Search Results (2,347)

Intraocular lens (IOL) implantation is currently the most effective method for restoring vision following cataract surgery and is also used in cases of high myopia or hyperopia. However, IOL implantation eliminates accommodation, forcing patients to choose between corrected distance vision, requiring reading glasses for near tasks, or near vision supplemented by distance correction with spectacles. This limitation underscores the need for fully customized, patient-specific IOLs. To address this challenge, we performed femtosecond laser ablation experiments on polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA) IOLs using 200 fs pulses at 513 nm to investigate controlled surface modification. Laser-induced surface structuring offers a pathway to inscribe micron-scale patterns, including apodized features, in transparent polymers. To our knowledge, this is the first demonstration of femtosecond laser irradiation at 513 nm applied to IOL surfaces. Furthermore, this study is the first to combine scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and optical coherence tomography (OCT) as detection technologies to analyze and quantify ablation morphology and depth. The formation of smooth craters with minimal surrounding thermal damage highlights the potential of femtosecond laser processing as a promising tool for the development of customized, patient-tailored intraocular lenses. Full article

The Longshou Shan area is located on the northeastern margin of the Tibetan Plateau in northwest China. The study area is located where the sinistral Altyn Tagh and Haiyuan Faults overlap and the Qilian Shan thrust fault systems in the northeastern Kunlun–Qaidam Block converge. This region experiences frequent seismic events, including large-magnitude earthquakes, which are significant indicators of ongoing tectonic deformation and stress accumulation in the Earth’s crust. The seismicity of Longshou Shan is not only a consequence of its tectonic setting but also a key factor in understanding the seismic hazard posed to the surrounding areas. The tectonic activity within the Longshou Shan region of NW China is a focus of our geomorphological research due to its significance in understanding the complex interactions between tectonic forces and surface processes. Situated on the northeastern edge of the Tibetan Plateau and along the eastward trace of the Altyn Tagh Fault, Longshou Shan is crucial for investigating the plateau’s northward expansion. This study leverages ALOS-based digital elevation models (DEMs) and geomorphic indices to evaluate the tectonic activity in the area, employing various indices such as mountain front sinuosity, valley floor width-to-height ratio, hypsometric curves, asymmetry factors, basin shape indices, and channel steepness index to provide a comprehensive tectonomorphological analysis. Our results indicate intense tectonic activity on both sides of Longshou Shan, making it a highly hazardous seismic area. We also highlight the importance of thrust faults and related crustal shortening in the formation and expansion of the plateau. Full article

This study compares the structural, morphological, magnetic, and photocatalytic properties of a pure SiO₂ matrix, a ZnFe₂O₄-doped SiO₂ nanocomposite (both synthesized via the sol-gel method), and bulk ZnFe₂O₄ produced by thermal decomposition. Thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) reveals that metal oxalates form below 200 °C and decompose into metal oxides, which subsequently form ferrite. Fourier-transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy confirms the embedding of both undoped and ZnFe₂O₄-doped nanoparticles into the SiO₂ matrix at all investigated annealing temperatures. X-ray diffraction (XRD) consistently reveals the formation of crystalline ZnFe₂O₄, with the crystallite size increasing from 48 to 93 nm upon annealing. Atomic force microscopy (AFM) shows spherical ferrite nanoparticles surrounded by an amorphous layer, with particle growth observed at higher temperatures. Structural parameters derived from XRD (e.g., crystallite size, density, porosity, lattice constant, unit cell volume) and AFM (e.g., particle size, coating thickness) as well as magnetic parameters (saturation magnetization, remanence, anisotropy, coercivity) demonstrate clear dependence on both dopant presence and annealing temperature. Magnetic measurements reveal enhanced properties with increasing ferrite content and heat treatment, with a transition from superparamagnetic behavior at 700 °C to ferrimagnetic behavior above 1000 °C. Scavenger experiments confirmed the involvement of holes, hydroxyl radicals, and superoxide radicals in the photocatalytic process. The photocatalytic efficiency, as evaluated by the Rhodamine B degradation under visible light, highlights the promising potential of the obtained nanocomposite for advanced environmental and technological applications. Full article

The intricate connections between plants and the microbial populations that surround them are crucial for plant development and resilience, but little is known about the evolutionary processes influencing these partnerships. Less is known about how pathogenic and beneficial microbes coevolve with their plant hosts over ecological and evolutionary timeframes, despite the fact that several studies identify rhizosphere and endophytic microbes that support nutrient acquisition, disease resistance, and stress tolerance. Using molecular, ecological, and evolutionary investigations from soil, rhizosphere, and endosphere habitats, this review summarizes current findings on microbial coevolution in plant–microbe systems. We look at the endosymbiotic processes that underlie the development of organelles, the mechanisms of mutualism and antagonism, and the eco-evolutionary feedbacks that affect plant health and agricultural output. The inadequate comprehension of intraspecific microbial diversity, the application of laboratory coevolution experiments to field settings, and the long-term effects of climate change on the evolutionary dynamics of plants and microbiomes are some of the major knowledge gaps. When pathogenic and beneficial microbes apply selective pressures to one another and their common host, coevolution takes place. This results in mutual genetic and physiological adaptations, such as modifications to host immunity, microbial virulence, or competitive tactics, which influence the way the two types interact over time. We conclude that understanding plants as holobiont-integrated units of hosts and their microbiomes offers fresh chances to develop microbiome-based approaches to sustainable agriculture, such as coevolutionary breeding programs, precision biofertilizers, and resilient cropping systems. Full article

This study focuses on the experiences of female Paralympic athletes in Brazil through the lens of feminist disability studies. It is a qualitative study, grounded in the voices of disabled women, positioning them as the foundation of knowledge within a post-structuralist epistemological framework. The research involved in-depth interviews with four Brazilian Female Paralympians, conducted using a predefined interview guide, and the data were analyzed using thematic content analysis. The athletes were between 25 and 34 years of age and had experience competing in international competitions. From their narratives, two distinct yet interconnected categories emerge: (1) Being a disabled woman and (2) Like sportswomen. Disabled women have shown that they navigate an ableist and sexist society as disabled women within the context of sport; at the same time, they embody an empowered and inspirational identity as sportswomen. By exploring these perspectives, this study highlights the need to challenge and redefine societal perceptions and expectations surrounding disability. It provides insights into the experiences and agency of female Paralympic athletes. Full article

This study focuses on the knowledge and attitudes of Orthodox clergy in Greece regarding religious psychopathology, which refers to the complex phenomena where religious experiences or beliefs intersect with mental disorders. The sample included 125 clergy members with varying levels of education and pastoral experience. The findings reveal significant gaps in the understanding of basic concepts of religious psychopathology, despite recognition of the need for collaboration with mental health professionals. Formal education proved to be a decisive factor in understanding religious psychopathology, as clergy with higher educational levels demonstrated significantly better knowledge. In contrast, clergy opinions towards mental health issues appeared to be shaped by multiple factors beyond education alone. Experience in collaboration with psychologists or psychiatrists was positively associated with higher knowledge levels and more realistic, positive attitudes toward managing religious psychopathology. Additionally, clergy who had direct experience with cases of religious psychopathology showed greater sensitivity and differentiated perspectives. The study highlights the urgent need to incorporate knowledge of religious psychopathology into theological education in Greece and to strengthen cooperation between the Church and mental health services. Such initiatives can improve pastoral care, reduce the stigma surrounding mental illness, and holistically support members of religious communities Full article

Aero-engine ablation detection is a critical task in aircraft health management, yet existing rotation-based object detection methods often face challenges of high computational complexity and insufficient local feature extraction. This paper proposes an improved YOLOv11 algorithm incorporating Context-guided Large-kernel attention and Rotated detection head, called CLR-YOLOv11. The model achieves synergistic improvement in both detection efficiency and accuracy through dual structural optimization, with its innovations primarily embodied in the following three tightly coupled strategies: (1) Targeted Data Preprocessing Pipeline Design: To address challenges such as limited sample size, low overall image brightness, and noise interference, we designed an ordered data augmentation and normalization pipeline. This pipeline is not a mere stacking of techniques but strategically enhances sample diversity through geometric transformations (random flipping, rotation), hybrid augmentations (Mixup, Mosaic), and pixel-value transformations (histogram equalization, Gaussian filtering). All processed images subsequently undergo Z-Score normalization. This order-aware pipeline design effectively improves the quality, diversity, and consistency of the input data. (2) Context-Guided Feature Fusion Mechanism: To overcome the limitations of traditional Convolutional Neural Networks in modeling long-range contextual dependencies between ablation areas and surrounding structures, we replaced the original C3k2 layer with the C3K2CG module. This module adaptively fuses local textural details with global semantic information through a context-guided mechanism, enabling the model to more accurately understand the gradual boundaries and spatial context of ablation regions. (3) Efficiency-Oriented Large-Kernel Attention Optimization: To expand the receptive field while strictly controlling the additional computational overhead introduced by rotated detection, we replaced the C2PSA module with the C2PSLA module. By employing large-kernel decomposition and a spatial selective focusing strategy, this module significantly reduces computational load while maintaining multi-scale feature perception capability, ensuring the model meets the demands of high real-time applications. Experiments on a self-built aero-engine ablation dataset demonstrate that the improved model achieves 78.5% mAP@0.5:0.95, representing a 4.2% improvement over the YOLOv11-obb which model without the specialized data augmentation. This study provides an effective solution for high-precision real-time aviation inspection tasks. Full article

Background and Objectives: Swimmers are repeatedly exposed to overhead shoulder movements, which overload the surrounding soft tissue and may contribute to shoulder pain. These repetitive demands have also been implicated in the development of scapular dyskinesis (SD). This cross-sectional study aimed to determine the prevalence of SD and to examine its associations with extrinsic and intrinsic factors in adult elite swimmers. Materials and Methods: Fifty competitive swimmers (mean age, 23.9 years; mean training experience, 13.6 years) participated in this study. SD was graded using the Scapular Dyskinesis Test. Extrinsic factors included dominant side, breathing side, years of experience, and primary stroke. Intrinsic factors included Lateral Scapular Slide Test (LSST) distance, pectoralis minor length, glenohumeral internal rotation (IR) range of motion (ROM), shoulder pain, and Penn Shoulder Score. Results: SD was identified in 46% of swimmers. Years of experience and primary stroke showed no significant association with SD; however, obvious SD was observed only in butterfly and freestyle specialists. Increasing SD severity was associated with shorter pectoralis minor length (p < 0.001) and reduced IR ROM (p = 0.013), particularly in the obvious group. Although SD was not related to shoulder pain, it was significantly related to lower Penn Shoulder Scores (p = 0.039). Conclusions: SD is common in adult elite swimmers and is associated with shortened pectoralis minor, reduced IR ROM, and impaired shoulder function, but not to pain. Full article

It has become commonplace to mention that Wittgenstein’s philosophy has an ethical point, and to consider how this contributes to his conception of philosophical method. Less attention has been given to how his admission to not being able to “help seeing every problem from a religious point of view” permeates his understanding of philosophy. Although there are ways in which the ethical and religious dimensions of Wittgenstein’s thought intersect, most notably in the way he illuminates absolute uses of ethical language by turning to religious experience in the “Lecture on Ethics”, I argue that the religious elements of his thought cannot be reduced to considering the ethical questions it raises. In the first part, I consider what it might mean to speak about, first, the point and, then, the ethical point of a practice, and how this shows in the importance, rather than the purpose, of what we see ourselves as doing. I then turn to the religious point of view and suggest that although it appears from a point, as it were, out of time, it should not be considered to reside outside of space. Rather, it involves a way of placing myself within the midst of my life, and considering my surrounding context, from a position from which I am able to think of myself as absolutely safe. Full article

End-to-end autonomous driving has demonstrated remarkable potential due to its strong scene-understanding capabilities. However, its performance degrades significantly in the presence of occlusions and complex multi-agent interactions, posing serious safety risks. Existing methods struggle to understand partially observed environments and accurately predict the dynamic behaviors of surrounding agents. To address these limitations, we propose OAIAD (Occlusion-Aware Interactive End-to-End Autonomous Driving), a novel end-to-end framework designed to enhance occlusion reasoning and interaction awareness. This framework specifically addresses the critical challenge of right-of-way conflicts in complex multi-agent scenarios. OAIAD employs a stereoscopic vectorized representation to explicitly model occluded areas and incorporates a module for joint optimization of trajectory prediction and planning to better capture future agent dynamics. By explicitly modeling interactive behaviors and leveraging joint trajectory optimization, OAIAD enhances the ego vehicle’s ability to negotiate the right-of-way interactions in a safe and socially compliant manner, significantly reducing conflict-induced collisions. Extensive evaluations on both open- and closed-loop datasets demonstrate that OAIAD significantly improves performance in occlusion-heavy and interaction-intensive scenarios. Real-world experiments further validate the practicality and robustness of our approach, highlighting its potential for deployment in complex urban environments. Full article

Recent enthusiasm has surrounded the homeostatic roles that polyamines have in a variety of cell types. Thus, the purpose of this exploratory in vitro study was to determine how spermidine (SPD), a polyamine commonly consumed as a nutritional supplement, affected general markers of cellular health and function in human primary epidermal keratinocytes. Commercial HEKa cells were seeded onto either six-well (transcriptomics and immunoblotting) or 96-well culture plates (viability, ATP, and JC-1 assays) and cultured to ~90+% confluency through complete growth media (CGM) changes every 48 h. Once cells reached this level of growth, treatments included either CGM + phosphate-buffered saline (PBS control, or CTL), CGM + 1 µM SPD, and CGM + 10 µM SPD for either 6 or 24 h depending upon the outcome being assessed. Cellular ATP levels were not significantly affected by 1 µM or 10 µM SPD treatments lasting 24 h. However, cell counts were 9% greater (p = 0.007) when comparing 24 h 10 µM versus CTL treatments indicating increased cell viability. Transcriptomic analyses indicated that 6 h treatments with 10 µM SPD significantly altered 162 transcripts versus non-treated CTL cells (65 up-regulated and 97 down-regulated, p < 0.01). Four pathways were predicted to be enriched based on differential gene expression including protein deubiquitination (GO:0016579), membrane lipid biosynthesis (GO:0046467), DNA metabolic process (GO:0006259), and cell cycle process (GO:0022402). Additionally, the HR gene (essential for keratinocyte hair follicle formation) was significantly up-regulated at the mRNA level with 6 h 10 µM SPD, and immunoblotting confirmed a 96% increase in protein levels with 24 h 10 µM SPD treatments, albeit this did not reach statistical significance (p = 0.102). Pan-keratin protein content was also 60% greater in the 1 µM and 10 µM 24 h treatments than CTL (p ≤ 0.029). Finally, although select markers of mitochondrial content and biogenesis were not significantly altered with 6 h and 24 h treatments, mitochondrial membrane potential (an aspect of mitochondrial function) was 84% greater with 24 h 1 µM versus CTL (p < 0.001). In conclusion, these preliminary screening experiments in unperturbed human keratinocytes suggest that exogenous SPD positively affects various aspects of homeostasis by stimulating transcriptomic and functional alterations (e.g., increased cell viability and enhanced keratinocyte protein levels). Full article

Fifth-generation (5G) networks represent a paradigm shift in telecommunications, offering ultra-reliable low-latency communication, massive connectivity of devices, and unparalleled data rates. While these advantages also present significant complications surrounding energy consumption and cybersecurity, requiring new approaches to maintain operational effectiveness and network fidelity. This study proposes a new hybrid artificial intelligence (AI) framework consisting of explainable AI (XAI) for transparent resource allocation, convolutional neural networks (CNNs) for real-time anomaly detection, and recurrent neural networks (RNNs) for predictive energy optimization. Experiments and real-world case studies illustrate this framework’s scalability and efficiency by achieving improved network resource management, a detection accuracy of 99.7% for anomalies, and energy savings of up to 65%. Full article

In rock blasting for engineering applications—such as quarrying and tunnel construction—blasting is often detonated in carefully timed sequences to optimize rock fragmentation. This study examines Model I crack propagation in tunnel blasting sections with empty holes using circular PMMA (Polymethyl Methacrylate) samples containing pre-made initial cracks and empty holes. The distance between holes was varied from 10 mm to 30 mm. Using AUTODYN V18.0 numerical simulation software, how these holes affect crack initiation, propagation, and the surrounding stress field were analyzed. Key findings include the following: (a) Blasting stress waves diffract and reflect off empty hole edges, creating overlapping pressure zones between adjacent empty holes. Within a critical range of the empty hole distance, wider hole distance leads to slower stress wave propagation due to increased dispersion. (b) The empty holes weaken the stress concentration at crack tips, with greater distance further reducing peak strength. Proximal crack tips experience more pronounced stress field alterations than distal ones. (c) Holes hinder crack initiation, with the required stress intensity factor rising in near-linear proportion to hole separation distance. Full article

The vitality of areas around tourist attractions plays a crucial role in promoting the sustainable development of both tourism and the regional economy. However, there is a lack of comprehensive studies on the methods for mining vitality around attraction perimeters, and existing approaches are often inadequate to meet the evolving needs of contemporary tourism development. To address this gap, we proposed a method for inferring vitality around attractions based on a knowledge graph. Our approach began by analyzing the functional and morphological characteristics of the areas surrounding the attractions, followed by the design of a vitality calculation model for these regions. Next, we developed a knowledge graph structure tailored for vitality reasoning around the attractions and established reasoning rules based on this graph. Finally, we conducted experiments to apply the vitality inference method to the main urban area of Kaifeng City as a case study. The results indicated that our method could effectively reason about vitality around the attractions. Notably, the vitality levels around the attractions in Kaifeng’s main urban area exhibited clear spatial differentiation. Attractions such as the Yang Family’s Tianbo Mansion, the Millennium City Park, and Lord Bao’s Memorial Temple showed higher vitality values, largely due to their advantageous functional integration and synergistic morphological characteristics. Full article

Underreamed anchor bolts, as an emerging anchoring element in geotechnical engineering, operate via a fundamentally distinct load transfer mechanism compared with conventional friction type anchors. The accurate and reliable prediction of their ultimate bearing capacity constitutes a pivotal technological impediment to their broader engineering adoption. Firstly, this paper systematically elucidates the constituent mechanisms of underreamed anchor resistance and their progressive load transfer trajectory. Subsequently, in situ full-scale pull-out experiments are leveraged to decompose the load–displacement response throughout its entire evolution. The multi-stage development law and the underlying mechanisms governing the evolution of anchorage characteristics are thereby elucidated. Based on the experimental dataset, a three-dimensional elasto-plastic numerical model is rigorously established. The model delineates, at high resolution, the failure mechanism of surrounding soil mass and the spatiotemporal evolution of its three-dimensional displacement field. A definitive critical displacement criterion for the attainment of the ultimate bearing capacity of underreamed anchors is established. Consequently, analytical models for the ultimate side frictional stress and end-bearing capacity at the limit state are advanced, effectively circumventing the parametric uncertainties inherent in extant empirical formulations. Ultimately, characteristic parameters of the elasto-plastic branch of the load–displacement curve are extracted. An ultimate bearing capacity prognostic framework, founded on an optimized hyperbolic model, is established. Its superior calibration fidelity to the evolving load–displacement response and its demonstrable engineering applicability are rigorously substantiated. Full article