Disparities in health services and outcomes by National Health Insurance membership type for ischemic heart disease and stroke in Indonesia: analysis of claims, 2017-2022.

Background: Ischemic heart disease (IHD) contributed to around 8.9 million deaths and stroke accounting for about 6.2 million deaths each year.

Overcoming Quantum Metrology Singularity through Sequential Measurements.

The simultaneous estimation of multiple unknown parameters is the most general scenario in quantum sensing. Quantum multiparameter estimation theory provides fundamental bounds on the achievable precision of simultaneous estimation. However, these bounds can become singular (no finite bound exists) in multiparameter sensing due to parameter interdependencies, limited probe accessibility, and insufficient measurement outcomes.

Regioselective (3 + 2) cycloaddition reactions of zerumbone: synthesis of isoxazolines and spiro-pyrrolizidino-oxindoles, conformational diversity and theoretical insights.

Regioselective (3 + 2) cycloaddition reactions of zerumbone with nitrile oxides and azomethine ylides are developed for the first time. Direct functionalization of the C10-C11 double bond in zerumbone is unique. ZI-8, ZI-9, and ZI-10 exhibited substrate-driven dimer formation, whereas ZI-9 and ZI-10 exhibited solid-state conformational variability.

Influence of pH on the cytotoxic activity of organic acids against breast cancer cells.

Breast cancer is the most prevalent cancer among women worldwide. Unlike normal cells, breast cancer cells exhibit a reversed pH gradient characterized by a lower extracellular pH (pH, ∼6.7-7.

The role of face regions in remote photoplethysmography for contactless heart rate monitoring.

Heart rate (HR) estimation is crucial for early cardiovascular diagnosis, continuous monitoring, and various health applications. While electrocardiography (ECG) remains the gold standard, its discomfort and impracticality for continuous use have spurred the development of non-contact methods like remote photoplethysmography (rPPG). This systematic review (PROSPERO: CRD 42024592157) examines 70 studies to assess the impact of Region of Interest (ROI) selection on HR estimation accuracy.

Three-dimensional multi-physics modelling and optimisation of a hybrid of radiation filtering and passive cooling strategy for floating photovoltaic systems.

This study presents the development of a three-dimensional multi-physics thermal model for a novel design of a floating photovoltaic system, which incorporates a natural convection cooling loop where the coolant also acts as solar radiation filter. The thermal model is employed to investigate the combined effects of the passive cooling loop and the radiation filtering of the cooling channel located above the photovoltaic module, by varying the height of the cooling channel and the spacing between connecting tubes, with a view at optimising the cooling loop geometry. Simulation results indicate that the combination of radiation filtering and passive cooling is remarkably effective at improving the electrical performance of the floating photovoltaic system, by filtering out, from solar radiation, the non-useful range of wavelengths for crystalline silicon photovoltaic cells and, at the same time, reducing operational temperatures.

Photonics for Bioapplications: Sensors and Technology.

Over the past decade, interest in advancing photonic systems for bioapplications has been steadily growing, and various key factors have driven this trend [...

Biogenic synthesis of PbS nanoparticles by Micrococcus luteus and their application in high-performance photodetectors.

This study reports the successful extracellular biosynthesis of lead sulfide (PbS) nanoparticles using non-motile, Gram-variable Micrococcus luteus bacteria. Optimization studies revealed optimal growth conditions for bacterial biomass and PbS production at room temperature, pH 7, and 96 h of incubation. The influence of precursor concentration on the growth and properties of PbS nanostructures was investigated.

High-fat diet obesity exacerbates acute lung injury-induced dysregulation of fatty acid oxidation in alveolar epithelial type 2 cells.

Obesity is a risk factor for acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS). We previously showed that obesity is linked to increased lung injury and bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BALF) fatty acids in a hyperoxic model of ARDS. We sought to expand our understanding of this association and examined the effect of obesity on β-oxidation (FAO), the mitochondrial process of breaking down fatty acids, in alveolar epithelial type 2 cells (AEC2s) in hyperoxia-induced ARDS.

Synthesis and Inhibitory Assessment of ACE2 Inhibitors for SARS-CoV-2: An and Study.

The angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) is pivotal as the cellular receptor for SARS-CoV-2 (severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2), the virus responsible for COVID-19. This study presents a novel synthetic route for four analogues of MLN-4760, a known inhibitor of ACE2, guided by docking predictions. These synthetic advances enabled in vitro pIC assays confirming the inhibitory potency of the synthesized analogues.

BladeSynth: A High-Quality Rendering-Based Synthetic Dataset for Aero Engine Blade Defect Inspection.

The integration of artificial intelligence in industry is crucial for realizing Industry 4.0; however, the lack of industrial datasets remains a significant challenge. While several generative AI methods have been proposed to create synthetic data, these approaches are often inefficient and require a large volume of training data to function effectively.

Computational prediction for the formation of amides and thioamides in the gas phase interstellar medium.

Amino acids and amide bonds (-C(O)-NH-) are the essential components of proteins, which serve as the foundation of life on Earth. As a result, molecules containing peptide bonds are of great interest in studies related to the origin of life and are central to both terrestrial and prebiotic chemistry. Despite this, our understanding of how nitrogen-containing compounds like formamide and urea, along with their sulfur analogs thioformamide and thiourea, form in the cold interstellar medium (ISM) remains incomplete.

CO Methanation over Ni Catalysts Supported on Pr-Doped CeO Nanostructures Synthesized via Hydrothermal and Co-Precipitation Methods.

The synthesis method of the Pr-doped CeO catalyst support in Ni/Pr-CeO CO methanation catalysts is varied by changing the type/basicity of the precipitating solution and the hydrothermal treatment temperature. The use of highly basic NaOH as the precipitating agent and elevated hydrothermal treatment temperature (100 or 180 °C) leads to the formation of structured Pr-doped CeO nanorods and nanocubes, respectively, whereas the use of a mildly basic NH-based buffer in the absence of hydrothermal treatment (i.e.

Implementing and evaluating the quality 4.0 PMQ framework for process monitoring in automotive manufacturing.

This study presents an applied integration of machine learning (ML) within the Process Monitoring for Quality (PMQ) framework to address persistent limitations in traditional quality control systems, particularly their inability to manage high-dimensional and real-time manufacturing data. This research enhances the PMQ framework with a novel Validate phase that introduces human oversight and interpretability into the ML decision-making loop. The modified framework has been implemented in a high-precision automotive component facility.

Automated instance segmentation and registration of spinal vertebrae from CT-Scans with an improved 3D U-net neural network and corner point registration.

This paper presents a rapid and robust approach for 3D volumetric segmentation, labelling, and registration of human spinal vertebrae from CT scans using an optimised and improved 3D U-Net neural network architecture. The network is designed by incorporating residual and dense interconnections, followed by an extensive evaluation of different network setups by optimising the network components like activation functions, optimisers, and pooling operations. In addition, the network architecture is optimised for varying numbers of convolution layers per block and U-Net levels with fixed and cascading numbers of filters.

Changes in peripheral blood mononuclear cell electrical properties in response to viral exposure and vaccination.

Viral infection triggers both cellular and systemic responses in vivo. These are sometimes difficult to study since the immune system is subject to constant challenge from multiple pathogens. However, during the COVID-19 pandemic, a unique opportunity arose to measure the body's immune response during lockdown, when exposure to pathogens from the environment was substantially lower.

Advanced hydrogel optical fiber sensors with triple-readout for real-time pH sensing.

Precise pH monitoring is essential in fields like scientific research, healthcare, and industrial processes. Herein, we have developed hydrogel-based optical fiber (OF) sensors for continuous and real-time pH sensing using a hydrogel matrix with the pH-sensitive dye Neutral Red to obtain a color-switching hydrogel matrix. Two sensor configurations, (i) attached to the glass slide (SA) and (ii) an OF tip sensor, were fabricated.

Mechanical properties and durability of concrete with recycled air-cooled blast furnace slag aggregates.

This study evaluated the properties of concrete in which natural coarse aggregates were replaced with 30%, 50%, or 100% air-cooled blast furnace slag (ACBFS) aggregates. At all aggregates replacement levels, concrete porosity remained below 9.55%, indicating good quality concrete.

Design and performance analysis of all-dielectric reflective, metalens for LWIR applications.

Reflective metalenses with multilayer substrates offer low-loss wavefront control in the LWIR range but remain underexplored and highly dependent on material choice. Here, we report a comprehensive numerical investigation into the design of LWIR reflective metalenses employing dielectric distributed Bragg reflectors (DBRs) substrates composed of high-index semiconductors (Si, Ge, GaAs) and zinc-based dielectric compounds (ZnO, ZnSe, ZnS). We systematically evaluate nine DBR material combinations to assess their impact on the focusing efficiency, reflectivity, and focal spot characteristics.

Supercritical CO extraction of oil from fruit seed by-product: advances, challenges, and pathways to commercial viability.

Global fruit production generates approximately 0.9 billion tons annually; however, nearly one-third of this yield is lost or wasted during post-harvest handling and processing. Among the underutilized by-products are fruit seeds, which represent a low-cost and valuable source of oils rich in bioactive compounds.

Bladder cancer subtypes exhibit limited plasticity across different microenvironments and in metastases.

Background: Transcriptomic and genomic analyses of bladder cancer (BC) reveal a highly diverse disease stratified into molecular subtypes with distinct molecular features and biological behaviors. Intratumor heterogeneity (ITH) and plasticity can significantly impact diagnosis and patient management, yet their extent in BC remains highly debated. Here, we investigated whether the three main bladder cancer subtypes maintain or alter their identity in response to changes in the microenvironment and during metastatic colonization.

On the second gradient nonlinear spectral constitutive modelling of viscoelastic composites reinforced with stiff fibers.

General novel nonlinear second-gradient spectral constitutive models for rate dependent fiber-reinforced viscoelastic solids that consider bending stiffness are developed. The constitutive models are characterized by spectral invariants, each with a clearer physical meaning compared to the classical invariants. Hence, they are experimentally useful if a rigorous experimental curve fitting exercise is used to obtain a specific form of free energy function.

Domain adaptation of a SMILES chemical transformer to SELFIES with limited computational resources.

Accurate molecular property prediction requires input representations that preserve substructural details and maintain syntactic consistency. SMILES (Simplified Molecular Input Line Entry System), while widely used, does not guarantee validity and allows multiple representations for the same compound. SELFIES (Self-Referencing Embedded Strings) addresses these limitations through a robust grammar that ensures structural validity.

Additively manufactured hybrid auxetic structures for enhanced low frequency acoustic performance through experiments and modelling.

Re-entrant auxetic designs, known for their superior mechanical properties, are increasingly explored in various industrial applications. This study aims to enhance the multifunctionality of such designs by preserving their mechanical characteristics while improving their acoustic performance. A multi-layer hybrid structure integrating microperforated panels with auxetic geometry was proposed.

Computational approaches to DMPK: A realistic assessment of current methods and their practical impact. Part I: Physicochemical and in vitro properties.

Artificial intelligence and computational approaches have received considerable interest in recent years, and here we assess their real-world utility in drug discovery projects. We review recent in silico models in the area of drug metabolism and pharmacokinetics (DMPK), especially for physicochemical properties (pKa and logD) and in vitro assays [solubility (DMSO, Dried-DMSO, Powder), permeability (PAMPA, Caco-2, MDCK), metabolic stability (liver microsome, hepatocyte), and protein binding (plasma, microsome, brain)]. We discuss which are currently fit for purpose (and which are not), bridging both computational and experimental aspects in the early drug discovery stages.