Limited Volume Research Articles

Fossil fuels and potential for CO 2 storage in the Slovenian part of the Pannonian Superbasin

Two Neogene sub-basins of the Miocene Extensional Pannonian Superbasin are located in Slovenia: the Mura-Zala Basin in the northeast and the Krško Basin in the east of the country. Their predominantly clastic sedimentary fill hosts diverse geoenergy resources in different geological formations. The basin evolution (e.g., very high Miocene heat flow) was not favourable for the accumulation of large amounts of hydrocarbons. Consequently, oil and gas deposits are limited to the Petišovci-Dolina field, which was discovered in 1942. The field is located along the Ormož-Selnica-Lovászi Anticline, an inverted Miocene graben structure. Currently, minor amounts of natural gas are produced from Miocene (Badenian and Pannonian) horizons, while oil production stopped in 2021. Coal deposits formed in deltaic environments during the late Pannonian and were exploited until the 1970s, in both the Mura-Zala Basin and Krško Basin. Depleted oil and gas reservoirs at depths > 800 m, saline aquifers, and deeply buried coals in the Mura-Zala Basin provide potential sites for CO 2 storage, albeit with limited volumes.

Colorectal Cancer Racial Equity Post Volume, Content, and Exposure: Observational Study Using Twitter Data.

Racial inequity in health outcomes, particularly in colorectal cancer (CRC), remains one of the most pressing issues in cancer communication and public health. Social media platforms like Twitter (now X) provide opportunities to disseminate health equity information widely, yet little is known about the availability, content, and reach of racial health equity information related to CRC on these platforms. Addressing this gap is essential to leveraging social media for equitable health communication. This study aims to analyze the volume, content, and exposure of CRC racial health equity tweets from identified CRC equity disseminator accounts on Twitter. These accounts were defined as those actively sharing information related to racial equity in CRC outcomes. By examining the behavior and impact of these disseminators, this study provides insights into how health equity content is shared and received on social media. We identified accounts that posted CRC-related content on Twitter between 2019 and 2021. Accounts were classified as CRC equity disseminators (n=798) if they followed at least 2 CRC racial equity organization accounts. We analyzed the volume and content of racial equity-related CRC tweets (n=1134) from these accounts and categorized them by account type (experts vs nonexperts). Additionally, we evaluated exposure by analyzing follower reach (n=6,266,269) and the role of broker accounts-accounts serving as unique sources of CRC racial equity information to their followers. Among 19,559 tweets posted by 798 CRC equity disseminators, only 5.8% (n=1134) mentioned racially and ethnically minoritized groups. Most of these tweets (641/1134, 57%) addressed disparities in outcomes, while fewer emphasized actionable content, such as symptoms (11/1134, 1%) or screening procedures (159/1134, 14%). Expert accounts (n=479; 716 tweets) were more likely to post CRC equity tweets compared with nonexpert accounts (n=319; 418 tweets). Broker accounts (n=500), or those with a substantial portion of followers relying on them for equity-related information, demonstrated the highest capacity for exposing followers to CRC equity content, thereby extending the reach of these critical messages to underserved communities. This study emphasizes the critical roles played by expert and broker accounts in disseminating CRC racial equity information on social media. Despite the limited volume of equity-focused content, broker accounts were crucial in reaching otherwise unexposed audiences. Public health practitioners should focus on encouraging equity disseminators to share more actionable information, such as symptoms and screening benefits, and implement measures to amplify the reach of such content on social media. Strengthening these efforts could help bridge disparities in cancer outcomes among racially minoritized groups.

Neonatal Emergency Transport Organisation and Activities in Italy—The Nationwide 2023 Survey by the Neonatal Transport Study Group of the Italian Society of Neonatology

Background: The regionalisation of perinatal care emphasises the importance of transferring high-risk pregnancies “in utero” to minimise risks; yet, neonatal inter-facility transport remains necessary. Neonatal Emergency Transport Services (NETSs) play a crucial role in reducing transportation risks, especially for very preterm infants. Italy’s healthcare system, which is decentralised in nature, leads to variations in NETS organisation and resources across the country, resulting in disparities in access and quality of care. Methods: A questionnaire regarding neonatal transfer practices and NETS activity was sent to the 55 NETSs operating in twenty Italian regions. Demographic data were obtained from the Italian National Statistical Institute (ISTAT). Results: Survey Overview. A 2022 national survey by the Italian Society of Neonatology aimed to assess the status of NETS in Italy, achieving a 100% response rate from the 55 NETS. The 2022 data highlighted the transport of 6494 neonatal, of which 92% were primary transports (transferred to higher-level care) and 553 were back-transports (returning stabilised neonates to lower-level care). Subgroup analysis identified 544 transports of neonates born at 30–34 weeks of gestation and 305 transports of neonates born at under 30 weeks of gestation. This was shown to have regional variability. NETS coverage: 18 regions have full NETS coverage. Sicily offers partial coverage. Sardinia, despite an approved plan, lacks an operational NETS. Operational models: all NETS provide a 24/7 service; 50 NETSs rely on an on-call basis using NICU staff for transport. Only five NETS have dedicated teams exclusively for neonatal transport. This decentralisation results in heterogeneity in service availability, access, and quality. Conclusions: This study highlights that although differences still exist, the NETS in Italy is adequately structured and effective. The presence of NETS operating with limited transport volumes puts a strain on maintaining skilled staff and cost-effective operations. Regional disparities: inequities in NETS access (e.g., in Sicily and Sardinia regions) underline the need to improve regional collaboration. While Italy has made progress in organising NETS, regional discrepancies persist in access and service quality, reflecting the decentralised nature of its healthcare system.

Optimizing oil-water separation using fractal surfaces.

Oil has become a prevalent global pollutant, stimulating the research to improve the techniques to separate oil from water. Materials with special wetting properties-primarily those that repel water while attracting oil-have been proposed as suitable candidates for this task. However, one limitation in developing efficient substrates is the limited available volume for oil absorption. In this study, we investigate the efficacy of disordered fractal materials in addressing this challenge, leveraging their unique wetting properties. Using a combination of a continuous model and Monte Carlo simulations, we characterize the hydrophobicity and oleophilicity of substrates created through ballistic deposition (BD). Our results demonstrate that these materials exhibit high contact angles for water, confirming their hydrophobic nature while allowing significant oil penetration, indicative of oleophilic behavior. The available free volume within the substrates varies from 60% to 90% of the total volume of the substrate depending on some parameters of the BD. By combining their water and oil wetting properties with a high availability of volume, the fractal substrates analyzed in this work achieve an efficiency in separating oil from water of nearly 98%, which is significantly higher compared to micro-pillared surfaces made from the same material but lacking a fractal design.

A Fast, High-Sensitivity 96-Well Plate-Based MICROFASP Method for Processing Low Microgram Proteomics Sample within 1.5 h.

A rapid, sensitive, and high-throughput sample preparation method is of paramount significance for proteomics analysis. Here, we report a fast, high-sensitivity MICROFASP method that is capable of completing sample preparation within 1.5 h, enhancing the throughput by over 13 times compared to the previous reports. Protein digestion time was significantly cut from 17 h to 20 min in a limited volume. Simultaneous reduction and alkylation occurred within 30 min. The label-free quantitation intensities of proteins from the fast and conventional MICROFASP methods were highly correlated (r = 0.91), validating the reliability of the fast-MICROFASP method. When starting with 1 μg of K562 cell lysate, the fast-MICROFASP method identified over 6 times more protein groups and 19 times more peptides than did the iST method. A 96-well plate-based version was developed to process 8 brain tissue samples from APP/PS1 transgenic mice in parallel. Averagely, with only 1 μg of protein lysate, 2826 protein groups (n = 8, RSD = 0.7%) and 12,972 peptides (n = 8, RSD = 1.5%) were identified from each sample. Amyloid-beta protein was successfully identified as a highly expressed protein, which shows its potential for detecting diagnostic markers and proteome profiling with low-microgram samples. We anticipate the high-sensitivity 96-well plate-based fast-MICROFASP method will have wide application in high-throughput and rapid preparation of large cohorts of low-microgram samples (e.g., clinical biopsy) for comprehensive proteome profiling. Data are available via ProteomeXchange with the identifier PXD053720.

Diffuse Cyclin D1 and SPINK1 Expression in Gastric Oxyntic Gland Neoplasms: Promising Diagnostic Markers Identified by Spatial Transcriptome Analysis.

Oxyntic gland neoplasms typically arise in Helicobacter pylori-naïve stomachs and are composed predominantly of chief cells, with a smaller component of parietal cells. The pathologic diagnosis can be challenging due to minimal cellular atypia. Especially in biopsy specimens with limited tumor volume or when pathologists have limited experience in diagnosing this neoplasm, distinguishing it from normal oxyntic glands can be difficult, and no reliable diagnostic markers are currently available. In this study, single-cell spatial transcriptome analysis successfully identified significant upregulation of CCND1 and SPINK1 in all six analyzed cases of oxyntic gland neoplasms compared to normal oxyntic glands. Immunohistochemical analysis confirmed this finding in 21 endoscopically resected cases of oxyntic gland neoplasms, demonstrating that cyclin D1 and SPINK1 were diffusely expressed in oxyntic gland neoplasms, whereas their expression was scarcely observed in normal oxyntic glands with a few of them showing weak to moderate staining. Even in biopsy specimens, these two markers highlighted the tumor areas and clearly distinguished neoplastic from normal oxyntic glands. Nonneoplastic foveolar epithelia and mucous neck cells also showed positive staining for both cyclin D1 and SPINK1. Additionally, mild increase in cyclin D1 expression and patchy or mosaic expression of SPINK1 was observed in fundic gland polyps, Helicobacter pylori -associated gastritis and pyloric gland adenomas, while diffuse staining pattern was specific to oxyntic gland neoplasms. These observations suggest that cyclin D1 and SPINK1 are reliable markers in differentiating oxyntic gland neoplasms from nonneoplastic oxyntic glands and pyloric gland adenomas. Cyclin D1 is commonly used for immunostaining in many pathology departments, and due to its higher sensitivity and specificity compared to SPINK1, it is considered the best diagnostic marker.

Dynamic mechanisms for membrane skeleton transitions.

The plasma membrane and the underlying skeleton form a protective barrier for eukaryotic cells. The molecular players forming this complex composite material constantly rearrange under mechanical stress. One of those molecules, spectrin, is ubiquitous in the membrane skeleton and linked by short actin filaments. In this work, we developed a generalized network model for the membrane skeleton integrated with myosin contractility and membrane mechanics to investigate the response of the spectrin meshwork to mechanical loading. We observed that the force generated by membrane bending is important to maintain a regular skeletal structure suggesting that the membrane is not just supported by the skeleton, but has an active contribution to the stability of the cell structure. We found that spectrin and myosin turnover are necessary for the transition between stress and rest states in the skeleton. Simulations of a fully connected network representing a whole cell show that the surface area constraint of the plasma membrane and volume restriction of the cytoplasm enhance the stability of the membrane skeleton. Furthermore, we showed that cell attachment through adhesions promotes cell shape stabilization.

Real-world evaluation of the accuracy of the Viz.AI automated intracranial hemorrhage volume calculation tool

BackgroundAppropriate management of spontaneous intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH) and intraventricular hemorrhage (IVH) requires rapid, accurate volume estimation. Viz.AI has developed an artificial intelligence (AI)-powered ICH calculation tool that may improve existing...

Probing the Limits of Reactant Concentration and Volume in Primitive Polyphenyllactate Synthesis and Microdroplet Assembly Processes

Probing the Limits of Reactant Concentration and Volume in Primitive Polyphenyllactate Synthesis and Microdroplet Assembly Processes

Limitation of human rights and freedoms as a manifestation of the laws of dialectics

The article assumes that the limitations of rights and freedoms established by law must be legitimate, if this is not the case, the law is considered as a tool of the ruling ideology. The development of the system of human rights takes place by expanding the possibilities for their implementation, and accordingly, the volume of restrictions on human rights and freedoms decreases. At the same time, paraphrasing a well-known saying, one can say that the freedom of one person ends where the freedom of another begins, which often leads to a conflict of their interests. Establishing limitations on human rights and freedoms is necessary to reconcile the conflicting interests of the individual, other people, society and the state. Dialectic, which recognizes the general connection and interdependence of phenomena, allows to overcome and find a balance of interests when establishing limitations of rights and freedoms, observing the principle of justice. At the same time, given that justice is a transcendent phenomenon and has an element of injustice, the study of the legality of limiting human rights and freedoms is carried out in view of the observance of the principle of proportionality, which is a manifestation of justice. At the same time, only the least onerous limitations for the rights and freedoms of individuals, which do not violate the essence of human rights, can be proportional. The essence of a human right is its qualitative characteristic, which determines the place of the right in the system of other human rights, its value for a person. The image of a person, which is formed by constitutional values and constitutional rights and freedoms, allows to single out the essence of a specific right of an individual, and to determine the scope of opportunities that is necessary for the normal existence of a person in society. Important in this aspect is the prescription of the first part of Article 3 of the Constitution of Ukraine, according to which a person, his life and health, honor and dignity, inviolability and security are recognized as the highest social value in Ukraine. Special attention should be paid to such a value as human dignity. The image of a person’s right and freedom is fixed in the content and scope. Violation of the essence of the right is determined in a specific case of restriction of human rights and freedoms based on the «image of a person». Only in the case of restriction of the components of the right guaranteed by the Constitution of Ukraine, there is an unlawful violation of the right of a person.

Crystal structure validation of verinurad via proton-detected ultra-fast MAS NMR and machine learning.

The recent development of ultra-fast magic-angle spinning (MAS) (>100 kHz) provides new opportunities for structural characterization in solids. Here, we use NMR crystallography to validate the structure of verinurad, a microcrystalline active pharmaceutical ingredient. To do this, we take advantage of 1H resolution improvement at ultra-fast MAS and use solely 1H-detected experiments and machine learning methods to assign all the experimental proton and carbon chemical shifts. This framework provides a new tool for elucidating chemical information from crystalline samples with limited sample volume and yields remarkably faster acquisition times compared to 13C-detected experiments, without the need to employ dynamic nuclear polarization.

Angler catch data as a monitoring tool for European barbel Barbus barbus in a data limited recreational fishery

Large bodied freshwater fishes can be important target species for recreational anglers, with some species introduced intentionally to diversify angling experiences. European barbel Barbus barbus is an important target species in many riverine fisheries, including the River Severn and its River Teme tributary, western England, where it has supported a catch-and-release recreational fishery for approximately 50 years. The River Teme was renowned for the quality of its barbel angling from the 1980s. Since 2007, angler dissatisfaction has increased substantially in this fishery, being associated with alleged declines in the number of barbel being captured and in their population abundances. As there were few data available at that time to investigate these declines, data from periodic electric fishing surveys and some angler catch data were sourced. Analyses revealed temporal declines in the number of sampled barbel during electric fishing surveys, although the number of surveys was low, varied between years and did not target barbel specifically. Analyses of four angler catch data sets (1995–2022) involving more than 1000 captured barbel of 0.5–5.3 kg also revealed significant temporal declines in barbel catches (by number and catch-per-unit-effort). These catch declines were generally coincident with reductions in angler presence and effort on the river, suggesting low catches were a driver of angler dissatisfaction. These results provide empirical support for angler claims of substantial declines in barbel catches and abundances, and emphasise that even limited volumes of angler catch data are useful for understanding temporal changes in exploited but data limited fish populations.

Precise Embodied Data Selection with Haptic Feedback while Retaining Room-Scale Visualisation Context.

Room-scale immersive data visualisations provide viewers a wide-scale overview of a large dataset, but to interact precisely with individual data points they typically have to navigate to change their point of view. In traditional screen-based visualisations, focus-and-context techniques allow visualisation users to keep a full dataset in view while making detailed selections. Such techniques have been studied extensively on desktop to allow precise selection within large data sets, but they have not been explored in immersive 3D modalities. In this paper we develop a novel immersive focus-and-context technique based on a "magic portal" metaphor adapted specifically for data visualisation scenarios. An extendable-hand interaction technique is used to place a portal close to the region of interest. The other end of the portal then opens comfortably within the user's physical reach such that they can reach through to precisely select individual data points. Through a controlled study with 12 participants, we find strong evidence that portals reduce overshoots in selection and overall hand trajectory length, reducing arm and shoulder fatigue compared to ranged interaction without the portal. The portals also enable us to use a robot arm to provide haptic feedback for data within the limited volume of the portal region. In a second study with another 12 participants we found that haptics provided a positive experience (qualitative feedback) but did not significantly reduce fatigue. We demonstrate applications for portal-based selection through two use-case scenarios.

Limits of spectral measures for linearly bounded and for Poisson distributed random potentials

We show the existence of infinite volume limits of resolvents and spectral measures for a class of Schrödinger operators with linearly bounded potentials. We then apply this result to Schrödinger operators with a Poisson distributed random potential.

Social security for special categories of disabled people in the Ukrainian SSRin the 1920s.

The article is aimed at studying and analyzing the practical experience of the activities of state authorities in implementing the policy of social security for the disabled in the 1920s. The methodological basis of the study is the fundamental principles of historical research: historicism, consistency, objectivity in the course of working with documents. Among the special methods used in the study should be called problem-chronological, historical-systemic, historical-typological. The scientific novelty of the article is to highlight the features of state policy on the organization of social security of special categories of disabled. Conclusions. Having seized power on the territory of Ukraine, the Bolshevik government publicly announced its intentions to create an effective system of social security for the disabled strata of society. Material support for a special category of disabled people was assigned exclusively to the state. However, under the conditions of the new economic policy with its market principles, a small number of people could count on security. At the same time, despite the low size of social payments, the very fact of her appointment, the Soviet authorities tried to testify their value to the proletarian state. Social protection of special categories of the disabled, which included the Red Army, the disabled of the World War І and the Civil War, family members of the dead military, persons who had special merits before the Soviet state, was carried out by the People's Commissariat of Social Security through its departments on the ground at the expense of the state budget. Due to its limited volume, the amount of social payments was significantly inferior to payments made at the expense of insurance premiums.

Embedded Rough-Neck Helmholtz Resonator Low-Frequency Acoustic Attenuator

In various practical noise control scenarios, such as duct noise mitigation, industrial machinery, architectural acoustics, and underwater applications, it is essential to develop noise absorbers that deliver effective low-frequency attenuation while maintaining compact dimensions. To achieve low-frequency absorption within a limited spatial volume, this study proposes an embedded Helmholtz resonator featuring a roughened neck and establishes a numerical computational model that incorporates thermos viscous effects. A quantitative investigation is conducted on three types of embedded rough-neck geometries (rectangular-grooved, triangular-grooved, and undulated) to elucidate their acoustic performance, with particular attention to differences in acoustic transmission loss and acoustic impedance characteristics. In response to the practical demand for even lower-frequency attenuation, this work further focuses on optimizing the structural parameters of an embedded rectangular-grooved Helmholtz resonator (ERHR). A back-propagation (BP) neural network models and predicts how structural parameters impact the acoustic transmission coefficient, elucidating the effects of geometric variations. Moreover, by coupling the BP network with the Golden Jackal Optimization (GJO) algorithm, a BP-GJO optimization model is developed to refine the structural parameters. The findings reveal that the proposed method significantly improves resonator spatial utilization at a specific noise frequency while preserving acoustic transmission loss performance. This work thereby provides a promising strategy for designing low-frequency, compact Helmholtz resonators suitable for a wide range of noise control applications.

Comparative Investigation of Vortex and Direct Plasma Discharge for Treating Titanium Surface.

Numerous studies have investigated the surface treatment of implants using various types of plasma, including atmospheric pressure plasma and vacuum plasma, to remove impurities and increase surface energy, thereby enhancing osseointegration. Most previous studies have focused on generating plasma directly on the implant surface by using the implant as an electrode for plasma discharge. However, plasmas generated under atmospheric and moderate vacuum conditions often have a limited plasma volume, meaning the shape of the electrodes significantly influences the local electric field characteristics, which in turn affects plasma behavior. Consequently, to ensure consistent performance across implants of different sizes and shapes, it is essential to develop a plasma source with discharge characteristics that are unaffected by the treatment target, ensuring uniform exposure. To address this challenge, we developed a novel plasma source, termed "vortex plasma", which generates uniform plasma using a magnetic field within a controlled space. We then compared the surface treatment efficiency of the vortex plasma to that of conventional direct plasma discharge by evaluating hydrophilicity, surface chemistry, and surface morphology. In addition, to assess the biological outcomes, we examined osteoblast cell activity on both the vortex and direct plasma-treated surfaces. Our results demonstrate that vortex plasma improved hydrophilicity, reduced carbon content, and enhanced osteoblast adhesion and activity to a level comparable to direct plasma, all while maintaining the physical surface structure and morphology.

DCA-YOLOv8: A Novel Framework Combined with AICI Loss Function for Coronary Artery Stenosis Detection.

Coronary artery stenosis detection remains a challenging task due to the complex vascular structure, poor quality of imaging pictures, poor vessel contouring caused by breathing artifacts and stenotic lesions that often appear in a small region of the image. In order to improve the accuracy and efficiency of detection, a new deep-learning technique based on a coronary artery stenosis detection framework (DCA-YOLOv8) is proposed in this paper. The framework consists of a histogram equalization and canny edge detection preprocessing (HEC) enhancement module, a double coordinate attention (DCA) feature extraction module and an output module that combines a newly designed loss function, named adaptive inner-CIoU (AICI). This new framework is called DCA-YOLOv8. The experimental results show that the DCA-YOLOv8 framework performs better than existing object detection algorithms in coronary artery stenosis detection, with precision, recall, F1-score and mean average precision (mAP) at 96.62%, 95.06%, 95.83% and 97.6%, respectively. In addition, the framework performs better in the classification task, with accuracy at 93.2%, precision at 92.94%, recall at 93.5% and F1-score at 93.22%. Despite the limitations of data volume and labeled data, the proposed framework is valuable in applications for assisting the cardiac team in making decisions by using coronary angiography results.

Science Mapping the Knowledge Base on Student Retention in Higher Education: A Bibliometric Review of Research Papers from 1914-2022

In this study, we systematically review existing research on college student retention. It utilizes a total of 5277 publications indexed either in Scopus or Web of Science from 1914 to 2022. The results show that most of the research on student retention has been conducted in English-speaking countries such as the United States, Australia, the United Kingdom, and Canada. The United States produces almost two-thirds of scholarly publications worldwide. The term ‘retention’ is commonly used alongside ‘persistence,’ ‘attrition,’ ‘engagement,’ and ‘success.’ Moreover, the term higher education is associated with dropout, completion, and academic performance, as well as new methodological terms like data mining, machine learning, learning analytics, and logistic regression. Retention is also studied in fields such as nursing, engineering, and STEM. Special attention is given to community colleges due to higher dropout rates. Unlike the United States, Australia, the United Kingdom, and Canada, where higher education research on retention is extensive, countries like China and India, which have recently expanded their higher education systems, show a comparatively limited volume of research output concerning student retention.

Investigation of the conditions for the development of quarries of non-metallic building materials on the Upper Belaya, taking into account their impact on the level regime

Currently, the Belaya River is in rather difficult hydrological and navigable conditions, which is generally due to the low water content in the region and the many years of mining of non-metallic building materials actively carried out here. Under existing conditions, it is not enough to ensure guaranteed dimensions of the ship's course only by carrying out track work and strict regulation of production volumes is necessary. As part of the research carried out, the main tasks of conducting hydraulic calculations and methods of their solution are considered, the results of hydraulic calculations of the landing of water levels from quarrying are presented, which showed that in a significant part of the site (33 km of the 76 km studied) further quarrying should be completely prohibited until the restoration of the riverbed and the introduction of building materials quarries on the site; the possibility of quarrying at three sites in limited volumes was allowed; recommendations were given on the parameters of building materials production at a promising field for development. The paper also assesses the impact of dredging for navigation purposes on the amount of water level landing, which showed that they play a secondary role in the general anthropogenic impact on the Upper Belaya riverbed, but at the same time intensive channel mining of building materials and dredging is impossible due to their significant combined effect on the level regime. The implementation of the conclusions and recommendations obtained from the research results will minimize the adverse impact of mining operations.