Browse Articles

A biopsychosocial analysis of risk factors for persistent physical, cognitive, and psychological symptoms among previously hospitalized post-COVID-19 patients

Pinpointing neurons that hinder cancer treatment

Expression of Concern: Paroxetine treatment in an animal model of depression improves sperm quality

Characterization of the gut microbiota in different immunological responses among PLWH

Five key climate and space projects on Trump’s chopping block

Understanding intra-individual isotopic variability in modern cremated human remains for forensic and archaeological studies

Cremated bone fragments can be studied using structural, elemental, and isotope analyses in archaeological contexts to reconstruct funerary practices and understand past mobility and migrations of populations that practiced cremation. However, the potential of isotope analyses of cremated bone in forensic contexts remains heavily unexplored. The identification of fire victims can be complex as the remains can be extremely fragmented and commingled. The high temperatures (up to 1000°C and above) destroy most organic matter such that, obtaining reliable DNA from such intensively burned human remains is extremely difficult. Still, other signals present in bone, such as strontium concentrations and isotopes, are preserved during cremation, and could be used to assess the geographical origin of unidentified fire-affected individuals. Carbon and oxygen isotope ratios together with infrared analyses provide information about the burning conditions and could help understanding how a body was burned. Here, isotope and infrared analyses are carried out on fourteen recently deceased cremated individuals of known residential history from the UTK Donated Skeletal Collection curated by the Forensic Anthropology Center (Knoxville, Tennessee). By carrying out these measurements on different bones with different turnover rates (i.e., otic capsule of the petrous part of the temporal bone, femur, and rib), we endeavor to reconstruct life histories of recently deceased cremated individuals and gain new insights into cremation practices. The results highlight differences in carbon and oxygen isotopes between different skeletal elements and confirm their potential to gather information about the way a body was burned (e.g., temperatures, fuel used). Strontium concentrations and isotope ratios were also measured to assess the geographical origin of these individuals. The use of strontium isotope ratios, however, seem to have limitations for individuals born in the last few decades due to globalization of consumed food resources. Nevertheless, it is still possible to obtain information about the birthplace of older individuals (> 50 years) by analyzing strontium isotope ratios in the petrous part of their temporal bone, which retains a signal linked to the first few years of their lives when local resources were still used in larger quantities compared to today.

Urocortin2 measurement for heart failure assessment

Evolution characteristics and pattern optimization of land use conflict in inland river Basin from the perspective of production-living-ecological

Identification of the process and intrinsic mechanisms of land use conflicts is a prerequisite for adjusting optimal national spatial planning strategies. This paper, starting from the perspective of production-living-ecological, constructed a train of thought for optimizing national spatial planning in inland river basins, taking the example of the Shiyang River Basin. Based on the conflict measurement model of “source of risk - receptor of risk - effect of risk”, this paper analyzed the evolution of production-living-ecological land conflicts, employed a geographical weighted regression model to examine the influencing factors of the evolution of land use conflicts, and optimized the national spatial pattern as well as proposed regulation strategies. The results indicated that from 1990 to 2020, the area of unused land in the Shiyang River Basin decreased the most, mainly converted into farmland, construction land, and water areas. The transfer of land use mainly manifested as mutual transformation between production land and ecological land, followed by mutual transformation between production land and living land. During the research period, the overall complexity of land use presented a pattern of “high in the south and low in the north”, the overall vulnerability showed a pattern of “high in the central area and low in the surrounding areas”, and the overall stability was relatively high. The intensity of production-living-ecological land conflicts in the Shiyang River Basin showed an increasing trend, with the average conflict intensity rising from 0.44 to 0.57, exhibiting a spatial distribution pattern of “high in the central area and low in the surrounding areas”. The impact of road network density and river network density on the evolution of production-living-ecological land conflicts in the Shiyang River Basin was the most significant. The optimization results of national spatial patterns and regulation strategies could provide a scientific basis for the optimization and comprehensive management of national spatial planning in arid inland river basins.

Managing free-roaming domestic dog populations using surgical sterilisation: a randomised controlled trial

Abstract Free-roaming domestic dogs (FRDs) are among the most abundant carnivores on earth and have coexisted with humans for over 15,000 years, yet increases in negative interactions and the transmission of zoonotic diseases, precipitates calls for population management. Despite significant investment in FRD sterilisation in India, where rabies is endemic, there is limited evidence of its impact on reducing FRD population sizes. Therefore, robust evaluation of the effectiveness of fertility control programmes is necessary. To address this, we implemented a Before After Control Intervention (BACI) framework in the first multi-site randomised controlled trial for the sterilisation of FRDs. We conducted single intensive sterilisation campaigns in five areas, achieving female sterilisation coverages of 58–66%. We observed a decrease in puppies and lactating females and a reduction in residents’ reports of barking, a common problem associated with FRDs. There were no significant differences in adult FRD counts between intervention and control sites during the 2-year follow-up. However, unmeasured immigration into and emigration out of study areas may have confounded counts. One-off, albeit intense, sterilisation campaigns in open populations require substantial investment and are unlikely to reduce population size in isolation, though there may be some reduction in problematic behaviours and improved animal welfare.

Radical approach to shrink particle colliders gains momentum

Onsite clinic utilization and adherence in semiconductor employees at chronic disease risk

Introduction The objective of this study was to evaluate the utilization and adherence of onsite clinics and identify the factors influencing them in semiconductor employees at risk of chronic diseases, including hypertension, diabetes, and dyslipidemia. Methods A cross-sectional study was conducted through a retrospective review of electronic medical records from onsite clinics at a South Korean semiconductor company. The study focused on employees who visited the onsite clinics between 2013 and 2016 due to the risk of chronic diseases including hypertension, diabetes, and dyslipidemia. Descriptive statistics assessed clinic utilization and adherence, while multivariable logistic regression identified influencing factors, adjusted for age, sex, work type, work shift, workplace, specific onsite clinic, diagnosis, and disease duration. Results Out of the 39,073 employees examined, 8,837 sought care at onsite clinics for managing chronic disease risks. The majority of these participants were male (88.2%) and predominantly aged in their 30s and 40s (84.6%). Among these individuals, 33.0% visited the clinics five or more times, and 28.5% filled prescriptions on two or more occasions. Chronic diseases were the second most common reason for onsite clinic visits. The average adherence to prescription as measured by the Proportion of Days Covered (PDC) was 0.61, with 40% of individuals showing a high adherence. Notably, older age and employment at workplaces located outside metropolitan areas were significant factors positively associated with both the utilization of onsite clinic services and adherence to prescribed treatments. Conclusion This study found that onsite clinics within a semiconductor company were actively utilized for managing chronic diseases, particularly among older employees and those in workplaces located in areas where medical access is limited compared to metropolitan areas. These findings highlight the potential role of onsite clinics in enhancing chronic disease management. Future research across a broader range of workplaces could further support and expand these insights.

Comparative analysis of automated foul detection in football using deep learning architectures

Abstract Automated foul detection in football represents a challenging task due to the dynamic nature of the game, the variability in player movements, and the ambiguity in differentiating fouls from regular physical contact. This study presents a comprehensive comparative evaluation of eight state-of-the-art Deep Learning (DL) architectures — EfficientNetV2, ResNet50, VGG16, Xception, InceptionV3, MobileNetV2, InceptionResNetV2, and DenseNet121 — applied to the task of automated foul detection in football. The models were trained and evaluated using a curated dataset comprising 7000 images, which was split into 70% for training (4,900 images), 20% for validation (1,400 images), and 10% for testing (700 images). To ensure fair evaluation, the test set was balanced to contain 350 images depicting foul events and 350 images representing non-foul scenarios, although perfect balance was subject to class distribution constraints. Performance was assessed across multiple metrics, including test accuracy, precision, recall, F1-score, and Area Under the Receiver Operating Characteristic Curve (AUC). The results demonstrate that InceptionResNetV2 achieved the highest test accuracy of 87.57% and a strong F1-score of 0.8966, closely followed by DenseNet121, which attained the highest precision of 0.9786 and an AUC of 0.9641, indicating superior discriminatory power. Lightweight models such as MobileNetV2 also performed competitively, highlighting their potential for real-time deployment. The findings highlight the strengths and trade-offs between model complexity, accuracy, and generalizability, underscoring the viability of integrating DL architectures into existing football officiating systems, such as the Video Assistant Referee (VAR). Furthermore, the study emphasizes the importance of model explainability through techniques such as Gradient-weighted Class Activation Mapping++ (GradCAM++), ensuring that automated decisions can be accompanied by interpretable visual evidence. This comparative evaluation serves as a foundation for future research aimed at enhancing real-time foul detection through multimodal data fusion, temporal modeling, and improved domain adaptation techniques.

Lasso-shaped molecule is a new type of broad-spectrum antibiotic

Mitochondria-targeted ROS scavenger JP4-039 improves cardiac function in a post-myocardial infarction animal model and induces angiogenesis in vitro

Background This study aimed at evaluating the effects of JP4-039, a mitochondria-specific reactive oxygen species (mito-ROS) scavenger, on coronary angiogenesis and cardiac function in a post-myocardial infarction (MI) animal model. Methods Mice underwent ligation of the left anterior descending (LAD) artery to induce MI and received intraperitoneal (i.p.) injections of JP4-039 or vehicle (n=8 animals/group) three times/week for four weeks. Echocardiography for cardiac function and immunohistochemistry for Infarction area and capillary density were carried out. Angiogenic potential of endothelial cells (EC) was assessed by ex vivo tube formation using mouse heart EC (MHEC) and by aortic and atrial sprouting. Western blots were conducted using mouse cardiac tissue and lysates from HCAECs that were treated with or without JP4-039. Results Cardiac function including ejection fraction, fractional shortening, and fractional area change were improved significantly in JP4-039-treated animals compared to the vehicle group. JP4-039-treated hearts demonstrated significant reduction in infarction size and increased capillary density in the ischemic area. These findings were consistent with increased ex vivo endothelial sprouting of the aortae and atrial tissue from the mice treated with JP4-039. Western blots using cardiac tissue lysates from JP4-039-treated animals showed decrease in phosphorylation of AMPKα at the Threonine 172, suggesting a plausible increase in the ATP:AMP ratio. Interestingly, JP4-039 increased expression of mitochondrial complexes I and IV and increased ATP synthesis in EC. Conclusions JP4-039-mediated reduction in mito-ROS results in significantly increased coronary vascular density in ischemic myocardium, improved ATP synthesis, and recovery of post-MI cardiac function. Together, these results suggest that nitroxide nanodrug-mediated reduction in mito-ROS may help recover post-MI cardiac function.

A new multi objective crested porcupines optimization algorithm for solving optimization problems

Proteomic analysis of hippocampus reveals metabolic reprogramming in a piglet model of mild hypoxic ischemic encephalopathy

Neonatal hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy (HIE) remains a leading cause of long-term neurologic morbidity. Fifty percent of HIE cases are mild and do not have clearly defined therapeutic interventions. Emergent evidence now demonstrates that up to 25% of children with mild HIE suffer motor and developmental delay by 18 months and 35% have cognitive impairments by age 5 years. Interestingly, the hippocampus, which is responsible for learning and memory, does not show overt injury but does demonstrate volume changes on imaging that correlate with cognitive and behavioral outcomes. Although there is extensive data regarding pathophysiological changes following moderate and severe HIE, there is a paucity of understanding regarding the extent, duration, and compensatory adaptations in the mild neonatal HIE brain. We performed hippocampal proteomic analysis using a swine model of mild neonatal hypoxia-asphyxia. Hippocampi were collected at 24 or 72 hours after injury, and proteomics was performed by liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS). Pathway analysis demonstrated that several metabolic pathways are temporally regulated after mild HIE. Specifically, amino acid, carbohydrate, and one-carbon metabolism increased at 24 hours while fat metabolism and oxidative phosphorylation decreased at 24 hours. Downregulation of oxidative phosphorylation was more pronounced at 72 hours. Our data demonstrate that metabolic reprogramming occurs after mild HIE, and these changes persist up to 72 hours after injury. These results provide new evidence that mild HIE disrupts brain metabolism, emphasizing the need for a better understanding of the underlying pathophysiology of mild HIE and development of targeted therapeutic interventions for this population.

The shear mechanical properties of rocks with variable angle joints

Genome-wide association study uncovers key genomic regions governing agro-morphological and quality traits in Indian mustard [Brassica juncea (L.) Czern. and Coss.]

In Indian mustard, improving agro-morphological and quality traits through conventional methods are both cumbersome and resource-intensive. Marker-aided breeding presents a promising solution to these challenges. Hence, the present research aimed to identify genomic regions governing agro-morphological and quality traits using genome-wide association studies (GWAS). The GWAS panel comprised 142 diverse genotypes of Indian mustard were evaluated for 20 different agro-morphological and quality traits, revealing significant difference among genotypes. Subsequently, the GWAS panel genotyped using the Brassica 90K SNP array (Illumina). Structure and diversity analysis grouped the GWAS panel into 3 sub-populations or groups, and LD decay of 1.05 Mb was confirmed through genotypic analysis. GWAS using the BLINK model revealed a total of 49 marker-trait associations (MTAs), in which 28 and 21 MTAs were observed during rabi 2020–21 and rabi 2021–22 for various agro-morphological and quality traits, respectively. Amongst them, twelve MTAs demonstrated stable associations with the studied traits, including days to 50% flowering (DF), days to 100% flower termination (DFT), days to maturity (DM), plant height (PH), main shoot length (MSL), siliqua length (SL), seeds per siliqua (SPS), oil content (OC), and glucosinolates content (Glu) in both years. Moreover, in silico analysis of nearby regions of these stable SNPs revealed their association with 31 candidate genes known to be involved in various molecular, physiological, and biochemical pathways relevant to the studied traits. These genes can be further characterized and deciphered for more precise utilization in breeding programs in the future.

Multi-scene image fusion via memory aware synapses

Characterization of single neurons reprogrammed by pancreatic cancer

Abstract The peripheral nervous system (PNS) orchestrates organ function in health and disease. Most cancers, including pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC), are infiltrated by PNS neurons, and this contributes to the complex tumour microenvironment (TME)1,2. However, neuronal cell bodies reside in various PNS ganglia, far from the tumour mass. Thus, cancer-innervating or healthy-organ-innervating neurons are lacking in current tissue-sequencing datasets. To molecularly characterize pancreas- and PDAC-innervating neurons at single-cell resolution, we developed Trace-n-Seq. This method uses retrograde tracing of axons from tissues to their respective ganglia, followed by single-cell isolation and transcriptomic analysis. By characterizing more than 5,000 individual sympathetic and sensory neurons, with about 4,000 innervating PDAC or healthy pancreas, we reveal novel neuronal cell types and molecular networks that are distinct to the pancreas, pancreatitis, PDAC or melanoma metastasis. We integrate single-cell datasets of innervating neurons and the TME to establish a neuron–cancer–microenvironment interactome, delineate cancer-driven neuronal reprogramming and generate a pancreatic-cancer nerve signature. Pharmacological denervation induces a pro-inflammatory TME and increases the effectiveness of immune-checkpoint inhibitors. The taxane nab-paclitaxel causes intratumoral neuropathy, which attenuates PDAC growth and, in combination with sympathetic denervation, results in synergistic tumour regression. Our multi-dimensional data provide insights into the networks and functions of PDAC-innervating neurons, and support the inclusion of denervation in future therapies.