance of therapeutic safety. This study extends our prior work, which introduced an indirect method for measuring light intensity to improve precision in monitoring newborn skin illumination. Light-emitting diode (LED) phototherapy has attracted considerable attention as an effective treatment for neonatal jaundice (NNJ). This study introduces an three-dimensional configuration of blue LEDs. An Arduino Mega 2560 microcontroller with pulse-width modulation (PWM) technology was employed to independently regulate the intensity of LED strips, enabling precise control of light output. The strips were mounted on an arc-shaped structure that can be adjusted mechanically and electronically through pre-programmed instructions embedded in the microcontroller. The results demonstrate that blue light at a wavelength of 460 ± 10 nm aligns with the peak absorption spectrum of bilirubin, thereby optimizing the efficacy of phototherapy for NNJ. Both observed absorption peaks were within the therapeutically effective range. Computer simulations confirmed that stable output contours can be achieved using rapid electronic scanning with a PID control algorithm to dynamically adjust the duty cycle. Experimental data showed that LED radiation output was largely linear. This supports the use of linear control algorithms and confirms the platform’s feasibility for future research. Full article

A sustainable approach to agricultural production and increasing interest in alternative wheat species have intensified research on simplified soil management systems under changing climatic conditions. A three-year field experiment (2018–2020) was conducted to evaluate the effects of tillage methods (plowing, shallow tillage, and strip-till) and hydrothermal conditions on yield formation and yield components in three wheat species: Triticum sphaerococcum, Triticum persicum, and Triticum aestivum ssp. vulgare. The results showed that weather conditions during the growing season strongly modulated species responses to tillage systems. Multivariate analyses confirmed that grain yield was mainly determined by fertile generative tiller density and grain number per spike, whereas thousand-grain weight played a secondary or compensatory role. In T. sphaerococcum, clear tillage effects occurred only in the most favorable year, when shallow tillage enhanced yield. T. persicum consistently responded positively to strip-till across all years, increasing grain yield by 35.5% compared with plowing. In T. aestivum, the direction of tillage effects depended on weather conditions, with shallow tillage being most beneficial under favorable moisture and plowing under drier conditions. Overall, simplified tillage systems can enhance the productivity of ancient wheat species without reducing the performance of common wheat, provided that soil management is aligned with prevailing hydrothermal conditions. Full article

Cold-pressed rapeseed oil aligns well with the trend of growing demand for minimally processed, health-promoting food products. It is essential to identify suitable storage conditions that protect cold-pressed rapeseed oil from oxidation, thereby extending its shelf life. In this study, the effect of gelatin/polyvinyl alcohol film strips enriched with ethyl sinapate (GPE) and immersed in cold-pressed rapeseed oil samples was evaluated during an accelerated storage test (14 days at 40 ± 1 °C under light (power of luminous flux = 385 lm). The influence of bottle type differing in shape (Marasca and Dorica) and glass colour (amber and clear) was also assessed. The incorporation of GPE into the stored oils enhanced their antioxidant activity (AA) determined by 2,2′-azino-bis(3-ethylbenzothiazoline-6-sulfonic acid (ABTS = 1956.78–2334.10 µmol Trolox (TE)/100 g), 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH = 528.29–691.19 µmol TE/100 g), ferric reducing antioxidant power methods (FRAP = 454.14–511.61 µmol TE/100 g) and total phenolic content (TPC = 41.62–47.25 mg sinapic acid (SA)/100 g) compared to oils without film strips (ABTS = 1217.89 –1422.80 µmol TE/100 g, DPPH = 376.85–464.13 µmol TE/100 g, FRAP = 98.28–126.40 µmol TE/100 g and TPC = 6.38–8.02 mg SA/100 g) after first week of storage and confirmed the effective gradual release of ethyl sinapate from films to oils during two weeks of accelerated storage (ABTS = 2064.80–3086.47 µmol TE/100 g, DPPH = 597.11–854.37 µmol TE/100 g, FRAP =428.00–599.76 µmol TE/100 g, and TPC = 35.02–57.19 mg SA/100 g). Moreover, the GPE inhibited oil deterioration by reducing both primary (peroxide value (PV) = 3.75–5.11 meq O₂/kg and 3.64–4.89 meq O₂/kg, K₂₃₂ = 1.236–1.494 and 1.551–1.675 after the first and second week of storage, respectively) and secondary oxidation products (anisidine value (pAnV) = 1.03–1.16 and 1.08–1.61; K₂₆₈ = 0.102–0.170 and 0.185–0.237 after the first and second week of storage, respectively) compared to oxidative status of oils without film strips (PV = 3.76–5.59 meq O₂/kg, K₂₃₂ = 1.452–1.828, pAnV = 0.85–2.27, K₂₆₈ = 0.154–0.263). In addition, synchronous fluorescence spectroscopy was applied to monitor changes in the main fluorescent components of the studied oils. Overall, the use of a dark glass bottle combined with antioxidant film strips proved to be an effective strategy for prolonging the shelf life of cold-pressed rapeseed oil. Full article

This conceptual paper analyzes the effects of Donald Trump’s 2025 authoritarian regime on refugees, the US Refugee Admissions Program, and resettlement. The second Trump presidency resumed his first term’s attempt (2017–2021) at seizing power. This time, his regime launched a more sophisticated authoritarian plan to destroy the US. His 2025 term is consolidating power in the president to target all forms of migration to the US, including dismantling the US Refugee Admissions Program (USRAP) through executive overreach, circumventing statutory refugee procedures, violating human and civil rights, and disregarding judicial constraints. On 20 January 2025, he used Executive Order 14163, “Realigning the United States Refugee Admissions Program,” to indefinitely suspend the admission and resettlement of refugees for 90 days. Exceptions are made on a case-by-case basis, with national interest and plans for a white nationalist state driving the decision. Refugees at any phase of the vetting process will be denied entry. Simultaneously, Executive Order 14169, “Reevaluating and Realigning United States Foreign Aid,” was signed on 20 January 2025, to pause the US dissemination of foreign aid for 90 days. Resumption would depend on a review determining foreign assistance alignment with national interests. The implementation of Executive Order 14169 further dismantled the USRAP infrastructure by stripping federal agencies of personnel and budgets that support resettled refugees through a “stop work order” issued by the Department of State’s Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration (PRM) on 24 January 2025. Refugee resettlement agencies, non-profits, and faith-based organizations are vital to welcoming and assisting refugees as they adjust to their new lives. These critical organizations are now struggling to provide services to resettled refugees. Additionally, escalated, arbitrary, racially profiled deportations of alleged criminal undocumented immigrants have increased anxiety and fear among resettled refugee communities. Subsequently, the Trump administration’s indefinite suspension of the USRAP, effective from 2025 to 2028 and beyond, will impact refugees, their families, and the resettlement network. Truly, the survival of the USRAP depends on an administration that upholds the Constitution, democratic values, and the significance of US diplomatic global leadership, replacing this regime. Full article

After rough planing, defects such as wormholes and small patches of green bark residue and decay are often overlooked and misclassified. Strip-like defects, including splinters and chipped edges, are easily confused with the natural bamboo grain, and a single elongated defect is frequently fragmented into multiple detection boxes. This study proposes a modified TASNet-YOLO model, an improved detector built on YOLO11n. Unlike prior YOLO-based bamboo defect detectors, TASNet-YOLO is a mechanism-guided redesign that jointly targets two persistent failure modes—limited visibility of small, low-contrast defects and fragmentation of elongated defects—while remaining feasible for real-time production settings. In the backbone, a newly designed TriMAD_Conv module is introduced as the core unit, enhancing the detection of wormholes as well as small-area defects such as green bark residue and decay. The additive-gated C3k2_AddCGLU is further integrated at selected C3k2 stages. The combination of additive interaction and CGLU improves channel selection and detail retention, highlighting differences between splinters and chipped edges and bamboo grain strips, thereby reducing false positives and improving precision. In the neck, the neck replaces nearest-neighbor upsampling and CBS with SNI-GSNeck to improve cross-scale alignment and fusion. Under an acceptable real-time budget, predictions for splinters and chipped edges become more contiguous and better aligned to edges, while wormholes predictions are more circular and less noisy. Experiments on our in-house dataset (8445 bamboo-strip defect images) show that, compared with YOLO11n, the proposed model improves detection accuracy by 5.1%, achieves 106.4 FPS, and reduces computational costs by 0.4 GFLOPs per forward pass. These properties meet the throughput demand of 2 m/s conveyor lines, and the compact model size and compute footprint make edge deployment straightforward for fast online screening and preliminary quality grading in industrial production. Full article

A nanoliter-scale fabrication method was applied to construct a colorimetric lateral flow strip for urea detection (Urea-CLFS). The device involves two main papers: a nitrocellulose membrane (NC-Mb) for urease enzyme immobilization and chromatography paper (CH-PP) containing a phenol red indicator. Urea-CLFS is a tool for detecting urea that is based on enzyme catalysis and the change in color of phenol red when urea is present. The Urea-CLFS fabrication was made possible by the minimal amount of nanoliters used in reagent consumption. The use of small arrays of phenol red dots provides a higher response result compared to single dots applied on CH-PP. To find the most effective design, it analyzed how urease was aligned on NC-Mb horizontally and vertically. According to our findings, the vertical alignment of the urease enzyme on NC-Mb leads to a prolonged reaction time, which leads to higher product production. The optimization process included optimizing various parameters, including the layer number of phenol red on CH-PP, phenol red concentration, urease concentration, reaction time, and sample volume. Under optimal conditions, the Urea-CLFS provided a linear range of 0.25–8.0 mmol L⁻¹ with an LOD of 0.34 mmol L⁻¹, which is sufficient for human health diagnostics. The accuracy of the Urea-CLFS was demonstrated by the recovery of the human urine sample between 95 ± 3% and 103 ± 3% (n = 3). Full article

Plastic pollution is a pressing global environmental challenge, and low-density-polyethylene (LDPE) is among the most persistent synthetic polymers. This study investigates the in vitro biodegradation of LDPE by native Aspergillus strains isolated from plastic-contaminated soils in Trujillo, Peru. Molecular techniques were used to identify the Aspergillus species. The LDPE strips were incubated for 50 days, and biodegradation was evaluated by weight loss (%), pH variation, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Likewise, the reduction rate and half-life of the polymer (t_1/2) were calculated. Three strains of Aspergillus—A. niger H1C, A. ochraceopetaliformis H3C, and A. tamarii H6C—were isolated and evaluated for their ability to LDPE under in vitro conditions. A. niger H1C exhibited the most weight reduction (4.25 ± 1.67%) and a polymer half-life of 897.89 days, while A. tamarii H6C demonstrated a comparable loss (3.79 ± 1.52%) with a half-life of 901.6 days. A. ochraceopetaliformis H3C exhibited a moderate degradation (1.98 ± 0.37%), with the longest half-life recorded at 1757.33 days. The process was supported by pH variations. Furthermore, FTIR and SEM analyses revealed structural modifications in LDPE including formation of hydroxyl, carbonyl, and ether groups, suggesting oxidative and enzymatic activity-possibly mediated by lipases induced under lipid-rich conditions. This is the first report of A. ochraceopetaliformis and A. tamarii, highlighting their potential in sustainable plastic bioremediation strategies aligned with SDG 13 (Climate Action). Full article

Background/Objectives: The susceptibility of Corynebacterium spp. to antimicrobial agents is species-related, with increasing levels of resistance to fluoroquinolones in several species related to their continued use in clinical practice. The objectives were to determine the in vitro activity of delafloxacin in comparison with other fluoroquinolones against clinical isolates of Corynebacterium spp., to compare MICs of delafloxacin obtained with gradient strips and with reference microdilution, and to investigate the mechanisms related to fluoroquinolone resistance in the tested strains. Methods: Fifty-three clinical isolates, assigned to five species of Corynebacterium spp., were evaluated using reference microdilution for delafloxacin, ciprofloxacin, levofloxacin, and moxifloxacin (with and without reserpine or phenylalanine-arginine β-naphthylamide), and gradient strips for delafloxacin. The QRDR of the gyrA gene was amplified using primers specific to the different species, and mutations were defined after aligning against the corresponding reference sequences. Results: Delafloxacin was the most active compound with MIC₅₀/MIC₉₀ values of 0.5/8 mg/L. Single mutations at the QRDR were observed in isolates, with MICs of delafloxacin ranging from 0.016 to 4 mg/L, while double mutations occurred in isolates, with MICs ranging from 0.125 to 16 mg/L. The delafloxacin gradient strips showed an essential agreement of 88.7%, bias of −5%, and a Kappa index of 0.848. Conclusions: Increased MICs of delafloxacin against Corynebacterium spp. are related to the presence of non-conservative mutations in the QRDR of gyrA. Delafloxacin gradient strips could be a reasonable alternative for use in the clinical routine of the microbiology laboratory. Delafloxacin could represent an alternative for treating infections due to some species of Corynebacterium. Full article

Membrane technology plays a vital role in environmental protection, chemical industry, and pharmaceuticals, where understanding the “structure-property” relationship of composite membranes through transmission electron microscopy (TEM) is crucial. Conventional ultramicrotomy methods for preparing ultra-thin sections of polymer composite membranes often result in significant damage and non-uniform thickness due to interference from non-woven substrates. In this study, we developed an innovative substrate stripping and double-orientation embedding technique that overcomes these limitations. A special embedding device was designed to facilitate the preparation of polymeric membrane cross-sections for TEM analysis. The device incorporates dual functionality, enabling both non-woven substrate detachment and bidirectional alignment of functional membrane layers. TEM characterization showed that the ultra-thin sections of membrane cross-sections prepared using the improved method were damage-free (0% damage rate), had uniform thickness, and showed distinct structural clarity. This method addressed three major challenges: (i) substrate-induced section damage, (ii) orientation deviation, and (iii) interlayer separation. This advancement provides researchers with a reliable tool for accurate cross-sectional analysis of composite membranes, facilitating deeper insights into membrane microstructure-performance relationships. Full article