X-ray imaging using photon-counting detectors (PCDs) allows for the calculation of quantitative images such as the effective atomic number (Zeff). However, physical phenomena such as characteristic X-ray emission and charge sharing can cause incomplete total absorption events during signal generation, which reduces the accuracy of X-ray penetration analysis. To solve the problem, an anti-coincidence mode (ACM) has been developed, but complete correction has not been established. We aimed to investigate the accuracy of Zeff image when the proposed software-based corrections, namely beam hardening and response function corrections, are added to the hardware-based correction of the ACM. The response function was calculated using the Monte-Carlo simulation code. In a simulation study, we analyzed a phantom composed of virtual materials with Zeff values of 4–16. While sufficient accuracy cannot be achieved by applying only the ACM, it was demonstrated that low-noise Zeff images can be obtained by applying our correction. Furthermore, it was demonstrated that Zeff images of food samples can be generated by using actual non-destructive testing equipment with a 10 m/min transportation speed. In conclusion, our correction procedure can maximize the performance of PCDs, and our findings are essential for promoting imaging techniques concerning quantitative images.
This study investigates the behavioural and operational dynamics of a night-time demand-responsive transport (DRT) system in the alpine resort of Hakuba, Japan, within a digitally mediated service environment, with particular attention to the temporal and spatial patterns of seasonal tourism. Using a dataset of 5,232 completed trips, the analysis identifies the key drivers of demand intensity in a low-density mountainous context. The findings reveal a dispersed hub configuration, defined here as notable demand concentration at a limited number of functional stops combined with low geographic clustering and scattered local hotspots. This pattern reflects the role of DRT in connecting physically fragmented activity nodes. Moreover, the results highlight a distinct seasonal tourism rhythm: demand is shaped by month-to-month variation within the winter season and short-term temporal persistence, rather than conventional weekday–weekend cycles. The scale of passenger-carrying service delivery provides a baseline for understanding the operational demands of night-time DRT in rural, seasonally intensive tourism settings. The findings from the study suggest that DRT planning in such contexts should move beyond rigid, calendar-based approaches towards seasonally adaptive strategies that account for temporal persistence and spatial fragmentation in tourism-driven mobility systems.
Mongolia hosts about three thousand lakes across arid and semi-arid continental interiors, where tectonic, climatic, and ecological diversity makes lacustrine systems sensitive archives of Late Quaternary to modern environmental change. Located at the intersection of the mid-latitude westerlies, the East Asian summer monsoon, and the Siberian High, Mongolian lakes record spatially heterogeneous responses to climate forcing, basin evolution, and cryospheric dynamics. Since the early 1990s, lake-based research in Mongolia has expanded substantially; however, a nationally integrated synthesis linking geological timescales, basin controls, and the evolution of research themes has remained limited. Here we review 214 lake-related studies published between 1990 and 2025, classified by publication year, study region, research focus, author nationality, and journal–publisher structure in order to evaluate how Mongolian lake research has developed and become increasingly integrated into the international scientific literature. This classification also provides insight into the evolution of publication outlets and language transitions within global lake research. The synthesis reveals strong regional contrasts in lake evolution, reflecting interactions among tectonic processes, hydroclimatic variability, and cryospheric change. Over time, research has shifted from climate-driven lake-level reconstructions toward multi-proxy interpretations supported by improved chronological frameworks and remote-sensing observations. Future research will benefit from integrating high-resolution sediment archives, improved chronological frameworks, and long-term hydrological monitoring. Important knowledge gaps remain in desert and steppe lake basins of eastern and southern Mongolia, where sedimentary records and coupled climate–human impacts remain comparatively underexplored. The synthesis also highlights key knowledge gaps and emerging research priorities for future lake-based Quaternary studies in Mongolia.
Accurate kinetic modeling is essential for elucidating sorption mechanisms and optimizing pollutant removal; however, the traditional pseudo-first-order (PFO) and pseudo-second-order (PSO) models are often misapplied due to linearization artifacts and limited statistical validation. This study establishes a comprehensive, statistically rigorous framework that integrates nonlinear least-squares regression, multi-criteria error analysis, information-theoretic model selection, and jackknife resampling for uncertainty quantification in kinetic parameters. Eight models-PFO, PSO, pseudo-mixed-order fractional (PMOF), mixed 1,2-order (MOM), Ritchie second-order (RSO), Elovich, Bangham, and intraparticle diffusion (IPD)-were evaluated across 40 sorbent-sorbate systems involving heavy metals, precious metals, radionuclides, dyes, and emerging contaminants. Quantitatively, the PMOF model yielded the lowest mean average relative error (ARE approximate to 2.1 %), Marquardt's percent standard deviation (MPSD approximate to 4.2 %), and Akaike Information Criterion (AIC = 4.5-22), outperforming PSO (ARE approximate to 3.4 %, MPSD approximate to 6.5 %) and PFO (ARE approximate to 6.8 %, MPSD approximate to 11.8 %). Multi-criteria ranking confirmed the order PMOF > RSO > PSO > MOM approximate to Elovich > Bangham > IPD > PFO. Jackknife resampling, introduced here for the first time in sorption kinetics, revealed that datasets with fewer than eight points increased parameter uncertainty by >25 %, whereas dense early-time sampling reduced deviation to <5 %. These findings demonstrate that the PMOF model bridges diffusion- and surface-reaction-controlled regimes via a fractional constant, offering a reliable and interpretable framework for kinetic analysis in environmental separation processes. Finally, a user-friendly Excel-based nonlinear fitting tool was developed to automate model fitting and statistical evaluation.
Analyzing the dynamics of trapped electron fluxes in the Earth's outer radiation belt is a complex task, due to the presence of insufficiently known parameters and the long runtimes of multi-dimensional radiation belt codes, preventing a thorough examination of dependencies on all parameters. Here, we present an approximate eigenfunction modeling of whistler-mode wave-driven electron pitch-angle diffusion, slightly generalized compared to previous work. This new model can approximately describe, in an easy, flexible, and fast way, both the asymptotic electron pitch-angle distribution (PAD) at all pitch angles and its temporal evolution toward this final state, in both weak and strong diffusion regimes, in the presence of a finite, time-varying electron source. In this model, wave-driven pitch-angle diffusion is assumed to prevail over energy diffusion and radial diffusion, limiting its applicability to the plasmasphere or intervals of smooth decay of the electron flux outside the plasmasphere, during moderately active periods. We propose a new method, based on this model, for estimating the energy spectrum and temporal variation of the electron source. We investigate the dynamics of the electron flux measured by the Van Allen Probes and Arase spacecraft during two events in 2018 and 2022 in the outer radiation belt. We demonstrate that the new model can reproduce the evolution of the measured electron flux and of its PAD, provided that the magnitude of diffusion rates is normalized to the observed decay timescale in the 300-600 keV range and that a finite electron source term is included below 300 keV.
