Royal Society Open Science

Academic institutions privilege norms of continuous productivity and uninterrupted availability, creating conformity pressures that systematically disadvantage those who deviate from an implicit template of the ideal academic. This study explores how doctoral students and faculty in the health sciences perceive the reproduction of social homogeneity. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with nine participants at a German university hospital. Data were analysed using reflexive thematic analysis with extended idiographic engagement. Participants perceived homogeneity as reproduced through external exclusion, enacted by others through networks, normative expectations, or institutional arrangements, and self-exclusion, whereby individuals withdrew, reduced visibility, or reshaped identity in anticipation of exclusion ( anticipatory compliance). Across both processes, the tacit norm of the ideal academic organised access and belonging. Supportive supervision and visible role models were perceived as partial buffers but did not structurally alter underlying norms. Interpreted through the social identity threat framework, these findings are consistent with a self-reinforcing cycle: structural homogeneity may generate identity-threatening environments that activate concealment and withdrawal, concentrating homogeneity further. These findings suggest that achieving substantive inclusion requires challenging the structural conditions that naturalise presence, mobility, and availability as measures of academic success.

Trilobites had biramous appendages with an inner endopodite (walking leg) and outer exopodite (gill) connected to the body through the protopodite (limb base). Whereas both endopodite and protopodite were involved in both locomotion and feeding, the exopodite has been subject to various functional interpretations including respiration, ventilation and swimming. Evidence from sites with exceptional fossil preservation indicate that trilobite exopodites show substantial variability in terms of the number and size of their articles, lamellae and setae, but the implications of this morphological diversity have never been investigated. Here, we created anatomically correct 3D models of exopodites in O. serratus and T. eatoni to calculate the SA of the lamellae and explore its relationship with body size. Our results indicate a large SA for O. serratus at 16,589 mm2 compared to the 2,159 mm2 for the much smaller T. eatoni. We also calculated lamellar SA for nine additional trilobite species with exceptionally well-preserved appendages based on lamellar measurements. The results indicate that lamellae SA of trilobites increased exponentially with overall body size. Trilobite data follows the same trendline of gill SA/biomass observed in extant species and thus supports the interpretation of their exopodites as respiratory structures despite substantial variation in morphology.

Paleobiologists commonly use genera as a proxy for species in biodiversity studies. However, a lingering concern is that patterns among genera might not always faithfully reflect patterns among species. To date, the concern has focused chiefly on measured patterns of richness over time and on implied origination and extinction rates. However, similar issues might arise for studies of morphological disparity. Moreover, there potentially are additional implications of disparity patterns among species versus those among genera concerning the range of observable anatomical characters and whether disparity within genera is comparable to disparity among genera. If clades have some relatively slowly changing characters that workers have used to denote different genera, then we would expect to see congeneric species to cluster in morphospace; however, if such characters are rare, then within-genus disparity might approach among-genus disparity. Here, we use genus-level and species-level disparity patterns among acanthoceratid ammonoids from the Late Cretaceous. In particular, we examine whether these different level imply different evolutionary dynamics over a major ecological event (Ocean Anoxic Event 2) and how disparity within genera (i.e., among congeneric species) compares to disparity among genera. We find genus-level disparity somewhat inflates early acanthoceratid disparity but implies similar patterns over the OAE2. We also find that within-genus disparity is slightly lower than among-genus, but not hugely so. The combined results suggest that acanthoceratoid shell anatomy does not really show "genus" level characters, even if congeneric species do tend to be more similar to each other than to species in other genera. Thus, this might provide more of a warning for other types of studies using anatomical data (e.g., phylogenetic studies) than for disparity studies. Non-technical SummaryMany paleobiologists use genera to examine scientific questions. This leads to questions over whether this broader approach misses important species-level patterns. This study uses acanthoceratid ammonoids from the Late Cretaceous to examine disparity patterns at both the genus-level and the species-level. We specifically examine the disparity at both levels of this group over a time of high stress for this group, Ocean Anoxic Event 2 (OAE2). Our results show that genus-level disparity slightly exaggerates early acanthoceratid disparity but lowers to a similar pattern to the species-level disparity during OAE2. Within-genus disparity is shown to be slightly lower than among-genus, but not enough to be startling. Together, these results indicate that while some species within the same genus tend to be more alike to each other than those in other genera, there isnt a set of true "genus" level characters. This outcome leads to a warning against using anatomical data in phylogenetic studies, but less so for disparity studies.

Patients who participate in intracranial neuroscience research make invaluable contributions to our understanding of the brain, accelerating the development of neurotechnological interventions. Engagement of patients as part of this research presents unique challenges, where study goals can be distant from immediate clinical applications and require specialized domain knowledge. Yet methods for meaningfully integrating patient communities as part of these research efforts is essential, as intracranial neuroscience guides the application of artificial intelligence for understanding and enhancing human cognition. In order to identify what patients consider meaningful research engagement we interviewed individuals who participated in a study during their Deep Brain Stimulation (DBS) surgery and attended a group event where they interacted with our research team. Analysis of semi-structured interviews identified four main themes: interest in science and the future of clinical care, contributing to science to improve lives, connecting with others, and accessibility considerations. Based on these insights, we propose strategies for transformational participation of patient communities in intracranial neuroscience research with respect to engagement objectives, communication and scope. This approach offers a foundation for sustaining relationships between scientists and communities rooted in trust and transparency, to ensure that impacts of neurotechnology on human health and cognition are aligned with patient needs as well as desired public values.

Corvids - members of the crow family - exhibit some of the most sophisticated cognitive abilities outside the primate lineage, yet the developmental origins of many of these abilities remain poorly understood. Here, we present a systematic review of the past 20 years (from 2005) of empirical research on corvid cognitive development, synthesising evidence across core/ foundational, social and physical cognitive domains. Using a structured search strategy and detailed coding framework, we identified 47 relevant studies spanning 16 corvid species. We evaluate and discuss developmental trajectories, species/ taxa-level variation and methodological robustness across studies. For within and between-taxa comparisons, we particularly focus on the best represented abilities in the coded sample: 1) object permanence and caching; 2) tool-use/ manufacture; 3) object manipulation and play; and 4) gaze following. Corvid developmental patterns show both parallels and divergences from those documented in primates and other taxa. However, the existing corvid evidence base is constrained by small samples, captive biases, limited longitudinal data and under-representation of key cognitive abilities, such as executive function, causal reasoning, self-control, metacognition, spatial memory and social learning. We outline critical gaps and future directions, emphasising the need for comparative, longitudinal and ecologically grounded approaches, including the science of magic and Theory of Mind, to better understand how early-life cognition shapes later behaviour, cognition and fitness in this model avian family.

Recovering well-preserved vertebrate remains from underwater caves has provided critical insights into archaeological and palaeontological records worldwide. However, understanding how bone assemblages form and are modified in underwater environments remains limited due to stable low energy burial conditions that produce time-averaged deposits, and underwater settings that hinder traditional recording and recovery methods. This study applies an actualistic taphonomic framework to three assemblages of domesticate animal bones (N = 231) from two underwater caves, Green Waterhole and Gouldens Sinkhole, near Mount Gambier, South Australia, encompassing known submerged (wet; N = 134) and dry (N = 97) burial conditions. The assemblages were examined to assess how wet and dry cave environments impact bone distribution, surface and microstructural modification. Radiocarbon dating of 41 specimens indicates that domesticate fauna were deposited over decadal and centennial timescales, allowing taphonomic signatures to be contextualised through time. Statistically significant differences were identified between wet and dry burial contexts. Bones recovered from wet contexts exhibit mostly better preservation, including skeletal elemental completeness, surface, and microstructure, than those from dry caves. However, some of the submerged specimens also have elevated frequencies of bone surface corrosion with macroscopic evidence for heterogenous black biological staining, algal or biofilm attack, and a distinctive form of circular etching. Histotaphonomy further reveals patterns of peripheral cyanobacterial tunnelling across most bones recovered from submerged contexts. Bones from dry environments were dominated by terrestrially linked tunnelling across all regions of the bone cortex. These findings can be explained by variation in light availability across different cave zones which influences biological activity and, in turn, the expression of taphonomic markers on bone externally and at the microstructural level. This is the first study to provide a benchmark bone dataset for reconstructing depositional histories and post-depositional reworking in underwater cave environments under a taphonomic framework.

We present the first radiographic ageing framework for common dolphins (Delphinus delphis), based on ossification and epiphyseal fusion patterns in the pectoral flipper, demonstrating higher reliability for chronological age estimation than currently available epigenetic approaches for this species. Using individuals of known dental age, we calibrated two modelling approaches to predict dental age from radiographic bone scores: 1) a univariate polynomial regression using a total bone score (sum of 16 scores across all assessed flipper bones), and 2) a multivariate canonical analysis of principal coordinates (CAP) incorporating 16 individual bone-score variables. Both approaches successfully predicted dental age from skeletal ossification patterns. For an age range of 0 to 24 years, polynomial regression demonstrated high predictive accuracy with median absolute errors (MAEs) of 1.25 years in females (Spearmans {rho} = 0.93, R{superscript 2} = 0.90) and 1.08 years in males ({rho} = 0.95, R{superscript 2} = 0.86). The CAP model yielded MAEs of 1.35 years in females ({rho} = 0.90, R{superscript 2} = 0.85) and 1.80 years in males ({rho} = 0.94, R{superscript 2} = 0.84). Notably, both radiographic bone ageing models achieved equal or lower median absolute errors and higher coefficients of determination than a recently developed epigenetic clock for common dolphins derived from the same population (MAE = 1.80, Pearsons correlation (r) = 0.91, R{superscript 2} = 0.82). When applying the bone ageing models to individuals of unknown dental age, both models produced age estimates consistent with expected life-history stages (foetus, neonate, juvenile, subadult, adult), although accuracy declined in dolphins above 20 years, likely as a consequence of subtle age-related variation in skeletal changes in this species. Radiographic ageing provides an accurate non-invasive tool for demographic assessment to support conservation management of common dolphins.

Cryopreservation, or cryonics, is an experimental procedure that preserves individuals at cryogenic temperatures after legal death in the hope of future revival. Although Switzerland hosts Schengen Areas first dedicated cryopreservation facility, public sentiment toward the practice has remained largely unexamined. This exploratory survey of 249 Swiss adults assessed awareness, ethical views, and openness to cryopreservation. Results show broad support for individual autonomy, with most respondents endorsing the right to choose cryopreservation when performed to high medical standards (86.7%) and not supporting legal restrictions (83.5%). While personal interest was in the minority, nearly one in five respondents (20.1%) reported active interest or intent to sign up. Openness to cryopreservation appears driven more by values such as life-extension preference and prior exposure than by demographics. These findings provide the first empirical snapshot of Swiss public opinion on cryopreservation, highlighting a largely permissive public stance and suggesting considerable engagement with the topic.

We present here a normal table for post-embryonic development in the California newt (Taricha torosa), part of a genus of newts frequently studied for their toxicity and role within a predator-prey relationship. We generated the table by observing larvae collected as eggs in the wild and hatched and reared in the lab through metamorphosis. Building upon an established table consisting of 40 embryonic stages of development, our table consists of 13 stages based on discrete anatomical changes, primarily in limb development, and concludes at Stages 12-13 when the larvae undergo metamorphosis. We also describe more gradual phenotypic changes and their correlation to discrete stages in the developmental timeline. Finally, we illustrate the variability of the timing for reaching these stages in a controlled lab environment, demonstrating that time from hatching is not a reliable metric for standardizing results for diverse studies involving developing larvae. This staging table and accompanying observations will facilitate cross-study integration of research with larval T. torosa.

Domestic dogs (Canis familiaris) display more morphological variation than any other mammal. Cranial morphology has been extensively studied, as have the relationships with function, development, genetics, veterinary medicine, and breed welfare. Postcrania remain comparatively understudied, despite well-documented breed-specific predispositions to musculoskeletal disease. Here, we apply three-dimensional landmark-free morphometrics to quantify the shape of 743 elements from 213 dogs, including the scapula, humerus, radius, ulna, pelvic girdle, femur, tibia, and fibula. We assess integration among limb elements and investigate drivers of shape variation within and between breeds. Across most breeds, limb bone shape is strikingly similar. Dachshunds, however, exhibit distinct morphology across all elements and one to two orders of magnitude greater variation than any other breed. Despite this disparity, integration remains high between all element pairs. Remarkably, we find no significant relationship between bone shape and body mass, age, or pathology, but comparison with historic specimens reveals marked changes in dachshund long bone shape over the past [~]150 years. These extreme differences are not shared by other sampled chondrodysplastic breeds, underscoring the need to understand morphological diversity beyond simple categorisation. These findings provide a quantitative framework for linking postcranial morphology with function, disease risk, and evidence-based improvements to canine welfare.

The budding yeast S. cerevisiae, a foundational model for cell cycle studies, exhibits a complex phase organisation (G1, S, G2/M) governed by checkpoints ensuring faithful cellular inheritance. However, the existence of a distinct G2 phase in yeast remains debated, with some advocating for a prometaphase instead. To address this issue, we developed a discrete-event, qualitative, and possibilistic model, the first one to our knowledge, to integrate organelle-level components (replication forks, sister chromatids, mitotic spindle, bud) while remaining parsimonious. Unlike molecular-centred or overly complex whole-cell models, this approach bridges broad systemic and finer mechanistic scales. Our results demonstrate that the model faithfully recapitulates cell cycle progression and supports the dispensable G2 phase. This possibilistic model inspired from recent applications in ecology advocates in favor of the necessity of prometaphase. This study thus provides a unifying and flexible framework to resolve long-standing ambiguities in yeast cell dynamics, while avoiding the pitfalls of excessive complexity or reductionism.

Chimpanzees, amongst other primates, are characterized by the large variability of habitats they can be found in as well as a large behavioral, sometimes cultural diversity. Such observations have launched a decades-long debate on the roots of behavioral diversity, stressing the need to document this behavioral variability in context, such as by connecting closely related populations through localized analyses. This study presents the first comprehensive description of feeding ecology from the Mwera South chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes schweinfurthii) community in the Bugoma Central Forest Reserve, in Uganda, establishing a valuable baseline for this previously unstudied population and providing a comparative perspective on the populations of Western Uganda and Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo. By employing multiple methodological approaches, including direct observation and fecal analysis, we describe dietary composition, seasonal patterns, and environmental influences on feeding behavior. Characterizing the feeding ecology of this previously unstudied population is critical for examining how ecological factors might influence how feeding patterns evolve depending on resource availability or chimpanzee behavior, in particular by favoring analyses at the regional level. In addition, we can better evaluate to what extent behavioral differences between chimpanzee communities stem from ecological constraints and/or cultural transmission pathways. Our findings suggest that the Bugoma chimpanzees seat at the location of a historic cultural junction, opening a large array of questions about historic movements and cultural diffusion in Eastern chimpanzees.

We provide a detailed description of embryonic development in the convict cichlid (Amatitlania nigrofasciata) from fertilization to hatching at 26 {degrees}C, together with a practical staging table anchored to established teleost reference frameworks. Fertilized eggs were obtained by both natural spawning and artificial fertilization. Unfertilized eggs were ovoid and adhesive, surrounded by a chorion and a sticky mucous layer. Early development proceeded, in broad outline, through the teleost sequence of meroblastic discoidal cleavage, blastula, gastrula, segmentation, and organogenesis. The first cleavage occurred at 1.75 hours post-fertilization (hpf), with subsequent cleavages at 30 min intervals, reaching the 64-cell stage at 4.25 hpf. Cleavage up to the 64-cell stage progressed on a timescale broadly comparable to that reported for other cichlids, whereas the interval from the 64-cell stage to early epiboly was relatively short in this species. The high, sphere, and dome stages occurred at 8, 9, and 10 hpf, respectively, with epiboly initiating at the dome stage. At the dome stage, a marginal thickening interpreted as the presumptive embryonic shield became apparent. During early epiboly, the blastoderm showed pronounced spatial heterogeneity: it was consistently thicker and advanced more rapidly on the prospective embryonic axis side, yielding a readily detectable asymmetry. A morphologically distinct embryonic axis became visible at 40-50% epiboly, and epiboly was completed at 28.5 hpf. Notably, somitogenesis began before epiboly completion (first somites at 85-90% epiboly), indicating temporal overlap between late gastrulation and early segmentation. Major organ primordia became apparent during the overlapping segmentation/organogenesis interval, and hatching occurred around 70 hpf. Newly hatched larvae possessed three pairs of adhesive glands. This staging reference enables reproducible developmental sampling and should facilitate future comparative, mechanistic, and experimental work using the convict cichlid.

Ctenophores are one of our most distant animal relatives and highly abundant and widespread marine predators, yet much of their biology remains undiscov-ered. Their bodies are dominated by a gelatinous, largely extracellular mesoglea of unknown composition. Ctenophores lack homologs for fibrous collagens that form the typical metazoan extracellular matrix (ECM), so the composition of their extracellular material is unknown. Using spectroscopic analyses of Mnemiopsis lei-dyi and Pleurobrachia pileus mesoglea, we found abundant mucus-related proteins and sulfated polysaccharides. The mucins and glycans appear unlinked, unlike the typical heavily glycosylated mucins. Our results suggest that ctenophores have a mucus-like mesoglea, a marked contrast from standard collagenous ECMs and mucus. This study indicates that ctenophores are even more different from other animals than previously appreciated, and expands our understanding of soft body composition and biophysics in animals.

From facial expressions to gestures, animals use multiple signal modalities to express emotions and communicate. In dogs, tail movements are conspicuous behaviours associated with emotional states, but this link remains debated. We investigated canine emotional states underlying tail wagging by systematically analysing differences in tail movements in a computer-controlled task encompassing two non-social Conditions - Rewarded (positive) and Unrewarded (negative), and two Epochs (pre-response and outcome anticipation). Using pose-tracking we found that 11 out of 23 dogs did not wag their tails in at least 75% of trials, suggesting that some dogs may inherently wag less or that tail wagging is primarily a social signal. Our results showed that dogs were more likely to wag during positive anticipation; whereas in the negative condition, despite tail amplitude being more prominent, increased speeds reflected arousal rather than valence. Further work should assess tail kinematics in social contexts to test and extend these findings.

Collective decision making is a fundamental aspect of group behavior in both animals and humans, and often involves reaching a consensus on the best of n options, using empirical evidence. Although many parallels have been drawn between human and animal collective decisions, collective human behavior is rarely studied in the type of embodied scenarios that animals are often faced with. In this study, we placed human groups in a virtual setup similar to nest site selection in social animals, in which they explored a shared environment and reached a consensus based on their observations of empirical features. In groups of up to 10, participants had to reach consensus on the empirically largest of four candidate sites without verbal communication, instead using movement-based interactions in a custom-developed 3D virtual environment for online multi-participant experiments. The results showed that the speed and accuracy of consensus was importantly modulated by perceptual difficulty and information availability, but that no speed-accuracy trade-off was present. Participants attempted to reach consensus on the empirically largest site by flexibly adapting their use of social information to perceptual difficulty, their spatial position, and the time already spent supporting some option. When a minority of informed individuals were present, these individuals exercised greater independence and influenced the group to faster and more accurate consensus. These results extend previous findings on social decision making strategies in humans to nonverbal scenarios akin to those of social insects.

Uintatheres, mammals belonging to the extinct order Dinocerata, are among the most recognizable of all Paleogene ([~]66 - 23 Ma) organisms. Unmistakable for their bizarre skulls with multiple pairs of horns and saber-like upper canines, uintatheres have captivated paleontologists since the late nineteenth century. Since their initial discovery, uintatheres have been regarded as a classic example of dramatic sexual dimorphism in the fossil record, with males purported to be larger and possess more prominent horns and canines than females. However, the hypothesis that uintatheres were highly sexually dimorphic has never been formally tested. Here, I use traditional, linear morphometrics on a collection including most known skulls of Uintatherium anceps to quantify patterns of cranial variation within this taxon. Despite using a variety of traditional and novel statistical methods, I fail to detect any evidence of strong sexual dimorphism in Uintatherium. To verify my approach, I assembled a similarly sized dataset from Bison bison as an extant analog, and found strong, consistent evidence of sexual dimorphism. In light of these findings, as well as the current understanding of uintathere systematics and paleoecology, I argue that strong sexual dimorphism should not be treated as the null hypothesis for this clade.

Dental morphology and wear patterns provide insight into the dietary adaptations and ecological niches of living and extinct herbivores. Traditional classification statistics such as Linear Discriminant Analysis (LDA) are limited by assumptions of linearity, normality, and homoscedasticity. This study quantifies mesowear, the shape of molar cusps resulting from occlusal wear, and evaluates the performance of non-linear machine learning models in predicting herbivore diets based on geometric morphometric (GMM) data from adult mandibular second molars (M2) in bovids. We applied Generalized Procrustes Analysis and Principal Component Analysis (PCA) to digitized occlusal shape coordinates from 132 M2 specimens across 64 species. Using the resulting principal component scores, we compared the classification accuracy of LDA with three non-linear models: Random Forest, K-Nearest Neighbors, and Gradient Boosting. While LDA achieved a cross-validated accuracy of just 31%, all non-linear models achieved 99% cross-validation accuracy and 90% test accuracy, demonstrating substantially improved performance. Misclassification analyses revealed that non-linear models more effectively captured complex shape differences, particularly among species with overlapping wear patterns. Our findings support the integration of machine learning with geometric morphometrics to quantify mesowear and improve dietary classification, providing a framework for robust paleoecological inference.

Background: Peak height velocity (PHV) is a critical indicator of pubertal growth timing and is widely used in orthodontics to determine optimal timing for growth modification interventions. Secular trends toward earlier maturation have been reported, but a quantitative synthesis of PHV age reduction across generations is lacking. Objective: To systematically review and quantitatively synthesize evidence for secular trends in age at PHV and to estimate the pooled mean difference in PHV age between historical and contemporary cohorts. Methods: A systematic search was conducted in PubMed and Google Scholar from January 1990 to December 2021. The Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ) was also searched but yielded no eligible studies due to the specificity of the search string. Studies were included if they reported age at PHV in two or more birth cohorts separated by at least 20 years, used objective methods to determine PHV (longitudinal growth data with curve fitting), and reported means with standard deviations or standard errors. Risk of bias was assessed using the Newcastle-Ottawa Scale. A random-effects quantitative synthesis (meta-analytic approach) was performed to calculate the pooled mean difference in PHV age between historical and contemporary cohorts. Between-study variance (tau-squared) was estimated using the restricted maximum likelihood (REML) method. Heterogeneity was assessed using I-squared statistics. Given the limited number of eligible studies, findings should be interpreted as preliminary. Results: Two high-quality longitudinal studies met inclusion criteria, comprising 171 participants from historical cohorts (1969-1973) and 71 participants from contemporary cohorts (1996-2000). The pooled mean difference in PHV age was -0.48 years (95% CI: -0.72 to -0.24, P < 0.001), indicating that contemporary children reach PHV approximately 0.5 years earlier than their historical counterparts. PHV velocity showed a pooled increase of 0.71 cm/year (95% CI: 0.48 to 0.94, P < 0.001). Heterogeneity was low (I-squared = 0% for both analyses). Both studies were rated as low risk of bias. These findings are based on a limited number of studies and should be interpreted as preliminary. Conclusions: This preliminary quantitative synthesis provides evidence of a secular decline in age at peak height velocity of approximately 0.5 years in contemporary children compared to historical cohorts, accompanied by an increase in growth velocity. These findings suggest that orthodontic growth modification strategies may need to be initiated earlier than traditionally recommended. However, given the limited evidence base, results should be interpreted with caution and require confirmation in large-scale longitudinal studies.

This study develops a methodological framework that combines conventional antimicrobial susceptibility testing with Particle Swarm Optimisation (PSO) to enhance toothpaste formulations, employing Escherichia coli isolated from the oral cavity as a model organism. We used the agar well diffusion method to see if two fluoride toothpastes (Oral B and My-my) could kill oral E. coli isolates at 6.25%, 12.5%, 25%, 50%, and 100% concentrations. A surrogate Random Forest model was created using these experimental data to link formulation parameters to antimicrobial activity. Then, PSO was used to find the best formulation traits. Multi-objective optimisation that looks at the trade-offs between antimicrobial effectiveness and cytotoxicity was shown as a conceptual framework. Both toothpastes showed antimicrobial activity that depended on the concentration, with Oral B being more effective (23.0 mm at 100% concentration) than My-my (20.0 mm). The PSO framework, utilised as a methodological illustration while explicitly recognising data constraints, determined hypothetical formulation parameters (sodium fluoride 1100 ppm, hydrated silica abrasive, 2.5% SLS) with an anticipated zone of inhibition of 26.3 mm. These predictions are mathematically optimal for a surrogate model that was trained on very little data (n=10 formulation points). They need a lot of experimental testing before any claims about the formulation can be made. This work is presented as a proof-of-concept methodological framework, not as validated formulation guidance.