Search Results (1,474)

Background: Accurate assessment of volume status remains a central challenge in hemodialysis (HD). Although bioimpedance spectroscopy (BIS) can quantify fluid compartments, it is time-consuming and requires a lot of personnel. Modern HD machines provide continuous relative blood volume (RBV) monitoring. We examined whether intradialytic RBV dynamics reflect pre-dialysis extracellular fluid (ECW) status to inform personalized fluid management. Methods: In an ancillary, monocentric, prospective study of the SkInDialysis trial (DRKS00036332), 11 maintenance-HD patients underwent three standardized dialysis sessions with simultaneous measurement of RBV and BIS. BIS was performed at five time points per session (pre-HD; 20, 80, and 160 min after the start of HD; and post-HD). Ultrafiltration (UF), RBV, total body water (TBW), ECW, and intracellular water (ICW) were recorded. Results: Mean total UF was 2809 ± 894 mL/session. RBV declined to 94.7 ± 3.1% at 20 min and to 87.6 ± 5.5% by the end of the session. TBW decreased by 2.9 ± 2.7%, driven by ECW reduction (−3.15 ± 2.9%) over ICW (−1.1 ± 1.65%). Cumulative UF correlated with declines in TBW (R² = 0.18; p = 0.02) and ECW (R² = 0.23; p = 0.01) and more modestly with ICW (R² = 0.16; p = 0.04). In contrast, ΔRBV (pre- vs. post-HD) did not correlate with UF, weight loss, or compartmental water changes. Early steady-state RBV at 80 min correlated with pre-HD ECW (R² = 0.19; p = 0.02) and more strongly with the pre-HD ECW/ICW ratio (R² = 0.34; p = 0.001). Conclusions: In this small, repeated-measures cohort, absolute early steady state RBV levels were associated with pre-dialysis ECW and the ECW/ICW ratio, whereas RBV change (ΔRBV) did not track absolute fluid removal. Our data support a time-anchored RBV level as a pragmatic, device-embedded indicator of the pre-dialysis extracellular reservoir. Full article

Gastrochilus fuscopunctatus is a rare epiphytic orchid in Korea threatened by habitat loss and illegal collection. This study aimed to establish an efficient in vitro propagation system by evaluating asymbiotic germination and seedling growth. Mature seeds germinated on both Hyponex (Hy) and Orchid Seed Sowing Medium (OSM), but protocorm development was more active on Hy, regardless of 1 µM NAA supplementation. For seedling culture, Murashige and Skoog (MS), Hy, and Orchid Maintenance Medium (OM) were tested with apple homogenate (AH), banana homogenate (BH), and coconut water (CW). At 7 months, Hy supported the greatest biomass and root formation, while Hy + BH produced the highest values (0.066 g fresh weight, 1.3 cm root length). Although BH improved growth on MS and OM, the effects were less pronounced. At 14 months, Hy + BH again yielded superior results (1.93 g fresh weight, 5.3 cm root length, 17.2 leaves), clearly outperforming all other combinations. AH and CW showed inconsistent or limited effects across media, indicating strong medium–additive interactions. These findings demonstrate that Hy + BH is the most effective combination for both early and prolonged growth of G. fuscopunctatus, providing a practical framework for ex situ conservation and reintroduction. Full article

Vertical greening (VG) delivers measurable urban ecosystem benefits, yet maintenance is constrained by at-height safety risks, heterogeneous facade geometries, and low labor efficiency. Although unmanned aerial vehicles show promise, most studies optimize isolated modules rather than providing a user-oriented, system-level pathway. This paper proposes a closed-loop, multi-method framework integrating the Decision-Making Trial and Evaluation Laboratory-Analytic Network Process, the Functional Analysis System Technique, and the Theory of Inventive Problem Solving. DEMATEL-ANP models causal interdependencies among requirements and derives prioritized weights,; FAST decomposes functions and localizes conflicts, and TRIZ converts those conflicts into principle-guided structural concepts—establishing a traceable requirements → functions → conflicts → structure pipeline. We illustrate the approach at the prototype level with Rhino–KeyShot visualizations under near-facade constraints, showing how prioritized requirements propagate into candidate UAV architectures. The framework structures the identification and resolution of tightly coupled technical conflicts, supports adaptability in facade-proximal scenarios, and provides a transparent mapping from user needs to structure-level concepts. Claims are restricted to methodological feasibility; comprehensive quantitative field validation remains for future work. The framework offers a reproducible methodological reference for the systematic design and decision-making of intelligent UAV maintenance systems for VG. Full article

The emergence of Industry 5.0 brings a paradigm shift towards collaborative environments where humans and intelligent robots work side-by-side, enabling personalized, flexible, and resilient manufacturing. However, integrating humans and robots introduces new operational and safety risks that require proactive and adaptive control strategies. This study proposes an intelligent multi-criteria decision-making framework for smart risk assessment and the selection of optimal adaptive control strategies in human–robot collaborative manufacturing settings. The proposed framework integrates advanced risk analytics, real-time data processing, and expert knowledge to evaluate alternative control strategies, such as real-time wearable sensor integration, vision-based dynamic safety zones, AI-driven behavior prediction models, haptic feedback, and self-learning adaptive robot algorithms. A cross-disciplinary panel of ten experts structures six main and eighteen sub-criteria spanning safety, adaptability, ergonomics, reliability, performance, and cost, with response time and implementation/maintenance costs modeled as cost types. Safety receives the most significant weight; the most influential sub-criteria are collision avoidance efficiency, return on investment (ROI), and emergency response capability. The framework preserves linguistic semantics from elicitation to aggregation and provides a transparent, uncertainty-aware tool for selecting and phasing adaptive control strategies in Industry 5.0 collaborative cells. Full article

In Uganda, rain-fed crops frequently encounter cycles of drought stress followed by rewatering. Thus, with escalating fluctuations in water supply, drought recovery has become a critical focus for future sorghum drought phenotyping, genetics, and breeding research. However, there is currently a low knowledge of the drought recovery potential of prospective genotypes in Uganda’s National Sorghum Improvement Program. The present study aimed to assess the response of selected genotypes to rewatering after drought. Sixteen sorghum genotypes and two check varieties were evaluated under two contrasting moisture regimes: well-watered and drought stress-rewatering in a split-plot layout using a randomized complete block design (RCBD). Watering regimes were assigned to whole plots, while sorghum genotypes were assigned to subplots, with three replications. The results showed highly significant effects (p < 0.05) of drought stress on key agronomic traits, decreased dry weight, grain weight, and biomass yield by 39%, 43% and 37%, respectively, and delayed flowering by an average of 11 days. Key genotype-specific traits associated with drought recovery included rapid rehydration, compensatory growth, and maintenance of high relative chlorophyll content, all of which were essential for optimizing yields after stress. Leveraging drought tolerance indices, genotypes were ranked by their recovery potential and further classified into four distinct groups (A–D) based on their yield performance and stability under the two watering regimes. Genotypes in category A demonstrated high yield stability and strong recovery potential. Conversely, genotypes in category D exhibited the poorest recovery response. Overall, the information generated from this study will support future sorghum breeding efforts for drought resilience. Full article

Accurate prediction of the RUL of electric drive bearings over the entire service life cycle for new energy vehicles optimizes maintenance strategies and reduces costs, addressing clear application needs. Full life data of electric drive bearings exhibit long time spans and abrupt degradation, complicating the modeling of time dependent relationships and degradation states; therefore, a piecewise linear degradation model is appropriate. An RUL prediction method is proposed based on degradation assessment and spatiotemporal feature fusion, which extracts strongly time correlated features from bearing vibration data, evaluates sensitive indicators, constructs weighted fused degradation features, and identifies abrupt degradation points. On this basis, a piecewise linear degradation model is constructed that uses a path graph structure to represent temporal dependencies and a temporal observation window to embed temporal features. By incorporating GAT-LSTM, RUL prediction for bearings is performed. The method is validated on the XJTU-SY dataset and on a loaded ball bearing test rig for electric vehicle drive motors, yielding comprehensive vibration measurements for life prediction. The results show that the method captures deep degradation information across the full bearing life cycle and delivers accurate, robust predictions, providing guidance for the health assessment of electric drive bearings in new energy vehicles. Full article

Excessive energy consumption of communication protocols in IoT/IIoT systems constitutes one of the key constraints for the operational longevity of remote sensor nodes, where radio transmission often incurs higher energy costs than data acquisition or local computation. Previous studies have remained fragmented, typically focusing on selected technologies or specific layers of the communication stack, which has hindered the development of comparable quantitative metrics across protocols. The aim of this study is to design and validate a unified evaluation framework enabling consistent assessment of both wired and wireless protocols in terms of energy efficiency, reliability, and maintenance costs. The proposed approach employs three complementary research methods: laboratory measurements on physical hardware, profiling of SBC devices, and simulations conducted in the COOJA/Powertrace environment. A Unified Comparative Method was developed, incorporating bilinear interpolation and weighted normalization, with its robustness confirmed by a Spearman rank correlation coefficient exceeding 0.9. The analysis demonstrates that MQTT-SN and CoAP (non-confirmable mode) exhibit the highest energy efficiency, whereas HTTP/3 and AMQP incur the greatest energy overhead. Results are consolidated in the ICoPEP matrix, which links protocol characteristics to four representative RS-IoT scenarios: unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), ocean buoys, meteorological stations, and urban sensor networks. The framework provides well-grounded engineering guidelines that may extend node lifetime by up to 35% through the adoption of lightweight protocol stacks and optimized sampling intervals. The principal contribution of this work is the development of a reproducible, technology-agnostic tool for comparative assessment of IoT/IIoT communication protocols. The proposed framework addresses a significant research gap in the literature and establishes a foundation for further research into the design of highly energy-efficient and reliable IoT/IIoT infrastructures, supporting scalable and long-term deployments in diverse application environments. Full article

Background: Bariatric surgery (BS) is the most effective long-term treatment for severe obesity, but many patients develop food intolerances that either reduce protein and micronutrient intake or shift consumption toward easily tolerated, calorie-dense “safe” foods (e.g., sweets, ice cream, sugar-sweetened beverages, refined-flour snacks), compromising nutrient adequacy and weight-loss maintenance. This narrative review summarizes evidence on the prevalence, mechanisms, and clinical impact of food intolerances after BS, focusing on red meat, dairy, water, cereal, and vegetables, and offers practical nutritional management strategies. Methods: A targeted literature search of PubMed and Cochrane Library from the past 10 years was conducted. Studies were selected based on relevance and quality. Results: Intolerance patterns vary by food type and surgical method. Red meat is the most frequently problematic food, with some patients symptomatic for years despite gradual improvement. Dairy products cause gastrointestinal discomfort in some cases, partly due to lactose intolerance. Cereal products may initially cause swallowing difficulties but are generally well tolerated two years postoperatively. Water intolerance mainly occurs shortly after sleeve gastrectomy (SG), linked to sleeve aperistalsis and edema, resolving within weeks. Cooked vegetables are overall well tolerated across procedures. Mechanisms behind intolerance include mechanical restriction, altered gastric emptying, exaggerated entero-hormonal responses, and new taste aversions. Conclusions: Food intolerances are a common, procedure-specific consequence of BS, requiring systematic assessment and personalized dietary management. Early management—modification of consistency, portion control, and supplementation—can improve product tolerance, prevent nutritional deficiencies, and support sustainable weight loss. However, further prospective studies on the mechanisms of food intolerances are needed. Full article

Angle crack defects significantly affect compressor blade radial deformation characteristics, posing critical challenges for reliability assessment under operational uncertainties. This study proposes a novel osprey optimization algorithm (OOA)-optimized Kriging and radial basis function (RBF) method (OOA-KR) for the efficient reliability evaluation of blade radial clearance with angle crack defects. The approach integrates Kriging’s uncertainty quantification capabilities with RBF neural networks’ nonlinear mapping strengths through an adaptive weighting scheme optimized by OOA. Multiple uncertainty sources including crack geometry, operational temperature, and loading conditions are systematically considered. A comprehensive finite element model incorporating crack size variations and multi-physics coupling effects generates training data for surrogate model construction. Comparative studies demonstrate superior prediction accuracy with RMSE = 0.568 and R² = 0.8842, significantly outperforming conventional methods while maintaining computational efficiency. Reliability assessment achieves 97.6% precision through Monte Carlo simulation. Sensitivity analysis reveals rotational speed as the most influential factor (S = 0.42), followed by temperature and loading parameters. The proposed OOA-KR method provides an effective tool for blade design optimization and reliability-based maintenance strategies. Full article

Failures of rotating machinery, such as bearings and gears, are a critical concern in industrial systems, leading to significant operational downtime and economic losses. A primary research challenge is achieving accurate fault diagnosis under complex industrial noise, where weak fault signatures are often masked by interference signals. This problem is particularly acute in demanding applications like offshore wind turbines, where harsh operating conditions and high maintenance costs necessitate highly robust and reliable diagnostic methods. To address this challenge, this paper proposes a novel Multi-Scale Domain Convolutional Attention Network (MSDCAN). The method integrates enhanced adaptive multi-domain feature extraction with a hybrid attention mechanism, combining information from the time, frequency, wavelet, and cyclic spectral domains with domain-specific attention weighting. A core innovation is the hybrid attention fusion mechanism, which enables cross-modal interaction between deep convolutional features and domain-specific features, enhanced by channel attention modules. The model’s effectiveness is validated on two public benchmark datasets for key rotating components. On the Case Western Reserve University (CWRU) bearing dataset, the MSDCAN achieves accuracies of 97.3% under clean conditions, 96.6% at 15 dB signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), 94.4% at 10 dB SNR, and a robust 85.5% under severe 5 dB SNR. To further validate its generalization, on the Xi’an Jiaotong University (XJTU) gear dataset, the model attains accuracies of 94.8% under clean conditions, 95.0% at 15 dB SNR, 83.6% at 10 dB SNR, and 63.8% at 5 dB SNR. These comprehensive results quantitatively validate the model’s superior diagnostic accuracy and exceptional noise robustness for rotating machinery, establishing a strong foundation for its application in reliable condition monitoring for complex systems, including wind turbines. Full article

The aim of this study is to valorize agro-industrial by-products and to determine the effect of dietary supplementation with date waste and Saccharomyces cerevisiae on production performance, from late-gestation to lactation, of Ouled Djellal ewes and their lambs. The analysis of production performance data showed that there was no significant difference in the weight performance and growth rate of lambs born from ewes supplemented with different proportions of date wastes and Saccharomyces cerevisiae. It was revealed that the new-born lambs of ewes fed with date waste and Saccharomyces cerevisiae gave results close to or even better than those of lambs in the 33CON control group fed 100% concentrate, particularly 16REB and 25REB. This indicates that ewes were provided with their nutrient requirements for maintenance and production by substituting concentrate with this date by-product at 50% and 75%. Therefore, supplementation of pregnant and lactating ewes with date wastes and Saccharomyces cerevisiae seems to have a positive effect and could be employed as a partial alternative to concentrate. Full article

Three isoenergy diets with different crude protein (CP) levels (H = 175, M = 173, and L = 165 g/kg, as is), were fed to 117 sex balanced rabbits (coloured dwarf breed) from 28 to 45 weeks of age. Feed intake, body weight, and fatness were unaffected by the dietary treatment. By reducing dietary CP content, rabbits in group L had a significantly reduced proportion of digestible protein (DP) relative to maintenance requirements compared to group H; p < 0.001), but still exceeding their DP needs. The initial body weight of females was significantly greater than that of males, a difference maintained throughout the study period. Males consumed more feed than females (86.0 vs. 75.2 g/d, p < 0.001) and at 45th week, the skin fold width of males was higher than that of females (p < 0.001). DP balance remained positive in both sexes but was higher in males than females (+3.37 vs. +2.50 g DP/d; p < 0.001). Contrarily, the energy balance was positive in males (+57.9 kJ DE/d) and negative in females (−20.3 kJ DE/d). In conclusion, a dietary CP level of 165 g/kg is considered adequate for adult companion rabbits at maintenance. It is therefore advisable to diversify diets by sex to better meet their nutritional requirements. Full article

Plant functional traits (PFTs) serve as key predictors of plant survival and adaptation to environmental gradients. Studies on intraspecific variation in PFTs are crucial for evaluating species’ adaptation to projected climate change and developing long-term conservation strategies. This study systematically investigated PFT responses in Polyspora chrysandra (Theaceae, Yunnan, China) through an integrated multivariate analysis of 20 leaf functional traits (LFTs) and 33 environmental factors categorized into geographical conditions (GCs), climate factors (CFs), soil properties (SPs), and ultraviolet radiation factors (UVRFs). To disentangle complex environmental–trait relationships, we employed redundancy analysis (RDA), hierarchical partitioning (HP), and partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) to assess direct, indirect, and latent relationships. Results showed that the intraspecific coefficient of variation (CV) ranged from 7.071% to 25.650%. Leaf tissue density (LTD), specific leaf area (SLA), leaf fresh weight (LFW), leaf dry weight (LDW), and leaf area (LA) exhibited moderate intraspecific trait variation (ITV), while all other traits demonstrated low ITV. Reference Bulk density (RBD) and Silt emerged as significant factors driving the variation. Latitude (Lat), altitude (Alt), and mean warmest month temperature (MWMT) were also identified as key influences. HP analysis revealed Silt as the most important predictor (p < 0.05). Latent variable analysis indicated descending contribution rates: SPs (31.51%) > GCs (11.52%) > CFs (11.04%) > UVRFs (10.29%). Co-effect analysis highlighted significant coupling effects involving RBD and cation exchange capacity of clay (CECC), as well as organic carbon content (OCC) and UV-B seasonality (UVB2). Path analysis showed SPs as having the strongest influence on leaf thickness (LT), followed by GCs and UVRFs. These findings provide empirical insights into the biogeographical patterns of ITV in P. chrysandra, enhance the understanding of plant environmental adaptation mechanisms, and offer a theoretical foundation for studying community assembly and ecosystem function maintenance. Full article

The resource utilization of peach wood as agricultural waste holds significant importance for the sustainable development of the edible fungi industry, yet its regulatory effects on the physiology and safety of Lentinula edodes (L. edodes) remain unclear. This study selected four L. edodes (F2, 0912, N5, and 215) and systematically analyzed their cultivation adaptability across five peach wood substrate proportions (0%, 20%, 40%, 60%, and 80%). Results indicated that while high peach wood proportions inhibited laccase activity and delayed mycelial growth, high carboxymethyl cellulase and xylanase activity formed a critical compensatory effect, ultimately enhancing total yield. Peach wood improved production through strain-specific mechanisms. F2 increased via single mushroom weight gain, while N5 relied on xylanase-driven primordia differentiation to boost mushroom numbers. Adding peach wood significantly increased crude protein, crude lipid, and total polysaccharide in F2, maintaining normal agronomic traits and increasing secondary mushroom proportion. Safety risks focused on arsenic accumulation, with 80% peach wood causing F2 to exceed control levels, albeit remaining far below the national standards. This study is among the first to elucidate peach wood’s temporal enzyme regulation for the maintenance of L. edodes yield. Future optimization through peach wood pretreatment and low arsenic strain selection could provide technical support for the high value utilization of agricultural waste. Full article

Background/Objectives: The anti-GD2 monoclonal antibody dinutuximab beta has become standard of care maintenance therapy for high-risk neuroblastoma (HR-NB) in the first-line setting and is also approved in the relapsed/refractory setting. We present a retrospective review of 37 children with HR-NB included in the Hungarian Childhood Cancer Registry who received dinutuximab beta (first-line maintenance therapy, n = 31; relapsed/refractory, n = 6). Methods: All patients received dinutuximab beta continuously over the first 10 days of each 35-day cycle, with dosing based on body surface area/weight. Five cycles were planned, with further cycles administered at the treating physician’s discretion. Results: At data cutoff, the overall disease control rate was 54.1% (20/37) (complete response, 51.4% (19/37); partial response, 0.0% (0/37), stable disease, 2.7% [1/37]); two patients (5.4%) had progressive disease, and 15 patients (40.5%) had died. The 5-year overall survival (OS) and event-free survival (EFS) rates in the overall population were 63.3% (95% confidence interval, 49.1−81.7) and 56.2% (95% confidence interval, 42.1−75.0), respectively. Grade 3 or 4 adverse events (including blood and lymphatic system disorders, hypoxia, hypotension, and capillary leak syndrome) were generally consistent with dinutuximab beta’s known safety profile. Conclusions: Dinutuximab beta was an effective immunotherapy for patients with HR-NB in routine clinical practice, with a generally manageable side effect profile. Full article