Browse Articles

A qualitative exploration of deterrents to COVID-19 vaccination uptake among adults in post-war Tigray, Northern Ethiopia

Abstract Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has had a profound impact on developing countries and continues to pose a serious global threat. Vaccination is essential for protecting public health, yet vaccine hesitancy remains a significant barrier to uptake. Evidence on the deterrents to COVID-19 vaccination in post-war contexts, particularly in Ethiopia, is limited. This study explored the factors hindering COVID-19 vaccine uptake in post-war Tigray, Northern Ethiopia. An exploratory qualitative study was conducted in Tigray from August 1 to 30, 2023. Six focus group discussions (FGDs) and seven in-depth interviews (IDIs) were held in host communities and internally displaced persons (IDP) centers, along with seven key informant interviews (KIIs) with public health experts. Participants were purposively selected, and data were collected using semi-structured guides refined through immediate debriefing. All sessions were audio-recorded, transcribed verbatim, and analyzed inductively using Atlas.ti (version 9.0). Five themes emerged as deterrents to COVID-19 vaccination uptake in post-war Tigray: perceived risk of COVID-19, reliance on cultural practices, post-war-related hindrances, infodemic-related barriers, and limited vaccine accessibility. The most frequently reported deterrents were low perceived risk, post-war challenges, fear of side effects, and accessibility issues, whereas reliance on cultural practices was mentioned less often. Low COVID-19 vaccine uptake in post-war Tigray is driven by individual perceptions, sociocultural beliefs, logistical barriers, and post-war challenges. Strengthening uptake requires engaging local religious leaders, implementing gender-sensitive campaigns addressing fertility concerns, and integrating vaccination with humanitarian food aid or health outreach programs.

Operando recombination kinetics in perovskite nanocrystal films revealed by in situ time-resolved photoluminescence

Abstract Perovskite nanocrystals have shown great promise for optoelectronic applications. Understanding charge recombination under operational conditions, such as continuous-wave photoexcitation, is crucial for advancing device performance. Although time-resolved photoluminescence is widely used to study recombination kinetics, its reliance on ultrafast pulsed excitation fails to replicate the operational conditions. Here we develop an integrated spectroscopy platform that enables simultaneous acquisition of steady-state and time-resolved photoluminescence under continuous-wave illumination, with a wide range of photoexcitation intensity modulation. This approach resolves the long-standing mismatch between the typical time-resolved photoluminescence data and the actual continuous-wave operational behavior of perovskite nanocrystals. In contrast to the established Auger recombination model, which suggests accelerated recombination at high pump fluence, we demonstrate that the operando recombination kinetics is governed by the charge-carrier and trap-state interaction. This clarified recombination mechanism provides insight for designing perovskite nanocrystal films applied to efficient and stable light emission under high-power photoexcitation.

Predicting myopia risk using a machine learning model based on fundus imageomics

LRRC59 cooperates with nuclear transporters to restrain the nuclear envelope repair machinery and safeguard genome integrity

Abstract Nuclear envelope (NE) rupture is a hallmark of cancer cells, and persistent NE damage drives genome instability and inflammation. NE repair relies on activation of the endosomal sorting complex required for transport (ESCRT)-III repair machinery by the LEMD2-CHMP7 compartmentalization sensor, but little is known beyond these core factors. Here, we use convergent proximity proteomics to inventorise proteins mobilized to the NE upon assembly of LEMD2-CHMP7 and activation of ESCRT-III. Within this NE repairome, we identify LRRC59 as a critical regulator of LEMD2 accumulation at NE ruptures. We find that LRRC59, together with the nuclear transporters KPNB1 and XPO1, restricts the assembly of LEMD2-CHMP7 complexes to the site of rupture. Disruption of this regulatory axis escalates LEMD2-CHMP7 spreading across the NE, driving torsional DNA damage in ruptured nuclei and micronuclei. Thus, our work identifies a central regulatory layer of NE repair centered on LRRC59 and KPNB1. We propose that altered LRRC59 levels and deregulated nuclear transport coordinately compromise NE repair, driving genome instability and cancer development.

Quantum dynamics and squeezing in a noiseless cavity mode driven by a coherent three-level atom

Widespread potential for phototrophy and convergent reduction of lifecycle complexity in the dimorphic order Caulobacterales

Abstract Model bacteria are fundamental for research, but knowledge about their ecology and evolution is often limited. Here, we establish an evolutionary and ecological context for the model organism Caulobacter crescentus —an alphaproteobacterium intensively studied for its dimorphic lifecycle. By analyzing the phylogenetic relatedness and genetic potential of hundreds of Caulobacterales species, we reveal substantial diversity regarding their environmental distribution, morphology, cell development, and metabolism. Our work provides insights into the evolutionary history of morphological features such as the cell curvature determinant crescentin and uncovers a striking case of convergent loss of traits for cellular dimorphism among close relatives of C. crescentus . Moreover, we find that genes for phototrophy are widespread across Caulobacterales and that the new genus Acaudatibacter , described here, includes the first reported Caulobacterales lineage with photoautotrophic potential. Our study advances our understanding of an environmentally widespread bacterial order and sheds light on the evolution of fundamental prokaryotic features.

Evaluation of myocardial fibrosis and cardiac function in fibrotic lung diseases: a prospective study

Enhanced piezo-photocatalytic water splitting activity via engineering robust dipole moments in covalent organic frameworks

Relationship between anthropometric indices and macular optical coherence tomography angiography in healthy adults from the PERSIAN cohort study

Engineering the auxin-inducible degron system for tunable in vivo control of organismal physiology

Abstract The auxin-inducible degron (AID) system is designed for the rapid and near-complete degradation of a specific target protein in vivo. However, to understand the dynamics of complex physiological networks, researchers often need methods that produce graded, quantitative changes in degradation rates for multiple proteins simultaneously. Here, we develop the AID system for in vivo, quantitative control over the abundance of multiple proteins simultaneously. First, by measuring and modeling the on- and off-target activities of different AID system variants in Caenorhabditis elegans , we characterize a variant of the E3 ubiquitin ligase subunit TIR1, which provides improved degradation activity compared to the original AID and AID2 systems. Then, we develop a TIR1 expression construct that enables simultaneous pan-somatic and germline protein degradation. Finally, we expand the AID toolkit to allow independent, simultaneous degradation of two distinct tissue-specific proteins. Together, these technologies enable new in vivo approaches for studying quantitative cellular biology and organismal dynamics.

Enhanced small object detection in UAV aerial imagery through attention gated backbone and context aware fusion

Dynamic changes in mitochondria support phenotypic flexibility of microglia

Abstract Microglial capacity to adapt to tissue needs is a hallmark feature of these cells. New studies show that mitochondria critically regulate the phenotypic adaptability of macrophages. To determine whether these organelles play similar roles in shaping microglial phenotypes, we generated transgenic mouse crosses to accurately visualize and manipulate microglial mitochondria. We find that brain-region differences in microglial attributes and responses to aging are accompanied by regional differences in mitochondrial mass and aging-associated mitochondrial remodeling. Microglial mitochondria are also altered within hours of LPS injections and microglial expression of inflammation-, trophic-, and phagocytosis-relevant genes is strongly correlated with expression of mitochondria-relevant genes. Finally, direct genetic manipulation of microglial mitochondria alters microglial morphology and leads to brain-region specific effects on microglial gene expression. Overall, this study advances our understanding of microglial mitochondria and supports the idea that mitochondria influence basal microglial phenotypes and phenotypic remodeling that takes place over hours to months.

Features of formation and neutralization of environmentally hazardous CrO₃ in chromium pyrometallurgy

A multimodal knowledge-enhanced whole-slide pathology foundation model

A U-shaped association between blood selenium levels and prostate cancer: findings of a case-control study among Nigerian men

Stress-induced toxic genomic R-loops support biofilm extracellular matrix formation

Exploring end-to-end earthquake early warning performance in large earthquakes using the February 2023 Kahramanmaraş, Türkiye sequence

Abstract Earthquake early warning systems (EEWS) aim to warn end-users of impending ground shaking. They can be most impactful in large earthquakes occurring close to large population centers, where exposure to strong ground shaking is extensive. However, such earthquakes are rare, and EEWS performance expectations remain uncertain. The February 2023 Kahramanmaraş, Türkiye sequence, including the M7.8 Pazarcık and M7.5 Elbistan events, exposed millions to strong ground shaking and produced a rich waveform dataset, offering a test case. We use this data to produce a realistic simulation of warning times. We use the EPIC point source algorithm for real-time earthquake characterization, and incorporate alert delivery latency using a statistical model driven by real-world alert delivery data from California, collected by the MyShake smartphone app. We show EPIC would produce solutions very quickly (4 s for Pazarcık, 10 s for Elbistan). Despite EPIC’s expected magnitude underestimation (peak M6.7 for Pazarcık, M7.2 for Elbistan), we show that its magnitude estimate grows large quickly enough to provide areas of MMI 6+ shaking with up to 20 s of warning time, even with alert delivery latencies included, provided that low alerting thresholds of MMI 3 or 4 are used.

Microbiome analysis of 940 lung cancers in never-smokers reveals lack of clinically relevant associations

Abstract In spite of the growing interest in the microbiome in human cancer, there are currently only small-scale lung cancer microbiome studies conducted directly on tissue. As part of the Sherlock- Lung study, we studied the microbiomes of 940 lung cancers (4090 samples) in never smokers (LCINS) directly from lung tissue using three data types: 16S rRNA gene sequencing (16S), whole-genome sequencing (WGS) with paired blood, and RNA-seq. We observe very low biomass and few microbiome associations in LCINS using 16S and WGS tissue. Using RNA-seq, we observe more total microbial reads, and decreased relative abundance of several commensal bacteria at the genus and species levels in tumors relative to paired normal lung tissue. Among all datasets, we see no consistent associations between the lung tissue microbiome, or circulating bacterial DNA, and any available demographic and clinical features, including age, sex, genetic ancestry, second-hand tobacco smoking exposure, LCINS histology, stage, and overall survival. We also observe no microbiome associations with any human genomic alterations within the same samples. Every null result should be interpreted with caution given the possibility of future methodological breakthroughs. However, all together, using multiple data types in nearly 1000 patients, we find no substantive role for the lung cancer microbiome in treatment-naïve LCINS.

Dipole instability after an ultrashort XUV pulse in N2: population inversion and timescales

Abstract We study the response of N 2 to a range of XUV laser pulses using real-time time-dependent density functional theory on real-space grids in order to better understand and quantify the internal processes that lead to dipole instabilities. These instabilities, documented in a series of recent papers, develop following the generation of a population inversion in the molecule, in this case induced by the laser pulse. In the current paper, a series of laser pulses having durations of one femtosecond are considered and we explore how the growth rate, total ionization and amount of population inversion changes. This reveals a new aspect to the instability in which the growth rate starts decreasing with increasing pulse intensity. In addition, by using a range of different pseudopotential descriptions of the electron-ion interactions, we find that the observed behaviour is qualitatively independent of the pseudopotential used.

Residue-free peeling of EGaIn oxide enabled by contact angle control