Browse Articles

Defining the Reversible Limit of Anionic Redox via Interlayer Li Ordering

Physician behavior for “invisible” treatment; Korean herbal medicine doctor’s treatment covered by auto insurance

Background This study examines healthcare utilization patterns and provider behavior under auto insurance coverage in South Korea. We investigate whether the significant growth in insurance claims for Korean Herbal Medicine (KHM) is driven by clinical necessity or supply-side structural incentives, such as physician-induced demand. Methods We analyze the utilization gap between Conventional Medicine (CM) and Korean Herbal Medicine (KHM) using cross-sectional secondary data from the Korea Health Panel (KHP). The decomposition method developed by Chernozhukov et al. (2013) allows for the decomposition of differences across the entire distribution of medical visits and length of stay (LOS), distinguishing between patient characteristics and provider-side factors. Results The results indicate that the higher utilization of KHM services is primarily attributable to structural factors rather than patient endowments. In the upper deciles of outpatient visits, structural effects accounted for over 100% of the observed difference, suggesting that provider-side incentives are the dominant driver of high-utilization outliers. Similarly, prolonged hospitalization in the KHM sector was largely unexplained by patient characteristics and remained robust after controlling for patient demographics. Conclusions The observed disparities suggest that structural incentives within the KHM sector may influence provider behavior and utilization patterns differently than in the CM sector. While these findings are consistent with the theoretical framework of supply-side inducements, further research incorporating direct clinical severity measures is needed to establish definitive causal links. These results show the need for policy interventions targeting reimbursement structures to enhance the efficiency of auto insurance healthcare delivery.

Data-Driven Interrogation of Reactivity in Acid-Catalyzed Carbonyl–Olefin Metathesis with Machine Learning and Large Language Models

DG-LSTM-SA model: A deep gated LSTM network with self-attention mechanism for power generation and load forecasting

Accurate forecasting of power generation and load demand is essential for the reliable operation of modern energy systems. Traditional recurrent neural networks (RNNs) often struggle to capture long-term dependencies in complex power time series, whereas recent Transformer-based models can introduce substantial computational overhead. To address these limitations, we propose a Deep Gated Long Short-Term Memory network with Self-Attention (DG-LSTM-SA). The proposed model combines a multi-layer gated architecture with hierarchically embedded self-attention modules, enabling it to adaptively emphasize informative time steps and capture complex temporal patterns without a prohibitive increase in parameters. We evaluated DG-LSTM-SA on three real-world energy datasets (NEPOOL, Yichang, and Solar-Energy). The results demonstrate that DG-LSTM-SA consistently outperforms ten baseline models. Compared with standard RNN variants such as LSTM and GRU, DG-LSTM-SA substantially reduces forecasting errors, decreasing Mean Absolute Error by more than 75%. Furthermore, relative to state-of-the-art attention-based models (e.g., Informer and Crossformer), DG-LSTM-SA achieves competitive accuracy while maintaining a distinct advantage in computational efficiency and training speed. Comprehensive ablation studies further confirm that the proposed design is robust, accurate, and practical for real-world grid dispatch and operational decision-making.

Observation of Superconductivity above 200 K in Pressure-Stabilized Cubic (Y,Ce)H ₁₀

Promoting psychological crisis coping through physical activity: The mediating roles of rumination and emotion regulation among college students

This study examined the associations between physical activity and crisis coping among college students, with a particular focus on the potential mediating roles of rumination and emotion regulation strategies, including expressive suppression and cognitive reappraisal. A total of 1,033 Chinese college students (615 males, 418 females; aged 17–23 years, M = 20.30, SD = 1.59) completed self-report questionnaires. Structural equation modeling was used to test the proposed mediation and chain mediation models. The results indicated that physical activity was associated with both adaptive and maladaptive dimensions of crisis coping. In addition, significant indirect associations were observed through rumination, expressive suppression, and cognitive reappraisal. Two chain-mediated pathways involving rumination and emotion regulation strategies were also supported. Together, these findings suggest that rumination and emotion regulation are relevant psychological processes linking physical activity with crisis coping. This study contributes to a more nuanced understanding of how physical activity relates to crisis coping by highlighting the roles of cognitive and emotional regulation processes. The findings may inform the development of physical activity–based approaches that consider both cognitive and emotional factors in supporting college students’ mental health.

Engineering Interfacial Hydrogen-Bond Networks to Accelerate Lattice Oxygen Regeneration for Stable Oxygen Evolution Catalysis

A study of trends and projection of life expectancy and its association with socio-demographic index: Results from GBD study 2023

Background Life expectancy (LE) serves as a central indicator of population health, reflecting the combined effects of social, economic, and demographic factors. Despite global improvements, substantial disparities persist across regions and development levels. This study aims to analyze temporal and spatial trends in life expectancy at birth (LEB) and assess its relationship with the Socio-Demographic Index (SDI) from 1960 to 2023, with projections to 2050. Methods LE data for 190 countries from 1960 to 2023 were obtained from Our World in Data, while the SDI, reflecting overall social and economic development, was derived from GBD data. Joinpoint regression models were used to estimate annual and average annual percentage changes (APC, AAPC) across countries, regions, and SDI groups. Correlation analyses assessed the strength of association between LEB and SDI. Future trends were projected using a Bayesian Age-Period-Cohort (BAPC) model, generating estimates up to 2050 with 95% credible intervals. Results Global LE increased steadily from 1960 to 2023, with an overall AAPC of 0.58%. Despite this progress, large regional and socio-demographic gaps persist. Lower-SDI and low-income regions exhibited faster relative growth but greater fluctuations, whereas higher-SDI regions demonstrated slower yet stable improvement. The correlation between LEB and SDI remained strong throughout the study period (r = 0.82–0.90). Projections from the BAPC model indicate continued increases in LE, from 73.6 years in 2025 to 82.8 years in 2050, although uncertainty widens toward mid-century, reflecting potential divergence in global health trajectories. Conclusion LE has improved globally but remains uneven across socio-demographic contexts. Strengthening social and economic systems, expanding equitable healthcare access, and integrating SDI-based evidence into policy frameworks are essential to sustain progress toward health equity and longevity through 2050 and beyond.

Correction: Clinical outcomes in hospitalized patients with community-acquired pneumonia: A comprehensive analysis of associated factors

Survival following sublobar resection after neoadjuvant therapy for T1N1-2M0 lung cancer

Background Lobectomy remains the standard surgical approach for resectable non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), but sublobar resection is increasingly considered, particularly for small, early-stage tumors. The role of sublobar resection after neoadjuvant therapy is unclear. We compared survival after sublobar resection versus lobectomy among patients with T1N1-2M0 NSCLC treated with neoadjuvant therapy. Methods Using the National Cancer Database (2011–2021), we identified patients ≥18 years with clinical stage T1N1-2M0 NSCLC who received neoadjuvant chemotherapy, chemoradiation, or chemoimmunotherapy followed by resection within 8 months. Patients with pneumonectomy, metastases, positive margins were excluded. Patients were grouped by resection type: sublobar (wedge or segmentectomy) vs. lobectomy (including bilobectomy and extended). Survival was assessed via Kaplan–Meier analysis and multivariable Cox regression. Results Of 2,257 patients, 148 (6.6%) underwent sublobar resection. Compared to lobectomy, sublobar resection was associated with fewer lymph nodes examined (24% vs. 54% with >10 nodes, p < 0.001) and shorter hospital stays (3.9 vs. 5.3 days, p < 0.001). Stage distribution was similar. One-year survival was comparable for both groups in stage II and III disease. At 5 years, survival was lower for stage III patients undergoing sublobar resection (48.6% vs. 59.9%, p < 0.01), with adjusted analysis confirming worse survival (HR = 1.41, p = 0.013). Conclusions Among patients with T1N1-2M0 NSCLC treated with neoadjuvant therapy, sublobar resection was associated with similar short-term but inferior long-term survival compared to lobectomy. Lobectomy remains preferred for patients with adequate reserve, though sublobar resection may be appropriate for select patients.

Zwitterion-Modulated Quasi-Solid-State Polymer Electrolyte with Janus Interface toward Low-Temperature Lithium Metal Batteries

Estimating endogenous treatments effects under long-range dependency without untreated controls

The identification and estimation of social policy effects through time‑series natural experiments is fundamental in modern econometrics. However, challenges come from the heterogeneities caused by staggered treatment adoptions and the endogeneities caused by omitted variables. In this paper, we propose a novel method to identify and estimate staggeringly adopted endogenous treatments effects with several treatments when there is no available (suitable) untreated unit and instrument variable. First, we propose a conditional mean symmetry condition by projecting the potential outcomes onto a sub-linear space spanned by the proposed common proximal variable. Under this condition, we can rule out confounding biases. Second, a proposed weak index restriction constructed by Bernstein expansions satisfying conditional mean independence property enables us to consistently estimate multiple heterogeneous treatments effects, and the proposed estimators are robust to weak common proximal variable. We show that the asymptotic distribution of the step-wise estimator is a fractional Brownian motion process with long range dependency. Third, we propose a bootstrap procedure to circumvent the inference difficulty brought by time-series dependencies. Monte Carlo simulations show that our proposed estimator and inference framework work well in small samples, and our contributions are further illustrated by an empirical example with unilateral divorce law reforms.

Through-Space Stabilization of Carbon-Centered Aryl Dicyanomethyl Radicals

Winter outdoor thermal comfort of older people with different degrees of frailty: A study in Nanyang city, China’s hot-summer and cold-winter region

The thermal comfort of outdoor environments in winter directly impacts the spatial utilization efficiency of urban parks and the physical and mental health of the elderly. This study uses Nanyang People’s Park, which is popular for local elderly, as a case study. Using the FRAIL scale to categorize different levels of frailty, combined with objective microclimate field measurements and subjective thermal comfort questionnaires, the study conducts regression analysis between the calculated physiological equivalent temperature and the thermal comfort voting results. A model for evaluating the thermal comfort of older people in urban parks during winter in hot summer and cold winter regions (HSCW) is established. The study also explores the relationships between physical, personal, social, and psychological factors and the outdoor thermal comfort of the elderly, as well as the differences in thermal adaptation among older people with varying degrees of frailty. The research findings show that the neutral temperature for no frailty is 10.29°C, 9.60°C for pre-frailty, and 8.65°C for severe frailty. As the degree of frailty increases, the outdoor thermal sensitivity of the older people gradually weakens. The adaptive behaviors of older people with different levels of frailty are greatly influenced by their specific environment. The research results provide basic data reference for the design of aging-friendly urban parks in HSCW, and also provide a renovation reference for relevant government departments to formulate the thermal comfort standards of urban parks.

ViralMultiNet: A structure-aware multimodal framework for viral protein function prediction in wastewater surveillance

Accurate functional annotation of viral proteins is essential for genomic surveillance, yet rapid viral evolution causes “functional drift” that challenges conventional sequence-only models. These models often lack interpretability and struggle with fragmented sequences from complex environmental samples such as wastewater. We developed ViralMultiNet, a structure-aware multimodal framework that integrates multi-scale k-mer encodings (4–7-mers) with functional semantic embeddings derived from UniProt annotations. Using a curated Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) dataset of 66,011 samples from wastewater metagenomics (NCBI SRA: SRX28474964), we implemented gated multimodal fusion and triple knowledge distillation to transfer structural insights from a teacher to a student model. Model performance was evaluated via 5-fold cross-validation and external validation on emerging variants. Training efficiency was optimized using Low-Rank Adaptation and Flash Attention. ViralMultiNet achieved robust classification performance with a macro F1 score of 0.921 ± 0.004, accuracy of 0.928 ± 0.003, and AUC of 0.983 in cross-validation. The distilled student model matched teacher performance within a negligible margin (<0.003 F1 difference) while reducing training time by 40.4% (from 94.3 to 56.2 minutes per epoch). Interpretability analysis revealed that model attention peaks consistently aligned with experimentally validated functional domains of the SARS-CoV-2 Spike protein, including the receptor-binding domain (residues 319–541), S1/S2 cleavage site (681–685), and fusion peptide (816–835). ViralMultiNet offers a scalable, interpretable solution for viral protein function prediction. Its ability to generalize across variants and map attention to critical biological regions supports deployment in wastewater-based early warning systems, enhancing global pandemic preparedness.

First of a line or last of a dynasty? Parabos tigneresi and the evolution of eurasian bovinae in the early pliocene

The Early Pliocene maar deposits of Camp dels Ninots (Catalonia, NE Iberia) have produced an exceptionally well-preserved fossil assemblage. Among the large mammals, a large bovid stands out, represented by 14 individuals, including 8 nearly complete and partially articulated skeletons. Here we provide a comprehensive description and systematic evaluation of this material, previously referred to Alephis tigneresi , including an in-depth comparison with specimens assigned to Parabos , Alephis , and other large Late Miocene and Early Pliocene Eurasian and African bovids. We revise the genera Alephis and Parabos , recognizing five valid species across both groups, and refer the Camp dels Ninots bovid to Parabos tigneresi . We further explore the possible relationships of Parabos and Alephis within Bovinae, finding that they could either be the earliest European representatives of stem Bovini or among the last surviving members of the Miocene Tragoportacini radiation. Additionally, the exceptionally preserved skeletons of P. tigneresi provide paleoecological evidence of adaptation to humid, vegetated environments, confirming reconstruction of the paleoenvironment of the Camp dels Ninots maar lake, while also showing traits associated with mixed to open habitats, suggesting potentially broad habitat preferences for P. tigneresi .

Effect of plastic composition in the combustion material on the Persistent Organic Pollutant content in smoked chicken meat

Traditional food smoking in Vietnam often uses biomass fuels, but the incidental inclusion of plastics can generate toxic pollutants. This study evaluated the effects of polyethylene (PE), polystyrene (PS), and polyvinyl chloride (PVC) compared with clean wood on persistent organic pollutants (POPs) in smoked chicken, including PCBs, PCDD/Fs, and PAHs. Samples were smoked under controlled conditions, analyzed by GC–MS/MS, and assessed with univariate and multivariate statistics. Clean wood yielded low contamination, while PE introduced lighter PAHs and dioxins, PS was associated with mid-weight PAHs and specific PCBs (66, 195), and PVC caused the most severe contamination with 12 PCDD/Fs, 21 PCBs (e.g., 189, 101, 180, 153), and multiple carcinogenic PAHs (e.g., benzo[a]pyrene). Statistical tests confirmed significant differences among fuel groups (p < 0.01). The contamination gradient (W < PE < PS < PVC) highlights the urgent need to prohibit plastic-contaminated fuels in traditional smoking to safeguard food safety and public health.

Manga reading on paper vs. digital devices: Prospective effects on core and supportive integration processes in the brain

Reading on paper reportedly improves story comprehension compared to its digital version, although the underlying neuroscientific mechanisms remain unclear. We used a format of Japanese manga stories as visual narratives told in halves, each of which depicted the same events from the different perspectives of two protagonists. We examined how the medium used to read the first halves , either on a paper book (Paper preparatory condition) or on an electronic tablet (Tablet preparatory condition), facilitated reading of the second halves for the memorized stories, which they read on an electronic display with continuous empathy ratings. Magnetic resonance scanning was conducted during the latter reading and during answering two sets of questions: Set 1 that could be answered after reading the first half alone, and Set 2 that required comprehension from both halves. Behavioral results showed prospective effects of reading manga stories on a paper book or an electronic tablet, such that the response times were prolonged in Set 2 for the Tablet condition. By comparing the results of Sets 1 and 2 with correct answers for each story, we found significant response time differences for the Tablet condition alone. Moreover, for the Paper condition, activations in the left frontal regions significantly decreased while reading the second halves, and those in the right frontal regions also decreased in Set 1. Furthermore, core left frontal activations were highest in Set 2 for the Tablet condition, while supportive right frontal activations correlated with individual accuracy rates in Set 2 for the Tablet condition, indicating that excessive integration processes support improved performances required by correct answers. The present results demonstrate stronger prospective effects of reading on paper books, such that linguistic and narrative-structural integration processes are facilitated and led to saved excessive activations.

Short-Chain Acids Sustain InAs Colloidal Quantum Dot Growth during Synthesis, Extending Spectral Response into the Deep Short-Wave Infrared

Modified Z-algorithms for reckoning fixed points with application to nonlinear integral equations

In this paper, we investigate the existence of common fixed points for C − α nonexpansive mappings. We propose a novel four-step iterative scheme, referred to as the Z -iteration, which is specifically developed for handling pairs of such mappings. Using this algorithm, we establish several weak and strong convergence results that guarantee the existence of common fixed points. To substantiate the theoretical results, we present constructive examples. Moreover, the practical utility of the proposed method is demonstrated by applying it to approximate solutions of a specific class of nonlinear integral equations in Banach spaces, with a representative example provided to validate its effectiveness.