Browse Articles

Quantifying population-level sexual risk behavior through HSV-2 transmission dynamics in the United States, 1950–2020

Drone thermal imaging and benthic time-series analysis show dynamic spatial and temporal delivery of submarine groundwater discharge on reef ecosystems

Submarine groundwater discharge (SGD) introduces nutrient-rich, low-salinity water into coastal ecosystems, significantly altering reef biogeochemistry. At Black Point, Oʻahu, we employed a novel, two-pronged approach that integrates a cost-effective small unmanned aerial system equipped with a thermal infrared (sUAS-TIR) sensor and high-resolution benthic salinity time series to resolve previously unobserved, fine-scale patterns of SGD delivery. sUAS-based sampling overcomes key limitations of prior SGD mapping methods, such as labor-intensive and spatially constrained in situ sampling, by enabling rapid deployment, real-time visualization of mixing dynamics, and high-resolution imagery. Unlike previous studies that relied on customized systems that required independent sensor integration, our methods used a cost-effective, fully integrated sUAS-TIR platform that required no additional modification. Our results show that localized hydrodynamics strongly modulate groundwater delivery, creating spatially heterogeneous patterns of delayed transport, recirculation and retention (i.e., pooling), and offshore dispersal. Thermal imagery revealed persistent surface plumes in regions of reduced circulation, while sequential orthomosaics and benthic salinity time series captured the temporal progression of groundwater movement across the reef. These findings highlight complex SGD delivery patterns that contribute to ecological vulnerability, particularly in areas experiencing prolonged exposure to nutrient-rich, low-salinity waters. Such dynamics underscore the need to consider both spatial and temporal variability when evaluating SGD’s ecological impacts. Our two-pronged approach offers a valuable tool to (1) identify reef zones that may be disproportionately affected by point-sources of land-based pollution, and (2) elucidate the mechanisms driving groundwater transport in coral reef environments. By offering a cost-effective, scalable, and operationally flexible framework, this methodology advances the management of groundwater-impacted ecosystems and enhances our ability to assess the ecological implications of dynamic SGD delivery.

Improving reference crop evapotranspiration estimation using Solar-Induced chlorophyll fluorescence

Age and origin of a Cahokian wooden monument at the Mitchell site, Illinois, USA

Cahokia was the first and largest precolonial city outside of Mesoamerica in what is now the United States. Monuments and exotic goods were central to public life at Cahokia, but no high-resolution timeline of monumental construction or long-distance material import exists for the site. Wooden marker posts, serving as both public monuments and exotic artifacts, offer ideal sources of evidence for documenting the chronology and spatial scale of Cahokian material networks and community histories. In this paper, we employ 14C dating of a cosmic event archived in tree-rings to determine that the largest known marker post in the Cahokia area, the Mitchell Log, was felled around 1124 CE. Sr isotope ratios of the wood rule out a local source, and suggest the tree was transported at least 180 kilometers. Together, the date, provenance, and context of the Mitchell Log (1) establish a historical datum for the peak influence of the Cahokia polity, (2) prompt new questions about the long-distance transport of thousands of other such marker posts, and (3) identify a significant event in the history of this precolonial phenomenon.

Dynamics of detergent-resistant membranes of Plasmodium falciparum during blood stage development

ICMR’s multistate implementation research study on integration of screening and management of mental and substance use disorders with other non-communicable diseases (ICMR-MINDS) – An implementation research study protocol

Non-Communicable Diseases (NCDs) are now a leading cause of mortality and morbidity globally, and mental illness is a significant part of it. In India, the treatment gap for common mental disorders is over 80%. In order to bridge this gap, mental health treatment models recommend task-shifting to non-specialists and integration of mental health care into general healthcare services. Other NCDs are being managed effectively by non-specialist healthcare workers (HCWs) at primary care, and mental illness and substance misuse are highly comorbid with other NCDs; hence, integrating mental health care within the NCD services and care framework seems logically feasible and effective. However, country-specific characteristics pose a significant challenge to the implementation of integrated care for mental disorders and NCDs. The primary objective of this study includes the development and implementation of a service delivery model that would result in at least 70% coverage of screening, linkage to care, and management of common mental disorders and substance use disorders (MSUD) among persons seeking care for NCDs at public health facilities. Secondary objectives include assessment of the feasibility of adoption of the implementation model by the health care system and to evaluate the cost of the mental health service strengthening intervention package from the health system’s and the patient’s perspectives. It will be a multi-site implementation research study, employing a mixed-methods quasi-experimental, within-site, three-phase, single-arm, interrupted time series design. The implementation model comprises screening, treatment, and linkage of mental health services integrated into NCD care in at least three blocks in each of the seven selected districts of the seven selected states of India, which are geographically far apart. The expected outcome would be to increase the proportion of patients screened and managed for MSUDs among persons seeking care for NCDs at the public health facilities. The results of this implementation research will provide a roadmap for scaling up of integrated MSUDs services within general healthcare. Trial registration ClinicalTrials.gov CTRI/2024/08/072748.

Discovering periodontitis biomarkers and therapeutic targets through bioinformatics and ensemble learning analysis

Extubation outcomes in critically ill post-craniotomy patients: A retrospective cohort study

Objective Extubation failure is common in critically ill post-craniotomy patients. This study aimed to assess extubation outcomes and examine demographic and surgical predictors of extubation success. Methods In this retrospective cohort study, we analyzed adult ICU patients from January 2017 to December 2020 with ≥24 hours of both ICU stay and endotracheal intubation. We collected demographic characteristics, surgical parameters, severity scores (APACHE II, SOFA, GCS), and extubation outcomes. Independent predictors of successful extubation were determined through multivariate logistic regression. Results Among 1,683 enrolled patients, first-attempt extubation success was achieved in 70.7% (1,190/1,683), declining to 46.6% (135/290) and 28.6% (12/42) for second and third attempts respectively. Subsequent tracheostomy was performed in 19, 3, and 1 patients following first, second, and third successful extubations. At discharge, 1,244 patients (73.9%) maintained extubation success while 348 (20.7%) required tracheostomy. Successful first extubation correlated with significantly reduced ICU stay (median 4 vs 15 days, p < 0.001) and total hospitalization duration (19 vs 30 days, p < 0.001), though mortality rates showed no significant difference (6.0% vs 8.1%, p = 0.106). Multivariable analysis demonstrated that male sex (OR 0.680, 95% CI 0.531–0.871), history of hypertension (OR 0.637, 95% CI 0.489–0.829), supratentorial lesions (OR 1.315, 95% CI 1.016–1.701), SOFA score (OR 0.844, 95% CI 0.791–0.900), and APACHE II score (OR 0.930, 95% CI 0.902–0.958) were independent factors influencing initial extubation success. Conclusion Although first-attempt extubation success remains suboptimal in post-craniotomy critical care, nearly half of initial failures achieve success on subsequent attempts. Multivariable analysis identified female sex, absence of hypertension, infratentorial lesions, lower SOFA, and APACHE II score were independent predictors of initial extubation success.

Effects of blood flow restriction combined with electrical stimulation on muscle functions and performance in university football players with knee osteoarthritis

Effective image compression using transformer and residual network for balanced handling of high and low-frequency information

Image compression has made significant progress through end-to-end deep-learning approaches in recent years. The Transformer network, coupled with self-attention mechanisms, efficiently captures high-frequency features during image compression. However, the low-frequency information in the image cannot be obtained well through the Transformer network. To address this issue, the paper introduces a novel end-to-end autoencoder architecture for image compression based on the transformer and residual network. This method, called Transformer and Residual Network (TRN), offers a comprehensive solution for efficient image compression, capturing essential image content while effectively reducing data size. The TRN employs a dual network, comprising a self-attention pathway and a residual network, intricately designed as a high-low-frequency mixer. This dual-network can preserve both high and low-frequency features during image compression. The end-to-end training of this model employs rate-distortion optimization (RDO methods). Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed TRN method outperforms the latest deep learning-based image compression methods, achieving an impressive 8.32% BD-rate (bit-rate distortion performance) improvement on the CLIC dataset. In comparison to traditional methods like JPEG, the proposed achieves a remarkable BD-rate improvement of 70.35% on the CLIC dataset.

Revisiting redox-driven pathways of tin cycle from source to economic deposit

Abstract Tin ore deposits are the result of a complex interplay of crustal processes and intensive parameters to enrich tin by a factor of more than 1000. The model for magmatic-hydrothermal tin ore formation, established for more than three decades, dictates that reducing conditions and redox reactions play a crucial role for tin transport and concentration. Yet, no study has systematically documented the tin oxidation state in crustal rocks involved in tin-ore formation, which was mainly due to analytical challenges. This study shows that X-ray Absorption Near Edge Structure (XANES) spectroscopy allow direct assessment of the tin oxidation state at concentrations as low as 30 ppm. Here, we report the oxidation state of tin for a wide range of reference materials and natural rock samples, often for the first time. Our findings that SnIV is dominant in crustal metamorphic, magmatic and hydrothermal rocks suggest that redox conditions play a smaller role in tin-ore formation than previously postulated, with redox reactions being significant, but not essential, during granitic magma generation and crystallization. Moreover, this study demonstrates that tin can be used as new redox indicator to help solving major questions such as redox conditions in the continental crust or Earth’s redox evolution.

Enhancing the performance of cu₂zngese₄ solar cells with metallic and transparent back electrodes via lithium doping

The energy and stress evolution law of surrounding rock in gob side entry driving of adjacent mining faces

Hybrid CNN-BLSTM architecture for classification and detection of arrhythmia in ECG signals

Nano-curcumin potentially ameliorates hormonal function and follicular counts following the vitrification and transplantation of rat ovarian tissue

Evolutionary dynamics of repetitive elements and genome size in Tetrigidae (Orthoptera: Caelifera)

Interactive effects of sleep duration and dietary patterns on obesity moderated by age

Characterization of the mutational status of glioblastoma and high-grade astrocytomas in a Latin American cohort

Abstract High-grade astrocytomas vary in incidence and mortality across populations, with Hispanic and Latino groups largely underrepresented in genomic epidemiology studies. This study characterizes the presence of known mutations of high-grade astrocytomas in a Latin American cohort through targeted genomic analysis of 70 Chilean patients. Molecular markers, including IDH, TERTp, H3, TP53, PTEN, EGFR, and CDKN2A, were assessed alongside survival analyses. Our results mostly aligned with international cohorts, confirming the importance of established molecular markers in glioblastoma. Novel damaging TP53 and PTEN mutations were identified, expanding the genetic spectrum of known mutations for these genes, while a lower-than-expected NF1 mutation frequency was observed (p < 0.01). These findings highlight the importance of examining underrepresented populations, providing insights into the molecular characteristics of high-grade astrocytomas in Latin America. Our findings contribute to understanding the diversity of genomic features across astrocytoma populations, setting a foundation for future international comparative studies.

Prediction of potential suitable habitats for Liriomyza sativae blanchard in China under climate change scenarios

Dietary RISCO NUTRIFOUR multistrain multikingdom probiotic consortia improves meat quality carcass traits and growth efficiency in heat stressed broilers

Abstract Heat stress (HS) compromises broiler productivity by depressing growth, meat quality, and physiological resilience. This trial evaluated the effects of a novel multi-strain probiotic solution, RISCO NUTRIFOUR (MSPS), in 288 Ross 308 broilers reared under standard environmental temperatures until day 28, followed by exposure to cyclic HS (35 ± 1 ° C, 09:00–17:00; 23 ± 1 ° C thereafter) until day 42. Birds were randomly allotted to six dietary treatments within the basal diet: MSPS at 1, 2, or 4 mL kg -¹ ; Bacillus subtilis (1 mL kg -¹ ); S. cerevisiae (1 mL kg -¹ ); or an unsupplemented control ( n  = 8 pens * 6 birds). At day 42, breast meat quality and carcass characteristics of heat-stressed broilers were assessed. Also, the performance index (PI), European production efficiency factor (EPEF), and feed efficiency (FE) of the production cycle were calculated. MSPS at 1 mL kg -¹ significantly ( p  < 0.05) enhanced PI (+ 18.5%), EPEF (+ 18.2%), and FE (+ 13.6%) versus the negative control. Also, cooking loss percentage fell by 40.5% and breast meat lightness (L * ) and whiteness index increased ( p  < 0.05). MSPS improved ultimate pH and reduced core temperature 24 h post-mortem, indicating better metabolic recovery. No adverse effects on relative internal organ weights, texture, or sensory traits were noted ( p  > 0.05). GC-MS revealed that MSPS has antioxidant and antimicrobial metabolites that may underpin these responses. In conclusion, MSPS, particularly at 1 mL kg -¹ , mitigates HS-induced detriments to meat quality and growth, resulting in improved PI, EPEF, and FE, offering a practical antibiotic-free strategy for the broiler industry in hot climates.