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Daily briefing: Postdocs and PhD students hit hard by Trump’s crackdown on science

L-shaped relationship between dietary niacin intake and hearing loss in United States adults: National health and nutrition examination survey

Hearing loss poses a significant threat to human health, with its prevalence increasing annually. Niacin (vitamin B3) is an essential B vitamin that plays a crucial role in energy metabolism and cellular repair in the body. Additionally, it exerts a protective influence on the cells of the inner ear. A correlation between dietary niacin and hearing loss has been reported; however, the results remain controversial, requiring further investigation. This study aimed to examine the potential association between dietary niacin intake and hearing loss in United States (U.S.) adults, providing a reference for dietary preventive management of hearing loss. In this cross-sectional study, data derived from the National Health and Nutrition Survey for U.S. adults aged 20 to 69 years, spanning the 2011–2012 and 2015–2016 cycles, were used. Logistic regression, restricted cubic spline models, subgroup analyses, and sensitivity analyses were used to assess the stability of the results. A total of 7675 participants were included, of whom 772 (10.1%) exhibited low-frequency hearing loss (LFHL), 1165 (15.2%) had speech-frequency hearing loss (SFHL), and 2816 (36.7%) had high-frequency hearing loss (HFHL). In the final model, the adjusted odds ratios of dietary niacin intake and LFHL, SFHL, and HFHL in Q2 (16.97–23.40 mg/day) were compared with those in Q1 (≤16.96 mg/day) and were 0.73 (0.57–0.92), 0.76 (0.61–0.94), and 0.80 (0.67–0.96), respectively. The relationship between dietary niacin intake and hearing loss (HL) was illustrated via an L-shaped curve in the restricted cubic spline with an inflection point of approximately 23.26 mg/day. The odds ratios for HL in individuals with niacin intake less than 23.26 mg/day were as follows: 0.950 (0.917–0.984) for LFHL, 0.951 (0.921–0.982) for SFHL, and 0.965 (0.939–0.992) for HFHL. To summarize, an “L”-shaped correlation between dietary niacin intake and the occurrence of HL in U.S. adults with an inflection point estimated at approximately 23.26 mg/day was revealed in the present study.

Key factors in supporting adolescents to achieve high self-esteem and a positive body image: A qualitative community-based study

Introduction Body dissatisfaction can be affect adolescents’ mental health, leading to issues with body weight control, low self-esteem, and poor school performance. Methods A total of 24 interviews with adolescents, parents, and teachers in Spain were conducted for this study. The study aimed to explore and compare the views of adolescents, parents, and teachers regarding interventions to improve self-esteem and positive body image in school-aged adolescents. A generic qualitative study design with purposive sampling was used, and the data was thematically analyzed. Results Key barriers identified included lack of family communication, unfavourable family environments, and insufficient training. Social media and gender stereotypes, along with social rejection, were major challenges for adolescents. Facilitators included family involvement and using role models as a strategy. Proposed interventions focused on individual and group recreational activities starting at an early age, engaging adolescents in activities of interest, and promoting collaboration with families. Conclusion This study identified barriers and facilitators proposing multi-level interventions that engage adolescents, families, educational institutions, and the community. Strengthening facilitators and reducing barriers should guide future public health policies. Public contribution These findings may be useful for developing multilevel interventions aimed at improving body image and self-esteem, which could, in turn, prevent and reduce the severity of clinical disorders during adolescence.

Early colonization of the deep-sea bottom—The protracted build-up of an ecosystem

Our understanding of the patterns and processes behind the evolution of deep-marine ecosystems is limited because the body-fossil record of the deep sea is poor. However, that gap in knowledge may be filled as deposits are host to diverse and abundant trace fossils that record the activities of benthic deep-marine organisms. Here, we built a global dataset of trace-fossil occurrences from a comprehensive survey of 720 Ediacaran–Devonian units and show that the establishment of a modern-style deep-marine benthic ecosystem was protracted and coincident with global cooling and increase in oxygenation during the Ordovician. The formation of open burrows may have increased bioirrigation in the uppermost sediment zone, promoting ventilation and generating an ecosystem engineering feedback loop between bioturbation and pore-water oxygenation. Sharp changes in deep-marine bioturbation during the Devonian may have originated from oxygen variations resulting from climate-controlled oceanic circulation.

Trustworthy diagnosis of Electrocardiography signals based on out-of-distribution detection

Cardiovascular disease is one of the most dangerous conditions, posing a significant threat to daily health. Electrocardiography (ECG) is crucial for heart health monitoring. It plays a pivotal role in early heart disease detection, heart function assessment, and guiding treatments. Thus, refining ECG diagnostic methods is vital for timely and accurate heart disease diagnosis. Recently, deep learning has significantly advanced in ECG signal classification and recognition. However, these methods struggle with new or Out-of-Distribution (OOD) heart diseases. The deep learning model performs well on existing heart diseases but falters on unknown types, which leads to less reliable diagnoses. To address this challenge, we propose a novel trustworthy diagnosis method for ECG signals based on OOD detection. The proposed model integrates Convolutional Neural Networks (CNN) and Attention mechanisms to enhance feature extraction. Meanwhile, Energy and ReAct techniques are used to recognize OOD heart diseases and its generalization capacity for trustworthy diagnosis. Empirical validation using both the MIT-BIH Arrhythmia Database and the INCART 12-lead Arrhythmia Database demonstrated our method’s high sensitivity and specificity in diagnosing both known and out-of-distribution (OOD) heart diseases, thus verifying the model’s diagnostic trustworthiness. The results not only validate the effectiveness of our approach but also highlight its potential application value in cardiac health diagnostics.

Revisiting Pearl’s influenza studies by bootstrapping for forward variable selection with a null factor

In 1919 and 1921 Raymond Pearl published four empirical studies on the Spanish Flu epidemic in which he explored the factors that might explain the explosiveness and destructiveness of the epidemic in America’s largest cities. Using partial correlation coefficients he tried to isolate the net effects of the possible explanatory factors, such as general demographic characteristics of the cities and death rates for various diseases, on the variables measuring the severity of the epidemic. Instead of Pearl’s correlation analysis, we apply a bootstrap simulation to forward variable selection with a null factor for generalized linear regression with AICc validation. The null factor or pseudo-variable is a random variable that is independent of the response. The number of times it is included in the model selection simulation provides an important metric for deciding which terms should remain in the model. Our results are largely consistent with Pearl’s conclusions in that the pre-pandemic death rates from organic heart disease and from all causes are most predictive of pandemic explosiveness or severity. However, our results also contain substantive nuances. Our paper contributes to the literature showing that state-of-the-art methodology for variable selection proves useful for historical epidemiology.

Clinical safety and pharmacokinetics of a novel oral niclosamide formulation compared with marketed niclosamide chewing tablets in healthy volunteers: A three-part randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial

Aim Niclosamide is an established anthelmintic substance and a promising candidate for treating cancer, viral infections, and other diseases. However, its solubility in aqueous media is low, and the systemic bioavailability of the commercially available chewing tablet is poor, limiting the use of niclosamide for systemic treatment. A liquid oral formulation using polyethylene glycol 400 was developed and investigated in healthy volunteers to assess safety, tolerability, and pharmacokinetics in comparison to the marketed tablet. (ClinicalTrials.gov: NCT04644705). Methods The study consisted of three parts: Part A was a double-blind placebo-controlled single ascending dose trial in three dose groups (200, 600, and 1600 mg) with four participants receiving either the investigational niclosamide formulation or placebo (3:1) under fasted and/or fed conditions. Part B was a crossover study comparing 1600 mg investigational niclosamide solution with the marketed 2000 mg chewing tablet in four healthy volunteers. Part C was a double-blind placebo-controlled multiple-dose trial comparing 1200 mg and 1600 mg (verum: placebo 4:2) in two dose groups with six subjects each, who received daily doses for seven days. Results No serious or severe adverse events occurred. The most frequent adverse events were mild to moderate gastrointestinal reactions. There was also no apparent dependence between drug exposure levels (AUC, Cmax) and the severity and incidence of adverse events detectable. A relevant food effect was observed with a mean AUC last about 2-fold higher in fed condition compared to fasted condition. In Part B, dose-normalized C max and AUC last were similar for niclosamide solution and tablet. Absorption of niclosamide solution was highly variable. Some individuals showed high absorption (C max > 2µg/ml) whereas others did absorb only marginally. Importantly, there was no dose linearity in the range of 200 mg – 1600 mg. No signs of relevant systemic drug accumulation after multiple administrations were observed. Conclusion Overall safety and tolerability observed in healthy subjects were benign. This is also true for individuals with high absorption (C max > 2µg/ml), encouraging further research into niclosamide as a potential therapeutic agent. Galenic optimization, however, will remain challenging as evident from the observed exposure variability and non-linear PK. Non-linearity, if confirmed by additional data, might make niclosamide more suitable for multi-dose rather than high single dose regimens. The observed food effect should also be considered when further investigating systemic niclosamide exposures. Trial registration ClinicalTrials.gov NCT04644705

Consumer attitudes and perceptions on consumption of edible insects among communities in western Kenya

Edible insects are a highly sustainable and nutritional food source despite their low consumption in many communities. This study evaluated consumer attitudes and perceptions on consumption of edible insects in western Kenya. Eight focus group discussions (FGDs) were conducted in four rural and four urban markets in Kisumu and Vihiga counties. The FGDs were audio-recorded, transcribed, and analyzed using thematic content analysis. A total of 59 respondents consisting of 27 male and 32 females participated in the FGDs. The results showed higher acceptability and consumption of edible insects in rural areas compared to urban centers. The most popular edible insects were flying termites, grasshoppers, soldier termites and locusts. Consumption of these insects was mostly determined by their perceived high nutritional value, pleasant taste and familiarity as food sources. Seasonal capturing of the insects, especially during off-season also contributed to their low consumption. Respondents’ willingness to taste insect-based products was based on curiosity, packaging and familiarity with the product forms. These results suggest that there is need for interventions that promote public awareness and enhance the availability of edible insects and insect-based products, to support wider acceptability and consumption.

My experience of speaking at a conference with a baby

Correction for Luo et al., An acetyltransferase moonlights as a regulator of the RNA binding repertoire of the RNA chaperone Hfq in <i>Escherichia coli</i>

Correction for Rachuri et al., Mutational analysis of an antimalarial drug target, <i>Pf</i> ATP4

Correction for Borniego et al., Diverse plant RNAs coat <i>Arabidopsis</i> leaves and are distinct from apoplastic RNAs

Correction for Talukder et al., Olfaction with legs—Spiders use wall-pore sensilla for pheromone detection

Correction to Supporting Information for Chan and Fried: Structural stability and thermodynamics of artistic composition

Correction for Gao et al., Cold-blooded vertebrate utilizes behavioral fever to alleviate T cell apoptosis and optimize antimicrobial immunity

Ultrafast structural dynamics of carbon–carbon single-bond rotation in transient radical species at non-equilibrium

Abstract Bond rotation is an important phenomenon governing the fate of reactions. In particular, heterogeneously substituted ethane derivatives provide distinct structural conformations around the bond, empowering them as ideal systems for studying the rotation along carbon-containing single bonds. However, structural dynamics of ultrafast single-bond rotation, especially along C–C• bonds, have remained elusive as tracking the detailed changes in structural parameters during the rotational isomerization is challenging with conventional spectroscopic tools. Here, we employ femtosecond time-resolved X-ray liquidography to visualize the rotational isomerization between anti and gauche conformers of tetrafluoroiodoethyl radical (C2F4I•) and 1,2-tetrafluorodiiodoethane (C2F4I2), simultaneously. The TRXL data captures perturbations in conformer ratios and structures of each reacting species, revealing that the rotational isomerization of C2F4I• and C2F4I2 follows anti-to-gauche and gauche-to-anti paths with time constants of 1.2 ps and 26 ps, respectively. These findings also align with the computational predictions. This work offers an atomic-level insight into the kinetics and structural dynamics of single-bond rotation.

Electrically-driven reversible phonon transport manipulation in two-dimensional heterostructures

GORK K+ channel structure and gating vital to informing stomatal engineering

Detection of ferrihydrite in Martian red dust records ancient cold and wet conditions on Mars

Abstract Iron oxide-hydroxide minerals in Martian dust provide crucial insights into Mars’ past climate and habitability. Previous studies attributed Mars’ red color to anhydrous hematite formed through recent weathering. Here, we show that poorly crystalline ferrihydrite (Fe 5 O 8 H · nH 2 O) is the dominant iron oxide-bearing phase in Martian dust, based on combined analyses of orbital, in-situ, and laboratory visible near-infrared spectra. Spectroscopic analyses indicate that a hyperfine mixture of ferrihydrite, basalt and sulfate best matches Martian dust observations. Through laboratory experiments and kinetic calculations, we demonstrate that ferrihydrite remains stable under present-day Martian conditions, preserving its poorly crystalline structure. The persistence of ferrihydrite suggests it formed during a cold, wet period on early Mars under oxidative conditions, followed by a transition to the current hyper-arid environment. This finding challenges previous models of continuous dry oxidation and indicates that ancient Mars experienced aqueous alteration before transitioning to its current desert state.

Ergodic seismic precursors and transfer learning for short term eruption forecasting at data scarce volcanoes

Abstract Seismic data recorded before volcanic eruptions provides important clues for forecasting. However, limited monitoring histories and infrequent eruptions restrict the data available for training forecasting models. We propose a transfer machine learning approach that identifies eruption precursors—signals that consistently change before eruptions—across multiple volcanoes. Using seismic data from 41 eruptions at 24 volcanoes over 73 years, our approach forecasts eruptions at unobserved (out-of-sample) volcanoes. Tested without data from the target volcano, the model demonstrated accuracy comparable to direct training on the target and exceeded benchmarks based on seismic amplitude. These results indicate that eruption precursors exhibit ergodicity, sharing common patterns that allow observations from one group of volcanoes to approximate the behavior of others. This approach addresses data limitations at individual sites and provides a useful tool to support monitoring efforts at volcano observatories, improving the ability to forecast eruptions and mitigate volcanic risks.