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A Call for Consensus: A Narrative Review of GPS-Based External Training Load Monitoring in Male Youth Soccer Players

Publication Name: Sports

Publication Date: 2026-04-01

Volume: 14

Issue: 4

Page Range: Unknown

Description:

Background: Global positioning system (GPS) technology is widely used to quantify external training load (ETL) in youth soccer. Despite its extensive application in training and match contexts, considerable heterogeneity is present in the selection, definition, and interpretation of GPS-derived variables, limiting comparability between studies and practical implementation by coaches. Objective: This narrative review aimed to summarize and critically evaluate the current literature on GPS-based ETL monitoring in youth soccer players, with a focus on commonly used variables, methodological considerations, and practical applications in training and match contexts. Methods: A narrative literature search was conducted using PubMed, SPORTDiscus, and Scopus databases. Peer-reviewed studies published in English between the years of 2012 and 2025 were included. Data were extracted on participant characteristics, GPS technology, monitored ETL variables, and contextual settings. Results: The 34 reviewed studies primarily reported total distance (TD; m), high-speed running distance (HSR; m), sprint distance (SD; m), distance per minute (m·min−1), peak speed (km·h−1), and acceleration- and deceleration-based (ACC, DEC; count) ETL variables. Substantial variability was observed in speed thresholds, acceleration definitions, and data processing methods. Positional roles, training formats (e.g., small-sided games), and seasonal phase influenced ETL demands, although methodological inconsistencies limited cross-study comparisons. Conclusion: GPS technology provides valuable insights into the ETL demands of youth soccer. The lack of standardized variable definitions and thresholds remains a major limitation. Greater methodological consistency and clearer reporting standards are required to enhance the practical usefulness of GPS monitoring for coaches in youth soccer.

Open Access: Yes

DOI: 10.3390/sports14040152

Thermal-hydraulic performance of heat exchanger mini- and micro-channels with single-phase flows. A comprehensive review and a comparative study

Publication Name: Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews

Publication Date: 2026-04-01

Volume: 230

Issue: Unknown

Page Range: Unknown

Description:

The efficient use of energy is a prerequisite for the sustainable development of modern society. It requires increasing heat recuperation in various energy-reliant systems, which is possible with heat transfer devices of intensive action, operating in conditions of limited space for installation and material availability for their production. This is achieved by heat exchangers with mini- and micro-channels, regarded as the next generation of heat transfer equipment. A survey of publications on heat transfer and pressure losses in mini- and microchannels is presented, with focus on their thermal-hydraulic performance. It includes straight channels of various cross-sectional forms, channels with enhanced heat transfer for electronic cooling, additively manufactured microchannels, crisscross flow channels of microturbine recuperators, and plate heat exchangers. A novel Micro Heat Factor for the comparison of mini- and microchannels thermal-hydraulic performance is derived. For the detailed estimation of channel performance in specified process conditions, accounting for the differences in hydraulic diameters, the equation for optimal fluid velocity is proposed. The comparison of thermal-hydraulic performance for different types of mini- and micro channels is performed, and the possibilities of their use in heat exchangers at specific applications are discussed, followed by directions of future studies.

Open Access: Yes

DOI: 10.1016/j.rser.2026.116722

The Environmental and Global Impact of Pharmacogenomics: Advancing Green Pharmacy Toward Sustainable and Inclusive Precision Medicine

Publication Name: Journal of Personalized Medicine

Publication Date: 2026-04-01

Volume: 16

Issue: 4

Page Range: Unknown

Description:

Traditional one size fits all pharmacotherapy often yields suboptimal clinical outcomes, preventable adverse drug reactions (ADRs), and significant drug waste, imposing substantial economic and ecological burdens on healthcare systems. This review evaluates the transformative potential of pharmacogenomics (PGx) testing, particularly cytochrome P450 (CYP) gene variants, as a foundation for an ecosystem-centric accountability framework for green pharmacy and links human metabolic variability to specific environmental outcomes. Personalized CYP profiling is shown to minimize the environmental release of unused drugs and potentially ecotoxic metabolites into aquatic ecosystems, in contrast to standard uniform drug use approaches. The limitations of ethnicity-based dosing models, which rely on population genetic variation, are examined in the context of increasing global genetic admixture. It is argued that individual genetic profiling, conceptualized as a PGx-Green Passport, provides a reliable safety standard that accounts for individual differences, thereby enhancing efficiency and well-being in a globalized society. By integrating clinical data, including real-world evidence on hospital utilization, with sustainability frameworks, this review demonstrates that PGx-guided therapy is not only a tool for clinical efficiency but also a fundamental requirement for systematically achieving environmentally sustainable healthcare.

Open Access: Yes

DOI: 10.3390/jpm16040183

ReGAIN: a reinforcement-enhanced generative AI framework for intelligent intrusion detection in IoT networks

Publication Name: Complex and Intelligent Systems

Publication Date: 2026-04-01

Volume: 12

Issue: 4

Page Range: Unknown

Description:

The advent of the Internet of Things (IoT) enables billions of devices in wide-ranging domains such as healthcare, industry, and smart cities to interconnect with each other, but these connections make the network vulnerable to advanced cyber threats too. Current intrusion detection methods have failed to provide effective detection capabilities mainly because of issues such as extremely imbalanced data distributions, low classification accuracy, or static and manually tuned hyperparameters that do not generalize well in dynamic IoT settings. These challenges are exacerbated by unique IoT constraints, including limited device resources and dynamic attack patterns, which further complicate effective detection. To address these challenges, in this study we present a Reinforcement-enhanced Generative Artificial Intelligence (ReGAIN) framework for intelligent intrusion detection in IoT networks. In this approach, we use a generative autoencoder for data balancing to generate realistic minority class instances in the latent feature space, and meanwhile to obtain stable and unbiased learning of the model. This paper introduces a novel Pointer-Attention Dual Network (PAD-Net) that employs a Dual Attention Network (DANet) and a Pointer Network (PtrNet) to enhance spatial attention and inter-feature relationships. We also propose Reinforcement-enhanced PAD-Net (RePAD-Net), which leverages reinforcement learning to automatically optimize key hyperparameters at each training step, further enhancing generalization ability and robustness. The intrusion detection task in this study is a multi-class classification problem, where different types of attacks are distinguished from each other. Experimental results demonstrate that PAD-Net and RePAD-Net achieve notable improvements of 3.79% and 8.79% in accuracy, 3.79% and 8.78% in recall, 2.79% and 9.01% in F1-score, 3.79% and 8.83% in Mathews correlation coefficient, and 3.94% and 9.11% in Cohen’s Kappa, respectively, along with significant reductions in log loss of 47.42% and 70.96% and hamming loss of 24.33% and 56.37% compared with baseline models such as naive bayes, gradient boosting, densely connected network, long short term memory, hybrid models, DANet and PtrNet. Additionally, 10-fold cross validation is applied to validate the results of proposed models. These findings confirm that our proposed ReGAIN framework, which is able to alleviate data imbalance and improve learning generalization, can dramatically enhance the reliability of detection performance under complex IoT intrusion environments.

Open Access: Yes

DOI: 10.1007/s40747-026-02241-3

Mapping the Climate–Water–Health Nexus Across African Climatic Regions (2000–2020)

Publication Name: Water Switzerland

Publication Date: 2026-04-01

Volume: 18

Issue: 7

Page Range: Unknown

Description:

This study develops and applies a Climate–Water–Health (CWH) Nexus Index to compare multi-dimensional risk trajectories across six African Least Developed Countries, namely, Chad, Democratic Republic of Congo, Lesotho, Madagascar, Niger, and Togo, each representing major climatic regions. Using decadal averages for 2000–2009 and 2010–2020, the study constructs three sub-indices—Climate Risk Index, Water Insecurity Index, and Health Burden Index—and then aggregates them into a composite CWH index. Indicators are harmonized via min–max normalization, and water and health measures are expressed per 100,000 population to ensure cross-country comparability under differing population sizes. The results of the study indicate substantial heterogeneity in both levels and drivers of nexus risk. The CWH risk decreased in most countries from the 2000s to the 2010s, while relative positions shifted as improvements occurred unevenly across dimensions. Sensitivity analysis with equal and dimension-focused weights confirms that core country groupings and extremes are robust to plausible weighting schemes. External consistency checks show a strong negative Pearson correlation between the standard CWH and the Human Development Index in both decades, indicating that higher human development is associated with lower Nexus risk. The proposed framework is transparent, scalable, and suitable for extension to broader African coverage and subnational mapping.

Open Access: Yes

DOI: 10.3390/w18070767

Navigating Cost-Efficient Circular Integration of Plastic Waste-to-X Pathways into Oil Refinery Using the Graph-Theoretic Approach

Publication Name: Industrial and Engineering Chemistry Research

Publication Date: 2026-04-01

Volume: 65

Issue: 12

Page Range: 6587-6604

Description:

Plastic waste conversion has been widely recognized as a promising strategy to address growing waste management challenges. However, the feasibility of its integration into existing industrial systems remains uncertain. This paper explores a plastic waste-to-X strategy aimed at reintegrating plastic waste into its original supply chain, in alignment with circular economy principles. A graph-theoretic optimization model is developed using P-graph to identify the optimal and near-optimal pathway configurations under multiple scenarios. Under a cost minimization scenario, the optimal solution achieves a 0.013–0.19% lower cost compared with alternative pathways; however, related to the higher opportunity cost of up to 24,364 USD/y from forgone utility savings and carbon tax reductions. Incorporating carbon credits shifts the focus toward balancing cost efficiency and emission reduction. Under budget constraints, the benefit-cost analysis reveals that emission reduction does not increase linearly with budget expansion. These findings guide decision-makers in setting realistic emission reduction targets and allocating budget efficiently, while helping policymakers to develop a financial scheme that promotes greater emission reductions without excessive expenditure.

Open Access: Yes

DOI: 10.1021/acs.iecr.5c04350

Curated Vibration Features and an Interpretable Gearbox Health Index (GHI) Baseline for Condition Monitoring Bench-Marking

Publication Name: Data

Publication Date: 2026-04-01

Volume: 11

Issue: 4

Page Range: Unknown

Description:

This data descriptor provides a standardized and reproducible subsystem-level representation of the NREL wind turbine gearbox condition monitoring benchmarking dataset. The released records are derived from Healthy (H1–H10) and Damaged (D1–D10) measurement files and include subsystem-level standardized indices (KHI_HS, KHI_IMS, KHI_PL) together with a calibrated 0–1 Gearbox Health Index (GHI). The indices are generated using a fully specified and deterministic feature extraction and aggregation workflow based on established vibration indicators and healthy-referenced normalization. The Zenodo deposit contains machine-readable CSV tables intended to support transparent benchmarking across supervised classification and anomaly detection studies. The proposed GHI is introduced as an interpretable and reproducible reference baseline rather than an optimized diagnostic model. Technical validation demonstrates condition-level separability within the analyzed dataset while emphasizing the descriptive nature of the index. By releasing structured derived records and a documented regeneration procedure, this work enables an implementation-independent comparison of gearbox condition monitoring approaches and supports reproducible evaluation of alternative health index formulations. Dataset: 10.5281/zenodo.18832721. Dataset License: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC-BY 4.0)

Open Access: Yes

DOI: 10.3390/data11040070

Psychophysiological measures of a SuperEnduro athlete during a world championship: an in-situ case study

Publication Name: Frontiers in Psychology

Publication Date: 2026-03-31

Volume: 17

Issue: Unknown

Page Range: Unknown

Description:

Introduction – SuperEnduro is a high-risk motorcycle sport with no prior empirical data. This case study analyzed an elite rider during the fifth round of the 2023/2024 SuperEnduro Grand Prix. Methods – Psychological measures included core-, positive-, and negative affect, expected and perceived performance, mental and physical exhaustion, perceived risk of racing addiction, and a post-race interview. Physiological measures encompassed heart rate, caloric expenditure, work intensity, and training loads. Results – Results showed a decline in core affect, with positive affect remaining high and negative affect low after three races. Anxiety decreased progressively, but perceived and objective performance remained low. Elevated physiological measures and subjective perceptions confirmed SuperEnduro’s intensity. The participant self-identified himself as addicted to racing. However, his addiction score was low, suggesting passion or emotional attachment—a blend of pleasure and pain—driving his commitment to race even when injured. Discussion – These findings provide insight into the physical and psychological demands unique to SuperEnduro athletes.

Open Access: Yes

DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2026.1642621

Anti-fibrotic effect of Spirulina maxima-derived extracellular vesicles: possible role of PARK7 and HSP70 chaperones

Publication Name: Frontiers in Bioengineering and Biotechnology

Publication Date: 2026-03-31

Volume: 14

Issue: Unknown

Page Range: Unknown

Description:

Introduction – Spirulina maxima (Sm), a blue-green microalgae, is well known for its rich nutritional composition, antioxidant, and anti-inflammatory properties. In this study, we found that small extracellular vesicles (sEVs) isolated from Sm exhibit antifibrotic activity. Methods – Sm derived sEVs (Sm_sEV) were purified from the Sm culture medium using tangential flow filtration (TFF), followed by size-exclusion chromatography (SEC). Characterization of the sEVs was performed using nanoparticle tracking analysis (NTA), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), immunogold TEM, surface-enhanced IR spectroscopy (SEIRS), and flow cytometry (FC). Internalization of DiI-labeled sEVs by human primary peritoneal mesothelial cells (P-MCs) and peritoneal fibroblasts (p-FBs) was examined using fluorescence microscopy. The effect of sEVs on mesenchymal transition of P-MCs and activation of P-FBs was investigated by immunofluorescent staining, MTT cell-proliferation, and Sirius Red collagen accumulation assays, respectively. The antifibrotic relevance of Sm_sEV was further investigated in a chlorhexidine digluconate (CG)-induced mouse model of peritoneal fibrosis. Results – The isolated Sm_sEV exhibited a spherical morphology, with a size range of 150.0 ± 67.6 nm, and the protein-to-lipid ratio (P/L_spectr) was 2.27 ± 0.07. The sEVs cargo contained Parkinson’s disease protein 7 (PARK7), and heat shock protein 70 (HSP70). DiI-labeled sEVs were successfully internalized by both P-MCs and P-FBs and inhibited TGF-β-induced mesenchymal transition in P-MCs and the collagen production and PDGF-B-induced proliferation in P-FBs. In vivo, intraperitoneal administration of Sm_sEVs reduced CG-induced submesothelial thickening, fibronectin, and collagen type I alpha 1 immunopositivity, and increased cytokeratin 18, immunopositivity in the mesothelial layer. Discussion – These findings highlight the antifibrotic effect of Sm_sEV and support their further investigation in the context of fibrosis.

Open Access: Yes

DOI: 10.3389/fbioe.2026.1761403