Browse Articles

Impact of maternal education levels and occupation status and their interaction effect on adverse maternal–perinatal outcomes among women with singleton and twin gestations in Hubei, China

Enhanced phytoremediation of heavy metal-contaminated soil and responses of plant-microbial communities in alternating current reactor system

Selection of stable reference genes for accurate RT-qPCR analysis in canine MSCs across tissues, replicative stages, and differentiation states

Sliding mode control of robot manipulators via an improved recurrent neural network and barrier functions

Association between platelet transfusion and acute kidney injury in septic patients with severe thrombocytopenia

Abstract Severe thrombocytopenia frequently occurs in patients with sepsis in the intensive care unit (ICU) and carries a poor prognosis. The safety of prophylactic platelet transfusion in the absence of active bleeding remains debatable. As platelets possess pro-inflammatory and prothrombotic properties, we hypothesized that transfusion may contribute to renal microcirculatory injury and acute kidney injury (AKI). We evaluated whether platelet transfusion and its cumulative dose were independently associated with AKI and mortality in sepsis. We conducted a retrospective cohort study using the Medical Information Mart for Intensive Care IV (MIMIC-IV) database (2008–2019). Adults meeting Sepsis-3 criteria with platelet counts below 50 × 10^9/L and no active bleeding were eligible. Patients were classified based on whether they received platelets within 48 h of sepsis onset. The primary endpoint was stage 2 or higher AKI (Kidney Disease: Improving Global Outcomes [KDIGO] creatinine criteria, 7-day window), and the secondary endpoint was 30-day all-cause mortality. We used propensity score matching (PSM) and multivariate logistic regression to account for confounding factors and performed multiple sensitivity analyses to evaluate robustness. Of 1,413 patients included (640 transfused, 773 not), AKI was more frequent in the transfusion group after PSM (64.9% vs. 55.3%; p  = 0.004; adjusted odds ratio [aOR] 1.55, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.15–2.09). A borderline dose-response trend was observed (aOR 1.03 per 1 mL/kg; p  = 0.037), and restricted cubic splines confirmed the linearity (nonlinearity p  = 0.72). Transfusion was not associated with 30-day mortality after adjustment ( p  = 0.877). The direction of the AKI association was consistent across all 12 sensitivity analyses (odds ratio [OR] range 1.12–1.55), including a landmark analysis that excluded patients with AKI onset before their first transfusion (aOR 1.32, p  = 0.044) and pooled estimates from 36 multiply imputed datasets using Rubin’s rules (aOR 1.37, p  = 0.020). When we adjusted for concurrent red blood cell transfusion, the platelet-AKI association was attenuated (aOR 1.24, p  = 0.132), indicating that co-transfusion was a relevant confounder. Prophylactic platelet transfusion in patients with sepsis and severe thrombocytopenia was associated with a higher AKI risk across several analytic approaches. However, the attenuation after blood product adjustment and the limitations inherent to retrospective data prevent us from drawing causal conclusions. These results argue for caution with liberal transfusion and support the need for prospective investigations.

CRISPR-based dual-mode detection of measles virus for laboratory and point-of-care applications

Abstract Rapid, sensitive, and field-deployable diagnostic tools are crucial for effective outbreak management. To address this need, we developed a one-pot, contamination-free assay integrating reverse transcription loop-mediated isothermal amplification (RT-LAMP) with clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR-Cas12a) for the rapid and precise detection of the measles virus (MeV). RT-LAMP primers were designed to target conserved regions of the MeV genome. Reaction conditions—including temperature, MgSO 4, deoxynucleotide triphosphates (dNTPs), and Bst polymerase concentrations—were systematically optimized to achieve robust amplification. CRISPR RNA (crRNA) was designed to target these regions. CRISPR-Cas12a reagents were preloaded into the tube lid. Following RT-LAMP amplification, CRISPR reagents were added to the tubes and mixed by manual shaking. CRISPR-Cas12a demonstrated highly specific target recognition and collateral reporter cleavage activities. Fluorescence detection in laboratory settings and lateral-flow readouts in point-of-care applications were evaluated. Representative sensitivity experiments detected MeV templates down to 10 copies per reaction, while Probit regression analysis estimated LoD 95 of 32.25 copies per reaction, compared with 97.32 copies per reaction RT-LAMP alone. The assay demonstrated high analytical specificity, with no cross-reactivity observed against other common respiratory viruses. The MeV-CRISPR assay was completed within 45–50 min. Overall, this platform provided rapid, sensitive, and specific detection of MeV, showing strong potential for field applications in outbreak surveillance.

Female visitors construct the robust architectural core of flower-visitor networks

Abstract Complex ecological community stability is a central issue in ecology. While network robustness is widely evaluated using coextinction models, empirical metrics are highly sensitive to structural artifacts such as network size and connectance. Furthermore, the role of visitor sex in shaping network topology is frequently overlooked. This study investigated the true structural robustness of flower-visitor networks by partitioning them into female and male subnetworks. To rigorously disentangle topological resilience from size-dependent artifacts, empirical robustness metrics against both simulated visitor and flower extinctions were standardized into Z -scores using two distinct null models. While raw empirical measurements misleadingly suggested that the combined full networks were the most robust, null-model standardizations revealed a profound reversal. Against visitor extinctions, female subnetworks demonstrated significantly higher structural robustness than the full networks. This female-driven resilience persisted even when highly abundant eusocial bees were fully excluded. Conversely, this robustness was not observed against flower extinctions, reflecting a trophic asymmetry where plants act as indispensable hubs. These findings provide the first empirical evidence that female foraging behaviors construct the true, highly resilient architectural core of pollination communities.

A learning-dynamics-driven framework for robust small-object detection in complex field environments: YOLOv11l-AGRI-EMA framework

TSPYL2 regulated by miR-301a-3p contributes to impaired decidualization in polycystic ovary syndrome

Room-temperature flash sintering of silicon carbide ceramics via novel carbon electrodes

Phytochemical and pharmacological potentials of edible Lannea coromandelica fruit: a GC–MS supported, in vitro, in vivo, and in silico studies

Longitudinal validation of equations for predicting fat and lean mass from air displacement plethysmography in children with obesity

Individual-level reconstruction of longitudinal anti-spike binding antibody kinetics under hybrid immunity

Yield-aware generative inverse design of anti-reflection coatings via optimal-transport flow matching with a conditional-value-at-risk objective

Abstract Robustness to deposition error is conventionally treated as a post-hoc Monte-Carlo check in multilayer anti-reflection (AR) coating design: a nominally optimal stack is found first, and its manufacturing tolerance is assessed afterwards. We move robustness directly into the design objective. Instead of minimizing the mean reflectance, we minimize the conditional value-at-risk (CVaR) of the band-mean reflectance under the distribution of deposition errors, so that the optimizer is driven by the worst tail of likely fabrication outcomes rather than by an idealized nominal spectrum. This yield-aware formulation is combined with an Optimal-Transport Conditional Flow Matching (OT-CFM) generator operating under a hard manufacturability constraint enforced by a smooth box reparameterization, and with a differentiable transfer-matrix forward model validated against the analytic quarter-wave result to machine precision. On a six-layer MgF $$_2$$ /SiO $$_2$$ stack evaluated on $$10^5$$ held-out deposition realizations applied identically to every design, the CVaR-robust design lowers the 99th-percentile band-mean reflectance from 1.825 0.0257 pp (95% paired-bootstrap confidence interval $$[+0.0230,+0.0274]$$  pp; $$+1.41\%$$ relative, CI $$[+1.26,+1.50]\%$$ ), at the cost of a 0.011 pp increase in nominal mean reflectance. Because both designs are scored on the same realizations, this is a paired comparison in which the shared sampling noise cancels; the improvement is small in absolute terms, and we report it together with the sampling uncertainty that establishes it. Repeating the entire optimize-then-evaluate workflow under five independent random seeds reproduces the effect in every run ( $$+1.22 \pm 0.10\%$$ , mean ± s.e.m.). A deposition-error sweep shows the advantage is absent at $$\sigma = 4 nm$$ , opens above that break-even point, and then plateaus: the absolute tail reduction increases monotonically across the sweep, whereas the relative gain rises to $$+2.34\%$$ at $$\sigma = 12 nm$$ and settles at $$+2.19\%$$ at 16 nm. A material-choice ablation, restricted to the three six-layer recipes tested here on fused silica over 430 nm to 780 nm, documents a negative result: within this design space, introducing high-index TiO $$_2$$ degrades AR performance.

A robust multivariate statistical framework for integrative analysis of anthropometric and biophysiological health data

Investigation of the maize (Zea mays L.) JAZ pan-gene family and expression pattern under drought stress conditions

Abstract The hormone jasmonic acid (JA) regulates plant growth and development, acts as a stress-tolerant signaling molecule, and ensures tolerance to drought stressors. The jasmonate zim-domain (JAZ) functions as a transcriptional repressor by directly interacting with transcription factors, regulating the activity of JA pathway transcription factors when JA signaling is absent. We systematically identified JAZ gene family members using a maize pangenome comprising 26 high-quality genomes. We analyzed evolutionary pressure and structural variation (SV), and reanalyzed public RNA-seq data under drought stress. Sequential expression patterns were further validated using qRT-PCR. In this study, 112 JAZ genes were identified by pan-genomic analysis of 26 high-quality maize genomes, including 12 core genes (present in all 26 lines), 33 non-core genes (in 2–22 lines), 5 near-core genes (in 23–25 lines), and 62 endemic genes (in 1 line). Analysis of Ka/Ks values showed that some varieties were under positive selection for the JAZ19 gene. Among these, 15 ZmJAZ genes had Ka/Ks values < 1, indicating they were subject to purifying selection. There were significant differences in the expression of ZmJAZ19 between genes affected by structural variation (SV) and those not affected by SV. SV altered the conserved structural domains in some varieties, resulting in a significant number of atypical genes. RNA-seq analysis of drought treatment data revealed seven differentially expressed ZmJAZ genes, four of which were core genes. However, atypical genes were identified in numerous response genes across multiple genomes. This study advances our understanding of how ZmJAZ genes contribute to drought adaptation in maize, offering a conceptual framework that links molecular responses to climate-resilient traits essential for sustainable crop production under water-limited conditions in the face of climate change.

Protocadherin 9 Promotes Cell Survival of Different Bipolar Cell Types in the Developing Mouse Retina

Neural circuit assembly relies on different neuronal types coming together to form a functional circuit. The question of how the appropriate number of each type is integrated into an emerging circuit remains relatively unknown. To answer this question, we used the mouse retina to uncover the molecular mechanisms responsible for neuron-type integration in a developing circuit. In the mammalian retina, bipolar cells (BCs) are a class of interneurons that relay visual information from photoreceptors to ganglion cells. Extensive studies have shown there are 15 distinct BC types: 6 types of OFF cone bipolars, 8 types of ON cone bipolars, and 1 type of rod bipolar. During retinal development, BCs are born in excess, and through programmed cell death, a precise number of each type remains to give rise to the retinal circuit. Although this process has been well described, little is known about the key molecules responsible for BC-type integration in the developing retina. Our work uncovered the new role of the autism-associated risk gene, Protocadherin 9 ( Pcdh9 ), in BCs of both male and female mice. Deletion of Pcdh9 using a floxed allele leads to loss of OFF and ON cone bipolars; however, disruption in the extracellular binding of Pcdh9 leads to selective loss of ON cone bipolars but not rod bipolars. Moreover, we found this later function of Pcdh9 is mediated by homophilic interactions between ON cone bipolars and their known synaptic partners. Taken together, our work revealed the new role of Pcdh9 in retinal development.

Sociodemographic, lifestyle, and mental health correlates of insomnia symptoms among adults in Zhuhai, China: a cross-sectional study

Valorization of reactivated carbon and recovered nutrients from gas adsorption filters for sustainable fertilization

Abstract In response to growing environmental concerns from industrial and agricultural pollution, sustainable waste management strategies are increasingly important. This study presents a dual evaluation of spent activated carbon (AC) and nutrients recovered from gas adsorption filters, focusing on both fertilizer applications and the valorization of reactivated carbon. Adsorbent materials, such as AC impregnated with magnesium oxides, effectively capture harmful exhaust gases, but their disposal poses environmental challenges. Here, the chemical composition of spent AC was analyzed, and its potential as a soil amendment was assessed. Various nutrient recovery methods, including acidic, alkaline, and water-based extractions, were evaluated for their efficiency in retrieving nutrients from the spent adsorbent. The recovered solutions were chemically characterized based on Fe, K, and Mg concentrations. Results showed that alkaline extraction using 3% KOH yielded the highest in the recovered solution (Fe 7.45%, K 1.89%, Mg 1.22%), highlighting potential for producing nutrient-rich liquid fertilizers. Water-based extraction preserved the AC pore structure most effectively, achieving the highest BET surface area (118.18 m²/g), while acidic HCl treatment was associated with reduced surface area and pore volume, suggesting restricted pore accessibility and possible structural deterioration. Reducing adsorption performance. Germination assays revealed that water-washed filtrates promoted the greatest barley root elongation, whereas KOH filtrates exhibited inhibitory effects, reflecting differences in ionic composition. Economically, water-based regeneration was the most cost-effective (< 10% of virgin AC), while KOH treatment provided the dual benefit of reactivating AC for reuse and producing nutrient-rich solutions. Overall, the findings demonstrate that reused activated carbon coupled with recovered nutrients can enhance sustainable agriculture and support circular waste management systems.

Acid‐Base Complexation Induced Dipole Engineering for Durable Inverted Perovskite Photovoltaics

ABSTRACT Thermally unstable buried interfaces hinder the commercialization of inverted perovskite solar cells (PSCs). Although self‐assembled monolayers (SAMs) serve as promising hole‐selective contacts, their inadequate coverage and weak thermal anchoring cause energy loss and structural degradation. Here, we introduce a dipole‐engineering strategy by incorporating 4‐aminopyridine (4‐AP) into the Me‐4PACz matrix to form a robust electrostatic complex via acid‐base complexation. This approach suppresses aggregation, ensures uniform coverage, enables a vertical molecular orientation, and enhances the interfacial dipole moment from 1.64 to 8.34 Debye, thereby improving hole extraction. The resulting small‐area (0.09 cm 2 ) inverted PSC achieves a power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 27.06% and an open‐circuit voltage ( V OC ) of 1.194 V. This approach also enables large‐area modules (655.2 cm 2 ) with an efficiency of 20.3% (certified 20.11%) and a fill factor of 79.9%. Additionally, the devices demonstrate exceptional thermal stability, retaining 90.1% and 89.3% of their initial PCE after 1000 h at 85°C and 200 thermal cycles, respectively. This work provides a generalizable pathway toward durable and high‐performance perovskite photovoltaics by leveraging supramolecular interactions for interfacial dipole engineering.