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Dissecting the urban footprint of unplanned settlements shaping macroinvertebrate communities in Wuye River, Abuja, Nigeria
Reply to Wang and Wang: Exploring TCM evolution from the perspective of recombinant inventions and the data
Blockchain enabled collective and combined deep learning framework for COVID19 diagnosis
Abstract The rapid spread of SARS-CoV-2 has highlighted the need for intelligent methodologies in COVID-19 diagnosis. Clinicians face significant challenges due to the virus’s fast transmission rate and the lack of reliable diagnostic tools. Although artificial intelligence (AI) has improved image processing, conventional approaches still rely on centralized data storage and training. This reliance increases complexity and raises privacy concerns, which hinder global data exchange. Therefore, it is essential to develop collaborative models that balance accuracy with privacy protection. This research presents a novel framework that combines blockchain technology with a combined learning paradigm to ensure secure data distribution and reduced complexity. The proposed Combined Learning Collective Deep Learning Blockchain Model (CLCD-Block) aggregates data from multiple institutions and leverages a hybrid capsule learning network for accurate predictions. Extensive testing with lung CT images demonstrates that the model outperforms existing models, achieving an accuracy exceeding 97%. Specifically, on four benchmark datasets, CLCD-Block achieved up to 98.79% Precision, 98.84% Recall, 98.79% Specificity, 98.81% F1-Score, and 98.71% Accuracy, showcasing its superior diagnostic capability. Designed for COVID-19 diagnosis, the CLCD-Block framework is adaptable to other applications, integrating AI, decentralized training, privacy protection, and secure blockchain collaboration. It addresses challenges in diagnosing chronic diseases, facilitates cross-institutional research and monitors infectious outbreaks. Future work will focus on enhancing scalability, optimizing real-time performance and adapting the model for broader healthcare datasets.
Early development of navigationally relevant location information in the retrosplenial complex
Representing the locations of places so that we can use them as landmarks is critical to our ability to navigate through large-scale spaces—a process referred to as “map-based navigation.” While many neuroimaging studies in adults have revealed that this ability involves the retrosplenial complex (RSC)—a scene-selective region in the medial parietal cortex—nothing is known about how this cortical system develops. So, does it develop only late in childhood, as generally assumed from some behavioral studies? Or is it, perhaps counterintuitively, present in the first few years of life? To test this question, using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) multivoxel pattern analysis and a virtual town paradigm, we investigated the representation of location information in the RSC of 5-y-olds. We found that i) the RSC in 5-y-olds already represents the locations of particular buildings in the town (e.g., the ice cream store by the mountain versus by the lake), but not their category membership (e.g., ice cream store, regardless of location), and ii) this neural representation is correlated with their performance on a location task. Using multidimensional scaling, we also found that the neural representation of the buildings in RSC reflects the actual layout of the virtual town. Finally, the parahippocampal place area—a scene-selective region implicated in scene categorization, not map-based navigation—did not represent location information, but instead category information, the exact opposite of RSC. Taken together, these findings reveal the early development of navigationally relevant location information in RSC and thus the early origins of map-based navigation.
Consumption of only wild foods induces large scale, partially persistent alterations to the gut microbiome
Distinguishing species boundaries from geographic variation
In an era of unprecedented biodiversity loss, the need for standardized practices to describe biological variation is becoming increasingly important. As with all scientific endeavors, species delimitation needs to be explicit, testable, and refutable. A fundamental task in species delimitation is distinguishing within-species variation from among-species variation. Many species that are distributed across large geographic areas exhibit levels of genetic variation that are as great or greater than those that exist between well-defined sympatric species. Here, we provide a workflow to distinguish between intra- and interspecific genetic variation and apply the workflow to a taxonomically problematic group of frogs (the Rana pipiens complex, or leopard frogs) that are widely distributed across Mexico and Central America. Our workflow makes use of recent advancements that pair genome-scale datasets with model-based species delimitation methods, while emphasizing the need for positive evidence of reproductive isolation to confirm the validity of geographically contiguous species boundaries. We find that intraspecific geographic variation in widespread leopard frog species has resulted in considerable taxonomic inflation of species. Ten currently recognized species are not supported in our analyses, and we here synonymize them with previously named taxa. Furthermore, we find positive evidence for the presence of three undescribed species. In addition to proposing these taxonomic changes, we provide descriptions of the data or analyses that would be needed to refute and overturn our recommendations. We recommend that all species delimitation studies (especially of geographically variable groups) clarify what new evidence would be sufficient to change the taxonomic recommendations.
Emergence of transferable tigecycline and eravacycline resistance gene tet(X4) in Escherichia coli isolates from Iran
Refining the role of the paraventricular hypothalamus in feeding behavior
Targeted delivery of doxorubicin to B-cell lymphoma using monoclonal antibody-functionalized Chaetoceros biosilica
Reply to Compton et al.: Paradoxical misunderstanding
The effect of gastric acid on the bonding of 3D printed and CAD/CAM denture acrylics to denture teeth
The SIK3-N783Y mutation is associated with the human natural short sleep trait
Sleep is an essential component of our daily life. A mutation in human salt induced kinase 3 (hSIK3), which is critical for regulating sleep duration and depth in rodents, is associated with natural short sleep (NSS), a condition characterized by reduced daily sleep duration in human subjects. This NSS hSIK3-N783Y mutation results in diminished kinase activity in vitro. In a mouse model, the presence of the NSS hSIK3-N783Y mutation leads to a decrease in sleep time and an increase in electroencephalogram delta power. At the phosphoproteomic level, the SIK3-N783Y mutation induces substantial changes predominantly at synaptic sites. Bioinformatic analysis has identified several sleep-related kinase alterations triggered by the SIK3-N783Y mutation, including changes in protein kinase A and mitogen-activated protein kinase. These findings underscore the conserved function of SIK3 as a critical gene in human sleep regulation and provide insights into the kinase regulatory network governing sleep.
Classification of possible solutions regarding business engineering problems by using complex Pythagorean fuzzy rough WASPAS approach
Prioritizing urban heat adaptation infrastructure based on multiple outcomes: Comfort, health, and energy
Globally, cities face increasing extreme heat, impacting comfort, health, and energy consumption. Infrastructure-based heat adaptation strategies can improve these outcomes, but each strategy has a unique mix of benefits and drawbacks. Here, we apply an urbanized meteorological model (WRF) with the newly integrated multilayer BEP-Tree street tree model to dynamically downscale Earth System Model projections and a 3-D microclimate model (TUF-Pedestrian) to simulate the street-scale radiation environment impacting pedestrians. We evaluate the performance of five heat adaptation strategies (street trees, cool roofs, green roofs, rooftop photovoltaics (PV), and reflective pavements) during extreme heat events in three cities with contrasting background climates (Toronto, Phoenix, and Miami), under contemporary and end-of-century projected climates, based on three metrics: outdoor heat stress, air conditioning (AC) energy use, and ventilation of vehicular air pollution. No single adaptation strategy improves all three outcomes. While street trees inhibit ventilation, they reduce outdoor heat stress four times more effectively than the next best strategy via shade provision, fully offsetting heat stress increases under a high-emissions end-of-century climate scenario in all cities studied. Cool roofs and green roofs moderately reduce heat stress and energy use. Alternatively, rooftop PV with energy storage can generate sufficient power for space cooling but have marginal effects on heat stress. Reflective pavements are the least effective across metrics. Where the ventilation of street-level emissions is of less concern, our results clearly support the combination of street trees and rooftop PV as a highly complementary and effective means of adaptive mitigation across different climates and neighborhood densities.
Reliability, validity and minimum clinical importance difference of the Chinese version of the Zurich claudication questionnaire
miR218-5p tips the scales
Constructing a prediction model for acute pancreatitis severity based on liquid neural network
Lateral jaw motion in fish expands the functional repertoire of vertebrates and underpins the success of a dominant herbivore lineage
The primary function of the vertebrate jaw is the dorsoventral movement that occurs during opening and closing. Yet, several lineages have evolved the ability to move their jaws laterally, enabling major innovations, like chewing. While lateral jaw motions are primarily known in tetrapods, here, we show that an ecologically dominant lineage of reef fishes (Zanclidae and Acanthuridae) has evolved the ability to laterally rotate their jaws during feeding. This unique function substantially expands both the kinematic versatility and known diversity of vertebrate jaw mechanisms, adding to the growing list of innovations that followed the origin of jaws. Within Acanthuridae, this increased kinematic versatility may allow for algal detachment with minimal movement of the rest of the body, facilitating rapid biting within the same microtopographic location, and thus, this lineage having the highest bite rates among biting reef fishes. This innovation may have thus helped create one of the most ecologically diverse and speciose herbivorous reef fish lineages. Our results highlight the ecological and evolutionary impact of lateral jaw rotation within vertebrates, and potentially how this novelty led to a significant change in coral reef trophodynamics.