Browse Articles

Radiomics-based quantification of tumor infiltration in the non-enhancing peritumoral region on postoperative MRI is associated with survival in glioblastoma

Efficacy of pulsed ultraviolet (PUV) light for disinfection of nosocomial pathogens: An in-vitro investigation of key parameters for surface and equipment applications

Hospital-acquired infections remain a persistent challenge, particularly when caused by bacterial strains that have developed resistance to multiple antibiotics. Reports from both clinical wards and public health agencies show how rapidly these organisms adapt, leaving many standard cleaning procedures and treatments far less effective than they once were. This concern prompted us to investigate pulsed ultraviolet (PUV) light from a xenon source as an alternative approach to inactivation, offering rapid action without the use of harsh chemicals. The work involved testing four bacterial species of clinical relevance: Pseudomonas aeruginosa , Staphylococcus aureus , Bacillus cereus , and spores of Bacillus megaterium . We evaluated the impact of UV dose, examined how suspension depth influenced performance, and assessed whether exposure to visible light after treatment could reverse the effect. For all strains, significant microbial reduction was achieved using a broad-spectrum emission with a strong germicidal peak in the 260 nm region. Spores showed much greater resilience than vegetative cells, while increased liquid depth reduced the disinfection efficiency.Some degree of photorepair occurred in non-spore-forming species under standard room lighting. Taken together, these findings indicate that, when tuned to the right parameters, PUV could serve as a valuable addition to hospital disinfection routines, especially for equipment and surfaces that cannot withstand heat or aggressive chemical agents.

Foraminiferal isotopic evidence of abrupt mid-20th century onset of hydrographic instability in Nordic Seas inflow waters

Abstract The flow of warm Atlantic waters into the Nordic Seas largely determines the transport of ocean heat to the Arctic and is a prominent feature of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC). Here we provide a ~ 250-year-long (1750 to 1992 AD), annually- to sub-annually- resolved record of Nordic Seas inflow water characteristics inferred from changes in δ 18 O of planktic foraminiferal carbonate. The new record is reflective of upper ocean temperatures across the Atlantic Water Zone of the Nordic Seas and reveals a previously unrecognized increase in temperature instability ~ AD 1950 that appears to have impacted rates of Greenland Ice Sheet melting, Arctic sea-ice extent and Arctic Surface Air Temperature, delaying the regional response to Anthropogenic Global Warming by several decades. While the relationship between the sudden change in hydrographic conditions and AMOC strength and stability is not yet clear, the change in inflow characteristics ~ AD 1950 was clearly imprinted on deep waters overflowing the Nordic Seas Basin.

Correction: A graph neural network-based approach for predicting SARS-CoV-2–human protein interactions from multiview data

Enhancing the weed segmentation in diverse crop fields using computationally effective concatenated attention U-Net with convolutional block attention module

Abstract Weeds are one of the primary factors that reduce crop productivity by competing for nutrients and water, causing the plant to lose weight and resulting in reduced grain yield. Traditional agricultural practices often rely on uniform herbicide application, which can contaminate soil and raise costs. On agricultural land, selective weed treatment are an efficient and cost-effective way to control weeds that require a deep learning-based crop and weed segmentation system. Many existing crop and weed segmentation research works focus on achieving precise crop and weed segmentation results, rather than building lightweight models to deploy on edge devices. To attain this, we develop an effective and efficient convolutional neural network, namely the Concatenated Attention U-Net with Convolutional Block Attention Module (CAUC). By integrating Linear Concatenated Blocks (LCB), Attention Gate (AG) connections, and Convolutional Block Attention Module (CBAM), the proposed model efficiently utilizes feature maps among its architectural components to achieve superior performance. Depth-wise convolution layers and 1 × 1 convolution layers in LCBs reduce computational complexity. To enable the proposed model to identify the weed portions in multiple crop fields, we integrated three datasets in this research work, namely the Crop/Weed Field Image Dataset (CWFID), Sugar Beet, and Sunflower datasets. Experimental results on carrot, sugar beet, and sunflower crop datasets demonstrate high Accuracy (99.09%), MIoU (81.02%), and F1-score (99.06%), with a modest model size (5.6 MB) and computational parameters (0.377 million). We developed a lightweight computer vision application (13.7 MB) to demonstrate the model’s efficacy on low-computational devices.

Interpretable glucose forecasting for type 2 diabetes across traditional, deep, and large language models

The expression of father-daughter bond behaviors influences adult partner attachment in titi monkeys

Abstract Coppery titi monkeys ( Plecturocebus cupreus ) are socially monogamous monkeys that display strong pair bonds similar to human romantic attachments, preceded by infant attachment to their fathers. To understand how father-daughter bonds impact adult relationship dynamics, we established a novel method for quantifying expression of bond-related behaviors. We assessed behavioral and neural correlates of preference, stress buffering, and separation distress to identify how females’ current and former attachment figures impact female attachment. Whereas all females ( n  = 9) shifted to preferring their partner over father six-months post-pairing, females that exhibited higher expression of juvenile parent preference maintained a relationship with their father six-months post-pairing, as evidenced by higher-than-expected father proximity. Higher expression of juvenile measures of proximity following a brief separation predicted slightly increased partner proximity in adulthood. Neural activity patterns in brain regions assessed pre- and post-pairing showed high similarity in glucose metabolism, despite overall activity being lower post-pairing. While there was some inconsistency in results, higher expression of juvenile proximity following a separation was associated with enhanced reduction in activity within social bonding brain regions (social salience network, periaqueductal gray, cerebellum), suggesting a potential stress buffering benefit via reduced threat-related brain activation, like that seen in high-quality human relationships. These findings advance current knowledge of how early relationships may shape adult bond-related behavior and neural activity.

Garden classification of femoral neck fracture using deep-learning algorithm

Abstract The Garden classification, based on X-ray interpretation and established over 50 years ago, remains the standard clinical classification system for femoral neck fractures (FNFs). Yet, this classification has a high interobserver variability of 70%. We sought to develop a deep-learning algorithm capable of accurately predicting FNF types, using only X-ray images, with performance comparable to that of computed tomography (CT). We retrospectively collected data from 1,588 patients who underwent X-ray and 3D-CT scans and were diagnosed with femoral neck fractures at Asan Medical Center. The input X-ray dataset consisted of paired X-ray images of the hip, with anteroposterior (AP) and lateral views. Using 3D-CT as the reference standard, patients were labeled as Garden types I ( n  = 378, 23.8%), II ( n  = 68, 4.3%), III ( n  = 477, 30.0%), and IV ( n  = 665, 41.9%). Our algorithm consisted of hip-joint detection followed by Garden classification, for which 12 different deep-learning architectures were evaluated. Algorithm performance was externally validated in 100 patients. Our algorithms showed a 90.6% overall accuracy and 88.6% Dice similarity coefficient, indicating excellent FNF type discernment. Our algorithms could serve as a valuable tool for diagnosing FNF based on X-ray data only, with accuracy comparable to that of CT.

Endoscopic ultrasound-guided gastroenterostomy with lumen-apposing metal stent: an animal study comparison of wireless and over-the-wire techniques

Single-cell identification of an endothelial cell proximal SPP1+ macrophage population defines the metastatic vascular niche in lymph nodes

Analysis of anticancer drug associated adverse reactions in depressive patients from vigibase

Leveraging a Genetic Proxy to Investigate the Effects of Lifelong Cardiac Sodium Channel Blockade

BACKGROUND: Atrial fibrillation and other cardiac arrhythmias pose a major public health burden, but prevention remains difficult. We investigated a genetic variant that we found to act like a natural lifelong cardiac sodium channel blockade. METHODS: We studied the impact of the Finnish-enriched SCN5A missense variant (rs45620037 [T220I]) on cardiac arrhythmias, associated mortality, and ECG phenotypes in a multicohort observational study with >1 million individuals across 3 cohorts (FinnGen, UK Biobank, and Health 2000). RESULTS: We identified protective effects of T220I on multiple common cardiac arrhythmias, most notably atrial fibrillation (cause-specific hazard ratio [HR], 0.56 [95% CI, 0.50–0.63]; P <0.0001), but also ventricular premature depolarization or ventricular tachycardia, as well as increasing susceptibility to conduction-slowing conditions, such as sick sinus syndrome (mostly in older age groups). Overall, T220I conveyed protection from death resulting from cardiac arrhythmia (HR, 0.65 [95% CI, 0.46–0.92]; P =0.015) without a significant effect on overall mortality risk (HR, 0.92; P =0.27). T220I heterozygosity had similar electrophysiological effects as some pharmacological sodium channel blockers, such as significantly shortening QT intervals (−7.49 ms [95% CI, −10.07 to −4.91] ms; P =0.0037; n=3188) in the Health 2000 cohort, which we replicated in the UK Biobank (n=66 616). In addition, T220I protected from (left) heart failure and dilated cardiomyopathy. After myocardial infarction, we found that T220I increased mortality risk, consistent with known sodium channel blocker effects, which, however, normalized to baseline 10 to 15 years after myocardial infarction. We found that T220I could lower a high genetic burden (ie, a high polygenic score) for atrial fibrillation to population average. CONCLUSIONS: The SCN5A T220I variant, consistent with a previously described weak loss-of-function effect, acted like a genetic proxy for cardiac sodium channel blockade. This enabled us to gain new potentially clinically relevant insights for pharmacological sodium channel blockade, such as after myocardial infarction, which would be too risky to investigate with clinical trials. Our findings may also inspire redesign of cardiac sodium channel blockers.

Bioavailable human metabolites from TOTUM-448 (plant-based formulation) maintain liver cell functionality in a hyperlipidic context that drives MASLD onset

Abstract Lipotoxic and inflammatory environment drives metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD) onset. As most conventional treatments present adverse side effects, alternative options such as preventive nutritional interventions have been developed, though further clinical validation is needed. In this study, we conducted an innovative ex vivo clinical investigation to examine how circulating metabolites generated after oral intake of TOTUM-448 (a plant-based, polyphenol-rich formulation) may influence hepatocyte function. UHPLC-MS/MS analysis confirmed and characterized the bioavailable polyphenol metabolites present in human serum. This metabolite-enriched serum was further used to treat HepG2 hepatocytes, with or without palmitate pretreatment (250 µM). The effects of TOTUM-448–derived metabolites on hepatocytes were evaluated by monitoring cell viability, lipid metabolism, inflammation, oxidative stress, and endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress, all of which are central features of MASLD. Treated hepatocytes exhibited resistance to palmitate-induced lipotoxic stress, showing reduced intracellular lipid accumulation. TOTUM-448–derived metabolites also prevented the palmitate-induced upregulation of inflammatory gene expression. Additionally, while palmitate strongly upregulated CHOP and XBP1 mRNA expression as well as ATF6 and Caspase-3 activities, the presence of TOTUM-448–derived metabolites restored these ER stress markers to normal levels.

Letter by Boccatonda et al Regarding Article, “A Randomized Controlled Trial of Thoracentesis in Acute Heart Failure”

Impact of obstructive sleep apnea on functional performance and muscle quality of patients with COPD

Acute Hemodynamic Effects of Sotatercept

The impacts of China’s low-carbon technology trade on modern energy access in Africa: the role of domestic absorptive capacity

High-Voltage Focal Pulsed Field Ablation to Treat Scar-Related Ventricular Tachycardia: The First-in-Human VCAS Trial

BACKGROUND: Unlike the tremendous progress made in atrial fibrillation ablation, the greatest unmet clinical need is for innovative ablation treatments for scar-related ventricular tachycardia (VT), particularly given the thick, often fibrotic tissue characteristic of the scarred substrate. A focal pulsed field ablation (PFA) catheter with a novel waveform was designed: high voltage to provide tissue penetration and low energy (using short-duration pulses) to avoid tissue overheating. We present the outcomes of VCAS (Ventricular Catheter Ablation Study), a first-in-human study of this PFA catheter to ablate scar-related VT. METHODS: An investigational 8.5F force-sensing PFA catheter was used for scar-VT ablation in ischemic or nonischemic substrates. Pulsed field lesions consisted of 5 applications, each <200 ms, of a high-voltage (>10 kV) monophasic waveform with QRS synchronization. The PFA catheter was localized by electrical impedance-based navigation. A subcohort of patients without previous cardiac surgery underwent epicardial ventricular mapping at baseline and after endocardial PFA to assess for transmurality of endocardial pulsed field lesions. Study end points included procedural efficiency, safety, and effectiveness to final follow-up of 6 months. RESULTS: At 2 centers, 26 patients underwent ablation: 66±9 years of age, 4% women, left ventricular ejection fraction 32±10%, VT storm 42%, previous VT ablation 42%. Acute procedural success, achieved in 24 (92%) patients, required 21 (interquartile range, 14–24) lesions per patient with a transpired ablation time of 31 minutes (19–42). Clinical VT was induced in 14 of 16 patients (88%) before ablation and 1 of 16 patients (6%, P <0.001) after ablation. High-density epi-endo voltage mapping was performed in 10 patients [42%]; of the 9 patients undergoing endocardial-only PFA, transmural tissue homogenization was observed in all 9 (100%) patients. Freedom from recurrent VT/ventricular fibrillation (VT/VF) or implantable cardioverter defibrillator shock was 81.8% (95% CI, 67.1–99.8). Regarding VT/VF burden, the incidence rate of postablation VT/VF significantly decreased from baseline to after PFA by 98% (median [IQR], 6 [1–11] versus 0 [0–0], respectively; P <0.001). Primary safety end points within 180 days occurred in 3 of 26 (11.5%) patients: cardiogenic shock, heart failure hospitalization, and retroperitoneal bleed. CONCLUSIONS: In this first-in-human study, the high-voltage PFA catheter efficiently delivered transmural ventricular lesions to treat scar-related VT. REGISTRATION: URL: https://www.clinicaltrials.gov ; Unique identifier: NCT06203262.

Unravelling TPX2-centered co-expression networks as key drivers of aggressive prostate cancer

Abstract Prostate cancer (PCa) progression is driven by complex molecular reprogramming, yet distinguishing indolent from aggressive disease remains a challenge. We performed an integrative transcriptomic analysis of 1232 PCa samples spanning normal prostate and all major disease stages including primary localized tumors, metastatic hormone-sensitive PCa (mHSPC), and metastatic castration-resistant PCa (mCRPC). By integrating unsupervised consensus clustering (ATC:hclust), weighted gene co-expression network analysis (WGCNA), and explainable machine learning (ML), we identified key transcriptional programs and biomarkers associated with cancer initiation and disease progression. Our analysis revealed persistent dysregulation of mitotic control, DNA damage repair, transcriptional regulation, and cytoskeletal remodeling, underscoring their functional relevance for PCa progression. We uncovered TPX2 as a central hub gene, consistently upregulated across all disease stages and co-expressed with 21 commonly upregulated genes. ML-based gene ranking and interaction analysis identified connections among the commonly upregulated genes, highlighting CENPA-MYBL2 for primary localized PCa, EXO1-NEIL3 for mHSPC and CENPA-RRM2 for mCRPC. Stage-specific analysis further identified key drivers of distinct disease transitions including EZH2 and PLK1 as major regulators of androgen dependence in mHSPC, and TERT as a hallmark of mCRPC, highlighting its role in telomere maintenance and tumor progression. This study demonstrates that unsupervised clustering combined with WGCNA and ML enables the discovery of clinically relevant molecular signatures in PCa. Our findings establish TPX2 -centered networks together with biological pathways implicated in mitotic regulation and DNA damage repair as key drivers of tumor evolution, providing a biologically informed source for biomarker development, drug testing and mechanistic studies.

Oxidized Phospholipids, Lipoprotein(a), and Cardiovascular Outcomes After Acute Coronary Syndrome

BACKGROUND: Oxidized phospholipids on apolipoprotein B-100 (OxPL-apoB) reflect pro-inflammatory properties of Lp(a) (lipoprotein(a)). The effect of OxPL-apoB on major adverse cardiovascular events (MACE) in patients with acute coronary syndrome in recent the era is not known. METHODS: OxPL-apoB levels and Lp(a) were measured in 11 630 participants before and 5185 participants 4 months after randomization to alirocumab or placebo in the ODYSSEY OUTCOMES trial. Proportional hazards models adjusted for baseline covariates evaluated associations between log 2 -transformed OxPL-apoB and Lp(a) with MACEs. Interactions between the 2 biomarkers and treatment were also evaluated. RESULTS: Participants were followed for a median 2.9 years; the median age was 58 years, and 23.9% were female. Alirocumab reduced median placebo-adjusted OxPL-apoB by 13.0% and Lp(a) by 26.2% (both P <0.0001). In the placebo group, a doubling of baseline OxPL-apoB was associated with a hazard ratio (HR) of 1.081 (95% CI, 1.026–1.139; P =0.0034) for MACEs. Addition of Lp(a) to the model relegated the relationship of OxPL-apoB insignificant. In the alirocumab group, neither OxPL-apoB nor Lp(a) remained significantly associated with MACEs. A significant 3-way interaction was present among continuous log 2 OxPL-apoB, Lp(a) stratified at the median, and treatment group on MACEs ( P interaction =0.0023) so that, in the placebo group, increasing OxPL-apoB was associated with higher risk of MACEs when Lp(a) was below the median concentration but not above. In the alirocumab group, OxPL-apoB was not related to MACE risk irrespective of Lp(a) concentration. CONCLUSIONS: In patients with recent acute coronary syndrome receiving optimized statin treatment, elevated OxPL-apoB levels predicted MACEs, a relationship abrogated by alirocumab. The interaction of OxPL-apoB and Lp(a) in the placebo group indicates that OxPL-apoB independently predicts MACEs when Lp(a) levels are relatively low. REGISTRATION: URL: https://www.clinicaltrials.gov ; Unique identifiers: NCT001747 and NCT01663402.