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Exploring neural entrainment and synchrony in response to repeated 60 Hz flickering white light in healthy volunteers
Flickering light is a new promising, fully non-invasive brain stimulation technique that utilizes intermittent sensory stimulation to induce brainwave synchronization (entrainment). While the effects of 40 Hz externally induced neural entrainment have been extensively described, little is known about 60 Hz entrainment in humans. This study presents preliminary observations on the neural and somatic response to flickering 60 Hz light in healthy volunteers over a 3-week period. Fourteen volunteers were randomized to receive either 60 Hz flickering white light or constant light as sham (30-min sessions, 3 weeks, 5 days/week on weekdays). Neural entrainment was assessed with EEG on days 1, 5 and 19. Salivary cortisol and C-reactive protein (CRP) levels, measured with ELISA, assessed the somatic response to stimulation. Side effects and well-being were monitored via questionnaires. EEG recordings showed neural entrainment and synchrony in response to 60 Hz flickering light across multiple cortical regions, including occipital, central, temporal, and frontal areas. The entrainment power and synchronization between different cortical regions declined significantly by day 19 compared to day 1, indicating possible neural habituation. Cortisol and CRP salivary levels were unchanged, and minor side effects were reported with equal frequency in the active and sham groups. Our findings show that 60 Hz flickering light can induce significant neural entrainment and synchrony in healthy adults and is well tolerated. The decline in entrainment strength and neural synchrony observed with repeated 60 Hz stimulations suggests plastic changes in the cortex. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study to characterize neural and somatic responses to repeated 60 Hz flickering visual stimuli. Given the well-known connection between 60 Hz brain oscillations and cognition, neuroplasticity, and their role in neuropsychiatric disorders, additional research in both preclinical and clinical settings is warranted.
DeepFusionNet for realtime classification in iotbased crossmedia art and design using multimodal deep learning
Changes in free-roaming dog population demographics and health associated with a catch-neuter-vaccinate-release program in Jamshedpur, India
India’s large free-roaming dog populations contribute to significant human health, environmental, and social challenges. Population management strategies, such as catch-neuter-vaccinate-release (CNVR), aim to reduce dog numbers, improve their welfare, and reduce human-animal conflict. Humane Society International (HSI; now operating as Humane World for Animals), in partnership with the Animal Health Foundation, implemented a CNVR program in Jamshedpur, neutering and vaccinating over 20,000 dogs. This study evaluated the impact of this program on dog health, population structure and size. The study areas encompassed 10 sites within Jamshedpur, including both intervention sites where CNVR was directly applied and sites without direct intervention. Data was collected from May 2014 until December 2018, including bi-annual street surveys, as well as clinical data from the dogs captured and treated. We fit logistic regression, negative binomial, and binomial mixed effects models to assess changes in dog population characteristics, health, and reproductive conditions over time in relation to the CNVR intervention. We found that, over the period of this study, the probability of dogs entering the clinic with mange, transmissible venereal tumours, and pregnant significantly reduced. Street surveys showed an increase in sterilised dogs, with higher proportions observed in CNVR-treated sites, although the counts of dogs observed increased overall. The age-structure of free-roaming dogs remained stable over time. In CNVR-treated areas, the probability of observing lactating female dogs decreased, whereas it increased in untreated sites. This work contributes to the growing body of knowledge investigating the impact of dog population management interventions. Continued monitoring and evaluation of CNVR programs are required to identify optimal coverage required to reduce population size effectively.
Performance enhancement of solar air heater using V baffles
Bacterial communities of fungus-growing ant queens are species-specific and suggest vertical transmission
Multipartite symbioses are inherently complex, involving dynamic ecological interactions between organisms with intertwined yet distinct evolutionary histories. The fungus-growing (attine) ants facilitate maintenance of a symbiotic species network through maternal vertical transmission of a fungal symbiont. While the gut microbiomes of fungus-growing ant species are remarkably simple, their fungus gardens support diverse microbial communities. Here, we focus on the garden pellet stored in the nest-founding queen’s infrabuccal pocket—a food filter in the head that allows ants to expel large particles. The pellet is an inoculate of the new fungal garden but also contains other microbes. We used 16S rRNA gene amplicon sequencing to reconstruct the extent of vertical transmission of bacteria to new gardens via queen pellets in four sympatric fungus-growing ant species from Central Panama (Atta sexdens, Atta cephalotes, Acromyrmex echinatior, and Mycetomoellerius mikromelanos). We also characterized the bacterial communities associated with queen eggs and tissues (mesosomas, guts and ovaries) to assess whether queens are likely to transmit symbiotic bacteria, such as cuticular Actinomycetota and endosymbionts (Wolbachia, Mesoplasma, and Spiroplasma). We made within and between species comparisons, focusing on three hypotheses: (H1) Queens vertically transmit garden-associated bacteria in the garden pellet. (H2) Fungus-growing ant-associated bacteria are maintained through vertical transmission by queens. (H3) Vertically transmitted bacterial communities have host ant species-specificity. While we found mixed evidence for vertical transmission of garden bacteria, our results support maternal transmission as an important route for ant-associated symbionts. The ant species-specificity we see in queen bacterial microbiota mirrors patterns of known symbiont presence in workers from previous studies. Overall, our results suggest that vertical transmission of bacterial associates is mediated by the ant hosts, however the mechanism behind bacterial acquisition before a mating flight and dispersal is not yet understood.
Development and psychometric evaluation of a new genetic attitudes questionnaire in two national samples of United States residents
CEAF: Capsule network enhanced feature fusion architecture for Chinese Named Entity Recognition
Chinese Named Entity Recognition (NER) is a fundamental task in the field of natural language processing, where achieving deep semantic mining of nested entities and accurate disambiguation of character-level boundary ambiguities stands as its core challenge. Existing methods, mostly based on the BiLSTM-CRF sequence labeling framework or Transformer attention mechanisms, have inherent limitations in modeling the hierarchical structural dependencies of nested entities and resolving semantic conflicts in overlapping character spans. To address challenges such as the lack of morphological markers, propagation of boundary ambiguities, and insufficient geometric modeling in the feature space, we propose a novel multi-stage neural architecture—the CEAF model, a specialized neural framework tailored for Chinese NER tasks. The architecture leverages BERT-derived subword embeddings to capture character-level contextual representation and incorporates BiLSTM to model position-sensitive sequential patterns. Meanwhile, to effectively tackle the complex challenges of boundary uncertainty and nested entity composition, the CEAF model innovatively introduces the Deep Context Feature Attention Module (DCAM). This module pioneeringly integrates capsule routing protocols with position-aware attention mechanisms, processing information through dual parallel paths: on one hand, it leverages the powerful spatial relationship modeling capability of capsule networks to clearly parse the hierarchical structure and part-whole relationships between entities; on the other hand, it utilizes position-aware attention to focus on key positional information, dynamically adjust the attention to different positional information, accurately locate entity boundaries, effectively resolve boundary ambiguity, and achieve efficient and accurate modeling of nested entity structures. In addition, the Adaptive Feature Fusion Network (AFFN) effectively bridges the semantic gap between global contextual coherence and local boundary precision by selecting more discriminative fusion features. Generalization experiments on three Chinese benchmark datasets and one English dataset demonstrate that the CEAF model outperforms baseline models. Visualization analysis further verifies the modeling capability of the CEAF model, providing new insights into geometric deep learning approaches for Chinese NER.
Evaluating urbanization effects on biomass density using a hybrid AI model: a case study
“It is a false safety net”: A qualitative exploration of multiprofessional staff experiences of insulin management in hospitalised older or frail adults with diabetes undergoing surgery
Aim To explore multiprofessional hospital staff’s experiences and perspectives of insulin use and safety review in older or frail adults with diabetes undergoing surgery. Method Twenty-three semi-structured interviews amongst multiprofessional staff supporting four surgical wards (elective and emergency) at a single NHS Trust in a rural county in England. Interviews were recorded, transcribed and analysed using framework analysis approach. Results Six main themes identified: (1) Transitioning through care: Misalignments across insulin related interacting components contribute to insulin errors (2) Coping with complexity, changes and ambiguity; at clinical, operational and organisational levels (3) Staff knowledge and confidence gaps affect insulin safety (4) Fostering patient empowerment; patient empowerment can be hindered by staff assumptions and inflexibility of hospital environment (5) Staff support systems; communication, power dynamics influence insulin safety (6) System learning as a cultural challenge; absence of systems approach and reactive to harm. Conclusion This study provides valuable insights into reported complexities of managing insulin-related interacting components during surgical admission. Findings could inform how managers, leaders and organisations approach and consider multiple components implicated in safe hospital insulin use to build system resilience. Future research can build on insights from this study to develop interventions supporting system-based approaches to hospital insulin safety.
Green synthesis of silver nanoparticles mediated by Solanum nigrum leaf extract and their antifungal activity against pine pathogens
Abstract Extracts from medicinal and aromatic plants have great benefits in controlling plant diseases. In this regard, the leaf aqueous extract (LAE) from the wild plant Solanum nigrum (L.) was used for the green synthesis of silver nanoparticles (AgNPs). The phytochemicals in the LAE were characterized by HPLC and FTIR analysis. The synthesized AgNPs were characterized using Transmission Electron Microscope (TEM), Energy Dispersive X-Ray (EDX), zeta potential, and FTIR Analysis. By HPLC analysis, the major compounds in the LAE were chlorogenic acid, gallic acid, syringic acid, and caffeic acid. The TEM analysis revealed that the average particle size ranged from 3.45 to 8.79 nm. The LAE and the synthesized AgNPs were evaluated for their antifungal activity against molecularly identified fungi Fusarium circinatum, Phoma sp., and Pythium tardicrescens, isolated from the diseased branches of the Pinus halepensis (Mill.) tree. At the LAE concentration of 1000 µg/mL, the fungal inhibition was reached 43.33%, 72.22%, and 37.40% against the growth of P. tardicrescens, F. circinatum, and Phoma spp., respectively. The synthesized AgNPs at 75 µg/mL showed fungal inhibition values of 58.14%, 56.66%, and 40.37% against P. tardicrescens, F. circinatum, and Phoma spp., respectively. Thus, the current study suggested producing stable, nontoxic, and eco-friendly Ag nanoparticles using the aqueous extract of S. nigrum leaves.
Prevalence of mastitis and its associated risk factors in lactating camels in Northern Egypt
Dromedary camels are susceptible to mastitis, a multifactorial disease affecting dairy animals worldwide and leading to significant economic losses, particularly due to its subclinical form. However, limited data exist on the prevalence and risk factors associated with lactating camel mastitis in Egypt. Therefore, a cross-sectional study was conducted across three Egyptian governorates to assess the prevalence and identify potential risk factors. A total of 390 lactating camels were examined for both clinical and subclinical mastitis using the California Mastitis Test (CMT). The overall prevalence of mastitis was 38.46% (150/390), comprising 6.4% (25/390) clinical and 32.1% (125/390) subclinical cases. Significant associations (p < 0.05) were observed between mastitis prevalence and factors such as age, lactation stage, tick infestation, milking hygiene, and the presence of udder or teat lesions. The likelihood of mastitis was six times higher in camels older than five years, three times higher during early lactation, twice as high in the presence of tick infestation, twice as high with poor milking hygiene, and three times higher in animals with udder or teat lesions. Among the 600 quarter milk samples obtained from positive animals, mastitis-causing pathogens were isolated from 380 samples (63.3%), while 220 samples (36.7%) showed no bacterial growth. Streptococcus spp. (excluding S. agalactiae) and Escherichia coli were the most prevalent isolates (26.1% and 25%, respectively), whereas S. agalactiae was the least frequent, detected in only 5.5% of the samples. These findings highlight the importance of implementing integrated control measures to reduce mastitis prevalence, enhance camel milk quality, mitigate economic losses, and safeguard public health.
Synergistic effects of bioactive plant extract mixtures on methane reduction and rumen fermentation of eragrostis curvula hay in vitro
Functional vision in daily life: Clinical and patient-reported outcomes 18 months after enhanced partial range of field IOL implantation
Background Partial range of field (PROF) intraocular lenses (IOLs) provide good distance visual acuity with enhanced intermediate visual acuity. Neuroadaptation to new intraocular lenses can take several months. This study investigates visual and patient-reported outcomes (PROMs) in patients implanted with the PROF IOL ICB00 (Johnson & Johnson Vision) 18 months post-surgery. A particular focus was put on spectacle independence while performing activities of daily life. Methods This ambispective, single-center study included 41 patients (aged 48–84). Visual acuities (distance, intermediate), refraction, and PROMs were assessed ≥18 months post-surgery. Spectacle independence was evaluated using the PRSIQ questionnaire. Patients also self-reported on visual quality, task performance, and photic phenomena. Results Binocular visual acuity of 0.20 logMAR or better was achieved by 100.0% of patients for uncorrected or corrected distance, by 73.2% for uncorrected intermediate, and by 79.5% for distance-corrected intermediate vision. Photic phenomena were reported by <10%. Mean visual quality scores were 1.68 ± 0.72 for distance and 2.05 ± 0.92 for intermediate vision, where 1 equaled very good and 6 equaled very poor. Complete spectacle independence was reported by 87.8% for distance and 53.7% for intermediate vision. Satisfaction rates were 90.2% (distance), 87.8% (intermediate), and 51.2% (near). Conclusions The ICB00 IOL provides excellent long-term distance and satisfactory intermediate vision, with high spectacle independence and even higher patient satisfaction, although most patients require spectacles for near vision. Trial registration This study was approved by the medical ethics committee of the Medical Chamber of North-Rhine, Germany (CE # 2124770CE01).
A prospective longitudinal study of the changes in multidimensional fatigue and its associated factors in patients undergoing brachytherapy for cervical cancer
Multilayer perceptron neural network-genetic algorithm for modeling Nicotiana tabacum leaf quality
The global industry of tobacco (Nicotiana tabacum L.) is a profitable one comprising various products, including cigars, cigarettes, chewing tobacco, and smokeless tobacco. The internal quality of the cigarettes is highly related to the chemical components of tobacco leaves and shreds. Blue mold severity (BMS), chlorophyll (Chl), total nitrogen (N), sugar (S), nicotine (Nt), chloride (Cl), and potassium (K) contents of tobacco leaves are linked to the flavor and taste of cigarette products. A precise analysis of the effects of these factors would open the door for improving farmer income in low- and middle-income countries. In this study, BMS, Chl, N, S, Nt, Cl, K, green weight (GW), dry weight (DW), and leaf quality of four cultivars, including Bergerac, Bell, Burly, and Basma, were evaluated during two growing seasons. Bell displayed the highest leaf quality in two growing seasons. Multiple linear regression, stepwise regression, ordinary least squares regression, partial least squares regression, principal component regression, and multilayer perceptron neural network-genetic algorithm (MLPNN-GA) were used for the prediction of tobacco leaf quality responding to BMS, Chl, N, S, Nt, Cl, K. MLPNN-GA models displayed higher prediction accuracy compared with the best regression model according to R2 for MLPNN-GA vs. regression models were: Bergerac; 1.00 vs. 0.82, Bell = 1.00 vs. 0.41, Burly = 1.00 vs. 0.68, Basma = 0.94 vs. 0.68, and all cultivars = 0.94 vs. 0.66. The close match between the predicted and actual data validated the superior efficiency of the developed MLNNP-GA models for predicting tobacco leaf quality responding to BMS, Chl, N, S, Nt, Cl, K. Analysis of the developed MLPNN-GA models showed that Bergerac, Bell, Burly, and Basma leaf quality was most sensitive to BMS. MLPNN-GA was demonstrated to be a practical mathematical tool for predicting tobacco leaf quality in response to its chemical components and BMS.
Adaptability of parental populations and selected garlic (Allium sativum L.) clones for introducing promising clones in Iran
Advance care planning in multiple sclerosis (ConCure-SM): A multicenter single-arm pilot and feasibility study
Background Advance care planning (ACP) practice in people with progressive multiple sclerosis (PwPMS) remains limited. ConCure-SM project aims to assess the effectiveness of a structured ACP intervention (clinician’s training programme and use of a booklet during ACP conversations) using a multi-phased design. Methods Single-arm pilot/feasibility trial involving PwPMS, their significant others (SOs), and clinicians from six Italian centers. Primary study outcome was completion of an advance care plan document (ACP-Doc). Other outcomes included safety, feasibility of enrollment and assessment, and (analyzed using mixed-methods approach) Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS), quality of communication, quality of life (MSQOL-29), and caregiver burden. Participants were interviewed to identify factors influencing the ACP implementation process. Results Seventy-five PwPMS were eligible out of 164 screened; 56/75 (75%) refused participation and 19 were included. Of these, 11 (58% vs 30% hypothesized) completed the ACP-Doc. A total of 25 adverse events (increase in anxiety) occurred, three possibly related to the intervention, and we found a worsening of HADS-Anxiety score (p = 0.02) and MSQOL-29 mental health composite score (p = 0.04) during follow-up. PwPMS/SO interviews revealed four themes: significance of the ACP process (on the individual, on relation with clinicians), its impact (on emotions, on family relations), preparedness as key, and challenges (practicability, SO commitment). Barriers and facilitators for ACP were identified in two clinician focus groups. Conclusions The intervention supported neurologists in guiding PwPMS in their ACP. However, trial findings and the high proportion of refusals point to the need to enrich the intervention with a new component targeting PwPMS and SOs. Trial registration ISRCTN48527663.
Compare the safety and efficacy of integrated securement device versus suture securement for centrally inserted central venous catheters: a prospective cohort study
Systematic review protocol: The effects of theory-based interventions for self-help practices in the management of mild to moderate depression
Background This protocol outlines a planned systematic review to assess the effects of theory-based interventions for self-help practices in managing mild to moderate depression. Depression is a leading global cause of disability and contributes significantly to the worldwide burden. Self-help practices present promising avenues for care. When grounded in psychological theory, these interventions may offer a structured and effective approach to symptom management. However, their effectiveness varies and often lack a theoretical foundation. The summarized evidence on theory-based interventions remains limited. Objectives This review aims to evaluate the effects of theory-based self-help interventions in reducing the severity of depressive symptoms among adults with mild or moderate depression. It also aims to report any adverse effects associated with the use of these interventions. Methods The review will follow PRISMA guidelines and is registered with the International Prospective Register of Systematic Reviews (PROSPERO), registration ID: CRD42024613188. Randomized controlled trials published between January 2014 and 2025 will be included in the analysis. Eligible theory-based interventions include Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), and Mindfulness-Based Interventions (MBIs), delivered via digital platforms. Studies will be identified through searches of PubMed, Scopus, Web of Science, Science Direct, and Cochrane bibliographic databases. Title and abstract screening will be completed within two months of the initial search, followed by one month for data extraction and two months for synthesis and analysis. Two reviewers will conduct screening, data extraction, and risk of bias assessment independently using the Cochrane Risk of Bias Tool (RoB 2). Key outcomes include changes in depressive symptom severity and adverse effects. Anticipated results The planned synthesis will evaluate the effects of theory-based interventions, highlighting the anticipated contributions of theoretical frameworks to intervention outcomes. Expected impacts The anticipated findings aim to inform future evidence-based guidelines for integration into primary care, supporting the development of accessible, scalable, and effective mental health solutions globally.