Browse Articles

Dynamics and variegation in the Treg response to Interleukin-2

Interleukin-2 (IL2) is the key trophic factor for T regulatory (Treg) cells, controlling their differentiation and homeostasis. To understand how temporally regulated responses to IL2 unfold in Tregs, we performed fine time-course analyses, at population and single-cell levels, of changes in chromatin architecture and mRNAs induced by IL2 in Tregs in vivo. The data revealed responses that were largely uniform in rTreg, but diverse among aTregs, matching different STAT5 signal transduction efficiency. Individual Tregs displayed divergences in the preponderance of changes that may be attributed to STAT1 or STAT5 signal transduction downstream of IL2. Chromatin analysis identified an evolving implication of transcription factors that accounted for the waves of responsive genes. Covalent cytokine/Ab complexes that preferentially trigger high- (heterotrimer) or low-affinity (heterodimer) IL2 receptors activated the same signatures, yet with strong quantitative variations, especially in NK cells. Thus, IL2 is not a monolithic activator for Tregs, but a variegated sculptor of Treg identity.

Mining higher-order triadic interactions

Lanthanum nitrate enhances aroma precursors of tobacco leaves via influencing chemical components and photosynthetic characteristics

Dynamic DNA methylation changes during colorectal oncogenesis with insights from adenoma stages

Abstract The dynamics of colorectal epigenetics within the adenoma stages of oncogenesis remain undocumented. In this study, we investigated DNA methylation dynamics in colorectal cancer oncogenesis from non-tumor colon tissue to low-grade, high-grade adenoma and adenocarcinoma. The methylome of 12 low-grade and 19 high-grade colorectal adenomas was determined via the EPIC v1 Human Methylation BeadChip. These methylation profiles were complemented with the methylomes of 206 non-tumor colon and 22 colon adenocarcinoma samples from the GEO and TCGA databases. Differentially methylated CpGs were identified via Student’s t test and used to monitor the evolution of the colon methylome during oncogenesis. The differentially methylated promoters were used to infer the associated biological process via gene ontology and the evolution of the methylation of 34 described colorectal cancer DNA methylation biomarkers was explored. A total of 11.9% of the colon methylome was significantly altered (q < 10 − 4 ) during oncogenesis, with half corresponding to DNA demethylation. Of which, 67.4% occurred during the transition from non-tumor colon tissue to low-grade adenoma. A total of 9% of the DNA methylation changes were specific to low-grade and/or high-grade adenomas. The biological pathways related to the sensory perception of odor and stimulus were hypomethylated early, nucleic acid metabolic process were methylated early, post-transcriptional regulation were transiently hypomethylated and mitotic cell cycle were transiently methylated. Twenty-one out of 34 the biomarkers were methylated in low-grade adenomas and 11 out of 34 in high-grade adenomas. This suggests that they could be used to distinguish stages of oncogenesis. This study provides insight into the dynamics of colonic epigenetics during oncogenesis, with early DNA methylation changes in low-grade adenomas associated with transient DNA methylation changes. However, the causality of these changes remains to be elucidated. This study also explores the evolution of known biomarkers and their clinical applications for indirectly asserting the tumor’s stage.

Retrospective analysis of the BariClip procedure: Clinical outcomes and complication profile

Background Bariclip is an emerging non- resective bariatric device designed to restrict gastric capacity while preserving anatomical integrity. Unlike traditional sleeve gastrectomy, Bariclip implantation does not involve gastric resection, potentially minimizing surgical risk and allowing reversibility. However, data on its early efficacy and safety remain limited. Objective To evaluate short-term surgical outcomes, weight loss metrics, and comorbidity resolution among patients undergoing Bariclip implantation. Methods This retrospective observational study included 82 patients who underwent Bariclip placement at a single tertiary care center. Data were extracted from electronic medical records, operative logs, and follow-up notes. Outcomes assessed included total weight loss (TWL%) and excess weight loss (EWL%) at 2 weeks, 1, 2, 3, and 6 months postoperatively. Additional variables included operative time, hospital stay, early postoperative complications (within 30 days), reintervention rates, and changes in obesity-related comorbidities. Results The cohort had a mean age of 37.6 ± 9.9 years, with the majority being female (76.8%) and obese (mean BMI = 36.6 ± 4.7 kg/m²). Most patients (91.5%) underwent surgery for obesity management. Postoperatively, patients reported low pain scores (mean = 5.2), with no need for opioid analgesia and early mobilization in 62.2%. Complication rates were low (3.6%). Repeated measures ANOVA revealed a significant reduction in BMI over time (p < 0.001). At 6 months, mean %TWL was 20.04% ± 5.39% and mean %EWL reached 74.32% ± 40.75%. The most rapid weight loss occurred during the first three months, followed by a slower but consistent decline thereafter. Conclusion Bariclip surgery demonstrated favorable short-term safety and efficacy, with substantial weight loss and low complications rate observed within six months. These findings support Bariclip as a promising minimally invasive option for weight management in select patient populations.

Slow relaxation and landscape-driven dynamics in viscous ripening foams

Foams and dense emulsions display complex mechanical behavior, including intermittent rearrangement dynamics, power-law rheology, and slow recovery after perturbation. These effects have long been considered evidence for glassy physics in these and other materials having similar mechanics, such as the cytoskeleton. Here, we study such anomalous mechanics in a simulated wet foam driven by ripening and find behavior that has a different physical origin than that in glasses. Rather, the dynamics is due to a balance of forces from the system’s self-similar potential energy landscape and viscous stress. At the lowest viscosities, bubbles move intermittently, with the system shifting abruptly between shallow potential energy minima. For higher viscosities, in contrast, the bubbles move continuously and the system follows a tortuous, fractal path through high-dimensional configuration space, at higher mean energy than the lower viscosity case. The long-time dynamics and power-law rheology are the direct consequence of the potential energy landscape’s self-similar geometry. Last, we find that the slow recovery of perturbed foams is due to the foam being kinetically rather than energetically trapped in high-energy portions of the energy landscape. Overall, viscous ripening foams follow a biased energy minimization pathway that explores regions of the energy landscape that are qualitatively different (flatter and smoother) than those corresponding to well-annealed glasses.

Complementarity fusion of boron-oxygen and carbazole blocks enables narrowband blue OLEDs with high performance

Comparison of learning curves and clinical efficacy of two endoscopic techniques for single segment lumbar degenerative disease

A comprehensive deep learning framework for real time emotion detection in online learning using hybrid models

Abstract This paper introduces an advanced Facial Emotion Recognition (FER) system that integrates ResNet-50, the Convolutional Block Attention Module (CBAM), 3D Convolutional Neural Networks (3D CNN), and Ant Colony and Genetic Algorithm-based Target Optimization (AGTO). The proposed model is meticulously evaluated to identify the most effective predictive classification model for real-time engagement detection. By leveraging facial emotions, this deep learning-based system monitors the real-time engagement of online learners and is tested on multiple FER datasets, achieving notable accuracies: 95.57% on FER2013, 97.29% on CK+, 98.35% on KDEF, and 98.09% on a proprietary dataset, demonstrating significant improvements over existing approaches. Comparative analyses against state-of-the-art models highlight the importance of these findings for educational institutions. This approach enhances emotion recognition accuracy, refines feature relevance, captures temporal dynamics, enables real-time monitoring, and ensures robustness and adaptability in online learning environments. The integrated capabilities of ResNet-50, CBAM, 3D CNN, and AGTO contribute uniquely to capturing dynamic facial expression changes, enabling precise interpretation of students’ emotions and engagement levels. The proposed system achieves a facial emotion classification accuracy of 97.3% in real-time learning scenarios, surpassing current methodologies.

Evaluation of a text-mining application for the rapid analysis of free-text wildlife necropsy reports

The ability to efficiently derive insights from wildlife necropsy data is essential for advancing conservation and One Health objectives, yet close reading remains the mainstay of knowledge retrieval from ubiquitous free-text clinical data. This time-consuming process poses a barrier to the efficient utilisation of such valuable resources. This study evaluates part of a bespoke text-mining application, DEE (Describe, Explore, Examine), designed for extracting insights from free-text necropsy reports housed in Aotearoa New Zealand’s Wildbase Pathology Register. A pilot test involving nine veterinary professionals assessed DEE’s ability to quantify the occurrence of four clinicopathologic findings (external oiling, trauma, diphtheritic stomatitis, and starvation) across two species datasets by comparison to manual review. Performance metrics—recall, precision, and F1-score—were calculated and analysed alongside tester-driven misclassification patterns. Findings reveal that while DEE (and the principals underlying its function) offers time-efficient data retrieval, its performance is influenced by search term selection and the breadth of vocabulary which may describe a clinicopathologic finding. Those findings characterized by limited terminological variance, such as external oiling, yielded the highest performance scores and the most consistency across application testers. Mean F1-scores across all tested findings and application testers was 0.63–0.93. Results highlight the utility and limitations of term-based text-mining approaches and suggests that enhancements to automatically capture this terminological variance may be necessary for broader implementation. This pilot study highlights the potential of relatively simple, rule-based text-mining approaches to derive insights natural language wildlife data in the support of One Health goals.

Static morphogen scaling enables proportional growth in a tissue growth model inspired by axolotl limb regeneration

Axolotls can regenerate lost limbs throughout life, while they continue to grow. This poses the question of how the size and pattern of a regenerating limb is matched to a widely varying animal size. Two interacting signaling molecules, Sonic Hedgehog (SHH) and Fibroblast Growth Factor (FGF8), are produced at opposite sides of the regenerating limb and sustain tissue growth through a pair of oppositely oriented signaling gradients. As the size of the regrowing tissue can vary more than three-fold depending on the size of the animal, it is unclear how the activities of these mutually dependent morphogens are maintained and subsequently terminated to determine appropriate growth. Scaling of limb regeneration suggests a size-dependent adaptation of morphogen gradient parameters. Inspired by this biological example, we theoretically investigate general mechanisms of morphogen-controlled growth arrest and proportional growth. In the proposed mechanism, tissue growth increases the spatial distance between the two morphogen gradients, which eventually arrests morphogen activity and growth. We put forward two distinct scaling scenarios of morphogen gradients: either dynamic scaling with blastema size, where morphogen gradient parameters change dynamically with the growing tissue, or static scaling with animal size, where morphogen gradient parameters stay constant during blastema growth and only depend on animal size. We show that static scaling ensures proportional growth, but dynamic scaling does not. We compare theory predictions to experimental quantification of SHH and FGF8 morphogen gradient parameters at different time-points of regeneration in different-sized animals, indicating static scaling for some morphogen parameters, which is sufficient to ensure proportional growth in our model.

Fractionated degradation and valorization of polypropylene waste into sulfonate surfactants

Abstract Tandem upcycling presents a promising approach to converting plastic waste into valuable chemicals. Controlling the chain length distribution (CLD) of hydrocarbons in plastic degradation is crucial for the downstream synthesis of high-quality and high-value functional chemicals. However, controlling the CLD remains a significant challenge due to the high randomness and poor regulation of polymer chain scission. Herein, we introduce a fractionated degradation approach to tune the CLD of hydrocarbons derived from polypropylene (PP) degradation, thereby facilitating effective downstream valorization. By designing a fractionated degradation reactor that manipulates latent heat, we achieve size-selective degradation of PP into C 6 -C 15 and C 15 -C 28 α-alkenes with narrower and more tunable CLDs compared to traditional methods. Modeling and ASPEN simulations reveal a quasi-linear relationship between chain length and fraction temperatures, as well as a positive correlation between CLD and number of fractions. Scale-up experiments with 10 kg of real-life PP waste validate the effectiveness of the fractionated degradation. The PP-derived α-alkenes with narrow CLDs exhibit superior performance in sulfonation, resulting in foaming, detergency, and biodegradability, comparable to commercial sulfonate surfactants. Techno-economic and life cycle analyses demonstrate improved economic and ecological benefits of PP-to-surfactant upcycling over existing petrochemical-based methods.

Child horse harmony in motion: a preliminary study to explore heart rate synchronization in equine assisted therapy for neurotypical and ADHD children

Network motif detection using hidden markov models

The impact of convergence insufficiency on selective visual attention among university students

Convergence insufficiency (CI) is a common binocular vision disorder that impairs near vision-related tasks and is associated with symptoms such as eye strain, headaches, and reading difficulties. This study examined the effect of CI on selective visual attention by comparing performance on a modified visual search task between patients with CI and visually normal controls. A total of 42 male university students participated, including 20 patients diagnosed with CI and 22 age-matched controls. Participants completed a computerized visual search task involving different levels of target-distractor similarity and number of distractors. Accuracy (percent correct) and reaction time (RT) were recorded across task conditions. Reaction time was significantly slower in the CI group across all task conditions (mean RT: 1.21 ± 0.15 s) compared to controls (mean RT: 0.97 ± 0.12 s; main effect of group: F(1,160) = 38.2, p < 0.0001), while accuracy did not significantly differ between groups (CI: 86.3% ± 5.7; controls: 87.1% ± 6.1; F(1,160) = 0.002, p = 0.97). Task difficulty significantly influenced both accuracy (F(3,160) = 37.9, p < 0.001) and reaction time (F(3,160) = 5.1, p = 0.002), but no interaction effects were observed. Moreover, linear regression revealed a significant positive correlation between CISS scores and reaction time within the CI group (R² = 0.30, p = 0.01), indicating that higher symptom severity was associated with greater cognitive processing delay. In conclusion, CI has a negative impact on processing speed but not on accuracy during attentionally demanding tasks. These findings have implications for academic performance and highlight the importance of considering visual processing speed in clinical assessments and interventions for CI.

Turbulence in the terrestrial magnetosheath: Space–time correlation using the Magnetospheric Multiscale mission

Spatiotemporal correlation of magnetic field fluctuations is investigated using the Magnetospheric Multiscale mission in the terrestrial magnetosheath. The first observation of the turbulence propagator in space emerges through analysis of more than a thousand intervals. Results show clear features of spatial and spectral anisotropy, leading to a distinct behavior of relaxation times in the directions parallel and perpendicular to the mean magnetic field. Full space–time investigation of the Taylor hypothesis reveals a scale-dependent anisotropy of magnetosheath fluctuations that can be compared to the effect of flow propagation on spacecraft frame time decorrelation rates as well as with Eulerian estimates. The turbulence propagator reveals that the amplitudes of the perpendicular modes decorrelate according to sweeping or Alfvénic propagation mechanisms. The decorrelation time of parallel modes instead does not depend on the parallel wavenumber, which could be due to resonant interactions. Through direct observation, this study provides insight into the space–time structure of turbulent space plasmas, while giving critical constraints for theoretical and numerical models.

Integrated spatial proteomic analysis of breast cancer heterogeneity unravels cancer cell phenotypic plasticity

Enhanced trace detection of haloacetic acids in water using on-line isotachophoresis–capillary zone electrophoresis coupled with liquid–liquid extraction

Different larval habitats and insecticide resistance frequency of Anopheles sinensis in Ganghwagun, Incheon, South Korea

A survey of barriers and facilitators to primary care staff conducting research

Background Research is essential to find ways of improving healthcare although is not established in primary care. This study aims to investigate the barriers and facilitators to primary care staff conducting research in one geographical area of the UK. Method A survey was developed for primary care staff using validated questions where possible. It was distributed using Online Surveys TM by email, social media and personal contact. Results One hundred and ten participants were recruited from 29 GP practices in one geographical area, 74 (67.2%) were female and 35 (31.8%) were male. Nearly three quarters (73.6%) were clinical with the remainder non-clinical staff. Sixty percent of participants had been asked to conduct research and just over 40% had never conducted research. Twenty-three participants (20.9%) had conducted research six or more times. The largest facilitator for research was the knowledge that it would make a difference to patients. Allocated time, clear communication about what was involved and making a difference for colleagues were also ranked highly. The largest barrier for research was the inability to fit anything extra in and concerns over how much work would be involved. Thirty-nine percent of clinicians knew how to gain knowledge from evidence and apply it to practice. Those who were enrolled on an educational course were more likely to be research active. Conclusion Primary care staff are more likely to take part in research if it has clear patient benefit. Communication about time commitments, research outcomes and data security are important when deciding to become involved. Staff may worry that they do not have the right skills to take part. Recommendations include co-design of studies, improved communication and administrative support. The recording of research activity and literacy at clinician annual review would allow these parameters to be measured.