Browse Articles

Research on dynamic measurement and coupling coordination of traditional industrial transformation under the background of zero waste cities in China

Immune responses to vaginal candidiasis in African women: A scoping review of cytokine profiles, T-cell activation, and gene expression

Background Recent immunological studies of vaginal candidiasis in African populations have revealed complex host‒pathogen interactions with implications for therapeutic development and HIV acquisition risk. Objective This scoping review synthesized evidence from Uganda, Zambia, South Africa, and Kenya between 2020 and 2024, focusing on immune responses, cellular dynamics, and tissue effects due vulvovaginal candidiasis. Results Analysis revealed a coordinated inflammatory response marked by elevated levels of the proinflammatory cytokines IL-1β and IL-6 and increased chemokine IL-8-mediated immune cell recruitment. Compared with those in control individuals, distinct T-cell population patterns in colonized individuals show reduced Th17-like CD4+ T-cell activation, with concurrent increases in Th1/Th2-enriched CD4+ T cells. Molecular analysis revealed that 162 differentially expressed genes were involved primarily in neutrophil-mediated immunity and cytokine signaling pathways. Despite robust immune activation, tissue integrity remained intact, accompanied by elevated antimicrobial peptides SLPI and BD-2. Notably, Candida-colonized individuals presented reduced frequencies of HIV target cells (CCR5 + HLA-DR + CD4 + T cells). Conclusion These findings advance our understanding of population-specific immune responses to vaginal candidiasis and identify promising therapeutic targets, highlighting the need for longitudinal studies to characterize vulvovaginal candidiasis immunopathogenesis fully in African populations.

A mixed-mode LC-MS-based method for comprehensive analysis of NAD and related metabolites from biological sample matrices

Motivators and barriers to mouthguard compliance by adult Gaelic football athletes

Introduction Dental injuries contribute to 57% of reported maxillofacial injuries in Gaelic Football, with associated psychological and economic impacts on the affected athletes. Mouthguards have been developed in efforts to mitigate the incidence and severity of dental injuries, and use is mandatory in Gaelic Football. Dental claims have reduced by over 50% since mouthguards became mandatory, but costs of dental injuries are still prevalent. The aim of this study was to determine the mouthguard compliance rates in adult Gaelic Football players, as well as the motivations and barriers to compliance. Methods This cross-sectional study utilised an online survey to determine the self-reported compliance of adult Gaelic Footballers with mouthguard use, the perceived peer compliance, and the motivations and barriers to compliance. Chi-square tests were used to examine differences between sex and between elite and sub-elite players. Results A total of 545 Gaelic Footballers completed the survey. During training, 22% of players reported to always wear a mouthguard, with 48% never wearing it, and 30% occasionally wearing it. For games, 48% of players reported to wear a mouthguard, with 11% never wearing it and 41% occasionally wearing it. Motivating factors included teeth protection, gum protection and the rules of the game. The main barriers were discomfort, difficulty breathing and difficulty speaking. Females had significantly poorer compliance in training, but had significantly better compliance in games when compared to males. Conclusion Mouthguard compliance is relatively poor amongst adult Gaelic Football players. Although compliance improves for games compared to training, there are still 1 in 2 players not wearing a mouthguard for games. Discomfort and challenges with breathing and speaking suggest that players may benefit from having a custom-fit mouthguard. Coaches, refereeing officials and governing bodies should strive to implement the rules more often and improve education around the benefits of mouthguard use within the sport.

Mitogenomic analysis of Thai Sunda pangolins reveals regional phylogeography and informs conservation management

Abstract Pangolins are considered the most trafficked mammals in the world with all eight species listed on CITES Appendix I. Despite this pervasive threat to their survival, there remains a limited understanding of genetic diversity and connectivity among populations of Asian pangolin species, hampering effective conservation management. We analysed mitogenome sequences of the Sunda pangolin (Manis javanica) from across their Southeast Asia continental distribution, as well as Borneo. Phylogenetic reconstruction revealed six lineages, with clear separation north and south of the Kangar-Pattani biogeographic line in southern Thailand, revealing clear differentiation between Sundaland and Indochinese Sunda pangolin lineages. Further divergence across an east–west divide was observed in central and northern Thailand, extending northwards towards China. Our results provide new insights into the evolutionary relationships among Sunda pangolin populations in Southeast Asia, building on other recent research in this field and helping to establish the species’ baseline phylogeography. These inferences will aid conservation planning and support the genetic traceability of the illegal pangolin trade.

Photosynthetic oxygen bubble stream sounds from aquatic macrophytes, and their consequences for acoustic biodiversity inventories and acoustic communication in shallow freshwater settings

The emerging field of soundscape ecology focuses on biological, geophysical, and anthropogenic sounds, and provides a non-invasive method to inventory ecosystems. Most of the work on freshwater soundscapes focuses on larger fishes in deeper water, or on insects. We suggest the possibility that such studies have either missed or misidentified photosynthetic oxygen bubble sounds (POBS) produced by bubble streams from damaged macrophytes in sunny shallow water. These contribute significantly to local soundscapes. We recorded such sounds in the shallows of Gull Lake, Alberta, Canada, where POBS from sago pondweed (Stuckenia pectinata), along with water boatman stridulations (Hemiptera: Corixidae), comprised almost all of the sounds we encountered. These sounds attenuate rapidly with distance, and the POBS constitute a remarkable acoustic diversity, resulting in a patchwork of very different soundscapes in these shallows. Recognition of POBS has important consequences for acoustic bioinventories in shallow water, rapid ecosystem assessments involving indices of primary production, and bioacoustics studies of such organisms as corixid bugs, communicating against a cacophonous background of POBS.

Optimizing diabetic retinopathy detection with electric fish algorithm and bilinear convolutional networks

Retraction: Unreferenced English articles’ translation quality-oriented automatic evaluation technology using sparse autoencoder under the background of deep learning

Enhancement of in vitro and in vivo bone repair performance of decalcified bone/gelma by desferrioxamine

A protein tunnel that shuttles lipids around the cell

Testing job wellbeing indicators among community behavioral health workers: Community-based participatory research

Many community behavioral health organizations (CBHOs) continue to struggle with their employees’ reduced job wellbeing and job disengagement (i.e., turnover intentions, actual turnover). Understanding employees’ job wellbeing priorities in their organizational contexts is essential to address the challenges, especially for workers in diverse work settings such as CBHOs. We used community-based participatory research (CBPR) strategies to develop and test job wellbeing indicators. The current study implemented 11 indicators with 168 people employed at a CBHO through initial and 6-month follow-up surveys. Positive endorsement of job wellbeing indicators differed based on employees’ demographic (e.g., race, education, marital status) and job (e.g., exempt status, clinical positions) characteristics. Several indicators declined from the initial to the follow-up surveys (e.g., communication, job fairness, decision-making involvement, expectation alignment, supervisory support, career development opportunities). The change rates also varied by employee characteristics (e.g., work years, race, exempt status, full-time). The current study illustrates the utility of CBPR strategies to implement job wellbeing indicators based on employees’ priorities and diverse job wellbeing experiences among employee subpopulations. Further, the developed indicators revealed job wellbeing heterogeneity by employee subpopulations within an organization that is often overlooked. Efforts to understand varying job wellbeing characteristics among diverse employees may eventually help develop organization-tailored interventions to improve job wellbeing and reduce turnover.

An enhanced framework for knowledge graph embedding based on negative sample analogical reasoning

Answers to a 160-year-old riddle about the genetics of Mendel’s pea traits

Optimal adaptive cancer therapy based on evolutionary game theory

Cancer development is a dynamic and continuously evolving process, with the emergence of drug-resistant cancer cells being one of the primary reasons for the failure of traditional treatments. Adaptive therapy, as an emerging cancer treatment strategy, is increasingly being applied in oncology. In this study, we incorporate pharmacokinetics into a cancer evolutionary game theory model and propose an optimal control problem constrained by maximum drug concentration and maximum tumor burden. Firstly, we demonstrate the existence of an optimal control for this problem. Secondly, using Pontryagin’s minimum principle, we formulated the structure of the optimal control to design an optimal adaptive therapy strategy. Finally, through numerical simulations, we compare the optimal adaptive therapy strategy with other adaptive therapies and traditional treatments, and further develop personalized treatment plans for different patient groups. The results demonstrate that the optimized adaptive treatment strategy effectively preserves a high survival rate of healthy cells during treatment. By maintaining drug-sensitive and drug-resistant cell populations in a state of low-level competition, this approach prevents the proliferation of drug-resistant cells, reduces the tumor burden on patients, and extends overall survival.

Haptic size perception is influenced by body and object orientation

Abstract Changes in body orientation from standing have been shown to impact our perception of visual size. This has been attributed to the vestibular system’s involvement in constructing a representation of the space around our body. In the current study we investigated how body posture influences haptic size perception. Blindfolded participants were tasked with estimating the felt length of a rod and then adjusting it back to its previously felt size (after it had been set to a random length). Participants could feel and adjust the rod in the same posture, standing or supine, or after a change in posture. If the body orientation relative to gravity impacts size perception, we might expect changes in haptic size perception following body tilt. In support of this hypothesis, after changing between standing and supine postures there was a change in the rod’s haptically perceived length but only when the orientation of the rod itself also changed with respect to gravity but not when its orientation was constant. This suggests that body posture influences not only visual but also haptic size perception, potentially due to the vestibular system contributing to the encoding of space with respect to gravity.

Sex hormones correlate with heart rate variability in healthy women and this correlation is conserved in women with well-controlled type 2 diabetes mellitus

The autonomic nervous system and the endocrine system regulate cardiovascular physiology, and their alterations, as occurs in type 2 diabetes mellitus, are related to the development of cardiovascular complications. Sex hormones are major regulators of both cardiovascular and nervous tissue, and during postmenopause, the lack in hormone production can increase the risk for cardiovascular and autonomic diseases, even more in metabolic impairment such as in T2DM However, the evidence regarding whether sex hormones are related to autonomic activity is inconclusive. The goal of this paper was to evaluate the correlation between sex hormones and cardiac autonomic activity, as assessed by heart rate variability (HRV), women with well-controlled type 2 diabetes (T2DM) and healthy women as the control group. Subjects and methods In this study, four groups of women were designated according to their health status (control or T2DM) and fertility status (premenopausal or postmenopausal). Five serum sex hormones were measured (estradiol, progesterone, testosterone, LH and FSH), and time-domain and frequency-domain HRV indices were determined during three conditions: supine position, active standing, and rhythmic breathing. For the complete sample (n=118), bivariate Pearson correlations and linear multiple regressions were used to analyze the relationship between sex hormones, HRV indices, and other independent variables, such as glycemia and age. A p-value <0.05 was considered as significant. Results There were no differences in sex hormones or HRV indices when comparing the healthy and T2DM groups. All bivariate Pearson correlations were significant between sex hormones and HRV indices; estradiol, progesterone, and testosterone have positive correlations; meanwhile, LH and FSH were negative in the time-domain (SDNN, RMSSD, pNN20) and frequency domain (PLF and PHF) indices. Regression models adjusted for mean heartbeat intervals confirmed an association between all sex hormones and HRV indices. Estradiol maintained significance in the regression models for specific HRV indices during supine and active standing conditions even after adjusting for age and glucose levels. Conclusions All sex hormones correlate with HRV indices. Regression analysis confirms that this correlation is independent from the mean heartbeat interval. However, in regression models adjusted for age and glucose levels, only estradiol was found to be significant, and should be considered an important variable related to cardiovascular and autonomic balance in T2DM women and may provide crucial information to improve cardiovascular risk algorithms.

Enhancing xanthan hydrogels for water shutoff treatment in sandstone oil reservoirs through core flooding and CCD approach

Daily briefing: Sea-turtle conservation is working

Minimally Protected and Stereoselective <i>O</i>-Glycosylation of Carboxylic Acid Allows Rapid Access to α-1-<i>O</i>- and 2-<i>O</i>-Acyl Glycosides

Prevalence and associated factors of antenatal depression in rural Bangladesh

Background According to the World Health Organization (WHO), approximately 322 million individuals all over the world suffered from depressive disorders in 2015. The risk of depression increases in pregnancy due to certain hormonal changes in the body. Despite the severe impacts of antenatal depression on both maternal and infant health, research on this issue remains limited in Bangladesh. Objective To identify the prevalence and associated factors of antenatal depression in rural Bangladesh. Method A cross-sectional study was conducted from January 08 to January 14, 2024, in Lohagara, a rural subdistrict of Narail in southern Bangladesh. The study recruited 350 pregnant women in different trimesters who attended antenatal checkups at a government health complex and a private hospital. Data was collected by face-to-face interviews using the Bengali-translated version of the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS) and another structured questionnaire. Pearson’s chi-square test, bivariate, and multivariate logistic regression were conducted to identify associated factors. Data were analyzed using STATA version 14. Result The point prevalence of antenatal depression was 39% (38.9%, 95% CI = 33.9% to 44%). Gestational week (AOR = 0.4, 95% CI = 0.2, 0.8), unintended pregnancy (AOR = 1.7, 95% CI = 1, 3), intimate partner violence (AOR = 3.3, 95% CI = 1.1, 9.7), a history of previous diseases (AOR = 2.4, 95% CI = 1.1, 5.2), and having polygamous husbands (AOR = 13.6, 95% CI = 1.1, 164) were found significantly associated with the development of depression in pregnancy. Conclusion The high prevalence of prenatal depression in rural Bangladesh highlights the urgent need for effective intervention. Raising awareness among healthcare professionals and families of pregnant women is essential to reducing its impact. Strategic planning and policymaking are necessary to address underlying social issues such as polygamy and intimate partner violence. Additionally, providing enhanced counseling and care for women with unplanned pregnancies or pre-existing health conditions is crucial for improving maternal mental well-being.