Browse Articles

Film mulching combined with chemical fertilizer increased rice yield by promoting the accumulation of photosynthetic substances in the vegetative growth stage

Evaluation of the neuroprotective potential of optimized intranasal polydopamine nanoparticles in a lipopolysaccharide-induced rat model for Alzheimer’s disease management

Abstract Alzheimer’s Disease (AD) and related dementias are on the rise globally, with forecasts suggesting that the case number will triple in the next three decades, particularly in Africa and the Middle East. This study aimed to prepare brain-targeted highly permeable intranasal polydopamine nanoparticles (PDA NPs) and to investigate their neuroprotective effect in AD. PDA NPs were fabricated via dopamine hydrochloride (DA HCl) polymerization using various safe and nontoxic surfactants to reduce particle size (PS) and enhance nasal penetration. A 4 1 *2 2 full factorial design was employed. The optimized formulation was composed of 10 mg DA HCl and sodium taurocholate as a surfactant at pH 10. The optimized formulation was subjected to in vitro characterization: PS, polydispersity index (PDI), zeta potential (ZP), Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), in vitro cell cytotoxicity, and in vivo evaluation: in vivo tissue uptake using confocal laser scanning microscopy (CLSM) and investigation of neuroprotective effect in lipopolysaccharide-induced rat model. The optimized formulation produced minimal PS (111.3 nm), PDI (0.324), and maximum ZP (− 36.87 mV). PDA NPs showed high brain uptake and significant behavioral and biochemical results on rats as well as an elevation of dopamine expression and ameliorated neuron degeneration. PDA NPs exerted a neuroprotective effect in Alzheimer’s disease through their anti-inflammatory and ACh/dopamine stimulation effects.

Web based AI-driven framework combining multi-modal data with CNN and LLM for Parkinson’s disease diagnosis

Postsynthetic modification of amine functionalized MIL-101(Cr) loaded with Pd nanoparticles for sustainable Suzuki coupling reactions

Synchrotron radiation based analyzer-free dual-phase dark-field lung imaging approach for radiography and CT

The influence of parasitic infection (Eimeria spp.) on bone and cartilage tissue in an animal model

Postnatal development of the dentate gyrus vascular niche

Abstract Lifelong neurogenesis in the dentate gyrus (DG) of the hippocampus supports cognitive and emotional functions in most adult mammals. The subgranular zone (SGZ) of the DG contains dense vasculature where neural stem and progenitor cells (NSPCs) reside in close proximity to local capillaries. This arrangement likely supports NSPCs by providing access to oxygen, circulating molecules, and endothelial-derived factors. While SGZ vessel density and NSPC association with vessels are well established in adulthood, when these niche attributes emerge in development remains unclear. Here, we show that while blood vessel density in the SGZ remained stable from initial layer formation (2 weeks of age) into young adulthood (9 weeks of age) in male and female mice, the average distance from NSPC somas to the nearest blood vessel decreased progressively over postnatal development. This finding was accompanied by a symmetrical compression of proliferating cells within the SGZ, and a gradual shift of quiescent neural stem cell somas towards the granule cell layer of the DG. Our findings imply that the DG neurogenic vascular niche continues to refine postnatally, suggesting that the NSPC vascular niche has a unique functional role in supporting mature adult neurogenesis.

Heterogeneity in an adeno-associated virus transfection-based production process limits the production efficiency

Abstract The popularity of rAAV vectors in gene therapy are placing a burden on current production systems. To improve the accessibility of these life changing treatments, increases in production yields and a reduction in the cost-of-goods are needed. Transient transfection is the most common way to introduce rAAV-encoding plasmids to producer cells but it suffers from significant drawbacks such as low and inconsistent yields as well as high cost due to its need for plasmid DNA. This study aims to address the low yield of transient transfection-based rAAV production through advanced methods in process characterization. Adherent and suspension cultures of a HEK293T cell line were triple-transfected for rAAV9 production using polyethylenimine (PEI). Samples were taken at various times post-transfection for analysis with bulk and single-cell transcriptomics. It was revealed that 46% of the cells lacked transcripts of genes from at least one plasmid, indicating that a significant proportion of the cells did not have the genes necessary for rAAV9 production. Among the remaining 54% of the cells expressing genes from all three plasmids, only 8% showed high plasmid gene expression. Flow cytometric analysis of intracellular rAAV9 confirmed these results by showing that only ~ 3% of cells contained assembled rAAV9 capsids. Titre analysis by qPCR of the supernatant and lysate of the producer cells indicated an average culture performance of 10 13 vg/L. Analysis of the single-cell transcriptomic data showed that a significant proportion of cells that had high plasmid gene expression were in the S-phase. Trajectory inference highlighted that genes involved in the G2-M phase transition, immune response, and protein unfolding were differentially expressed at the branch point between high and low plasmid expression. This study reveals a significant bottleneck in the transient transfection-based production of rAAV. With less than 5% of cells producing rAAV, significant improvements in titres can be achieved if this fraction can be increased. Moreover, regulation of the cell-cycle, inhibition of the immune response, and alleviating protein misfolding all potentially offer the key to enabling these life changing treatments to reach a wider audience.

Emergent order from mixed chaos at low temperature

Abstract This paper explores a novel connection between a thermodynamic and a dynamical systems perspective on emergent dynamical order. We provide evidence for a conjecture that Hamiltonian systems with mixed chaos spontaneously find regular behavior when minimally coupled to a thermal bath at sufficiently low temperature. Numerical evidence across a diverse set of five dynamical systems supports this conjecture, and allows us to quantify corollaries about the organization timescales and disruption of order at higher temperatures. Balancing the damping-induced phase-space contraction against thermal exploration, we are able to predict the transition temperatures in terms of the relaxation timescales, indicating a novel nonequilibrium fluctuation-dissipation relation, and formally connecting the thermodynamic and dynamical systems views. Our findings suggest that for a wide range of real-world systems, coupling to a cold thermal bath leads to emergence of robust, non-trivial dynamical order, rather than a mere reduction of motion as in equilibrium.

Retraction Note: MCM-41 supported 2-aminothiophenol/Cu complex as a sustainable nanocatalyst for Suzuki coupling reaction

Calibrating genome wide significance by minor allele frequency across three major populations

Vibration, temperature, and humidity influence the perception of electrocutaneous stimulation for occupational warning

Abstract Electrocutaneous stimulation can be used to warn workers in hazardous situations. To determine parameters for the operating ranges of such warning systems we investigated the influences of vibrations, temperature, and humidity on the perception, attention, muscle twitch, and intolerance thresholds of healthy volunteers in a multi-center study. In a study on 94 participants, vibrations with amplitudes of 2 mm, 5 mm, and 8 mm and at frequencies of 8 Hz and 9.5 Hz were applied to the right arm. In a second study, 52 participants experienced temperature and humidity variations within a climate chamber in four conditions: dry cold (13.8 ± 1.6 $$^{\circ }$$ C, 33.9 ± 9.2% relative humidity (RH)), dry warm (41.3 ± 1.7 $$^{\circ }$$ C, 24.6 ± 5.8% RH), wet cold (12.0 ± 1.6 $$^{\circ }$$ C, 88.5 ± 8.2% RH), and wet warm (41.3 ± 2.1 $$^{\circ }$$ C, 65.5 ± 9.0% RH). In both studies, the upper right arm was electrically stimulated with electrodes of size 25 mm $$\times$$ 40 mm, and thresholds were determined. Perception, attention, and intolerance thresholds increased with vibration amplitude and frequency from median values of 5 mA, 9.9 mA and 19.3 mA for perception, attention and intolerance thresholds during rest to 14.6 mA, 20 mA and 21 mA during vibration amplitude of 8 mm and frequency of 9.5 Hz. Perception thresholds slightly increased with decreasing temperature with median values of 4.1 mA during dry cold vs. 3.8 mA during dry warm condition and 4.0 mA during wet cold vs. 3.8 mA during wet warm condition for an electrode pair at a lateral position. Muscle twitch thresholds slightly increased with increasing temperature at the lateral electrode pair with median values of 17.4 mA during dry cold vs. 18.8 mA during dry warm condition and 17.5 mA during wet cold vs. 18.7 mA during wet warm condition. For both studies, women showed smaller perception and attention thresholds. For illustration, in study 1, the median values of the perception threshold during rest were 4.1 mA for women and 5.7 mA for men, whereas the median values for the attention threshold were 9.1 mA for women and 11.4 mA for men, respectively. Additionally, women experienced less muscle twitching. To exemplify this, 50% of the women experienced muscle twitches compared to 66% of the men at a lateral electrode pair in study 2. We conclude that the operating range of future electrical warning systems needs to be flexibly adjusted to the working conditions. The influence of the climate conditions was minor, suggesting that electrocutaneous warning systems can operate robustly across diverse environments. This supports their practical applicability and motivates future research on optimized dry or textile-based electrodes to enhance usability in real-world settings.

Advanced control strategy based on hybrid energy storage system for frequency stability of interconnected power system with high renewables penetration

Abstract This paper presents a novel strategy to achieve adjustable frequency stability in hybrid interconnected power systems with high penetration of renewable energy sources (RESs). The considered system incorporates real-world RESs data to emulate practical grid operation, addressing the challenges posed by RESs variability and intermittency more realistically than previous works. The proposed approach integrates a hybrid energy storage systems (HESSs) with load frequency control (LFC) based on a proportional derivative–proportional integral (PD-PI) controller. The HESSs leverage the complementary strengths of plug-in electric vehicles (PEVs) and superconducting magnetic energy storage (SMES) units, with PEVs providing long-term energy balancing and SMES ensuring rapid transient response. The PD-PI controller is applied to simultaneously manage both LFC and HESSs operation, with its parameters optimally tuned using the electric eel foraging optimizer (EEFO) to ensure precise and effective controller. Comparative analyses demonstrate that the PD-PI controller significantly outperforms traditional proportional integral derivative (PID) controllers in maintaining frequency stability under high-RESs penetration and load disturbances. Specifically, the proposed strategy improves system performance by 55% compared to SMES-based PD-PI controllers and by 45% compared to PEVs-based PD-PI controllers. While the approach is most effective in hybrid systems with available PEVs infrastructure and SMES units, its applicability may be limited in power systems lacking such resources or facing large-scale, long-duration disturbances. Furthermore, the effectiveness of the proposed strategy has been validated under cyber attack conditions ,and system parameters variations. Overall, the findings confirm the critical role of the proposed strategy in mitigating frequency fluctuations during periods of high renewable energy penetration, thereby offering a robust solution for the challenges faced by modern power systems.

Correction: A study of the correlation between urinary perchlorate, nitrate, thiocyanate, and serum liver function indices

Patient derived xenograft models of hormone receptor positive and HER2 negative breast cancer from Indian patients

Eco-friendly synthesis of carbon quantum dots from lemons for enhanced uric acid detection using gold-integrated surface plasmon resonance

Non-Invasive geophysical imaging reveals Ptolemaic tombs at Al-Dyabat for global archaeological applications

Abstract This study presents a geophysical investigation aimed at identifying Ptolemaic Period tombs and associated archaeological structures at Al-Dyabat archaeological hill, near Akhmim City, Egypt. The site gained international attention following the 2018 discovery of the tomb of the Priest Tutu. Combined ground magnetic surveying and ground-penetrating radar (GPR) were used at the promising selected site. Integrated analysis revealed subsurface anomalies interpreted as tomb chambers, mudbrick walls, and possible limestone coffins, located at depths between 0.2 and 3 m. The combination of magnetic and GPR data significantly enhanced the detection capabilities and structural resolution, demonstrating the effectiveness of multimodal geophysics in archaeological contexts. Beyond its regional relevance, this work offers a transferable model for non-invasive archaeological prospection in sensitive heritage zones worldwide. It underscores the value of geophysical integration in cultural heritage preservation, offering insights into best practices for sustainable and non-destructive archaeological exploration.

Tailoring PHA copolymer types via amino acid supplementation in dairy byproduct media

Mentha spicata-mediated silver nanoparticles for combating Streptococcus mutans and oral cancer cells

Abstract A sustainable and ecologically safe substitute for traditional chemical synthesis, eco-friendly synthsis of silver nanoparticles (Ag-NPs) using plant-based extract offers promising biological opportunities. In this study, Ag-NPs were rapidly synthesized from an aqueous extract of Mentha spicata leaves and analyzed using a variety of techniques, including atomic force microscopy (AFM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), zeta potential measurement, X-ray diffraction (XRD), UV–vis spectroscopy, and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR). Having a negative surface charge (− 32.5 mV) and an average width of 33 nm, the resultant nanoparticles were primarily spherical, indicating their colloidal stability. Streptococcus mutans ATCC 25175 was significantly inhibited by the antimicrobial evaluation, which revealed a minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) of 0.125 mg/mL and a distinct inhibition zone of 20 mm. Planktonic growth was unaffected, however biofilm formation decreased by 77.3% ( p  < 0.05) at sub-MIC values (0.031 mg/mL). Computational docking further indicated potential interactions of Ag-NPs with dihydroorotase synthase and quorum sensing regulatory proteins, suggesting a mechanistic role in disrupting biofilm development. The nanoparticles also showed a high level of cytotoxicity against OECM-1 oral cancer cells, with an IC 50 of 24.21 µg/mL and an inhibition of up to 91.6% at 62.5 µg/mL. Collectively, these outcomes underscore the dual antimicrobial and anticancer properties of M. spicata -derived Ag-NPs, positioning them as eco-friendly candidates for biomedical exploration.

Morphological classification of the plantaris muscle origin: a cadaveric study

Abstract The plantaris muscle (PM), considered vestigial in humans, has clinical significance owing to its anatomical variations. This study examined the prevalence, origin types, and clinical relevance of the PM in the Korean population to aid clinical and surgical practices, particularly in posterior knee surgery. A total of 160 lower limbs (90 male, 70 female) were dissected using classical anatomical methods. The morphology of PM origin was classified, and its prevalence was evaluated. The PM was present in 146 lower limbs (91.25%). Three distinct origin types were observed: Type 1 (68.18%), originating from the knee joint capsule, the lateral condyle of the femur (LFC), and the lateral head of the gastrocnemius muscle (lhGM), with fibers blending into the lhGM tendon; Type 2 (17.53%), originating from the knee joint capsule and the LFC but not blending with the lhGM tendon; and Type 3 (5.19%), originating solely from the LFC and the knee joint capsule, without any attachment to or connection with the lhGM. The average PM muscle belly length and width were 9.56 ± 1.71 cm, and 1.80 ± 0.64 cm, respectively. The PM shows morphological variability according to its origin attachment types. These findings provide valuable baseline data for understanding the anatomy of the PM, which can assist surgeons in diagnosing and treating conditions associated with posterior knee pain.