Search Results (478)

Background/Objectives: Previous research demonstrates higher sodium retention with increasing levels of dietary salt in some populations. Our objective was to determine whole-body sodium retention and sodium distribution on high and low salt diets using rodent models. Methods: Whole body retention of orally dosed Na-22, a gamma emitter, was measured in female growing and adult Sprague-Dawley rats on high (3.1% by wt. of diet) and low salt (0.13% by wt. of diet) diets. In a second study, whole-body sodium retention was compared between destructive inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectroscopy (ICP-OES) and neutron activation analysis (NAA) in adult male and female C57BL/6 mice. Results: Whole body retention of Na-22 was not different due to the age of rats on a high salt diet, but rats fed the high salt diet excreted Na-22 much more rapidly than rats fed a low salt diet. In mice, neither sodium retention nor tissue distribution was affected by dietary salt. Bland–Altman analysis indicated overall agreement between NAA and ICP-OES measurements, with observed systematic positive bias. Conclusions: Dietary salt had little effect on retention in normotensive rodents and should be studied in hypertensive models. Full article

As the world’s largest carbon emitter and one of the countries facing severe air pollution challenges, China is under growing pressure to promote coordinated carbon reduction and air pollution control in support of sustainable development. From the perspective of interprovincial trade-embedded emissions, this study examines the spatiotemporal evolution, regional heterogeneity, and driving mechanisms of the synergy between embodied carbon emissions and air pollution emissions across 30 provincial-level regions in China in the 2012–2017 period. The multi-regional input–output (MRIO) model and coupling coordination degree (CCD) model are used to measure embodied emissions and the synergy effect, while the stochastic impacts by regression on population, affluence, and technology (STIRPAT) and geographically and temporally weighted regression (GTWR) models are employed to identify the main driving factors and their spatiotemporal heterogeneity. The results show that the overall synergy index of embodied carbon and air pollution emissions in China showed an increasing trend, and provinces with high-quality coordination shifted southward. Low-carbon policy and technology development mainly acted as positive drivers, whereas air pollution reduction policy and energy intensity tended to exert inhibitory effects; the role of energy consumption was more conditional and stage-specific. These findings provide useful evidence for differentiated governance, coordinated air pollution and carbon reduction, and the green and low-carbon transition. Full article

In water-scarce regions such as Xinjiang, China, agricultural development is constrained not only by limited water resources but also by a strong reliance on water-saving irrigation technologies. Drip irrigation is a key measure for improving irrigation efficiency and promoting the sustainable development of water-saving agriculture. However, defects arising during the manufacture of labyrinth Drip emitters—the core components of drip irrigation systems—can undermine system reliability, leading to channel blockage and non-uniform irrigation. To tackle this issue, a defect detection approach is developed by integrating Digital Twin technology with an enhanced YOLOv8 model for online inspection of labyrinth Drip emitters on drip irrigation tape production lines. In parallel, a self-built dataset covering six defect categories is established. Supported by the DT framework, the standard YOLOv8 network is refined to strengthen its capability in identifying complex micro-defects. Specifically, DySnakeConv is introduced to better represent the curved and slender characteristics of labyrinth channels; DySample is incorporated to improve the reconstruction and representation of fine-grained details; an Efficient Multi-Scale Attention module is adopted to capture richer contextual information while suppressing background noise; and Inner-SIoU is applied to optimize the bounding-box regression process. Experimental results show that the model achieves 89.6% precision, 90.9% recall, and 93.9% mAP50. Compared with the baseline YOLOv8, precision, recall, and mAP50 are improved by 7.3, 3.9, and 3.3 percentage points, respectively. Under the same training conditions, the proposed model outperforms YOLOv10 and YOLOv11 in accuracy-related metrics. Specifically, compared with YOLOv11, precision, recall, and mAP50 are improved by 4.8, 5.0, and 2.6 percentage points, respectively; compared with YOLOv10, they are improved by 10.0, 7.7, and 7.3 percentage points, respectively. Meanwhile, the model maintains a lightweight size of 3.7 M parameters and a real-time inference speed of 150.2 FPS, demonstrating a favorable accuracy–efficiency trade-off. By extending manufacturing-level quality control to agricultural applications, the approach helps ensure uniform irrigation and improve water-use efficiency, providing practical technical support for precision agriculture in arid regions. Full article

A spatially resolved investigation of bacterial inactivation using a radiofrequency (13.56 MHz) capacitively coupled plasma (RF CCP) discharge operating in ambient air at 4.0 mbar is presented. The plasma was generated in a parallel-plate reactor without external gas precursors and characterized using Langmuir probe diagnostics and optical emission spectroscopy (OES). Electron densities on the order of 109 cm³ were measured near the powered electrode, exhibiting pronounced axial and radial gradients across the discharge volume. OES revealed strong excitation of oxygen- and nitrogen-containing emitters, including O I (777 nm), N₂ s positive system (337–380 nm), and N₂⁺ first negative system features, with emission intensities increasing monotonically with applied RF power. The bactericidal performance was evaluated using Escherichia coli American Type Culture Collection (ATCC) 11775 exposed at different axial and radial positions within the reactor. At a fixed exposure time of 60 s, the log₁₀ reduction increased nonlinearly with RF power, rising from 0.29 at 20 W to 0.81 at 40 W, followed by a sharp transition to the assay reporting ceiling (≥2.95-log₁₀ under the adopted half-count correction) at 50 W and above. Time-resolved measurements at 50 W demonstrated rapid inactivation kinetics, with measurable reductions occurring within 5–10 s and reaching the reporting ceiling within 60 s. In contrast, samples positioned at the chamber periphery or approximately 20 cm from the discharge center exhibited negligible inactivation, confirming strong spatial localization of the biocidal effect. These results identify a threshold-like operating regime in which increased discharge intensity produces rapid inactivation in the plasma core while remaining strongly position dependent. The findings establish medium pressure, air-based RF CCP as an efficient, gas-free, and spatially controllable platform for localized surface decontamination under non-thermal conditions. Full article

Gas-filled discharge capillaries are widely used in the field of plasma-based particle accelerators, due to their compactness, cost-effectiveness and versatility for different applications. Technological improvement of such plasma sources is necessary to enable high energy gain acceleration at the meter scale, as required for next-generation particle colliders and light sources. Beam quality preservation within such an acceleration length involves accurate tuning of the plasma properties. In particular, precise tailoring of the plasma density distribution is required to control the emittance growth of particle bunches during the acceleration process. In this context, this paper presents a scalable and versatile approach for the design of meter-scale discharge capillaries, aimed at achieving fine tuning of the plasma density distribution, with the possibility of locally controlling the density profile by acting on the source geometry. Forty-centimeter-long capillaries are designed using numerical fluid dynamics simulations and tested in a dedicated plasma module. Different arrangements of the gas inlets are tested, with their number and diameter varied, to assess the effect of the capillary geometry on the plasma properties. Plasma density measurements show that a higher number of inlets with variable diameter along the plasma formation channel provides an enhancement in the homogeneity of the electron plasma density distribution. Longitudinal density plateaus are observed along most of the plasma channel length, with a center-to-end density uniformity of up to 80%. The experimental results highlight the proposed approach’s capability to modulate the longitudinal plasma density distribution by acting on the capillary geometry, thus providing uniform density profiles over the meter scale, as required for plasma-based acceleration experiments. Full article

Non-invasive assessment of tissue water content is clinically relevant for edema detection, fluid management, and monitoring of local inflammation. In the short-wave infrared (SWIR), water exhibits strong absorption near 1450 nm with a secondary band near 1650 nm, enabling hydration-sensitive reflectance measurements. However, many SWIR systems rely on spectrometers or high-power broadband sources, limiting translation to compact or wearable platforms. We present a compact SWIR diffuse-reflectance probe built from small-form-factor components using four discrete LEDs (1450 nm and 1650 nm) and a single photodetector to acquire spatially resolved measurements at two source–detector separations (4.5 mm and 7 mm). Probe-geometry-matched Monte Carlo simulations were used to generate lookup tables relating reduced scattering to same-wavelength spatial ratios. A diffusion-based forward model was then used to perform a calibration-anchored water-fraction consistency analysis. Eight gelatin–Intralipid phantoms spanning two scattering conditions and formulation-defined water fractions were evaluated. Spatial-ratio signatures were repeatable and monotonic with nominal water fraction, yielding a mean absolute percent error of 1.55% and a maximum absolute percent error of 3.33% under absorption-consistent conditions. These results demonstrate the feasibility of compact SWIR ratio sensing for controlled hydration changes in tissue-mimicking phantoms and provide a modeling framework for future extension to unknown or in vivo samples. Full article

Background/Objectives: The healthcare sector, despite its mission to protect health, is a major consumer of resources and emitter of greenhouse gases, giving rise to an ethical and governance paradox: how to reconcile the duty of care with the environmental impact of its activities. In the Spanish healthcare system, which is highly decentralized and regulated at multiple levels, this tension shapes the implementation of environmental policies. This study analyzes the governance and implementation of environmental regulations in Spanish healthcare institutions and the associated experiences. Methods: A qualitative, exploratory, descriptive study was conducted using effective meetings and semi-structured interviews with 20 participants, working in healthcare provision and environmental management within health institutions, across different regions of Spain, between September 2024 and November 2025. In addition, a documentary analysis of relevant regulations was undertaken. Results: The results indicate that Spanish healthcare institutions improve their environmental performance through the implementation of standards such as ISO or EMAS, although their adoption varies according to each institution’s level of development in environmental management. In addition, differences were observed in the environmental dynamics of healthcare institutions, linked to the decentralization of the Spanish healthcare system, as well as administrative barriers to accessing funding and gender disparities in environmental leadership. Conclusions: The standardization of environmental regulations and measures across the country, along with strengthening organizational capacity, could strengthen progress toward more sustainable healthcare. Full article

Heavy-duty vehicles (HDVs) are major greenhouse gas emitters, and liquefied natural gas (LNG)-powered HDVs have emerged as a promising low-carbon alternative. However, their real-world emission performance and mitigation potential remain insufficiently studied, necessitating the characterization of LNG container trucks’ on-road CO₂ emissions via advanced sensing technologies. To characterize HDVs’ emission characteristics, real-driving emissions from China VI LNG and diesel-powered container trucks were measured employing portable emissions measurement systems (PEMS). The results reveal that high CO₂ emissions predominantly occur during low- to medium-speed acceleration and at speeds above 40 km/h with an acceleration exceeding 0.3 m/s² on highways, whereas emissions on port roads are more dispersed. A third-degree polynomial function fits emissions well with vehicle-specific power (VSP). Engine parameters mainly influence CO₂ emissions for LNG trucks, while VSP and acceleration significantly impact diesel trucks. The Random Forest model achieves superior prediction accuracy, particularly in highway scenarios, and significantly better CO₂ forecasting for LNG-powered trucks. These findings validate the effectiveness of PEMS-based sensing in characterizing low-carbon HDVs’ real-world emissions. The integration of multi-source sensor data and machine learning also provides a reference for intelligent sensing in transportation environmental monitoring. Full article

Insulated-gate bipolar transistor (IGBT) power modules suffer efficiency degradation at elevated operating junction temperatures. The thermal sensitivity of the collector–emitter saturation voltage (V_CEsat) induces thermal stress imbalance, constraining system efficiency and reliability. A multi-resistor cascade network model for carrier-storage trench-gate IGBTs (CS-IGBTs) is established. The simulation results agree with the measurements within 10% error. The model decomposes the temperature coefficient contributions of individual structural regions. Analysis reveals that the drift region resistance dominates the V_CEsat temperature coefficient. Based on this finding, a co-doping strategy is proposed through simultaneously increasing the doping concentration in the carrier-storage layer and P⁺ collector. This approach reduces the temperature sensitivity of carrier mobility in the drift region, thereby optimizing V_CEsat’s temperature sensitivity. For the fabricated 1200 V/40 A CS-IGBT, the V_CEsat temperature coefficient decreases from 2.38 mV/K to 1.76 mV/K over 300 K to 450 K, which represents a 25.4% reduction. The total switching loss at 450 K decreases from 9.32 mJ to 8.70 mJ, achieving a 6.7% improvement. This device-level optimization suppresses V_CEsat’s temperature sensitivity and switching losses, enhancing efficiency in high-temperature power module applications. Full article

The transport sector is among the largest final energy consumers and greenhouse gas (GHG) emitters in the European Union. Consequently, reducing energy-related externalities has become a central objective in the EU’s sustainability and decarbonisation policies. This study quantifies the disutility costs associated with energy consumption and emissions across major passenger transport modes—cars, buses, and trains—using a harmonised dataset encompassing 28 EU countries. To do so, a comprehensive disutility cost framework is established, integrating time losses, monetary costs, infrastructure requirements, noise, local air pollutants, and GHG emissions, and combining correlation, regression, and clustering analyses. The results indicate that car transport incurs the highest transport disutility costs, primarily due to congestion-related energy inefficiencies and GHG emissions. In contrast, rail transport demonstrates the lowest cost, energy- and emission-related disutilities across most EU countries. Bus transport represents an intermediate solution, providing lower emission intensity compared to cars but exhibiting higher energy-related disutilities than rail systems. The findings highlight that a modal shift toward rail- and bus-based transport systems can substantially reduce transport-related energy demand, emissions, and income expenses with transport cost at the EU level. While transport innovations and digitalisation may improve system efficiency, their benefits are unevenly distributed, suggesting that energy-focused transport policies should be complemented by measures to ensure inclusive access to low-emission mobility solutions. Full article

Short-lived nuclear systems with light to medium masses are showing halo phenomena in regions of the nuclear chart that were still unexplored when halo nuclei were discovered 40 years ago. We study these exotic systems with three-body models, including nucleon–nucleon correlations, with the aim of reproducing measurable properties like radii and electromagnetic transition strengths. On the nucleon-rich side, drip-line fluorine isotopes are showing clear signs of a halo structure. Recently, we proposed that ${}^{29}\mathrm{F}$ is a moderate two-neutron halo nucleus with a large radius and a strong B(E1) response to the continuum. The three-body model places it at the borders of the island of inversion, which is corroborated by new data. According to our models, the next interesting isotope, ${}^{31}\mathrm{F}$, also has large spatial extension due to p-wave components and enhanced B(E1) response, pointing to a speculative halo structure. On the proton-rich side, we have studied the ${}^{102}\mathrm{Sb}$ system, composed of a ${}^{100}\mathrm{Sn}$ core plus a proton–neutron-correlated subsystem. We find that the weakening of the proton–neutron correlations with respect to the bare deuteron indicates that this is a one-proton emitter. We propose that the presence of a resonant state and its decay might provide a crucial benchmark for this system. Full article

Erbium-165 (¹⁶⁵Er) is an Auger electron emitter with 7.2 electrons per decay and very few other emissions, making it an interesting candidate for Auger electron therapy. We present here a procedure for producing ¹⁶⁵Er by the ^natHo(p,n)¹⁶⁵Er nuclear reaction on a 16.5 MeV medical cyclotron. The target was prepared by pressing a Ho₂O₃:Al 1:1 (w/w) powder mixture on a Ag disc with a cylindrical depression in the center. With a 0.1 mm Nb foil in front, degrading the energy to 15 MeV, and water cooling at the back of the Ag disc, the target could withstand irradiation at currents up to 45 µA without showing any signs of damage. The beam tolerance of the target was also estimated by calculating the temperature and heat dissipation in the target via the numerical solution of the heat transport equations. For a 180 mg target, the production yield was 12.3 ± 1.9 MBq/µAh. The separation of two neighboring lanthanides is challenging, which led us to study the distribution coefficients for Er and Ho on commercially available LN2 resin for both HNO₃ and HCl eluents. Based on these values, we propose a purification procedure involving two successive LN2 columns for separating the ¹⁶⁵Er from Ho and Al, followed by a small TK221 column to concentrate the final eluate. No radionuclidic impurities were detected, and the chemical impurities found in the final formulation were traces of Ho, Er, Ca, Pb, and Fe. For three different chelators (DOTA, DTPA, and CHX-A″-DTPA), the effective molar activity of the final formulation was measured. The stability of the three complexes formed was also assessed upon incubation in mouse serum for 28 h. Full article

Rural transportation corridors remain weakly instrumented for continuous low-altitude airspace monitoring. At the same time, Vehicle-to-Everything (V2X) roadside units (RSUs) are increasingly deployed for transportation safety services. This work investigates whether existing RSUs can be extended with passive, cooperative RF sensing to detect small UAVs without modifying standards-compliant ITS communications in the protected 5.9 GHz band. A calibrated simulation study evaluates corridor-scale operation under realistic propagation conditions, including terrain masking and narrowband interference. All results reported in this paper are derived from simulation and do not include field measurements or hardware prototyping. False alarm performance under diverse ISM emitters is not quantified. The results show that cooperative processing across neighboring RSUs improves epoch-level verified detection coverage compared with single-RSU sensing. Bearing variability is reduced for weak or partially masked signals. These gains result from feature-level validation across spatially separated receivers rather than deterministic signal combining. RF calibration constrains detections to physically plausible kilometer-scale ranges. The resulting angular accuracy is sufficient for early warning and track initiation, but not for precise localization. Overall, the findings indicate that existing V2X infrastructure can support supplementary early warning capability for corridor-scale airspace monitoring while preserving primary V2X safety functions. Full article

Alpha spectrometry is a useful method for measuring alpha emitters in all types of samples and for all types of radioisotopes, both artificial and natural. The high activity concentration of TENORM industries’ by-products and their management are of great concern; however, due to the high activity and the complex matrixes of these types of wastes, there are overlaps between peaks and an acute activity determination can require a high consumption of time and material. To diminish it and obtain a proper activity evaluation, spectra deconvolution has been carried out using a genetic algorithm to fit the selected function to experimental data. This algorithm uses the analyst’s visualization of the observed experimental spectrum as a reference and adapts the fitting parameters to the observed peak. This gives the algorithm great capacity to adapt to different spectra obtained experimentally. The results of its application to different TENORM samples have been very satisfactory, including complicated multi-energetic alpha emitters such as Th-229. Full article

The sustained interest in efficient, low-cost, and straightforward-to-manufacture lasers has prompted intense research into organic semiconductor laser emitter materials in recent decades. The main focus of this research is determining the optical gains and losses of amplified spontaneous emission (ASE) in order to describe materials by their amplification signature. A method that has been used for decades as the standard technique for determining gain characteristics is the variable-stripe-length (VSL) method. The success of the VSL method has led to the development of further measurement techniques. These techniques provide a detailed insight into the nature of optical amplification. One such method is the scattered emission profile (SEP) method. In this study, we present an extension of the SEP method, the Diffracted Emission Profile (DEP) method. The DEP method is based on the detection of ASE by partial decoupling of waveguide modes diffracted by a one-dimensional grating integrated into a planar waveguide. Diffraction causes a proportion of the intensity to exit the waveguide, transferring the growth and decay process of the waveguide mode to the transverse mode profile of the diffracted mode. In the present article, an approach to determine the amplification signature of an organic copolymer is presented, utilizing partial decoupled radiation. Full article