Abstract: We show that for certain classes of matrices over octonions, a weak version of breakthrough numerical radius inequalities obtained by Kittaneh [Stud. Math., 2005] hold.

Abstract: Field of view (FOV) and spatial audio are characteristics of virtual environments that can influence visual and auditory presentation and, consequently, physiological responses during interaction with virtual reality. This study aims to assess physiological responses during interaction with a low-immersion virtual environment by analysing heart rate variability (HRV). To this end, is developed a specialised 3D game using passive red-cyan anaglyph stereoscopy and a large display/projector (1.78 × 1.00 m) positioned 3.50 m from the participant. Thirty participants (17 men and 13 women) took part in the study, each undergoing a baseline resting phase and an experimental phase involving interaction with the virtual environment. Continuous electrocardiographic recording was performed using a Holter monitor during both phases, and consecutive RR intervals were extracted from the recorded signals for subsequent time-domain, frequency-domain, non-linear, and geometric HRV analysis. The experimental setup featured a physical diagonal field of view of 32.52°, a software-defined field of view of 97.90°, and enabled spatial audio. The results demonstrate statistically significant differences between the resting state and the experimental VR condition across a range of HRV metrics, including MeanRR, SDNN, SDANN, RMSSD, pNN50, LF, HF, LF/HF, SD1, SD2, HRVti, and TINN (p < 0.001). The observed changes in HRV parameters suggest that HRV can serve as an objective physiological indicator for characterising the physiological response to a low-immersion virtual environment. The data characterise the physiological response to the specific combination of visual and audio parameters under study, without allowing for the independent determination of the effects of physical FOV, software-defined FOV, anaglyph stereoscopy, and spatial audio. The study contributes by developing and experimentally characterising an accessible, low-immersion VR setup and by applying a multi-domain HRV analysis to assess the physiological response during interaction with it. This approach can serve as a foundation for future research on physiological reactions during interactions with virtual environments, as well as for developing and evaluating accessible VR systems for experimental, educational, and training applications.

Abstract: This paper synthesises and extends the empirical literature on bank non-performing loans (NPLs), moving from classical macroeconomic and bank-level explanations to the 2026 research frontier of non-linear thresholds, spatial network externalities, explainable machine learning, ESG governance, and climate-risk channels. The central argument is that NPLs are not merely the product of bad luck or adverse macroeconomic cycles. They are regime-dependent outcomes shaped jointly by institutional depth, currency exposure, spatial connectedness, bank behaviour, risk culture, and governance quality. Comparing Western Europe, Central, Eastern and Southeastern Europe (CESEE), and developing-market benchmarks, the paper shows that macroeconomic cycles globally influence credit risk, but structural and institutional factors determine when NPLs become persistent, contagious, and systemically damaging. The review offers an integrated taxonomy, a comparative methodological synthesis, and differentiated policy implications for macroprudential and resolution frameworks.

Abstract: Power systems increasingly contain diverse, distributed, and energy-limited resources, yet installed capacity, stored energy, and aggregate flexibility do not establish whether a specified service can be fulfilled. This study defines System Energy Liquidity as the state-dependent and request-specific capability to mobilize and deliver usable energy and power under resource, temporal, network, operational, uncertainty, and reservation constraints. A technical request specifies direction, power profile, duration, location, activation deadline, delivery tolerances, quality, and priority class; the probabilistic assessment applies a declared confidence level separately. Deterministic and probabilistic Energy Liquidity Indices measure the maximum proportional scaling of the requested trajectory that remains feasible. The scalar index is complemented by margins, bottleneck diagnostics, and a multidimensional liquidity domain. A stylized three-node system with storage, dispatchable generation, demand response, flexible load, and constrained interfaces demonstrates seven power, energy, spatial, temporal, probabilistic, and absorption cases. The same state is liquid for one request and non-liquid for another. Scenario F is deterministically liquid, with ELI_{det}=1.960, but fails the 0.99 confidence requirement, with ELI_{0.99}=0.977. Energy and Power Banking is represented as a coordination architecture that can change access, pooling, reservation, routing, and future resource state. The sequential example illustrates how explicit reservation can preserve future liquidity; it does not assume that this function is exclusive to EPB.

Abstract: Predation risk is often communicated socially, allowing animals to use a combination of behavioral and chemical cues to assess environmental threats. Zebrafish, a highly social aquatic species, have been shown to exhibit anti-predation behaviors under exposure to the chemical cue hypoxanthine-3N-oxide (H3NO). While concentration-dependent anti-predation responses have been studied, it remains unclear how subjects behave when only visually exposed to shoals alarmed by different concentrations of H3NO. The present study examines whether zebrafish modify their social preference and anxiety-like responding while observing conspecifics exposed to varying H3NO concentrations. Adult male and female zebrafish performed a 3-chamber open-tank free-swim task with visual access to an unlarmed shoal on one side and a shoal exposed to 1.5 nM, 3 nM, or 5 nM H3NO on the other side. Male and female zebrafish exhibit similar behaviors and preference for the unalarmed shoals when exposed to 1.5 nM and 3 nM alarmed shoals. Interestingly, sex differences emerge when subjects are visually exposed to a shoal receiving 5 nM H3NO. At this concentration, males exhibit closer proximity to the alarmed shoal and greater locomotor activity compared to females, whereas females maintain their preference for the unalarmed shoal. These findings indicate that zebrafish can visually extract graded information about predation threat from conspecifics' alarm behavior and modify responding in a sexually dimorphic manner.

Abstract:

Background/Objectives: Healthcare professionals have shown different perceptions regarding the safety, validity, trust, and expectations associated with the implementation of medical AI in the world. This study aimed to assess the knowledge, attitudes, and practices concerning artificial intelligence (AI) among healthcare professionals at Jendouba Hospital, northwest Tunisia. Methods: This was a cross-sectional study realized between September and December 2025, targeting all medical healthcare workers in Jendouba Hospital. Data were collected through a well-structured questionnaire. Results: A total of 224 healthcare workers responded (response rate: 90.6%). Most participants were unable to differentiate between core AI concepts. Over half supported integrating AI into formal training programs, while 61.5% strongly disagreed that teachers could be replaced by AI. Additionally, 60.5% believed AI cannot function without human assistance, and 52.2% disagreed that clinical AI will outperform human professionals. Although more than half found AI often useful, over a quarter reported being misled by it at times. In research, AI was mainly used for grammar and spell-checking. A majority (88.3%) believed that AI should always be supervised by physicians. Concerning ethics, nearly half felt that AI could compromise the doctor–patient relationship, while 42.4% did not consider its use a breach of medical confidentiality. Mean attitude and practice scores were significantly higher among professionals in non-clinical specialties compared to clinical ones. Conclusion : While healthcare staff favor AI integration despite limited technical knowledge, ethical concerns highlight the need for targeted training. These findings offer vital baseline data to foster equitable AI implementation in developing healthcare systems.

Abstract: Physical–Observation Dual-Axis (PODA) theory retains the physical state and the objective state of record formation as distinct responsibilities. We develop a thermodynamic formulation on their admissible joint histories, starting from a common energy, an explicitly specified thermal closure and a declared physical time reversal. For a finite-state realization with channel-resolved local detailed balance, the full trajectory entropy production obeys the usual integral fluctuation relation. We prove an exact decomposition of its mean into the relative entropy visible in a declared record and a nonnegative conditional contribution from the unrecorded joint history. Equality holds precisely when the forward and reverse conditional history laws coincide. An exact recovery theorem identifies preservation of the observation section, marked history laws, energy exchanges and reverse protocol. A separate sufficiency criterion determines whether a record captures all entropy production. The finite-state section recovers the first and second laws, Gibbs equilibrium and isothermal free-energy dissipation of the reduced system. Two analytic models distinguish correlation loss from heat release and demonstrate positive joint entropy production with stationary equilibrium marginals. A regular perturbation formula expresses the leading hidden entropy production through conditional score mismatch. The results give conditional, exact criteria for thermodynamic recovery within PODA and identify the dynamical quantities required for departures from a fixed observation description.

Abstract: This paper proposes the Generalized Research--Expression Model (GREM) \(E^{G} \equiv \mathrm{Md}[\mathrm{GAP}(C), \kappa]\). In this model, \(\mathrm{GAP}(C)\) represents the research side introduced previously, where research conducted using \(\mathrm{GAP}(C)\) was defined as generalized research (GR), namely \(\mathrm{GR} \equiv \mathrm{GAP}(C)\). \(\mathrm{GAP}(C)\) operates on generalized coordinates \(C\), including the analytical object \(O\), analytical feature \(F\), and analytical result \(\mathrm{Res}\), with \(\mathrm{Res}\) comprising qualitative characteristic \(S\), quantitative characteristic \(Q\), and knowledge formulation \(X\). It further incorporates generalized adjustment of \(O\), the Main-node Analytical Path (MAP), and re-anchoring (Ra), through which existing analytical contents or results may become new analytical objects. The core of MAP is the Generalized Analytical Method (GAM), which provides a superordinate analytical framework based on analytical features and their concrete analytical contents, while discipline-specific research methods remain selectable implementation pathways. On the expression side, discourse mode \(\mathrm{Md}\) organizes research content for expression, while \(\kappa\) denotes operational factors affecting the concrete expression process. GREM is not intended as a formal mathematical model in the usual sense, but as a condensed conceptual--operational model for overviewing and organizing research and academic expression. It may also provide a basis for future computational or AI-assisted, or potentially superintelligence-assisted, research-expression systems.

Abstract: Background: The rapid diffusion of AI-generated content (AIGC) tools has shifted the central question for university teachers and students from whether to use large language models (LLMs) to how to use them. Yet institutions face a structural gap: policy documents specify what is permitted or prohibited, while technical literature describes what models can do — and neither tells an individual user what concrete actions to perform before each use. In high-reliability domains such as surgery and aviation, precisely this gap is closed by a checklist.Objective: This paper introduces the first systematic pre-use checklist for LLM-assisted academic work — a seven-item verification instrument that translates regulatory requirements and technical constraints into executable actions, bridging the policy layer and the technology layer.Methods: To derive the checklist, we combine a structured review of Chinese legislation, ministerial regulations, and university AIGC policies (consolidated into a three-norm compliance model: Permitted / Prohibited / Disclosure) with an analysis of five structural limitations of LLMs documented in the technical literature (mapped to four countermeasure strategies and an Ask–Plan–Craft tri-layer interaction model). Checklist design follows the evidence-based methodology of high-reliability domains: items are short, binary-verifiable, and target the steps most often skipped. The instrument is validated through a documented case study — the development of a local text-to-speech workbench (qwen-tts-app) with a commercial agentic tool.Results: The checklist comprises seven pre-use gates spanning task scoping, plan-before-execution, task decomposition, auditable computation, mandatory output verification, data isolation, and AI-use disclosure; each item maps explicitly onto institutional and regulatory requirements. In the case study, every checklist item corresponded to a concrete, auditable action, and six of ten documented iteration failures were directly attributable to structural LLM limitations — confirming that mandatory output verification is indispensable.Conclusion: Compliance first, boundary awareness second, method third. The seven-item checklist operates as an actionable bridge between what institutions require and what individuals do, reducing individual cognitive load and institutionalizing tacit best practices. We offer it as a protocol awaiting its outcome study.

Abstract: Independent photogrammetric reconstructions of an object in different states require a compatible representation for interactive transitions. We present the ODD INN pipeline linking state-specific acquisition, alignment, Blender template fitting, appearance preparation and UV-carried deformation to coordinated geometry and material transitions in Unreal Engine. Its large-scale application pursued summer and winter capture across an entire open-air museum: ten major sessions generated more than 2 TB of mixed photographic, reconstruction-project and 3D data, with twenty multi-state objects selected from a larger collection. Architectural reconstructions, the ClayPot_01 preparation sequence and the playable Odmieniec demonstrator establish production and application outcomes; related assets are distributed commercially on Fab. Evaluation combines project component tests, production and engine demonstrations, and supplementary checks of the same technology. Recalculation reproduced all six fitting counts for three object pairs, whose outputs preserve source connectivity without exactly zero-area triangles. A Blender 5.2.0 test preserved base geometry and UV arrays through FBX export and reimport. These supplementary checks did not repeat fitting or Unreal execution. The contribution is an implemented acquisition-to-interaction pipeline with an inspectable geometry–appearance interface, demonstrated at museum-campaign and playable-environment scales.

Abstract:

Arabidopsis thaliana plants of two mutant lines with knocked out the At3g52720 gene, encoding stromal α-carbonic anhydrase 1, αCA1 (αCA1-KO), and wild-type plants, of the Columbia ecotype (Col), were grown under 450 ppm (NCO₂) and 150 ppm (LCO₂) CO₂ in the air. The CO₂ assimilation rate (ACO₂) in plants grown under NCO₂ was lower in the αCA1-KO plants than in Col plants at CO₂ concentrations from 600 to 1200 ppm in the measurement chamber. In LCO₂-grown plants, ACO₂ values were lower than in NCO₂-grown plants both in Col and mutants, with the same values in mutants and Col. Water use efficiency (WUE) in NCO₂ grown mutant plants was lower than in Col at a CO₂ concentration of 600 ppm and above, and in LCO₂-grown mutants WUE became lower than in Col at 1200 ppm. The starch content was lower in leaves of mutants than in Col under both NCO₂ and LCO₂ conditions due to its reduced synthesis during the daytime photosynthesis. Under NCO₂, the content of hydrogen peroxide was twice higher in αCA1‑KO plant leaves than in Col. Under LCO₂, the content of Н₂О₂ in Col increased to more than three times its level under NCO₂, and became 2.5 times higher than in αCA1‑KO, in which it decreased by 1.5 times compared to that in NCO₂ plants. Under NCO₂ conditions, the contents of the stromal, cytoplasmic and peroxisomal forms of ascorbate peroxidases (APXs) were about twice higher in αCA1-KO than in Col plants. Contrariwise, in LCO₂-grown plants the contents of APXs were lower in mutants than in Col. The total protein amount, as well as the level of ribulose-1,5-bisphosphate carboxylase/oxygenase, were the same in Col and mutants under NCO₂ conditions, but were 35% and 45-50%, respectively, lower in αCA1-KO than in Col under LCO₂ conditions. In the leaves of NCO₂-grown plants, the stomatal conductance was higher in αCA1-KO than in Col with slower stomatal opening and delayed closure in response to decreases and increases in CO₂ level, respectively. At the same time, in the absence of αCA1, both the total number of stomata per unit leaf surface area, and the relative number of open stomata were higher than in Col leaves. In the protoplasts isolated from NCO₂-grown αCA1-KO plants, the steady-state rates of oxygen evolution were 30 % lower in mutants than in Col and were reached at a lower HCO₃¯ concentration (5 mM) than in protoplasts from Col (8 mM). The apparent half-saturating bicarbonate concentration was approximately 2 mM for αCA1-KO and 3 mM for Col. Our data demonstrate the involvement of the stromal chloroplast αCA1 in providing A. thaliana cells with CO₂, the importance of this enzyme for starch synthesis, as well as the significance of αCA1 for protein synthesis in plants. The increase in the total number of stomata per unit of leaf surface area and in the relative proportion of open stomata, as well as the reduced rate of stomatal responses in plants lacking αCA1, suggests the possible involvement of this enzyme in signaling processes regulating both stomatal movement and development.

Abstract:

When a technological system begins to perform an information-processing function previously performed by people, execution has changed, but it does not follow that relationships among activities, coordination requirements, decision authority, or organizational structure have also changed. This theoretical paper develops a conceptual model of information-processing reallocation through a targeted comparative analysis of literature on organizational information processing, function allocation, delegation, interdependence, coordination, work design, and human–technology collaboration. Information-processing allocation (IPA) is defined as the distribution of information-processing functions between people and technologies at a given point in time, and information-processing reallocation (IPR) as change in that distribution over time. The analysis shows that the extent of reallocation alone does not identify the extent of relational change or the coordination required, and that technological execution can transform rather than simply reduce human work. The model yields one testable proposition: all else equal, reallocations that shift task interdependence toward a more reciprocal form increase the need for mutual adjustment during execution. The paper also specifies empirical criteria for identifying functions, reallocations, interdependencies, and coordination requirements in longitudinal and comparative studies. The model is intended to separate changes in execution from organizational consequences that require independent empirical verification.

Abstract: Low-coverage (low-pass) whole-genome sequencing (lcWGS) followed by imputation is a cost-effective alternative to array genotyping, but its accuracy depends on how well the target genotypes are represented in the reference panel. We assessed lcWGS imputation quality for three cattle breeds differing in their representation in a multi-breed panel: Holstein, Aberdeen-Angus and the native Russian Kalmyk breed. Imputed genotypes of 86 Kalmyk, 75 Holstein, and 72 Aberdeen-Angus animals were compared with BovineSNP50 array genotypes at 46,715 shared SNPs. Concordance and dosage R² were 99.3% and 0.98 for Holstein and 99.2% and 0.98 for Aberdeen-Angus, and 94.4% and 0.86 for Kalmyk, for which R² exceeded 0.8 at MAF > 5%, an acceptable level for common-variant analyses. PCA and ADMIXTURE placed Kalmyk cattle closest to Central- and East-Asian breeds (Kazakh, Mongolian, Hanwoo) that are poorly represented in the panel. Kalmyk cattle also showed the fastest LD decay (r² ≈ 0.04 vs. ≈ 0.10 in Holstein at 450 kb). Both the absence of the breed from the panel and the fast LD decay are expected to reduce imputation accuracy, and their contributions cannot be separated in a study of three breeds. Imputation nearly doubled the coverage of known functional markers from OMIA and other sources (from 70 to 134 positions), although casein variants absent from the panel were not recovered. Imputed lcWGS data for Kalmyk cattle are suitable for GWAS on common variants and population-structure analysis, whereas rare-variant genotyping requires a breed-specific reference panel.

Abstract: Chloroplast genomes of land plants typically possess a conserved quadripartite structure consisting of large and small single-copy regions (LSC and SSC) separated by two large inverted repeats (IRs). Here, we present chloromapper, a lightweight Rust program designed to automate the arrangement of pre-assembled chloroplast contigs into a complete circular genome. Given three or more plastome contigs in arbitrary order, orientation, and fragmentation, chloromapper identifies IR sequences using inverted-duplicate or read-depth evidence, chains fragmented single-copy contigs based on exact end overlaps, assigns sequences to the LSC and SSC regions, and resolves their relative orientations using IR–single-copy junctions. The program subsequently reconstructs the canonical circular LSC–IRb–SSC–IRa arrangement, merging overlapping contigs and representing unresolved junctions or pre-existing assembly gaps with ambiguous nucleotides.We evaluated chloromapper using synthetic assemblies derived from the complete chloroplast genome of Arabidopsis halleri (GenBank KX886356.1), including resolved-IR, collapsed-IR, and fragmented short-read-style scenarios.

Abstract: Hyperbolic embeddings are widely used in deep learning to represent hierarchical data, and a substantial body of work reports empirical advantages over Euclidean representations. In recent years, however, a critical literature has accumulated suggesting that some of these advantages reflect poorly tuned baselines or implicit regularization rather than geometry itself. The present paper examines this question through a series of controlled experiments designed to separate the regimes in which hyperbolicity is expected to help from those in which it is not.On the theoretical side, we record a simple invariance: any diffeomorphism, including the Poincar\'e exponential map, preserves the closure of a dense function class in the uniform topology on compact subsets of the latent space. This indicates that a purely capacity-based advantage of hyperbolic layers over Euclidean layers of matched parameter count is not available through reparametrization alone, and that any observed empirical difference on flat data must be sought in optimization-theoretic or regularization-based mechanisms rather than in approximation theory.On the experimental side, we report four findings. First, a positive control on a synthetic perfect binary tree shows that a hyperbolic encoder can preserve the tree metric strictly better than a Euclidean encoder of matched capacity, with the advantage growing monotonically with tree depth: from roughly three hundredths of a point of Spearman correlation at depth five to roughly nine hundredths at depth seven, with p-values below one part in ten thousand. Second, a positive control on real biological data---the seed trie of the Huesken siRNA library, a balanced four-ary tree of depth seven constructed from the seven-nucleotide seed regions of two thousand three hundred and sixty one siRNAs---shows the same qualitative advantage: roughly five to nine hundredths of a point of Spearman correlation over a capacity-matched Euclidean encoder, again with p-values below one part in ten thousand. Third, on the secondary-structure tree of a real mRNA (PCSK9, of length three thousand six hundred and thirty seven nucleotides and tree diameter three hundred and twenty seven), the hyperbolic encoder either fails numerically without target rescaling or, once target distances are rescaled to match the well-conditioned regime, ties with a Euclidean encoder of matched capacity. Fourth, on the siRNA efficacy prediction task itself (PCSK9, one hundred and one samples; Huesken, two thousand three hundred and sixty one samples), the hyperbolic layer shows no advantage specific to its geometry: the modest gain observed on Huesken structural features is reproduced by a non-hyperbolic radial projection into the unit ball, and is not reproduced by the element-wise hyperbolic tangent or by clipping.We read these observations as evidence that hyperbolic layers are a specialized tool: they help on balanced trees of moderate depth, whether synthetic or real, but not on long thin biological hierarchies and not on effectively flat tasks such as siRNA efficacy prediction. All four trees studied here are exact tree metrics and therefore have vanishing Gromov hyperbolicity; the relevant diagnostic for whether hyperbolicity helps is instead the aspect ratio of the tree, defined as the ratio of its depth to its diameter. This refines the standard picture and suggests a set of practical controls---radial, capacity, shape, and stability---that any claim of a geometric advantage should report.

Abstract: Projective freedom is a standard feature of the trace sector in Palatini and metric-affine gravity. This note studies a narrower question: after a quotient-adapted trace reduction, does a projectively invariant trace residue remain inside a selected local operator class? In four dimensions the adopted law is the last-index projective transformation \(\delta\Gamma^{\lambda}{}_{\mu\nu}=-\delta^{\lambda}{} {\nu}\xi_{\mu}\), with compensator shift \(\delta A_{\mu}=+3\xi_{\mu}\). The induced raw trace shifts are \(\delta(T_{\mu},Q_{\mu},\widetilde Q_{\mu},A_{\mu})=(3,-8,-2,3)\xi_{\mu}\). The three horizontal one-forms \(q_{\mu}=Q_{\mu}+\tfrac{8}{3}A_{\mu}\), \(u_{\mu}=\widetilde Q_{\mu}+\tfrac{2}{3}A_{\mu}\), and \(t_{\mu}=T_{\mu}-A_{\mu}\) are coordinates on the quotient of the extended trace-plus-compensator space \((T,Q,\widetilde Q,A)\), together with the vertical coordinate \(V_{\mu}=A_{\mu}\). They are not coordinates on the intrinsic quotient of the uncompensated triple \((T,Q,\widetilde Q)\) alone. The one-form \(A_{\mu}\) is a nondynamical spurionic reference along the projective fibre. The analysis uses only the compensated residue \(t_{\mu}\), in the restricted pure-trace density \(f_{1}(\phi)R(\Gamma)+f_{2}(\phi)\,t_{\mu}t^{\mu}+f_{3}(\phi)\,\bar\nabla_{\mu}t^{\mu}+U(\phi)\). On a connected local region where \(f_{1}\neq 0\), elimination of \(q_{\mu}\) and \(u_{\mu}\) from the Palatini block is a Schur decoupling: \(S_{t}=2f_{2}\), \(J_{t,\mathrm{eff}}=-\partial f_{3}\), and therefore \(\Delta_{2}=\Delta_{3}=0\), \(\widehat f_{2}=f_{2}\), and \(\widehat f_{3}=f_{3}\). No \(f_{1}\)-dependent \(t^{2}\) term or \((\partial f_{1})\cdot t\) source is induced. Strict removal means that the resulting residue expression vanishes identically, without solving for \(t_{\mu}\) and without imposing an additional scalar constraint. On the relevant connected local branch this holds if and only if \(f_{2}(\phi)\equiv 0\) and \(f_{3}'(\phi)\equiv 0\). The statement is local, conditional, and confined to this compensated operator class.

Abstract: Maturity models help small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) plan their transition toward a circular economy, but existing models were developed mainly for manufacturing firms in industrialized countries and culminate in circularity rather than regeneration. This conceptual design study proposes a circular-regenerative maturity model for plastic recycling SMEs. Following a design science approach, the model was built through a criterion-based synthesis of literature, regulation and sectoral evidence and was evaluated ex ante by the authors only. It comprises five cumulative levels (linear-reactive, efficient, circular, sustainable integrated and regenerative) across five dimensions (ecological, economic, social, technological and cross-cutting), yielding 25 descriptors paired with verifiable evidence. The regenerative level requires verified positive contributions for third parties beyond the break-even point, measured against a baseline and safeguarded by additionality and non-displacement criteria, and each level builds a precondition for it. A brief illustration with previously published results from 16 formalized SMEs in Bogotá, Colombia, shows that existing indicators cover 12 of the 25 cells and none at the regenerative level. The model has not yet been validated by independent experts or applied to firms; its propositions are offered for empirical testing.

Abstract: A comparison of five agronomic management sectoral variants was conducted on a spring wheat field (rainfed farming) in Northern Kazakhstan to evaluate grain yield stability and its relationship with soil and crop conditions. Four experimental plots (without replication) involved the combined use of the SoilPoint Soil Booster (SPB) preparation and mineral nitrogen application at rates of 0, 2, 6, or 10 kg N/ha, alongside reduced herbicide application rates. The control plot (located at the field edge) received 20 kg N/ha without SPB application. Analysis of yield data, crop characteristics, results from three soil survey cycles, moisture sensor readings (one per SPB plot), and satellite NDVI data revealed four key findings. First, the SPB-N2 variant demonstrated the best results in terms of both total plot yield and sample cut data: the yield was 3.47 t/ha compared to 2.57 t/ha in the control (an increase of +35.0%). Secondly, the SPB-N2 variant recorded the highest average soil profile moisture index (40.31%), whereas the SPB-N10 variant showed the lowest (35.84%) and experienced the most significant decline in this indicator over the observation period (a drop of 21.29 percentage points). Thirdly, the plot with the highest yield was characterized by the lowest nitrate nitrogen content (13.6 mg/kg) based on the initial survey and did not exhibit the maximum NDVI value (0.37). The SPB-N10 variant had the highest NDVI (0.40) but demonstrated the lowest yield among the SPB-treated plots (3.09 t/ha). Fourthly, a zone of reduced yield was identified that cut across the boundaries of different treatment variants, indicating spatial heterogeneity within the field. Seasonal changes in nutrient content followed a specific pattern: levels of nitrate nitrogen, K₂O, sulfur, Mg, and Mn decreased across all variants. Collectively, these results identify the SPB-N2 variant as the most consistently productive and demonstrate that rankings based on average greenness indices and nitrate content (from the first survey) do not align with rankings based on grain yield. The lack of replication in the experimental design and the use of point measurements for soil moisture make it impossible to definitively attribute the results to the impact of specific agronomic practices or to the plot's general water-retention capacity. This study is relevant to ensuring food security (Goal 2)—given that Kazakhstan is a key grain producer in Central Asia—and to the study of ecosystem sustainability (Goal 15).

Abstract:

Introduction: Neuroblastoma is a highly malignant pediatric tumor with a high membrane expression of the norepinephrinetransporter (NET). Iodine-131 labeled meta-iodobenzylguanidine (mIBG) as a substrate for the norepinephrine transporter can be used as treatment of neuroblastoma. However, [¹³¹I]MIBG has a limited therapeutic effect and requires 4-6 day isolation to shield parents and families from unwanted irradiation. Recently, the alpha emitter based derivative meta-astatobenzylguanidine ([²¹¹At]mABG) has been suggested as a more potent antitumor agent and patient-friendly alternative. In this work, we selected and validated the preferred chemical method for [²¹¹At]mABG synthesis towards GMP production for clinical implementation to treat pediatric neuroblastoma patients. Methods: Astatine-211 was obtained by dry distillation using the Atley C100 module. Two different methodologies for the synthesis of [²¹¹At]mABG by electrophilic aromatic substitution on either a trimethylsilyl or boronic acid precursor were compared. Time-dependent uptake was tested in transporter positive (MaxNB293, SK-N-SH) and low/negative (AMC691T, Kelly) neuroblastoma cells. Norepinephrine transporter specificity was tested by co-incubation with the transporter substrate norepinephrine or inhibitor desipramine. Cytotoxicity of [²¹¹At]mABG was determined by measuring cell viability in both NET positive and negative cells. Finally, a large [²¹¹At]mABG dose was synthesized and stability was monitored for up to 24 h. Results: Radiochemical conversion into [²¹¹At]mABG using a trimethylsilyl and boronic acid precursor reached 78 ± 8 % and 95 ± 1 %, respectively (based on radioTLC analysis, (n = 3 for each condition). When [²¹¹At]mABG was synthesized from the boronic acid precursor, the final formulated product was obtained in 79 ± 8% yield with a radiochemical purity >95%. Time dependent and NET specific [²¹¹At]mABG uptake in neuroblastoma cells was observed with 268 ± 46 and 309 ± 58 % of added activity/mg protein after 4 h incubation for the NET positive cells MaxNB293 and SK-N-SH, respectively. Uptake in NET-negative cells AMC691T and Kelly only showed 31 ± 6 and 36 ± 9 % of added activity/mg protein, respectively. Cell viability was NET expression dependent, with an EC₅₀ value of 0.036 kBq for SK-N-SH and 16 kBq for Kelly cells, as positive and low expressing cell lines. Ultimately, starting with 345 MBq of astatine-211, 236 MBq of [²¹¹At]mABG was afforded (68 % non-decay-corrected, n = 1). Radiochemical purity of the formulated product remained >95% over 24 h. Conclusion: We have developed a mild synthesis procedure for reliable and high-yielding production of [²¹¹At]mABG using GMP compatible reagents. Efforts towards fully automated and GMP compliant synthesis are underway.

Abstract: The absence of a monetary value anchor independent of discretionary issuance remains an unresolved problem of monetary theory. This paper develops a conditional research program: granted the normative premise that civilizational survival is a lexicographically prior meta-constraint, the value anchor can migrate from scarcity to net order creation. The paper’s primary contribution is conceptual and architectural rather than mathematical. Conceptually, where the economics of entropy has treated entropy production as a cost constraint on the economy, we elevate the net increment of systemic order to the ontology of value — a normative move, stated as such, not a consequence of thermodynamics. Architecturally, we show that this ontology can be made operational as a two-layer anchor: a measurement layer of publicly recomputable order increments, and a calibration layer in which the residual conventions are democratized and audited. The value equation W_τ = k·E_τ^a·T_τ^1−a·I_τ^c is posited rather than derived from physics; its benchmark case W_τ = √(E_τ·T_τ·I_τ) combines exergy input, non-equilibrium maintenance time, and structural information gain, the last measured against a no-intervention counterfactual so that maintenance and discovery stand on one footing. Standard functional-equation arguments are used to show that the screening criteria select the power family uniquely within the twice-differentiable class — a result that organizes the choice of functional form without claiming new mathematics — and ordinal rankings are proved robust to exponent perturbations, the symmetric benchmark is shown to be the unique joint minimizer of measurement-error transmission and single-factor manipulation leverage, and the multiplicative form is defended against the incommensurate magnitudes of the physical factors. A measurement-error budget for the measurement architecture is derived. Existence and uniqueness of the incentive-compatible configuration are established under stated assumptions, including quasi-linear utility, and a second-order welfare-loss bound is derived for calibration errors in the consensus coefficients α. The incommensurability critique of ecological economics is engaged directly: the framework commensurates only the unit of account at the navigation layer, leaving plural values intact at the expression layer. Component-level cross-country evidence is consistent with the information dimension of the equation: R&D intensity alone accounts for 79% of the variance in innovation-output density in our sample, a result we report as a consistency check rather than as a test of the theory, and for which we specify a pre-registered extension protocol. A three-period overlapping-generations model, a general equilibrium with endogenous α (with scenario analysis when assumptions fail), mechanism defenses, and a four-layer measurement blueprint (the Civilization Realization Network, CRN, a forward-looking research program rather than a presently deployable system) complete the program. This paper does not address the macrostability of the anchor or the governance of its calibration layer; these are treated in the two companion papers of the series, whose results this paper flags wherever they are invoked. H1 provides executed component-level correlational evidence; H2–H5 are designed but not yet executed.