Browse Articles
Discover research articles across all indexed journals
Inflammatory markers including NLR, AFR and SII as prognostic factors in neuroblastoma
Reidentification of hybridization events with transcriptomic data and phylogenomic study in Seabuckthorn
Abstract Natural hybridization in sea buckthorn (Hippophae spp.) is well documented. While the parental species involved in these events have been identified, distinctions between F1 hybrids and later-generation (Fn) hybrids remain insufficiently explored, and their genetic compositions are not yet fully understood. In this study, we employed transcriptomic data and reference genomes to identify Fn hybrids in two natural hybrid populations, confirming eight individuals—including H. goniocarpa Lian. X. L. Chen et K. Sun and four members of a hybrid swarm from Qinghai, China—as F1 hybrids. These findings support the hypothesis that H. goniocarpa is not a distinct species, but rather an F1 hybrid within the genus. Additionally, we discuss limitations specific to SNP calling from transcriptomic data—such as allele-specific expression and low transcript abundance—which may lead to the misclassification of heterozygous sites as homozygous. Finally, we constructed the first phylogenomic tree of the Hippophae genus using transcriptomic data and performed a comparative analysis of interspecific relationships based on SNP and indel markers derived from the same dataset.
Efficient passive solar desalination using cooling tower integration and thermal insulation
Effect of work schedule flexibility as a moderator in the relationship between job stress and wellbeing in pharmacy practice
Abstract Hospital pharmacists frequently face significant job stress, adversely impacting their well-being. Work schedule flexibility is often proposed as a potential buffer against job stress, yet its effectiveness among hospital pharmacists remains understudied. This study investigates the moderating effect of work schedule flexibility on the relationship between job stress and well-being among hospital pharmacists in Punjab, Pakistan. A cross-sectional survey was conducted between September 2023 and January 2024, involving 414 pharmacists working in public hospitals in Punjab province. The study utilized standardized scales to measure well-being, stress levels, and work schedule flexibility among the participants. Bivariate correlation and multiple regression analyses examined the relationships and interaction effects among the study variables. Bivariate correlation analysis revealed a negative association between job stress and well-being, a positive association between work schedule flexibility and well-being, and a negative association between work schedule flexibility and job stress. Multiple regression analysis indicated that work schedule flexibility significantly moderated the relationship between job stress and well-being, with the interaction term showing a significant effect. The findings underscore the importance of work schedule flexibility in mitigating the negative effects of job stress on the well-being of hospital pharmacists. Implementing policies that enhance work schedule flexibility may serve as an effective strategy to improve pharmacists’ well-being and job satisfaction. Further research is needed to explore these dynamics in healthcare settings and among diverse professional groups.
Association between myopia progression and cylinder power progression in defocus incorporated multiple segments lens wearers
Abstract The aim of this study was to explore the correlation between the parameters associated with the prevention and management of myopia and cylinder power (CP) progression in individuals who wear defocus incorporated multiple segments (DIMS) lenses. In total, 179 children (6–12 years old) prescribed DIMS lenses for 1 year were enrolled in this retrospective cohort study. Cycloplegic refraction, spherical equivalent (SE), axial length (AL), CP, and corneal astigmatism (CA) were measured. The relationship between myopia and CP progression was assessed using binary logistic regression analyses, stratified analyses, and interaction tests. These 179 DIMS lens wearers were, on average, 9.51 ± 1.48 years old, and 51.4% were male. In total, 24.02% of these participants had CP progression ≥ 0.25 D within one year. A fully-adjusted binary logistic regression analysis revealed that ΔSE (odds ratio (OR) = 1.73, 95% CI (1.32, 2.27), P < 0.001) and CA at admission (OR = 1.17, 95% CI (1, 1.36), P = 0.049) were associated with CP progression following adjustment for potential confounding factors. Interaction analysis revealed no significant interactive relationships. Our results showed a significant positive association between ΔSE and CP progression in DIMS lens wearers. Furthermore, baseline CA was also associated with ΔCP in participants over the course of the study. This suggested that myopia progression and baseline CA levels contribute to variations in CP progression. This study helps optimize astigmatism control in preventing and controlling myopia in DIMS lens wearers.
Hydroxychloroquine improves manifestation of PE rats under oxidative stress by regulating the PI3K/AKT/mTOR signaling pathway to inhibit autophagy
Bacterial profile and antimicrobial susceptibility pattern of urinary tract infection among diabetic patients at Bule Hora University Teaching Hospital, Southern Ethiopia
Rosmarinic acid potentiates gefitinib in lung adenocarcinoma by modulating interactions between cancer cells and cancer-associated fibroblasts
Nutritional status and associated factors among school age children in Southeast Ethiopia using a bayesian analysis approach
Deep learning driven prediction and comparative study of surrounding rock deformation in high speed railway tunnels
The impact of China’s artificial intelligence development on urban energy efficiency
GCSA-ResNet: a deep neural network architecture for Malware detection
Pro-inflammatory effects of endogenous and recombinant MDA-7/IL-24 with RGD peptide on human hepatic stellate cells
Factors influencing reducing sedentary time in home office employees
Investigation of aluminum agglomeration characteristics in solid propellants with Al/Mg particle additives
Comparing traditional natural language processing and large language models for mental health status classification: a multi-model evaluation
Abstract The substantial increase in mental health disorders globally necessitates scalable, accurate tools for detecting and classifying these conditions in digital environments. This study addresses the critical challenge of automated mental health classification by comparing three distinct computational approaches: (1) Traditional Natural Language Processing (NLP) with advanced feature engineering, (2) Prompt-engineered large language models (LLMs), and (3) Fine-tuned LLMs. The dataset consisted of over 51,000 publicly available text statements from social media platforms, tagged with seven mental health conditions: Normal, Depression, Suicidal, Anxiety, Stress, Bipolar Disorder, and Personality Disorder. The dataset was stratified into training, validation, and test sets for model evaluation. The primary outcome was classification accuracy across these seven mental health conditions. Additional metrics like precision, recall, and F1-score were analyzed. We compared the results of the three computational approaches and overfitting was monitored through validation loss across epochs for the fine-tuned LLM. The NLP model with advanced feature engineering achieved an overall accuracy of 95%, surpassing both the prompt-engineered LLM (65%) and the fine-tuned LLM (91%). This model performed exceptionally well in terms of accuracy and precision. While fine-tuning for three epochs yielded optimal results, further training led to overfitting and decreased performance. This study demonstrates the significant benefits of applying advanced text preprocessing and feature engineering techniques to traditional NLP models, alongside fine-tuning LLMs, such as GPT-4o-mini, for mental health classification tasks. The results clearly indicate that off-the-shelf LLM chatbots using prompt engineering are inadequate for mental health classification, performing 30% points below specialized NLP approaches. Despite the popularity of general-purpose LLMs, specialized approaches remain superior for critical healthcare applications like mental health classification.
AI-driven digital twin for autonomous web tension control in Roll-to-Roll manufacturing system
Exploring the threshold of human activity impact on urban ecosystem service value: a case study of Hefei, China
Bithionol is ineffective in a mouse model of S. aureus implant-associated osteomyelitis despite potent in vitro activity
Abstract Implant-associated osteomyelitis (IAOM) is a severe complication of the usage of orthopaedic implants. IAOM is difficult to treat and infection relapse is often due to insufficient treatment of bacterial persister cells. The anthelmintic drug bithionol is promising in combating persister cells - including Staphylococcus aureus persister cells. We investigated bithionol alone and in combination with antibiotics both in vitro and in vivo, using a murine IAOM model. In vitro experiments confirmed bithionol’s anti-persister activity against S. aureus, demonstrating significant CFU reductions in combination with daptomycin and moxifloxacin. In the murine IAOM model, moxifloxacin led to a small but significant reduction in bacterial load in bone of approx. log 0.5 CFU/ml. However, combining bithionol with antibiotics did not further reduce bacterial load in either bone or on implants. We subsequently demonstrated dramatically reduced activity of bithionol in the presence of albumin, suggesting low bioavailability in vivo. Despite promising in vitro results, bithionol’s efficacy against persister cells did not translate into improving treatment outcome the IAOM model. The study highlights the challenges in translating in vitro findings to in vivo outcomes, and future research into application of bithionol to treat bacterial infections must first address its bioavailability or investigate local delivery options.