Browse Articles

Prolactin levels and chronic kidney disease and the subsequent risk of cardiovascular events: A long term population based cohort study

Abstract Both the clearance and secretion of prolactin are disrupted in chronic kidney disease (CKD). Evidence indicates that prolactin may play a role in cardiovascular (CV) disturbances. Considering the increased cardiovascular risk associated with CKD, this study investigates the relationship between prolactin levels, CKD, and the risk of CV events in both women and men, with an average follow-up period of 20 years. The study included 2,005 participants from the Tehran Lipid and Glucose Study (TLGS) who met the inclusion criteria. They were reassessed approximately every three years for a median follow-up of 19.0 years (Interquartile range (IQR):16.4–20.2), during which occurrences of CKD and CV events were recorded. A pooled logistic regression model examined the influence of Prolactin on CV events and its interaction with CKD. During follow-up, we identified 156 incident cases of CV events among men and 73 among women. Median (95%CI) PRL levels were 7.4 (5.5–10.5) ng/mL for men and 15.2 (10.3–23) ng/mL for women. The results of analyses showed that a history of CKD was associated with significantly higher odds of CV events for both men 4.2 (95% CI: 2.6–6.8) and women 5.5 (95% CI: 2.6–11.5). Results remained unchanged after adjustment for confounders including age, waist circumference, smoking, education, history of diabetes and hypertension, and family history of CV events. Interaction analyses revealed no statistically significant interaction between CKD and PRL on the odds of CV events in unadjusted and adjusted models. This consistent pattern was observed regardless of gender. Results of population-based data with over a median follow-up period of 20 years showed that CKD independently increases the risk of CV events in both men and women. However, our findings suggest that this elevated risk may not be substantially influenced by prolactin levels. Further investigation may be warranted to confirm these findings.

Highly oxidized products from the atmospheric reaction of hydroxyl radicals with isoprene

Abstract Isoprene (C5H8) globally accounts for half of the non-methane hydrocarbon flux into Earth´s atmosphere. Its degradation is mainly initiated by the gas-phase reaction with OH radicals yielding a complex system of RO2 radicals. Subsequent product formation is not conclusively understood yet. Here we report the observation of C4- and C5-products from OH + isoprene bearing at least two functional groups. Their production is initiated either by the reaction of initially formed δ-RO2 radicals with NO or by 1,6 H-shift isomerization of Z-δ-RO2 radicals. Both reaction channels also form highly oxygenated molecules (HOMs), which could be important for the generation of secondary organic aerosol. C5H9O8 and C5H9O9 radicals represent the main precursors of closed-shell HOMs. Global simulations revealed that the isoprene-derived HOM-RO2 production is comparable with that of α-pinene, currently regarded as very important HOM source. This study provides a more complete insight into isoprene´s degradation process including the HOM formation.

Isogeometric modeling and vibroacoustic analysis of a symmetrically laminated thin plate coupled with an acoustic cavity

Translational error in mice increases with ageing in an organ-dependent manner

Morpho-physiological traits of soybean plants in symbiosis with Gigaspora sp. and submitted to water restriction

Cryo-EM structure of the β-1,3-glucan synthase FKS1-Rho1 complex

Association between TyG-related parameters and NAFLD risk in Japanese non-obese population

Direct observation of ultrafast symmetry reduction during internal conversion of 2-thiouracil using Coulomb explosion imaging

Abstract The photochemistry of heterocyclic molecules plays a decisive role for processes and applications like DNA photo-protection from UV damage and organic photocatalysis. The photochemical reactivity of heterocycles is determined by the redistribution of photoenergy into electronic and nuclear degrees of freedom, initially involving ultrafast internal conversion. Most heterocycles are planar in their ground state and internal conversion requires symmetry breaking. To lower the symmetry, the molecule must undergo an out-of-plane motion, which has not yet been observed directly. Here we show using the example of 2-thiouracil, how Coulomb explosion imaging can be utilized to extract comprehensive information on this molecular deformation, linking the extracted deplanarization of the molecular geometry to the previously studied temporal evolution of its electronic properties. Particularly, the protons of the exploded molecule are well-suited messengers carrying rich information on its geometry at distinct times after electronic excitation. We expect that our new analysis approach centered on these peripheral protons can be adapted as a general concept for future time-resolved studies of complex molecules in the gas phase.

Towards the Vertical City: psychosocial mechanisms for human-centered underground office spaces

Rare genetic associations with human lifespan in UK Biobank are enriched for oncogenic genes

Abstract Human lifespan is shaped by genetic and environmental factors. To enable precision health, understanding how genetic variants influence mortality is essential. We conducted a survival analysis in European ancestry participants of the UK Biobank, using age-at-death (N=35,551) and last-known-age (N=358,282). The associations identified were predominantly driven by cancer. We found lifespan-associated loci ( APOE , ZSCAN23 ) for common variants and six genes where burden of loss-of-function variants were linked to reduced lifespan ( TET2 , ATM , BRCA2 , CKMT1B , BRCA1 , ASXL1 ). Additionally, eight genes with pathogenic missense variants were associated with reduced lifespan ( DNMT3A, SF3B1, TET2, PTEN, SOX21, TP53 , SRSF2 , RLIM ). Many of these genes are involved in oncogenic pathways and clonal hematopoiesis. Our findings highlight the importance of understanding genetic factors driving the most prevalent causes of mortality at a population level, highlighting the potential of early genetic testing to identify germline and somatic variants increasing one’s susceptibility to cancer and/or early death.

Molecular insights into ulcerative colitis and orbital inflammation

Organic photovoltaic mini-module providing more than 5000 V for energy autonomy of dielectric elastomer actuators

Abstract Dielectric elastomer actuators (DEAs) are widely used for soft robotics. The required voltages of over 1000 V are usually supplied by amplifiers with batteries or power grids which however have limited operation time or mobility. This problem also exists for other advanced mobile devices such as electroaerodynamic thrusters. This work reports on the development of high-voltage organic photovoltaic mini-modules (HV-OPMs) comprising 5024 individual sub-cells on an area of 3.8 × 3.9 cm2. Under 100 klux white LED illumination, an open-circuit voltage (V OC) of 5534 V and an efficiency of 6.4% is achieved with the photoactive material PM6:GS-ISO whereas with PV-X plus a V OC of 3970 V and an efficiency of 19.0% is obtained. Furthermore, a soft suction cup based on DEA was built and could successfully be powered with one of these modules. These results show that HV-OPMs are very promising to realize energy autonomy of low-power high-voltage devices.

Quantitative analysis of the performance improvement of the surrounding rock mass by applying a prestressed bolt system

Advanced multi-modal mass spectrometry imaging reveals functional differences of placental villous compartments at microscale resolution

Abstract The placenta is a complex and heterogeneous organ that links the mother and fetus, playing a crucial role in nourishing and protecting the fetus throughout pregnancy. Integrative spatial multi-omics approaches can provide a systems-level understanding of molecular changes underlying the mechanisms leading to the histological variations of the placenta during healthy pregnancy and pregnancy complications. Herein, we advance our metabolome-informed proteome imaging (MIPI) workflow to include lipidomic imaging, while also expanding the molecular coverage of metabolomic imaging by incorporating on-tissue chemical derivatization (OTCD). The improved MIPI workflow advances biomedical investigations by leveraging state-of-the-art molecular imaging technologies. Lipidome imaging identifies molecular differences between two morphologically distinct compartments of a placental villous functional unit, syncytiotrophoblast (STB) and villous core. Next, our advanced metabolome imaging maps villous functional units with enriched metabolomic activities related to steroid and lipid metabolism, outlining distinct molecular distributions across morphologically different villous compartments. Complementary proteome imaging on these villous functional units reveals a plethora of fatty acid- and steroid-related enzymes uniquely distributed in STB and villous core compartments. Integration across our advanced MIPI imaging modalities enables the reconstruction of active biological pathways of molecular synthesis and maternal-fetal signaling across morphologically distinct placental villous compartments with micrometer-scale resolution.

Integrating convolutional layers and biformer network with forward-forward and backpropagation training

HBV-associated hepatocellular carcinomas inhibit antitumor CD8+ T cell via the long noncoding RNA HDAC2-AS2

Multi-modal Language models in bioacoustics with zero-shot transfer: a case study

Abstract Automatically detecting sound events with Artificial Intelligence (AI) has become increas- ingly popular in the field of bioacoustics, ecoacoustics, and soundscape ecology, particularly for wildlife monitoring and conservation. Conventional methods predominantly employ supervised learning techniques that depend on substantial amounts of manually annotated bioacoustic data. However, manual annotation in bioacoustics is tremendously resource- intensive in terms of both human labor and financial resources, and it requires considerable domain expertise. Moreover, the supervised learning framework limits the application scope to predefined categories within a closed setting. The recent advent of Multi-Modal Language Models has markedly enhanced the versatility and possibilities within the realm of AI appli- cations, as this technique addresses many of the challenges that inhibit the deployment of AI in real-world applications. In this paper, we explore the potential of Multi-Modal Language Models in the context of bioacoustics through a case study. We aim to showcase the potential and limitations of Multi-Modal Language Models in bioacoustic applications. In our case study, we applied an Audio-Language Model–—a type of Multi-Modal Language Model that aligns language with audio / sound recording data—–named CLAP (Contrastive Language–Audio Pretraining) to eight bioacoustic benchmarks covering a wide variety of sounds previously unfamiliar to the model. We demonstrate that CLAP, after simple prompt engineering, can effectively recognize group-level categories such as birds, frogs, and whales across the benchmarks without the need for specific model fine-tuning or additional training, achieving a zero-shot transfer recognition performance comparable to supervised learning baselines. Moreover, we show that CLAP has the potential to perform tasks previously unattainable with supervised bioacoustic approaches, such as estimating relative distances and discovering unknown animal species. On the other hand, we also identify limitations of CLAP, such as the model’s inability to recognize fine-grained species-level categories and the reliance on manually engineered text prompts in real-world applications.

Scalable preparation of perovskite films with homogeneous structure via immobilizing strategy for high-performance solar modules

Photo and electrochemical applications of green synthesized ZnO/Ag2O nanocomposites materials under visible light using P. macrosolen L. leaf

Bone morphogenetic protein (BMP) signaling determines neuroblastoma cell fate and sensitivity to retinoic acid

Abstract Retinoic acid (RA) is a standard-of-care neuroblastoma drug thought to be effective by inducing differentiation. Curiously, RA has little effect on primary human tumors during upfront treatment but can eliminate neuroblastoma cells from the bone marrow during post-chemo maintenance therapy—a discrepancy that has never been explained. To investigate this, we treat a large cohort of neuroblastoma cell lines with RA and observe that the most RA-sensitive cells predominantly undergo apoptosis or senescence, rather than differentiation. We conduct genome-wide CRISPR knockout screens under RA treatment, which identify bone morphogenic protein (BMP) signaling as controlling the apoptosis/senescence vs differentiation cell fate decision and determining RA’s overall potency. We then discover that BMP signaling activity is markedly higher in neuroblastoma patient samples at bone marrow metastatic sites, providing a plausible explanation for RA’s ability to clear neuroblastoma cells specifically from the bone marrow, by seemingly mimicking interactions between BMP and RA during normal development.