Research works

Shared household environment structures the gut microbiota in a large family cohort with central areolar choroidal dystrophy

Central areolar choroidal dystrophy (CACD) is a rare monogenic hereditary retinal dystrophy characterised by progressive retinal pigment epithelium and choriocapillaris atrophy, photoreceptor loss, oxidative stress, and chronic inflammation. Emerging evidence suggests that the gu...

Factors affecting the decline of intrinsic capacity of older adults in Chinese communities: a systematic review and meta-analysis

With the rapid aging of the global population, maintaining the intrinsic capacity of older adults has become a critical public health priority. However, the pooled prevalence of intrinsic capacity decline and its key determinants remain unclear. This study aims to assess the rate...

Verifier-guided knowledge distillation of large language models for auditable thermal comfort reasoning

Occupant-centric building operation requires models that can not only predict thermal sensation, but also justify predictions through auditable reasoning. Traditional mechanistic models, such as Fanger’s predicted mean vote (PMV), often show limited field accuracy, whereas advanc...

TiO2/Saponite composite catalyst for ultraviolet photocatalytic ozonation of coal chemical wastewater

In ultraviolet photocatalytic ozonation (UV-PCO 3 ) systems, the limited ozone adsorption capability of conventional catalysts restricts the synergistic coupling between catalytic ozonation and photocatalysis. In this study, a TiO 2 /saponite (TiO 2 /Sap) composite catalyst was s...

Using Weibull-derived λ-α parameters to diagnose physical processes controlling microplastic size dynamics in estuarine-coastal waters: A five-year study in Tianjin, Bohai Bay

To elucidate the spatiotemporal evolution of microplastic particle size distributions and their controlling mechanisms in estuarine-coastal regions, this study conducted continuous monitoring in Tianjin coastal waters from 2021 to 2025. By coupling microplastic abundance and part...

“There’s not much you can do. You put up with it and bottle it up and take more drugs”: how women who use drugs navigate, negotiate, and resist gendered violence

Women who use drugs are disproportionately subjected to gendered violence, often normalized and invisible, that shapes their everyday lives in street-based drug environments and their use of harm reduction services. While research has documented this, more attention is needed to...

Grating-coupled magneto-optical surface plasmon resonance biosensor for biomolecular detection

This work demonstrates a lithography-free and cost-effective grating-coupled magneto-optical surface plasmon resonance (MOSPR) biosensing platform based on a Blu-ray disc (BD-R) grating. The periodic grating obtained from a commercial BD-R through a controlled delamination proces...

Phenotypic and genetic characterization of an unexplored yam (Dioscorea spp.) collection from Togo and development of a core collection

Declining yam productivity and the erosion of traditional landraces threaten food security and genetic-resource conservation in Togo. We characterized 321 yam accessions representing six edible Dioscorea species ( D. rotundata , D. cayenensis , D. alata , D. dumetorum , D. escule...

Response to Govindaraju et al.

Diethard Tautz, Greg Gibson, Anthony Long; Response to Govindaraju et al., Genetics, , iyag269, https://doi.org/10.1093/genetics/iyag269

Physicochemical characteristics of Nigerian estuaries and their patterns, drivers, and implications for environmental management

Estuaries are dynamic coastal ecosystems that provide essential ecological, biogeochemical, and socio-economic services. Despite their importance, Nigerian estuaries remain underrepresented in global scientific literature, with existing studies fragmented and spatially uneven. Th...

A novel hourly PM2.5 concentration prediction model using IMSTL-FVMD-HLDT hybrid architecture with Adam optimized by Schrödinger search strategy

PM 2.5 concentration time series are characterized by obvious chaotic behavior, mutually superimposed multi-period components and notable temporal fluctuations, which pose considerable difficulties to the high-precision prediction of PM 2.5 concentration. To address this issue, t...

Charting the rise of artificial intelligence in medical education: a global bibliometric and network analysis, 2000–2026

Artificial intelligence has moved from a peripheral curiosity to a core feature of modern medical education through adaptive learning, simulation-based training, automated assessment, and large language models such as ChatGPT. Publication activity has accelerated rapidly, but the...

Neglected carbonation effect on moisture profiles in hardened cement paste during short-term drying

This study investigates the influence of atmospheric CO₂ on moisture transport during drying in cementitious pastes with different microstructures, namely ordinary Portland cement (OPC), volcanic glass powder (VGP), and limestone-calcined clay cement (LC 3 ) pastes. To isolate th...

A longitudinal study of perceived employability and psychological health among Chinese college students

The decline in psychological well-being among students in higher education has been increasingly documented. Despite growing recognition of perceived employability as consequential for employees’ well-being in the labor market, less is known regarding its specific association wit...

Targeting the Gut to Modify Parkinson's Disease: From Mechanisms to Potential Therapeutics

Parkinson's disease (PD) is the second most common neurodegenerative disorder and its prevalence continues to rise with population aging. Its cardinal motor features arise from the loss of dopaminergic neurons in the substantia nigra, accompanied by intraneuronal α-synuclein aggr...

A chaotropic agent-assisted, AQbD-guided RP-HPLC method for the simultaneous determination of rosuvastatin, atorvastatin, and ezetimibe: a rapid, robust, and green approach

The simultaneous determination of rosuvastatin, atorvastatin, and ezetimibe in pharmaceutical formulations is challenging due to their distinct physicochemical properties. This study details the development and validation of a rapid, robust, and stability-indicating reversed-phas...

Plant invasions are associated with lower community stability at multiple spatial scales

Plant invasions are threatening the long-term sustainability of ecosystem functions. Yet, how plant invasions impact the temporal stability of community cover across spatial scales remains poorly understood, hindering effective invasion management. Using the National Ecological O...

The predictive value of ultrasonographic gallbladder wall thickness for complications in laparoscopic cholecystectomy

Gallbladder wall thickening on preoperative ultrasonography may reflect inflammation and fibrosis and may be associated with more difficult laparoscopic cholecystectomy. This study evaluated the association between ultrasonographic gallbladder wall thickness and operative duratio...

Knowledge, practices and barriers to blood donation among health sciences and pharmacy students in a private Nigerian university

Inadequate safe blood donation is a major public health problem in Nigeria. A stable base of regular, voluntary, unpaid low risk blood donors would assure a continuous and reliable supply of adequate safe blood and products for transfusion services in Nigeria and Sub-Saharan Afri...

Cross-scale mechanistic investigation of multistage carbon dioxide pool flash evaporation with vertical heterogeneity

Pool flash evaporation is a canonical liquid–vapor phase-change process driven by rapid depressurization, yet the stage-dependent flow-pattern evolution and vertical thermodynamic heterogeneity remain poorly understood. Existing heat and mass transfer models treat the process as...