Browse Articles

MAFNet: A novel adaptive multi-scale model for fine-grained grading of diabetic retinopathy

Assessing the effectiveness of no-take zones on fish populations in the Marine Natural Park of Cap Corse and Agriate, Northwestern Mediterranean Sea

No-take zones (NTZs) are expected to rebuild exploited fish populations, yet their performance is rarely assessed with species-level indicators. We quantified the reserve effect of the Nonza–San Fiurenzu NTZ (24.2 km2) inside the Marine Natural Park of Cap Corse and Agriate (north-western Mediterranean) and simultaneously compared the effectiveness of two underwater visual census (UVC). Using 488 underwater visual-census transects (2018–2022) we monitored densities, size structure and biomass of three emblematic predators—the common dentex Dentex dentex, dusky grouper Epinephelus marginatus and brown meagre Sciaena umbra—and compared trends with neighbouring fished sectors. Gaussian GLMs related log-transformed density and biomass to protection status, season, year, sea-surface temperature (SST) and chlorophyll-a. Protection was the dominant predictor for E. marginatus and S. umbra: mean densities inside the NTZ were 3–4 times higher than outside, and biomass was enriched by factors of six and four, respectively. For the mobile D. dentex densities did not differ, but biomass was greater in the NTZ, indicating size-selective benefits. SST showed a negative effect on D. dentex and S. umbra; chlorophyll-a had no detectable influence. Cross-transect surveys (two divers) yielded density estimates comparable to—or higher than—the logistically intensive comb protocol (four to eight divers), suggesting that simpler designs can suffice for long-term monitoring. Our results demonstrate that a well-enforced NTZ embedded in a moderately protected park can rapidly enhance biomass and restore size structure of vulnerable Mediterranean predators.

CRISPR with Transcriptional Readout reveals influenza transcription is modulated by NELF and can precipitate an interferon response

Transcription of interferons upon viral infection is critical for cell-intrinsic innate immunity. This process is influenced by many host and viral factors. To identify host factors that modulate interferon induction within cells infected by influenza A virus, we developed CRISPR with Transcriptional Readout using sequencing (CRITR-seq). CRITR-seq is a method linking CRISPR guide sequence to activity at a promoter of interest. Employing this method, we find that depletion of the Negative Elongation Factor (NELF) complex increases both flu transcription and interferon expression. We find that the process of flu transcription, both in the presence and absence of viral replication, is a key contributor to interferon induction. Taken together, our findings highlight innate immune ligand concentration as a limiting factor in triggering an interferon response, identify NELF as an important interface with the flu life cycle, and validate CRITR-seq as a tool for genome-wide screens for phenotypes of gene expression.

Klotho protein alleviates heart ischemia/reperfusion injury and oxidative stress through regulation of the NOS/MMP pathway

Rural active aging as a development strategy: Nexus of physical exercise participation and multidimensional poverty in China

Background This study aims to assess the intrinsic links between physical exercise and multidimensional poverty among rural older people, focusing on the mediating mechanisms of social and cultural capital, to inform responses to active ageing. Methods This study utilized the adult and household databases of the China Household Tracking Survey (CFPS) in 2018 and 2022. Stata17.0 was used to screen and process the data, and the A-F double critical value method was adopted to measure and structurally decompose the multi-dimensional poverty among the elderly of Chinese household farmers. The association between physical exercise participation and multi-dimensional poverty among rural elderly people was estimated using the ordinary Least squares (OLS) method. The mediating effects of social capital and cultural capital were explored by using the stepwise regression method. Finally, the heterogeneous manifestations of the impact of physical exercise participation on multi-dimensional poverty among rural elderly people were investigated by using the grouped regression method. Results This study found that physical exercise participation has a significant role in reducing multidimensional poverty in old age among family farmers (β = −0.0149, p < 0.001), and this finding remains valid after a series of robustness tests such as full model estimation (β = −0.009, p < 0.001), propensity score matching test (ATT value of −0.017, −0.015, and −0.017, respectively) and other series of robustness tests, the conclusion still holds. The results of the mediating effect showed that social capital and cultural capital mediated the effect of physical exercise on multidimensional poverty. Heterogeneity analyses showed that the effects of physical exercise participation on multidimensional poverty were more pronounced among females, unmarried, in the eastern region, and among the elderly with a high life expectancy. Conclusion Participation in physical exercise can effectively alleviate multidimensional poverty, which is reflected in the enhancement of health level, economic status, living standard, and subjective perception sub-dimensions. Engaging in physical exercise can alleviate poverty through two channels: accumulating social capital and enhancing cultural capital. The construction and maintenance of rural sports facilities should be strengthened, a ‘healthy labour model’ combining physical exercise and agricultural production should be constructed, special sports poverty-alleviation initiatives should be implemented for “vulnerable” elderly people, and a ‘Healthy Villages’ project should be launched to promote the participation of all people in poverty alleviation. The ‘Healthy Villages’ programme has been launched to promote the participation of the entire population in physical exercise.

Reply to Cummins et al.: GPT reveals cognitive dissonance that is both irrational and alarmingly humanlike

New insights into the docking mechanism of vanillin on three mammalian olfactory receptors via a new statistical physics model

Tissue and cellular tropism of elephant endotheliotropic herpesvirus (EEHV)1A in hemorrhagic disease

Elephant endotheliotropic herpesviruses (EEHVs) cause EEHV hemorrhagic disease (EEHV-HD), an acute, multisystemic, often fatal hemorrhagic syndrome with profound implications for elephant population growth and sustainability. A greater understanding of the pathogenesis of EEHV-HD is essential to elucidate susceptibility and develop tools for disease management and prevention. This study utilized RNAscope® in situ hybridization (ISH) to detect EEHV1A DNA polymerase and terminase genes in archival tissues (heart, lung, tongue, spleen, liver, kidney, lymph node, stomach, small intestine, large intestine, salivary gland, and brain or spinal cord) from Asian elephants (Elephas maximus; n = 12) that died of EEHV-HD to determine and describe tissue and cellular tropism of the virus. Tissue and cellular specific ISH signal were recorded and semi-quantitatively graded using light microscopy. Positive hybridization signal for EEHV1A terminase and DNA polymerase was detected in tissues from all twelve study cases. In all tissues, positive signal was limited to endothelial cell nuclei. No signal was detected in epithelial cells, leukocytes or mesenchymal cells other than endothelial cells. Signal detection frequency was as follows: heart (12/12), liver (11/12), tongue (10/12), lymph node (10/12), spleen (9/11), stomach (9/12), small intestine (9/10), large intestine (9/10), lung (7/10), salivary gland (1/8), kidney (1/12), brain/spinal cord (0/10). Tissue signal amount varied among cases but generally was most abundant in heart and liver. Results confirmed that in Asian elephant cases of EEHV1A-HD, the viral cellular target and site of replication is exclusively capillary endothelial cells. Differences in viral tissue tropism with EEHV1A-HD are likely a consequence of endothelial cell heterogeneity across tissues. Understanding tropism in cases of active EEHV-HD can serve as a foundation for investigation of EEHV tropism in other stages of the infection (e.g. initial infection, dissemination, latency, shedding) and contribute to defining pathogenesis.

Cognitive dissonance in large language models is neither cognitive nor dissonant

Implicit Runge-Kutta based sparse identification of governing equations in biologically motivated systems

Development and validation of a risk prediction tool for drug-related problems in pre-operative elective surgical patients (mediPORT): A case-control study

Background Drug-related problems (DRP) in pre-operative care can harm patient outcomes. This study aimed to develop and validate a pre-operative risk prediction tool (mediPORT) to calculate the probability of DRP in admitted patients. Methods Elective surgery patients aged ≥ 18 years admitted to the pre-anaesthesia clinic and participating in a medication review by pharmacists were included in this case-control study. Routinely reported patient variables were included in a backward stepwise logistic regression to determine the most relevant predictors (minimum Akaike Information Criterion) of DRP. Performances using the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC) were assessed to test the model. Internal validation was performed using a 10-fold cross-validation procedure. Results The target population consisted of 11,176 participants, of whom 284 cases with ≥ 1 DRP and 980 controls without DRP were drawn. Most relevant predictors for DRP were age, number of drugs at admission, body mass index, sex and renal function. These factors were included in the final five variable model. A correlation between renal function and occurrence of DRP was found. Age and number of drugs frequently appeared in all models of the backwards elimination and represented an alternative two variable model. The AUC for predicting DRP were 0.823 (CI 95% 0.766–0.879) for the five-variable model and 0.872 (CI 95% 0.835–0.909) for the two-variable model. In the validation model, sensitivity was 77.6% and specificity was 76.5% for the five-variable model and 81.3%, 75% for the two-variable model, respectively. Conclusions Resulting equations can be used by hospital admission to identify patients at high risk, for whom a precise assessment of medication is critical.

To implement the Belém Declaration, we need a structured and collaborative approach

A byzantine-resistant blockchain framework for secure and scalable immigration management

GATmath and GATLc: Comprehensive benchmarks for evaluating Arabic large language models

The evolution of Large Language Models (LLMs) has significantly advanced artificial intelligence, driving innovation across various applications. Their continued development relies on a deep understanding of their capabilities and limitations. This is achieved primarily through rigorous evaluation based on diverse datasets. However, assessing state-of-the-art models in Arabic remains a formidable challenge due to the scarcity of comprehensive benchmarks. The absence of robust evaluation tools hinders the progress and refinement of Arabic LLMs and limits their potential applications and effectiveness in real-world scenarios. In response, we introduce the GATmath (7k questions) and GATLc (9k questions), two Arabic, large-scale, and multitask reasoning and language understanding benchmarks. Derived from the General Aptitude Test (GAT) examination, each dataset covers multiple categories, demanding skills in reasoning, semantic analysis, language comprehension, and mathematical problem-solving. To the best of our knowledge, our dataset is the first comprehensive and large-scale reasoning dataset specifically tailored to the Arabic language. We conducted a comprehensive evaluation and analysis of seven prominent LLMs on our datasets. Remarkably, even the highest-performing model attained a mere 66.9% and 64.3% accuracy, underscoring the considerable challenge posed by our datasets. This outcome illustrates the intricate nature of the tasks within our datasets and highlights the substantial room for improvement in the realm of Arabic language model development.

Early-life infectious disease exposure, the “hygiene hypothesis,” and lifespan: Evidence from hookworm disease

Exposure to infectious disease in early life may have long-term ramifications for health and lifespan. However, reducing pathogen exposure may not be uniformly beneficial. The rise of modern sanitation and reduction of infectious diseases has been implicated in increasing levels of allergy and immune dysregulation: termed, the “hygiene hypothesis.” This study leverages quasi-experimental variation from combining precampaign hookworm exposure with the Rockefeller Sanitary Commission’s deworming campaign in the early 20th century to rigorously examine the impacts of childhood hookworm exposure on adult lifespan and morbidity. Findings show deworming before age five leads to 2.5 additional months of life in a large sample of adult death records. Further, decreasing hookworm exposure is related to improvements in biomarkers for inflammation and skin-tested allergies, in contrast to predictions of the “hygiene hypothesis.” Placebo tests using health outcomes that should not be affected by deworming do not show similar patterns. Overall, childhood deworming leads to improvements in morbidity and lifespan decades later.

Induced superconductivity in hybrid Au/YBa2Cu3O7−x electrodes on vicinal substrates

Abstract Superconducting electrodes are an integral part of hybrid Josephson junctions used in many applications including quantum technologies. We report on the fabrication and characterization of superconducting hybrid Au/YBa2Cu3O7−x (YBCO) electrodes on vicinal substrates. In these structures, superconducting CuO2-planes face the gold film, resulting in a higher value and smaller variation of the induced energy gap compared to conventional Au/YBCO electrodes based on films with the c-axis normal to the substrate surface. Using scanning tunneling microscopy, we observe an energy gap of about 10–17 meV at the surface of the 15- nm-thick gold layer deposited in situ atop the YBCO film. To study the origin of this gap, we fabricate nanoconstrictions from the Au/YBCO heterostructures and measure their electrical transport characteristics. The conductance of the nanoconstrictions shows a series of dips due to multiple Andreev reflections in YBCO and gold, providing clear evidence of the superconducting nature of the gap in gold. We consider the Au/YBCO electrodes to be a versatile platform for hybrid Josephson devices with a high operating temperature.

Barcode high-resolution melting (Bar-HRM) analysis to authenticate true cinnamon (Cinnamomum verum) from its adulterants and contaminants

Sri Lankan cinnamon, widely known as true cinnamon (Cinnamomum verum), is a world-renowned commodity. With the high market demand, many incidents have reported adulteration of true cinnamon with other cinnamon species such as Cinnamomum aromaticum, Cinnamomum burmanni, and Cinnamomum loureiroi. Moreover, the contamination of cinnamon products with fungi (Aspergillus flavus) has also significantly negatively impacted the cinnamon export market. Morphological and chemical detection of adulterations has limitations, benchmarking the necessity for precise and effective new detection methods. The current study reports gene-specific novel molecular markers that can be used in Barcode High-Resolution Melting (Bar-HRM) analysis to distinguish C. verum from other substitutes. Six barcode regions (rbcL, trnH-psbA, matK, ITS2, trnL, trnL-trnF) were analyzed. The results demonstrate that trnH-psbA can effectively discriminate all selected cinnamon species from one another. Novel markers were designed to target the diagnostic nucleotide variations found within the designated barcode regions. Commercial cinnamon products and authentic samples of C. verum were used to validate the assay, and the DNA extraction protocol was optimized to ensure the acquisition of high-quality DNA. Bar-HRM was performed with the novel markers, and the four major cinnamon species in the international market were successfully distinguished. The spiked-in A. flavus DNA was also detected in a cinnamon admixture. Hence, these Bar-HRM conditions with the novel gene-specific markers can serve as an economical, efficient, and promising assay to detect the authenticity and purity of cinnamon samples.

Renormalization group for Anderson localization on high-dimensional lattices

We discuss the dependence of the critical properties of the Anderson model on the dimension d in the language of β -function and renormalization group recently introduced in Vanoni et al. [C. Vanoni et al. , Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 121 , e2401955121 (2024)] in the context of Anderson transition on random regular graphs. We show how in the delocalized region, including the transition point, the one-parameter scaling part of the β -function for the fractal dimension D 1 evolves smoothly from its d = 2 form, in which β 2 ≤ 0 , to its β ∞ ≥ 0 form, which is represented by the random regular graph (RRG) result. We show how the ϵ = d − 2 expansion and the 1 / d expansion around the RRG result can be reconciled and how the initial part of a renormalization group trajectory governed by the irrelevant exponent y depends on dimensionality. We also show how the irrelevant exponent emerges out of the high-gradient terms of expansion in the nonlinear sigma model and put forward a conjecture about a lower bound for the fractal dimension. The framework introduced here may serve as a basis for investigations of disordered many-body systems and of more general nonequilibrium quantum systems.

On the features of curved, passive reconfigurable smart electromagnetic skins

Geopolitical risk contagion across strategic sectors: Nonlinear evidence from defense, cybersecurity, energy, and raw materials

This study investigates the effect of geopolitical risk on the market volatility of four strategic sectors − defense, cybersecurity, energy, and critical raw materials − using a sample of 90 companies and ETFs over the 2014–2025 period. Applying Quantile-on-Quantile Connectedness (QQC) and Causality-in-Quantiles (CiQ) methods, the study captures the asymmetric and nonlinear relationships between geopolitical uncertainty and market volatility. The findings show that defense and cybersecurity sectors act as defensive assets during geopolitical crises, while energy and critical raw materials sectors exhibit increased sensitivity to external shocks. The QQC approach reveals heightened interconnectedness under extreme volatility, while CiQ tests confirm regime-dependent causal links. These differences across sectors provide a comprehensive perspective on geopolitical contagion and offer actionable insights for policymakers and investors seeking to develop more resilient strategies in volatile global conditions.