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Real world experience with cyclin dependent kinase inhibitors in metastatic breast cancer in India
Background The present study evaluated the real-world experience with cyclin dependent kinase 4/6 inhibitors palbociclib and ribociclib in hormone receptor-positive/ human epidermal growth factor receptor 2-negative (HR + /HER2-) metastatic breast cancer. Method This study was conducted on the HR + /HER2- metastatic breast cancer patients who received palbociclib/ ribociclib in the first line or recurrent setting between January 2021 and January 2023 along with endocrine therapy. Data was retrieved from the Hospital medical records. Results In the patients receiving palbociclib, a better median progression free survival (PFS) was observed in patients with Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group (ECOG) performance status (PS) 1 (27.3 months,p-value <0.0001), de novo disease (17.5 months,p-value 0.0155), first line hormonal therapy (22.5 months,p-value <0.0001) and no prior chemotherapy (20.3 months,p-value 0.0001). Similarly, in the patients receiving ribociclib, a better median PFS was observed in patients with ECOG PS 1 (22.2 months,p-value <0.0001), de novo disease (21.7 months,p-value 0.0042), first-line hormonal therapy (22.5 months,p-value <0.0001) and no prior chemotherapy (21.7 months,p-value <0.0001). On multivariate analysis, ECOG PS, line of hormone therapy and prior chemotherapy showed significance (p-values <0.0001, < 0.0001 & 0.0269, respectively). Conclusion The study shows real-world experience with cyclin dependent kinase 4/6 inhibitors palbociclib and ribociclib in metastatic breast cancer in India.
Self-efficacy, personal autonomy, life arrangements, and health priorities/preferences in psychological distress: a predictive, variance-based PLS-SEM structural model
Nutritional status and associated factors among hospitalized adult patients in comprehensive specialized hospitals of Western Ethiopia
Background Malnutrition is common among hospitalized patients but is often overlooked in low- and middle-income countries like Ethiopia. Therefore, this study aims to determine its prevalence and identify associated factors among adult patients admitted to comprehensive specialized hospitals in Western Ethiopia. Methods A facility-based cross-sectional study was conducted among 1,106 randomly selected adult patients admitted to comprehensive specialized hospitals from December 16, 2023 to April 16, 2024. The sample was proportionally allocated by patient population. Data were collected using Kobo Toolbox, then exported from Microsoft Excel to Stata version 17 for analysis. Nutritional status was assessed at admission using the Subjective Global Assessment (SGA). Ordinal logistic regression was applied after verifying the proportional odds assumption, with the Brant test used for model validation. Adjusted odds ratios (AORs) alongside 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were computed, and statistical significance was set at p < 0.05. Results Among all study participants, 24.5% (95% CI: 21.8%, 27.4%) were severely malnourished, while 34.4% (95% CI: 31.4%, 37.6%) were moderately malnourished. In the multivariable ordinal logistic regression analyses, factors significantly associated with both moderate and severe malnutrition included age greater or equal to 65 years [(AOR = 4.32; 95% CI: (2.02, 9.28)], age 41–64 years [(AOR = 3.36; (1.58, 7.16)], male sex [(AOR = 1.46,95% CI:(1.085,1.953)], urban residence [(AOR = 0.49; 95% CI: (0.32, 0.76)], lack of formal education [(AOR = 5.37; 95% CI: (3.32, 8.69)], comorbidities at admission [(AOR = 1.50;95%CI:(1.04,2.16)], and inadequate dietary diversity [(AOR = 1.37;95% CI:1.01,1.86)]. Conclusion Malnutrition among hospitalized adult patients remains high and is strongly associated with age, sex, urban residence, educational status, comorbidities at admission, and dietary diversity. Therefore, hospital-based nutritional interventions should adopt a multidisciplinary approach, including early screening and identification, proper management of comorbidities, dietary counseling, and the development of comprehensive care plans and guidelines to improve clinical outcomes.
LaED: a novel lightweight, edge-aware and explainable deep learning model for privacy-preserving facial attendance tracking in resource-constrained educational environments
Serum peptidomic profiling and peptide mass fingerprinting reveal signatures associated with peroxisomal and mitochondrial pathways in MMVD-associated cardiorenal syndrome in dogs
Cardiorenal syndrome in dogs, particularly those with myxomatous mitral valve degeneration (MMVD), involves complex neurohormonal interactions, yet molecular mechanisms linking heart and kidney dysfunction remain poorly understood. This study aimed to identify serum peptide and protein signatures that differentiate disease stages and clarify pathophysiology. We hypothesized that alterations in the serum peptide mass fingerprint and protein profile would serve as sensitive biomarkers for kidney disease progression in MMVD-affected dogs. Dogs were classified into five groups following ACVIM consensus guidelines for the diagnosis and treatment of myxomatous mitral valve disease in dog and IRIS Staging of chronic kidney disease (CKD): Healthy, MMVD Stage B1, MMVD Stage C without azotemia, MMVD Stage C with azotemia, and CKD IRIS Stage 2. Serum peptide profiling was performed using Matrix-Assisted Laser Desorption/Ionization – Time-of-Flight Mass Spectrometry (MALDI-TOF MS) for peptide mass fingerprint analysis and Nanoscale Liquid Chromatography-Tandem Mass Spectrometry for protein identification. MALDI-TOF MS effectively discriminated healthy dogs from diseased groups through discrete clustering in Partial Least-Squares Discriminant Analysis plots. Proteomic profiling identified 100 statistically significant proteins, with a critical subset of shared proteins including Peroxisomal biogenesis factor 14, Glutaredoxin-2, Creatine kinase mitochondrial 2, and Selenocysteine insertion sequence-binding protein identified between the MMVD C WAZ and CKD Stage 2 groups. These proteins are associated with the arginine and proline metabolism and peroxisome pathways, which were found to be influenced by standard medications such as pimobendan, furosemide, spironolactone, benazepril, and sildenafil. These findings reflect a systemic failure of cellular redox and energetic homeostasis driven by renin angiotensin aldosterone system activation and oxidative stress. The convergence of peroxisomal and mitochondrial dysfunction suggests a unifying mechanism for parallel cardiac and renal deterioration. These proteomic markers persist despite standard medical therapy, highlighting their potential as auxiliary tools for risk stratification and the monitoring of treatment efficacy in canine cardiorenal syndrome.
Task offloading and resource allocation for cooperative communication and sensing in edge computing for mine
Abstract With the growing demand for computation-intensive and latency-critical tasks in intelligent mining, the computing capabilities of terminal devices are becoming increasingly inadequate. Consequently, task offloading has emerged as a vital mechanism. However, existing approaches often depend on centralized resource allocation algorithms, which tend to produce suboptimal assignment decisions. As a result, tasks are frequently offloaded to inappropriate edge servers that become unstable under heavy upload traffic, leading to higher latency and increased energy consumption. To effectively assess system performance, we introduce the Overall Utility Value (OUV), which balances system delay and energy usage. In this paper, we present an edge computing task-offloading framework tailored for mining scenarios, which comprises a central control unit, distributed service nodes, and a large number of terminal devices. By leveraging the environmental awareness of the service nodes, we present a Cooperative Communication and Sensing Task Offloading Scheme (CCTS) designed to minimize both system latency (SL) and system energy consumption (SEC) through optimized task allocation and wireless bandwidth ratios. To tackle this optimization problem, we develop an Improved Gray Wolf Optimization algorithm integrated with a Feasibility Checking Algorithm (IGWO-FCA). Simulation results demonstrate that the IGWO-FCA achieves the lowest OUV, validating its effectiveness.
Unraveling the significance of decorin in endometriosis development through single cell sequencing and experimental approaches
Background A link exists between decorin (DCN) and endometriosis, nevertheless, the role of DCN in this condition remains unclear. This study aims to bioinformatically characterize DCN expression, diagnostic value, and related signaling in endometriosis using single-cell and bulk transcriptomic data, with experimental validation of expression level. Methods Single-cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-seq) was analyzed using Scissor and ROGUE algorithms to identify key cell types associated with endometriosis. CIBERSORTx was used to construct a signature matrix for deconvolution of bulk RNA-seq data and estimation of immune and stromal subpopulation proportions. DCN expression was explored across datasets and validated by reverse transcription-quantitative polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR) in endometrial and endometriotic stromal cells. Its diagnostic value was assessed by receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis, and associated pathways were predicted by gene set enrichment analysis (GSEA). Potential DCN-targeted drugs were predicted via bioinformatic databases. Results Stromal cells were identified as the key cell type with high heterogeneity and dominant DCN expression. Ten stromal subtypes were delineated, with Activated/Myofibroblast-like Stromal Cells (AMSC), Fibrosis-Effector Stromal Cells (FESC), Stemness-Remodeling Stromal Cells (SRSC), and dStromal showing significantly altered proportions in endometriosis. DCN was significantly upregulated in endometriosis at both transcriptomic and cellular levels, with area under the curve (AUC) > 0.8 in two independent datasets, supporting its diagnostic potential. GSEA indicated DCN correlates with complement/coagulation cascades, TGF-β signaling, and other pathways linked to tissue remodeling and inflammation. Seven candidate drugs targeting DCN were predicted as hypothesis-generating leads. Conclusion This study provides bioinformatic and correlative evidence that DCN is abnormally upregulated in endometriotic stromal cells and exhibits favorable diagnostic value. DCN is associated with pathways relevant to endometriosis pathogenesis and represents a promising biomarker and therapeutic candidate pending future functional and mechanistic validation.
Sustainable science mapping: benchmarking green AI against transformers for cross-disciplinary abstract classification using arXiv
Abstract The exponential growth of scholarly literature necessitates automated, scalable systems for organizing knowledge domains. However, text classification of academic abstracts presents distinct challenges due to specialized terminology and diverse discourse structures across disciplines. This study proposes a resource efficient deep learning methodology to categorize academic abstracts, scaling from coarse grained domains (arXiv) to fine grained disciplinary hierarchies (Web of Science). Systematic comparative analysis of Recurrent Neural Networks (Attention-GRU) and Transformer based architectures (BERT, SciBERT) are conducted, specifically focusing on the trade-off between predictive accuracy and computational efficiency. Extensive experiments on massive benchmarks that include the WOS-46985 dataset with 134 sub-disciplines, reveal a notable finding: Our proposed Attention-based GRU model utilizing static GloVe embeddings achieved a Macro-F1 score of 0.920, achieving higher performance than leading domain specific models such as SciBERT (F1: 0.867). Furthermore, this accuracy was achieved with over 3 $$\times$$ faster training times and significantly lower estimated energy proxy compared to Transformer variants. This research contributes to the field by providing a systematic evaluation of “Green AI” architectures, demonstrating that computationally efficient models can robustly handle the linguistic diversity of high cardinality, fine grained scientific taxonomies without the prohibitive estimated energy costs of Large Language Models.
The role of citizen science in mosquito-borne disease surveillance and control: A scoping review
Background Mosquito-borne diseases (MBDs) pose substantial global health and economic burdens. Although conventional MBDs surveillance systems remain essential, they are often resource-intensive, uneven in coverage, and often insufficiently responsive to spatio-temporal variations in mosquito presence and risk. Citizen science, increasingly enabled by mobile and digital technologies, offers a scalable complement to expand surveillance reach and timeliness. However, existing reviews have not comprehensively integrated evidence across diverse dimensions of citizen science applied to MBDs surveillance and control. Methods We conducted a systematic search of PubMed, MEDLINE, CINAHL, Scopus, and Web of Science from January 1, 2000, to October 17, 2025, to identify peer-reviewed studies examining citizen science applications in MBDs surveillance and control. Data were extracted and synthesized on study characteristics, participation objectives, recruitment strategies, citizen-generated data and technologies, validation mechanisms, effort-bias handling, analytical approaches, public health outputs, reported biases and methodological limitations, and ethical and governance practices. Results Of 3,734 records identified, 61 studies met inclusion criteria, with most published after 2017 (93.4%). Studies were conducted in Europe (44.3%) and the Americas (21.3%), with minimal representation from Asia (3.3%). Malaria-related surveillance was most common (23.0%), followed by dengue (13.1%), with other mosquito-borne diseases examined only sporadically, including West Nile virus (4.9%), Usutu virus (1.6%), La Crosse virus (1.6%), and California serogroup viruses (1.6%). Most studies were conducted in urban settings (47.5%), followed by mixed urban–rural contexts (36.1%), with relatively few exclusively in rural areas (18.0%). Mosquito Alert was the most frequently reported platform (23.0%), followed by GLOBE Observer (13.1%) and iNaturalist (11.5%). Commonly reported outputs included trend analyses (52.5%), risk-factor identification (44.3%), spatial predictions (42.6%), hotspot mapping (19.7%), and risk modeling (16.4%). Reporting of ethical and governance practices was inconsistent across studies. Conclusions The growing body of evidence indicates that citizen science can enhance mosquito surveillance, particularly for monitoring invasive species and spatio-temporal trends. Nevertheless, gaps in methodological rigor, representativeness, and ethical transparency limit its broader operational use.
Dynamic neural representations of scene beauty are relatively unaffected by stimulus timing and task
Abstract Understanding the neural correlates of aesthetic experiences in natural environments is a central question in neuroaesthetics. A previous EEG study (Kaiser, 2022) identified early and temporally sustained neural representations of visual scene beauty. These results were obtained with long presentation durations (1450 ms) and with explicit beauty judgments, rendering it unclear how presentation time and task demands shape the neural correlates of scene beauty. In two EEG experiments, we replicated this study while varying presentation time and task. Experiment 1 tested whether reducing stimulus presentation time from 1450 ms to 100 ms altered neural representations of beauty. Experiment 2 examined whether beauty-related representations prevailed when participants performed an orthogonal task instead of explicitly judging beauty. Representational similarity analysis revealed that beauty-related neural representations emerged early (within 150–200 ms post-stimulus) and were sustained over time, in line with previous findings. Critically, we found that neither reduced presentation time nor the absence of an explicit beauty judgment significantly altered beauty-related neural dynamics. These results suggest that the neural correlates of scene beauty are relatively robust to stimulus presentation and task regimes, providing a potential correlate of the spontaneous perception of beauty in natural environments.
An entropy-based framework for genomic variability analysis: A South American case study of human papillomavirus
The genetic diversity of Human Papillomavirus (HPV) poses challenges for molecular detection and genotyping, particularly in regions with distinctive circulating variants such as South America. This study aimed to quantitatively characterize HPV genomic variability using Shannon entropy (H) and to establish a reproducible framework for systematic variability assessment. Positional entropy was calculated across complete and partial HPV genomic sequences and aggregated by gene to compare intra- and intergenotypic conservation patterns using publicly available South American sequences. Intragenotypic analyses showed that most genomic positions were highly conserved (H ≈ 0), consistent with functional constraints. In contrast, intergenotypic comparisons revealed a dual pattern of variability: early genes E5, E6, and E7 displayed higher divergence, whereas capsid genes L1 and L2 were comparatively conserved. These patterns align with known functional and evolutionary constraints across HPV genes. Rather than proposing diagnostic implementations, these results provide a quantitative basis for the preliminary prioritization of conserved and variable genomic regions. Entropy profiling provides a quantitative framework for characterizing genomic variability and may support the identification of conserved and variable regions for future investigation and genomic surveillance efforts, although experimental validation is required to determine diagnostic performance. Overall, this work presents a reproducible and data-driven approach for assessing HPV genomic variability and contributes to the understanding of regional viral diversity in South America.
Surrounding space associations affect attentional orienting and visual discrimination in frontal field
At the roots of Plant Awareness Disparity (PAD): Semantic processing and numerosity perception
Plant Awareness Disparity (PAD) refers to the inability of humans to notice plants and recognize their importance. Among the various factors (e.g., cultural) contributing to PAD, the less prominent visual cues of plants (e.g., color) might be one of the main features making them less noticeable to human perception. Here, we investigated whether PAD affects basic numerosity perception, which represents a fundamental cognitive ability that allows individuals to interpret and interact with their surroundings. Across three experiments, we compared how participants perceive the numerosity of plants (specifically trees), animals, and minerals. Participants completed two tasks: an estimation task, in which they reported the exact number of items in a single set and a comparison task, which required them to discriminate numerosity between two sets of items. In Experiment 1, both tasks employed colored images. We hypothesized that participants would underestimate the number of plant items in comparison to animals and minerals, given that plant stimuli typically attract less attention. In Experiment 2, black and white images were used to test whether the green color of plants contributes to PAD. In Experiment 3, all items were rotated by 180° to disrupt semantic recognition and assess whether PAD arises from higher-level cognitive processes. Results revealed a consistent underestimation of plants in Experiment 1 and 2, but this effect diminished in Experiment 3. The reduction of this effect suggests that semantic recognition processes may contribute to PAD. These results highlight how cognitive biases toward plants can influence basic perceptual judgments essential for everyday functioning.
Correlation between the modified cardiometabolic index and the incidence of cardiovascular disease in a population with cardiovascular-kidney-metabolic syndrome stages 0–3: a nationwide prospective cohort study
Prevalence and determinants of suboptimal health status among outdoor labor workers in Chengdu, Southwest China: A cross-sectional study
Background Suboptimal health status, termed sub-health, is a global public health problem. It is an intermediate health condition between health and disease. This study aimed to investigate the prevalence of chronic sub-health conditions among outdoor labor workers in Chengdu (a major city in Southwest China) and identify its associated risk factors. Methods The Sub-Health Measurement Scale Version 1.0 (SHMS V1.0) was used to investigate the occurrence of sub-health conditions and their risk factors. Participants from four main outdoor occupations (drivers, construction workers, security guards, couriers) were surveyed to analyze the occurrence of sub-health and the associations between sub-health and other socio-demographic factors as well as exercise habits, using Pearson's correlation analysis and the multifactorial binary logistic regression model. Results A total of 1030 questionnaires were distributed and 902 questionnaires were recovered (88% recovery rate). Excluding the invalid questionnaires due to omitted questions, multiple choices, etc., 705 questionnaires were retained (78% validity rate) and the prevalence of varying degrees of sub-health was 80.28%. Several significant correlating factors of the sub-health condition were identified, such as age, year of outdoor service, marital status, family size, monthly income, drinking habit, and regular participation in exercise. Conclusions The incidence of subhealth was relatively high among outdoor workers, while no significant age-related difference was observed. The incidence also varies across the different occupations ( i.e. , drivers > security guards > construction workers > couriers). Future targeted measures to alleviate these contributing factors may improve the sub-health status of outdoor labor workers.
Integrative taxonomic and phytopharmacological analysis of ethnobotanical Acanthaceae species from Manipur, India
Frontline decision autonomy under decentralization: Evidence from health sector reform
Decentralization is designed to transfer autonomy from more central to more local actors, yet studies show differences in the autonomy realized under these reforms. Drawing on the case of health sector decentralization in Honduras, we utilize the decision space approach and original data for over 600 frontline health workers in a matched sample to explain facility-level autonomy. We find that reported decision autonomy in four functional areas is slightly reduced under decentralization, reductions are most pronounced where decentralization is led by municipal governments or associations, rather than NGOs, and differences across staff types are modest. Furthermore, capacity and resources are necessary for expanded autonomy, particularly in organizing service delivery, while supportive accountability allows for increased autonomy in human resources and finances. Our research shows the importance of including frontline staff in studies of decision autonomy under decentralization and considering the distribution of autonomy across levels in hierarchical service delivery systems.
Effects of indoor physical environment and psychosocial stress on work performance in a Thai academic setting
Abstract While physical indoor environmental quality (IEQ) and psychosocial stress are known to affect employee well-being, their combined influence on multidimensional work performance remains underexplored, particularly within academic medical settings in Southeast Asia. To address this gap, this cross-sectional study investigated the associations between specific work performance domains and both physical and psychosocial environments among office workers in a Thai academic medical institute. A survey was conducted among 419 administrative staff members (51.16% response rate) employed for over six months. Participants completed paper-based questionnaires assessing: (1) demographics, (2) physical indoor environment perceptions (7-point Likert scale), (3) psychosocial environment (Thai Effort–Reward Imbalance Questionnaire), and (4) work performance (Individual Work Performance Questionnaire). Multiple linear regression analyzed relationships between these factors and three performance domains: task performance (TP), contextual performance (CP), and counterproductive work behavior (CWB). While TP was negatively associated with male gender (β = -0.14, 95% CI: -0.26 to -0.03), CP was significantly hindered by perceived stagnant air movement (β = -0.07, 95% CI: -0.12 to -0.02) and facilitated by adequate privacy (β = 0.06, 95% CI: 0.01 to 0.11). Furthermore, high-risk effort-reward imbalance was a strong predictor of lower CWB scores (β = -0.26, 95% CI: -0.45 to -0.07), indicating that highly stressed individuals engaged in more frequent counterproductive behaviors. These findings demonstrate that physical and psychosocial factors are significantly associated with specific performance dimensions. Specifically, poor air movement and a lack of privacy are linked to lower contextual performance, while work stress is positively correlated with counterproductive behavior. Consequently, institutional policies should prioritize improving ventilation, enhancing workplace privacy, and balancing effort-reward structures to optimize staff productivity and well-being.
Functions of Uninflatable in the Drosophila melanogaster wing and notum
The Drosophila gene uninflatable ( uif ) encodes a conserved insect protein, first identified for its roles in the development and endopolyploid growth of several larval tissues. Uif is a transmembrane protein and its large extracellular domain contains several protein-protein interaction motifs, including multiple EGF ( E pidermal G rowth F actor-like) repeats. More recent studies have established that Uif can interact with Notch, a major regulator of Drosophila growth and differentiation, through its EGF repeats and have identified ways that Uif binding can modify Notch behavior. Endocytosis of Notch-Uif complexes into a particular class of endosomes has also been identified and implicated in cell fate decisions in the sense organs of the notum (thorax). We have examined uif’s functions in the Drosophila wing to assess possible roles in 1) growth of a mitotically derived tissue, 2) cell fate decisions in specialized wing structures, and 3) Notch -dependent processes. We used previously characterized Gal4 lines and RNAi constructs to suppress uif and Notch in different wing compartments. In addition to a role in mitotic growth throughout the wing, we have identified two new uif activities that are also shared with Notch : 1) regulation of pigment synthesis within the wing cuticle and 2) control of chemosensory sense organ number in the anterior wing margin through a role in an apoptosis-related mechanism. However, uif does not participate in two roles of Notch that regulate cell fate decisions: sense organ differentiation and formation of wing vein tissue. Given the similarities in the development of the notal and wing margin sense organs, we investigated further the previously proposed role for uif in differentiation of these structures on the notum. We found that loss of uif affects the growth of the bristles of the notal microchaete sense organs, but not their differentiation.