Search Results (10,229)

The impact of the shift in energy systems on CO₂ emissions in BRICS nations plays a crucial role in mitigating climate change and advancing sustainable development goals. This study examines how changes in the composition of the energy mix influence CO₂ emissions in BRICS countries, and further evaluates the relationships among energy transition, economic growth, urbanization, trade openness, population growth, and CO₂ emissions. Drawing on panel data from 1990 to 2023 and applying both linear and nonlinear PMG models, the study investigates how energy transition asymmetrically influences CO₂ emissions in both the short and long run. In the short run, the linear PMG results show that energy transition helps reduce CO₂ emissions in the UAE, South Africa, India, and Brazil, while it is associated with increased emissions in China, Egypt, Ethiopia, Indonesia, Iran, and Russia, while also decreasing on average for all in the long-run period based on the linear PMG. The impact of energy transition on CO₂ emissions in BRICS nations is complex and heterogeneous from the nonlinear PMG. In the short run, positive energy transition shocks reduce emissions in most countries (UAE, Brazil, China, Egypt, Ethiopia, and South Africa), but increase emissions in others (Indonesia, India, Iran, and Russia). Negative shocks also have mixed effects. However, in the long run, positive energy transition shocks lead to a 0.019% decrease in CO₂ emissions, while negative shocks increase emissions by 0.018%, indicating a nuanced relationship between energy transition and emissions. Urbanization, population growth, and economic expansion exhibit diverse effects on CO₂ emissions across the BRICS group. The results imply that policymakers should implement a comprehensive policy mix that elevates the role of energy transition, sustainable urban development, and green investment to curb CO₂ emissions. Tailored, country-specific measures are required to account for national circumstances and the asymmetric links between energy transition and emissions. The study underlines the importance of international collaboration in tackling climate change and advancing sustainable development, and stresses that customized strategies for each BRICS member are essential in order to achieve long-term environmental sustainability. Full article

Critical thinking is essential for managing socio-scientific issues (SSIs) and can be enacted through informal and rational reasoning for decision-making. Addressing SSIs from a systemic view, such as the One Health (OH) view, can improve their comprehension. This study explores how a group of 9th graders engaged in the practice of critical thinking in a teaching sequence that included different SSIs (antibiotic resistance, microplastic pollution, and avian flu) from an OH vision. The research questions are: (1) What is the ability of students to develop a critical position in the evaluation of claims related to SSI with an OH view? (2) What are the interactions between students’ critical positions and OH views expressed by them in different SSI contexts? Written answers from two activities at different moments of the sequence were analyzed qualitatively. Most students did not develop a critical position in the beginning; however, they did so at the end. No interaction was observed between the ability to develop a critical position and the OH view at the beginning. Students with a critical position at the end showed the highest levels of OH view. These results highlight the need to further investigate the relationships between critical positions and OH views. Full article

Improving the energy efficiency of the building envelope is critical for global decarbonization, yet a gap remains in the comprehensive thermophysical characterization of carbon-enhanced Expanded Polystyrene (EPS). This study evaluates the impact of expansion ratios and moisture content on the thermal behavior of two commercial EPS grades, EPS-A (12.7 ± 0.5 kg/m³) and EPS-B (16.0 ± 1.1 kg/m³), investigating the counterintuitive role of graphite (1.4–1.8 wt.%) in enhancing the thermal insulation properties. Thermal conductivity and diffusivity were independently determined via Transient Plane Source (TPS) and Heat Flow Meter (HFM) methods across a 10–50 °C range, while specific heat capacity (c_p) was analyzed using HFM and Differential Scanning Calorimetry (DSC) through the sapphire comparison method and Temperature-Modulated DSC (TOPEM^®). Methodologically, it was found that standard HFM protocols are unsuitable for c_p determination in low-density foams, yielding an average relative error of ±29%; conversely, the sapphire comparison method provided the most reliable results in agreement with theoretical expectations. Results indicate that the efficacy of graphite as a radiative shield is closely coupled with cellular morphology, proving significantly more effective in the higher expansion grade (EPS-A, 70 wt.% open porosity) than in the denser EPS-B. Furthermore, 30-day water immersion tests revealed that the higher open porosity of EPS-A facilitates increased water uptake of 144 ± 17 wt.% (compared to 97 ± 7 wt.% for EPS-B), causing the geometric densities of the two grades to converge and fundamentally altering thermal transport mechanisms. The study concludes that accurate thermal modeling of carbon-enhanced insulation requires careful selection of testing parameters, particularly when accounting for moisture-induced degradation in high-porosity systems. Full article

Respiration rate (RR) is a key physiological indicator of health, stress, and thermoregulatory load in dairy cattle, yet continuous RR monitoring under commercial farm conditions remains challenging. In this Technical Note, we present a non-invasive clip-on nose ring device for continuous respiration monitoring based on acoustic recording directly at the nostril. The device integrates a MEMS microphone, embedded electronics, battery, and removable storage in a sealed, mechanically robust housing suitable for real-world barn environments. The system was deployed on five dairy cows under commercial farm conditions, enabling repeated multi-day recordings over several weeks. The respiration rate was extracted offline from raw audio using a deterministic signal-processing pipeline based on multiscale periodicity detection. Algorithm-derived RR estimates were evaluated against manually annotated breath events. Using 10-min rolling median values, the algorithm achieved a mean absolute error (MAE) of 1.47 breaths per minute (bpm), a root mean square error (RMSE) of 1.92 bpm, and a high correlation with reference values (r = 0.98, R² = 0.96). In addition to short-term accuracy, the system enabled stable multi-day monitoring. Group-level analysis across all five animals revealed a clear diurnal respiration pattern over multiple consecutive days, with lower RR during nighttime and higher RR during daytime summer conditions, without signs of a baseline drift. These results demonstrate the feasibility of continuous, long-term respiration monitoring in dairy cattle using an audio-based clip-on nose ring device and provide a practical foundation for longitudinal (multi-day, within-animal) RR assessment under commercial farm conditions, with potential for future extensions towards advanced respiratory health monitoring. While the system demonstrated stable performance under summer farm conditions, validation under extreme heat-stress environments and larger animal cohorts is required for comprehensive population-level assessment. Full article

Echocardiographic assessment is essential for evaluating patients with cardiogenic shock (CS) and determining their potential need for mechanical circulatory support (MCS) implantation. The use of Impella devices has increased significantly in recent years, paralleling the growing recognition of their hemodynamic benefits in selected patient populations. As the clinical experience with these devices has expanded, the need for a more standardized imaging approach has emerged. Both transthoracic echocardiography (TTE) and transesophageal echocardiography (TEE) play complementary roles in guiding the pre-implantation evaluation, placement procedure, and post-implantation management of Impella devices. Currently, no comprehensive guidelines exist concerning the echocardiographic evaluation of Impella devices throughout their entire clinical course, from initial patient selection and device implantation to ongoing monitoring and eventual weaning. This gap in standardized guidance has led to significant variability in clinical practice across different institutions and healthcare systems. This comprehensive review examines the role of transthoracic echocardiography (TTE) and transesophageal echocardiography (TEE) in managing patients on Impella support across five distinct phases: candidate identification and pre-implantation assessment, intraoperative procedural guidance and device positioning, postoperative monitoring and haemodynamic optimisation, complication detection and troubleshooting, and weaning strategies with post-explantation surveillance. Both left-sided devices (Impella CP, CP Smart Assist, and Impella 5.5) and right-sided support (Impella RP) are covered, including combined configurations with VA-ECMO (ECPella). For each phase, we detail the recommended echocardiographic views, essential measurements and their evidence-based thresholds, signs of device malposition, and practical corrective strategies. A level-of-evidence approach is adopted throughout, specifying whether proposed thresholds derive from randomised trials, observational studies, expert consensus, or manufacturer recommendations. Summary tables and a bedside workflow are provided to facilitate immediate clinical application. Full article

An improved optimizer based on projection-iterative methods (IPIMO) is proposed to address the optimal configuration problem of multi-type energy storage systems (MT-ESS), with the objective of achieving synergistic minimization of comprehensive costs, including both investment and operational expenditures. A comprehensive energy system model is established, integrating photovoltaic power, wind power, and six typical energy storage technologies—lithium-ion battery, flywheel energy storage, supercapacitors, valve-regulated lead-acid battery, compressed air energy storage, and redox flow battery. Four typical operational scenarios are designed to validate the adaptability and robustness of the algorithm. A systematic evaluation of IPIMO’s comprehensive performance is conducted by comparing it with the weighted average method (WA), the single-energy storage optimization method (SEO), the projection-iterative-methods-based optimizer algorithm (PIMO), and the genetic algorithm (GA). Simulation results demonstrate that IPIMO exhibits superior convergence performance, achieving stable convergence rapidly and significantly outperforming PIMO and GA. Moreover, IPIMO achieves the lowest total cost across all four scenarios, with an average of $46,837, representing reductions of 6.54% compared to the benchmark weighted average method and 11.8% compared to the SEO. Additionally, IPIMO adaptively adjusts the allocation ratios of energy storage types based on scenario characteristics, prioritizing energy-type storage in stable scenarios while increasing the proportion of fast-response storage to 49.1% in fluctuating scenarios, thereby demonstrating its strong scenario adaptability. Full article

The decentralisation of autonomous Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UASs) introduces significant challenges in terms of establishing secure communication and consensus in contested, resource-constrained environments. This research addresses these challenges by conducting a comprehensive performance evaluation of two cryptographic technologies: Messaging Layer Security (MLS) for group key exchange, and threshold signatures (FROST and BLS) for decentralised consensus. Seven leading open-source libraries were methodically assessed through a series of static, network-simulated, and novel bulk-signing benchmarks to measure their computational efficiency and practical resilience. This paper confirms that MLS is a viable solution, capable of supporting the group sizes and throughput requirements of a UAS swarm. It corroborates prior work by identifying the Cisco MLSpp library as unsuitable for dynamic environments due to poorly scaling group management functions, while demonstrating that OpenMLS is a highly performant and scalable alternative. Furthermore, the findings show that operating MLS in a `key management’ mode offers a dramatic increase in performance and resilience, a critical trade-off for UAS operations. For consensus, the benchmarks reveal a range of compromises for developers to consider, while identifying the Zcash FROST implementation as the most effective all-around performer for sustained, high-volume use cases due to its balance of security features and efficient verification. Full article

Evaluating the aquatic ecological and environmental consequences of dredging projects with precision is essential for reconciling engineering objectives with the long-term health of aquatic ecosystems. This study establishes an evaluation system for the aquatic ecological and environmental impacts of dredging engineering based on the Pressure–State–Response (PSR) analytical framework, and constructs a comprehensive assessment system through Velocity Pausing Particle Swarm Optimization–Projection Pursuit (VPPSO-PP) coupled with fuzzy pattern recognition. Taking the Pinglu Canal project as a case study, the objective weights of indicators are obtained via the VPPSO-PP method, and the impact levels are determined by combining the fuzzy pattern recognition model. Case studies show that the quality of discharged residual water is the most critical factor affecting the aquatic ecological environment, ranking highest with a weight of 0.0839, followed by the proportion of aquatic ecological restoration investment at 0.0685. Among the five typical dredging sections of the Pinglu Canal, the Shaping River section and the Offshore Estuary Section were rated as having a “mild impact.” In contrast, the Main Stream of Qinjiang River section, the Watershed section, and the Qinzhou urban section were rated as having a “moderate impact.” These evaluation results are consistent with the actual engineering conditions. The model developed in this study enables a quantitative and objective assessment of the aquatic ecological impacts of dredging projects. It provides a scientific basis and a practical tool for ecological management and decision-making in dredging operations. Full article

Developing reliable Arabic question answering (QA) systems for Islamic fatwas requires datasets that capture the linguistic complexity and multi-step reasoning inherent in jurisprudential inquiries. However, the existing Arabic religious QA datasets primarily focus on direct retrieval or classification, often failing to address the multi-hop reasoning necessary for complex fatwa questions. To bridge this gap, we introduce MAFQA, a benchmark dataset specifically designed for multi-hop Arabic fatwa question answering. MAFQA was constructed from an extensive corpus of authentic fatwa records sourced from authoritative Islamic institutions. The dataset was developed via a semi-automated pipeline that integrates expert-guided identification of complex inquiries with a structured decomposition framework. This framework employs automated reasoning-pattern classification, semantic feature extraction, and template-guided annotation of subquestions and subanswers, followed by rigorous validation to ensure contextual grounding, logical coherence, and structural consistency. To evaluate the utility of the dataset, we conduct an extensive benchmarking study using Arabic-specialized, multilingual, and instruction-tuned language models across two primary tasks: question decomposition (QD) and generative question answering (QA). Performance is assessed using a comprehensive suite of lexical, semantic, relevance, and faithfulness metrics. Experimental results demonstrate that Arabic-specialized models consistently outperform their multilingual counterparts, with AraT5-base and AraBART achieving the highest performance in terms of lexical similarity, semantic alignment, and answer faithfulness. Full article

Background/Objectives: Stroke is a leading cause of mortality and disability in Saudi Arabia; however, national estimates of stroke-related rehabilitation needs remain limited. This study quantified temporal trends in stroke incidence, prevalence, premature mortality, and disability from 1990 to 2021. It also examined disparities in stroke-related disability by subtype, sex, and age in 2021 and projected rehabilitation demand to 2030 to inform health system planning under Vision 2030. Methods: We conducted a secondary analysis of Global Burden of Disease (GBD) 2021 estimates for Saudi Arabia. Age-standardized rates for incidence, prevalence, years of life lost (YLLs), and years lived with disability (YLDs) were extracted for overall stroke and three subtypes: ischemic stroke, intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH), and subarachnoid hemorrhage (SAH). Temporal trends were evaluated using log-linear regression to estimate the average annual percentage change (AAPC). YLDs were mapped to severity levels and four rehabilitation modalities, physiotherapy (PT), occupational therapy (OT), speech–language therapy (SLT), and multidisciplinary comprehensive rehabilitation (MCR), using utilization probabilities informed by the literature. Projections to 2030 incorporated national population forecasts and included 95% prediction intervals and sensitivity analyses. Results: From 1990 to 2021, age-standardized stroke incidence declined from 166.3 to 130.7 per 100,000 (−21.4%; AAPC, −0.86%, p = 0.004), prevalence from 982.4 to 965.2 per 100,000 (−1.8%; AAPC, −0.10%, p = 0.056), and YLL rates from 3209.0 to 1893.4 per 100,000 (−41.0%; AAPC, −1.76%, p < 0.001). In contrast, YLD rates declined modestly from 133.5 to 129.9 per 100,000 (−2.7%; AAPC, −0.13%; p = 0.032). Despite these reductions in age-standardized rates, absolute stroke-related YLDs more than tripled, increasing from approximately 10,900 (95% UI: 8100–13,900) in 1990 to 36,245 (95% UI: 26,600–46,100) in 2021, largely driven by population growth and aging. In 2021, ischemic stroke accounted for 71.1% of total YLDs, followed by ICH (20.3%) and SAH (8.5%). Among adults aged 15–49 years, females had higher hemorrhagic YLD rates than males, with particularly pronounced differences for SAH (female-to-male ratio, 1.5–1.7). By 2030, the projected YLD-equivalent workload, a standardized proxy measure of relative service demand rather than a direct headcount of required therapists, is expected to increase to 29,758 for PT, 21,809 for OT, 14,879 for SLT, and 15,083 for MCR. Sensitivity analyses showed that rehabilitation demand estimates were sensitive to assumptions regarding severity distribution, with a hemorrhagic-weighted scenario increasing projected MCR demand by 6.8%. Conclusions: The increasing absolute burden of stroke-related disability in Saudi Arabia, despite declining age-standardized rates and substantial reductions in premature mortality, highlights the necessity to expand rehabilitation capacity. Scaling community-based, outpatient, and telerehabilitation services in alignment with the Health Sector Transformation Program and integrating disability-informed planning into Vision 2030 should be prioritized. Full article

The current global population aging trend has intensified, especially in rural areas. As vital spatial carriers supporting multiple activities of older adults, rural human settlements have become key settings for addressing the challenges of aging. However, current efforts to improve rural human settlements primarily focus on enhancing the overall appearance of villages. This approach fails to adequately address the specific needs of older adults. Chongqing is a typical mountainous city, facing deep aging and significant regional disparities. It is also confronted with realities such as spatial fragmentation, scattered facilities, and low service accessibility. So Chongqing urgently requires systematic assessment and targeted interventions. To transcend the traditional one-size-fits-all governance in rural human settlements, the concept of “rural human settlements for aging” is introduced in this article, to establish an age-sensitive governance logic. Based on 2023 cross-sectional data, this article evaluates the level of the rural human settlements in Chongqing by establishing an index system, and employs global spatial correlation and local spatial correlation to analyze the spatial correlation patterns. The geographic detector model and the obstacle degree model are used to delve into the key obstacle factors influencing and hindering rural human settlements. The results indicate that despite exhibiting a pronounced spatial clustering pattern, spatial disparities remain quite evident. The spatial differentiation presents a pattern of “high in the west and low in the east, led by a single core area.” Elderly service facilities constitute the main external obstacle. The relationship between social security and family support within welfare systems represents the primary internal obstacle. Transportation conditions serve as the key interactive obstacle. Based on an analysis of the primary obstacles in each region, the promotion strategy is categorized into three types: facility enhancement type, characteristic amplification type and comprehensive upgrading type. This article aims to advance the transformation of rural human settlements from “universal design” to “age-friendly design.” It provides a reference framework for rural human settlements development in the context of an aging population. Full article

Amid the accelerating global pursuit of carbon neutrality, the regulatory role of forest ecological security in carbon sink function has emerged as a critical issue in achieving climate goals. This study developed a forest ecological security evaluation index system based on the Driving Force–Pressure–State–Impact–Response–Management (DPSIRM) framework. The forest ecological security comprehensive index for 31 Chinese provinces from 2007 to 2022 was calculated using the entropy weight method, and forest carbon sinks were estimated through the volume expansion method. Spatial econometric models and a mediation effect model were employed to empirically examine the impact of forest ecological security on forest carbon sinks and their underlying mechanisms. The results indicated the following: (1) Improvements in forest ecological security exerted significant positive direct and spatial spillover effects on forest carbon sinks. (2) The enhancing effect of forest ecological security on carbon sinks was significant in western regions, resource-based provinces, and economically underdeveloped areas. (3) Forest area transition and forest age structure transition served as key mediators in the relationship between forest ecological security and carbon sinks. In contrast, the mediating effects of forest species structure transition and forest origin structure transition were not significant, likely constrained by long-term ecological thresholds and socioeconomic inertia. Full article

With the rapid advancement of autonomous driving technology and the commercialization of Human–Machine Interface (HMI) services, camera-based systems for external environment perception are being extensively deployed. While comprehensive camera systems enhance safety and convenience, they simultaneously raise serious privacy concerns by collecting facial and biometric information of Vulnerable Road Users (VRUs) and passengers. Although facial anonymization technology has emerged as a key solution, the field currently faces a fundamental challenge: the absence of unified performance evaluation criteria. Existing studies employ disparate evaluation metrics, making objective inter-model comparison and performance verification difficult. This study proposes quantitative evaluation metrics and corresponding evaluation criteria that enable systematic and objective assessment of facial anonymization model performance. Through large-scale experiments, we developed quantitative evaluation metrics encompassing facial landmark variations, visual similarity, and re-identification prevention capability, and derived specific threshold values based on statistical methodologies. Furthermore, to validate the proposed evaluation criteria, we conducted systematic empirical assessments using models that adopt different technical approaches. The validation experiments showed that the evaluation criteria proposed in this study can be applied across models with distinct technical characteristics. This research is expected to contribute to resolving the heterogeneous evaluation criteria issues in existing studies by providing unified evaluation criteria. It may also support the development of privacy protection technologies in autonomous driving environments. Full article

Conventional buckling-restrained braces (BRBs) with rectangular steel tube confinement suffer from stress concentration and inefficient material utilization, limiting their seismic performance. To address these limitations, this study proposes a novel non-rectangular concrete-filled steel tube BRB system incorporating elliptical and corrugated cross-sections. Comprehensive finite element simulations using ABAQUS are conducted to systematically investigate the influence of key geometric parameters—wall thickness (1–14 mm), corner radius (40–55 mm), and corrugation angle (30–75°)—on hysteretic behavior, load-bearing capacity, and failure modes. The results demonstrate that optimized non-rectangular sections achieve load-bearing capacity comparable to conventional rectangular designs (e.g., elliptical section with 12 mm wall thickness reaches 10.02 MN, a 75% increase over 1 mm thickness) while significantly improving material efficiency. Corrugated sections exhibit enhanced weak-axis performance, with equivalent viscous damping ratios exceeding the NIST-recommended threshold of 0.25. Parametric analyses reveal that wall thickness above 12 mm yields diminishing returns; corner radius reduction to 40 mm triggers local buckling yet increases peak capacity; and corrugation angles exceeding 50° induce instability. All non-buckling models satisfy AISC compression strength adjustment factor requirements (β ≤ 1.3). This study systematically evaluates non-rectangular BRB geometries, filling a critical gap in the literature and providing design guidelines that leverage shape optimization to enhance both seismic resilience and material economy. Full article

Introduction: Congenital central hypoventilation syndrome (CCHS) is a rare disorder characterized by an impaired ventilatory response to hypercapnia and hypoxia, particularly during sleep, and frequently associated with autonomic dysfunction. It is caused by pathogenic variants in the PHOX2B gene. Although CCHS is typically diagnosed in the neonatal period, milder forms may present later in infancy or childhood, often triggered by respiratory infections. Case presentation: We report the case of 16-month-old male diagnosed with CCHS following an episode of hypoxemic–hypercapnic respiratory failure during respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) infection. His medical history included neonatal respiratory distress requiring oxygen therapy and recurrent wheezing. At 15 months, he developed acute respiratory distress with severe hypercapnia (PaCO₂ 70 mmHg), requiring admission to the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit and invasive mechanical ventilation. Persistent sleep-related hypercapnia and hypoxemia prompted evaluation for central hypoventilation, confirmed by means of transcutaneous capnography and nocturnal pulse oximetry. Genetic testing revealed a de novo nonsense mutation in exon 1 of PHOX2B (p.Tyr14Ter). Brain magnetic resonance imaging showed diffuse white matter changes suggestive of gliosis. Further investigations identified early-onset systemic hypertension, requiring antihypertensive therapy. The patient was discharged on nocturnal non-invasive ventilation and enrolled in a neurodevelopmental rehabilitation program. Conclusions: This case highlights the phenotypic variability of CCHS and the importance of considering this diagnosis in children presenting with unexplained hypercapnia and sleep-related hypoxemia. It underscores the need for comprehensive autonomic evaluation, including blood pressure monitoring. The p.Tyr14Ter variant may allow partial protein function, potentially accounting for the relatively mild phenotype. Full article