Browse Articles

C1q and immunoglobulins mediate activity-dependent synapse loss in the adult brain

Complement component 1q (C1q), the initiator of the classical complement cascade, mediates synaptic elimination in development and disease, yet the triggers for its deposition on synapses remain unclear. Using in vivo chemogenetics, we demonstrate that neuronal hyperactivity induces region-specific, C1q-dependent synapse loss in the adult hippocampus. Suppressing perforant pathway hyperactivity in a mouse model of Alzheimer’s disease reduced local amyloid-β amounts and C1q deposition and partially rescued synapse loss. Combining spatial transcriptomics, live cell tracking, and super-resolution microscopy, we identified association of antibody-secreting B-lineage cells in the adult hippocampus with activity-dependent, C1q-mediated synapse loss under physiological conditions. Together, these findings link neuronal hyperactivity to C1q-mediated synapse loss in the adult brain and implicate immunoglobulins as players in this process.

Condyloma Acuminata of the Urethra

Optimizing sowing time and foliar boron application improves soil moisture use, physiological efficiency, and yield stability of field pea (Pisum sativum L.) in rainfed rice-fallow systems

A note to my younger self

Caring for an Aging America — The Looming Crisis of the Long-Term–Care Workforce

Serotype-specific neutralizing activity and clinical outcomes associated with intravenous immunoglobulin in pediatric HAdV-3 and HAdV-7 infections

What do we know about sex? <b>Poking the Squid: What We Can Learn from Animal Sex</b> <i>Perrin Roosevelt Ireland</i> Norton, 2026. 272 pp. <b>On the Origin of Sex: The Weird and Wonderful Science of Reproduction</b> <i>Lixing Sun</i> Basic Books, 2026. 368 pp.

It depends on whom you ask

Mandated State-Level Surveillance of Assisted Reproductive Technology — An Emerging Threat in the United States

A two-stage hierarchical support vector machine framework detects roasted coffee adulterants through principal component analysis of hyperspectral imaging data

Abstract Economically motivated adulteration (EMA) of roasted coffee presents a critical challenge to global market integrity and consumer safety, specifically regarding the surreptitious inclusion of high-risk allergens like barley and soybeans. The detection of such contaminants is historically hindered by the Maillard reaction, a thermal convergence during roasting that renders adulterants visually and spectrally indistinguishable from the coffee matrix. To address this forensic gap, this study presents a targeted hyperspectral imaging (HSI) framework (400–1000 nm) integrated with a two-stage hierarchical Support Vector Machine (SVM) designed to decouple detection from specific biological diagnosis. A core contribution of this methodology is the implementation of Principal Component Analysis (PCA) to resolve spectral redundancy across the 128-band hypercube. By distilling the data into two primary components capturing over 92% of the cumulative variance, the framework establishes a “spectrochemical bridge” that isolates hidden chromatic and biochemical variances invisible to traditional RGB sensors. This high-significance feature space allows the SVM to overcome the “Euclidean trap” inherent in unsupervised clustering, which frequently suffers from “class collapse” in roasted materials. Experimental results demonstrate that the hierarchical pipeline achieves an optimal overall accuracy of 88.6% and a Kappa coefficient of 0.378. The system attained high reliability during the Stage-1 binary screening, achieving an F1-score of 0.922 to protect the primary coffee matrix, while the Stage-2 multi-class model successfully mapped the spatial distribution of the highly camouflaged allergens. By providing pixel-wise, automated risk assessments, this work establishes a data-driven proof-of-concept for ‘Smart Food Safety’ systems, highlighting the potential for forensic authentication in future industrial quality control environments.

The owl wars

Northern spotted owls were spared from logging. Now, scientists are making a last stand to save them from a new threat

Sparganosis

Effects of an AI–VR enhanced flipped classroom on English achievement, metacognitive self-regulation, and learning motivation among EFL learners: the moderating role of technological literacy

Autonomous biomedical research with an artificial intelligence agent

Biomedical research is increasingly constrained by repetitive, fragmented workflows that slow discovery. We introduce Biomni, a general-purpose biomedical artificial intelligence agent that autonomously executes diverse research tasks. To map the biomedical action space, Biomni’s action-discovery agent mines tools, databases, and protocols from thousands of publications across 25 domains, building a unified agentic environment. Its general-purpose architecture integrates large language model reasoning with retrieval-augmented planning and code-based execution, dynamically composing workflows without predefined templates. Systematic benchmarking shows strong generalization across heterogeneous tasks—causal gene prioritization, drug repurposing, rare-disease diagnosis, microbiome analysis, and molecular cloning—without task-specific tuning. Real-world case studies demonstrate Biomni interpreting multi-modal datasets, optimizing protein stability, orchestrating wet-lab instruments, and generating experimentally testable protocols. Biomni envisions artificial intelligence augmenting human scientists and accelerating discovery.

Colliding Forces — The Aging of the Baby Boom Generation and Contracting Nursing-Home Supply

AI-driven Chinese male facial skin phenotype profiling and its lifestyle correlation

The origin, history, and resistance architecture of an invasive urban malaria mosquito in Africa

The invasive urban malaria vector Anopheles stephensi threatens 126 million city dwellers in Africa. Controlling An. stephensi requires greater understanding of its origin, invasion dynamics, and insecticide resistance mechanisms. Analysis of 645 whole genomes sampled across Africa, the Middle East, and Asia supports an invasion scenario in which an initial South Asian introduction established a bridgehead population in Djibouti, which seeded distinct invasion fronts in Sudan, Ethiopia/Kenya, and Yemen. These incursions show contrasting rates and routes of spread shaped by landscape topology. Insecticide resistance is predominantly mediated by metabolic detoxification genes, with resistance haplotypes and copy-number amplifications introduced from South Asia. These findings, alongside a companion genomic resource, enable genomic surveillance of An. stephensi spread and resistance to aid control strategies.

Elevated glucose-to-platelet ratio predicts short- term and long-term mortality in critically ill patients with acute ischemic stroke

British ‘First Fleet’ brought smallpox to Australia

Colonists likely introduced the disease to a more populous continent than many imagined

Preserved structural and functional stability of high-dose aflibercept after compounding into prefilled syringes

AI systems devise hypotheses and ways to test them