Browse Articles

Six to seven times less likely to be physically active: Low self-determination and basic psychological needs support in women with endometriosis—A cluster analysis

Purpose To explore how clusters of motivational regulations, self-determination, and basic psychological needs (BPNs) relate to physical exercise participation in women with endometriosis. Methods This cross-sectional online study included women aged ≥ 18 years with endometriosis. The Behavioral Regulation in Exercise Questionnaire-3 (BREQ-3) was used to assess motivational regulations and the Basic Psychological Needs in Exercise Scale (BPNES) to evaluate BPNs—autonomy (sense of choice), competence (confidence in ability), and relatedness (sense of connection and belonging)—followed by a two-step cluster analysis to identify motivational profiles. Associations with physical activity were tested using logistic regression (adjusted for pain score, education level, skin color, and marital status). Results A total of 508 women (mean age = 34 ± 7 years) participated in the study. Women in the more controlled behavior cluster (OR = 6.14; 95% CI = 3.72–10.1) and in the BPN more thwarted cluster (OR = 7.61; 95% CI = 4.25–12.8) were significantly less likely to engage in physical activity compared to those in the more autonomous behavior — driven by personal interest — and in the more BPN satisfied cluster. Conclusions Women with endometriosis with diminished self-determination and low BPNs support profile were six to seven times less likely to participate in physical activity, highlighting the need for tailored interventions to enhance motivation and exercise adherence.

Future winters promise less snow, more rain. Nobody’s prepared

Morphological and biomechanical responses of Lespedeza bicolor turcz. roots to long-term phosphorus addition at high altitudes

The psychosocial dimensions of seborrheic dermatitis: A cross-sectional study on anxiety, personality, and quality of life

Background Seborrheic dermatitis (SD) is a chronic inflammatory skin disorder that predominantly affects sebaceous gland-rich areas, such as the scalp, face, and chest. It is clinically characterized by erythematous plaques and scaling. Although its pathogenesis is multifactorial, involving genetic predisposition, microbial colonization, and environmental triggers, the psychosocial dimensions of SD remain insufficiently explored. Given the chronic and visible nature of the disease, psychological factors like anxiety and personality traits may shape patients’ perception of disease burden and their quality of life (QoL). Objectives This study aimed to assess the relationship between anxiety levels, personality traits, and the clinical severity and quality of life in patients with seborrheic dermatitis. By evaluating these dimensions together, the study seeks to better understand the psychosocial impact of SD. Materials and methods A cross-sectional study was conducted with 210 adult South Dakota patients. Disease severity was assessed using the Seborrheic Dermatitis Area and Severity Index (SDASI), while QoL was measured using the Dermatology Life Quality Index (DLQI). Anxiety was evaluated using the Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI), and personality traits via the Bortner Personality Scale. Correlation analyses and regression models were employed. Results SDASI demonstrated a strong positive correlation with Physician Global Assessment (Rho = 0.815, p < 0.001), confirming its validity as a clinical severity tool. DLQI exhibited moderate positive correlations with both BAI and anxiety severity (Rho = 0.465 and Rho = 0.365, p < 0.001), indicating that anxiety substantially contributes to patient-perceived disease burden. In contrast, SDASI showed no significant associations with anxiety levels or personality traits (all p > 0.05), highlighting a dissociation between physician-rated severity and patient-reported quality of life. Weak correlations were observed between DLQI and female gender (Rho = 0.159, p = 0.011) as well as seasonality (Rho = 0.145, p = 0.018). Conclusion Seborrheic dermatitis imposes a significant psychosocial burden that is more strongly linked to anxiety than to objective clinical severity. Our findings underscore the importance of integrating routine psychological screening—such as BAI assessment—into SD management to identify patients at risk of diminished quality of life. This study contributes novel evidence by concurrently evaluating clinical, psychological, and personality dimensions, reinforcing the need for a multidimensional, patient-centered approach to chronic inflammatory skin disorders.

Fragmentation signatures in cancer patients resemble those of patients with vascular or autoimmune diseases

Multiple case-controlled studies have shown that analyzing fragmentation patterns in plasma cell-free DNA (cfDNA) can distinguish individuals with cancer from healthy controls. However, there have been few studies that investigate various types of cfDNA fragmentomics patterns in individuals with other diseases. We therefore developed a comprehensive statistic, called fragmentation signatures, that integrates the distributions of fragment positioning, fragment length, and fragment end-motifs in cfDNA. We found that individuals with venous thromboembolism, systemic lupus erythematosus, dermatomyositis, or scleroderma have cfDNA fragmentation signatures that closely resemble those found in individuals with advanced cancers. Furthermore, these signatures were highly correlated with increases in inflammatory markers in the blood. We demonstrate that these similarities in fragmentation signatures lead to high rates of false positives in individuals with autoimmune or vascular disease when evaluated using conventional binary classification approaches for multicancer earlier detection (MCED). To address this issue, we introduced a multiclass approach for MCED that integrates fragmentation signatures with protein biomarkers and achieves improved specificity in individuals with autoimmune or vascular disease while maintaining high sensitivity. Though these data put substantial limitations on the specificity of fragmentomics-based tests for cancer diagnostics, they also offer ways to improve the interpretability of such tests. Moreover, we expect these results will lead to a better understanding of the process—most likely inflammatory—from which abnormal fragmentation signatures are derived.

Robust algorithm development of frequency estimation in smart grid

The building concept of border defence facilities of Qin: Watchtowers along the King of Zhaoxiang great wall in Shaanxi province

Qin was a military power during the Warring States period, and in its confrontations with other regimes, it constructed a series of border defense projects, among which the most iconic is the Great Wall. Watchtowers are an important part of the Great Wall defense system, and their function was to provide soldiers with a better vantage point and shooting position. This paper studies the 347 watchtowers along the King of ZhaoXiang Great Wall (ZXGW) in Shaanxi Province, categorizes their architectural forms, and determines the distribution characteristics, and aims to understand the construction philosophy of the Qin state’s border defense projects through the early prototypes of watchtowers. These watchtowers were built by earth on-site, and likely with subsidiary buildings. Relevant literature and analysis on ArcGIS show different distribution characteristics and defense capability across the different geographical environments in the east, middle, and west sections. The watchtowers of the western section, situated in the Baiyu mountainous area, are taller and most densely distributed, thus offering the most significant defensive advantage of the three sections. The watchtowers in the eastern section, located in a relatively flat and hilly area with the lowest heights and distributed sparsely, provide the weakest defensive capability. The middle section serves as a transition zone between the east and west sections, with the height, distribution density, and defense advantages of watchtowers occupying a similar middle-ground position.

Factors underlying a latitudinal gradient in the S/G lignin monomer ratio in natural poplar variants

The chemical composition of wood plays a pivotal role in the adaptability and structural integrity of trees. However, few studies have investigated the environmental factors that determine lignin composition and its biological significance in plants. Here, we examined the lignin syringyl-to-guaiacyl (S/G) ratio in members of a Populus trichocarpa population sourced from their native habitat and conducted a genome wide association study to identify genes linked to lignin formation. Our results revealed many significant associations, suggesting that lignin biosynthesis is a complex polygenic trait. Additionally, we found an increase in the S/G ratio from northern to southern geographic origin of the trees sampled, along with a corresponding metabolic and transcriptional reprogramming of xylem cell wall biosynthesis. Further molecular analysis identified a mutation in a cell wall laccase genetically associated with higher S/G ratios that predominate in trees from warmer lower latitudes. Collectively, our findings suggest that lignin heterogeneity arises from an evolutionary process enabling poplar adaptation to different climatic challenges.

Metformin lotion as a novel approach to prevent tendinopathy induced by mechanical overuse

The influence of gender norms on post-migration men’s sexual and reproductive health: A scoping review

Migration exposes people to unfamiliar gender roles and sexual views, influencing the ways they care for their sexual and reproductive health (SRH). Migrant men’s health is overlooked in care and research, prohibiting culturally responsive care that acknowledges these changing beliefs. Thus, we aimed to synthesise the available evidence on the ways pre-established gender norms impact a man’s SRH in the setting of migration to a high-income country. We aimed to investigate how refugee and migrant men viewed gender and gender roles in their countries of resettlement and how they experience their SRH in this country. We systematically searched scientific databases and grey literature (published between 2000–2023), using a search strategy covering four major topics: CALD/migrants, men, gender and SRH. Two reviewers independently screened the titles and abstracts of 7,840 articles and reviewed the full text of 180 articles. Thematic analysis of 36 articles revealed three key themes: (a) depleted masculinity, (ii) sex and sexuality, and (iii) accessing SRH care in a new country, all influencing how migrant men viewed masculinity, engaged in SRH services and approached sexual relationships. Further, navigating new cultural norms and gendered expectations often resulted in feelings of depleted masculinity, impacting men’s wellbeing, intimate relationships and confidence to seek SRH care after migration. We found that migrant men largely carried pre-established beliefs of sex and gender roles from their home country to their host country. This had mainly negative repercussions on their relationships and SRH behaviours post-migration and should be acknowledged in future research and interventions.

Object-directed action representations are componentially built in parietal cortex

The inferior parietal lobule supports action representations that are necessary to grasp and use objects in a functionally appropriate manner [S. H. Johnson-Frey, Trends Cogn. Sci. 8 , 71–78 (2004)]. The supramarginal gyrus (SMG) is a structure within the inferior parietal lobule that specifically processes object-directed patterns of manipulation during functional object use. Here, we demonstrate that neural representations of complex object-directed actions in the SMG can be predicted by a linear encoding model that componentially builds complex actions from an empirically defined set of kinematic synergies. Each kinematic synergy represents a unique combination of finger, hand, wrist, and arm postures and movements. Control analyses demonstrate that models based on image-computable similarity (AlexNet, ResNet50, VGG16) robustly predict variance in visual areas, but not in the SMG. We also show that SMG activity is specifically modulated by kinematic (as opposed to visual) properties of object-directed actions. The action-relevant, as opposed to visually relevant, nature of the representations supported by the SMG aligns with findings from neuropsychological studies of upper limb apraxia. These findings support a model in which kinematic synergies are the basic unit of representation, out of which the SMG componentially builds object-directed actions. In combination with other findings [Q. Chen et al., Cereb. Cortex 28 , 2162–2174 (2018)], we suggest that kinematic synergies are related to complex object-directed actions in a similar way to how articulatory and voicing features combine to form phonological segments in spoken language production.

Human chorion and placental mesenchymal stem cells conditioned media suppress cell migration and invasion by inhibiting the PI3K/AKT pathway in cholangiocarcinoma

Parents’ acceptance of human papilloma virus vaccination for their daughters in adet town, North Gojjam zone, Northwest Ethiopia: A mixed method study

Human papilloma virus vaccination is an effective way to reduce cervical cancer. Although the health of adolescents is the priority goal across the globe, including Ethiopia, parent s’ acceptance of Human papilloma virus vaccination for their daughters becomes a big challenge in Ethiopia. This study aimed to assess parent’s acceptance of human papilloma virus vaccination for their daughters and associated factors in Adet town, northwest Ethiopia, 2024. Community based mixed method study was employed from May 24 to June 27, 2024. For quantitative data, the sample size was 319 and systematic random sampling technique was used to select study participants. Structured questionnaires were administered for quantitative data, and interview guides were used for qualitative data. The quantitative data was coded, entered and cleaned using Epi info software and exported to SPSS version 25 for analysis. Descriptive statistics, bivariable and multivariable logistic regression analysis were used. Variables with p-value of <0.05 with 95% confidence interval and adjusted odds ratio in multivariable analysis were considered as statistically significant factor for the outcome variable. Thematic analysis approached was employed to analyse qualitative data. Results were presented in tables, texts, charts and graphs. In this study, 249(78.1%) with 95%CI: 73.0–82.4) of parents accept HPV vaccination for their daughters. Knowledge (AOR = 2.96, 95% CI: 1.43–6.10), attitude (AOR = 3.47, 95%CI: 1.71–7.04), subjective norms (AOR = 3.20, 95% CI: 1.56–6.51) and safety concern (AOR = 8.20, 95%CI: 3.45–19.49) were significantly associated factors with parents’ acceptance of HPV vaccine. Qualitative results identified barriers to parental acceptance of the HPV vaccine for daughters, including fear of side effects like infertility, perceiving it as contraceptive method, lack of HPV knowledge, and absence of institutional accountability. Facilitators included influential stakeholder engagement, positive perceptions of the vaccine’s benefits, and confidence in its safety and efficacy. The result of this study seems promising as a more than two thirds of women accept to vaccinate their daughters against HPV though there are still misconceptions, safety and efficacy concerns. To foster cervical cancer prevention efforts, parents’ health education should address vaccination safety concerns, improve HPV knowledge, and foster positive attitudes towards vaccinating daughters.

Minimizing and quantifying uncertainty in AI-informed decisions: Applications in medicine

AI is now a cornerstone of modern dataset analysis. In many real world applications, practitioners are concerned with controlling specific kinds of errors, rather than minimizing the overall number of errors. For example, biomedical screening assays may primarily be concerned with mitigating the number of false positives rather than false negatives. Quantifying uncertainty in AI-based predictions, and in particular those controlling specific kinds of errors, remains theoretically and practically challenging. We develop a strategy called multidimensional informed generalized hypothesis testing (MIGHT) which we prove accurately quantifies uncertainty and confidence given sufficient data, and concomitantly controls for particular error types. Our key insight was that it is possible to integrate canonical cross-validation and parametric calibration procedures within a nonparametric ensemble method. Simulations demonstrate that while typical AI based-approaches cannot be trusted to obtain the truth, MIGHT can be. We apply MIGHT to answer an open question in liquid biopsies using circulating cell-free DNA (ccfDNA) in individuals with or without cancer: Which biomarkers, or combinations thereof, can we trust? Performance estimates produced by MIGHT on ccfDNA data have coefficients of variation that are often orders of magnitude lower than other state of the art algorithms such as support vector machines, random forests, and Transformers, while often also achieving higher sensitivity. We find that combinations of variable sets often decrease rather than increase sensitivity over the optimal single variable set because some variable sets add more noise than signal. This work demonstrates the importance of quantifying uncertainty and confidence—with theoretical guarantees—for the interpretation of real-world data.

Joint surveillance and correlation analysis of antimicrobial resistance and consumption of seven targeted bacteria, 2017–2023

Managing minor ailments and pharmacy services: How do people make their decisions?

Background Healthcare systems face challenges such as rising costs and workforce shortages. Optimal resource allocation is needed, notably in the management of minor ailments. Community pharmacy services (e.g., minor ailment schemes) remain underused by the population. This study explores the decision-making process when people are managing minor ailments: What influences their choices among the management options? What is their level of information and willingness to use and pay for pharmacy services? Methods A cross-sectional online survey was conducted using a self-administered questionnaire (convenience sampling) from 07.11.2023 to 08.12.2023 in Switzerland. The survey explored general decision-making process in minor ailment management through three clinical scenarios, factors influencing the choice of pharmacy services, as well as public knowledge of three available pharmacy services and their willingness to use and pay for them. Results A total of 508 valid responses were analysed (99.8%). Perceived severity of symptoms (98%, n = 495) and time to deal with symptoms (78%, n = 396) were the most important criteria in making the management decision. The more serious the symptoms were perceived, the less the pharmacy and self-medication were privileged. Choosing pharmacy depended mainly on the perceived staff’s skills (83%, n = 420) and direct access to medicines (81%, n = 409). Public awareness of pharmacy services was low. Respondents were more willing to use autonomous prescribing than other services, with low willingness to pay out of their pocket. Conclusions There is a critical gap between the potential demand for minor ailment services in pharmacy and the public’s awareness and valuation of them. Actual uptakes could be improved by better communication and uniformization of pharmacy services, as well as the identification of right incentives to achieve the political goal of adequate orientation in the healthcare.

N ⁶ -methyladenine modification of DNA enhances RecA-mediated homologous recombination

Both DNA methylation and homologous recombination (HR) are extensively studied. In bacteria, Dam methylation is the most studied DNA modification, while RecA-mediated HR is a primary mechanism to repair DNA damages including double-stranded breaks, single-stranded gaps, and stalled replication forks. While HR regulation by proteins is extensively studied, whether methylation of DNA itself directly affects the functions of RecA and HR remains unclear. Mainly by single-molecule experiments, we report that Dam methylation of single-stranded DNA (ssDNA) promotes RecA assembly, partially by reducing the effective charge of ssDNA under counterion screening. Furthermore, Dam methylation of double-stranded DNA promotes homologous pairing, joint molecule growth, and strand exchange. In cellular experiments, dam deletion impairs HR, whereas hypermethylation of the adenines in the genome enhances HR in P1 transduction assays and DNA-damage sensitivity tests without significantly upregulated HR-related genes. In addition, the preference of RecA for Dam-methylated DNA in RecA assembly and homologous pairing is conserved across divergent species covering a gram-negative bacterium Klebsiella pneumoniae , a gram-positive bacterium Bacillus subtilis, and a flowering plant Arabidopsis thaliana . Dam methylation of ssDNA increases the ATPase activity of molecular motors such as RecQ helicase that containing RecA-like domains. These findings reveal effects of DNA methylation and mechanisms regulating RecA-mediated HR and molecular motors.

Lightweight early detection of knee osteoarthritis in athletes

Correction: Immediate effects of visual feedback on the accuracy of foot landing adjustments in older people with diabetes mellitus: A cross-sectional study

CO ₂ hydration at the air–water interface: A surface-mediated “in-and-out” mechanism

An understanding of the CO 2 + H 2 O hydration reaction is crucial for modeling the effects of ocean acidification, for enabling novel carbon storage solutions, and as a model process in the geosciences. While the mechanism of this reaction has been investigated extensively in the condensed phase, its mechanism at the air–water interface remains elusive, leaving uncertain the contribution that surface-adsorbed CO 2 makes to the overall acidification reaction. In this study, we employ machine-learned potentials trained to various levels of theory to provide a molecular-level understanding of CO 2 hydration at the air–water interface. We show that reaction at the interface follows a surface-mediated “in-and-out” mechanism: CO 2 diffuses into the aqueous surface layer, reacts to form carbonic acid, and is subsequently expelled from solution. We show that this surface layer provides a bulk-like solvation environment, engendering similar modes of reactivity and near-identical free energy profiles for the bulk and interfacial processes. Our study unveils an unconventional reaction mechanism that underscores the dynamic nature of the molecular reaction site at the air–water interface. The similarity between bulk and interfacial profiles shows that CO 2 hydration is equally as feasible under these two solvation environments and that acidification rates are likely enhanced by this additional surface contribution.