Understanding soil loss pathways in karst regions is crucial for erosion control. Combining high-density measurements of grid points with runoff plot monitoring, we attempt to use a new indirect method to study the characteristics of soil loss in karst rocky desertification areas of Salaxi Town, Guizhou province. One cycle year monitoring data of 12640 grid points were applied in the soil loss analysis. This study identifies underground leakage as the primary pathway of soil loss, with an mean soil leakage of 21.51 kg in potential areas, accounting for 83.12%, and an average leakage of 22.69 kg in in mild karst rocky desertification areas accounting for 81.48%. Mixed vegetation types (forest, shrub, and grass) were better at preventing surface soil loss but increased underground leakage compared to single vegetation types. The rainy season significantly influences soil erosion, accounting for 67.88% of total loss, with slight variations among different karst rocky desertification grades and vegetation types. Mean underground leakage rates during the rainy and dry seasons are 63.34% and 36.66%, respectively. Although this method still has certain limitations, it plays a positive role in revealing the mechanism of soil erosion processes in karst regions. Full article

A co-curing resin system consisting of 9368 epoxy resin for prepreg and 6808 epoxy resin for resin transfer molding (RTM) was developed. A corresponding preparation method for a novel polymer composite bolted T-joint with internal skeleton and external skin was proposed based on the prepreg-RTM co-curing process, and novel T-joints were fabricated. A series of conventional configuration T-joints based on the RTM process and T-joints made of 2A12 aluminum alloy were prepared simultaneously. Bending performances were studied on these T-joints experimentally. The results indicate that 9368 epoxy resin and 6808 epoxy resin exhibit good compatibility in rheological and thermophysical properties. The novel T-joints prepared with the prepreg-RTM co-curing process show no obvious fiber local winding or resin-rich regions inside, and the interface quality between the internal skeleton and the external skin is excellent. The main failure modes of the novel T-joint under bending load include the separation of the skin and skeleton and the fracture along the thickness on the base panel; the skeleton carries the main bending load, but there is still load transfer between external skin and internal skeleton through their interface. The internal damages of the novel T-joint are highly consistent with surface damages observed visually, facilitating the detection and timely discovery of damages. The initial stiffness, damage initiation load, and ultimate load of the novel T-joint are 1.65 times, 5.89 times, and 3.45 times that of the conventional T-joint, respectively. When considering the influence of the density, the relative initial stiffness and relative ultimate load of the novel T-joint are 1.44 times and 2.07 times that of the aluminum alloy T-joint, respectively. Full article

A delicate balance between dissipative and nonlinear forces allows traveling waves termed solitons to preserve their shape and energy for long distances without steepening and flattening out. Solitons are so widespread that they can generate both destructive waves on oceans’ surfaces and noise-free message propagation in silica optic fibers. They are naturally observed or artificially produced in countless physical systems at very different coarse-grained scales, from solar winds to Bose–Einstein condensates. We hypothesize that some of the electric oscillations detectable by scalp electroencephalography (EEG) could be assessed in terms of solitons. A nervous spike must fulfill strict mathematical and physical requirements to be termed a soliton. They include the proper physical parameters like wave height, horizontal distance and unchanging shape; the appropriate nonlinear wave equations’ solutions and the correct superposition between sinusoidal and non-sinusoidal waves. After a thorough analytical comparison with the EEG traces available in the literature, we argue that solitons bear striking similarities with the electric activity recorded from medical conditions like epilepsies and encephalopathies. Emerging from the noisy background of the normal electric activity, high-amplitude, low-frequency EEG soliton-like pathological waves with relatively uniform morphology and duration can be observed, characterized by repeated, stereotyped patterns propagating on the hemispheric surface of the brain over relatively large distances. Apart from the implications for the study of cognitive activities in the healthy brain, the theoretical possibility to treat pathological brain oscillations in terms of solitons has powerful operational implications, suggesting new therapeutical options to counteract their detrimental effects. Full article

In patients with high-risk prostate cancer (HRPC) after radical prostatectomy (RP), biochemical recurrence (BCR) increases the risk of distant metastasis. Accordingly, additional prognostic biomarkers are required to identify the subpopulation of patients with HRPC who develop clinical recurrence (CR) after BCR. The objective of this study was to identify biomarkers in formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded (FFPE) RP samples that are prognostic for CR in patients with HRPC who experience BCR after RP (post-RP BCR). First, we performed a preliminary RNA sequencing analysis to comprehensively profile RNA expression in FFPE RP samples obtained from patients with HRPC who developed CR after post-RP BCR and found that many snRNAs were very abundant in preserved FFPE samples. Subsequently, we used quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) to compare the expression levels of highly abundant snRNAs in FFPE RP samples from patients with HRPC with and without CR after post-RP BCR (21 CR patients and 46 non-CR patients who had more than 5 years of follow-up after BCR). The qPCR analysis revealed that the expression levels of snRNA RNU1-1/1-2 and RNU4-1 were significantly higher in patients with CR than in patients without CR. These snRNAs were significantly correlated with clinical recurrence-free survival (RFS) in patients with HRPC who experienced post-RP BCR. Furthermore, snRNA RNU1-1/1-2 could serve as an independent prognostic factor for clinical RFS in post-RP BCR of HRPC cases where known prognostic factors (e.g., Gleason score) cannot distinguish between CR and non-CR patients. Our findings provide new insights into the involvement of snRNAs in prostate cancer progression. Full article

Background: To achieve zero leprosy cases in Santa Cruz, Bolivia, we designed a community-based active detection and provision of single-dose rifampicin post-exposure prophylaxis (SDR-PEP) to household contacts with new leprosy patients. Methods: From July to August 2021, we assessed the current knowledge, attitude, and practices through structured interviews and focus group discussions with community representatives and health staff. This was followed by sensitization sessions, the training of health staff, and the reinforcement of referral mechanisms. Teams, including health staff and community volunteers, visited all new leprosy patients detected in 2021–2023 and household contacts. Results: Among 115 community representatives, knowledge about leprosy etiology was attributed to non-biological factors (74%); fear accounted for 77%, and access to care was perceived as weak (74%), but the outlook was improved by SDR-PEP (80%). Among the 217 health staff interviewed, the programmatic barriers identified were a lack of referral feedback (67%), limited supplies for diagnosis and prevention, and ineffective training (64%). We visited 70 new patients and 258 household contacts. The median age in household contacts was 25 years old; 49% were women, 98% were eligible for SDR-PEP, and all who were eligible accepted it. Those who were non-eligible included one tuberculosis patient and six newly detected leprosy patients (23‰). Conclusions: A community-based intervention was successful in Santa Cruz, Bolivia. Misbeliefs and a lack of knowledge were identified as barriers. Programmatic components should be reinforced for SDR-PEP extension. Full article

A comprehensive study of the thermoelectric properties of CuCr_0.99Ln_0.01S₂ (Ln = La…Lu) disulfides was carried out in a temperature range of 300 to 740 K. The temperature dependencies of the Seebeck coefficient, electrical resistivity, and thermal conductivity were analyzed. It was found that the cationic substitution of chromium with lanthanides in the crystal structure of layered copper–chromium disulfide, CuCrS₂ resulted in notable changes in the thermoelectric performance of CuCr_0.99Ln_0.01S₂. The cationic substitution led to an increase in the Seebeck coefficient and electrical resistivity and a thermal conductivity decrease. The highest values of the thermoelectric figure of merit and power factor corresponded to the praseodymium-doped sample and an initial CuCrS₂-matrix at 700–740 K. The cationic substitution with lanthanum, cerium, praseodymium, samarium, and terbium allowed for an enhancement of the thermoelectric performance of the initial matrix at a temperature range below 600 K. The cationic substitution of CuCrS₂ with lanthanum and praseodymium ions appeared to be the most promising approach for increasing the thermoelectric performance of the initial matrix. Full article

Aquatic macrophytes like Salvinia sp. have rapid proliferation and a great capacity for ecological adaptation. In addition to these characteristics, this study points to their ability to adsorb contaminants such as dyes, metals, and oils. This work aims, through an adsorption study, to propose an alternative treatment using chemically modified Salvinia sp. (SOH) biomass to remove oil from water. Batch adsorption experiments were performed to observe the effects of concentration, pH, time, temperature, desorption, and reuse of the biomass. The adsorption mechanisms, performance, kinetics, isotherm, thermodynamics, and reusability of biomass were evaluated. Both adsorbents were well-defined by the Freundlich model isotherm. According to the results obtained, the q_max was 898.0 mg g⁻¹ for SOH in oil-in-salt water emulsion in 15 min and 930.59 mg g⁻¹ for Salvinia sp. in natura (SS) in the oil-in-water emulsion. In the fixed-bed column adsorption, the adsorption capacity was 2.99 g g⁻¹ for SS and 3.49 g g⁻¹ for SOH, and the saturation capacity was 42.89 g g⁻¹ SS and 42.99 g g⁻¹ SOH. According to the adsorption models, the Bohart–Adams model best fits the experimental data of this study. The SOH adsorbed oil recovery test was successful, with 100% oil recovery. Full article

Zinc finger-homeodomain transcription factors (ZF-HDs) are pivotal in regulating plant growth, development, and diverse stress responses. In this study, we found 8 ZF-HD genes in barley genome. Theses eight HvZF-HD genes were located on five chromosomes, and classified into ZHD and MIF subfamily. The collinearity, gene structure, conserved motif, and cis-elements of HvZF-HD genes were also analyzed. Real-time PCR results suggested that the expression of HvZF-HD4, HvZF-HD6, HvZF-HD7 and HvZF-HD8 were up-regulated after hormones (ABA, GA3 and MeJA) or PEG treatments, especially HvZF-HD6 was significantly induced. These results provide useful information of ZF-HD genes to future study aimed at barley breeding. Full article

Carbon xerogel spheres co-doped with nitrogen and eco-graphene were synthesized using a typical solvothermal method. The results indicate that the incorporation of eco-graphene enhances the electrochemical properties, such as the current density (J_K) and the selectivity for the four transferred electrons (n). Additionally, nitrogen doping has a significant effect on the degradation efficiency, varying with the size of the carbon xerogel spheres, which could be attributed to the type of nitrogenous group doped in the carbon material. The degradation efficiency improved in the nanometric spheres (48.3% to 61.6%) but decreased in the micrometric-scale spheres (58.6% to 53.4%). This effect was attributed to the N-functional groups present in each sample, with N-CNS-5 exhibiting a higher percentage of graphitic nitrogen (35.7%) compared to N-CMS-5 (15.3%). These findings highlight the critical role of sphere size in determining the type of N-functional groups present in the sample. leading to enhanced degradation of pollutants as a result of the electro-Fenton process. Full article

Chronic pain in the vulnerable phase of emerging adulthood is associated with severe life impairments. The current healthcare system has no suitable treatments for young people. A new multimodal inpatient and app-supported treatment for young people with chronic pain counteracts this. The study examines the effectiveness of this new treatment. Our mixed-methods design combined qualitative and quantitative evaluations. The sample comprised N = 44 patients (18–25 years) who took part in the new treatment. The quantitative data showed a reduced degree of pain severity, pain-related and emotional impairments, and an improved quality of life. The qualitative data showed that several components of the new treatment were particularly important to the young adults: individuality and taking the patient seriously, group therapy with peers, individual therapies (psychological, medical), life counselling, and sports. Results support the individual and objective success of a new inpatient pain treatment applied during emerging adulthood. Full article

As microbes develop resistance to various drugs, the treatment of infections becomes increasingly challenging, leading to prolonged illness, heightened severity of infections, elevated mortality rates, and increased healthcare costs. Essential oils are lipophilic and volatile mixtures of compounds that have gained attention in research for novel antimicrobial agents. Therefore, the present study evaluated the essential oil of Syzygium cumini leaves (EOSC) in order to prospect its antifungal and trichomonacidal activities. The essential oil from the leaves was extracted by steam distillation and analyzed by GC-MS. Antifungal activity was evaluated using the serial microdilution method. Additionally, the potential of the EOSC as an enhancer of fluconazole (FCZ) action was tested at subinhibitory concentrations. To assess anti-Trichomonas vaginalis activity, concentrations ranging from 15.6 to 500 μg/mL of EOSC were tested. Finally, the SwissADME platform was employed to analyze the physicochemical and pharmacokinetic characteristics of the major component of EOSC. The GC-MS analysis identified 94.24% of the components of EOSC, with α-pinene (51.11%) and nerol (8.25%) as major constituents. EOSC exhibited low antifungal activity against the evaluated Candida strains. However, the combination of EOSC and FCZ reduced the IC₅₀ against Candida krusei from 45.29 to 0.30 μg/mL. EOSC also demonstrated significant activity against T. vaginalis (IC₅₀ = 88.2 μg/mL). In silico prediction with α-pinene showed low toxic action and important physicochemical aspects for drug production. The essential oil of Syzygium cumini emerges as a promising candidate for the discovery of molecules with potential antifungal and anti-Trichomonas vaginalis applications. Full article

The predicted increase in demand for minor metals for modern technologies raises major concerns regarding potential environmental concentration increases. Among the minor metals, lithium (Li) is particularly noteworthy due to growing demand for battery production. Concerns have been raised about the impact on biota of increasing Li concentrations in the environment. To expand the knowledge of the effects of Li on plants, garden cress (Lepidium sativum L.), a model plant for ecotoxicity assay, was tested in a 72 h test in Petri plates. The results showed a stimulation effect of Li at the lowest concentration (Li chloride 10 mg L⁻¹) on seed germination and primary root elongation. Conversely, higher Li concentrations (50 and 150 mg L⁻¹) caused a progressive impairment in both parameters. A genotoxic effect of Li on root cells, evaluated through the alkaline comet assay, was observed at each concentration tested, particularly at 150 mg L⁻¹ Li chloride. Elemental analysis showed that Li accumulated in the seedlings in a dose–concentration relationship, confirming its ability to be readily absorbed and accumulated in plants. Given the likely increase in Li levels in the environment, further research is required to clarify the toxicity mechanisms induced by Li on growth and nucleic acids. Full article

Background: In Nigeria, most children with tuberculosis (TB) present at primary health clinics where there are limited personnel skilled in collecting appropriate respiratory specimens from those who cannot produce sputum. KNCV Nigeria, in collaboration with the National Tuberculosis Control Program, implemented a modified simple, one-step (SOS), stool-based Xpert MTB/RIF method for diagnosis of TB in children who cannot expectorate sputum. We evaluated the impact of its implementation on childhood TB diagnosis. Method: A cross-sectional study was conducted across 14 selected states using secondary data of children presumed to have TB. Stool was collected from children presumed to have TB and processed using Xpert. Result: Out of 52,117 presumptive TB cases, 52% were male and 59.7% were under 5 years old. A total of 2440 (5%) cases were diagnosed with TB, and 2307 (95%) were placed on treatment. Annual TB notifications increased significantly after the introduction of the stool-based Xpert test when compared to those in the pre-implementation period. Increasing contributions from stool testing were observed throughout the implementation period, except in 2020 during the COVID-19 era. Overall, stool Xpert testing improved childhood TB notification in the studied states. Interventions aimed at awareness creation, capacity building, and active case finding improved the performance of the test. Full article

In this paper, based on an Fe-based amorphous alloy, four kinds of RGO/Cu/Fe-based amorphous composite coatings with mass ratios of 5%, 10%, 15%, and 20% of RGO/Cu were prepared on the surface of 45# steel by using high-velocity oxy-fuel (HVOF) spraying. The coatings were immersed in simulated seawater at room temperature and at 90 °C for different lengths of time, and their corrosion resistance was tested using electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and X-ray diffraction (XRD), and the surface morphology and phase distribution of the samples were observed. The results showed that with the increase in the introduction ratio of RGO/Cu, when the addition ratio reached 15%, the composite coating had the best corrosion resistance. After soaking in simulated seawater at 90 °C for 18 days, the surface of the coating showed slight peeling and crack propagation, but no obvious pitting phenomenon occurred. The corrosion mechanism of the RGO/Cu/Fe coating in high-temperature seawater is mainly that high temperature causes the cracking of the coating, which opens up a transport channel for corrosion media. However, due to the addition of RGO, the corrosion has a certain self-limitation effect, which is mainly due to the toughening effect of RGO on the coating and its effect on extending the corrosion channel. Full article

Medical image diagnosis using deep learning has shown significant promise in clinical medicine. However, it often encounters two major difficulties in real-world applications: (1) domain shift, which invalidates the trained model on new datasets, and (2) class imbalance problems leading to model biases towards majority classes. To address these challenges, this paper proposes a transfer learning solution, named Dynamic Weighting Translation Transfer Learning (DTTL), for imbalanced medical image classification. The approach is grounded in information and entropy theory and comprises three modules: Cross-domain Discriminability Adaptation (CDA), Dynamic Domain Translation (DDT), and Balanced Target Learning (BTL). CDA connects discriminative feature learning between source and target domains using a synthetic discriminability loss and a domain-invariant feature learning loss. The DDT unit develops a dynamic translation process for imbalanced classes between two domains, utilizing a confidence-based selection approach to select the most useful synthesized images to create a pseudo-labeled balanced target domain. Finally, the BTL unit performs supervised learning on the reassembled target set to obtain the final diagnostic model. This paper delves into maximizing the entropy of class distributions, while simultaneously minimizing the cross-entropy between the source and target domains to reduce domain discrepancies. By incorporating entropy concepts into our framework, our method not only significantly enhances medical image classification in practical settings but also innovates the application of entropy and information theory within deep learning and medical image processing realms. Extensive experiments demonstrate that DTTL achieves the best performance compared to existing state-of-the-art methods for imbalanced medical image classification tasks. Full article

Colorimetric chemical sensing of target gases, such as hydrogen peroxide vapors, is an evolving area of research that implements responsive materials that undergo molecule-specific interaction, resulting in a visible color change. Due to the intuitive nature of an observable color change, such sensing systems are particularly desirable as they can be widely deployed at low cost and without the need for complex analytical instrumentation. In this work, we describe our development of a new spray-on sensing material that can provide a colorimetric response to the presence of a gas-phase target, specifically hydrogen peroxide vapor. By providing a cumulative response over time, we identified that part per million concentrations of hydrogen peroxide vapor can be detected. Specifically, we make use of iron chloride-containing formulations to enable the catalysis of hydrogen peroxide to hydroxyl radicals that serve to initiate polymerization of the diacetylene-containing amphiphile, resulting in a white to blue color transition. Due to the irreversible nature of the color change mechanism, the cumulative exposure to hydrogen peroxide over time is demonstrated, enabling longitudinal assessment of target exposure with the same coatings. The versatility of this approach in generating a colorimetric response to hydrogen peroxide vapor may find practical applications for environmental monitoring, diagnostics, or even industrial safety. Full article

Chile’s central-south region has experienced significant land use changes in the past fifty years, affecting native forests, agriculture, and urbanization. This article examines these changes and assesses their impact on native forest cover and agricultural land. Agricultural data for Chile (1980–2020) were obtained from public Chilean institutions (INE and ODEPA). Data on land use changes in central and south Chile (1975–2018), analysed from satellite images, were obtained from indexed papers. Urban area expansion in Chile between 1993 and 2020 was examined using publicly available data from MINVIU, Chile. Additionally, photovoltaic park data was sourced from SEA, Chile. Field crop coverage, primarily in central and southern Chile, decreased from 1,080,000 ha in 1980 to 667,000 ha in 2020, with notable decreases observed in cereal and legume crops. Conversely, the coverage of export-oriented orchards and vineyards increased from 194,947 ha to 492,587 ha. Forest plantations expanded significantly, ranging from 18% per decade in northern central Chile to 246% in the Maule and Biobío regions. This was accompanied by a 12.7–27.0% reduction per 10 years in native forest. Urban areas have experienced significant growth of 91% in the last 27 years, concentrated in the Mediterranean climate region. Solar photovoltaic parks have begun to increasingly replace thorn scrub (Espinal) and agricultural land, mirroring transformations seen in other Mediterranean nations like Spain and Portugal. Full article

In the actual working environment, most equipment models present nonlinear characteristics. For nonlinear system filtering, filtering methods such as the Extended Kalman Filter (EKF), Unscented Kalman Filter (UKF), and Cubature Kalman Filter (CKF) have been developed successively, all of which show good results. However, in the process of nonlinear system filtering, the performance of EKF decreases with an increase in the truncation error and even diverges. With improvement of the system dimension, the sampling points of UKF are relatively few and unrepresentative. In this paper, a novel high-order extended Unscented Kalman Filter (HUKF) based on an Unscented Kalman Filter is designed using the higher-order statistical properties of the approximate error. In addition, a method for calculating the approximate error of the multi-level approximation of the original function under the condition that the measurement is not rank-satisfied is proposed. The effectiveness of the filter is verified using digital simulation experiments. Full article

This study proposes a universal adaptive control algorithm for an unknown multi-input multi-output (MIMO) system using recursive least squares (RLS) and parameter self-tuning. The issue of adjusting the control and system parameters in response to changes in the platform was discussed. The development of a control algorithm that can consistently achieve reliable and robust control performance in various systems is important. This study aimed to develop a control algorithm that can track the reference value for any unknown MIMO system. For the controller design, an nth-order differential error dynamic model was designed, and an RLS with a scale factor was used to estimate the coefficients of the error dynamics. In the current scenario, the numbers of control inputs and error states in the error dynamics were assumed to be equal. It was designed such that the control input is derived based on the Lyapunov stability concept using the estimated coefficients. The scale factor in the RLS and injection term in the control input based on the sliding-mode approach were computed using a self-tuning methodology. The performance of the proposed universal adaptive control algorithm was evaluated using an actual DC motor and CarMaker (version 8.1.1) software tests under various scenarios. Full article