Fingerprint recognition is a widely adopted biometric technology, valued for its reliability and precision in identifying individuals. However, traditional recognition methods relying on handcrafted features struggle under challenging scenarios such as overpressured fingerprints, where excessive pressure distorts ridge patterns, significantly affecting performance. To address these challenges, this study proposes a novel framework combining domain adaptation techniques and an attention mechanism. The framework aligns feature distributions between source and target domains, enhancing the model's generalizability to diverse datasets and acquisition conditions. Additionally, the attention mechanism emphasizes critical regions of the fingerprint, improving robustness to distortions. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed model significantly outperforms the original ResNet, achieving a reduced Equal Error Rate (EER) of 0.0837 compared to 0.1840 for the baseline. Grad-CAM visualizations further validate the model's ability to focus on essential fingerprint features, even under distorted conditions. This study highlights the effectiveness of integrating domain adaptation and attention mechanisms in overcoming real-world challenges in fingerprint recognition.

A document by Chunli Dong. Click on the document to view its contents.

Biological invasions disrupt ecosystems, economies, and disease transmission pathways, yet the mechanisms underlying invasion success remain debated. The Enemy Release Hypothesis (ERH) posits that non-native host populations thrive due to reduced pathogen pressure. While widely tested in plants and in vector-borne diseases, ERH remains understudied for enteric pathogens, which have generalist host ranges and are transmitted via faecal-oral and environmental routes. We examined the prevalence of two enteric bacteria, avian pathogenic Escherichia coli (APEC) and Salmonella enterica, in native and non-native house sparrows (Passer domesticus) from eight global populations (n = 200). We tested whether population status, sex, and urbanization influenced infection risk and examined effects on condition. Contrary to ERH, pathogen prevalence was not lower in non-native populations. Instead, we detected sex-specific amplification of infections: females from non-native populations had significantly higher odds of APEC infection than native females. Urbanization also disproportionately increased infection risk in females, highlighting sex-specific vulnerability. Infection had no measurable impact on condition, suggesting house sparrows may tolerate enteric infections, although differential mortality cannot be ruled out. These findings challenge the generality of ERH and suggest that successful invaders like house sparrows may persist by tolerating, rather than avoiding, pathogen exposure.

In the industrial framework, machines are essential, but controlling them effectively is still a difficult task. With the help of the STM32 platform and the system identification toolbox, this study presents a real-time implementation of a Blackbox DC motor using a Proportional Integral-Derivative (PID) controller under both load and no-load conditions. After undergoing extensive testing with a range of parameter values and stages, the experimental setup showed impressive efficiency. But more improvements are required, which means optimization algorithms must be created to improve the system’s functionality. The crucial nexus between motor systems and control engineering is clarified by this study, providing information for further developments in the area.

Plant biodiversity DNA banks are scarce despite the current plant biodiversity loss, their value for ex situ conservation, DNA preservation progress and the rapid growth of DNA-dependent research fields. We explore the principles and basic organization of plant biodiversity DNA banking and propose new ways of addressing the biodiversity loss through their implementation. Small Department collections could be created through a 6-step holistic process aiming to interconnect 3 types of collections (DNA extracts, DNA-rich tissues and herbarium vouchers) while generating Extended Specimens that would contribute to local and global plant biodiversity knowledge and conservation efforts. We propose a change in the international biobanking strategy (the 2 Dynamo scheme) as interconnecting many small Department collections would put fewer samples at risk in case of catastrophe, optimise sampling strategies and cover in depth more taxa and distribution ranges, while encouraging national and international collaborations.

Phenotypic plasticity can allow individuals to compensate for potentially negative changes in their thermal environment. It is important, therefore, to understand the impacts of changes in both mean and fluctuations in temperature on plastic responses. Our aim was to establish the current state-of-knowledge regarding the influence of thermal variability on the capacity for phenotypic plasticity in ectothermic vertebrates and invertebrates. We conducted a quantitative synthesis of 44 studies (212 effect sizes across 40 species) to compare the effects of constant and fluctuating temperatures with the same mean on plasticity in biological responses, across different ecosystems (terrestrial and aquatic) and type of phenotypic plasticity (acclimation and developmental plasticity). We found that most studies implemented diel temperature fluctuations, and that phenotypic plasticity does not differ between constant and fluctuating thermal environments. We conclude that plasticity and its attendant compensation for thermal variability is driven by changes in longer-term mean temperatures.

An enigmatic yet inexplicable human trait is the dark hair-red beard dyad. The prevalence of the ginger beard far exceeds that for red hair. We show that this is another manifestation of the ubiquitous Thayer’s Theorem of countershading. This posits that the inferior/ventral surfaces of organisms, facing away from the sun, are lighter to facilitate camouflage. The highly encephalised human with dominant chin and prominent forehead is thus less distinctive, facilitating hunting and predator evasion. This was likely a natural selective process rather than pogonophilic sexual selection. Extrapolating from Thayer’s paradigm, we show that peacock plumage may represent a unique form of camouflage intended not to protect the peacock but the peahen. The flamboyant apparel sequesters all the attention of would-be predators, rendering the peahen inconspicuous. Females thus select the most striking males. This paradigm is successful because disequilibrium in male-female ratios is not deleterious, given that peacocks tend to appropriate loosely-assembled “harem”. Further peahens undertake all parental duties. Peacocks have a mode of evasion via flight mitigating male attrition. This need for flight acts as a counter-balance to the female selective predilection. Unchecked this would otherwise lead to supererogatory but non-volant phenotypes. We term this uxorial or pascal camouflage.

As software artifacts continuously evolve and increase in number, failure to manage traceability leads to feature inconsistencies, untested critical functionality, and increased maintenance costs. Automated traceability is therefore essential to prevent gaps in coverage between source code, documentation, and tests. The need for tracing to application domains is critical to understand the classification of semantics and the coverage (i.e., which application domain is present in each artifact?). In this paper, we propose the notion of using NLP to map concepts emerging from software artifacts to application domains, and tracing these between artifacts. We extracted the corpus keywords from source code, documentation, and tests. We ran an optimised Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA) to generate the concepts emerging from each artifact. We then calculated the similarity scores of each concept against each application domain, and ranked the difference of these scores between pairwise artifacts. Results show that the ranking of the inverse of the difference represents the strength of tracing in semantics, and different embeddings show varying results. We observed the strong applicability of our method and its replicability by other researchers and practitioners, particularly in detecting synchronised application domains that are traced between artifacts.

Il Sistema Sanitario Nazionale italiano (SSN) ha implementato diverse riforme e investimenti volti a migliorare l’assistenza primaria e l’infrastruttura digitale, in particolare attraverso il Piano Nazionale Ripresa Resilienza (PNRR). Il documento in esame analizza la struttura organizzativa multilivello del SSN, le iniziative chiave e le reti fisiche e digitali, tra cui le Care Networks, le reti Hub-Spoke e la Connected Care. Tali sforzi sono orientati al miglioramento dell’equità, della resilienza e dell’accesso all’assistenza sanitaria nelle diverse regioni. Nonostante le sfide continue legate alla navigazione nelle complessità di un sistema sanitario decentralizzato, l’attenzione strategica dell’Italia sull’innovazione strutturale e digitale indica un chiaro percorso verso un servizio sanitario nazionale più moderno e accessibile.

This study presents newly recorded algal species from Wayanad, a high-altitude district in the Western Ghats, highlighting additions to both Kerala and India's algal flora. A total of 126 algal samples were collected and documented 124 algal taxa previously unreported from Wayanad. Among these, 113 represent new records for Kerala and 11 for India. The collection includes 66 diatoms, 40 desmids, 11 species from the order Chlorococcales, 6 from Euglenophyceae, and 1 from Cyanophyceae. This investigation marks the first comprehensive survey of algal diversity conducted in Wayanad between April 2019 and June 2021.

Unintentional Administration of Heparin into the Epidural Space: a case reportShunyi Fan1, * Ying Yuan2 Yu Zhang3Department of Anaesthesiology , The Ninth People’s Hospital of Chong qing, Beibei Affiliated Hospital of Chongqing Medical University, Chongqing, ChinaCorrespondence : Shunyi Fan, (shunyifan@outlook.com)Funding : The authors received no specific funding for this work.Keywords: Epidural catheter;unintentional administration;Heparin

A document by shuqian cai. Click on the document to view its contents.

WBCs, or white blood cells, Leukemia Excessive leukocyte production in the bone marrow is the etiology of leukemia, and image-based detection of malignant WBCs is crucial for its identification. For the identification of malignant WBCs, it is essential to accurately classify them from medical imaging. The accuracy and computing efficiency of conventional techniques, including decision trees and naive Bayes classifiers, are constrained. This study offers a sophisticated approach to WBC leukemia classification by using an Improved Salp Swarm Algorithm (ISSA) for feature selection and the Grey Level Co-occurrence Matrix (GLCM) for feature extraction. The most pertinent features are chosen by this bio-inspired optimization technique, which also eliminates noisy and highly correlated features. A deep neural network model that has been modified (EDLM) is intended to improve prediction accuracy and avoid overfitting. used theThe suggested strategy outperformed traditional techniques like Naivenaive Bayes (74%) and SVM (89%), achieving a classification accuracy of 95% when applied to a public WBC Leukemia reference dataset. The suggested method shows promise as a useful tool for WBC leukemia classification, providing both high accuracy and computational efficiency, with high precision and recall values of 94% and 88%, respectively.

Time series analysis has consistently captivated the scholarly community. Within the realm of power trading security assurance systems, valuable information can be obtained by analyzing the time series data of power trading. Consequently, this study advocates for a novel time-series anomaly detection approach predicated on the amalgamation of ARIMA and multi-layer LSTM networks. The time series is partitioned into linear and nonlinear components, with the linear segment undergoing processing via the ARIMA module. Subsequently, the processed outcomes are juxtaposed with the original data for residual and white noise detection to derive more suitable nonlinear mode insights for processing within the multi-layer LSTM model. This methodological framework effectively addresses the challenge of abnormal data detection in network systems. Comparative analysis against various historical detection models reveals an average performance enhancement exceeding 5% in key metrics.

Gross ecosystem product (GEP) accounting can be used to reveal the contributions of ecosystems to economic and social development and human well-being. However, most current studies have only focused on the accounting of GEP values within an administrative unit,this type of data cannot reflect the spatial heterogeneity within the statistical unit even though it can reflect the differences between the statistical units. In this paper, we construct a spatialization method using the net primary productivity (NPP) and tourism suitability index to spread the total GEP in administrative areas over geographic grids of certain sizes, and then, we take the Zhongshan District, Guizhou Province, China, as a case study for analysis. The results show that (1) the constructed spatialization method can reflect the spatial heterogeneity of the GEP within administrative units and ecosystem types, objectively representing the characteristics of the spatial distribution of the GEP. (2) The spatial distribution patterns of the value of product provisioning, the value of regulating services, and the total value of the GEP are consistent, i.e., high in the northwestern part of the study area and low in the southeastern part, while the value of cultural services exhibits the opposite spatial pattern. (3) The GEPs of the different ecosystem types differ significantly: cropland > forest land > wetlands > shrubland > grassland > urban land. Spatialization of the GEP can realize overlaying analysis with multiple driving factors, providing technical support for further analysis of the change patterns of the GEP.

A document by Yanmei Li. Click on the document to view its contents.

Liver fibrosis, characterized by excessive extracellular matrix (ECM) deposition, can progress to cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma. Hepatic stellate cells (HSC) drive fibrogenesis through collagen accumulation. While natural killer (NK) cells are known to mediate the antifibrotic effects of interleukin-10 (IL-10), the underlying mechanisms remain elusive. Here, we demonstrate that IL-10 enhances NK cell activation and cytotoxicity by inducing HSC senescence. In vitro and in vivo experiments showed that IL-10-induced HSC senescence upregulates NK cell-activating ligands (MICA/B, ULBP2, and PVR in humans; RAE-1 in mice), which in turn promotes the expression of NK cell-activating receptors (NKG2D and NKP46) and co-activating receptors (CD226), enhancing NK cell cytotoxicity. Blocking NKG2D attenuated the immune-enhancing effects of IL-10-induced senescent HSC on NK cells. Moreover, IL-10-induced senescent HSC secrete CCL5, recruiting NK cells to fibrotic livers and suppressing fibrosis progression. Collectively, our findings reveal that IL-10 attenuates liver fibrosis by inducing HSC senescence, which enhances NK cell activation and cytotoxicity via the NKG2D pathway.

Financial fraud remains a critical challenge for digital banking, requiring detection solutions that ensure both scalability and data privacy. Traditional centralized approaches face limitations due to security risks and system bottlenecks. This paper proposes FedFraud, a novel federated learning framework that detects fraudulent transactions without sharing raw data. FedFraud introduces two key innovations: (i) a trust-aware client aggregation mechanism that assigns weights based on update reliability, and (ii) an asynchronous communication protocol enabling clients to contribute updates independently. Evaluated on the Credit Card Fraud Detection dataset under a non-IID setup, FedFraud achieves an F1-score of 0.90 and AUC of 0.96, outperforming FedAvg and state-of-the-art methods like FedGAT and FL-BGAT. It also reduces privacy leakage to 1.5% and limits gradient reconstruction success to 15%, compared to 35% for FedAvg. Scalability tests show stable convergence with up to 100 clients, establishing FedFraud as an effective and privacy-preserving solution for decentralized financial fraud detection.

Comment on ”Short Sleep Duration and Physical and Psychological Health Outcomes among Adult Survivors of Childhood Cancer”Letter to the EditorTo the Editor,Anees Rafique, United Medical and Dental College (Corresponding Author) Abdul Rehman, United Medical and Dental CollegeWe read with keen interest the article by Lubas et al., “Short sleep duration and physical and psychological health outcomes among adult survivors of childhood cancer,” published in Pediatric Blood & Cancer [1]. The research identifies the major role sleep disturbances play in this sensitive population group while providing valuable information about the correlation between sleep duration and long-term health outcomes. It is the right thing for the authors to highlight that lack of adequate sleep by the survivors of childhood cancer can be harmful to physical and psychological health; hence, it is an essential part of survivorship care.   However, there are a number of issues that need further discussion and are likely to augment the findings by the article. First, although the study offers convincing cross-sectional data, the fact that it fails to establish causality is a limitation that needs to be addressed. Longitudinal studies would shed a clearer light on whether an increased duration of sleep would result in better health outcomes over time. Research that has tracked survivors over a long period may provide a more informative perspective on what effects below interventions might have in relation to cancer-related health risks [2].   Second, the possible mechanisms linking sleep duration to adverse outcomes are poorly explained in the study. There is evidence that reduced rest during childhood may interfere with the proper functioning of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis – which has extensive effects on immune functioning and mental health – of survivors of childhood cancer [3]. This biological revelation should be taken to enhance our understanding of why sleep duration is so critical in these patients.   Besides, the research overlooks the impact of socio-economic differences on sleep health. While system proximity may lower the risk of fatal breakage and a shorter duration of recovery, sleep deficiency in survivors with lower socioeconomic background may be worsened by suboptimal living conditions, limited access to healthcare, and social stressors [4]. This brings the need to take consideration of both health duration and environmental and social precursors of the children cancer survivors when addressing their need as opposed to focusing only on the duration of sleep.   Third, it is delimitated as a problem of the general phenomenon of sleep but does not mention the role of individual sleep disorders such as insomnia or sleep apnea among them, which can be more widespread among the population in question. Further analysis of such disorders and their particular effect on survivors may help make more effective interventions. Also, it is important to research cognitive-behavioral therapy for insomnia, which has been successful with pediatric populations, as an option in treatment for these survivors [5].   Finally, as the authors correctly assume, access to sleep interventions plays an important aspect. For instance, the equity in availability of behavioral health services, including sleep-focused therapies, is a major cause of concern. Survivors, particularly from rural or under-resourced areas, may have difficulties accessing these services. The incorporation of mobile health (mHealth) platforms into treatment of clinical care can be a viable solution to this barrier as well as wider access to evidence-based sleep interventions [6].   To conclude, although the article by Lubas et al. makes valuable contributions to the study on childhood cancer survivorship, there is need for additional research to address those as well. Through incorporating the longitudinal study, it would help to understand the inner biology mechanism, socio-economic aspect, and also specific sleep disorder, childhood cancer survivors can get a better response towards sleep health.References1. Lubas, Michelle M., Belinda N. Mandrell, Kevin R. Krull, et al. ”Short Sleep Duration and Physical and Psychological Health Outcomes among Adult Survivors of Childhood Cancer.” *Pediatric Blood & Cancer* 68, no. 7 (2021): e28988.   2. Rosen, Gail, and Stewart R. Brand. ”Sleep in Children with Cancer: Case Review of 70 Children Evaluated in a Comprehensive Pediatric Sleep Center.” *Supportive Care in Cancer* 19, no. 7 (2011): 985–993.   3. Hysing, Mari, Ib Elgen, Christopher Gillberg, et al. ”Chronic Sleep Problems in Children: A Longitudinal Population-Based Study.” *Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine* 15, no. 2 (2019): 255–263.   4. Daniel, Lindsay C., Yimei Li, Laura D. Brumley, et al. ”mHealth Interventions for Sleep in Pediatric Populations: A Systematic Review.” *Pediatric Blood & Cancer* 70, no. 9 (2023): e30529.   5. Muench, Julia, Kristen Hoh, Katie Pahl, et al. ”Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy for Insomnia in Pediatric Patients with Cancer: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.” *Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine* 16, no. 5 (2020): 751–761.   6. Daniel, Lindsay C., Yimei Li, Laura D. Brumley, et al. ”Mobile Health Applications for Sleep Disorders in Children: A Review.” *Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine* 18, no. 2 (2022): 307–315.Sincerely,   Anees Rafique United Medical and Dental College (Corresponding Author)   Abdul Rehman United Medical and Dental College

Title: Comment on: Risk of Metabolic Syndrome and Glucose Homeostasis Among Childhood and Young Adult Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia Survivors: Part of the ALL-STAR StudyArticle type: Letter to the EditorCorrespondence: 1. Rimsha IjazEmail: rimsha14ijaz@gmail.comInstitute: Sargodha Medical College.Address: Sargodha, Pakistan.ORCID: 0009-0004-4769-9522.0009-0004-4769-9522Co-authors: 2 . Zahra RiazEmail: zahra.riaz0913@gmail.comInstitution: Sargodha Medical College.ORCID: 0009-0004-8208-9914

Introduction. Substance use is common and developmentally normative among young adults and linked to poor outcomes among young people with early psychosis. Peer Support Specialists (PSSs) are increasingly part of early psychosis Coordinated Specialty Care (CSC). PSSs use their lived mental health experience to support CSC clients—yet PSSs vary widely in their perspectives and experiences with substance use and how they respond to client substance use. This study describes the development of a substance use practice approach for CSC PSSs. Methods. This study occurred within the “Advancing Early Psychosis Intervention Network in Texas” (EPINET-TX), a university-affiliated Learning Health System with 15 community mental health providers and 29 CSC teams. A Participatory Action Research team composed of a coordinator with PSS experience, community mental health intervention researchers and a current CSC PSS leveraged EPINET-TX research findings, literature review and expert consultation to design “Peer Approaches to Substances for Early Psychosis Programs” (PAS-EPP). The team developed a conceptual model, practice principles and core practices, and training materials. Results. PAS-EPP has eight practice principles and four core practice domains. The PAS-EPP toolkit provides an adaptable, accessible harm reduction approach to substances for CSC PSSs intended to promote self-exploration of personal beliefs and biases, intentional sharing and team collaboration strategies, and confidence building in capacity to explore and share information about substance use that is relevant to young people. Conclusion. PAS-EPP is a promising for CSC PSSs. Future evaluation of PAS-EPP will provide insight into its feasibility and impact.

A document by Yawei Chen. Click on the document to view its contents.

An attempt is made here to analyze mental conditions of selected politicians. Physical maltreatment was described in biographies of Vladimir Putin. Child abuse is associated with various psychiatric and related conditions including paranoia. A paranoid call may sanction destruction of supposed enemies. Putin formulated aims of his military operation, one of them being protection of Russian-speakers from genocide. It is known that ethnic Russians have not undergone genocide. Apparently, this idea is delusional. Certain war instigators are paranoid in their tendency to present themselves as prophets or world saviors. Some of them are aggressive against delusional goals. Mentally healthy people can be susceptible to psychotic appeals, a predisposing condition being fear of strangers and projection of hatred upon them. Some ethnically non-Russian subjects within and outside the Federation may be interested in a continuation of the Ukraine war; and there are concerns that Putin has come under their influence. The most important topic in this connection is the inter-ethnic difference in the birth rate and migrations, which is avoided by Russian media and officials these days. Potential mental conditions of some other politicians and ideologists are briefly analyzed here.

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is a neurodegenerative disorder characterized by a set of multifactorial conditions that progressively impair memory processing and cognitive function. The study of this pathology is particularly challenging due to its complex etiology, which involves several pathological hallmarks, including amyloid plaque formation, tau protein hyperphosphorylation, neuroinflammation, oxidative stress, and other contributing factors—all leading to neuronal loss. The primary therapeutic approach for AD involves the use of anticholinesterase agents; however, these treatments are associated with adverse effects, and their efficacy has been increasingly questioned. Against this backdrop, researchers have investigated cannabidiol (CBD) as a potential complementary treatment for AD. This study compiles and synthesizes current evidence regarding the therapeutic effects of CBD in the context of AD, examining its impact on the amyloid cascade, tau phosphorylation, neuroinflammation, oxidative stress, the cholinergic pathway, glucose and lipid metabolism, behavioral alterations, and physiological changes. In addition, an in silico analysis was conducted based on studies that identified differential gene expression in response to CBD. Through this analysis, we mapped the gene network and biological pathways involved in CBD’s mechanism of action in AD, contributing to the identification of potential gene targets for further research and providing deeper insight into its therapeutic potential.