Preprints.org

Background: The therapeutic effect of neurodynamic mobilization (NM) of the median nerve in mild to moderate carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS) remains inconclusive based on subjective reports and nerve conduction studies. Sonographic measurement of cross-sectional area (CSA) of the median nerve provides an objective method to evaluate treatment outcomes. Objective: To compare the effect of carpal bone…

High-intensity ultrasound (HIUS) has emerged as a promising green technology for modifying the structural and functional properties of plant-based matrices. In this study, Aloe vera gel was subjected to HIUS at different acoustic intensities (11, 28, and 43 W/cm2) and processing times (2.5, 5, and 7.5 min) to evaluate its impact on techno-functional properties, rheological behavior, phenolic prof…

This scoping review sought to assess the evidence base for physical activity (PA) as a potential confounder of vitamin D (vitD) status in health outcomes. Correlations between vitD and health/disease are well-documented. However, this does not always translate in vitD supplementation studies. We hypothesize that these observed relationships may be confounded by PA, especially outdoor PA, which co…

Sesame (Sesamum indicum L.) has potential as forage for ruminants in tropical regions; however, information regarding its productivity and nutritive value under dry tropical conditions remains limited. The objective of this study was to evaluate the effects of fertilization rate and cutting age on forage yield, nutritive characteristics, and nutrient productivity of sesame forage. A split-plot de…

Cyber wargaming serves as a core tool for simulating cyber confrontations and supporting operational decision verification. Existing multi-agent methods face issues such as the absence of cross-level mechanisms, poor adaptability to dynamic environments, and inefficient collaboration when applied to cyber wargaming. To address these challenges, we innovatively propose HC-MARL, a general hierarchi…

Accurate prediction of gold enrichment is critical for mineral exploration and resource evaluation, particularly in data-limited environments where only geochemical information is available. This study evaluates machine learning (ML) models against linear baselines for predicting relative gold enrichment defined as ln(Au/G10), where G10 represents the geometric mean of ten predictor elements (S, …

Cervical cancer is largely preventable through human papillomavirus vaccination, screening, and timely treatment of precancerous lesions, but early detection remains underused in many community settings. This pilot quasi-experimental study evaluated an experiential learning-based health promotion model for improving cervical cancer early detection knowledge and exploratory attitude-response indic…

This article develops an Alena-Rainich-Codazzi (ARC) branch geometry for traceless gauge-side stress tensors of non-null Rainich type. In the admissible sector, the stress-balance condition is represented by a Codazzi-closed anisotropic Lorentzian branch metric whose residual scalar acts as a Codazzi multiplier. The resulting branch has shear-free geodesic Rainich principal null directions and ad…

We establish a complete asymptotic expansion for Quantum Neural Network Operators (QNNOs) approximating arbitrary quantum channels, providing a non-commutative analogue of the classical Voronovskaya theorem. Within a rigorous functional analytic framework, we introduce quantum Sobolev and Hölder spaces Cm,γ(H) based on Fréchet differentiability in the Liouville representation, and we measure appr…

Background. From smallpox variolation practiced in imperial China in the 10th century to the messenger RNA vaccines deployed in 2020, vaccination ranks among the most effective public health interventions in the history of medicine. Nevertheless, the rare but clinically significant occurrence of serious adverse events following immunization (AEFI) remains a major challenge for contemporary pharma…

Water erosion is a critical degradation process that reduces fertility and agricultural sustainability, especially in semi-arid regions. The Universal Soil Loss Equation (USLE) allows for the quantification of this phenomenon using factors such as rainfall erosivity (R) and topography (length-slope, LS). In this study, both factors were estimated and analyzed in the Cañitas sub-basin, located in …

Background/Objectives: Multi-leaf collimator (MLC) positioning accuracy critically affects delivered dose fidelity in volumetric modulated arc therapy (VMAT), yet conventional gamma-based quality assurance (QA) provides only plan-level pass/fail outcomes without leaf-specific error localization. This study developed and validated a convolutional neural network (CNN) framework that classifies the …

Automated diabetic retinopathy (DR) screening has achieved expert-level accuracy, yet clinical adoption remains limited by the opacity of deep neural networks. We address this gap with a DenseNet121-based binary classifier trained on 3,662 retinal fundus images from APTOS 2019, optimised through a two-phase transfer-learning and fine-tuning strategy with focal loss and class-balanced sampling. Th…

This paper investigates bifurcation dynamics in a fractional-order extension of the classical Susceptible–Latent–Breaking–Out model for computer virus propagation. The proposed framework incorporates two distinct transmission-related time delays and employs Caputo fractional derivatives of incommensurate orders, with the delays associated with infection rate and latent period selected as the prim…

Endoscopic submucosal dissection (ESD) has revolutionized the management of superficial colorectal neoplasms, offering superior en bloc resection rates compared with conventional endoscopic mucosal resection (EMR). While ESD has been the standard of care in East Asian countries for over two decades, its adoption in Western countries has been considerably slower, hampered by the steep learning cur…

Dementia represents a growing global public health challenge, driving the rapid expansion of educational interventions aimed at improving awareness and promoting risk-reduction behaviours. Despite this growth, existing research demonstrates a persistent gap between knowledge acquisition and meaningful behavioural change. This paper presents a realist-informed conceptual analysis and proposes an i…

Brasenia schreberi is a nationally protected aquatic macrophyte of substantial ecological value and economic significance, yet its wild populations have declined drastically due to habitat degradation and anthropogenic disturbances. This review systematically synthesizes research progress on the effects of water pH and depth on the growth, ecophysiology, mucilage quality, and community structure …

The rapid growth of Internet of Things (IoT) ecosystems has significantly increased cybersecurity threats due to device heterogeneity, resource limitations, and exposure to distributed attacks. Although Federated Learning (FL) has emerged as a promising privacy-preserving machine learning paradigm for decentralized intrusion detection, existing FL approaches often suffer from non-independent and …

Background/Objectives: Acute ischemic stroke (AIS) care depends on rapid, coordinated workflows. This study compared two real-world in-hospital stroke models—a neurohospitalist-led model and a stroke practitioner–led multidisciplinary model—in terms of time metrics, radiological outcomes, and 3-month clinical outcomes in patients undergoing reperfusion therapy. Methods: This retrospective, single…

Remote and hybrid work have altered where many high-skill workers live, commute, and participate in professional networks, raising new questions for technology-based economic development (TBED) in the United States. This conceptual review asks whether remote work is dispersing innovation activity, creating durable opportunities for smaller metropolitan areas, or reorganizing established geographi…