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Chronic kidney disease among HIV-positive Zambian adults with tenofovir-associated nephrotoxicity at University Teaching Hospital (UTH) in Lusaka

Tenofovir disoproxil fumarate (TDF) is a nucleotide reverse transcriptase inhibitor (NRTI) widely used in first-line antiretroviral therapy (ART). Despite its efficacy, TDF has been associated with nephrotoxicity, particularly in patients with renal impairment. It is with this background that most countries including Zambia are replacing TDF-based regimens with Tenofovir Alafenamide (TAF). This study aimed to determine the association between TDF-induced nephrotoxicity at three months and chronic kidney disease (CKD) within five years among people living with HIV (PLWH) in Zambia. A retrospective cohort study of 182 PLWH was conducted at the Adult Center for Infectious Disease Research (AIDC) in Lusaka, Zambia. The incidence of CKD and factors associated with its development in PLWH who initiated TDF were evaluated. Kidney function trends were monitored over five years. Statistical analysis, including the Mixed-Effect model, and the Cox Proportional Hazards Regression model, were conducted to assess the relationship between early nephrotoxicity and long-term CKD. A total of 63 (34.62%) out of 182 files showed that the patients developed CKD, contributing to a total person-time of 910 person-years. The incidence rate of CKD was 69.2 cases per 1000 person-years. The findings indicated a significant association between TDF-associated nephrotoxicity and the development of CKD within five years. The mixed-effects model accounted for population-level trends and individual variability, ensuring robust results. Findings showed that removing outliers made the model more representative, with a significant decline in kidney function over time. The Cox regression model identified male sex and baseline creatinine as substantial risk factors for CKD, with good model fit and discriminatory power. Given the findings, it is recommended that regular monitoring and early intervention strategies be reinforced for patients. Furthermore, continuous evaluation of kidney function over time is crucial to effectively manage and mitigate the risks associated with CKD in PLWH.

Accuracy of rubber-related deforestation maps

A Monte Carlo simulation of gamma-ray backscattering from concrete shields coated with nanoparticle layers

The mitochondrial aspartate transporter Ucp4a regulates muscle aging and animal lifespan in Drosophila melanogaster

Mild distress of mitochondria extends animal lifespan, yet the underlying mechanisms are not completely understood. Here we screened mitochondrial proteins for effects on longevity and found that flies mutant in Uncoupling protein 4a (Ucp4a), which encodes a mitochondrial aspartate transporter, have extended lifespans. Tissue-specific experiments revealed knockdown of Ucp4a in muscles, but not neurons, fat, or intestine, to extend lifespan and also eliminate polyubiquitinated protein aggregates, which accumulate with aging and are associated with lifespan. These findings suggest a retrograde mitochondrial signaling process initiated by reduced cytosol aspartate level culminates in muscle protein aggregate removal and lifespan extension.

Entanglement distribution in lossy quantum networks

Abstract Entanglement distribution is essential for unlocking the potential of distributed quantum information processing. We consider an N-partite network where entanglement is distributed via a central source over lossy channels, and network participants cooperate to establish entanglement between any two chosen parties under local operations and classical communication (LOCC). We develop a general mathematical framework to assess the average bipartite entanglement shared in a lossy distribution, and introduce a tractable lower bound by optimizing over a subset of single-parameter LOCC transformations. Our results show that probabilistically extracting Bell pairs from W states is more advantageous than deterministically extracting them from GHZ-like states in lossy networks, with this advantage increasing with network size. We further extend our analysis analytically, proving that W states remain more effective in large-scale networks. These findings offer valuable insights into the practical deployment of near-term networks, and corroborate a trade-off relationship between the success conversion probability of entanglement distribution protocols and their robustness to loss.

Prevalence of glaucoma in Africa: A systematic review and Bayesian meta-analysis

Purpose This study sought to establish the prevalence of glaucoma and the associated factors in Africa. Methods A systematic review of studies reporting the prevalence of glaucoma was performed using three electronic databases: PubMed, Scopus, and Web of Science. Data were extracted and study-specific estimates of the prevalence of glaucoma were combined using meta-analysis to obtain pooled proportions. Results A total of 9 studies that evaluated the prevalence of glaucoma in 29,606 individuals, comprising 14,487 males and 15,119 females were included in this study. The prevalence of glaucoma (unclassified glaucoma) in Africa was found to be 5.59% (95% Credible Interval (CrI) 4.32% to 7.74%). The prevalence of Primary Open-Angle Glaucoma (POAG), Primary Angle-Closure Glaucoma (PACG), and secondary glaucoma (SG) in Africa are 5.07% (95% (CrI) 3.51% to 8.52%), 0.98% (95% CrI 0.29% to 5.38%), and 2.19% (95% CrI 0.64% to 10.00%), respectively. The prevalence of glaucoma is highest in Southern Africa (6.47%, 95% CrI 3.10% to 12.10%) and lowest in East Africa (4.80%, 95% CrI 2.37% to 9.27%). The prevalence of POAG is highest in West Africa (6.48% 95% CrI 5.23% to 9.89%) and lowest in East Africa (3.23% 95% CrI 2.21% to 5.07%). Conclusion The prevalence rates of glaucoma and POAG are high, with geographical regional variations worthy of note. Continued efforts are necessary to implement population-based screening and public health education initiatives to foster early diagnosis and management.

Y. Wang et al. reply

Sustainable UV approaches backed by one step extraction procedure for quantifying the newly released mirabegron and silodosin mixture in urine

Abstract Mirabegron (MIR) and silodosin (SIL) have recently been combined in a single pill to significantly enhance the effectiveness of treating detrusor hyperactivity with impaired contractility (DHIC), leading to appreciable improvements in symptoms associated with overactive bladder. Additionally, this combination effectively manages lower ureteric stones and improves patient outcomes with no significant side effects, especially in elderly patients. Accordingly, this study introduces two UV techniques for analyzing MIR and SIL in their mixtures (pure and commercial mixtures). These techniques were backed by a one-step salting-out liquid/liquid extraction (SALLE) procedure for quantifying MIR and SIL in urine samples without matrix interference. The proposed UV techniques succeeded in resolving the superimposed MIR’s and SIL’s UV spectra by employing straightforward mathematical filtration. The UV techniques were Fourier self-deconvolution (FSD) and induced dual-wavelength (IDW) techniques, with linearities of (50–350) µg/mL for MIR and (5–100) µg/mL for SIL. The applied techniques were verified following the International Council for Harmonisation (ICH) directives and were statistically evaluated against the published technique, with no noteworthy differences found. The applied techniques’ practicality (blueness), whiteness, and greenness were appraised utilizing various metrics. Per the preceding, the applied approaches have been proven to be sustainable, delicate, and appropriate for quality control (QC) testing. Also, backing the applied approaches with the SALLE procedure enables precise monitoring of MIR and SIL in miscellaneous biological fluids with excellent recoveries, presenting an inventive approach for further bioanalytical applications.

Application of PSO-integrated K-means algorithm in resident digital portrait classification

As digital governance progresses rapidly, constructing digital portraits of residents has become instrumental in enhancing local-level administrative capabilities. Nonetheless, traditional K-means clustering algorithms struggle with the classification of high-dimensional and complex data, thereby limiting their effectiveness. To address this issue, this paper proposes a novel hybrid algorithm—PSO-KM—that integrates Particle Swarm Optimization with K-means to improve both accuracy and computational efficiency in clustering resident profile data. Drawing on comprehensive resident information collected in 2023 from a community management system, the method leverages PSO’s global optimization abilities alongside K-means’ iterative refinement to dynamically update cluster centroids. Performance evaluation shows a significant uplift in clustering metrics, with a silhouette score of 0.752 ± 0.021 and inter-cluster distance of 1.493 ± 0.036. Comparative analysis against conventional and advanced methods (e.g., GA-K-means, DBSCAN) reveals that PSO-KM delivers superior outcomes. Among different feature categories, behavioral data yield the best classification performance, with a silhouette value of 0.184, highlighting the discriminatory power of dynamic behavioral traits. Furthermore, segmentation results disclose varying dominant features across income brackets: demographic factors are primary for low-income groups, behavioral metrics dominate middle-income segments, while social network indicators are key for high-income populations. These insights confirm PSO-KM’s potential in refining digital profiling processes and fostering the advancement of grassroots digital governance practices.

Plants monitor the integrity of their barrier by sensing gas diffusion

Abstract Barrier tissues isolate organisms from their surrounding environment. Maintaining the integrity of the tissues is essential for this function. In many seed plants, periderm forms as the outer barrier during secondary growth to prevent water loss and pathogen infection1. The periderm is regenerated when its integrity is lost following injury; however, the underlying mechanism remains largely unknown, despite its importance for plant survival. Here we report that periderm integrity in Arabidopsis roots is sensed by diffusion of the gases ethylene and oxygen. Following injury of the periderm, ethylene leaks out through the wound and oxygen enters, resulting in attenuation of ethylene signalling and hypoxia signalling. This condition promotes periderm regeneration in the root. When regeneration is complete and barrier integrity is re-established, pre-injury levels of ethylene and hypoxia signalling are regained. Gas diffusion monitoring is also used to re-establish the barrier in inflorescence stems after the epidermis is injured. We thus propose that gas diffusion is used by plants as a general principle to monitor and re-establish barrier integrity.

Determination of the main phenolic compounds of olive (Olea europaea L.) leaves by near infrared spectroscopy (NIR)

A novel unified Inception-U-Net hybrid gravitational optimization model (UIGO) incorporating automated medical image segmentation and feature selection for liver tumor detection

Abstract Segmenting liver tumors in medical imaging is pivotal for precise diagnosis, treatment, and evaluating therapy outcomes. Even with modern imaging technologies, fully automated segmentation systems have not overcome the challenge posed by the diversity in the shape, size, and texture of liver tumors. Such delays often hinder clinicians from making timely and accurate decisions. This study tries to resolve these issues with the development of UIGO. This new deep learning model merges U-Net and Inception networks, incorporating advanced feature selection and optimization strategies. The goals of UIGO include achieving high precision segmented results while maintaining optimal computational requirements for efficiency in real-world clinical use. Publicly available liver tumor segmentation datasets were used for testing the model: LiTS (Liver Tumor Segmentation Challenge), CHAOS (Combined Healthy Abdominal Organ Segmentation), and 3D-IRCADb1 (3D-IRCAD liver dataset). With various tumor shapes and sizes ranging across different imaging modalities such as CT and MRI, these datasets ensured comprehensive testing of UIGO’s performance in diverse clinical scenarios. The experimental outcomes show the effectiveness of UIGO with a segmentation accuracy of 99.93%, an AUC score of 99.89%, a Dice Coefficient of 0.997, and an IoU of 0.998. UIGO demonstrated higher performance than other contemporary liver tumor segmentation techniques, indicating the system’s ability to enhance clinician’s ability to deliver precise and prompt evaluations at a lower computational expense. This study underscores the effort towards advanced streamlined, dependable, and clinically useful devices for liver tumor segmentation in medical imaging.

The self supervised multimodal semantic transmission mechanism for complex network environments

Analysis of deep learning-based technological innovation governance on the intelligent allocation of innovation resources in the high-technology industry

Humoral determinants of checkpoint immunotherapy

Ecological impacts of human thioredoxin expression and interspecific hybridization on the soybean rhizosphere microbiome: insights from ASV-level niche analysis

Complex genetic variation in nearly complete human genomes

Abstract Diverse sets of complete human genomes are required to construct a pangenome reference and to understand the extent of complex structural variation. Here we sequence 65 diverse human genomes and build 130 haplotype-resolved assemblies (median continuity of 130 Mb), closing 92% of all previous assembly gaps 1,2 and reaching telomere-to-telomere status for 39% of the chromosomes. We highlight complete sequence continuity of complex loci, including the major histocompatibility complex (MHC), SMN1 / SMN2 , NBPF8 and AMY1/AMY2 , and fully resolve 1,852 complex structural variants. In addition, we completely assemble and validate 1,246 human centromeres. We find up to 30-fold variation in α-satellite higher-order repeat array length and characterize the pattern of mobile element insertions into α-satellite higher-order repeat arrays. Although most centromeres predict a single site of kinetochore attachment, epigenetic analysis suggests the presence of two hypomethylated regions for 7% of centromeres. Combining our data with the draft pangenome reference 1 significantly enhances genotyping accuracy from short-read data, enabling whole-genome inference 3 to a median quality value of 45. Using this approach, 26,115 structural variants per individual are detected, substantially increasing the number of structural variants now amenable to downstream disease association studies.

Vortex cooled thermoplastic chamber thruster for potential application to polymer based 3D printed space propulsion systems

Is gravity quantum? Experiments could finally probe one of physics’ biggest questions

Carrion from large carnivores and food from humans subsidize mesocarnivores year round

Abstract The return of large carnivores is predicted to suppress meso-carnivores, though it has only been observed in a minority of contemporary studies. Isle Royale is a remote island wilderness in Lake Superior, USA, managed for outdoor recreation. Following their natural extirpation, the National Parks Service translocated gray wolves (Canis lupus) in 2018–2019 and we expected the return of suppression and trophic facilitation of meso-carnivores. Nevertheless, we hypothesized that human resource subsidies led to a breakdown in meso-predator release. From Fall 2021-Winter 2024, we captured 16 individual red foxes (Vulpes vulpes), collected whiskers, and subsampled them to recreate the yearly diet of the population using stable isotope analysis. Notably, meso-carnivores were not demographically suppressed. Coinciding with the dates when Isle Royale National Park opened, fox diets were generalized, dissimilar between individuals, and primarily composed of human foods (0.28 ± 0.02) during summer. In winter, fox diets were specialized and exhibited high similarity, being composed primarily of carrion subsidized by wolves (0.62 ± 0.04). We propose that the complementarity of human resource subsidies to communities and ecosystems, broadly, may help explain the limited reach of the anticipated interactions following the return of large carnivores, such as meso-predator release.