Lakes provide a wide range of ecological, cultural, and economic benefits and prime opportunities for recreation, tourism, and livelihoods in the Upper Indus Basin (UIB). In the wake of growing anthropogenic actions and climate change impacts, an appraisal of the lake water quality is essential to determine the health of the ecosystem and assist resource conservation initiatives in the region. An attempt has been made to establish a preliminary physicochemical baseline for eight high-altitude lakes in the UIB, Pakistan, to characterize their spatial hydrochemical variability and identify potential water quality concerns in the region. At the time of sampling, the lakes exhibited a slightly alkaline condition with pH ranging between 7.7 and 8.2 (mean 8.0). The lower alkalinity detected in the lakes, like Sheosar (42 mg/L), may indicate limited buffering capacity and more sensitivity to nutrient pulses or potential acidification. Nitrate-N concentration was low in most lakes, with many below detection limits. The Gibbs diagram indicated seven samples in the rock dominance zone, i.e., chemical weathering of rocks as the major factor contributing ions to the lake water, while in one sample, i.e., Borith Lake, evaporation-crystallization was the main source of dissolved chemical ingredients. The Spearman correlation analysis indicated a higher positive relationship (r > 0.9) between Ca and Mg, likely due to carbonate rock weathering. The observed variations in the water quality parameters may have significant effects on both the ecosystem and human health, necessitating further research and future attention. In-depth research on glacio-hydrological dynamics and limnology can support sustainable management and conservation of the freshwater ecosystems in the region.
This essay examines the understanding of artificial intelligence, humanoid robots, and biohybrid systems—or synthetic life forms—from an indigenous perspective in the Americas. Building on a critical examination of the ontological turn, this essay explores the significance of relationality for indigenous peoples beyond concepts such as animism or new animism. The ontological turn does not establish substantive connections to the modern world regarding these entities. However, techno-animism seems to suggest an ontological approach to artificial intelligence, though it does not explain how ontology develops in practice for humans and nonhumans alike. Based on reflections on indigenous perspectives in the Americas, this essay attempts to develop an alternative foundation for ontology regarding artificial intelligence, humanoid robots, and biohybrid systems or synthetic life forms—entities that are more than just tools or machines.
Robotic dexterous hands, as the primary end-effectors through which embodied agents interact with the physical world, directly determine grasp stability, manipulation accuracy, environmental adaptability, and human–robot interaction safety. Research on dexterous hand mechanical structures has expanded rapidly and become increasingly interdisciplinary, so conventional narrative reviews can no longer capture its knowledge base, research drivers, and the evolution of hotspots. A systematic framework that combines bibliometric quantification with mechanism-oriented synthesis is therefore needed. This study presents a bibliometric review of dexterous hand mechanical structures based on Web of Science Core Collection publications from 2016 to 2025, combining bibliometric statistics, collaboration-network analysis, keyword co-occurrence, cluster analysis, and trend synthesis to reveal the field’s research landscape, intellectual structure, and technological evolution. Publications increased steadily, rising from 64 in 2016 to 252 in 2025, with marked acceleration after 2022. China leads in publication volume, whereas the United States, Germany, and the United Kingdom show strong citation impact and international collaboration. Core journals concentrate on robotics, mechatronics, sensing, soft robotics, and rehabilitation engineering, and keyword evolution shows a shift from prosthetic hands and basic mechanism design toward compliant structures, soft actuation, tactile perception, and dexterous manipulation. Based on keyword clustering, three principal research streams are identified: body configuration and degree-of-freedom (DoF) evolution, drive and transmission structure design, and soft/compliant structure expansion. The central challenge of dexterous hand design is no longer the accumulation of DoFs but the coordinated optimization of DoF allocation, actuation mapping, contact stability, and compliant adaptation under strict constraints of space, energy, and reliability. Tendon-driven, internally integrated, and underactuated architectures emphasize lightweight dexterity, precision control, and adaptive grasping, respectively, while soft continuum, rigid–soft hybrid, and variable-stiffness structures are reshaping dexterous hands from rigid execution mechanisms into physically intelligent interaction systems. Overall, the field has entered a stage of interdisciplinary system integration, with its core mission shifting from building complex mechanical hands to constructing perceptive, adaptive, and controllable end-effectors. Future work should strengthen task-oriented structural optimization, hybrid actuation, rigid–soft coupling, integrated flexible sensing and closed-loop control, and unified performance evaluation, accelerating the transition from laboratory prototypes to standardized assessment and large-scale deployment.
(I) Large dams alter flow regimes and water-level fluctuations, reshaping riparian disturbance regimes and shoreline habitat conditions, with important implications for vegetation recovery, biodiversity maintenance, non-native species establishment, and reservoir shoreline management. However, how these effects vary among flow regulation types and water-level fluctuation (WLF) zonation remains insufficiently understood in cascade reservoir systems. We asked: (1) how species richness, alpha diversity, beta diversity, and the proportion of non-native species vary among flow regulation types and WLF zonation; (2) which plant species indicate different regulation types and WLF zonation; and (3) which biotic or abiotic factors best explain variation in riparian species composition. (II) WLF zonation of nine cascade reservoirs along the Wujiang River, central China. (III) We surveyed 573 quadrats across 72 sites in inundation, transitional, and unflooded zones of reservoirs with daily, weekly, seasonal, or yearly regulation. Vegetation composition and local environmental variables were recorded. ANCOVA was used to test differences in vegetation diversity and non-native species proportion among regulation types and WLF zonation. Redundancy analysis and variation partitioning were used to assess the relative effects of dam properties, hydrological alteration, and local environmental factors on species composition. (IV) Riparian vegetation differed clearly among regulation types and WLF zonation. Seasonally regulated reservoirs supported the highest herbaceous species richness in the inundation zone, followed by daily and weekly reservoirs, and then the yearly regulated reservoir. Daily reservoirs had the highest beta diversity, whereas the yearly reservoir had the lowest. Annual species were mainly associated with yearly regulated shorelines, while perennial species dominated daily and weekly reservoirs. Non-native species also varied among regulation types and WLF zonation, with Alternanthera philoxeroides and Erigeron canadensis associated with weekly and seasonally reservoirs, respectively. Indicator species differed among regulation types and WLF zonation, suggesting distinct vegetation assemblages under contrasting regulation regimes. Dam properties were the strongest predictors of riparian species composition, while hydrological alteration and local environmental conditions also contributed. (V) Riparian vegetation composition in cascade reservoirs reflects the cumulative effects of contrasting long-term flow regulation regimes, WLF zonation, and associated environmental filtering. Regulation type was linked to differences in plant diversity, annual-perennial dominance, non-native species occurrence, and community composition. These findings highlight the need to consider long-term hydrological regulation and invasion risk when managing and restoring reservoir WLF zonation.
Offshore wind turbines are exposed to harsh marine conditions that accelerate degradation and make inspection costly, hazardous, and weather-dependent. Early fault detection is needed to reduce downtime and prevent structural failure. This review investigates offshore wind turbine failure mechanisms, inspection technologies, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and robotic systems, computer-vision-based defect detection, infrared thermography, and drone-assisted maintenance. A structured literature review methodology was used to synthesise studies across offshore engineering, robotics, sensing, and machine learning. The findings show that autonomous offshore fault detection remains limited by a lack of real-world experimentation and data. UAV inspection systems offer strong remote inspection capability but often lack real-time perception and adaptive autonomy, while deep learning models remain highly dependent on controlled datasets and are vulnerable to offshore environmental noise. The literature is disconnected, with few studies integrating autonomous navigation, multimodal sensing, and onboard intelligence into a unified offshore inspection framework. These findings demonstrate the need for robust drone-based systems capable of reliable visual and thermal fault detection in real offshore environments.
