Search Results (4,222)

This research addresses a gap in localized air quality assessments by measuring pollution levels in Klaipeda, a Baltic port city, using passive solid particle collectors and nitrogen dioxide (NO₂) diffusion tubes. Passive sampling techniques were employed due to their cost-effectiveness and ease of deployment, allowing for practical monitoring over short-term periods. By targeting diverse functional zones, this study aims to provide a comprehensive analysis of air pollution patterns and seasonal variations in the region. Air pollution, primarily from NO₂ and particulate matter (PM), poses significant risks to public health, especially in densely populated urban areas. Air quality was assessed by measuring total suspended particulates (TSP) and NO₂ concentrations across 19 strategically chosen sites, covering key functional zones, such as industrial areas, green spaces, residential neighborhoods, transport hubs, and the port. Results show elevated pollution levels near major roads and the port area, likely driven by heavy traffic, industrial emissions, and port activities. These patterns correlate with areas of higher population density, highlighting the intersection of air quality challenges with human health risks in urbanized zones. Seasonal data reveal a notable peak in NO₂ concentrations during winter, likely due to increased heating demand and reduced atmospheric dispersion. These findings suggest that air quality management strategies should be adaptive to seasonal fluctuations, particularly by addressing emissions from heating sources in colder months. The study underscores the necessity of integrating sustainable urban planning with targeted air quality interventions. Expanding green spaces, enhancing traffic regulation, and establishing protective zones near industrial areas are critical strategies for mitigating pollution. These insights are essential for guiding both urban development and public health policies in Klaipeda and other coastal cities facing similar environmental challenges. Full article

Living streets are places of high activity frequency in people’s daily lives, so it is particularly important to design the street space based on people’s perceived comfort. There is a paucity of quantitative studies conducted on street interface elements, as evidenced by an examination of existing studies. Accordingly, this study used a human factor experiment to ascertain the quantitative value of interface elements that engender a sense of visual comfort. This study used a simulation experiment of a life street scene, integrating wearable physiological sensors and a subjective evaluation scale, to analyze the impact of varying scene element values on participants’ perception. The findings indicate that distinct values of street interface elements exert markedly disparate effects on people’s perception. The interface transparency that elicits a more favorable response is approximately 40%, the store density is approximately 15, and individuals demonstrate a discernible inclination towards the street scene with warm colors and rich textures. Full article

The wild relatives of crops play a critical role in enhancing agricultural resilience and sustainability by contributing valuable traits for crop improvement. Shifts in climatic conditions and human activities threaten plant genetic resources for food and agriculture (PGRFA), jeopardizing contributions to future food production and security. Studies and inventories of the extant agrobiodiversity, in terms of numbers and distribution patterns of species and their genetic diversity, are primordial for developing effective and comprehensive conservation strategies. We conducted an ecogeographic study on Ipomoea species and assessed their diversity, distribution, and ecological preferences across different topographic, altitudinal, geographical, and climatic gradients, at a total of 450 sites across Mauritius. Species distribution maps overlaid with climatic data highlighted specific ecological distribution. Principal Component Analysis (PCA) revealed species distribution was influenced by geographical factors. Regional richness analyses indicated varying densities, with some species exhibiting localized distributions and specific ecological preferences while the other species showed diverse distribution patterns. Field surveys identified 14 species and 2 subspecies out of 21 species and 2 subspecies of Ipomoea reported in Mauritius. A gap in ex situ germplasm collections was observed and several species were identified as threatened. Further investigations and a more long-term monitoring effort to better guide conservation decisions are proposed. Full article

The ecosystems in the mountainous region of Southwest China are exceptionally fragile and constitute one of the global hotspots for wildfire occurrences. Understanding the complex interactions between wildfires and their environmental and anthropogenic factors is crucial for effective wildfire modeling and management. Despite significant advancements in wildfire modeling using machine learning (ML) methods, their limited explainability remains a barrier to utilizing them for in-depth wildfire analysis. This paper employs Logistic Regression (LR), Random Forest (RF), and Extreme Gradient Boosting (XGBoost) models along with the MODIS global fire atlas dataset (2004–2020) to study the influence of meteorological, topographic, vegetation, and human factors on wildfire occurrences in the mountainous region of Southwest China. It also utilizes Shapley Additive exPlanations (SHAP) values, a method within explainable artificial intelligence (XAI), to demonstrate the influence of key controlling factors on the frequency of fire occurrences. The results indicate that wildfires in this region are primarily influenced by meteorological conditions, particularly sunshine duration, relative humidity (seasonal and daily), seasonal precipitation, and daily land surface temperature. Among local variables, altitude, proximity to roads, railways, residential areas, and population density are significant factors. All models demonstrate strong predictive capabilities with AUC values over 0.8 and prediction accuracies ranging from 76.0% to 95.0%. XGBoost outperforms LR and RF in predictive accuracy across all factor groups (climatic, local, and combinations thereof). The inclusion of topographic factors and human activities enhances model optimization to some extent. SHAP results reveal critical features that significantly influence wildfire occurrences, and the thresholds of positive or negative changes, highlighting that relative humidity, rain-free days, and land use land cover changes (LULC) are primary contributors to frequent wildfires in this region. Based on regional differences in wildfire drivers, a wildfire-risk zoning map for the mountainous region of Southwest China is created. Areas identified as high risk are predominantly located in the Northwestern and Southern parts of the study area, particularly in Yanyuan and Miyi, while areas assessed as low risk are mainly distributed in the Northeastern region. Full article

Nano- and micro-sized vesicular and colloidal structures mediate cell–cell communication. They are important players in the physiology of plants, animals, and humans, and are a subject of increasing interest. We investigated the effect of three surfactants, N-cetylpyridinium chloride (CPC), sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS), and Triton X-100 (TX100), and two anionic polyelectrolytes, sodium polystyrene sulfonate (NaPSS) and sodium polymethacrylate (NaPMA), on nanoliposomes. In addition, the effect of SDS and TX100 on selected biological membranes (erythrocytes and microalgae) was investigated. The liposomes were produced by extrusion and evaluated by microcalorimetry and light scattering, based on the total intensity of the scattered light (I_tot), hydrodynamic radius (R_h), radius of gyration (R_g), shape parameter p (=R_h/R_g,0), and polydispersity index. The EPs shed from erythrocytes and microalgae Dunaliella tertiolecta and Phaeodactylum tricornutum were visualized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and analyzed by flow cytometry (FCM). The R_h and I_tot values in POPC liposome suspensions with added CPC, SDS, and TX100 were roughly constant up to the respective critical micelle concentrations (CMCs) of the surfactants. At higher compound concentrations, I_tot dropped towards zero, whereas R_h increased to values higher than in pure POPC suspensions (R_h ≈ 60–70 nm), indicating the disintegration of liposomes and formation of larger particles, i.e., various POPC–S aggregates. Nanoliposomes were stable upon the addition of NaPSS and NaPMA, as indicated by the constant R_h and I_tot values. The interaction of CPC, SDS, or TX100 with liposomes was exothermic, while there were no measurable heat effects with NaPSS or NaPMA. The SDS and TX100 increased the number density of EPs several-fold in erythrocyte suspensions and up to 30-fold in the conditioned media of Dunaliella tertiolecta at the expense of the number density of cells, which decreased to less than 5% in erythrocytes and several-fold in Dunaliella tertiolecta. The SDS and TX100 did not affect the number density of the microalgae Phaeodactylum tricornutum, while the number density of EPs was lower in the conditioned media than in the control, but increased several-fold in a concentration-dependent manner. Our results indicate that amphiphilic molecules need to be organized in nanosized particles to match the local curvature of the membrane for facilitated uptake. To pursue this hypothesis, other surfactants and biological membranes should be studied in the future for more general conclusions. Full article

Genetic variations and DNA modification are two common dominant factors ubiquitous across the entire human genome and induce human disease, especially through static genetic variations in DNA or RNA that cause human genetic diseases. DNA N6-methyladenosine (6mA) methylation, as a new epigenetic modification mark, has been widely studied for regulatory biological processes in humans. However, the effect of DNA modification on dynamic transcriptional genetic variations from DNA to RNA has rarely been reported. Here, we identified DNA, RNA and transcriptional genetic variations from Illumina short-read sequencing data in East Asian samples (HX1 and AK1) and detected global DNA 6mA modification using single-molecule, real-time sequencing (SMRT) data. We decoded the effects of DNA 6mA modification on transcriptional genetic variations in East Asian samples and the results were extensively verified in the HeLa cell line. DNA 6mA modification had a stabilized distribution in the East Asian samples and the methylated genes were less likely to mutate than the non-methylated genes. For methylated genes, the 6mA density was positively correlated with the number of variations. DNA 6mA modification had a selective effect on transcriptional genetic variations from DNA to RNA, in which the dynamic transcriptional variations of heterozygous (0/1 to 0/1) and homozygous (1/1 to 1/1) were significantly affected by 6mA modification. The effect of DNA methylation on transcriptional genetic variations provides new insights into the influencing factors of DNA to RNA transcriptional regulation in the central doctrine of molecular biology. Full article

Electrospun regenerated cellulose (RC) nanofiber membranes were prepared starting from cellulose acetate (CA) with different degrees of substitution. The process was optimized to obtain continuous and uniformly sized CA fibers. After electrospinning, the CA membranes were heat-treated to increase their tensile strength before deacetylation to obtain regenerated cellulose (RC). Affinity membranes were obtained by functionalization, exploiting the hydroxyl groups on the cellulose backbone. 1,4-Butanediol-diglycidyl ether was used to introduce epoxy groups onto the membrane, which was further bioconjugated with the anti-CD63 antibody targeting the tetraspanin CD63 on the extracellular vesicle membrane surface. The highest ligand density was obtained with an anti-CD63 antibody concentration of 6.4 µg/mL when bioconjugation was performed in carbonate buffer. The resulting affinity membrane was tested for the adsorption of extracellular vesicles (EVs) from human platelet lysate, yielding a very promising binding capacity above 10 mg/mL and demonstrating the suitability of this approach. Full article

The frequency of extreme wildfire events (EWEs) is expected to increase due to climate change, leading to higher levels of atmospheric pollutants being released into the air, which could cause significant short-term impacts on human health (both for the population and firefighters) and on visibility. This study aims to gain a better understanding of the effects of EWEs’ smoke on air quality, its short-term impacts on human health, and how it reduces visibility by applying a modelling system to the Portuguese EWEs of October 2017. The Weather Research and Forecasting Model was combined with a semi-empirical fire spread algorithm (WRF-SFIRE) to simulate particulate matter smoke dispersion and assess its impacts based on up-to-date numerical approaches. Hourly simulated particulate matter values were compared to hourly monitored values, and the WRF-SFIRE system demonstrated accuracy consistent with previous studies, with a correlation coefficient ranging from 0.30 to 0.76 and an RMSE varying between 215 µg/m³ and 418 µg/m³. The estimated daily particle concentration levels exceeded the European air quality limit value, indicating a potential strong impact on human health. Health indicators related to exposure to particles were estimated, and their spatial distribution showed that the highest number of hospital admissions (>300) during the EWE, which occurred downwind of the fire perimeters, were due to the combined effect of high smoke pollution levels and population density. Visibility reached its worst level at night, when dispersion conditions were poorest, with the entire central and northern regions registering poor visibility levels (with a visual range of less than 2 km). This study emphasises the use of numerical models to predict, with high spatial and temporal resolutions, the population that may be exposed to dangerous levels of air pollution caused by ongoing wildfires. It offers valuable information to the public, civil protection agencies, and health organisations to assist in lessening the impact of wildfires on society. Full article

Level 3 automated vehicles (L3 AVs) enable the driver to perform non-driving tasks, taking over in an emergency. In recent years, studies have extensively discussed the influencing factors of L3 AV takeovers. Extensive literature review shows that L3 AV takeovers are affected by human factors, traffic environment, and automatic driving systems. On this basis, this study proposes a conceptual framework of L3 AV takeovers. The main findings of this study include the following: (1) non-driving tasks, non-driving posture, individual characteristics, and trust have an impact on takeover behavior; (2) high traffic density, poor road geometry, and extreme weather have a negative impact on the takeover; (3) multimodal interaction design can improve collection performance. Although the existing research has made rich achievements, there are still many challenges. The influence of human factors on takeover performance is controversial, the quantification standard of takeover influencing factors is insufficient, and the prediction accuracy needs to be improved. It is suggested to refine the criteria of driver participation in NDRT, formulate an effective measurement standard of driver fatigue, and develop a takeover prediction model combining driver status and traffic environment conditions. It provides a research basis for the formulation of laws, infrastructure construction, and human–computer interaction design. Full article

This study presents a comprehensive flood vulnerability assessment for Freetown, Sierra Leone, spanning the period from 2001 to 2022. The objective of this research was to assess the temporal and spatial changes in the flood vulnerability using Geographic Information System (GIS) tools and AHP-based Multi-Criteria Decision-Making (MCDM) analysis. This study identified the flood-vulnerable zones (FVZs) by integrating critical factors such as the rainfall, NDVI, elevation, slope, drainage density, TWI, distance to road, distance to river, and LULC. The analysis reveals that approximately 60% of the study area is classified as having medium to high vulnerability, with a significant 20% increase in the flood risk observed over the past two decades. In 2001, very-high-vulnerability zones covered about 68.84 km² (10% of the total area), with high-vulnerability areas encompassing 137.68 km² (20%). By 2020, very-high-vulnerability zones remained constant at 68.84 km² (10%), while high-vulnerability areas decreased to 103.26 km² (15%), and medium-vulnerability zones expanded from 206.51 km² (30%) in 2001 to 240.93 km² (35%). The AHP model-derived weights reflect the varied significance of the flood-inducing factors, with rainfall (0.27) being the most critical and elevation (0.04) being the least. A consistency ratio (CR) of 0.068 (< 0.1) confirms the reliability of these weights. The spatial–temporal analysis highlights the east and southeast regions of Freetown as consistently vulnerable over the years, while infrastructure improvements in other areas have contributed to a general decrease in very-high-vulnerability zones. This research highlights the urgent need for resilient urban planning and targeted interventions to mitigate future flood impacts, offering clear insights into the natural and human-induced drivers of the flood risk for effective hazard mitigation and sustainable urban development. Full article

Mg metal vascular stents not only have good mechanical support properties but also can be entirely absorbed by the human body as a trace element beneficial to the human body, but because Mg metal is quickly dissolved and absorbed in the human body, magnesium metal alone cannot be ideally used as a vascular stent. Since the dense oxide Zn film formed by Zn contact with oxygen in the air has good anti-corrosion performance, the Zn nanolayer film deposited on the Mg matrix vascular scaffold by magnetron sputtering can effectively inhibit the rapid dissolution of Mg metal. However, there are few studies on the molecular dynamic structural defects of Mg-matrix Zn atomic magnetron sputtering, and the atomic level simulation of Mg-matrix Zn thin-film depositions can comprehensively understand the atomic level structural defects in the deposition process of Zn thin films from a theoretical perspective to further guide experimental research. Based on this, this research first studied and analyzed the atomic layer structure defects, surface morphology, surface roughness, atomic density of different deposited layers, radial distribution function, and residual stress of the thin-film deposition layer of 1500 deposited Zn atoms at the initial deposition stage, during and after deposition under Mg-matrix thermal layer 500K and a deposited velocity 5 Å/ps by molecular dynamics. At the same time, the effects of temperature and deposited velocity of the Mg-matrix thermal layer on the surface morphology, roughness, and biaxial stress of the deposited films were studied. Full article

Lactation in humans is complex. Understanding the cultural and biological patterns of human breastfeeding requires a global evolutionary analysis that includes observations of other primates. Human breastfeeding may have several specificities, but some features could be shared with other non-human primates. The purpose of this work is to determine what makes human breastfeeding unique from an evolutionary perspective. We consider behavioral as well as biological variables. Human and non-human primates share behavioral characteristics, such as the need to learn breastfeeding skills, and they display an adaptation of the energy density of the milk according to the type of mothering. However, despite having slow-growing, secondarily altricial offspring and rather diluted milk, modern humans spend less time breastfeeding than the great apes, and consequently have shorter interbirth intervals. Milk composition in macro- and micro-constituents changes during lactation, demonstrating evolutionary and ecological adaptation. Among the great apes, the milk of modern humans contains a higher proportion of fats, an equivalent proportion of carbohydrates and proteins, and a greater variety of oligosaccharides involved in brain and immune system development. The microbiome of modern man is less diverse than those of non-human primates, but the presence of HMOs and immunoglobulin A suggests that human milk is particularly adapted to prevent neonatal infections. Full article

Autonomous vehicles (AVs) are increasingly recognized for their potential to enhance urban traffic systems, particularly in traffic management and sustainability. This study explores AV integration into urban networks, focusing on transitions of control (ToC) and dedicated lane (DL) applications at varying AV penetration rates. Through simulations, various scenarios reveal the complex interactions between AVs and human-driven vehicles in mixed traffic conditions. The findings show that DLs can reduce local density, occupancy, and time loss by 5–35%, while improving travel time reliability by 15–25%. On an urban scale, DLs generally enhance traffic flow and reduce emissions, though the effects of ToC vary based on traffic conditions and AV automation levels. At lower AV penetration rates, ToC can lead to increased travel times and up to a 10% decline in traffic performance due to unpredictable human driver behavior during control transitions. The results highlight that DLs can significantly improve traffic flow, travel time reliability, and emissions, thereby contributing to sustainable urban mobility. However, the impacts of ToC are more complex, depending on specific traffic conditions and AV automation levels. This study emphasizes the importance of well-designed ToC and DL applications to optimize AV integration and support a balanced, sustainable future for urban mobility. Full article

Hydantoins, a class of five-membered heterocyclic compounds, exhibit diverse biological activities. The aim of this study was to synthesize and characterize a series of novel 3,5-disubstituted hydantoins and to investigate their antiproliferative activity against human cancer cell lines. The new hydantoin derivatives 5a–i were prepared as racemic mixtures of syn- and anti-isomers via a base-assisted intramolecular amidolysis of C-3 functionalized β-lactams. The enantiomers of syn-5a and anti-hydantoins 5b were separated by preparative high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) using n-hexane/2-propanol (90/10, v/v) as the mobile phase. The absolute configuration of the four allyl hydantoin enantiomers 5a was assigned based on a comparison of the experimental electronic circular dichroism (ECD) and vibrational circular dichroism (VCD) spectra with those calculated using density functional theory (DFT). The antiproliferative activity evaluated in vitro against three different human cancer cell lines: HepG2 (liver hepatocellular carcinoma), A2780 (ovarian carcinoma), and MCF7 (breast adenocarcinoma), and on the non-tumor cell line HFF1 (normal human foreskin fibroblasts) using the MTT cell proliferation assay. In silico drug-like properties and ADMET profiles were estimated using the ADMET Predictor ver. 9.5 and the online server admetSAR. Eighteen new 3,5-disubstituted hydantoins were synthesized and characterized. The compound anti-5c showed potent cytotoxic activity against the human tumor cell line MCF7 (IC₅₀ = 4.5 µmol/L) and the non-tumor cell line HFF1 (IC₅₀ = 12.0 µmol/L). In silico analyzes revealed that the compounds exhibited moderate water solubility and membrane permeability and are likely substrates for CYP3A4 and P-glycoprotein and have a high probability of antiarthritic activity. Full article

Exploring the interrelationships and influencing factors of the multifunctionality of cultivated land is crucial for achieving its multifunctional protection and sustainable use. In this paper, we take the Min River basin as a case study to construct a multifunctional evaluation system based on “agricultural production, social security, ecological service, and cultural landscape” using multi-source data. We analyze the spatial and temporal characteristics of the multifunctionality of cultivated land through kernel density estimation (KDE) and visual mapping. Subsequently, we assess the trade-off strength between the multifunctional aspects of cultivated land using the root mean square error (RMSD). Finally, we identify the drivers of the multifunctional trade-off intensity of cultivated land and analyze their influencing mechanisms using Geographic Detectors. The results show that (1) from 2010 to 2020, the multifunctional structure of cultivated land in the study area underwent significant changes: the levels of agricultural production, social security, and ecological service functions first increased and then decreased, while the levels of cultural landscape function and comprehensive function continued to increase. The spatial distribution is characterized, respectively, by “high in the east and low in the west”, “high in the west and low in the east”, “high in the north and low in the south”, “high in the whole and sporadically low in the northeast”, and “high in the middle and low in the surroundings”. (2) During the study period, the trade-off strengths related to social security functions increased, while the trade-off strengths of the remaining multifunctional pairs of cultivated land showed a weakening trend, with high values of trade-off strengths among functions particularly prominent in the Nanping Municipal District. (3) Both natural and human factors significantly affect the multifunctional trade-off strength of cultivated land. Among the specific factors, elevation, slope, average annual temperature, and per capita GDP are the key factors influencing the strength of the trade-offs between functions. The results of this study provide empirical support for enriching the understanding of the multifunctionality of cultivated land and offer a decision-making basis for promoting the differentiated management of cultivated land resources and the synergistic development of its multifunctionality. Full article