Abstract: Mesophytic conifers Abies sibirica and Pinus sibirica have responded both negatively and positively to the changing hydroclimatic regime. We studied the dependence of A. sibirica growth on the elevational climatic gradient and bark beetle Polygraphus proximus attacks in the Kuznetsk Ala‐Tau Mountains, Siberia. We applied in situ measurements, dendroecology, remote sensing, and GIS analysis. We found that fir growth was moderated by atmospheric (vapor pressure deficit, VPD) and soil (Palmer’s scPDSI index) dryness. Growth dependence on air temperature switched from negative at low elevations (below ca. 1000 m a.s.l.) to positive within the timberline and treeline ecotones (around 1300 m). At low elevations, fir has been experiencing chronic water stress together with heatwaves since the warming onset in the 1970s. Drought‐weakened trees became the food base for the P. proximus outbreaks. Fir responded to bark beetle attacks by xylem lignification and by creating a mechanic ‐ chemical barrier within its tree rings, consisting of rows of ducts filled with polyphenol‐containing resin. Fir mortality was observed mostly at low elevations and was located mostly on sunlit slopes with shallow rocky soils. Meanwhile, within the timberline and treeline ecotones, fir is increasing its growth and migrating uphill at a rate of ca. 2.3 m/year. The insect outbreak range is limited to ~1100 m a.s.l., whereas the insect species range coincides with that of A. sibirica (~1400 m). At high elevations, beetles feed on weakened and felled trees. Nowadays, P. proximus become the major threat to fir forests. Fir regeneration has mostly survived due to water stress mitigation by the overstory. Its vigor and abundance are sufficient for fir recovery within the majority of the damaged area. However, sparse fir stands, shrub and grass communities cover ca. 30% of the devastated stands. The predicted increase in water stress and heatwaves will trigger cycles of bark beetle outbreaks and fir mortality with a consequent shrinkage of the fir range in the lowlands.

Abstract: The Phaistos Disc is an undeciphered Minoan-era artifact bearing 242 stamped occurrences of 45 distinct signs. We test whether it encodes one or more protein sequences, with each sign representing an amino acid or post-translationally modified amino acid and the 45 signs mapping many-to-one onto the 20 canonical residues. We treat this as a substitution cipher using a pre-specified battery of methods. Map-invariant statistics disfavor the hypothesis: the disc is more repetitive than length-matched proteins, with a 15-sign exact repeat on Side A, and one sign occurs nineteen times, always in group-initial position, a confinement not observed for any amino acid. A Shannon unicity-distance calculation on Swiss-Prot shows that 242 signs are too few to identify a unique map from k-mer statistics. Simulated annealing fails to make the disc more protein-like than optimizer-matched nulls, and a known-plaintext attack against Swiss-Prot finds no decoding that beats a shuffled-disc null in any reading direction. Short stretches can be read as fragments of real proteins, from a woolly mammoth enzyme to a human topoisomerase, but the null predicts such matches by chance. We claim no decipherment and report effect sizes and p-values against matched nulls; the protein hypothesis is not supported.

Abstract: Numerous studies on non-Hermitian physics have remained confined to isolated exceptional points (EPs) and relied on complex parameters to analyze their physical characteristics [1–20]. Because manipulating such complex variables poses significant engineering constraints in real-world applications, recent efforts have focused on shifting the operational framework towards pure real-parameter spaces or continuous regimes [21–23]. To overcome these limitations, a recent study investigated a purely real-parameter passive system, successfully elucidating an L-surface where innumerable loci of EPs cluster together [24]. To demonstrate that this phenomenon is not an accidental occurrence but a generalized physical trait, we applied this framework to a three-degree-of-freedom semi-definite damped system, thereby establishing its systemic universality. Importantly, we discovered that the inertia of this bare primary mass acts as a critical topological switch: varying its scale governs whether the system coalesces into the L-surface or branches into alternative physical regimes. By treating this ungrounded mass as a key scaling parameter, we define the exact boundaries that map these diverse topological states. Given its high configurability, this framework opens up new avenues for multi-functional wave guiding, adaptive energy harvesting, and highly sensitive topological sensors, expanding the practical utility of non-Hermitian systems previously explored [24].

Abstract: Landfilling doesn’t eliminate waste. It is only a mechanism for temporarily storing waste, which means environmental issues continue to persist. Waste in landfills can pose serious risks to the environment and human health, including the emission of potent greenhouse gases such as methane, foul odours, leachate-contaminated groundwater, and the loss of circulating resources vital to a sustainable economy. Landfills are still being created globally, in addition to those that already exist. This alone is a valid reason for us to explore how we manage them, since their impact, both short and long term, can potentially generate a multitude of adverse consequences. Landfill mining (LFM) offers a method to reduce the risk of various contaminants entering the environment from landfills and to recover useful materials from discarded and buried waste. By shifting the view of landfills from waste storage to a source of resources, LFM can help reduce long-term environmental problems, support the circular economy, and change how society manages buried waste. The concept of Landfill Mining (LFM) has emerged as a possible solution to increasing issues in waste management, such as limited landfill space, pollution, and the need to rehabilitate sites. Early LFM projects mainly recovered small quantities of materials, such as soil and waste fuels, but encountered many obstacles, including technological constraints, high costs, and strict regulations, which made LFM less common. Recent research and technological advances suggest that LFM could achieve much more if the right conditions are met. With active enforcement of policies such as extended producer responsibility (EPR), government oversight, and improved material processing, LFM could scale to industrial levels, helping recover more resources and manage legacy waste. Clear guidelines for responsible waste management will be vital for ensuring this over the long term. LFM is not just a way to create value from waste; it also helps implement circular economy principles. This paper describes LFM as a form of ‘retrospective circular economy.’ LFM can transform old landfills into urban mines, converting buried waste into useful raw materials and helping society move towards sustainability.

Abstract: The dominant view of Graph Neural Network (GNN) expressive power is grounded in the Weisfeiler--Lehman (WL) graph isomorphism framework, motivating the development of architectures with increasingly strong isomorphism-discrimination capabilities. We argue that this perspective is problematic for graph node classification. First, when node features are heterogeneous, WL refinement no longer acts as a purely structural discriminator because feature information becomes entangled with topology. Second, structural distinguishability is neither necessary nor sufficient for correct classification: structurally equivalent nodes may require different labels, while structurally distinct nodes may share the same label. Third, even in topology-critical tasks, message passing implements a diffusion process constrained by graph structure rather than a procedure for isomorphism discrimination, so what such tasks require is sensitivity to structure or structure-feature interaction, not the capacity to distinguish non-isomorphic nodes. We therefore argue that isomorphism-testing ability is an inappropriate primary measure of GNN expressive power for node classification, and that future analyses should focus on task-relevant interactions between features, structure, and prediction objectives.

Abstract: Cardiovascular diseases (CVD) are the most prevalent cause of mortality globally, despite decades of targeted treatment of known risk factors including hypercholesterolemia. This review summarizes recent work on other lipids beyond cholesterol that may also contribute to CVD and serve as novel therapeutic targets. In particular, work on extracellular vesicles (EVs), which are membrane-delimited particles released by many cell types, suggests that lipid classes such as sphingolipids, phospholipids, and glycosylated lipids may equally contribute to CVD progression. EVs are particularly interesting due to their high biocompatibility, specific targeting, and diverse payloads. They enable intercellular communication through the transfer of lipids, proteins, and nucleic acids. Changes in EV composition are highly dependent on the cellular environment, potentially enabling their use as biomarkers. While most of the published body of work on EVs is focused on protein- and miRNA cargo, recent advances in metabolomic techniques enable the probing of changes in distinct EV lipid profiles associated with CVD. Herein, we summarize EV lipid work of the last five years that reaches beyond cholesterol and triglycerides and describe known lipid function in EVs and CVD. More research is needed to determine exactly how changing lipid loads of EVs impact the cardiovascular system, and how EVs and their selective lipid cargo may offer a novel approach for the treatment and diagnosis of CVD.

Abstract: Leaf senescence in perennial deciduous trees is a coordinated process linked to seasonal nutrient recycling, crucial for longevity and adaptation. Beyond transcriptional regulation, post-transcriptional mechanisms rapidly fine-tune gene expression and expand transcriptomic diversity. This review synthesizes emerging post-transcriptional regulatory networks governing woody plant leaf senescence. We highlight alternative splicing as a molecular switch, exemplified by PtRD26IR, an anti-aging variant that functions via dominant-negative inhibition of senescence-associated NACs. Additionally, we detail non-coding RNA (ncRNA) networks—including conserved miR164-NAC modules, miR390-tasiRNA-ARF cascades, and lncRNA/circRNA-mediated ceRNA sponging—that integrate hormonal and stress cues. We further explore epitranscriptomic dynamics (m6A, m1A, m5C) regulating mRNA stability and translation in leaf-color variants, along with PPR protein-mediated organellar RNA editing that preserves chloroplast and mitochondrial integrity during decline. Integrating these multi-layered pathways establishes a comprehensive framework for forest longevity and offers precision molecular targets for stress-tolerant, high-yield tree breeding.

Abstract: Background: Insomnia is common and transdiagnostic in psychiatric care. A prior analysis of this community outpatient cohort found that psychotropic medication complexity was associated with insomnia severity, but whether this association is uniform across diagnoses was not examined. We preregistered a moderation analysis to test whether mood disorder status, or sex, modifies the association between medication complexity and insomnia. Methods: Secondary analysis of cross-sectional, routinely collected data from 506 adult outpatients (analytic N = 502) at an Italian community mental health centre. The primary model regressed the Insomnia Severity Index (ISI) total score on medication complexity × mood disorder status (depressive and bipolar vs. other), adjusting for age, sex and education; it was preregistered on the OSF before any interaction model was estimated. Results: Medication complexity was associated with ISI overall (b = 1.54 per class, 95% CI 0.92–2.16). The medication complexity × mood interaction was not significant (b = −1.02, 95% CI −2.25 to 0.21, p = 0.103; ΔR² = 0.005) and did not indicate a clinically meaningful stronger association in mood disorders. Slopes were positive in both groups (non-mood 2.03; mood 1.01 ISI points per class). There was no sex × mood moderation (p = 0.98), and benzodiazepine prescription was independently associated with ISI (b = 1.82, p = 0.013). Conclusions: In community psychiatric outpatients, medication complexity is a robust, transdiagnostic marker of insomnia severity that is not amplified in mood disorders or by sex. These preregistered findings support routine insomnia screening across the caseload, regardless of diagnosis, with prescribing intensity, benzodiazepines in particular, flagging patients who merit closer assessment focused on sleep.

Abstract: Background: Continuous epidural analgesia is widely used for postoperative pain management in neonates and small-weight infants. Epidural catheters may be inserted via a caudal-threaded approach or by direct lumbar/thoracic placement; however, comparative data on placement success, clinical use, postoperative analgesic outcomes, and complications remain limited. This study compared these two epidural techniques in neonates and small-weight infants undergoing surgery.Methods: This retrospective observational cohort study included all neonates and infants admitted to the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit at UPMC Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh who underwent attempted epidural catheter placement between January 2018 and December 2024. Demographic and perioperative data were extracted from the electronic medical record. Outcomes included patient, surgical, and epidural characteristics, epidural medications, postoperative pain and sedation scores, opioid consumption, technical success of catheter placement, and epidural catheter complications. Results: A total of 104 patients underwent attempted epidural catheter placement; five procedures were unsuccessful in four patients, resulting in 100 successful epidural catheter placements (70 caudal-threaded and 30 direct lumbar/thoracic). Epidural catheter placement was successful in 96.2% of patients. Patient and surgical characteristics, postoperative pain and sedation scores, and opioid consumption were similar between groups. Direct lumbar/thoracic epidural catheter placement required longer procedure times. Patients in the direct lumbar/thoracic epidural group were more likely than those in the caudal-threaded group to receive a ropivacaine/clonidine infusion (47% vs. 4%; p < 0.001) and a programmed intermittent bolus of epidural infusion (60% vs. 3%; p < 0.001). The direct lumbar/thoracic group experienced more postoperative catheter-related complications than the caudal-threaded group (20% vs. 4%; p = 0.02), primarily catheter leakage requiring premature catheter removal. Conclusions: Caudal-threaded and direct lumbar/thoracic epidural catheters provided comparable postoperative analgesic outcomes in neonates and small-weight infants when placed by a Pediatric Acute Pain Service. Direct lumbar/thoracic epidural catheters were associated with a higher incidence of postoperative catheter leakage and premature catheter removal. These findings may help clinicians select the most appropriate epidural technique for postoperative pain management in this population.

Abstract: This article redefines risk in the financial sector, specifically concerning life insurance, by focusing on the behavioral determinants of stakeholder decisions. Under conditions of high information asymmetry, characteristic of credence goods, traditional qualitative models demonstrate significant cognitive gaps, failing to adequately address the mechanisms of building institutional trust. The primary objective of the article is to analyze the "authenticity gap," defined as the behavioral dissonance between an organization's declarative strategies (e.g., in the area of ESG) and the subjective perception of their credibility by clients. The study utilizes the Integrated Relational Service Quality (IRSQ) model, which serves as a tool for measuring behavioral risk, representing a further stage of development from the SERVQUAL model and the Customer Service Quality Index (WJOK). The IRSQ model enables the mathematical parameterization of cognitive dissonances that lead to the erosion of social capital. Based on empirical research conducted on a sample of 647 respondents, it was demonstrated that in the face of crises (including the COVID-19 pandemic), it is the behavioral dimension of relational quality that functions as a key moderator of institutional resilience. The results prove that the proactive use of IRSQ tools allows for the mitigation of greenwashing risk by addressing cognitive mechanisms of authenticity verification. The article provides novel evidence that, in the era of the information society, reputational risk management must be inextricably linked to a behavioral model of relational quality, thus constituting an essential element supporting the management of financial enterprises (property and life insurance). This study is a continuation of research [Przybytniowski, 2020, 2022, 2023, 2024, 2026]

Abstract: The degree of polarization is usually obtained from the coherency matrix or, equivalently, from the mean Stokes vector of a partially polarized optical field. Here, we adopt a complementary geometric viewpoint by representing normalized local Stokes vectors as random directions on the Poincaré sphere. When these directions are described by an effective unimodal von Mises–Fisher distribution, the concentration parameter gives a direct one-to-one description of the degree of polarization through the mean resultant length. This formulation does not define a new independent polarization observable. Instead, it gives the degree of polarization a rotation-invariant information-theoretic meaning, expressed in terms of directional concentration and angular disorder. Within this framework, we derive closed-form expressions for the differential entropy of the von Mises–Fisher distribution and for the Kullback–Leibler divergence between two directional polarization states. The symmetrized divergence further incorporates both differences in concentration and relative orientation on the Poincaré sphere. We also discuss the assumptions, range of validity, and limitations of the single-vMF model, particularly in relation to Gaussian-field statistics and to more general directional models needed for anisotropic or multimodal polarization fluctuations. Overall, this formalism establishes a model-based theoretical framework for entropy and divergence descriptors of unimodal directional polarization and suggests natural extensions toward mixtures of vMF, Bingham, or Kent distributions.

Abstract: Background/Objectives: In Brazil, its rates remain persistently high and disproportionate, highlighting severe racial and social inequities that predominantly affect the Black population. The objective is to analyze racial inequalities in maternal mortality in Brazil (2000–2023), identifying sociodemographic, regional, clinical and temporal patterns, with an emphasis on the impact on Black women. Methods: A retrospective population-based cohort study was conducted using data from Brazil's Mortality Information System between 2000 and 2023. A total of 40,907 maternal deaths among women aged 10–49 years were included. Maternal mortality ratios were calculated, and adjusted Poisson regression models were used to examine associations between maternal mortality and race/skin colour, age, education level and region of residence. Results: Black and Brown women accounted for 59.2% of maternal deaths and experienced a significantly higher risk of maternal mortality than White women, while Indigenous women had more than twice the risk. Lower educational attainment, residence in the North and Northeast regions, and maternal age ≥40 years were also independently associated with increased mortality risk. Direct obstetric causes accounted for 65.9% of maternal deaths, with hypertensive disorders and childbirth-related complications among the most frequent causes. The immediate postpartum period represented the highest-risk period, accounting for 47% of deaths. More than half of women had no more than primary-level education, and 50.3% were single. Conclusions: Maternal mortality in Brazil remains characterised by substantial racial, educational and regional inequalities. Indigenous, Black and Brown women, women with lower educational attainment, and those residing in the North and Northeast regions experienced disproportionately higher mortality risks. These findings highlight the need for targeted public health and maternity care interventions to reduce preventable maternal deaths and improve equity in maternal health outcomes.

Abstract: Background: Fournier's gangrene (FG) is a rare, rapidly progressive necrotizing soft-tissue infection associated with high mortality. Early identification of high-risk patients remains essential, but the comparative performance of prognostic scores and the impact of Sepsis-3 classification and malignancy status remain incompletely de-fined. Methods: We conducted a retrospective observational cohort study including 21 con-secutive adults with surgically confirmed FG treated at a tertiary referral center be-tween 2019 and 2025. Clinical characteristics, Sepsis-3 classification, malignancy sta-tus, and admission severity scores (FGSI, SFGSI, LRINEC, and NLR) were analyzed. Prognostic performance was assessed using ROC analysis, while associations with in-hospital mortality were evaluated using Fisher's exact test and Firth's bias-reduced logistic regression. Results: In-hospital mortality was 19.0% (4/21). FGSI showed the highest predictive accuracy (AUC 0.934), followed by SFGSI (AUC 0.919), while LRINEC performed well (AUC 0.860) and NLR showed limited discrimination (AUC 0.574). Confirmed Sepsis-3-defined sepsis occurred in 33.3% of patients and was strongly associated with mortality (57.1% vs. 0%; p = 0.006). Although 76.2% presented with confirmed or probable sepsis, all deaths occurred exclusively in patients with or-gan dysfunction. Metastatic malignancy was observed only in non-survivors and was significantly associated with mortality (100.0% vs. 10.5%; p = 0.029). No severity score correlated with hospital length of stay. Conclusions: FGSI and SFGSI demonstrated excellent prognostic performance. Sepsis-3-defined organ dysfunction and metastatic malignancy emerged as strong predictors of mortality, suggesting that their integra-tion into future prognostic models may improve early risk stratification and individu-alized management in patients with FG.

Abstract: Unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) swarms increasingly operate in GNSS-denied environments, where cooperative localization provides relative positioning by fusing onboard odometry with inter-agent range measurements, for which ultra-wideband (UWB) two-way ranging is a common infrastructurefree choice. Beyond accuracy, safe swarm autonomy needs a trustworthy measure of positioning uncertainty, since collision-avoidance and formation-keeping decisions derive their safety margins from the reported covariance. Under sustained agile flight, both are hard to achieve at once: motion within each time-division polling round induces a ranging bias well above the UWB noise floor, and reusing shared information across the network drives the reported covariance below the true error. To address these two problems jointly rather than in isolation, we propose a modular architecture coupling an online maximum-likelihood polynomial least-squares (MPLS) ranging front-end with a fading split covariance intersection (SCI) cooperative back-end through a per-link variance interface: online MPLS compensates the motion-induced bias and reports a calibrated, time-varying variance that fading SCI consumes as measurement noise while its continuous-time fading factor bounds the reused-information covariance. Monte Carlo simulation over anchored and anchor-free 16-node swarms shows the two effects to be empirically decoupled, with front-end ranging quality governing positioning accuracy and back-end correlation handling governing estimator consistency. The method attains sub-meter positioning accuracy in both settings and, without per-scenario tuning, keeps consistency—quantified by the average normalized estimation error squared (ANEES)—within a trusted band; comparably accurate extended Kalman filter and covariance-intersection baselines fall outside it, becoming overconfident and over-conservative, respectively. It thus delivers the trustworthy uncertainty that safety-critical swarm decisions require in GNSS-denied flight.

Abstract: This paper investigates hallucinations in large language models from the perspective of structured extraction, using prompt-based Semantic Role Labeling (SRL) as a controlled case study. SRL requires exact span boundaries and role assignments, while prompting constrained by rationales exposes the reasoning trace associated with each prediction. Our approach employs a DSPy-based pipeline with rule-grounded signatures to show that hallucinations in constrained extraction are systematic, rationale-associated, and thus amenable to targeted mitigation through signature design. Experiments on a representative subset of the CoNLL-2012 dataset show that hallucinations persist even under constrained settings and are systematically associated with failures of rule grounding. Because each prediction is required to cite a single governing rule, errors can be organized and aggregated at the rule level without necessitating additional classification. Leveraging these observations, we introduce a Rationale-Oriented (RO) optimizer that targets such failures by selectively rewriting the relevant parts of the signature. This process mitigates systematic failure modes and leads to measurable improvements in precision, recall, and F1 across multiple evaluation settings, using a representative subset of argument roles aligned with a 5W+1H schema and no model fine-tuning. Signature-perturbation experiments show that cited rules act as diagnostic proxies rather than per-instance causal explanations: the model's parametric priors also contribute to extraction. Even so, rule-level aggregation remains a reliable predictor of where errors occur. These findings suggest that hallucination in structured tasks is closely linked to failures in instruction grounding, and that rule-level feedback and refinement offer a framework for improving reliability in prompt-based systems.

Abstract: The present study was conducted to investigate the effect of dietary supplementation with the probiotic Zoovit LL – alone or combined with phytogenic additives – on bone mor-phometry and bone mineral composition in broiler chickens via computed tomography (CT) and bone mineral profile analysis. To this end, 180 day-old male ROSS 308 chicks were randomly divided in three groups: control (standard diet), experimental supple-mented with Zoovit LL probiotic (0.25%) and experimental supplemented with Zoovit LL probiotic (0.25%) combined with Silybum marianum, Urtica dioica and Taraxacum officinale phytogenic additives (1%). At the end of the trial period, femoral bone samples were col-lected for CT morphometric and densitometric analysis consisting of bone length, cortical thickness and radiodensity determinations. Also, sternum samples were obtained for ICP-MS analysis of the mineral bone composition (calcium, phosphorus and magnesium). The trial duration was 42 days, under controlled rearing conditions. The results showed statistically significantly lower femur length in the probiotic-supplemented group compared to the probiotic-herb group. Regarding the other studied morphometric param-eters, cortical bone density, cortical structural indices and bone mineral content, no statis-tically significant between-group differences were found. Bone density tended to be greater in supplemented groups, especially when the probiotic was co-administered with phyto-genic substances.

Abstract: Decades of progress in global sexual and reproductive health programming and data availability are threatened as over 80% of donor funding for family planning (FP) comes from governments that have announced significant cuts to Official Development Assistance. This commentary examines how FP2030 is adapting its Measurement Framework and annual reporting given uncertainty around the future of household surveys, such as the Demographic and Health Survey, and the loss of technical resources. FP2030 will pivot from reporting on 22 indicators to a “minimum set” of 15 priority indicators. FP2030 arrived at these recommendations through consensus built during a series of working meetings with its Performance Monitoring and Evidence Working Group (PME WG), a group of FP measurement experts. The 15 indicators leverage existing mathematical models and health management information systems (HMIS). Moreover, this commentary provides a complementary set of indicators that should be prioritized if new data collection opportunities arise. Ultimately, while FP2030 and the PME WG believe that models and HMIS data will become more essential, these tools cannot fully replace household surveys. Continued investment in FP data availability remains critical to ensuring the community can review data that protects the rights and needs of individuals through current programming.

Abstract: Recombinant AAV (rAAV) production in HEK293 cells has advanced through separate optimizations of individual intervention points: raising ATP levels, inhibiting the proteasome, suppressing apoptosis, or increasing Rep52/40 stoichiometry. However, when these results are considered together, each intervention produces counterintuitive trade-offs. This paper argues that these trade-offs are not anomalies but the expected behavior of a coupled system in which intracellular ATP serves as a shared control variable for three manufacturing outputs: particle yield, capsid integrity, and producer-cell longevity. I describe four mechanistic couplings that link ATP to these outputs. First, ATP directly fuels the Rep52/40 packaging motor, making the encapsidation rate sensitive to the cytosolic energy supply. Second, physiological millimolar ATP suppresses 26S proteasome activity in a biphasic, concentration-dependent manner, sparing nascent capsid precursors and Rep proteins (productive arm) while simultaneously stabilizing p53 and sensitizing cells to apoptosis (destructive arm). Third, proteasome suppression also spares the MRN replication-restriction complex, predicting a non-monotonic, window-shaped yield response to increasing ATP. Fourth, the apoptosis node receives at least three mechanistically distinct death inputs, none of which is fully addressed by single-branch interventions. From this coupling structure, the model makes five falsifiable commitments, each specifying experimental results that would challenge it. The framework re-derives recent trade-off findings in the field, including contradictory results from pan-caspase and HIF1α inhibition, as predictable outcomes of a constrained system rather than isolated anomalies. It further predicts that coordinated improvement in yield requires joint control of both the ATP set-point and the apoptosis node.

Abstract: Engineering laboratory pedagogy is often framed through binaries such as collaboration versus autonomy, structure versus flexibility, and in-person participation versus alternative modes of engagement. This exploratory mixed-methods study examines how these preferences coexist within individual students rather than treating them as mutually exclusive orientations. Data were drawn from an end-of-term self-reflection survey completed by 50 students in an undergraduate engineering laboratory course at a public university in the US. Closed-ended responses were analyzed through theoretically defined cross-classifications, descriptive comparisons, effect-size estimates, and exact tests, while open-ended responses were used to interpret the resulting preference configurations. The findings revealed substantial overlap among seemingly contradictory preferences. Among students who preferred structured, in-person laboratory sessions, 41.9% also expressed strong interest in greater spatial-temporal flexibility, while 46.5% rated temporal flexibility as highly important. Similarly, 51.1% of students who felt comfortable contributing in groups nevertheless perceived students who prefer working alone as disadvantaged. Students who frequently completed coursework outside standard hours were also especially likely to value temporal flexibility. These findings suggest that engineering students cannot be meaningfully divided into fixed categories of collaborative versus independent or traditional versus flexible learners. Instead, inclusive laboratory pedagogy may be better understood as a configurable learning ecology that preserves structure and social connection while providing meaningful autonomy, flexibility, and multiple pathways for participation.

Abstract: Background: Health literacy (HL), the ability to understand and apply health information, impacts pregnancy outcomes. While group prenatal care (GPC) models emphasize education and social support, no existing reviews evaluate its ability to improve HL relative to traditional prenatal care (TPC). This review aims to evaluate the evidence for GPC as a health literacy intervention compared to TPC. Methods: We searched MEDLINE (Ovid), CINAHL (EBSCOhost), Web of Science (Clarivate Analytics), Embase (Elsevier), APA PsycInfo (ProQuest), Cochrane Library (Wiley), CAB Abstracts (Ovid), and Global Health (Ovid) for peer‑reviewed studies. Eligible studies directly compared pregnant patients in GPC versus TPC, used randomized controlled trial, cohort, or pre–post designs, and assessed HL or shared decision‑making (SDM). No restrictions were applied based on age, risk level, language, or geographic location. We extracted and synthesized HL knowledge scores using the Cochrane RevMan web tool. Risk of bias was assessed using Cochrane RoB 2.0 and ROBINS‑I. Data were pooled using standardized mean differences, as appropriate. We quantified between-study heterogeneity using I2. Results: Eight studies met inclusion criteria, with substantial heterogeneity in design and HL measures. Among four randomized studies, the standardized mean difference was 0.31 points between GPC and TPC (p<.001; 95% CI: 0.24, 0.37; I²=0%). In four non‑randomized studies, women in GPC scored 1.36 points lower than those in TPC, with no statistically significant difference (p=.64; 95% CI: −1.37, 0.85; I²=97%). No studies assessed SDM. Conclusions: GPC is associated with improved HL compared to TPC, particularly in randomized designs, suggesting potential effectiveness as an HL intervention; however, additional high‑quality studies are needed.