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Large language models versus human examinee performance on Israeli anesthesiology board examinations
Agilik@home: A randomized controlled trial protocol to evaluate the effects of home-based training with the Agilik powered KAFO in children with cerebral palsy and crouch gait
Background Cerebral palsy (CP) is the most common neuromotor disability in children and often results in spastic diplegia, which can lead to crouch gait. This gait pattern, resulting from weakness predominantly in the extensor muscles and spasticity mainly affecting the flexors, is characterized by excessive knee flexion, insufficient hip extension, and excessive ankle dorsiflexion, which together can progressively impair walking. The Agilik powered knee-ankle-foot orthosis is designed to enhance knee extension and potentially improve gait in children with CP. Here we present the protocol of a study that aims to evaluate the clinical effectiveness of Agilik in a domiciliary setting. Methods According to this protocol, the multicentre randomized controlled trial will enrol 40 children with CP (aged 5–17 years) exhibiting crouch gait. Participants will be randomly assigned to either the Intervention Group, which will receive training with the Agilik device, or the Control Group, which will maintain their standard routines and therapies. All participants will undergo physical examination and baseline assessments. Then, while the Control Group continues the usual care, the Intervention Group will begin the Agilik program, including three device fitting visits, 4/5 weeks of hospital training, and two months of home-based sessions. Both groups will be evaluated at three time points: baseline, after the intervention, and at a one-month follow-up. Primary endpoints include the 6-Minute Walking Test and Knee Extension in Mid-Stance computed during gait analysis. Secondary endpoints assess gross-motor abilities, gait speed, 3D gait analysis with electromyography, joint range of motion, muscle length, self-perceived performance, spasticity, and balance. Additionally, the Intervention Group will provide feedback on the usability and acceptability of the device, and on cognitive, behavioural and affective engagement. Discussion This trial will provide valuable insights into the effectiveness of the Agilik device in children with CP and crouch gait. It will help emphasizing the potential benefits of the device on daily living activities and gait performance. The findings could influence clinical practice and guide future interventions for managing crouch gait in CP, potentially leading to enhanced quality of life for these children. Trial registration The trial has been registered the 30 th September 2024 on ClinicalTrials.gov with the identifier NCT06622655.
A cross-sectional study on dysphagia-related quality of life and its associated factors in chinese patients with sjögren’s syndrome
Modeling diarrhea in children under five in Somaliland: A machine learning analysis using SLDHS 2020 data
Background Diarrhea remains a leading cause of morbidity and mortality among children under five years of age, particularly in low- and middle-income countries. This study investigated the prevalence and determinants of diarrhea in Somaliland using nationally representative data from the 2020 Somaliland Health and Demographic Survey (SLDHS) 2020. Methods We employed a cross-sectional study design and analyzed data from 1,112 women (aged 15–49) and their children under the age of five from six geographic regions in Somaliland. Variables were selected based on data availability in SLDHS 2020, including socioeconomic, demographic, and environmental factors. We employed descriptive statistics and binary logistic regression to identify significant associations of the variables with childhood diarrhea. Additionally, supervised machine-learning models (Logistic Regression, Probit Regression, Random Forest, Decision Tree, and SVM) were used to identify key determinants of diarrhea. Results The overall prevalence of diarrhea was 7.2%, with significant regional variation (Togdheer: 12.5%; Awdal: 4.24%). Nomadic households had a significantly higher incidence (8.62%) than rural (2.41%) and urban (5.16%) households. Logistic regression analysis highlighted region, household wealth index, and sanitation access as significant predictors. Interestingly, maternal educational level was not significantly associated with the prevalence of diarrhea. The Decision Tree model achieved the highest accuracy (92.3%) and sensitivity (33.3%), while Logistic Regression had specificity >97%. Conclusion This study underscores the importance of region-specific public health strategies focused on improving access to water and sanitation, especially in nomadic and low-income populations. Despite the high overall accuracy, the machine-learning models indicated that the predictive accuracy for positive diarrhea cases could be further refined. Efforts to alleviate diarrhea among young children in Somaliland should prioritize the enhancement of infrastructure and sanitation resources in underserved communities.
TRACER: a reliability-first GemNet baseline for trustworthy computational materials discovery
Low-Background Cancer Imaging with a Bioorthogonal Fluorescence Probe and Engineered Reporter Enzyme Bearing a Targeting Moiety
Co-infections of malaria and dengue in Timika, a highly endemic malaria area in Central Papua, Indonesia
Objective Malaria and dengue are two important infectious diseases in Indonesia, but information about their co-infections is still limited. This study aimed to describe malaria–dengue co-infections in Timika, Papua, including the clinical manifestations and genetic characteristics of the infecting dengue virus (DENV). Methods Sixty-nine microscopy-confirmed malaria patient samples from Timika, a malaria-highly endemic region in Central Papua province, Indonesia collected in 2022 were screened for DENV infection using qRT-PCR. Malaria speciation was performed using qRT-PCR. The whole genomes of the viruses were sequenced using MinION Oxford Nanopore Technology, and the phylogenetic analysis was inferred to determine the origin, genotype, and genetic characteristics of the viruses. Results Out of 69 malaria-positive samples, three patients (4.3%) were co-infected by DENV-2 (1 patient) and DENV-4 (2 patients). The infecting parasites were P. vivax, P. falciparum , and P. malariae as determined using qRT-PCR. The whole genomes of the infecting DENV-4 were successfully sequenced and phylogenetic analysis revealed the genotype of the virus as Genotype II, which were closely related to DENV strains from Makassar city in South Sulawesi province, Indonesia. Conclusions This study demonstrates the occurrence of malaria and dengue co-infections in Timika, Central Papua, Indonesia, with a prevalence of 4.3%. The co-infection poses a unique clinical and diagnostics challenges due to overlapping symptoms and potential complications. This finding highlights the diagnostic difficulties, clinical presentations, and future possibilities for such cases. The genomic data of DENV obtained from these cases provide new information about virus circulation in Indonesia and support the importance of combining clinical and molecular approaches for surveillance.
Thermal comfort enhancement in Oum El Bouaghi (Algeria) using PCM-enhanced walls and natural ventilation: a comparative CFD study
Abstract This study presents a comparative parametric investigation of the combined effect of phase change materials (PCMs) integrated into brick walls and natural ventilation strategies on indoor thermal comfort under the arid summer climate of Oum El Bouaghi, Algeria. A CFD analysis using ANSYS Fluent evaluated four PCMs (hexahydrate, n-hexadecane, n-eicosane, and n-octadecane) and three ventilation configurations with different inlet–outlet arrangements. The PCM performance was analyzed over seven consecutive July days using measured outdoor temperatures as boundary conditions, while ventilation scenarios were assessed during representative hot days to reduce computational cost. Thermal performance was assessed through indoor air temperature, wall heat flux, effective draft temperature (EDT), and the field synergy angle between velocity and temperature-gradient vectors. Although n-hexadecane exhibited the highest instantaneous heat absorption and the lowest internal surface temperatures during peak periods, its early phase transition limited sustained thermal regulation. In contrast, n-octadecane, with a melting range of 301–302 K, provided more stable and prolonged temperature control, making it the most suitable PCM among the investigated candidates when considering both thermal stability and indicative material cost. A parametric thickness analysis showed that increasing PCM thickness up to 10–15 cm led to diminishing thermal returns, achieving up to 52% reduction in daily integrated heat flux compared to the brick-only reference wall under July conditions. However, this range represents an upper-bound performance scenario; from an engineering feasibility perspective, thinner PCM layers (e.g., 5–10 cm) may provide a more practical balance between constructability and thermal benefit. The ventilation configuration with a bottom inlet and top outlet on opposite walls yielded the most stable indoor conditions due to improved air circulation. The study also introduces EDT and a synergy parameter to quantify the interaction between heat transfer and ventilation. Overall, combining PCM-enhanced walls with climate-adaptive ventilation demonstrates significant potential for reducing cooling demand and improving sustainable building performance in hot climates.
Retraction: Effects of the Alexander technique on pain and adverse events in chronic non-specific neck pain: A systematic review and meta-analysis
Selective extraction of lithium from acidic chloride leachates of spent batteries
Abstract Solvent extraction of lithium (Li) from acidic leachates of spent batteries black mass (BM) over nickel (Ni), manganese (Mn), and cobalt (Co) can allow easy integration of Li recycling into conventional hydrometallurgical flowsheets, eliminating the need for thermal pretreatment of BM. In this study, a ternary organic phase consisting of iron (Fe 3+ ), tributyl phosphate (TBP), and 2-ethylhexyl phosphonic acid mono 2-ethylhexyl ester (P507) to selectively extract Li + over Ni 2+ , Mn 2+ , and Co 2+ has been developed. The extraction, scrubbing, stripping, and regeneration conditions were optimized, and McCabe–Thiele diagrams were constructed. An increasing P507/Fe (optimum 1.5–1.7) mole ratio was found to enhance Li release during water stripping but suppressed extraction. FTIR spectroscopy confirmed the stability of Fe 3+ in the organic phase during water stripping. The Fe 3+ preloaded solvent gave > 90% Li (7.7 g/L initially) extraction at an organic/aqueous phase ratio of 7 in four stages. After six cycles, the Li extraction efficiency was maintained, showing excellent selectivity, reducing NMC metal ions from 7.6–64 g/L to only 0–0.05 g/L in purified strip solution. The developed solvent system facilitates water stripping, eliminating the need for acids and alkalis, and allows easy integration in established chloride-based battery recycling processes, enabling early Li recovery from the leachate.
The vulnerability of refugees and asylum seekers in Italy: Insights from a nationwide survey
Despite the high number of news articles, images and public debate on forcibly displaced individuals, there is, with some rare exceptions, a lack of comprehensive surveys on their living conditions. In this context, our paper contributes to filling part of this gap by presenting the results of a new survey conducted in Italy in 2024 in the framework of the AVRAI research program. The survey collected responses from 1,327 adults with international protection or a history of seeking asylum, who arrived in Italy after 2011. This paper describes the main dimensions of vulnerability, offering insights on existing disparities based on gender and area of origin. Our survey reveals legal uncertainty, especially common among newcomers from Bangladesh, Pakistan and MENA countries. Health data shows that self-rated physical health is generally good but mental health outcomes are poorer, particularly among women, recent arrivals and those from Central and the Horn of Africa. Women also face greater employment challenges. Economic hardship is widespread, with over one-third experiencing severe material deprivation and high food insecurity, especially among Nigerians, Sub-Saharan Africans and MENA nationals. Despite adversities, many respondents show strong resilience, particularly those with higher education and coming from Sub-Saharan Africa and the Horn of Africa. About two thirds of respondents plan to remain in Italy and nearly two thirds feel welcome in Italy. However, discrimination and racism, especially against individuals of African origin, remain a significant concern. Although many express their satisfaction with life in Italy, experiences of exclusion are common. This survey sheds light on legal precarity, health risks, economic vulnerability, living conditions and lived experiences and perceptions in the peculiar Italian political, legal and administrative environment.
Effects of multistep adsorption isotherms on solute transport
Abstract Multistep adsorption isotherms are characterized by sequential activation of different adsorption sites at specific threshold concentrations. This study investigates the transport behavior of solutes governed by multistep adsorption isotherms using numerical and analytical approaches. The spreading velocity of solutes is determined by the seepage velocity and the retardation factor, which itself is related to the derivative of the adsorption isotherm function. In the case of multistep isotherm functions, this derivative is not a monotonic function of solute concentration, which results in several concentration ranges with higher and lower retardation. Numerical simulations revealed how a stepwise concentration distribution develops as a result of locally decreased retardations. Preliminary relationships between isotherm parameters and transport behavior were identified by systematic parameter analysis. The analytical approach provides a more detailed understanding of the relationship between isotherm parameters and the propagation velocities as well as the criteria of stepwise concentration distribution to develop: the adsorption isotherm is composed of locally concave segments, while it displays an overall convex nature.
LightTrack-ReID: A lightweight and occlusion-robust framework for multi-object tracking
This paper presents LightTrack-ReID, an advanced, lightweight, and occlusion-resistant framework for MOT, designed for real-time performance in resource-limited environments. The framework includes a Lightweight Appearance Encoder (LAE) using MobileNetV3-Small, Transformer-Based Similarity Scoring (TBSS), Context Memory for Occlusion Handling (CMOH), and Adaptive Similarity Weighting (ASW) to enhance tracklet association in situations of heavy occlusion. These components offer compact 32-dimensional ReID features, adaptive similarity metrics, and continuous tracking within an efficient single-stage detection-to-tracklet association system. The proposed similarity and association model operates at approximately 0.6 GFLOPs per frame (LAE approximately 0.5 GFLOPs + TBSS approximately 0.1 GFLOPs). When integrated with the YOLOX-S detector, which remains the dominant computation, the full pipeline maintains approximately 30 FPS real-time performance on a GTX1080 GPU. It demonstrates robust performance on the MOT17 and MOT20 benchmarks, achieving Higher Order Tracking Accuracy(HOTA) scores of 66.92 and 66.6 and IDentity F1 score(IDF1) scores of 82.52 and 82.2, respectively, while significantly reducing identity switches. These results confirm its strength and appropriateness for use in real-world applications.
Compact and low mutual coupling 4 × 4 wideband MIMO antenna design for 5G millimeter-wave applications
Abstract This paper presents a wideband 4 × 4 Multiple-Input-Multiple-Output (MIMO) antenna system operating within the 5G millimeter-wave (mmWave) Frequency Range 2 (FR2). The design targets enhanced mobile broadband (eMBB) applications and features four orthogonally arranged Greek cross-shaped slot antenna (GCSA) elements fed by microstrip lines to effectively reduce mutual coupling and ensure high isolation. Circular edges on the radiating elements are introduced to enhance the impedance bandwidth, while a strategically placed quadrilateral slot in the ground plane optimizes the radiation characteristics. The antenna is fabricated on a Rogers RT/Duroid 4003C substrate (ε r = 3.55, thickness = 0.8 mm), resulting in a compact 40 × 40 × 0.8 mm 3 structure. The proposed MIMO system achieves a measured impedance bandwidth of approximately 8 GHz, spanning 24 to 32 GHz at |S 11 |≤ − 10 dB, with a peak gain of 6 dBi at 27.5 GHz. The antenna exhibits directional radiation patterns perpendicular to the MIMO plane, yielding mutual coupling levels of − 25 dB and − 20 dB at 25 GHz and 29 GHz, respectively. Additionally, the design demonstrates excellent MIMO performance with an Envelope Correlation Coefficient (ECC) < 0.001 and Diversity Gain (DG) ~ 10 dB across the 23.93–31.18 GHz operational band. A comprehensive evaluation of scattering parameters, surface currents, radiation patterns, specific absorption rate (SAR), and diversity metrics confirms the robustness of the proposed design. Prototype measurements closely match the simulated results, validating the antenna’s suitability for 5G millimeter-wave communication systems.
Social support detection from social media texts
Social support, conveyed through a multitude of interactions and platforms such as social media, plays a pivotal role in fostering a sense of belonging, aiding resilience in the face of challenges, and enhancing overall well-being. This paper introduces Social Support Detection (SSD) as a Natural Language Processing (NLP) task aimed at identifying supportive interactions within online communities. We define SSD through three subtasks: (1) binary classification of whether a comment expresses social support or not social support, (2) binary classification of the intended support target (individual or group), and (3) multiclass classification of the specific group being supported, including Nation, Other, LGBTQ, Black Community, Religion, and Women. We conducted experiments on a manually annotated dataset of 9,998 YouTube comments. Traditional machine learning models were employed using various combinations of linguistic, psycholinguistic, emotional, and sentiment-based features. Additionally, neural network-based models incorporating word embeddings were evaluated to enhance performance across the subtasks. The results indicate a prevalence of group-oriented support in online discourse, highlighting broader societal dynamics. The findings show that integrating psycholinguistic and affective features with unigram representations improves classification performance. The best macro F1-scores achieved across the subtasks range from 0.72 to 0.82.
Bidirectional state space modeling for lightweight and robust wheat head detection in complex agricultural environments
Aterian shell beads from the coastal site of El Mnasra Cave (Rabat-Témara, Morocco): Specificities of the north African MSA personal ornaments
The use of Nassariidea shells as personal ornaments is attested to an increasing number of Middle Stone Age (MSA) archaeological sites in northern and southern Africa. The chronological extent of this behavior is constantly moving back in time; currently, the oldest evidence has been identified at the Bizmoune cave site in Morocco back to the MIS 6. Although these evidences make it possible to refine the spatial and temporal distribution of this behavior, shell beads remain rare in Middle Stone Age assemblages and are generally composed of several beads, or at best dozens, for each of these sites. This restricts our understanding of the behaviors specifically related to the collection, selection and preparation phases of shells, and potentially limits our understanding of their use. In this article, we studied shell beads from MSA layer US 8 from the coastal archaeological site of El Mnasra Cave (Rabat-Témara, Morocco). This collection corresponds to the largest MSA shell bead assemblage in Africa (272 Tritia cf . gibbosula, 6 Tritia corniculum and 3 Columbella rustica in US 8 with 154 of them showing smoothing of the perforation edge, facet of abrasion, or traces of pigment). The shell bead assemblage of El Mnasra presents features previously observed at other MSA sites, connecting it to a North African cultural context; however, the size of the El Mnasra shell bead assemblage, and the presence of shell sources near the site, allows us to identify specific features that could be related to particular modes of use as ornaments. These specific features include the prevalence of un-perforated shells, some of which show use-wear, that could have been fixed on items without having been perforated. These results provide new insights into the wide range of variants and originalities of shell bead uses over a relatively “short” chronological phase, between 115 and 94 ka and can be correlated with the multistep evolutionary scenario proposed for South Africa. The archaeological documentation presented here shows that El Mnasra Cave provides a significant contribution to the study of culturing the Palaeolithic body in North Africa.