Search Results (6,709)

Heavy oil and extra-heavy oil represent mobility-limited petroleum resources because supramolecular associations of asphaltenes and resins, together with strong interfacial resistance, generate extremely high apparent viscosity. In recent years, nanotechnology has emerged as a promising approach for viscosity management and enhanced oil recovery (EOR). This review critically examines recent advances in nano-assisted viscosity reduction from a reservoir-operational perspective and organizes the literature into two field-relevant categories: metal-based and non-metal nano-systems. Metal-based nanoparticles (NPs) mainly promote catalytic aquathermolysis and related bond-cleavage and hydrogen-transfer reactions under hydrothermal conditions, enabling partial upgrading and persistent viscosity reduction during thermal recovery. In contrast, non-metal nano-systems—particularly silica- and graphene-oxide-derived materials—primarily operate through interfacial and structural regulation mechanisms at low or moderate temperatures. These effects include wettability alteration, interfacial-film stabilization, modification of asphaltene aggregation behavior, and the formation of dispersed-flow regimes such as Pickering-type emulsions that reduce apparent flow resistance in multiphase systems. Beyond summarizing nanomaterial types, this review emphasizes reservoir-scale considerations governing field applicability, including brine stability, NPs transport and retention in porous media, and formulation compatibility. Comparative analysis highlights the distinct operational windows of thermal catalytic nano-systems and cold-production nano-systems, providing a reservoir-oriented framework for designing nano-assisted viscosity-reduction technologies. Full article

Knowledge sharing (KS) among healthcare professionals is essential for sustaining organisational learning and facilitating the transfer of expertise between experienced and less experienced professionals, thereby supporting workforce stability and retention in healthcare organisations (HCOs). However, despite its importance, high turnover among healthcare professionals remains a significant and persistent challenge in public HCOs, indicating a potential gap in understanding the mechanisms that support workforce stability. To address this gap, this study examines the interplay between work performance (WP), satisfaction with co-workers (CW), KS and turnover intention (TI) among healthcare professionals. Data from 220 respondents were analysed using Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modelling (PLS-SEM) within the Input–Process–Output (IPO) framework. The results indicate that CW positively influences KS, while KS has a negative effect on TI, thereby reducing TI. In contrast, WP does not have a statistically significant effect on KS, nor does it indirectly influence TI through KS. Furthermore, although both WP and CW were hypothesised to be predictors of KS, only CW demonstrates a significant indirect effect on TI through KS. Grounded in Social Exchange Theory (SET) and the Knowledge-Based View (KBV), the results highlight the role of KS and interpersonal relationships in supporting sustainable human resource management (SHRM). Although sustainability-related dimensions were not directly measured, the results suggest potential implications for the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), particularly SDG 3, SDG 8, and SDG 9. Full article

This study investigates the thermo-mechanical response of geocell-reinforced concrete pavements through scaled model tests and three-dimensional finite element analyses. Static, thermal, traffic, and coupled temperature–loading tests were conducted to clarify the deformation evolution, strain distribution, and damage-related response of the reinforced structure. The results show that, under static loading, pavement settlement evolves through three stages, namely initial compaction, plastic development, and stable strengthening, indicating progressive mobilization of geocell confinement. Under thermal loading, slab strain exhibits pronounced spatial and temporal non-uniformity, and the slab center is identified as the thermally sensitive zone. Under coupled temperature–loading conditions, both strain and settlement show a non-monotonic response near 1.1–1.3 kN, suggesting a potential damage-initiation range. Post-test crack observations further provide direct qualitative evidence that local cracking damage occurred in the slab under representative loading conditions. Under traffic loading, permanent deformation accumulates with load repetitions and is highly sensitive to load amplitude, indicating a load-sensitive transition in cumulative deformation behavior rather than a definitive fatigue threshold. Numerical results further show that geocell reinforcement reduces central settlement by 17.4% relative to plain concrete pavement and by 7.6% relative to doweled pavement, while producing a smoother deflection basin and a more uniform stress distribution. Parametric analyses indicate that the optimum geocell height is approximately one-third of the slab thickness; beyond this range, the marginal reinforcement benefit decreases. Overall, the results demonstrate that geocell reinforcement can effectively improve load transfer, deformation compatibility, and thermo-mechanical stability of concrete pavements under the investigated conditions. Full article

Wire Arc Additive Manufacturing (WAAM) has gained attention as a metal additive manufacturing process producing complex large-scale components with high deposition rates and lower costs. Cold Metal Transfer (CMT) offers reduced heat input and enhanced control of metal transfer, making it suitable for aluminium. This review analyses CMT-based WAAM with a focus on Al–Si alloys, providing a synthesis for this material system and establishing a structured comparison of representative studies on process fundamentals, arc mode variants, and key processing parameters. The influence of electrical and kinematic parameters and thermal management on process and geometrical stability, microstructural evolution, defect formation, and mechanical behaviour is discussed. Process behaviour is governed by the temporal distribution of heat input within the CMT cycle and thermal history. Control of heat input can reduce porosity, microstructural heterogeneity, and geometric instability, while advanced CMT modes can improve process stability and material efficiency under appropriate process configurations. Mechanical performance depends on the interaction between process parameters, microstructure, and defects, leading to variability and anisotropy. Despite progress, challenges related to process repeatability, narrow processing windows, defect susceptibility, and predictive capability remain. Future research should focus on parameter optimization, integrated modelling, real-time control, and WAAM-specific alloys to enable reliable industrial implementation. Full article

Leaf-color variation in plants should be associated with chlorophyll metabolism and chloroplast development. Here, we characterized a low-temperature-sensitive pakchoi DH line, 1197, which exhibited green leaves at 25 °C, but showed yellowing at 4 °C. Low temperature significantly reduced chlorophyll accumulation and disrupted chloroplast ultrastructure. After transfer from 4 °C to 25 °C for 7 days, yellow leaves partially regreened, and chlorophyll a content increased by 366.67%. RNA-seq analysis identified 3058 core DEGs associated with the yellowing–regreening transition, which were significantly enriched in photosynthesis–antenna proteins, photosynthesis, and porphyrin metabolism pathways. Leaf yellowing was characterized by repression of chlorophyll biosynthesis genes (e.g., CHLD, CHLM, PORC) and induction of degradation genes (SGR1, SGR2, NYC1, PAO), together with widespread downregulation of chloroplast function-related genes. In addition, GLK2, HBI1, NAC047, and NAC029 were identified as candidate regulators of temperature-dependent leaf-color conversion. This study provides candidate molecular insights into low-temperature-induced yellowing and regreening in pakchoi and offers candidate genes for future functional validation and Brassica breeding. Full article

Electrochemical chlorine production is of considerable industrial importance in areas such as water treatment, chemical manufacturing, and disinfection. However, conventional precious metal-based dimensionally stable anodes (DSAs), such as RuO₂- and IrO₂-based systems, are limited by high cost and resource constraints, motivating the development of low-cost alternative catalysts. In this study, Mn₃O₄ electrodes with controllable defect characteristics were fabricated by electrochemical deposition under various processing conditions. The effects of defect modulation and surface modification on the structural, electronic, and electrochemical properties of the electrodes were systematically evaluated. X-ray diffraction analysis confirmed that all deposited films retained a stable tetragonal Mn₃O₄ crystal structure, indicating that the deposition parameters primarily influenced defect states rather than the bulk phase. Mott–Schottky measurements revealed that the Mn₃O₄ electrodes exhibited p-type semiconducting behavior, with charge carrier densities on the order of 10¹⁴ cm⁻³, suggesting that oxygen vacancy-related defect states may contribute to the observed electronic properties of the electrodes. To further enhance anodic performance, Pt was introduced onto the Mn₃O₄ surface via sputtering, resulting in significantly improved charge transfer characteristics. Electrochemical measurements demonstrated that the best performing Pt/Mn₃O₄ electrodes delivered a current density exceeding 100 mA cm⁻² at an applied potential of 1.5 V versus Ag/AgCl. More importantly, defect-enriched Pt/Mn₃O₄ electrodes exhibited markedly enhanced chlorine evolution activity, with the chlorine production rate increasing from approximately 14 µmol cm⁻² to 29 µmol cm⁻², corresponding to an enhancement of about 2.07-fold. Faradaic efficiency analysis further showed that sample (g) and sample (n) achieved chlorine evolution efficiencies of 59.2% and 74.6%, respectively, indicating a higher tendency toward chlorine evolution for the Pt-modified electrodes under the tested conditions. These findings suggest that the synergistic combination of defect engineering and surface modification effectively modulates the electronic structure of Mn₃O₄, providing a viable strategy for improving chlorine evolution performance. Full article

Digital stylization of Dunhuang murals can support cultural heritage revitalization by transferring their distinctive aesthetics to modern images, but existing methods face practical limitations. Transformer-based models can yield high visual quality, but often at a prohibitive computational cost. In contrast, standard state space models (SSMs) are more efficient but tend to incur issues such as semantic loss, inconsistent stylization, and an undesired coupling between color and structure when processing the complex textures of historical murals. To address these issues, we propose Dh-Mamba, a hierarchical visual Mamba framework tailored for high-fidelity Dunhuang mural style transfer. Dh-Mamba introduces a CrossMamba in-context style injection mechanism. This mechanism prefixes the style token sequence to the content sequence, which enables globally consistent style propagation as a persistent memory and retains linear-time efficiency. We also designed two additional components: a Modulated Style Perception Module (Δt) and an Orthogonal Decoupled HSV Modulator. The former adaptively regulates texture injection based on style complexity. The latter models mineral pigment palettes and mitigates oxidation-related artifacts by disentangling hue, saturation, and value. Experiments on a custom Dunhuang dataset show that Dh-Mamba improves content preservation and produces more natural mural textures than recent state-of-the-art methods; multiple quantitative metrics corroborate these gains. With 20.04 million parameters, Dh-Mamba provides a resource-efficient solution suitable for deployment in resource-constrained terminal applications for cultural heritage preservation Full article

The photothermal effect is an important part of biological tissue optics. The reasonable use of temperature changes caused by the photothermal effect is of great value for the treatment of lesions. However, it is not easy to measure changes in light and heat temperatures in tissues experimentally. This paper combines Monte Carlo simulation and finite-element numerical calculation based on the Pennes biological tissue heat transfer equation to simulate light transmission and distributions of light and heat in biological tissues, including single-layer uniform biological tissue simulations and a classic three-layer skin optical model. Through the simulation of single-layer uniform biological tissue, the overall trend and range of biological tissue temperature change under different parameters are obtained in this work. Third, in the classic three-layer skin optical model simulation, this work combines a data-fitting method to derive a formula relating internal temperature and tissue depth to the absorption coefficient. Compared with the simulation standard results, the error of the above fitting formula is within 1.2%, and it can be applied in the field of photothermal therapy in the future to help medical workers understand the range of temperature changes in biological tissues. Full article

This study develops a new concept of computer-assisted exercises (CAX) on constructive simulation systems and how the proposed concept affects the strategy and teaching methods. The current state of affairs in the field of defense and security, both in Europe and in the world, requires the acquisition of competencies (European Qualifications Framework—EQF: knowledge, skills, independence, and responsibility), i.e., the education and training of a significantly larger number of personnel in the field of defense and security than has been the case in the last 70 years. In addition, an important specificity of today is that students need to acquire some competencies that were almost unknown until recently. Most of these competencies are the result of the rapid development of technology, which has significantly changed human life in all areas. In order to respond to the modern requirements of conducting operations, where the transfer of information both horizontally and vertically is exponentially accelerated, current concepts of preparation and implementation of education and training, of which exercises are often the most important part, need to be replaced with new concepts, and one such concept is developed in this paper. New information introduced is mostly related to the new weapons that are being introduced (unmanned systems, hypersonic missiles, weapons based on microwaves and lasers, etc.), which all result in necessary changes to the traditional approach to conducting war, i.e., tactics, techniques, and procedures (TTP). This novel exercise concept allows for the simultaneous implementation of training for up to three or four hierarchical levels (e.g., TF Div, brigade, battalion, and company) in one exercise, while in most countries, including the NATO alliance, it is still common for such exercises to be conducted according to a concept that is over 20 years old and, as a rule, is focused on the implementation of exercises for one or two hierarchical levels. This approach allows key personnel from the headquarters of units from four hierarchical levels to be simulated in real time, which is not provided by current concepts for preparing and conducting exercises. The new concept was applied as a multi-level, computer-assisted exercise (CAX) on constructive simulation systems. In addition, significant advantages of the new concept relate to the flexibility and adaptability of the proposed concept to be applied in addition to operational units and in training institutions such as academies and higher education institutions. In addition to the above, the new concept requires a shorter planning period as well as fewer total resources needed for the preparation and implementation of the exercise. The management, organizational, and technological components of the proposed exercise concept are implemented in the CAX model. The hypotheses in this paper will be tested in an applied study, which was evaluated through an external evaluation body. The implemented CAX model was tested in Croatia on the example of using exercises at the Croatian Defense Academy. Full article

LiDAR point cloud semantic segmentation is essential for autonomous driving, yet LiDAR-only methods remain constrained by sparsity and limited texture cues. We propose Cross-Modal Collaborative Manifold Distillation (CMCMD), which transfers open-world semantic priors from the DINOv3 Vision Foundation Model to a LiDAR student network. The framework combines an Adaptive Relation Convolution (ARConv) backbone with geometry-conditioned aggregation, a Unified Bidirectional Mapping Module (UBMM) for explicit 2D–3D interaction, and Manifold-Aware Topological Distillation (MATD), which aligns inter-sample affinity structures in a shared latent manifold rather than enforcing pointwise feature matching. By preserving relational topology instead of absolute feature coordinates, CMCMD mitigates negative transfer across heterogeneous modalities. Experiments on SemanticKITTI and nuScenes yield mIoU values of 72.9% and 81.2%, respectively, surpassing the compared distillation baselines and approaching the performance of multimodal fusion methods at lower inference cost. Additional evaluation on real-world campus scenes further supports the cross-domain robustness of the proposed framework. Full article

N-glycosylation is a fundamental post-translational modification that contributes to protein folding, stability, and secretion in eukaryotes. The catalytic subunit STT3 of the oligosaccharyltransferase complex mediates the transfer of preassembled oligosaccharides to nascent polypeptides in the endoplasmic reticulum. Here, we identified and functionally characterized PsSTT3B, one of the STT3 paralogs in Phytophthora sojae (P. sojae). PsSTT3B plays an important role in the growth, development, and pathogenicity of P. sojae. CRISPR/Cas9-mediated deletion of PsSTT3B resulted in reduced vegetative growth, sporangia production, and zoospore production in P. sojae. PsSTT3B deletion mutants demonstrated significantly reduced virulence on soybean leaves and etiolated seedlings. Importantly, PsSTT3B deletion mutants also exhibited reduced zoospore germination and diminished chemotaxis toward soybean isoflavones. Moreover, deletion of PsSTT3B increased sensitivity to tunicamycin and dithiothreitol and influenced the ConA-binding glycoprotein profile. Our findings show that PsSTT3B is associated with asexual development, virulence, and sensitivity to ER stress-related conditions of P. sojae. Our study suggests that PsSTT3B represents a potential candidate gene for the prevention and control of P. sojae. Full article

This article presents the potential for maliciously influencing a control system by interfering with the program code of an industrial controller, using a temperature control system for a heating process based on resistive electric heating as an example. The presented attack scenarios are crucial for the energy efficiency of electric heating systems, which is related to the issue of cybersecurity in the area of energy security. The aim of this research was to demonstrate that a cyberattack involving the malicious manipulation of the setpoint can be carried out in a manner invisible to the heating process operator and be difficult to detect using classical time-domain control quality indicators (time-response specifications). The first involves incorporating proportional elements with mutually inverted gains into the input and output of a closed-loop system. The second method is based on adding an additional transfer function G_m(s) in parallel to the control system. The difference between the correct and manipulated setpoints is introduced into the input, and the output signal is added to the actual (hidden) value of the controlled variable. In the first method, at the moment of starting the control system, there is a difference between the apparent (falsified) value and the ambient temperature. In the second method, the inclusion of an additional G_m(s) ensures that the apparent (falsified) value of the controlled variable matches the temperature at the moment of starting the system. PID control enables achieving satisfactory control quality in heating processes, which are characterized by high inertia and time delays. Compared to classical PID regulation, advanced control methods can, under certain conditions, provide better performance in terms of quality indicators. However, due to their high computational complexity and sensitivity to model uncertainty—particularly in methods relying on accurate system identification—PID controllers continue to be widely used in industrial practice. For this reason, the present study focuses on a control system based on a PID controller as a practical solution. Based on the results, it was found that the most effective manipulation occurred within the range from 0.9 to 1.1 of the actual setpoint value for both the first and second method, using a model with $T_m$ between 5 s and 30 s. In these cases, the quality indicators referenced to the nominal values, determined for the falsified control system responses to a step change in the setpoint, were as follows: overshoot—0.97 and 1.30 (method 1), and 0.90 and 1.10 (method 2 for 5 s), 0.75 and 1.30 (method 2 for 30 s); settling time—1.06 (method 1), and 0.98 and 1.17 (method 2 for 5 s), 0.85 and 1.14 (method 2 for 30 s). The settling times determined for the system’s response to a disturbance were: 1.00 and 1.15 (method 1), and 1.13 and 1.16 (method 2 for 5 s), 1.12 and 1.02 (method 2 for 30 s). Based on the conducted analysis, it was demonstrated that the relatively simple setpoint manipulation methods presented can effectively mask the impact of malicious interference on the temperature value in the control system of a heating process. Full article

Nucleoside diphosphate kinase (NDPK) is a ubiquitous enzyme that maintains cellular nucleotide balance by catalyzing the transfer of phosphate groups between nucleoside diphosphates and triphosphates. Although the evolutionary conservation of NDPK is well established, several aspects of its diversification and functional adaptation remain unclear. The central question of this work is how NDPK evolved across plant species, focusing on the Solanaceae family and how its evolutionary history relates to the diversification of its cellular functions. Phylogenetic and molecular dating analyses showed that the division between NDPK groups 1 and 2 predates the divergence of plants and animals, whereas plant-specific NDPK types (I–IV) originated early in streptophyte evolution. Solanaceae species retain a conserved set of NDPK genes, including a type III isoform with features consistent with mitochondrial targeting. Functional assays in isolated potato tuber mitochondria revealed high NDPK activity in the intermembrane space, sustaining ADP supply to oxidative phosphorylation. Activation of mitochondrial NDPK induced a phosphorylative respiratory state, which partially dissipated the mitochondrial membrane potential and significantly reduced reactive oxygen species (ROS) production. GDP and UDP were preferentially phosphorylated, conferring a stronger antioxidant effect than other nucleotides. Consistently, the mitochondrial isoform StNDPK3 was upregulated during tuber development. Together, our results demonstrate that NDPKs are evolutionarily conserved yet functionally diversified enzymes in plants and identify mitochondrial NDPK as a key modulator of mitochondrial redox homeostasis. By linking nucleotide metabolism to Δψ_m control and ROS suppression, this study highlights a previously underappreciated antioxidant mechanism that integrates mitochondrial energy metabolism with developmental and stress-related processes in plants. Full article

Background/Objectives: Multidrug-resistant Salmonella enterica serovar Enteritidis, especially those isolated from humans, remains a public concern. In the present study, S. Enteritidis strain 31404 was obtained clinically from a fecal sample of a fifteen-year-old girl, who was positive for bla_NDM-13. Methods: Antibiotic susceptibility testing and whole genome sequencing were performed. Core genome MLST and hierarchical clustering (HierCC) were performed using EnteroBase. Population structure analysis of 57 S. Enteritidis isolates collected between 2023 and 2025 in Jiaxing city was conducted. A comparative structure analysis of bla_NDM-13-positive plasmids was also performed. Results: S. Enteritidis strain 31404 was resistant to 13 antimicrobial agents. We found that strain 31404 belonged to ST11 and carried resistance genes, such as bla_NDM-13, bla_CTX-M-14, ble_MBL, fosA3, qnrS, and tet (A). bla_NDM-13 was located on an IncI1-I (α) plasmid designated as p31404-NDM13. S. Enteritidis isolate 31404 was closely related to PNUSAS514422, which was isolated from the United States in 2025. Comparative genetic environment related to bla_NDM-13-positive plasmids available in the NCBI database indicates that ΔTn125-mediated contexts were commonly associated with bla_NDM-13. IS1294 (IS91 family), which replaces ISAba125, is likely to mobilize bla_NDM-13. Conclusions: The findings in this study provide insights into the molecular characterization and diversification of bla_NDM-13. The identification of bla_NDM-13-containing transferable plasmids in different serotypes of Salmonella isolates (such as S. Rissen, S. Typhimurium, and S. Enteritidis) in different cities in China highlights the risk of the spread of carbapenem-resistant genes among Salmonella isolates. Full article

Genetically modified (GM) plants have been commercially grown for 30 years, and their acceptance depends on a thorough risk assessment. Environmental Risk Assessment (ERA) evaluates potential impacts of releasing GM plants into the environment, whether through cultivation or import for food, feed, and processing. A key component is assessing potential gene flow to crop wild relatives or non-GM crops. For gene flow to significantly affect the environment, transferred genes must provide a selective advantage. Since most GM plants are engineered for herbicide tolerance, insect resistance, or stacked traits, evaluating such advantages is relatively straightforward. New genomic techniques (NGTs) can generate plants with a wider range of traits, including tolerance to biotic and abiotic stress. Although still considered GM in the EU, their genomic changes can complicate detection, identification, and ERA, especially when such traits may offer advantages under stress conditions. This scoping review focuses on gene flow in two crops: oilseed rape (canola) (Brassica napus L.) and potato (Solanum tuberosum L.). In canola, transgene movement can increase weediness, fitness, herbicide resistance, or genetic diversity in feral or related populations. Gene flow in potato is less studied, with concerns centered on contamination risks in the Andean diversity center. Limited data exist for NGT plants, though many are expected to resemble conventionally bred varieties, suggesting comparable environmental impacts. Full article