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AvianLexiconAtlas: A database of descriptive categories of English-language bird names around the world

Common names of species are important for communicating with the general public. In principle, these names should provide an accessible way to engage with and identify species. The common names of species have historically been labile without standard guidelines, even within a language. Currently, there is no systematic assessment of how often common names communicate identifiable and biologically relevant characteristics about species. This is a salient issue in ornithology, where common names are used more often than scientific names for species of birds in written and spoken English, even by professional researchers. To gain a better understanding of the types of terminology used in the English-language common names of bird species, a group of 85 professional ornithologists and non-professional contributors classified unique descriptors in the common names of all recognized species of birds. In the AvianLexiconAtlas database produced by this work, each species’ common name is assigned to one of ten categories associated with aspects of avian biology, ecology, or human culture. Across 10,906 species of birds, 89% have names describing the biology of the species, while the remaining 11% of species have names derived from human cultural references, human names, or local non-English languages. Species with common names based on features of avian biology are more likely to be related to each other or be from the same geographic region. The crowdsourced data collection also revealed that many common names contain specialized or historic terminology unknown to many of the data collectors, and we include these terms in a glossary and gazetteer alongside the dataset. The AvianLexiconAtlas can be used as a quantitative resource to assess the state of terminology in English-language common names of birds. Future research using the database can shed light on historical approaches to nomenclature and how people engage with species through their names.

Piercing Molecular Graphenes: Precision Synthesis and Photophysics of NBN-Edged Porous Molecular Carbons

L-shaped association between the blood pressure response index and short-term mortality in intensive care patients with sepsis: An analysis based on the MIMIC-IV database

Background Septic shock is a life-threatening condition that requires rapid assessment to reduce mortality. This study investigated the relationship between the blood pressure response index at admission and short-term mortality in septic shock patients. Methods We retrospectively analyzed clinical data from the MIMIC-IV database via multivariable logistic regression, sensitivity analysis, and restricted cubic spline models to explore the associations between the BPRI at ICU admission and short-term mortality. Kaplan-Meier estimates and ROC curves evaluated BPRI’s predictive value. Results In 7,382 patients, a higher BPRI was linked to reduced short-term mortality. Each standard deviation increase in the BPRI led to 2.5%, 2.0%, and 1.8% reductions in in-hospital, 28-day, and 90-day mortality, respectively. K‒M analysis revealed significantly lower short-term mortality in patients with higher BPRIs (P < 0.0001). An L-shaped nonlinear relationship between the BPRI and mortality was observed in the RCS model. The ROC curve for the BPRI showed an AUC of 0.640. Sensitivity analyses revealed an association even after patients with myocardial infarction, malignant cancer, or missing data were excluded. Conclusion An elevated BPRI at ICU admission is significantly associated with reduced short-term mortality in septic shock patients, indicating its potential as an early prognostic tool for risk assessment.

Anti-Heavy-Atom Effect Observed in Near-Infrared Emissive Bimetallic Nanoclusters Au₂₈Cu₁₂<i>X</i>₄Cl₄ (<i>X</i> = Cl, Br, and I)

Prenatal exposure to extreme ambient heat may amplify the adverse impact of Superstorm Sandy on basal ganglia volume among school-aged children

Background Weather-related stressors on healthy brain development has become an important topic in recent years. Notably, prenatal stress exposure to natural disasters may disrupt child neurodevelopment, with recent research exploring its impact on child brain morphology. Prenatal exposure to extreme weather events, such as ambient heat, may also affect child brain morphology. The basal ganglia, while historically related to motor ability, has gained increasing attention for its role in various non-motor functions, such as emotion regulation. Leveraging an existing cohort with and without prenatal exposure to Superstorm Sandy (SS), a category 3 hurricane at its peak, this study aims to investigate how prenatal exposure to both a natural disaster and extreme ambient heat impacts this important subcortical region. Methods Main effects of SS and extreme heat exposure on basal ganglia volume were first analyzed to examine the independent effect on brain outcomes. Moderation models subsequently explored the potential role extreme heat had on the association between SS and basal ganglia volume. We used magnetic resonance imaging to measure basal ganglia gray matter volume at age 8 among 11 SS-exposed and 23 non-exposed children. Results The SS-exposed group, relative to their non-exposed counterparts, had significantly larger volume in the putamen and pallidum bilaterally, and right caudate. No notable main effects of extreme heat were found. Moderation models revealed, however, extreme heat exposure amplified the adverse impact of SS exposure on basal ganglia volume, evidenced by reduced left nucleus accumbens and increased left pallidum volume. Conclusions Prenatal exposure to SS impacted child brain development. Extreme heat amplified this risk via increased and reduced brain volume from different basal ganglia subregions. Alongside promoting initiatives to combat climate change, increasing awareness of the potential dangers of exposure to extreme climate events for pregnant individuals is vital for protecting long-term child brain development.

Carbon-Atom Scavengers Enable Divergent, Selective Carbon Deletion of Azaarenes

The efficacy of interventions in the workplace promoting exercise and a healthy diet among shift workers: A systematic review

Introduction Chronic non-communicable diseases (CNCDs) are a major public health concern, with significant impacts on quality of life and health costs. Shift work is a risk factor associated with these diseases, since it interferes with circadian rhythms and physiological processes, and can lead to circadian desynchronization and sleep deprivation. Given this scenario, the workplace is recognized by the WHO as a strategic environment for promoting health and preventing CNCDs. Objective To analyze the scientific evidence regarding the efficacy of interventions to promote healthy eating and/or physical activities among shift workers. Methods Systematic review protocol scientific databases in the field of health: MEDLINE (via PUBMED), Excerpta Medica Database (Embase), Latin American and Caribbean Literature in Health Sciences (LILACS), Web of Science and Scientific Electronic Library Online (SciELO), between January 2013 and December 2023, and was registered in the database for the study of the systematic review PROSPERO, under number: CRD42024517563. The risk of bias was analyzed according to the assessment tool, RoB 2.0 (Revised Cochrane risk-of-bias tool for randomized trials), two of the studies were evaluated using the risk of bias tool by the Non-randomized Studies – of Interventions (ROBIN I). Results The electronic search resulted in 2361 relevant articles based on the database search. After removing duplicates and articles that did not meet the inclusion criteria, 366 articles were identified. Thirteen articles were selected for full-text review, and 7 articles were included. Discussion The selected studies show that health interventions in the workplace, although with differences in the types of interventions and populations, have favorable results. Strategies aimed at nutritional support and physical activity, with the use of technologies such as motivational messages, have shown a positive impact, which is amplified when it is possible to involve workers and adapt them in the workplace. The diversity in study designs offers a broad perspective, but the variability in research methods also brings significant challenges for comparability, which justifies the decision not to carry out a meta-analysis. In addition, most studies focus on short-term interventions and outcomes, which may not adequately reflect the long-term health benefits or risks associated with shift work. Conclusion The diversity of interventions suggests that there is no single solution to promote health at the workplace. The strategies can be adapted to the specific needs and contexts of the workers and working environments. The adherence of the managers is a way of reinforcing the importance of preventative actions and allows a better adaptation of the organizational context to these activities. The lack of long-term follow-up and continued adherence are challenges that need more investment and organizational policies to ensure the effectiveness of the actions.

Stable Isotopic Labeling of Dimethylallyl Pyrophosphate (DMAPP) Reveals Compartmentalization of Isoprenoid Biosynthesis during Sporulation in <i>Bacillus subtilis</i>

Pain in the brain: Psychological correlates of chronic pain and fibromyalgia

Fibromyalgia is a chronic disorder causing widespread pain, fatigue, and cognitive issues, linked to central nervous system dysfunction. This cross-sectional study compared the psychological profiles of women with fibromyalgia (N = 76) and women with non-fibromyalgic chronic pain (N = 73). Using cluster analysis, scale score comparisons using MANCOVA, and correlation difference tests, we examined whether these conditions present distinct psychological profiles in terms of touch avoidance, anxiety, depression, psychotic symptoms, self-criticism, pain acceptance, pain impact, and positive emotions. Cluster analysis successfully differentiated between FM and non-FM CP patients with 76% accuracy with and an adjusted Rand index of.26, suggesting distinct psychological profiles while acknowledging substantial overlap. FM patients reported significantly higher levels of anxiety, depression, and psychotic symptoms, along with greater self-criticism and reduced activity engagement (p &lt; .001 for all significant comparisons expect psychotic symptoms, p = .07, and opposite sex touch avoidance, p = .014). Both groups showed elevated touch avoidance, with no significant differences between them. Correlation analysis revealed that self-criticism played a more central role in FM patients’ psychological distress, showing stronger associations with depression, anxiety, and positive emotions compared to non-FM CP patients (Jennrich test for differences between the two correlation matrices: Χ2 = 436.72, p &lt; .001). These findings suggest that while FM and non-FM CP share common psychological features, FM patients experience more severe psychological distress, with self-criticism potentially playing a crucial maintaining role. Results suggest that psychological interventions for FM patients should prioritize reducing self-criticism and enhancing self-reassurance, while healthcare providers should be mindful of the significant psychological burden these patients carry.

An exploratory study on the publication stages of early access articles in different bibliographic databases: A case study of IEEE journals

Currently bibliographic databases have included a large number of Early Access (EA) articles. Taking 47 IEEE journals as examples, this study analyzed and compared the differences in publication stages of EA articles in three typical bibliographic databases, including Web of Science Core Collection, Scopus, and Engineering Village Compendex. Qualitative analysis of data sets that may appear in these three databases and their publication stage modes, and quantitative analysis on the number of records, proportion, and journal distributions of each data set and each publication stage mode were conducted. There were totally 7 sub-data sets and corresponding 26 publication stage modes, with 14 “undifferentiated publication stage modes” and 12 “differentiated publication stage modes”. Although the proportion of EA records from each “differentiated publication stage mode” was mostly below 1.0%, the absolute quantity of EA records with differences in the publication stage was noteworthy reaching 2516. Among the 47 journals, 23 journals have 7–8 publication stage modes, 1 journal having 18 modes, and 40 journals have one or more “differentiated publication stage modes”. Therefore, in IEEE journals, whether for the same EA article or the same journal, the difference in publication stage between these three databases was pervasive and complex.

Gradient Protein Thin-Film-Based Bragg’s Mirror

Refining CT image analysis: Exploring adaptive fusion in U-nets for enhanced brain tissue segmentation

Purpose Non-contrast Computed Tomography (NCCT) quickly diagnoses acute cerebral hemorrhage or infarction. However, Deep-Learning (DL) algorithms often generate false alarms (FA) beyond the cerebral region. Methods We introduce an enhanced brain tissue segmentation method for infarction lesion segmentation (ILS). This method integrates an adaptive result fusion strategy to confine the search operation within cerebral tissue, effectively reducing FAs. By leveraging fused brain masks, DL-based ILS algorithms focus on pertinent radiomic correlations. Various U-Net models underwent rigorous training, with exploration of diverse fusion strategies. Further refinement entailed applying a 9x9 Gaussian filter with unit standard deviation followed by binarization to mitigate false positives. Performance evaluation utilized Intersection over Union (IoU) and Hausdorff Distance (HD) metrics, complemented by external validation on a subset of the COCO dataset. Results Our study comprised 20 ischemic stroke patients (14 males, 4 females) with an average age of 68.9 ± 11.7 years. Fusion with UNet2+ and UNet3 + yielded an IoU of 0.955 and an HD of 1.33, while fusion with U-net, UNet2 + , and UNet3 + resulted in an IoU of 0.952 and an HD of 1.61. Evaluation on the COCO dataset demonstrated an IoU of 0.463 and an HD of 584.1 for fusion with UNet2+ and UNet3 + , and an IoU of 0.453 and an HD of 728.0 for fusion with U-net, UNet2 + , and UNet3 + . Conclusion Our adaptive fusion strategy significantly diminishes FAs and enhances the training efficacy of DL-based ILS algorithms, surpassing individual U-Net models. This methodology holds promise as a versatile, data-independent approach for cerebral lesion segmentation.

One-Pot Multisubstrate Screening for Asymmetric Catalysis Enabled by ¹⁹F NMR-Based Simultaneous Chiral Analysis

Identification of the AKCDPK gene family and AkCDPK15 functional analysis under drought and salt stress

Konjac is one of the important economic crops for poverty alleviation in mountainous areas of Yunnan Province, China. However, there are always various biotic and abiotic stress during its growth, leading to production reduction and quality decline. Calcium-dependent protein kinases (CDPKs) are an important class of genes involved in calcium ion signal transmission within plant tissue cells, yet their presence and functions in konjac remain unexplored. This study aimed to identify the members of the AkCDPK gene family in the Amorphophallus konjac genome and understand their evolution and responses to various stresses. A total of 29 AkCDPK genes were identified and categorized into four subgroups that unevenly distributed across 12 chromosomes. Most AkCDPK have undergone purifying selection during evolution. Cis-acting element analysis revealed that several AkCDPK are involved in phytohormone induction, defence, stress response, and plant development. Expression analysis indicated tissue specificity, and responses to salt, drought, and Pectobacterium carotovorum subsp. carotovorum stress. AkCDPK15, encoding 582 amino acids, was cloned. AkCDPK15 was mainly localised on the cell membrane, and overexpression in tobacco revealed that it can positively regulate the tolerance of transgenic tobacco strains to salt and drought stress. These findings provide a theoretical foundation for future research on the function of the CDPK gene family in A. konjac, potentially aiding in the development of stress-resistant konjac varieties.

Kinetic Dissection of Proton-Coupled Conformational Transitions in Nucleic Acids by Integrating pH-Dependent NMR and Chemical Modifications

Exploring physiotherapists’ knowledge and perception of exercise intensity in outpatient stroke rehabilitation: A qualitative study

Objectives To explore physiotherapists’ knowledge and perception of exercise intensity and to identify factors influencing the attainment of recommended exercise intensity during rehabilitation sessions. Methods A qualitative study was conducted using semi-structured, face-to-face interviews with physiotherapists (PTs) who provide stroke rehabilitation within outpatient private settings. Data were audio-recorded, transcribed, and analysed using an inductive content analysis approach. Results Twelve physiotherapists (five women; median age: 44.5 years; median experience: 20 years) who routinely provide stroke rehabilitation participated in the study. Three overarching themes emerged: knowledge about exercise intensity, perception of provided exercise intensity and factors influencing the achievement of recommended intensity. Although 92% of PTs recognized the importance of exercise intensity, only 33% were aware of exercise intensity guidelines. A lack of knowledge regarding exercise intensity assessment, grading, and monitoring was commonly reported. Nearly half (41%) of the PTs reported providing moderate-to-vigorous intensity exercise to stroke survivors. Limiting factors to achieving recommended exercise intensity included patient-related factors (e.g., stroke severity, motivation, cognitive impairments, fatigue), work environment constraints (e.g., limited space), and PT-related challenges (e.g., lack of knowledge, limited contact with doctors). On the other hand, facilitators included high motivation among stroke survivors, large workspace, equipment availability, and the use of group-based training modalities. Conclusion Achieving the recommended exercise intensity in outpatient stroke rehabilitation is influenced by personal, environmental, and PT-related barriers. Multifactorial facilitators, such as improved knowledge, enhanced workspaces, interdisciplinary collaboration, and group-based training approaches, should be considered by stakeholders to ensure the effective implementation of evidence-based stroke rehabilitation practices in private settings. Future research involving PTs with diverse educational backgrounds are needed to strengthen the transferability of these findings.

Stereodivergent Four-Component Reactions via Rh-Carbynoids

Perceptions and practices of community pharmacists towards the use of short-acting beta-2 agonists inhalers in Malaysia: A cross-sectional survey

Background There has been a relative lack of exploration into the perceptions and practices regarding the use of SABA inhalers among healthcare professionals in Malaysia. The study aimed to determine community pharmacists’ perceptions and practices towards using SABA inhalers at community pharmacies in Malaysia. Methods It was a cross-sectional study conducted using a self-administered, web-based survey (Google Form) among community pharmacists in Malaysia between 26th December 2022 and 25th May 2023. Descriptive statistics were used to summarize the participants’ socio-demographic characteristics, and the Kruskal-Wallis and Mann-Whitney U tests were applied to continuous data and p &lt; 0.05 was considered significant. Regression analysis was carried out to identify associated predictors of socio-demographic characteristics of the participants regarding perception of asthma control and management. Results A total of 312 community pharmacists completed the survey. Most of the participants were females (64.1%, n = 200), aged between 29 and 38 years (51.0%, n = 159). The majority of community pharmacists agreed that achieving good asthma control led to minimal asthma symptoms (n = 263, 84.3%) and fewer requirements for medical interventions (n = 204, 65.4%). Additionally, most participants were engaged in educating their patients about the correct techniques for using asthma inhalers (93.6%, n = 292) and provided sufficient information about the safe use of SABA inhalers (79.5%, n = 248). The most frequently perceived facilitator (n = 235, 75.4%) was providing additional follow-up sessions, and the primary perceived barrier (n = 232, 74.4%) was the lack of patients’ awareness of the provided asthma care services. Conclusion Community pharmacists acknowledged that good asthma control was associated with minimal medical assistance and symptoms. However, some concerns were expressed over asthma patients’ purchase of non-prescription SABA inhalers. The participants perceived some barriers, such as lack of patient awareness regarding the asthma care services availability that might hinder the safe use of SABA inhalers.

Associations between physical activity and CVD-related metabolomic and proteomic biomarkers

Aim Habitual physical activity (PA) affects metabolism and homeostasis in various tissues and organs. However, detailed knowledge of associations between PA and cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk markers is limited. We sought to identify associations between accelerometer-assessed PA classes and 183 proteomic and 154 metabolomic CVD-related biomarkers. Method We utilized cross-sectional data from the main SCAPIS cohort (n = 4647, median age: 57.5 yrs, 50.5% female) as a discovery sample and the SCAPIS pilot cohort (n = 910, median age: 57.5 yrs, 50.3% female) as a validation sample. PA was assessed via hip-worn accelerometers, while plasma concentrations of proteomic biomarkers were measured using Olink CVD II and III panels. Metabolomic markers were assessed using the Nightingale NMR platform. We evaluated associations between four PA classes (moderate-to-vigorous PA [MVPA], low-intensity PA [LIPA], sedentary [SED], and prolonged SED [prolSED]) and biomarkers, controlling for potential confounders and applying a false discovery rate of 5% using multiple linear regressions. Results A total of eighty-five metabolomic markers and forty-three proteomic markers were validated and found to be significantly associated with one or more PA classes. LIPA and SED markers demonstrated significant mirroring or opposing relations to biomarkers, while prolSED mainly shared relations with SED. Notably, HDL species were predominantly negatively associated with SED, whereas LDL species were positively associated with SED and negatively associated with MVPA. Among the proteomic markers, eighteen were uniquely associated with MVPA (among those Interleukin – 6 [IL6] and Growth/differentiation factor 15 [GDF15] both negatively related), seven with SED (among those Metalloproteinase inhibitor 4 [TIMP4] and Tumor necrosis factor receptor 2 [TNFR2], both positively related), and eight were related to both SED/prolSED (among those Lipoprotein lipase [LPL] negatively related to SED and leptin [LEP] positively related to SED) and MVPA (with LPL positively related to MVPA and LEP negatively related to MVPA). Conclusion Our findings suggest the existence of specific associations between PA classes and metabolomic and cardiovascular protein biomarkers in a middle-aged population. Beyond validation of previous results, we identified new associations. This multitude of connections between PA and CVD-related markers may help elucidate the previously observed relationship between PA and CVD. The identified cross-sectional associations could inform the design of future experimental studies, serving as important outcome measures.

Chemically Recyclable Poly(tetrathioorthocarbonate)s: Combining High Refractive Index and Abbe Number