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Africa CDC must become financially independent

Speed-accuracy trade-offs in action perception, motor imagery, and execution of hand movements in autistic and non-autistic adults

Abstract Action perception, execution, and imagery share motor-cognitive processes. Given prevalent sensory and motor coordination difficulties in autism, the processes of action perception and imagery may also be altered. This study investigated whether autistic adults can engage in motor imagery by testing potential differences in executing, perceiving, and imagining hand movements between autistic and non-autistic adults. Twenty autistic individuals and twenty age- and IQ-matched controls completed execution, imagination, and perception tasks using a Fitts’ Law paradigm in an online session. For the execution and imagination tasks, participants performed or imagined making aiming movements between two targets. For the action perception task, participants indicated whether they could perform as accurately as the movements in presented videos. Target size and distance were manipulated into three difficulty levels and systematically varied across all tasks. Results showed Fitts’ Law relationships for all tasks for both groups, with significant positive correlations between movement times and difficulty level. Movement times were longest in the imagination task and shortest in the perception task for both groups. These findings suggest motor imagery processes are relatively intact in autistic adults, highlighting that further investigation of motor imagery as a therapy for motor coordination difficulties in autistic individuals is warranted.

Feasibility study of multi Laue lens based SPECT with a dedicated 3D reconstruction algorithm using Monte Carlo simulations

Synergistic effect of Ag(111) and transition metal promoters toward optimization of catalytic ethylene epoxidation selectivity

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Construction and analysis of China’s carbon emission model based on machine learning

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Experimental validation of machine learning for contamination classification of polluted high voltage insulators using leakage current

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Research on CNC machining technology of straight bevel gears based on hypocycloids

Discussions of technologies’ societal impacts are still too limited

Morphology and dimensions of the nasopalatine canal in Palestinian patients assessed using cone beam computed tomography

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Applying bio-organic fertilizer improved saline alkaline soil properties and cotton yield in Xinjiang

The fight to keep big tech in check: digital researchers are in ‘David and Goliath’ battle

A multi-population multi-objective maritime inventory routing optimization algorithm with three-level dynamic encoding

Green credit and enterprises’ carbon emission intensity: empirical data from Chinese microenterprises

Early air-pollution activists fight against city smoke

Global and regional estimates of vaccine-associated herpes zoster and their related vaccines from 1969 to 2023

Abstract Vaccine-induced immunosuppression can reactivate the varicella-zoster virus, potentially leading to the development of herpes zoster. However, the literature on this topic is inconsistent, resulting in limited clarity. Therefore, we aimed to enhance our understanding of vaccine-associated herpes zoster and establish guidelines for future research, utilizing a global database to improve global public health. We investigated vaccine-associated adverse events in herpes zoster using reports (~ 13 million reports) from the WHO international pharmacovigilance database. Data were analyzed for the global number of reports, reported odds ratios (ROR), and information components (IC) to determine the potential association between 18 vaccines and vaccine-associated herpes zoster reports in nearly 170 countries and territories from 1969 to 2023. Of 7,805,380 vaccine-associated adverse events, there were 51,985 herpes zoster reports. Vaccine-associated herpes zoster showed the highest strength of association with COVID-19 mRNA vaccines (ROR, 11.85 [95% CI, 11.70-12.01]; IC, 2.74 [IC0.25, 2.72]), followed by encephalitis (ROR, 4.07 [95% CI, 3.37–4.92]; IC, 2.00 [IC0.25, 1.68]), influenza (ROR, 3.44 [95% CI, 3.28–3.62]; IC, 1.77 [IC0.25, 1.69]), and ad5-vectored COVID-19 vaccines (ROR, 3.05 [95% CI, 2.97–3.14]; IC, 1.54 [IC0.25, 1.50]). The ROR and IC of vaccine-associated herpes zoster in males (ROR, 7.94 [95% CI, 7.80–8.08]; IC, 2.47 [IC0.25, 2.45]) and females (ROR, 6.71 [95% CI, 6.62–6.80]; IC, 2.30 [IC0.25, 2.28]). The ROR and IC increased with advancing age. Our findings emphasize the need to consider the immune status of vaccine recipients and to implement appropriate compensation and management manuals for vaccine-associated herpes zoster.

Precursors of exhausted T cells are pre-emptively formed in acute infection

Abstract T cell exhaustion limits effector T cell function in chronic infection and tumours1,2. The development of these hypofunctional T cells and of their precursors was considered to require stimulatory conditions that are met only after persistent exposure to antigen and inflammation. Here we show, however, that similar T cell populations exist in the early phase of acute infections1,2. At that stage, the early developing TCF1+ precursor population exhibits an unexpected diversity; it includes precursors of normal memory T cells, but also cells with phenotypic, gene-expression and epigenetic profiles that resemble those of precursors of exhausted T cells found in chronic infections. We show that high ligand affinity promotes and PD-1 signalling restricts the development of these precursors. Although the exhausted precursors are at first found frequently, they decline without being completely lost in infections that the immune system resolves. We therefore conclude that precursor T cells with at least two distinct phenotypes are pre-emptively generated irrespective of the outcome of an infection.