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A multimodal retinal aging clock for biological age prediction and systemic health assessment via OCT and fundus imaging

Molecular detection and antibiotic resistance of diarrheagenic Escherichia coli from street food and water in mukuru slums, Nairobi County

Globally, diarrheal diseases account for 550 million cases of foodborne illnesses annually. In Kenya, Escherichia coli ( E. coli ) infections from contaminated food and water pose a serious health concern, especially in settings with poor sanitation and hygiene practices This study examined the genetic characteristics and antimicrobial resistance profiles of diarrheagenic E. coli (DEC) recovered from street foods and water from Mukuru informal settlements, Nairobi. Between September and December 2023, 384 (each 77) samples of street foods ( Mandazi, githeri, French fries ), wastewater, and drinking water were collected and E . coli isolation performed through microbiological culture and antibiotic susceptibility testing done using Kirby-Bauer disc diffusion method. Conventional Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) was used to screen for six DEC and extended-spectrum beta-lactamase (ESBL) resistance genes. Descriptive and inferential statistics (Pearson’s chi-square test) were used to assess associations between sample types, E. coli positivity, pathotypes, and antibiotic resistance. E. coli was isolated in 16% (62/384) of the samples , with 77.4% (48/62) of the isolated E. coli being DEC. Majority (64.6%, 31/48) of DEC isolates were recovered from wastewater followed by drinking water (22.9%, 11/48), githeri ( 8.3%, 4/48), mandazi (4.2, 2/48), and none from french fries . The most common pathotypes were; ETEC 69% (33/48), STEC 52.1% (25/48), EIEC 50% (24/48)), EPEC 10% (5/48), and EAEC 6% (3/48) Of the 48 DEC isolates, 30 were hybrid isolates Overall, the E. coli isolates were highly resistant to tetracycline (77.4%), trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole (71.0%), ampicillin (59.7%) and least resistant to kanamycin (16.1%); chloramphenicol (8.1%) and amoxicillin + clavulanic acid (4.8%). A huge proportion (72.6%, 45/62) of the isolated E. coli were multidrug-resistant (MDR). Of the 45 MDR isolates, 60% (27) were from wastewater, 28.9% (13) from drinking water, 4.4% (2) from githeri, 4.4% (2) from mandazi and 2.2% (1) french fries 2.2%. ESBL genes bla - TEM and bla CTX-M were detected in 12.9% and 3.2% of the E. coli isolates. isolates. The high prevalence of MDR in the E.coli isolates recovered from environmental compartments and food is a huge public health risk to the population in these settings. The detection of E. coli indicates fecal contamination underscoring the need to improve water, and sanitation infrastructure in urban slums.

Damage from a heart attack comes from brain signals, mouse study suggests

A perturbative triples correction scheme to relativistic quadratic unitary coupled cluster method: Theory, implementation and benchmarking

We present a non-iterative triples correction to the relativistic quadratic unitary coupled cluster singles and doubles (qUCCSD) method, denoted as qUCCSD[T]. The method builds upon the Hermitian structure of the similarity-transformed Hamiltonian in the unitary coupled cluster method and can be derived by using perturbational truncation to the unitary coupled cluster energy functional. Relativistic effects are incorporated using the exact two-component atomic mean-field Hamiltonian, and the computational cost is further reduced through the frozen natural spinor and the Cholesky decomposition approximations. Benchmark results demonstrate that qUCCSD[T] outperforms previously proposed triples corrections to the unitary coupled cluster method and yields excellent agreement with experimental data and Full CI results. In addition, the method shows high accuracy in computing the bond dissociation enthalpies, molecular geometries, vibrational frequencies, ionization potentials, and electron affinities of heavy-element-containing systems. The new qUCCSD[T] method is competitive to popular CCSD(T) even on a classical computer.

Biosynthesis of Minimal C-Phycocyanin Chromophore Assemblies in <i>E. coli</i> Provides a Platform to Dissect Protein-Mediated Tuning of Exciton Transfer

Proteomic profiling of UV damage repair patches uncovers histone chaperones with central functions in chromatin repair

Mitoxantrone alters CD24/Siglec-10 expression in malignant brain tumor models

Abstract Medulloblastoma and glioblastoma are the most common malignant primary brain tumors in children and adults, respectively. Tumor-associated macrophages and microglia are key non-cancerous cell types in these tumors. These cells interact with CD24, a so called “don’t eat me signal” expressed on tumor cells, through Siglec-10, a receptor that contributes to immune evasion by promoting an immunosuppressive environment. The CD24/Siglec-10 interaction in context of malignant brain tumors has been scarcely studied.In silico analyses reveal that CD24 gene expression correlates with specific gene signatures associated with prognosis in both medulloblastoma and glioblastoma. In both human- and mouse brain tumors, Siglec-10 + cells co-express the microglia-associated molecule TREM2. Treatment with mitoxantrone as an immunogenic cell-death-inducing cytostatic agent led to a dose-dependent reduction in cell viability and cell surface CD24 levels in both murine and human brain tumor cell cultures. Intratumoral mitoxantrone administration in a murine CD24-high glioma model extended survival, decreased tumor size, reduced Siglec-10 + /TREM2 + cell populations, and increased anti-tumor CD8 + cells. These findings suggest that targeting the CD24/Siglec-10 axis with mitoxantrone may modulate the tumor microenvironment and enhance anti-tumor immunity.  Keywords : CD24, Siglec-10, Mitoxantrone, Malignant brain tumor, Immunotherapy.

Integration of the Pirogov interactive anatomy table into anatomy teaching: A comparative study with cadaveric dissection

Purposes Anatomy is fundamental in medical education, yet cadaveric dissection faces challenges including limited specimens, high costs, and chemical hazards. Interactive anatomy tables such as the Pirogov system offer innovative alternatives, but evidence from Southeast Asia is limited. Methods In a prospective cohort, 188 medical students (139 in Y1 and 49 in Y2) were randomly assigned to the Pirogov table group (Group A, n = 99) or the cadaveric dissection group (Group B, n = 89). Knowledge acquisition was measured using a validated 20-item multiple-choice test before and after the intervention. Student perceptions were evaluated with a 10-item Likert-scale questionnaire covering four domains: knowledge and understanding, spatial visualization and relationships, learning experience and engagement, and effectiveness and practical value. Data were analyzed using paired and independent t-tests and Welch’s t-test. Results Both groups showed significant knowledge gains (Group A: 4.3 ± 1.65 to 5.2 ± 1.75, p &lt; 0.001; Group B: 4.2 ± 1.92 to 5.1 ± 1.64, p &lt; 0.001), with no difference between them (p = 0.656). Likert ratings were consistently high across domains, with means from 4.43 to 4.48. Y1 students reported higher ratings than Y2 in learning experience (p = 0.023). Conclusion The Pirogov table and cadaveric dissection were associated with similar short-term improvements in anatomy knowledge. Students valued the Pirogov table for visualization and engagement. These findings support integrating digital tools with cadaveric dissection to enhance anatomy education, particularly in resource-limited contexts.

Chlorine–sulfur oxides in the Venusian atmosphere: Benchmark data from computational spectroscopy

Chlorine–sulfur oxides (Cl2SOn, n = 1–4) are key intermediates in the oxidative and photochemical cycles that couple sulfur and chlorine chemistry in the atmosphere of Venus. These compounds are thought to participate in catalytic processes converting SO2 to SO3 and, ultimately, to H2SO4, thereby contributing to the formation and maintenance of the planet’s characteristic cloud system. While thionyl and sulfuryl chloride have been experimentally characterized, the higher oxidation members of the series remain largely unobserved and their structures and spectroscopic signatures are essentially unknown. In this work, high-accuracy equilibrium geometries, rotational constants, and anharmonic vibrational frequencies are determined for the Cl2SOn series using explicitly correlated ab initio methods combined with second-order vibrational perturbation theory. This approach enables a balanced description of electron correlation and anharmonic effects, providing spectroscopic parameters that closely reproduce available experimental data and extend predictive accuracy to the uncharacterized higher oxides. The resulting dataset furnishes the first consistent reference for these reactive species, facilitating their potential identification in laboratory spectra and planetary observations. The predicted rotational and vibrational features are expected to assist in the interpretation of forthcoming high-resolution measurements from ESA’s EnVision and NASA’s VERITAS missions, offering new insight into the complex chlorine–sulfur–oxygen chemistry shaping the Venusian atmosphere.

Training tactile sensors to learn force sensing from each other

Abstract Humans achieve stable and dexterous object manipulation by coordinating grasp forces across multiple fingers and palms, facilitated by a unified tactile memory system in the somatosensory cortex. This system encodes and stores tactile experiences across skin regions, enabling the flexible reuse and transfer of touch information. Inspired by this biological capability, we present GenForce, the first framework that enables transferable force sensing across diverse tactile sensors in robotic hands. GenForce unifies tactile signals into shared marker representations, analogous to cortical sensory encoding, allowing force prediction models trained on one sensor to be transferred to others without the need for exhaustive force data collection. We demonstrate that GenForce generalizes across both homogeneous sensors with varying configurations and heterogeneous sensors with distinct sensing modalities and material properties. This transferable force sensing capability is also demonstrated in robot manipulation tasks including daily-object grasping, slip detection and compensation with multi-sensor force coordination. Our results highlight a scalable paradigm for cross-sensor robotic tactile sensing, offering new pathways toward adaptable and tactile memory-driven robot manipulation in unstructured environments.

Inter-neural co-regulation before and after an interactive perturbation in mother-infant dyads

From ADHD symptoms to parental stress: The roles of functional impairment, family functioning, and parental ADHD

Background Raising a child with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is associated with significant parental stress. However, the complex relationships between factors in the child and family in shaping this stress are not well understood. This study aimed to elucidate these interrelationships and identify the key determinants of parental stress. Methods A cross-sectional study included 127 children and adolescents with ADHD (70.9% males; mean age 9.6 ± 3.3 years) and their caregivers, recruited from the ADHD Registry at Ramathibodi Hospital, Bangkok (2019–2023). Caregivers completed standardized measures of parental stress, child ADHD symptoms, child functional impairment, family functioning, and parental ADHD symptoms. Structural equation modeling was used to examine pathways from child and parental ADHD symptoms to parental stress, with functional impairment and family functioning specified as mediators. Results Examining child- and family-related factors separately, child ADHD symptoms indirectly influenced parental stress via functional impairment, whereas parental ADHD symptoms significantly influenced parental stress both directly and indirectly via family functioning. In the integrated model examining both child- and family-related factors concurrently, the direct and indirect pathways from parental ADHD symptoms to parental stress via family functioning remained significant, but not the pathway from child ADHD symptoms to parental stress via functional impairment. Conclusions Functional impairment, parental ADHD, and family functioning, rather than child ADHD symptoms, are key determinants of parental stress in families of children with ADHD. These factors should be routinely assessed and targeted to alleviate parental stress more effectively than focusing on child ADHD symptoms alone.

Structural and compositional complexities of hierarchical self-assembly: A hypergraph approach

Programmable self-assembly enables the construction of complex molecular, supramolecular, and crystalline architectures from well-designed building blocks. We introduce a hypergraph-based formalism, Blocks &amp; Bonds (B&amp;B), which generalizes classical chemical graph theory by incorporating directed and multicolored interactions, internal symmetries, and hierarchical organization. Within this framework, we develop the Structure Code (SC), a compact and versatile language for describing self-assembled architectures. We define a Kolmogorov-style structural complexity as the total information content of SC, obtained through its tokenization and Shannon information assignment. Complementing this encoding-based measure, we introduce a much simpler quantity, the compositional complexity, which depends only on the number and cumulative usage of block and bond types in the construction set. A central result of this work is a strong empirical correlation between the token-based structural complexity and the compositional complexity across all examined systems. Owing to this agreement, the compositional complexity emerges as the most practical and broadly applicable measure: it is easy to compute, requires no explicit encoding, and yet closely tracks the actual information content of structurally diverse architectures. Applications to molecular systems (ethylene glycol and glucose), DNA-origami lattices, and crystalline assemblies show that B&amp;B hypergraphs provide a unified, scalable, and information-efficient representation of structural organization, naturally capturing symmetry, modularity, and stereochemistry. This framework establishes a quantitative foundation for complexity-aware classification and inverse design of programmable matter.

Electrochemical Indole Skeletal Editing via Single-Carbon Atom Insertion

Dalpicilib combined with cetuximab in patients with HPV-negative, anti-PD-1-resistant recurrent or metastatic head and neck squamous cell carcinoma: A phase II trial

Enhanced cricket match prediction using kernel methods for feature extraction and back-propagation neural networks

Abstract This study presents a dynamic machine learning framework for predicting the outcome of One Day International (ODI) cricket matches by analysing match progression at multiple game states. Each over is treated as a distinct match state, enabling real-time outcome prediction throughout the innings. Six key criteria are employed for classification, namely balls remaining, lead of Team A, wickets remaining, relative team strength, home advantage, and toss outcome. Feature extraction is performed using the League Championship Algorithm (LCA), which selects the most informative features from historical cricket data, followed by classification using a Back-Propagation Neural Network (BPNN). Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed model achieves an accuracy of 83%, a true positive rate of 0.81, a positive predictive value of 0.79, and an F1-score of 0.80 on the validation dataset, outperforming conventional prediction approaches by 5–10% across key performance metrics. The findings confirm the effectiveness of combining optimized feature extraction with neural network-based classification for accurate and interpretable cricket match outcome prediction.

Femoral radiographic indices for pre-operative osteoporosis screening in postmenopausal female patients undergoing total hip arthroplasty for osteoarthritis

The purpose of this study was to investigate the correlation between femoral morphological indices from anteroposterior hip radiographs and dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry-assessed bone mineral density in postmenopausal female patients undergoing primary total hip arthroplasty for hip osteoarthritis. We also evaluated the impact of hip deformity on these correlations and the diagnostic cut-off values for osteoporosis. This retrospective study, conducted at a single institute (February 2018 to July 2024), reviewed the data of postmenopausal patients (&gt;50 years old) with hip osteoarthritis who underwent total hip arthroplasty. Patients with a history of hip surgical procedures, infection, metabolic bone disease, or inadequate imaging findings were excluded. Dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry was used to assess bone mineral density at the femoral neck, total hip, lumbar spine, and distal radius. Five femoral indices were measured: the canal-to-calcar ratio, canal flare index, cortical thickness index, canal diaphysis ratio, and canal bone area ratio. Analyses included Pearson’s correlation and receiver operating characteristic curve analysis. Moderate correlations were observed between total hip bone mineral density and indices in 95 hip osteoarthritic joints (all Tönnis grade 3) and 86 normal joints. The canal bone area ratio had the strongest correlation (hip osteoarthritis: r = −0.61; normal: r = −0.62; p &lt; 0.01). Receiver operating characteristic analysis produced area under the curve values of 0.75 (cutoff: 0.47; p &lt; 0.01) for hip osteoarthritis and 0.74 (cutoff: 0.49; p &lt; 0.01) for normal hips. Femoral indices, particularly the canal bone area ratio, cortical thickness index and canal diaphysis ratio, moderately correlated with total hip bone mineral density even in patients with hip osteoarthritis and served as simple and effective screening tools for osteoporosis when pre-operative dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry was unavailable.

Chlorine atom diffusion and reactivity in solid parahydrogen at 1.6–4.3 K

One of the surprising properties of quantum solids is that chemical impurities are expected to become delocalized when they are embedded in a quantum solid even at T = 0 K due to the large amount of zero-point energy in these systems. For example, hydrogen atoms, HD, ortho-H2, HF, H2O and oxygen atoms are all known to be mobile in solid parahydrogen (pH2) at liquid helium temperatures; however, each species diffuses by a different mechanism, and the exact mechanism is still unclear for HF, H2O, and oxygen atoms. In this work we studied the diffusion and reactivity of Cl atoms trapped in solid pH2 using Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy by studying the reaction kinetics of the diffusion-controlled Cl + CO → ClCO reaction. We first present and assign the infrared spectra of ClCO and OC-HCl isolated in solid pH2, which are two species that are observed at different stages of these experiments. Eight separate kinetic experiments were performed on annealed Cl2/CO/pH2 samples at 4.0 K with varying initial CO concentrations which showed that the rate constant for the Cl + CO reaction is inversely proportional to the CO concentration, which is a predicted feature of quantum diffusion. One important finding in this work has to do with the effect of exposing the pH2 sample to near-infrared radiation (NIR) between 4200 and 4700 cm−1 from the FTIR source; we show that irradiating the sample with NIR radiation speeds up the diffusion of Cl and CO within solid pH2.

Eu ₂ Li(C ₃ )H: A Carbide Hydride Phase Incorporating Eu ²⁺

Synergistic MOF-based composite enabling significant solar-to-water generation enhancement in climate-resilient AWH