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Atomic-Scale Imaging Reveals Polar-π Interactions in Two-Dimensional Molecular Superlattices
Hidden human–virus interactions uncovered in DNA in blood and saliva
Mixed-Lanthanide Metal–Organic Frameworks for Near-Infrared-I Bioimaging and Near-Infrared-III Four-Photon Upconversion
Scintillon–Mimicking Mechanoluminescence for Theranostic Applications
A hybrid system for detecting semiconductor wafer defects using modified MobileNet with multi-head attention
Identifying defective semiconductor wafers is a crucial and complicated aspect of the manufacturing process. Developed systems often confront difficulties in capturing intricate defect patterns, as well as the long-range relationships between defects and small defects within wafers. To address these issues, this paper proposes a hybrid system that combines a modified MobileNet structure with an error-correcting output code (ECOC)- based support vector machine (SVM) classifier. In the proposed method, for feature extraction purposes, the MobileNet architecture is modified 1) by using the Swish function instead of the ReLU function in the depth-wise separable convolution block of the MobileNet structure for detecting complex defective patterns and 2) by incorporating the multi-head attention mechanism in the MobileNet architecture for capturing long-range dependencies on defective wafers. To solve the dataset class imbalance issue, the ECOC-SVM classifier is used in the proposed method. For enhancing the visibility of minor defects, the histogram equalization technique is applied to wafer images. The real-world semiconductor wafer dataset WM-811K is used in this study. This paper presents an ablation study to validate the necessity of each modification to the proposed system. The proposed system achieved a superior testing accuracy of 98.55% and better average values of AUC (99.74%), recall (93.34%), precision (95.64%), and F1-score (94.42%) compared with the original version of MobileNet. Also, Comparative analyses of the proposed system with other developed systems and state-of-the-art models are given in this paper.
Single-cell analysis of inhibitory efferent neurons of the zebrafish lateral line
The zebrafish lateral line system is a sensory network made up of neuromasts, which contain hair cells to detect water flow. Neuromasts signal via sensory afferent neurons and their activity is modulated by efferent neurons. Inhibitory efferent neurons consist of REN, ROLE, and RELL cells and previous work has shown that neuromasts can be innervated by multiple efferent neurons, suggesting potential functional differences. To explore this, we performed single-cell RNA sequencing on REN, ROLE, and RELL neurons in 5-day-old zebrafish larvae. GO analysis across differentially expressed genes did not reveal pathways that suggest differences in cellular function. Comparing markers for neurotransmitter phenotype showed all inhibitory efferent neurons to be cholinergic, but also expressed genes related to other neurotransmitters. Expression of selected genes related to rhombomere location, axon guidance, or gap junctions was similar across efferent neurons. Expression of genes encoding proteins related to membrane potential suggest that REN neurons might be more sensitive to glutamate and may have different action potential dynamics, although functional validation remains to be done. In addition, we assessed neuromast innervation by ROLE and RELL neurons. We found that both ROLE and RELL neurons synapse to approximately 50% of hair cells within a neuromast, compared to approximately 75% innervation by all inhibitory efferent neurons combined. In addition, we did not observe flow polarity bias by innervating efferent axons. However, we did find that RELL neurons had a lower number of synaptic boutons compared to ROLE, which may reflect differences in synaptic output capacity. Taken that our transcriptional analysis did not reveal major intrinsic molecular differences, but we did observe differences in neuromast innervation, raises the possibility that functional differences, if present, may come from upstream inputs. Future work, such as retrograde tracing, could help map these input partners and clarify how different types of efferent neurons contribute to sensory modulation.
Correction: Acquired resistance of Stenotrophomonas maltophilia to antimicrobials induced by herbicide paraquat dichloride
Antimicrobial resistance profiles and whole-genome sequence analysis of extended-spectrum β-lactamase (ESBL) production in commensal Escherichia coli from poultry in Türkiye
This study examines phenotypic antimicrobial resistance (AMR) and its genetic background in Escherichia coli isolated from poultry flocks in Türkiye, with a particular focus on extended spectrum β-lactamase (ESBL)-producing strains. A total of 918 E. coli isolates obtained from ceacal samples of chickens (n = 745) and turkeys (n = 173) were subjected to antimicrobial susceptibility testing using the agar disk diffusion method. Overall, high resistance rates were observed to tylosin (99.6%), ampicillin (90.8%), and oxytetracycline (84.0%), while resistance to third-generation cephalosporins (cefotaxime/ceftazidime) was detected in 11.4% of the isolates. Notably, AMR profiles varied significantly between poultry companies, indicating heterogeneous antimicrobial selection pressures within the production sector. ESBL-producing E. coli isolates exhibited high levels of multidrug-resistance, particularly to sulfamethoxazole (91.4%) and chloramphenicol (90.5%). Whole-genome sequencing (WGS) of ESBL-producing E. coli isolates (n = 87) identified several ESBL-encoding genes, with bla CTX-M-55 being the most prevalent (51.7%). Plasmid analysis demonstrated frequent associations of bla CTX-M-15 with IncFIB replicon, while bla CMY-2 was mainly linked to IncHI2A and IncI1-I plasmid types. In silico typing identified 44 distinct serotypes and 35 sequence types (STs), with O23:H4 and ST1011 being the most detected, highlighting the broad population structure of poultry associated E. coli . Virulence-associated genes were widely distributed among ESBL-producing isolates and predominantly related to adhesion, iron acquisition, stress response, and secretion systems. To the best of our knowledge, this study provides the first comprehensive WGS-based analysis of AMR in commensal E. coli from poultry in Türkiye, revealing significant public health concerns and the need for enhanced monitoring strategies.
Correction: Antecedents of the effectiveness of entrepreneurship policy: An integrated framework
Knowledge, awareness and attitude among practicing oral and maxillofacial surgeons towards tele-dentistry: A cross-sectional survey
Tele-dentistry can be defined as the utilization of digital and telecommunication technologies to facilitate remote dental care. This study assessed the knowledge, awareness and practices related to tele-dentistry among oral and maxillofacial surgeons in Türkiye using a cross-sectional survey. A structured questionnaire was distributed to approximately 900 members of the Association of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery Society (AÇBİD) in Türkiye, and responses from 152 participants were analysed using descriptive statistics and binary logistic regression (p < 0.05). Although 46.1% of respondents reported familiarity with tele-dentistry, only 9.9% had prior experience with it. Overall awareness was moderate and attitudes toward future applications were generally positive; however, actual clinical utilization remained limited. Academic title was the only variable significantly associated with prior awareness and utilization, although the strength of this association was modest and its confidence intervals were wide. None of the predictor variables demonstrated a statistically significant association with the participants’ intention to use tele-dentistry in the future. These findings indicate that oral and maxillofacial surgeons in Türkiye are receptive to tele-dentistry but have limited practical exposure. Barriers to implementation may include insufficient training, data security concerns, diagnostic reliability issues, and lack of institutional support. Strengthening specialty training and developing system-level frameworks may support broader adoption in clinical practice. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study to examine tele-dentistry-related knowledge, awareness, and practices among oral and maxillofacial surgeons in Türkiye.
A decade of triage with the Manchester Triage System-The MTS big data study
Background Over the past 25 years, numerous studies have evaluated triage system performance, but longitudinal data are limited. This study is the first to assess the Manchester Triage System (MTS) over a decade to determine the accuracy of initial patient assessments and system stability under external influences such as staff turnover, health policy changes, demographic shifts, and the COVID-19 pandemic. Methods We conducted a large-scale, monocentric, retrospective observational study at a tertiary care hospital. Results Between 2014 and 2023 a total of 355,135 emergency patients were included. Average age increased from 48.1 to 52.1 years. The distribution of the five MTS urgency levels remained stable. Prediction of hospital admission (AUC 0.719–0.756) and ICU admission (AUC 0.831–0.862) was consistent throughout the period. Twelve-hour survival probabilities were above 0.99 for “blue” to “orange” patients and above 0.89 for “red” patients. Short-term mortality prediction (AUC) ranged from 0.845 to 0.894. Thirty-day survival remained >0.8 for “blue” to “orange” stages, while the “red” stage declined from 0.63 (2014) to 0.44 (2023). The AUC for 30-day mortality increased from 0.672 to 0.750 over the decade. Conclusion Construct validity assessment demonstrates that the MTS reliably assigns appropriate urgency levels to incoming emergency patients. Longitudinal evaluation shows that its accuracy remained stable over ten years despite high staff turnover, health policy and demographic changes, and the COVID-19 pandemic. These findings confirm the robustness and reliability of the MTS in a high-volume tertiary care setting and support its continued use for emergency patient prioritization.
The influence of psychological ownership on pride in a Citizen Science project on wildlife ecology
Voluntary engagement is crucial for committed participation in Citizen Science (CS) projects. So far, the CS literature has argued that psychological ownership (i.e., subjective feelings of owning or possessing an object or entity) facilitates engagement in CS projects and is beneficial for several outcomes, such as attitudes toward CS. This paper argues that, as ownership is a self-relevant experience and facilitates effort and engagement, it should increase self-focused outcomes, such as the self-conscious emotion of pride. This is highly relevant for the CS context due to its voluntary character. In turn, pride may have uplifting effects and may trigger more engagement. Therefore, the research presented here investigated the interrelations between psychological ownership and pride in five two-month long, two-wave longitudinal field studies of a CS project on urban wildlife ecology using cross-lagged panel analyses of the data of 508 participants. It was hypothesized that ownership predicts pride over time and not vice versa, as ownership increases engagement, which in turn would trigger pride. It was found that, across all field studies combined, ownership had indeed a positive, time-lagged influence on pride. Thus, when CS participants voluntarily engage in a CS project that feels like their own, they also subsequently feel proud, which can motivate further voluntary CS engagement. The implications for the CS context are discussed.
Diagnostic performance of four hepatitis-B surface antigen conformité Européenne (CE) marked and one WHO prequalified rapid diagnostic tests in Uganda
Background Globally, over 254 million people are infected with chronic Hepatitis B (HBV). Eighty million of these reside in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). HBV claims an estimated one million lives annually. Efforts to eradicate it from SSA have been slow, partly due to a lack of affordable, accurate screening tools. The diagnostic accuracy of the commonly used rapid diagnostic tests (RDTs) in SSA is poorly understood; hence a need to characterize the validity of five RDTs being used for HBV diagnosis using the Hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) serologic marker. Methods In this case-control study with 1:1 case: control matching, and a prevalence of 50%, 200 samples of residual donor blood were tested using RDTs against the reference test Fortress Diagnostic, 2016 Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay (ELISA). They were subsequently subjected to five RDT kits: the SD Bioline (Abbott Diagnostics Korea Inc.), a World Health Organization (WHO) pre-qualified test kit, and four Conformité Européenne (CE) Marked RDTs: One-Step, NOVA (Atlas Link Technology), Astracare (Astra Biotech GmbH), and Accurate (Pharmagen Uganda Ltd). Sensitivity and specificity were computed using ELISA as the reference test. The Statistical Program for Social Sciences (SPSS) was used for statistical analysis. Results All five RDT brands demonstrated a sensitivity of 93% (95% CI 93%− 93%). Their specificity, however, ranged from 95% (95% CI 94.9%− 97.8%) for Astracare to 98% (95% CI 94.9%− 98.0%) for SD Bioline. Conclusion All the RDTs demonstrated good specificity and good performance characteristics. CE-marked RDTs thus present an opportunity for massive screening of the at-risk populations in the WHO-led campaign to eliminate HBV as a public health threat in Uganda and other low-resource settings by 2030.
Satisfaction with democracy predicts democratic behaviors
The global decline in satisfaction with democracy, as measured in surveys, is sometimes used as evidence of democracy’s precarious health. However, existing evidence on the link between democratic attitudes and behaviors is mostly based on self-reported behaviors or country-level comparisons. We study the link between satisfaction with democracy and democratic behaviors at the individual level with original data consisting of 50,000+ surveys of Mexican citizens matched with individual-level administrative information about three democratic behaviors: attendance to poll worker training, staffing a polling station on Election Day, and turning out to vote a year later. We find that survey-measured dissatisfaction with democracy predicts lower democratic engagement on all three behaviors. Our findings suggest that the global decline in survey-measured satisfaction with democracy is indeed cause for concern.
Training thermodynamic computers by gradient descent
We show how to adjust the parameters of a thermodynamic computer by gradient descent in order to perform a desired computation at a specified observation time. Within a digital simulation of a thermodynamic computer, training proceeds by maximizing the probability with which the computer would generate an idealized dynamical trajectory. The idealized trajectory is designed to reproduce the activations of a neural network trained to perform the desired computation. This teacher-student scheme results in a thermodynamic computer whose finite-time dynamics enacts a computation analogous to that of the neural network. The parameters identified in this way can be implemented in the hardware realization of the thermodynamic computer, which will perform the desired computation automatically, driven by thermal noise. We demonstrate the method on a standard image-classification task, and estimate the thermodynamic advantage—the ratio of energy costs of the digital and thermodynamic implementations—to exceed seven orders of magnitude. Our results establish gradient descent as a viable training method for thermodynamic computing, enabling application of the core methodology of machine learning to this emerging field.
Refugee labor market integration at scale: Evidence from Germany’s fast-track employment program
Governments face persistent challenges in integrating refugees into the local labor market, and many past interventions have shown limited impact. This study examines the Job-Turbo program, a large-scale initiative launched by the German government in 2023 to accelerate employment among refugees—primarily individuals from Ukraine and eight other major countries of origin. Using monthly administrative panel data from Germany’s network of public employment service offices and a difference-in-differences design, we find that the program significantly increased both caseworker–refugee contact and job placements over a 23-mo follow-up period. Among Ukrainian refugees, the exit-to-job rate nearly doubled. Effects were broad-based—spanning demographic subgroups, unemployment durations, skill levels, regions, and local labor-market conditions—and were concentrated in regular, unsubsidized employment. The program also raised both the rate and share of placements followed by sustained employment, consistent with improved placement quality. Other refugee groups saw meaningful gains as well, but increases in job placements were concentrated among males and in low-skilled jobs, with only limited effects for females. We detect no negative spillovers on contact rates or exit-to-job rates for unemployed German or other immigrant job seekers, finding no evidence of resource reallocation or displacement. The results offer insights for governments responding to displacement crises. They indicate that intensified job-search assistance—embedded within the early stage of integration and implemented at scale through public employment infrastructure—can meaningfully improve refugees’ labor-market outcomes, even amid significant arrivals.
R-loop disruption triggers irreversible topoisomerase 1–DNA cleavage complex formation during AID-dependent IgH gene diversification
Class switch recombination (CSR) and somatic hypermutation are essential mechanisms of effective antibody production, dependent on the enzyme activation-induced cytidine deaminase (AID). Since AID lacks the intrinsic ability to cleave DNA, topoisomerase 1 (TOP1) has been hypothesized to mediate AID- and transcription-dependent DNA cleavage. However, the molecular mechanism underlying the formation of an irreversible TOP1–DNA cleavage complex (TOP1-CC) following cytidine to uridine (C-to-U) editing by AID remains undefined. To unveil this mechanism, we tested antisense oligonucleotides (ASOs) targeting noncoding germline transcripts (GLTs) that form R-loops across DNA cleavage sites during CSR. These studies revealed that the anti-GLT-ASOs increased DNA cleavage frequency, concomitant with a decrease in R-loops. Mechanistically, ASO-mediated R-loop disruption led to increased TOP1-CC formation specifically within the GLT region during CSR. Furthermore, an in vitro transcription assay demonstrated that RNase H-mediated R-loop degradation enhanced positive supercoiling and double-strand breaks in the presence of TOP1, even in the absence of AID. Moreover, knockout of Tyrosyl-DNA phosphodiesterase 1 ( Tdp1 ), a canonical TOP1-CC processing enzyme, revealed that TDP1 suppresses CSR, indicating that accumulated TOP1-CCs in Tdp1 knockout cells serve as substrates for CSR through an alternative TOP1-CC processing pathway. Collectively, these results suggest the R-loop destabilization as a critical, hitherto unrecognized intermediary step linking C-to-U editing to TOP1-CC formation. AID-mediated C-to-U editing within R-loops introduces a G:U wobble base pair, which we hypothesize renders R-loops unstable and sensitive to nuclear RNases, leading to R-loop disruption; this disruption consequently induces the TOP1-CCs and results in CSR, as confirmed in this study.
Correction for Ganguly et al., The Nemp1–Nesprin complex mediates cellular responses to matrix mechanics
Structures of folding intermediates on BAM show diverse substrates fold by a conserved mechanism
The outer membranes of mitochondria, chloroplasts, and Gram-negative bacteria contain β-barrel membrane proteins that are assembled by conserved multisubunit machines. In bacteria, the β-barrel assembly machine (BAM) folds over a hundred compositionally different substrates into barrels that vary greatly in size. Some larger barrels require globular proteins to plug the barrel lumen. How a single machine can assemble such different barrels is unknown. Here we report three structures representing progressively folded stages of a 16-stranded barrel engaged with BAM, as well as the structure of a late-stage folding intermediate of a 26-stranded substrate folding around its soluble lipoprotein plug on BAM. We find that BAM catalyzes folding of these substrates by a uniform mechanism in which BAM undergoes major distortions to accommodate the nascent barrel.