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A novel reliability-aware performance assessment for photonic ML analyzers using Frank norm

In vitro and in vivo antibacterial activities and phytochemical screening of 80% methanol extract from Ehretia cymosa leaves

Antibiotic resistance has emerged as one of the most urgent global health threats, undermining the effective treatment of bacterial infections. In response, scientific interest is increasingly focused on identifying natural and effective antimicrobial agents derived from medicinal plants. In Ethiopia, Ehretia cymosa ( E. cymosa ) is traditionally used to treat wound infections, fever, gastric ulcers, dysentery, and toothache. However, there is limited scientific evidence to support these traditional claims. Hence, the present study aimed to evaluate the in vitro and in vivo antibacterial activities and to screen the phytochemical profile of the 80% methanol extract of E. cymosa leaves. The air-dried and powdered leaves of E. cymosa were extracted using cold maceration with 80% methanol. The antibacterial activity of the crude extract was tested using the disk diffusion method against selected bacterial pathogens commonly associated with infections. An in vivo model of burn followed by infection was established in mice. Qualitative phytochemical screening was also performed. One-way analysis of variance followed by Tukey’s post hoc multiple tests was used to compare the means of all parameters. The leaves of E. cymosa demonstrated significant antibacterial activity (p < 0.001) against the tested bacterial strains in a dose-dependent manner compared with the control. The minimum inhibitory concentration ranged from 6.25 to 75 mg/mL, while the minimum bactericidal concentration against P. aeruginosa and E. coli was 200 mg/mL. In the in vivo model, the extract resulted in faster wound contraction and a shorter epithelialization period against S. aureus than against P. aeruginosa . The plant leaf is also rich in flavonoids, terpenoids, and tannins. The 80% methanol extract of E. cymosa leaves exhibited antibacterial activity in vitro and in vivo, which corroborates the traditional use of the leaves against infectious diseases. Further studies involving the isolation and characterization of the active compounds are recommended.

Assessing aquifer complexity, hydrologic connections and salinization in the lower Mississippi-Gulf region through regional hydrostratigraphic and airborne EM analyses

Entering the new normal - psychosocial work environment and health during the transition from full remote to a hybrid work arrangement in a higher education context

This longitudinal study explored the perceptions of psychosocial work factors, work-related health, and job satisfaction of 745 professional service staff, working in a higher education setting in Sweden, during the transition from full remote work to a hybrid work arrangement over 12-months. The study also explored whether these perceptions differed due to gender and household composition. The questionnaire data were analyzed using linear mixed-effects models with estimated marginal means and Bonferroni-adjusted pairwise comparisons. The results showed that while overall perceptions of psychosocial work factors showed modest changes during the transition, except for social support from colleagues, which significantly increased over time. Professional service staff reported higher levels of stress and exhaustion during the transition, while job satisfaction remained unchanged. The results also highlighted significant gender differences during the transition, as women reported less favourable perceptions of psychosocial work factors and higher levels of stress, while men’s perceptions remained largely stable across these outcomes. Significant overall differences in household composition were also observed, as individuals living in single-person households and in single-parent households reported less favourable perceptions of psychosocial work factors and their work-related health compared to cohabitants and cohabitants with children, though all household groups followed similar trajectories during the transition. The findings suggest that higher education institutions should implement action plans for gender equality and family-supportive practices in hybrid work arrangements to ensure that the benefits of hybrid work are accessible to all employees.

Keyframe-aware dynamic YOLO with IBWO-guided co-search and detection-aware Grad-CAM++ for real-time surveillance object detection

Schisandrins as novel efflux pumps inhibitors and non-antibiotic compounds against multi- and extensively-drug resistant clinical strains of Salmonella typhi: An in-vitro study

Purpose Typhoid is a significant global health challenge due to its high pathogenicity and antimicrobial resistance. Salmonella typhi ( S.typhi ) can switch its lifestyles between biofilm and planktonic phase which allows it to evade host defenses and develop resistance to antibiotics. Salmonella sp. harbors multiple genes encoding efflux-pumps systems whose up-regulation contributes to multi-drug resistance (MDR) and extensive drug-resistance (XDR). To overcome the battle against resistant S. typhi strains, novel non-antibiotics inhibitors are required for inhibitory application. This study assesses the inhibitory effect of lignans against drug resistance of S. typhi . Methods Clinical resistant and sensitive strains of S. typhi were obtained and characterized. The inhibitory effect of lignans, specifically Schisandrin A and B, purified from the plant Schisandra chinensis , are found to be effective non-antibiotic inhibitors were evaluated through standard microbiological techniques like growth curve and time-kill assays. Impact on bacterial morphology was analyzed using scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Our study explores two approaches, such as efflux pumps (EPs) inhibition and antibiofilm assays. Results Using colony-forming unit (CFU) assays, growth curve analysis, and SEM imaging, we observed significant bacteriostatic effects, with Schisandrin B causing notable membrane disruption. Schisandrin B also showed remarkable biofilm inhibition (90.33%) and strong efflux pumps inhibition. Conclusion This study offers a strong basis for future research on addressing antibiotic resistance in clinically relevant pathogens.

The DNA methylation landscape of prostate cancer is associated with the lipid composition of periprostatic adipose tissue

Mapping the prevalence of household-scale livestock ownership by animal taxon in low- and middle-income countries: A prediction model using template model builder

Animal husbandry is widely practiced on the household scale in communities in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) and, while having economic and health benefits, exposes household members to risk of zoonotic infections to an extent that is unclear. While demand for georeferenced information on infectious disease risk factors and drivers is growing, spatial variation in livestock ownership remains poorly characterized at high resolution. This study aimed to use geostatistical methods to model and map the prevalence of livestock husbandry in LMICs for three major animal taxa: poultry, swine, and ruminants. Microdata relating to ownership of livestock animal species were sourced from various population-based survey programs which together cover the majority of LMICs and categorized. These were georeferenced and spatially matched with a panel of time-fixed environmental and demographic spatial covariates, INLA models were fitted to the resulting database, and probabilities for ownership of each livestock taxon predicted based on the model parameter estimates. The results indicated widespread poultry ownership across rural Central America, the Amazon basin, tropical Africa and river basins and forests of East Asia. Swine husbandry is the least widely practiced among the three livestock taxa and concentrated in an undulating belt of higher prevalence extending from central China, through southeast Asia to Northeastern India, though such predictions in data-sparse regions (particularly Muslim-majority areas) represent regional covariate patterns rather than fine-scale measurements. To address non-stationarity in swine spatial structure, region-specific spatial kernels were implemented. Rearing of ruminant livestock appears widespread across subequatorial Africa, Central Asia, the Gobi Desert, the Himalayas, Mongolia and northern India. The models perform impressively by most standard evaluation metrics, and the patterns in their predictions align with external evidence. The distribution of this important risk factor for infectious disease transmission can be modeled using publicly available data sources to generate plausible and potentially actionable predictions over wide geographic areas and identify regions of high exposure to animal disease reservoirs. The resulting predicted prevalence estimates are made available as supplementary files in GIS-compatible format.

Comparative evaluation of penetrometers with conical and cylindrical tips

Ensemble learning-based online sequential pre-interference extreme learning for concept drifting and class imbalanced data streams

With the rapid development of data-driven technologies, real-time data streams not only exhibit concept drift but are also frequently accompanied by class imbalance problems. To address these challenges, this paper proposes an online sequential pre-interference layer extreme learning machine (OS-PIELM). The proposed model introduces a pre-interference layer between the input layer and hidden layer of the original OS-ELM to enhance nonlinear feature representation through kernel-like transformation of sequential data, thereby improving the discriminative ability of different classes. Furthermore, an adaptive forgetting factor and a Gmean-based concept drift detection mechanism are incorporated into OS-PIELM, together with a dynamic weighting strategy. These components enable the model to effectively handle class imbalance in data streams and enhance its sensitivity to concept drift. Finally, an online ensemble learning framework is constructed with OS-PIELM as the base classifier to further improve the robustness of the proposed method. Extensive experiments on nine synthetic datasets and two real-world datasets demonstrate that the proposed method can effectively address class imbalance in data streams and improve concept drift detection performance.

A federated privacy-preserving framework for osteoporotic fracture risk assessment over multi-source heterogeneous medical data

Anatomical fit of the oneKNEE tibia design using statistical shape modeling

Introduction and aim Modern tibial implants should be designed to achieve an optimal anatomical fit. The aim of this study was to evaluate how well a newly developed tibial implant design (oneKNEE ® – B. Braun Aesculap, Tuttlingen, Germany) matches patient anatomy compared to three existing implant systems, using Statistical Shape Models (SSM). Method SSMs for Caucasian and Asian populations were generated using CT scans of 120 Caucasian and 112 Asian osteoarthritic patients. Border anatomical variations were represented by individual anatomies from 14 Caucasian and 12 Asian patients. Tibial components were positioned in accordance with strict protocols established by senior knee surgeons (YM, NK). The anatomical fit was analyzed across all four implant systems in terms of antero-posterior and medio-lateral dimensions, tibial coverage and cortical bone support. Global tests for homogeneity and Dunnett’s tests were performed. Results Bony coverage for Asian and Caucasian populations ranged from 82.9% to 88.4% for long-established designs and from 85.0% to 91.2% for more recently introduced designs. Among all designs, the oneKNEE ® implant demonstrated superior bony coverage and cortical support, followed by Attune ® (Depuy-Synthes, Warsaw, IN, USA), Columbus ® (B. Braun Aesculap), and PFC Sigma ® (Depuy-Synthes). For average anatomies, oneKNEE ® showed significantly better bony coverage and cortical score compared to Columbus ® and PFC Sigma ® (P < 0.01). In less average anatomies, oneKNEE ® exhibited statistically superior bony coverage compared to PFC Sigma ® , although no significant difference was observed in cortical support. Conclusion Compared with established tibial implant designs, the new design demonstrated improved virtual anatomical fit and coverage metrics based on computational modeling. These findings reflect a theoretical design‑level improvement and require biomechanical and clinical validation.

Phytochemical study, solvent extraction efficiency, and antioxidant and antibacterial activities of Moroccan Teucrium polium L. ssp. thymoïdes: a combined experimental and DFT study

Spatiotemporal co-circulation of four dengue serotypes across Mexico, 2020–2025: A space-time scan analysis

Background Mexico has experienced escalating dengue transmission driven by the co‑circulation of four antigenically distinct serotypes (DENV‑1 through DENV‑4). Multi‑serotype transmission is epidemiologically relevant, yet its spatiotemporal patterns at sub‑national resolution remain poorly characterized. Methods We analyzed 103,426 PCR‑confirmed, serotyped dengue cases across 1,547 of 2,471 Mexican municipalities from January 2020 to December 2025. Kulldorff’s space‑time scan statistic under a discrete Poisson model was applied independently to each serotype and to all serotypes combined. Co‑circulation was defined as the spatiotemporal overlap of significant clusters from at least two serotypes within the same municipality for ≥ 1 epidemiological week. Results We identified 159 statistically significant clusters across all serotypes combined. DENV‑3 was dominant (64.4% of cases; annual incidence 59.9/100,000), consistent with the reemergence of a long‑absent serotype. The 2024–2025 season produced a nationally synchronized epidemic across geographically distant regions. Co‑circulation of at least two serotypes occurred in 1,545 municipalities; 217 experienced simultaneous clustering of all four serotypes. Active co‑circulation was present in 275 of 311 study weeks. Mean pairwise temporal overlap ranged from 8.0 to 12.0 weeks, with maximum overlaps of 29–30 weeks. Conclusions Four‑serotype co‑circulation was documented at municipal resolution, concentrated in the Gulf coast, the Yucatán Peninsula, and northeastern Mexico. The 217 municipalities with simultaneous clustering of all four serotypes may represent areas of epidemiological interest for further investigation. This municipality‑level spatiotemporal framework offers operationally relevant resolution for tracking multi‑serotype activity and supporting serotype‑aware dengue monitoring at sub‑national scale.

Adaptive shield TBM selection model integrating AHP with attention mechanism and its engineering application

Case-matched retrieval improves textual alignment of LLM-generated radiology impressions

Background Radiology impressions guide clinical care. Large Language Models (LLMs)-drafted impressions can drift into generic, off-style text. Retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) enables context-aware few-shot prompting during inference. Methods This retrospective IRB-approved study included 11,998 CT pulmonary angiography (CTPA) reports. We built a retrieval bank from 11,399 reports and reserved 599 reports for testing. GPT-4o and LLaMA 3.1-70B generated impressions from the “findings” section using three setups: zero-shot, fixed random few-shot, and dynamic retrieval-selected few-shot (top-k semantic matches; k = 3/5/10). We ran temperatures 0, 0.7, 1. We scored outputs against the original impressions with ROUGE and BERTScore F1, report mean scores with 95% confidence intervals, and tested for statistical significance using Wilcoxon signed-rank test. Results Dynamic retrieval-based few-shot prompting outperformed zero-shot and fixed few-shot prompting across all configurations (all p < 0.05). The highest scores were observed at temperature 0 and k = 10. ROUGE-1 F1 increased to 0.44–0.47 for GPT-4o and 0.37–0.50 for LLaMA, versus 0.35–0.37 and 0.25–0.37, respectively, in zero-shot prompting. Lower temperature and larger k were associated with higher similarity scores. Conclusions Dynamic, case-matched retrieval improved alignment of LLM-generated CTPA impressions with reference impressions on automated text-similarity metrics. Scores remained moderate, and radiologists’ verification is still required before clinical deployment.

Adherence to the DASH diet moderates the association between sedentary time and the risk of obstructive sleep apnea in a hypertensive rural Chinese population: a cross-sectional study

A pilot trial investigating feasibility and preliminary efficacy of a task-specific step training regimen to improve balance recovery among community-dwelling older adults

While a growing number of studies have shown positive effects of perturbation-based balance training on balance recovery after tripping, this training has employed specialized equipment that may pose a barrier for wider adoption. To address this, the purpose of this pilot trial was to evaluate the feasibility and preliminary efficacy of a novel, low-resource (i.e., not requiring specialized equipment) version of perturbation-based balance training referred to here as task-specific step training. Thirty community-dwelling older adults (mean (SD) age: 71.8 (4.4) years) were recruited and allocated to either step training ( n  = 10), traditional treadmill perturbation-based balance training ( n  = 10), or a control group involving no training ( n  = 10). Participants were then exposed to two overground laboratory-induced trips while walking on a walkway. Results showed the step training group exhibited an initial recovery step that was 9.0% body height longer ( p  < 0.001) and 0.25 m/s faster ( p  = 0.011) than the control group.The step training group also exhibited a 4.8% body height longer recovery step, and a fall rate that was 39% lower ( p  = 0.037) when compared to the treadmill training group after lab-induced trips. While promising, these results should be interpreted with caution give the modest sample size and a potential bias between groups with respect to safety harness usage during laboratory-induced trips. A future trial with adequate statistical power to better evaluate efficacy and effectiveness of this step training on real-world trip and fall risk appears warranted. The study was registered on clinicaltrials.gov (NCT05734443).

One-month mental health changes and associated factors among users of an online mental health support system during the COVID-19 pandemic

The quantitative proteomics analysis of multi-stage gastric mucosal lesions associated with Helicobacter pylori infection

Background Helicobacter pylori ( H. pylori ) infection is the principal etiological factor for gastric cancer (GC), which ranks as the fourth leading cause of cancer-related mortality globally. Although the Correa cascade describes the stepwise progression from chronic gastritis to intestinal-type GC, the molecular events underlying this “inflammation-to-cancer” transition remain incompletely characterized. Objective This study aimed to delineate stage-specific proteomic alterations across H. pylori -associated gastric mucosal lesions and to identify candidate progression-associated biomarkers in GC. Methods Label-free quantitative proteomic analysis (LC-MS/MS) was performed on gastric tissue specimens from 22 patients stratified into four histopathological stages: H. pylori -negative chronic non-atrophic gastritis (HpN-CG), H. pylori -positive chronic non-atrophic gastritis (HpC-CG), H. pylori -positive chronic atrophic gastritis (HpC-CAG), and intestinal-type GC. Functional enrichment (GO, KEGG), temporal clustering (Mfuzz), and protein-protein interaction (PPI) network analyses were conducted. Key hub genes were externally assessed using GEPIA RNA-seq data from TCGA and GTEx. Results A total of 6,019 proteins were quantified. Differential expression analysis identified 771 DEPs between HpC-CG and HpN-CG, 101 DEPs between HpC-CAG and HpC-CG, and 535 DEPs between GC and HpC-CAG. Immune response pathways were up-regulated upon H. pylori infection, whereas oxidative phosphorylation was progressively suppressed throughout disease progression. Mfuzz clustering revealed that Cluster 4 ribosome-biogenesis proteins, including NIP7 and PDCD11 identified in the proteomic/PPI analysis, exhibited continuous up-regulation from precancerous stages to GC. External RNA-expression validation supported significant up-regulation of seven Cluster 4 hub genes, whereas Cluster 6 proteins did not show concordant transcript-level down-regulation. Conclusion This study provides a comprehensive proteomic landscape of H. pylori -driven gastric carcinogenesis. Cluster 4 ribosome-biogenesis proteins represent candidate progression-associated protein markers requiring further protein-level validation, while the progressive decline in oxidative phosphorylation underscores mitochondrial dysfunction as a hallmark of disease progression.