Piezoelectric Materials for Piezocatalysis and Piezo-Photocatalysis: Fundamentals, Mechanisms, Materials and Environmental Applications

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Piezocatalysis and piezo-photocatalysis have emerged as promising approaches for environmental remediation by utilizing mechanical energy alone or in combination with light to drive redox reactions. This review systematically summarizes the fundamental principles and mechanisms of piezoelectricity, piezocatalysis, photocatalysis, and piezo-photocatalysis, with particular emphasis on charge separation and reactive species generation. Recent advances in piezoelectric materials, including conventional and emerging materials, transition-metal chalcogenides, perovskites, and layered bismuth-based materials, are discussed together with strategies for improving catalytic performance. Their applications in pollutant degradation, heavy-metal removal, water purification, disinfection, and microbial inactivation are further reviewed. Finally, current challenges and future perspectives related to material design, energy utilization, mechanistic understanding, stability, and practical application are highlighted. This review provides an integrated perspective on piezoelectric catalytic systems and their potential for sustainable environmental remediation.

“Balatro Madness” Exploring Addictive Game Elements in Indie Hit Through Octalysis Framework and Flow Theory

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This study explores the addictive elements of the hit indie game Balatro using the Octalysis Framework and Flow Theory. This study employed an explanatory mixed-method approach, combining quantitative survey data with qualitative open-ended responses. The questionnaire was answered by 59 players from the Balatro Game community on Facebook and Discord. Data were collected through a questionnaire structured based on the Octalysis Framework and the Flow model. The findings indicate that Balatro scored 66.78 out of 80 on the Octalysis scale, indicating strong addictive potential. The average Flow score was 28.5 out of 35, indicating high player engagement and an optimal FLOW state. Key addictive elements include: a balanced challenge-skill progression, objectives that adapt to players’ skill levels, collecting Joker cards, unpredictable strategy combinations, and a collectible card system. These elements are effective because Balatro gradually increases in difficulty as players’ skills increase, with eight Stake levels and an unlimited score cap (Naneinf). Players are rewarded with rare cards and encouraged to share achievements socially, which strengthens a sense of ownership and social influence. This research shows that the addictive mechanics in Balatro, developed by a single indie developer, can serve as a replicable model for designing educational and commercial games with high engagement potential.

Mevronic Neural Networks for Explicit Reliability Regime Control. A Semantically Anchored Architecture with Analytical Properties and an Evaluation Protocol

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Autonomous systems face a difficult problem when the information they rely on becomes unreliable: they must decide not only what to predict, but also how much confidence to place in those predictions. This paper introduces Mevronic Neural Networks (MNNs), a design approach that connects a neural representation network with a persistent state describing its operating reliability. Rather than proposing a new computational architecture, the focus is on making the relationship between incoming evidence, stored information, network behavior, and operational decisions more explicit. The proposed model uses three main state variables representing estimated prediction correctness, accumulated anomaly evidence, and sensor quality. These variables influence the system’s alertness and determine how much adaptation is allowed. Their meanings are defined in advance to make the mechanism easier to examine, although the estimates used to update them may still contain errors. The paper explains how the system collects evidence, maintains its internal state, and modifies network features within specified limits. Then it switches to alternative responses when conditions require it. The mathematical results confirm that the state variables stay within their defined boundaries and show how earlier observations influence subsequent updates. They also provide an exact expression for the time needed to reach a given threshold when the incoming evidence remains constant. A numerical example helps illustrate a practical compromise: smoothing reduces rapid fluctuations in the system’s response, but it can also delay reactions to changes in the environment. These results describe the behavior of the regulatory component and do not, by themselves, demonstrate that the complete system is safer or more accurate. To examine whether the proposed approach is useful in practice, the paper presents an experimental plan based on synthetic multisensor tracking. The plan includes comparisons with models given equivalent information, separate datasets for training and testing, and measures that assess both prediction quality and operational behavior. The discussion also considers reference with established techniques, such as recurrent gating, feature-wise modulation, hypernetworks, neuromodulated recurrence, differentiable plasticity, and runtime assurance. Whether MNNs provide sufficient practical benefits to justify their additional complexity remains an open question that requires experiments with trained models and validation in real-world settings.

Evaluating the Accuracy and Usability of an Academic Digital Information Assistant Chatbot Based on Retrieval-Augmented Generation for Academic Learning Grant Services

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Information services for student grant programmes require answers that are fast, consistent, and grounded in official documents, while the rules themselves change with every programme cycle. This study evaluates AIDA (Academic Digital Information Assistant), a university academic service chatbot, within the domain of an academic learning grant programme. Following a Design Science Research framework, the evaluation proceeded in two cycles. The first measured answer accuracy through the assessment of three programme administrators across 32 test questions on the dimensions of relevance, correctness, and completeness. The second measured usability through the Chatbot Usability Questionnaire administered to 76 student users. The first cycle yielded 90.6% relevance, 81.3% correctness, 90.6% completeness, and an overall pass rate of 81.3%, with inter-rater agreement between 82% and 85%. All six failing items shared a single root cause, namely timeline information that had not been updated to the current programme period; three of them were nonetheless judged relevant and complete, rendering the error difficult for users to detect. The second cycle produced a usability score of 67.72 (SD 11.93) with a reliability of 0.865, highest on ease of use and lowest on conversational naturalness and error handling. The study concludes that the principal constraint on administrative service chatbots lies not in language understanding but in the governance of content freshness, and proposes a knowledge base update mechanism tied to the programme calendar.

Improvement in Knee Osteoarthritis and Weight Loss Through Integrative Ayurvedic Management: A Case Study

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​ Background: Osteoarthritis (OA) is the most prevalent form of arthritis worldwide, causing significant disability. Obesity further increases the risk and severity of Osteoarthritis. Current pharmacological treatments like NSAIDs often fail to halt disease progression and are associated with adverse effects. Integrative Ayurvedic management offers a holistic alternative for addressing underlying metabolic and inflammatory contributors to Osteoarthritis.

Methods: A 45-year-old obese female with moderate bilateral knee osteoarthritis, fatty liver, and other systemic complaints underwent a structured Ayurvedic treatment regimen. This included personalized Panchakarma therapies (Snehan, Swedan, PRDA, Janu Basti, Shali Shashti Sweda), oral Rasayana medications, a controlled 800-calorie high-protein/high-fiber diet, and prescribed physical exercise.

Results: The patient showed progressive improvement in functional mobility measured via the KOOS score (from 9% to 67%) and reported significant symptomatic relief. Weight reduction was clinically significant and associated with improved joint mobility and reduced pain. Fatty liver indicators and general systemic health also improved without adverse pharmacological side effects.

Conclusions: The integrative Ayurvedic approach provided holistic, patient-centered care with notable improvements in Osteoarthritis symptoms, body weight, and comorbid conditions. These outcomes support the role of Ayurveda as a complementary modality in managing musculoskeletal and metabolic disorders.

Communicating Women’s Leadership in Higher Education: A Gendered Perspective on Visibility, Voice, and Recognized Authority

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Greater media visibility of women university leaders does not necessarily ensure equivalent recognition of their professional expertise, decision-making authority, or public voice. This conceptual article develops an integrative framework for examining how women’s leadership is communicated in higher education through a gender-sensitive lens. Drawing on an interpretive synthesis of scholarship on gendered organizations, role congruity, framing, feminist discourse analysis, and dialogic public relations, the article distinguishes three analytically separate phenomena: media visibility, representations of authority, and audiences’ recognition of authority. It proposes the Gendered Leadership Image-Communication Framework (GLICF), which connects five communicative stages with four dimensions for analyzing messages. Its central contribution is to articulate the visibility-authority gap: prominent representation does not necessarily convey a leader’s substantive agency or generate public recognition of her authority. Four theoretical propositions specify potentially testable relationships and their contextual qualifications. As a conceptual contribution rather than an empirical investigation, the framework should be treated as a research agenda whose assumptions require testing through content analysis, audience research, and experimental designs.

Olanzapine-Induced Cholestatic Liver Injury Mimicking Obstructive Hepatobiliary Disease: A Case Report

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Drug-induced liver injury can present as biliary obstruction which can lead to difficulties interpreting cholestatic liver enzyme elevations. This report describes a middle-aged woman with bipolar disorder, Hashimoto thyroiditis, fatty liver disease, and a prior cholecystectomy with markedly elevated liver enzymes following a recent increase in her olanzapine dose. Laboratory testing showed an alkaline phosphatase level exceeding 1000 U/L and a gamma-glutamyl transferase level of 768 U/L, with mild elevations in aminotransferases. Further testing showed that the elevated alkaline phosphatase was mainly hepatic in origin. Ultrasound and magnetic resonance cholangiopancreatography showed hepatomegaly but no evidence of bile duct dilatation or choledocholithiasis. Viral hepatitis and autoimmune causes were investigated and workup was unrevealing. Olanzapine was discontinued due to concern for drug-induced liver injury, leading to an improvement in her liver function tests, with alkaline phosphatase decreasing to 406 U/L at outpatient follow-up. Due to the timing of the dosage increase, the ability of olanzapine to cause cholestatic injury, the negative findings on imaging, and the improvement after discontinuing olanzapine, drug-induced cholestatic liver injury was considered the most likely diagnosis. This case shows that olanzapine can mimic an obstructive pattern, and that cholestatic drug injury remains a diagnosis of exclusion, especially after biliary surgery or when occult obstruction is still suspected.

Blood Without a Source: A Diagnostic Challenge in Recurrent Oropharyngeal Bleeding

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Oropharyngeal bleeding may be difficult to distinguish from hemoptysis when the source of blood is not apparent, potentially prompting extensive evaluation for pulmonary or gastrointestinal causes. This report describes an 82-year-old woman who experienced recurrent episodes of bright red blood mixed with saliva over approximately two weeks, without associated coughing or vomiting. Initial evaluation did not identify a bleeding source, and the episodes resolved spontaneously before otolaryngologic examination. Flexible nasolaryngoscopy revealed mild nasal mucosal irritation without active bleeding or an identifiable lesion. Prominent pulsation of the posterior pharyngeal wall raised suspicion for a retropharyngeal carotid course, although this finding was not confirmed by vascular imaging. Minor mucosal trauma was considered a possible explanation, but the exact source of bleeding remained undetermined. This case highlights the importance of localizing unexplained oral bleeding and recognizing potential vascular anatomical variants during examination of the posterior pharynx.

Kalighat Temple in Kolkata: Celebrating the Place for Ritualistic Perception and Togetherness

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Kalighat Temple is one of the most important places of celebrating ritualistic behaviour of people with diverse socio-economic background. The temple is located at Kolkata (earlier Calcutta) in West Bengal state and is considered as a significant cultural heritage site with the association of the Goddess Kali and the Shakti (Sati) Peetha tradition according to Hindu religious belief. People’s ritualistic perception attached to this temple spread from the temple’s inner sanctum and extends into the wider arena of the entire city.

The present study aims to identify the various aspects related to the nature of infrastructure and also investigate to explore the ritualistic perception that are linked to the religious activities of the Kalighat temple. Based on qualitative method of study, the present research reveals that, the Kalighat Temple represents a different significance for different people with diversity in social groups and economic classes and their continuous interactions and interdependencies. The study also points out that, the temple offers numerous possibilities to local people depending on daily, special and ceremonial temple functions both socially, economically, culturally and spiritually.