Search Results (300)

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is the most common cause of dementia worldwide, and there are still no strategies to slow or prevent its clinical progression. Significant financial and research resources have been invested into studying the pathology of AD. However, its pathogenesis is not fully understood. This review provides a comprehensive analysis of current understanding of AD pathogenesis, including classical hypotheses (amyloid cascade, tau pathology, neuroinflammation, oxidative stress), emerging mechanisms (cellular senescence, endoplasmic reticulum stress, ubiquitin-proteasome system dysfunction), and alternative mechanisms (cholinergic dysfunction, glutamate excitotoxicity, disruption of the microbiota–gut–brain axis, and autophagy). Schematic illustrations summarize the relationships between the hypotheses and their role in the pathogenesis of AD. Particular attention is paid to the systematization of promising biological targets and the analysis of modern ligands of various nature, including small molecules, peptides, antibodies and their fragments, natural compounds, as well as innovative hybrid and multifunctional structures. A separate section is devoted to radiopharmaceuticals for PET imaging (Florbetaben, Flortaucipir, etc.) and promising therapeutic agents. Thus, in this review we (1) systematize modern concepts of AD pathogenesis, including classical, emerging mechanisms and alternative hypotheses; (2) conduct a comparative analysis of ligand classes (small molecules, peptides, antibodies, etc.) and their therapeutic potential; and (3) discuss the clinical prospects of radiopharmaceuticals for PET imaging and targeted therapy. The work provides a comprehensive analysis of modern approaches, which can help in the development of more effective drugs against AD. Full article

The Olympic Games play a crucial role in shaping and promoting the host country’s national image and global perceptions. Nevertheless, limited scholarly attention has been devoted to examining how international media coverage of such events influences the perception of the host country abroad, particularly regarding major sporting events held in China. This study seeks to fill this gap by analyzing 50 China-related pieces of news from leading international publications covering the Opening and Closing Ceremonies of the 2022 Winter Olympics. Drawing from these selected news articles based on circulation metrics, this study employs a dual-level analytical framework from the perspectives of macro and micro discourses. The research integrates a corpus-assisted methodology with critical discourse analysis to systematically explore features of media headlines. We incorporate both keyword analysis and keyword-in-context approaches (KWIC) to reveal underlying patterns and meanings. Analysis of international media coverage during the Opening and Closing Ceremonies of the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics revealed distinct narrative patterns concerning Chinese diplomatic relations and leadership. The findings indicate that foreign media outlets devoted limited attention to the Olympic events themselves. Instead, they emphasized broader sociopolitical issues, particularly in portraying China as a country that overworks regional ethnic minorities and has human rights problems. In addition, General Secretary Xi’s presidential image emerged as intrinsically linked to China’s national image in international discourse. These insights offer valuable perspectives on China’s diplomatic positioning and suggest implications for future approaches to national image construction through major sporting events. Full article

The Zhag Cave in western Tibet, dated to the 11th to 12th centuries, features four walls fully adorned with images of the Thousand Buddhas of the Bhadrakalpa (Fortunate Aeon). According to the Tibetan inscriptions, the arrangement of the Thousand Buddhas creates a circumambulatory space for worship and confession, enabling practitioners to purify their sins. Four aspects of the Zhag Cave are comparable to those of Dunhuang. First, among the inscriptions is the Pratītyasamutpāda-gāthā, elaborated in the Śālistamba Sūtra, the Tibetan manuscripts of which have been unearthed in both western Tibet and Dunhuang. Second, the way of depicting Thousand Buddhas on four walls inside the cave could be found in earlier caves from the 5th to 6th centuries at Dunhuang. Third, the specific practice of only depicting the Bhadrakalpa Thousand Buddhas on the walls parallels similar caves from the mid-10th to early 13th centuries at Dunhuang. Fourth, the motifs depicted along the wall edges correspond with the prevalent themes found in the Bhadrakalpa Thousand Buddhas transformation tableaux during the 9th to 13th centuries, reflecting the apogee of Bhadrakalpa Thousand Buddhas devotion. These connections prompt us to think about the ways in which Western Tibet was part of the Silk Road network. I argue that this shared iconographic and ritual framework embodies the intertwined religious practices of the Dharma-ending Age (Mofa 末法) thought and Buddhist revival movements along the Silk Road, explaining these complex interconnections between the Zhag Cave and the Dunhuang relics within the broader context of religious beliefs and socio-cultural patterns. Full article

Object detection in single synthetic aperture radar (SAR) imagery has always been essential for SAR interpretation. Over the years, the saliency-based detection method is considered as a strategy that can overcome some inherent deficiencies in traditional SAR detection and arouses widespread attention. Considering that the conventional saliency method usually suffers performance loss in saliency map generation from lacking specific task priors or highlighted non-object regions, this paper is devoted to achieving excellent salient object detection in single SAR imagery via a two-channel framework integrating Bayesian inference and adaptive iteration. Our algorithm firstly utilizes the two processing channels to calculate the object/background prior without specific task information and extract four typical features that can enhance the object presence, respectively. Then, these two channels are fused to generate an initial saliency map by Bayesian inference, in which object areas are assigned with high saliency values. After that, we develop an adaptive iteration mechanism to further modify the saliency map, during which object saliency is progressively enhanced while the background is continuously suppressed. Thus, in the final saliency map, there will be a distinct difference between object components and the background, allowing object detection to be realized easily by global threshold segmentation. Extensive experiments on real SAR images from the Moving and Stationary Target Acquisition and Recognition (MSTAR) dataset and SAR Ship Detection Dataset (SSDD) qualitatively and quantitatively demonstrate that our saliency map is superior to those of four classical benchmark methods, and final detection results of the proposed algorithm present better performance than several comparative methods across both ground and maritime scenarios. Full article

Background: The literature shows that anterior communicating artery (AcoA) aneurysms are the most common intracranial aneurysms. To date, there has only been one postmortem study focused on the correlations between autopsy findings and imaging results in cases of intracranial aneurysms associated with anatomical variants of the circle of Willis (CW). Methods: We investigated the anatomical variants of the CW associated with the occurrence and rupture of AcoA aneurysms by performing comparative analyses, in the same patients, of postmortem autopsy data with antemortem computed tomography–angiography (CTA) results obtained in the first 48 h after the onset of subarachnoid hemorrhage. Our retrospective observational study identified the anatomical variants of the CW at autopsy in 16 deceased adult Romanian patients with AcoA aneurysms over a 12-year period (2010–2022). Results: The autopsy findings revealed that the AcoA ruptured aneurysms had a mean external diameter of 9.50 mm, and 71.4% of them presented three or four anatomical variants inside the same CW. The initial antemortem CTA examination correctly located the AcoA aneurysms in all cases (100%), and an anatomical variant of the CW was only noted in 18.75% of patients. The final postmortem re-analyzed the same CTA images identified in all cases (100%), focusing on both the AcoA aneurysm and all anatomical variants of the CW found during the autopsies. Conclusions: Although it was previously thought that the occurrence of AcoA aneurysms is related only to the hemodynamic changes induced by the nearby arterial anatomical variants, we identified the simultaneous involvement of at least one hypoplastic artery and one or two PCA fetal-type anatomical variants that were located in both the anterior and posterior parts of the CW. Furthermore, if sufficient time is devoted to the CT–angiography analysis and interpretation of the images, anatomical variants of the circle of Willis associated with AcoA aneurysms can be identified as accurately as they are in invasive postmortem autopsy examinations. Full article

The fibrillary aggregation of α-synuclein is a hallmark of Parkinson’s disease (PD) and a potential target for diagnostics and therapeutics. Although substantial effort has been devoted to the development of positron emission tomography (PET) probes for detecting α-synuclein aggregates, no clinically suitable tracer has been reported. The design and synthesis of 43 new N-(6-methoxypyridin-3-yl)quinolin-2-amine derivatives and an evaluation of their α-synuclein binding affinity is reported here. Compounds 7f, 7j, and 8i exhibited high affinity for α-synuclein and were selected for ¹¹C, ¹⁸F, ¹²⁵I, or ³H radiolabeling. A photoaffinity variant, TZ-CLX, structurally related to 7j and 8i, demonstrated preferential binding to the C-terminal region of α-synuclein fibrils. PET brain imaging studies using [¹¹C]7f, [¹⁸F]7j, and [¹¹C]8i in non-human primates indicated that these three α-synuclein PET tracers penetrated the blood–brain barrier. Both [¹¹C]7f and [¹⁸F]7j showed more favorable brain washout pharmacokinetics than [¹¹C]8i. In vitro binding assays showed that [¹²⁵I]8i is a very potent α-synuclein radioligand, with K_d values of 5 nM for both PD brain tissues and LBD-amplified fibrils; it is also selective for PD tissues versus AD or control tissues. These results strongly suggest that the PET probes based on the N-(6-methoxypyridin-3-yl)quinoline-2-amine scaffold have potential utility in detecting α-synuclein aggregates in vivo. Full article

The Flexible Combined Imager (FCI) instrument aboard the Meteosat Third Generation (MTG-I) geostationary satellite, launched in December 2022 and operational since September 2024, by providing shortwave infrared (SWIR), medium infrared (MIR) and thermal infrared (TIR) data, with an image refreshing time of 10 min and a spatial resolution ranging between 500 m in the high-resolution (HR) and 1–2 km in the normal-resolution (NR) mode, may represent a very promising instrument for monitoring thermal volcanic activity from space, also in operational contexts. In this work, we assess this potential by investigating the recent Mount Etna (Italy, Sicily) eruption of February–March 2025 through the analysis of daytime and night-time SWIR observations in the NR mode. The time series of a normalized hotspot index retrieved over Mt. Etna indicates that the effusive eruption started on 8 February at 13:40 UTC (14:40 LT), i.e., before information from independent sources. This observation is corroborated by the analysis of the MIR signal performed using an adapted Robust Satellite Technique (RST) approach, also revealing the occurrence of less intense thermal activity over the Mt. Etna area a few hours before (10.50 UTC) the possible start of lava effusion. By analyzing changes in total SWIR radiance (TSR), calculated starting from hot pixels detected using the preliminary NHI algorithm configuration tailored to FCI data, we inferred information about variations in thermal volcanic activity. The results show that the Mt. Etna eruption was particularly intense during 17–19 February, when the radiative power was estimated to be around 1–3 GW from other sensors. These outcomes, which are consistent with Multispectral Instrument (MSI) and Operational Land Imager (OLI) observations at a higher spatial resolution, providing accurate information about areas inundated by the lava, demonstrate that the FCI may provide a relevant contribution to the near-real-time monitoring of Mt. Etna activity. The usage of FCI data, in the HR mode, may further improve the timely identification of high-temperature features in the framework of early warning contexts, devoted to mitigating the social, environmental and economic impacts of effusive eruptions, especially over less monitored volcanic areas. Full article

Semantic segmentation of medical images holds significant potential for enhancing diagnostic and surgical procedures. Radiology specialists can benefit from automated segmentation tools that facilitate identifying and isolating regions of interest in medical scans. Nevertheless, to obtain precise results, sophisticated deep learning models tailored to this specific task must be developed and trained, a capability not universally accessible. Segment Anything Model (SAM) 2 is a foundational model designed for image and video segmentation tasks, built on its predecessor, SAM. This paper introduces a novel approach leveraging SAM 2’s video segmentation capabilities to reduce the prompts required to segment an entire volume of medical images. The study first compares SAM and SAM 2’s performance in medical image segmentation. Evaluation metrics such as the Jaccard index and Dice score are used to measure precision and segmentation quality. Then, our novel approach is introduced. Statistical tests include comparing precision gains and computational efficiency, focusing on the trade-off between resource use and segmentation time. The results show that SAM 2 achieves an average improvement of 1.76% in the Jaccard index and 1.49% in the Dice score compared to SAM, albeit with a ten-fold increase in segmentation time. Our novel approach to segmentation reduces the number of prompts needed to segment a volume of medical images by 99.95%. We demonstrate that it is possible to segment all the slices of a volume and, even more, of a whole dataset, with a single prompt, achieving results comparable to those obtained by state-of-the-art models explicitly trained for this task. Our approach simplifies the segmentation process, allowing specialists to devote more time to other tasks. The hardware and personnel requirements to obtain these results are much lower than those needed to train a deep learning model from scratch or to modify the behavior of an existing one using model modification techniques. Full article

Buddhist women in traditional China used embroidery—considered the most feminine art form—to produce images of deities, allowing them to visualize their religious aspirations while adhering to the decorum expected in Confucian society. This paper examines three Buddhist embroidery designs: one visualized in Avalokiteśvara (1619) and two from a catalog of embroidery designs titled A Collection of Scattered Red Clouds (mid-seventeenth century). By analyzing their similarity to the images found in popular illustrated publications of the seventeenth century, this study explores how Buddhist iconography circulated across different media. Through a comparative analysis of the embroidered works and woodblock prints featuring Buddhist deities such as Avalokitesvara and Bodhidharma, I demonstrate that seventeenth-century Chinese women embroiderers often utilized contemporary woodblock prints as models for their devotional embroidered works. The publications that supplied the models for the embroiderers vary from one for a pronounced ritual value—Dharani Sutra of White-robed One—to one that is fundamentally non-religious and educational—a painting manual titled Canon of Painting. This variety highlights the breadth of reading materials that reached the inner chambers of Chinese women, enabling them to engage with religious visual culture beyond their domestic confines and express their spiritual devotion through artistic means. Full article

Religious symbols and figures are gaining new life in popular culture. Reinterpretations of symbols rooted in the visual arts tradition are appearing in film, TV series and short audiovisual forms presented on the Internet, especially on social media. This also applies to angels, to which the author’s research would be devoted. This article discusses images of “secular angels”, decontextualized religious symbols, popularized throughout the 20th and 21st centuries in the visual media of Western culture. From the rich research material, the most characteristic images are selected for discussion and interpretation and subjected to interpretation in the spirit of discourse analysis. The images of modern “angels” in the texts of popular culture refer not so much to their biblical prototypes, but to the moral condition of man in consumerist, individualistic societies focused on living for pleasure. Film, TV series and Internet images of “angels” also show the controversies and social problems (such as racism) faced by contemporary Western societies. Full article

The widespread implementation of neural network tools for biometric authentication based on facial and iris images at critical infrastructure facilities has significantly increased the level of security. However, modern requirements dictate the need to modernize these tools to increase resistance to spoofing attacks, as well as to provide a base for assessing the compliance of the psycho-emotional state of personnel with job responsibilities, which is difficult to ensure using traditional monolithic neural network models. Therefore, this article is devoted to the development of a modular neural network model that provides effective biometric authentication for critical infrastructure personnel based on facial images, taking into account the listed requirements. When developing the model, an approach was used in which the functionality of each module was defined in such a way as to correspond to a task traditionally solved by a separate neural network model. This made it possible to use in each individual module a tested and accessible toolkit that has proven its effectiveness in solving the corresponding problem, which, in turn, compared to traditional approaches, allows for a 30–40% increase in the efficiency of the development and adaptation of authentication tools for the conditions of their application. Innovative features of the developed modular model include the ability to recognize spoofing attacks based on environmental artifacts and the naturalness of emotions, as well as an increase in the accuracy of person recognition due to the use of a U-Net neural network to highlight natural facial contours in occlusions. The experimental results show that the proposed model allows for a 5–10% decrease in person recognition error, recognition of spoofing attacks based on the naturalness of emotions and images of background objects, and recognition of the emotional state of personnel, which increases the efficiency of biometric authentication tools. Full article

The Autobiography of Saint Marguerite-Marie Alacoque recounts her many visions, ecstasies, and sufferings as she became God’s messenger, initiating the highly successful modern form of devotion to the Sacred Heart. Reading the Autobiography today is difficult, however. She constantly practices forms of obedience, self-control, and self-abuse that are offensive to today’s sensibilities. Her image of Jesus is as her “Master’ and “Sovereign” who desires and demands suffering on the part of those who love him. Her theology of the necessity of repairing God’s wounded honor by suffering is likewise outdated. Finally, the reliance of her message on visions does not inspire trust in an era that generally views visions as symptoms of pathology. This essay proposes that it is possible to discover authentic inspiration in the Autobiography by reading it with the help of several mediating theories. First, Hubert Hermans’ Dialogical Self Theory offers insight into traditional, modern, and postmodern styles of self-construction, thus situating Alacoque’s stories and practices within her time (at the cusp between traditional and modern styles) while offering a glimpse of how she can be understood within our time (at the cusp between modern and postmodern styles). Second, a historically contextualized eucharistic theology of embodied self-giving helps to see past the problematic elements of her theology. Finally, an ecotheological theory of visions suggests a way to understand her visions that may unveil their significance for our own time of crisis. Full article

The Münchberg Gneiss Complex (Central European Variscides, Germany) is separated by a deep-seated lineamentary fault zone, the Franconian Lineamentary Fault Zone, from its Mesozoic foreland. The study area offers insight into a great variety of landforms created by fluvial and mass wasting processes together with their bedrocks, covering the full range from unmetamorphosed sediments to high-grade regionally metamorphic rocks. It renders the region an ideal place to conduct a study of compositional and numerical geomorphology and their landscape-forming indices and parameters. The landforms under consideration are sculpted out of the bedrocks (erosional landforms) and overlain by depositional landforms which are discussed by means of numerical landform indices (LFIs), all of which are coined for the first time in the current paper. They are designed to be suitable for applied geosciences such as extractive/economic geology as well as environmental geology. The erosional landform series are subdivided into three categories: (1) The landscape roughness indices, e.g., VeSi_val (vertical sinuosity—valley of landform series) and the VaSlAn_alti (variation in slope angle altitude), which are used for a first order classification of landscapes into relief generations. The second order classification LFIs are devoted to the material properties of the landforms’ bedrocks, such as the rock strength (VeSi_lith) and the bedrock anisotropy (VaSlAn_norm). The third order scheme describes the hydrography as to its vertical changes by the inclination of the talweg and the different types of knickpoints (IncTal_lith/grad) and horizontal sinuosity (HoSi_lith/grad). The study area is subjected to a tripartite zonation into the headwater zone, synonymous with the paleoplain which undergoes some dissection at its edge, the step-fault plain representative of the track zone which undergoes widespread fluvial piracy, and the foreland plains which act as an intermediate sedimentary trap named the deposition zone. The area can be described in space and time with these landform indices reflecting fluvial and mass wasting processes operative in four different stages (around 17 Ma, 6 to 4 Ma, <1.7 Ma, and <0.4 Ma). The various groups of LFIs are a function of landscape maturity (pre-mature, mature, and super-mature). The depositional landforms are numerically defined in the same way and only differ from each other by their subscripts. Their set of LFIs is a mirror image of the composition of depositional landforms in relation to their grain size. The leading part of the acronym, such as QuantSan_heav and QuantGrav_lith, refers to the process of quantification, the second part to the grain size, such as sand and gravel, and the subscript to the material, such as heavy minerals or lithological fragments. The three numerical indices applicable to depositional landforms are a direct measurement of the hydrodynamic and gravity-driven conditions of the fluvial and mass wasting processes using granulometry, grain morphology, and situmetry (clast orientation). Together with the previous compositional indices, the latter directly translate into the provenance analysis which can be used for environmental analyses and as a tool for mineral exploration. It creates a network between numerical geomorphology, geomorphometry, and the E&E issue disciplines (economic/extractive geology vs. environmental geology). The linguistics of the LFIs adopted in this publication are designed so as to be open for individual amendments by the reader. An easy adaptation to different landform suites worldwide, irrespective of their climatic conditions, geodynamic setting, and age of formation, is feasible due to the use of a software and a database available on a global basis. Full article

This work is devoted to the hyperbolic sine function (HSF) control-based finite-time bipartite synchronization of fractional-order spatiotemporal networks and its application in image encryption. Initially, the addressed networks adequately take into account the nature of anisotropic diffusion, i.e., the diffusion matrix can be not only non-diagonal but also non-square, without the conservative requirements in plenty of the existing literature. Next, an equation transformation and an inequality estimate for the anisotropic diffusion term are established, which are fundamental for analyzing the diffusion phenomenon in network dynamics. Subsequently, three control laws are devised to offer a detailed discussion for HSF control law’s outstanding performances, including the swifter convergence rate, the tighter bound of the settling time and the suppression of chattering. Following this, by a designed chaotic system with multi-scroll chaotic attractors tested with bifurcation diagrams, Poincaré map, and Turing pattern, several simulations are pvorided to attest the correctness of our developed findings. Finally, a formulated image encryption algorithm, which is evaluated through imperative security tests, reveals the effectiveness and superiority of the obtained results. Full article

This paper is devoted to numerical algorithms based on harmonic transformations with two goals: (1) face boundary formulation by blending techniques based on the known characteristic nodes and (2) some challenging examples of face resembling. The formulation of the face boundary is imperative for face recognition, transformation, and combination. Mapping between the source and target face boundaries with constituent pixels is explored by two approaches: cubic spline interpolation and ordinary differential equation (ODE) using Hermite interpolation. The ODE approach is more flexible and suitable for handling different boundary conditions, such as the clamped and simple support conditions. The intrinsic relations between the cubic spline and ODE methods are explored for different face boundaries, and their combinations are developed. Face combination and resembling are performed by employing blending curves for generating the face boundary, and face images are converted by numerical methods for harmonic models, such as the finite difference method (FDM), the finite element method (FEM) and the finite volume method (FVM) for harmonic models, and the splitting–integrating method (SIM) for the resampling of constituent pixels. For the second goal, the age effects of facial appearance are explored to discover that different ages of face images can be produced by integrating the photos and images of the old and the young. Then, the following challenging task is targeted. Based on the photos and images of parents and their children, can we obtain an integrated image to resemble his/her current image as closely as possible? Amazing examples of face combination and resembling are reported in this paper to give a positive answer. Furthermore, an optimal combination of face images of parents and their children in the least-squares sense is introduced to greatly facilitate face resembling. Face combination and resembling may also be used for plastic surgery, finding missing children, and identifying criminals. The boundary and numerical techniques of face images in this paper can be used not only for pattern recognition but also for face morphing, morphing attack detection (MAD), and computer animation as Sora to greatly enhance further developments in AI. Full article