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Article
Engineering
Aerospace Engineering

Ibrahim Ibrahim Birma

,

Fangyi Wan

Abstract: Composite wing structures are widely used in unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) because of their high specific strength and stiffness, but they are vulnerable to localized impact events such as tool drops, runway debris and small bird or drone strikes. In many aerospace applications, carbon fiber–reinforced polymers (CFRP) are preferred for their high stiffness and weight efficiency, although they tend to fail in a brittle manner and are expensive. E-glass fiber composites, on the other hand, are tougher and cheaper, but usually considered less competitive in stiffness and impact resistance. This study numerically investigates the impact resistance of optimized E-glass fiber composite UAV wing skins compared with aerospace-grade carbon fiber skins, both supported by balsa-wood cores. A 3D finite element (FE) model of a 600 mm semi-span UAV wing segment was developed in Abaqus/Explicit, with a user-defined VUMAT implementing an orthotropic elastic law and a Hashin-type progressive damage model. A rigid spherical impactor (radius 8 mm) with various mass velocity combinations (0.5 kg at 5000 and 10 000 mm/s, and 1.0 kg at 20 000 mm/s) was used to represent low, medium and high energy impacts. E-glass material sets were defined and gradually improved, within realistic mechanical limits derived from published E-glass/epoxy systems, until a “maximum experimental limit” E-glass configuration was obtained. This optimized E-glass wing skin was then compared with carbon-fiber configurations taken as benchmark aerospace. The comparison is based on peak contact force, penetration or non-penetration, absorbed energy, and damage extent in the skin and sub-structure. The study also proposes a coupon- and sub-component-level experimental programme to validate the numerical predictions using drop-weight impact tests on E-glass and carbon-fiber laminates and on a scaled UAV wing segment. These findings indicate that suitably engineered E-glass composites can be a viable, cost-effective alternative to carbon fiber for impact-resistant UAV wing structures.

Article
Public Health and Healthcare
Other

Erin E. Kishman

,

Shawn D. Youngstedt

,

Xuewen Wang

Abstract: Background/Objectives: There are limited data on the dynamic changes in daily composition of movement behaviors (sleep, moderate to vigorous physical activity; MVPA, light physical activity; LPA, and sedentary time; SED) and their associations with body weight in postpartum women. The purpose of this study was to examine associations of reallocating time in one behavior to an-other with body weight at different times in the first year postpartum. Methods: The study included 86 women who delivered a singleton infant at ≥ 37 weeks gestation. Physical activity and sleep were measured via actigraphy in early, mid, and late postpartum. Body weight was measured at each timepoint. Isotemporal substitution models were used to examine the association of reallocating ten minutes of one behavior (MVPA, LPA, SED, or sleep) to another on body weight. Results: Participants spent most of their day in SED (~52-53%), followed by sleep (~30%), LPA (~12-13%), and then MVPA (~2%) throughout the first year postpartum. In early and mid-postpartum, but not late postpartum, reallocating 10 minutes of MVPA to LPA, SED, or sleep was associated with lower body weight (Range: 3.07-4.03 kg lower). In early and late postpartum, reallocating 10 minutes of SED to LPA was associated with a lower body weight (4.03kg and 1.04kg, respectively). In participants who slept ≥ 7 hours per day, reallocating sleep to LPA in early postpartum, and MVPA time to LPA in mid postpartum was associated with lower body weight. In those who slept < 7 hours, no significant associations with body weight were found when reallocating time from one behavior to another. Conclusions: Encouraging LPA throughout the post-partum period may be beneficial for weight loss and having enough sleep may be especially important for early to mid-postpartum. Future research examining the impact of changes in LPA on body weight in the postpartum period are needed along with postpartum specific 24h-hour movement guidelines.

Interesting Images
Medicine and Pharmacology
Reproductive Medicine

Srinivas Kudavelly

,

Rama Raju GA

Abstract: Ultrasound is the primary imaging modality for evaluation of the scrotum and male reproductive tract. While high-frequency linear probes allow detailed assessment of testicular parenchyma, comprehensive visualization of epididymal anatomy and its spatial relationship to the testis may be limited using conventional two-dimensional imaging alone . This limitation is clinically relevant in the evaluation of male infertility, where epididymal abnormalities may contribute to obstructive processes We present a clinical image demonstrating a novel external scrotal application of a conventional three-dimensional (3D) transvaginal ultrasound probe. The images were obtained in an adult male undergoing infertility evaluation. With generous coupling gel and minimal probe pressure, the transvaginal probe was applied externally over the scrotum. High-resolution 2D images were first obtained, followed by volumetric 3D acquisition. The acquired dataset was analyzed using multiplanar reconstruction and volume-rendering techniques. This approach enabled clear visualization of the epididymal head, body, and tail, along with their anatomical continuity and relationship to the adjacent testis. The volume-rendered images provided an intuitive 3D depiction of epididymal curvature and spatial orientation, features that can be challenging to appreciate using standard linear scrotal ultrasound alone. Importantly, no patient discomfort, adverse effects, or technical complications were observed during the examination. This clinical image highlights the feasibility of repurposing a 3D transvaginal probe for external scrotal imaging to improve anatomical depiction of epididymal structures. While the technique is not intended to replace conventional scrotal ultra-sound, it may offer additional anatomical insight in selected infertility cases. This re-port serves as a hypothesis-generating illustration and supports further evaluation of its diagnostic utility in larger studies.

Article
Engineering
Bioengineering

Claudia Ferraris

,

Gianluca Amprimo

,

Gabriella Olmo

,

Marco Ghislieri

,

Martina Patera

,

Antonio Suppa

,

Silvia Gallo

,

Gabriele Imbalzano

,

Leonardo Lopiano

,

Carlo Alberto Artusi

Abstract: Axial postural abnormalities in Parkinson’s Disease (PD) are traditionally assessed us-ing clinical rating scales, although picture-based assessment is considered the gold standard. This study evaluates the reliability and clinical relevance of two markerless body-tracking frameworks, the RGB-D-based Microsoft Azure Kinect (MAK) and the RGB-only Google MediaPipe Pose (MP), using a synchronous dual-camera setup. Forty PD patients performed a 60-second static standing task. We compared MAK with three MP models (at different complexity levels) across horizontal, vertical, sagittal, and 3D joint angles. Results show that lower-complexity MP models achieved high congruence with MAK for trunk and shoulder alignment (ρ > 0.75), while the lateral view signifi-cantly improved sagittal tracking (ρ ≥ 0.72). Conversely, the high-complexity model introduced significant skeletal distortions. Clinically, several angular parameters emerged as robust metrics for postural assessment and global motor impairments, while sagittal angles correlated with motor complications. Unexpectedly, a more up-right frontal alignment was associated with greater freezing of gait severity, suggest-ing that static postural metrics may serve as proxies for dynamic gait performance. In addition, both RGB-only and RGB-D frameworks effectively discriminated between postural severity clusters. These findings demonstrate that MP models are a reliable alternative to RGB-D sensors for objective postural assessment in PD, facilitating the widespread application of objective posture measurements in clinical contexts.

Short Note
Computer Science and Mathematics
Algebra and Number Theory

K. Mahesh Krishna

Abstract: In 1992, Hudzik and Landes derived a breakthrough generalization of the triangle inequality for two nonzero elements in normed linear spaces, which was generalized to finitely many nonzero elements independently in 2006 by Dragomir and in 2007 by Kato, Saito and Tamura. We derive a non-Archimedean version of Hudzik-Landes-Dragomir-Kato-Saito-Tamura inequality.

Article
Biology and Life Sciences
Agricultural Science and Agronomy

João Vitor Soares Morais

,

Thayline Rodrigues de Oliveira

,

Ana Clara Marcelino de Moura

,

Sara dos Santos Nunes

,

Daniel Marques Pacheco

,

Jenilton Gomes da Cunha

,

Alexandre Igor Azevedo Pereira

,

Bruno Ettore Pavan

,

Luciana Barboza Silva

Abstract: Cowpea (Vigna unguiculata) is a crop of major socioeconomic importance in Northern and Northeastern Brazil, but its productivity is strongly constrained by infestations of the black aphid Aphis craccivora, which causes direct damage through sap feeding and indirect losses by transmitting plant viruses. Although insecticides are widely used, their intensive application raises concerns related to resistance development and environmental impacts. Silicon (Si) has been investigated as a sustainable alternative for enhancing plant resistance to biotic and abiotic stresses by strengthening structural barriers and activating biochemical defense pathways. This study evaluated the influence of silicon fertilization on the plant–insect interaction between cowpea genotypes and A. craccivora. Three bioassays were conducted under greenhouse and laboratory conditions to assess aphid preference among genotypes, the effect of silicon on insect attractiveness, and plant susceptibility with and without silicon supplementation. Rice husk biochar and a commercial silicon source were used as Si fertilizers. Although the landrace genotype accumulated higher silicon levels, this did not result in reduced aphid populations or mitigation of plant damage. A negative correlation was observed between silicon accumulation and chlorophyll content, suggesting silicon-associated physiological adjustments under herbivory stress. Overall, under the evaluated conditions, silicon application did not confer effective resistance against A. craccivora, indicating that its role in integrated pest management strategies for cowpea requires further investigation.

Brief Report
Medicine and Pharmacology
Pediatrics, Perinatology and Child Health

Jéssica H. Guadarrama-Orozco

,

María G. Mendoza-Martínez

,

Sergio E. Bautista-Téllez

,

Paola Yañez-Maldonado

,

Karina Mendoza-de la Mendoza-de-la-Vega

,

María F. Castilla-Peon

Abstract: Background/Objectives: Pediatric palliative care seeks to relieve suffering and im-33 prove the quality of life of children with severe conditions and their families. This pro-34 spective cohort study assessed changes in quality of life following enrollment in a pediat-35 ric palliative care program at a tertiary care center in Mexico and explored factors associ-36 ated with these changes. 37 Methods: Children with life-limiting or severe disabling conditions were followed 38 at baseline, 3 months, and 6 months. Quality of life was measured using the Pediatric 39 Quality of Life Inventory (PedsQL™) Cancer Module for oncologic patients and the Ped-40 sQL™ Family Impact Module for all families. Results: A total of 166 families completed the Family Impact Module questionnaires, 42 and 116 oncologic patients completed the Cancer Module. Mean children’s PedsQL Can-43 cer Module scores improved from 58.9 to 77.9, and family scores improved from 60.1 to 44 78.8 over six months (both p < 0.001). Families of oncologic patients and those residing 45 outside the Mexico City metropolitan area had lower baseline scores (adjusted differences 46 −9.84, 95% CI: −15.9 to −3.77; and −6.9, 95% CI: −12.38 to −1.44, respectively); however, the 47 latter group showed greater improvement over time. Survival varied by diagnosis, with 48 longer survival observed in children with neurologic or intracranial conditions. 49 Conclusions: The quality of life of families and of oncologic pediatric patients im-50 proved after enrollment in a specialist pediatric palliative care program in a middle-in-51 come setting. Equitable access should be ensured for families affected by chronic condi-52 tions, particularly those living beyond major urban areas.

Review
Computer Science and Mathematics
Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning

Deepshikha Bhati

,

Fnu Neha

,

Devi Sri Bandaru

,

Matthew Weber

,

Ishan Dilipbhai Gajera

Abstract: Large Language Models (LLMs) have become foundational to modern Artificial Intelligence (AI), enabling advanced reasoning, multimodal understanding, and scalable human-AI interaction across diverse domains. This survey provides a comprehensive review of major proprietary and open-source LLM families, including GPT, LLaMA 2, Gemini, Claude, DeepSeek, Falcon, and Qwen. It systematically examines architectural advancements such as transformer refinements, mixture-of-experts paradigms, attention optimization, long-context modeling, and multimodal integration. The paper further analyzes alignment and safety mechanisms, encompassing instruction tuning, reinforcement learning from human feedback, and constitutional frameworks, and discusses their implications for controllability, reliability, and responsible deployment. Comparative analysis of training strategies, data curation practices, efficiency optimizations, and application settings highlights key trade-offs among scalability, performance, interpretability, and ethical considerations. Beyond synthesis, the survey introduces a structured taxonomy and a feature-driven comparative study of over 50 reconstructed LLM architectures, complemented by an interactive visualization interface and an open-source implementation to support transparency and reproducibility. Finally, it outlines open challenges and future research directions related to transparency, computational cost, data governance, and societal impact, offering a unified reference for researchers and practitioners developing large-scale AI systems.

Article
Environmental and Earth Sciences
Environmental Science

Aleksandra Vujko

,

Nataša Perović

,

Vuk Mirčrtić

,

Adriana Radosavac

,

Darjan Karabašević

Abstract: Climate change increases uncertainty in agricultural production and rural livelihoods, encouraging farms to pursue diversification strategies that can buffer climate-related risks. At the same time, the growing use of digital and AI-based climate and decision-support tools raises questions about how the transparency of such information shapes farm-level adaptation. This study examines the relationships among AI transparency, climate awareness, decision confidence, agritourism diversification intention, and perceived farm resilience in climate-sensitive rural systems. Data were collected through in-person fieldwork conducted throughout 2025 among agritourism-oriented farm operators in two Serbian rural clusters: a Western mountain agritourism belt and an Eastern/Southeastern dry-stress zone. Using structural equation modeling, the analysis reveals a coherent pattern of positive associations across all modeled relationships. Higher perceived transparency of AI-based climate information is associated with stronger climate awareness, greater decision confidence, increased intention to diversify toward agritourism, and higher perceived farm resilience. Perceived farm resilience was most strongly related to agritourism diversification intention, underscoring diversification as a key adaptive pathway under climate stress. The findings highlight AI transparency as a critical informational precondition for adaptive decision-making and resilience building, with implications for farmer-centric digital tools and rural climate adaptation policy.

Article
Medicine and Pharmacology
Orthopedics and Sports Medicine

Hwee Wen Ong

,

Khairul Anwar bin Ayob

,

Siew Kit Choon

,

Virginia Hartono

Abstract: Background/Objectives: Obesity and type 2 diabetes are increasingly common among patients undergoing hip and knee arthroplasty and are associated with higher risks of prosthetic joint infection, impaired wound healing, and prolonged hospitalization. Dietary carbohydrate restriction has demonstrated benefits in glycemic control and weight reduction, but its feasibility and safety in the perioperative arthroplasty population remain underexplored. This pilot study evaluated the safety, feasibility, and short-term metabolic effects of a low-carbohydrate diet supported by WhatsApp-based meal photo-logging in patients undergoing total hip or knee arthroplasty. Methods: A retrospective cohort analysis was performed on 43 patients enrolled in a carbohydrate-restricted dietary programme between 2021 and 2024. Patients submitted photographs of all meals via WhatsApp with a minimum contact frequency of four times daily, enabling real-time feedback and medication adjustment. Anthropometric and metabolic parameters, including weight, BMI, HbA1c, renal function, and lipid profile, were assessed before and after the intervention. Results: Participants (mean age 69.12 ± 7.51 years) demonstrated significant improvement across several metabolic markers. Mean weight decreased by 5.74 kg (p &lt; 0.001), BMI by 2.26 kg/m² (p &lt; 0.001), and HbA1c by 0.72% (p &lt; 0.001). No episodes of severe hypoglycemia or perioperative discharge delays related to glycemic instability were observed. Renal function remained stable, with no significant change in eGFR (p = 0.442). Among patients with available lipid data, LDL-cholesterol and total cholesterol increased, while triglycerides showed a non-significant downward trend. Conclusions: A low-carbohydrate diet combined with high-frequency digital monitoring appears feasible and safe in an elderly arthroplasty population, achieving meaningful short-term improvements in weight and glycemic control without adverse renal or hypoglycemic events. The lipid changes observed warrant cautious interpretation. Larger prospective studies are needed to confirm the clinical impact of this approach and its relevance to perioperative optimization.

Article
Computer Science and Mathematics
Computer Science

Selvaprasanth P

Abstract: This paper proposes an innovative vision-language model (VLM) driven predictive platform that synergistically integrates swarm robotics coordination with post-quantum digital signatures to enable fully autonomous navigation for green vessels eco-friendly ships leveraging hybrid renewable propulsion systems such as biofuels, hydrogen fuel cells, and wind-assisted technologies. Traditional maritime navigation systems struggle with dynamic oceanic conditions, including unpredictable weather patterns, high-traffic congestion, and escalating cyber threats, which compromise supply chain efficiency and sustainability goals. The proposed framework addresses these challenges by deploying a multimodal VLM core that fuses real-time visual data from onboard LiDAR, infrared cameras, and radar with textual inputs from AIS (Automatic Identification System) broadcasts, satellite weather forecasts, and nautical charts. This fusion generates interpretable probabilistic predictions of future states, such as wave-induced trajectory deviations or collision risks, enabling proactive rerouting that minimizes hydrodynamic drag and emissions.Swarm robotics augments individual vessel autonomy through decentralized fleets of unmanned surface vehicles (USVs) that dynamically form protective convoys or scouting formations, optimizing collective energy use via bio-inspired particle swarm optimization conditioned on VLM outputs. To safeguard against quantum computing vulnerabilities inherent in classical RSA or ECC protocols, the platform embeds lightweight Dilithium or Falcon post-quantum signatures for authenticating sensor streams, cargo manifests, and inter-vessel commands, ensuring non-repudiation even under harvest-now-decrypt-later attacks. Validation occurs within high-fidelity maritime digital twins that simulate full-scale operations, incorporating computational fluid dynamics for vessel hydrodynamics and stochastic perturbations for resilience testing.Extensive simulations demonstrate transformative performance fuel savings exceed 38% via predictive eco-routing, collision avoidance precision reaches 97.2% in dense fog scenarios, and cryptographic overhead remains below 5% bandwidth utilization on edge-constrained USVs. Supply chain resilience improves markedly, with recovery time from simulated disruptions reduced by 52%, fortifying global logistics against climate volatility and geopolitical risks. This work pioneer’s end-to-end integration of VLMs, swarms, and quantum-safe primitives, laying a robust foundation for scalable, secure, and sustainable autonomous maritime ecosystems aligned with UN Sustainability Development Goals.

Article
Computer Science and Mathematics
Information Systems

Bowen Su

,

Xiaoping Chen

,

Yuehong Dai

,

Xiaobo Ma

Abstract: Considered the possible assembly malfunction in control loop, this paper researches the sliding mode observer(SMO) design for a linearized physical system with environmental disturbances and sensor faults in some constrained conditions on system structure, to set up the fault detection and isolation(FDI) scheme for system in the loop. On one hand, by utilizing the features of fault distribution, the coefficients of fault and disturbance in unobserved subsystem are canceled by state transform under the presumed conditions. Then SMO served in FDI for observable subsystem is constructed, where the convergence of observed error is verified by analysis on Lyapunov functions. On the other hand, for the general situation when fault and disturbance are distributed randomly, the coefficients of fault corresponding to unobserved states are canceled by imposing some similarity transforms on system matrix, such that a reconfigured SMO is designed to counteract and detect the fault in observable subsystem. Furthermore, using inequality transform, the convergence of observed error is shown to be bounded with oscillation, which is proved for the existence of disturbance. Finally, FDI scheme is applied and tested in a fixed-wing airplane system to validate the stability of SMO.

Article
Computer Science and Mathematics
Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning

Ade Kurniawan

,

Alya Maura Raditha

,

Nabila Anggita Putri

,

Olivia Meilinda Davtin Pesireron

,

Fika Irsandi Desvyanti

,

Joans Henky Servatius Simanullang

Abstract: Nighttime vehicle detection poses significant challenges due to reduced visibility, uneven illumination, and increased noise in low-light imagery. While deep learning approaches have achieved remarkable success in daytime scenarios, their application to nighttime conditions remains constrained by the scarcity of specialized datasets and the computational demands of existing architectures. This paper presents three primary contributions to address these challenges. First, we introduce the Low-light Vehicle Annotation Dataset (L-VAD), comprising 13,648 annotated frames captured exclusively during nighttime conditions across three vehicle categories: motorcycle, car, and truck/bus. Second, we propose TinyNight-YOLO, an ultra-lightweight detection architecture achieving competitive performance with only ∼1.0 million parameters—representing a 2.6× reduction compared to YOLO11- N and 26.4× reduction compared to YOLO11-L. Third, we provide a comprehensive benchmark evaluating ten model variants across YOLO11 and YOLOv12 families. Experimental results demonstrate that TinyNight-YOLO achieves F1-Score of 0.9207 and mAP@50 of 0.9474, representing only 1.44% accuracy reduction compared to models 2.6× larger, while outperforming YOLOv12-L (26.4M parameters) despite having 26.4× fewer parameters. Among full-scale models, YOLO11-L achieves the highest F1-Score (0.9486), while YOLO11-M attains superior mAP@50-95 (0.7271). The L-VAD dataset is publicly available at Mendeley Data (doi: 10.17632/h6p2w53my5.1), providing the research community with a dedicated resource for advancing nighttime vehicle detection. The proposed TinyNight-YOLO architecture enables practical deployment on resource-constrained edge devices while maintaining detection accuracy above 94% mAP@50.

Article
Physical Sciences
Other

Stuart John Anderson

Abstract: The challenging goal of equipping HF radars with a target classification ability has been pursued for many years, yet no satisfactory system-level methodology has been reported. This shortcoming severely limits the utility of radar information as, without knowing the nature of detected objects, there is little prospect of understanding the situation and tailoring a suitable response. In this paper, we present a framework within which a comprehensive approach to target characterization can be formulated. We proceed to explore a wide range of physical mechanisms whereby target information is impressed on HF radar echoes, illustrated with real data. The paper concludes with a commentary on the difficulty of integrating target classification, recognition and identification procedures with other radar tasks and resource management.

Article
Business, Economics and Management
Economics

Akhenaton Izu

Abstract: Although researchers document the political utility of cabinet reshuffles in African presidential systems extensively, they devote insufficient empirical attention to the trade-offs these reshuffles impose on economic performance. This paper delivers robust evidence that frequent ministerial changes inflict substantial, often underestimated costs on economic growth. The analysis draws on data from 19 African nations spanning 2006 to 2023 and applies a polynomial dynamic panel model, which uncovers a nonlinear relationship between cabinet stability and economic performance. Empirical estimates indicate that each cabinet reshuffle lowers annual GDP per capita growth by roughly 1.7 to 2.9 percentage points. The study further detects an inverted U-shaped relationship between ministerial tenure and economic outcomes. The Least Squares Dummy Variable Corrected (LSDVC) estimator reveals that ministers maximize economic growth at an optimal tenure of approximately 51.9 months (4.3 years). Beyond this threshold, moral hazard effects dominate the gains from accumulated experience. These results underscore a pivotal governance dilemma for African presidents: they must weigh the political benefits of cabinet reshuffles against their economic costs. The study thus advances insights into governance dynamics and economic performance in African settings.

Article
Chemistry and Materials Science
Biomaterials

Nikola Šimunić

,

Vladimir Tudić

,

Josip Hoster

,

Zvonimir Kralj

Abstract: Numerous studies show that the use of dental guides that rest on the patient's teeth improves the precision of implant placement, but the currently developed procedures and selected materials are still not perfect and could result in deviations from the planned implant position. The impact of the surgeon's hand force on the deformation of dental guides during implant placement has not yet been investigated or documented. In this study the behavior of the 3D guide model is evaluated by FEA analysis to validate the influence of the force of the surgical hand on dental guides due to their application. FEM simulation of deformation and stress was designed for four different types of dental guides that are supported on teeth for different ways of supporting the guide due to the action of the surgeon's manual force (chosen arbitrarily 30 N). The finite element simulation method performed on 5 sets of commonly used biocompatible polymer materials, Stratasys MED610 and VeroGlaze MED620, EOS PA2200, Formlabs FLSGAM01 and Stratasys ULTEM 1010, successfully numerically quantified the deformation of the dental guide caused by the surgeon's arbitrarily manual forces during manipulation. Based on the conducted analyses, guidelines were proposed for improving the design of guides, with an emphasis on optimal selection of supports, stability on the patient's anatomy, and reduction of deformations, thereby increasing the accuracy of implant placement. It was found for all four designs of dental guides that the deflection depends on the size of the arm, i.e. the distance of the support from the point of application of the force. As a result of the study, diagrams were created that serve as guidelines for the design of beam (A and A1) and cantilever (B and B1) versions of dental guides that rely on teeth. Guidelines for enhancing guide design were put out based on the analyses that were carried out, with a focus on the best choice of supports, stability on the patient's anatomy, and minimization of deformations in order to improve implant placement accuracy.

Hypothesis
Medicine and Pharmacology
Emergency Medicine

Patrick Bradley

Abstract: The current consensus model of sepsis is that it is a dysregulated host response to infection associated with severe organ dysfunction and failure. In 2023 the author proposed a new model of sepsis in that it was a physiological response and defence to infection that failed or became “dysregulated” particularly if the infection was overwhelming or there was a deficiency of thiamine and/or intracellular glucose to provide ongoing fuel for the immune response and/or mitochondrial production of adenosine triphosphate (ATP).This new model proposed that during sepsis, the immune system received priority access to available glucose, prompting insulin resistance that minimised glucose utilisation by less essential tissues. Concurrently, mitochondrial ATP production via oxidative phosphorylation (OXPHOS) was deprioritised, with the immune system relying on anaerobic glycolysis for ATP generation. This suppression of OXPHOS was only a temporary measure; mitochondrial ATP production had to be resumed for complete recovery. Its persistent suppression could culminate in critical ATP deficits and cell death.This paper reviews the consensus model of sepsis and evidence for the new model.It also reviews glucose, thiamine and insulin metabolism in sepsis and concludes that administering high-dose insulin alongside mild hyperglycaemia and intravenous thiamine—a pyruvate dehydrogenase kinase (PDK) inhibitor—may help restore physiological mitochondrial ATP production when administered during a crucial window in the sepsis process, potentially improving survival outcomes.The thrust of this new model may have been validated by a recent experiment on sepsis in mice that found superior survival following treatment with combined glucose and thiamine compared to antibiotics.

Article
Social Sciences
Anthropology

Luis Escobar L.-Dellamary

,

Celina Peinado Beltrán

Abstract: Professional practice in clinical and educational contexts frequently operates under a “naive realist” assumption: that professionals and subjects inhabit an identical world, accessible through standardized metrics. This presumes that the professional’s sensory capture constitutes an objective baseline rather than a specific, stabilized interface. We argue that no practitioner—particularly in mental health or education—can legitimately assume that their perceptual field equates to ontological reality. This error drives a systematic structural failure we term epistemic appropriation: the professional’s fundamental inability to conceive that the Other inhabits a legitimately different perceptual reality. Drawing on the Trace & Trajectory Framework (TTF) and Interface Theory of Perception, we provide formal tools to map what critical literature terms “minoritization” and “epistemic injustice.” Epistemic appropriation operates through three complementary manifestations: flattening (the dominant agent’s geometric collapse of the Other’s autonomous identity space into a marginal subset of their own navigational terrain); internalization (the subalternized agent’s coerced construction of self-access routes through dominant-compatible positions); and trajectorial refraction (resistance operations that disrupt the appropriation cycle—counter-exonymy and autonymy exemplify this mechanism). We model this asymmetry endogenously through an Asymmetry Function (gasym) that specifies how differential stabilization dynamics produce navigational inequality: massive institutional recurrence generates configurations whose elevated maintenance costs are collectively distributed and rendered phenomenologically invisible through mimetic naturalization, thermodynamically overwriting fragile autonomous trajectories that bear their full maintenance burden without collective support. Critically, intersubjectivity occurs not through shared ontological space but via transductive coupling—systematic correspondence between distinct navigational interfaces, where asymmetry resides not in the coupling mechanism itself but in the differential Transductive Coupling Costs imposed by exchange protocols and historically saturated semiotic patterns. This formalization distinguishes epistemic appropriation from internalized oppression, provides operational indicators for detecting these dynamics in professional practice, and makes implicit ontological erasure analytically tractable.

Essay
Computer Science and Mathematics
Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning

Yingyong Zou

,

Chunfang Li

,

Yu Zhang

,

Zhiqiang Si

,

Long Li

Abstract:

As a core component of mechanical equipment, the operational status of bearings directly determines equipment safety, making early fault diagnosis critically important. However, bearing vibration signals are susceptible to substantial noise interference and exhibit both nonlinear and non-stationary characteristics, rendering traditional single-mode diagnostic methods ineffective at extracting fault features. Therefore, this paper proposes a three-channel multimodal fault diagnosis network (M-CNNBiAM) integrated with a convolutional autoencoder (CAE). Based on a convolutional neural network (CNN) architecture, this network employs CAE for signal denoising, utilizes continuous wavelet transform (CWT) to construct time-frequency features, and incorporates dual enhancement modules: convolutional attention (CBAM) and window attention (S-W-MSA).On one hand, it extracts complementary features from the raw vibration signal and the wavelet transform frequency domain signal, fusing them at the channel dimension. On the other hand, it embeds Shifted Window Attention (SW-MSA) and Window Self-Attention (W-MSA) between convolutional layers to capture global-local features. Combined with CBAM to enhance fault location attention, it mitigates the vanishing gradient problem through residual connections, enabling the extraction of frequency domain features. To address the characteristics of one-dimensional time-series signals, a bidirectional gated recurrent unit (BiGRU) is introduced to collaborate with CNN for extracting temporal features. Experiments demonstrate that on the West China University public dataset and self-test dataset, M-CNNBiAM achieves an average diagnostic accuracy of 95.84% under -10dB high-noise conditions, outperforming comparative methods and validating its superior performance in complex noise environments.

Article
Social Sciences
Psychology

HyeonJeong Kwak

,

UnKyoung Ahn

Abstract: Background/Objectives: Suicidal ideation and non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI) represent major public health concerns among adolescents, yet developmentally appropriate, school-based interventions remain limited. This study reports findings from an explora-tory analysis of an early cohort of an ongoing randomized controlled trial evaluating Sandplay Therapy with Suicidal Ideation and Self-Injury–Focused Engagement (SPT-SAFE) compared with Treatment as Usual–Risk Management Counseling (TAU-RMC) in a school-based high-risk intervention setting. Methods: Adolescents aged 12–19 years presenting with suicidal ideation and/or NSSI were randomly assigned to SPT-SAFE (n = 31) or TAU-RMC (n = 30). Outcomes of interest were NSSI frequency, assessed using the Functional Assessment of Self-Mutilation (FASM), and suicidal ideation severity, assessed using the Suicidal Ideation Questionnaire–Junior (SIQ-JR). Prespecified baseline-adjusted analyses of covariance (ANCOVA) were conduct-ed as the primary analytic approach. Sensitivity analyses using linear mixed-effects mod-els (LMMs) were performed to examine outcome trajectories over time. Results: In the prespecified baseline-adjusted ANCOVA, suicidal ideation showed a be-tween-group difference favoring SPT-SAFE. For NSSI frequency, the between-group effect also favored SPT-SAFE but was small and did not reach conventional statistical signifi-cance. Sensitivity analyses using LMMs demonstrated directionally consistent patterns, with greater reductions over time observed in the SPT-SAFE group across outcomes. No serious adverse events were reported. Conclusions: Findings from this exploratory early cohort analysis suggest a preliminary and hypothesis-generating signal of benefit associated with SPT-SAFE in a school-based setting, characterized by directionally consistent patterns across complementary analytic approaches. Results should be interpreted as provisional pending completion of recruit-ment, longer-term follow-up, and further evaluation of comparative effectiveness, durabil-ity of treatment effects, and mechanisms of change.

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