Research works

Change in the prognostic utility of regional left ventricular longitudinal strain values in patients undergoing transcatheter aortic valve implantation

BACKGROUND: To evaluate the difference in prognostic utility of echocardiographic parameters between pre- and post-transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI) periods. METHODS AND RESULTS: This study enrolled 189 patients who underwent TAVI at Kumamoto University Hospital betw...

Chamomile extract as a potential regulator of mitochondrial apoptosis and the Wnt/β-catenin pathway in AGS and KATO III cells

Abstract Gastric cancer comprises molecularly heterogeneous subtypes with distinct therapeutic responses. Although Matricaria chamomilla L. (chamomile) possesses anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties, its molecular effects in different gastric cancer subtypes remain poorly...

Relay of Responsibility: A Triadic Sequential SEM Approach to Ethical AI Governance in Fintech Ecosystems

ABSTRACT As artificial intelligence increasingly permeates Indian fintech ecosystems, ethical implications of algorithmic decision‐making—fairness, transparency, accountability—demand multi‐stakeholder governance amid rapid digital transformation. This study introduces the Relay...

Scalable and resilient optical network infrastructure with MAB-driven bandwidth management and DQAE-based anomaly detection

Abstract Recent studies show that global Passive Optical Network (PON) deployments will reach over 1.3 billion subscribers by 2030in Optical Network Unit (ONU) device integration. Despite this, legacy systems suffer from scalability bottlenecks and average latency increments of 1...

Remote Calibratinga National-Wide Dense Low-CostSensor Network for Hyperlocal Air Surveillance

Abstract Emerging low-cost sensor (LCS) technologies offer a unique opportunity to achieve equitable, high-granularity air surveillance. Yet without proper calibration, their raw observations are often considered invalid for rigorous research and regulatory purposes. Common calib...

Glacier surges on James Ross Island, Antarctica, and their relationship with climate

Abstract. Although the Antarctic Peninsula has a similar climate to that of other regions hosting surge-type glaciers, only one glacier surge has been previously observed in this region. We examined ice surface velocity, elevation and terminus position changes of Antarctic Penins...

Genetic polymorphism of 24 short tandem repeats in the population of Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

Abstract Background Ethiopia is renowned for its pivotal role in the origin and evolution of humanity, with its rich hominid fossil records and unique geological features offering critical insights into early human development. However, genetic studies focusing on the structure a...

A retrospective study on clinical and survival differences of head and neck versus other second primary malignancies in nasopharyngeal carcinoma survivors

Abstract Background Nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) survivors face elevated risks of second primary malignancies (SPM); however, disparities between head and neck (HN-SPM) and non-head and neck (non-HN-SPM) are incompletely characterized. Methods This retrospective study analyzed...

MODFLOW-informed machine learning for interpretable groundwater level prediction under sparse monitoring conditions in the Eastern Mitidja Aquifer, Northern Algeria

Predicting groundwater levels in semi-arid regions is challenging because groundwater systems are controlled by complex processes and monitoring data are often scarce. This study compares six machine learning models—Random Forest (RF), XGBoost, LightGBM, RBF-SVR, LSTM, and CNN—fo...

Evaluating harvest risk with limited data: A case study on polar bears ( Ursus maritimus ) in East Greenland

Abstract Evaluating the impact of human‐caused removals on wildlife is challenging, especially when population data are limited, future monitoring is uncertain, and habitat conditions are changing. The East Greenland (EG) polar bear subpopulation contains 2275 animals (95% CI = 1...

Application of a custom hand-held endoscope auxiliary device in unilateral biportal endoscopic lumbar interbody fusion for lumbar degenerative diseases

Abstract Background To investigate the clinical effectiveness of a custom hand-held endoscopic auxiliary device in assisting unilateral biportal endoscopic lumbar interbody fusion (ULIF) during the treatment of lumbar degenerative diseases. A total of 31 patients with lumbar dege...

Functional partitioning among core and peripheral bacteria shapes the giant kelp holobiont

The giant kelp Macrocystis pyrifera hosts diverse microbial communities integral to its ecological function, yet the distribution of microbial functions across different holobionts remains poorly resolved. Here, we used genome-resolved metagenomics to examine how microbial occupa...

Why Even the Most Anti-Woke, Late-Stage Capitalists Should Care About Sense of Belonging

In this commentary, I trace the evolution of “sense of belonging” from a foundational psychological construct to a widely studied element of student experience in higher education, particularly for marginalized groups. I also differentiate between the idea of belonging as a psych...

YOLOv11-SR: An Enhanced YOLOv11-Based Framework for Defect Detection in Complex Substation Inspection Images

Accurate detection of explicit faults in substation equipment is critical for intelligent substation inspection. However, practical inspection scenes often involve small objects, blurred boundaries, background clutter, occlusion, and large-scale variations, which significantly ch...

High mobility protein group box-1 as a biomarker for prediction of severity and clinical outcome of ischemic stroke: preliminary findings

Abstract Background High Mobility Group Box 1 protein functions as a danger-associated molecular pattern and is crucial in the pathophysiology of ischemic damage and ensuing inflammatory responses. Objective To assess the role of HMGB1 as a biomarker for evaluation of the severit...

Aging is associated with altered estrogen receptor expression and alters redox protein balance in human female skeletal muscle

Abstract It has been hypothesized that age‑related declines in skeletal muscle and vascular function in females may be partly estrogen‑dependent. This study investigated skeletal muscle protein expression of estrogen receptor α (ERα), estrogen receptor β (ERβ), and G protein–coup...

A multimodal discourse analysis of teacher discourse practices in early childhood STEM activities

Abstract This study investigates how a kindergarten teacher in Mainland China used multimodal discourse to support children’s problem-solving during STEM activities. A qualitative case study was conducted, combining systemic functional linguistics and grounded theory to analyze i...

SmartphoneImaging-Based Luminol Electrochemiluminescenceat the Cobalt Electrode for Sinapic Acid Determination

Abstract Developing simple and portable luminol electrochemiluminescence (ECL) systems without externally added co-reactants is important for on-site analysis. Cobalt is a low-cost and redox-active transition metal with favorable electrocatalytic properties toward water-oxidation...

A machine learning-derived dietary pattern for aging

Diet is a modifiable determinant of aging. We develop and validate the Machine-learning YouTHful (MYTH) Diet, a dietary pattern associated with reduced aging-related mortality. Using data from 191,689 participants in the UK Biobank, we conducted a food-wide association analysis a...

Clinical impact of second radiotracer injection after failed lymphoscintigraphy in breast cancer sentinel lymph node biopsy: a retrospective cohort study

Abstract Background Sentinel lymph node biopsy (SLNB) is the standard method for axillary staging in breast cancer. To ensure the identification of sentinel lymph nodes (SLNs), lymphoscintigraphy (LS) is often used. However, failure of LS remains a clinical challenge. A second tr...