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The biogenesis and regulation of animal microRNAs

The relationship between smoking cessation history and significant liver fibrosis among the population with metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease in the United States

Background Smoking was identified as a risk factor for the development of liver fibrosis in patients with metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD). However, the association between smoking cessation history and the development of liver fibrosis remains unclear. This study was intended to analyze the association between smoking cessation history and significant liver fibrosis in adult MASLD participants in the United States. Methods This study utilized data from 2643 patients with MASLD from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES). Significant liver fibrosis was detected based on transient elastography measurements. According to the smoking questionnaire data, patients were categorized as non-smokers, ex-smokers and current smokers. A multivariate logistic regression analysis, adjusted for weights, was performed to investigate the relationship between smoking cessation history and the presence of significant liver fibrosis in participants with MASLD. Results A total of 2643 patients with MASLD were included in this study. Compared with non-smokers, ex-smokers had a slightly elevated risk of developing significant liver fibrosis (OR: 1.07, 95% CI: 1.02–1.13). Specifically, a positive correlation was observed between patients who quit smoking for < 20 years and significant liver fibrosis (OR: 1.07, 95% CI: 1.01–1.15). Furthermore, MASLD patients who started regularly smoking at an age of ≤ 20 years (OR: 1.09, 95% CI: 1.02–1.16) and had a smoking duration of ≥ 10 years before quitting (OR: 1.10, 95% CI: 1.02–1.18) were also highly correlated with an increased likelihood of developing significant liver fibrosis. Conclusions This study revealed that individuals with MASLD who have ceased smoking exhibit an elevated risk for significant liver fibrosis when compared to those who never smoked. It is highly emphasized that MASLD patients who quit smoking for < 20 years, started regularly smoking at an age of ≤ 20 years, and had a smoking duration of ≥ 10 years before quitting should be extremely vigilant regarding the risk of significant liver fibrosis.

Pathogenic variants identification in primary congenital glaucoma patients using whole exome sequencing

Prevalence of intestinal parasite contamination in raw vegetables and school soil samples in Koh Yao, Phang Nga Province, southern Thailand

Parasitic infections remain a significant public health issue in Thailand. Exposure to intestinal parasites occurs through consumption of improperly washed raw vegetables and handling of contaminated soil without proper hygiene. This study assessed the prevalence of intestinal parasites in raw vegetables and school soil, along with the associated factors, in Koh Yao, Phang Nga Province, Thailand. Vegetables (21 types) were collected from local markets and stores in Koh Yao Noi, Koh Yao Yai, and Phru Nai. Moreover, soil samples were collected from playgrounds, football fields, sidewalks, schoolyards, and areas around cafeterias in 13 public primary schools. Approximately 2.3% of vegetable samples (3 out of 131) were contaminated with parasites (one peppermint and two Chinese morning glory samples). The most commonly detected parasites were Ascaris spp. eggs (1.5%) and hookworms (0.8%). Koh Yao Noi had the highest contamination rate of 7.1%, whereas no contamination was observed in samples from Koh Yao Yai and Phru Nai. The contamination rates in vegetables obtained from the three subdistricts showed significant differences (p <  0.05). All contaminated vegetables were grown locally. In soil samples, parasites were detected in 11 of the 13 schools (84.6%). Of the 141 soil samples, 42 (29.8%) were contaminated, and Toxocara spp. were found in all contaminated samples. Phru Nai had the highest soil contamination rate (50%), followed by Koh Yao Yai (20.5%), and Koh Yao Noi (11.4%). There were significant differences in the distribution of parasite contamination across the three subdistricts (p <  0.001) and seasons (p <  0.001). Football fields were the most contaminated areas, with 36% of samples testing positive for parasites. This study highlights the risk of parasitic transmission through contaminated vegetables and soil. Hence, this emphasizes the need for health authorities to educate local communities on proper hygiene practices, including hand washing and thorough vegetable cleaning, to prevent parasitic infections. Implementing preventive measures in schools and communities is crucial for limiting parasitic disease spread.

Factors associated with increased severity of generalized myasthenia gravis among patients in the United States and Europe

Shigella effector IpaH1.4 subverts host E3 ligase RNF213 to evade antibacterial immunity

Correction: Enhanced amygdala–anterior cingulate white matter structural connectivity in Sahaja Yoga Meditators

Publisher Correction: Statistical and data visualization techniques to study the role of one-electron in the energy of neutral and charged clusters of Na39

The greater role of Southern Ocean warming compared to Arctic Ocean warming in shifting future tropical rainfall patterns

Epidemiological factors associated with Turtle fraservirus 1 (TFV1) in freshwater turtles in Florida, USA

Turtle fraservirus 1 (TFV1) is an emerging pathogen that was first discovered in freshwater turtles in peninsular Florida (USA) in 2018. The incubation period, transmission route(s), range of virus-susceptible species, and other key epidemiological factors that pertain to this disease are still unknown. Therefore, the primary aims of this work were to 1) evaluate TFV1 infection and available metadata using an epidemiological framework and 2) summarize our findings into Florida-specific guidance for turtle morbidity (e.g., diseased condition) and mortality investigations by managers faced with limited resources. This study included several species of sick or dead freshwater turtles collected from 9 March 2018 until 5 September 2021. These collections were greatly facilitated by public reporting and submissions from state-permitted wildlife rehabilitation centers. To evaluate data obtained from different stages of a mortality investigation, we developed four datasets pertaining to field collection, necropsy findings, weather conditions, and spatial and temporal patterns. Within each dataset, we used logistic regression to determine the relative effect of available explanatory variables on the probability of a TFV1-positive PCR test result. We found that >50% (47/93) turtles tested positive for TFV1. The presence of cloacal and/or oral plaques in softshell turtles was strongly associated with TFV1-positive infection status. Furthermore, turtles that were collected from clustered mortality events (>1 turtle found sick or deceased) were more likely to test positive, with both distance and time being important defining factors. Our overall findings are compatible with a highly transmissible waterborne virus that is shed in urine or other secretions, and we suggest that future research should prioritize the study of potential direct transmission. The identification and spread of TFV1 in peninsular Florida provide further validation for the strict implementation of biosecurity practices in order to mitigate inadvertent transfer of aquatic pathogens.

Associations of the triglyceride-glucose index with mortality mediated by blood urea nitrogen among critically ill patients: a cohort study

Altermagnetic ground state in distorted Kagome metal CsCr3Sb5

A comprehensive study on characterization of biosynthesized copper-oxide nanoparticles, their capabilities as anticancer and antibacterial agents, and predicting optimal docking poses into the cavity of S. aureus DHFR

The eco-friendly method of producing copperـoxide nanoparticles through the use of okra fruit extract is a simple, economical, rapid, and sustainable technique. The resultant copperـoxide nanoparticles (CuO NP) were analyzed with several analytical methods, such as UV-vis spectroscopy, FourierـTransform Infrared Spectroscopy (FT-IR), and X-Ray Diffraction (XRD), Zeta potential, TransmissionـElectron Microscopy (TEM) and EnergyـDispersive X-ray (EDX) analysis. The CuO NP exhibited a maximum absorbance at 381 nm. The formation of CuO NP was further confirmed by characteristic bands observed at 534 and 588 cm-1. The monoclinic structure of the CuO NP was identified with prominent peaks detected at 2θ values of 32.47°, 35.43°, 38.64°, 48.68°, 53.38°, 58.14°, 61.39°, 66.11°, 67.82°, 72.27°, and 74.96°. The overall findings indicate that the nanoparticles had an average diameter in the approximate range of 10 to 30 nm based on the TEM analysis. The cytotoxicity study, conducted on Human Fibroblast normal HFB4 cell lines, indicated that the halfـmaximal inhibitory concentration (IC50) dose was 236.34 μg/mL. An IC50 dose of 109.46 μg/mL was found in antitumor effect studies using breast adenocarcinoma Mcf- 7 cell lines, revealing a good level of safety for CuO NP. According to the antibacterial study, Staphylococcus aureus and Bacillus cereus had inhibition zone diameters (IZDs) of 29.5 ± 0.7 mm and 24.6 ± 1.2 mm, respectively, making them the most vulnerable bacteria to CuO NP. In contrast, P. aeruginosa was the least sensitive strain, with a minimum IZD of 15 ± 1.6 mm. Compared to gram-negative infections, the CuO NPs were found to have a significantly higher antibacterial effectiveness versus Gram -positive pathogens. Molecular docking against dihydrofolate reductase (DHFR) of Staphylococcus aureus (PDB ID: 6P9Z) illustrated that the CuO NP was partially interlocked with the active site of 6P9Z by the fitting energy value of -44.93 kcal/mol through five classical hydrogen bonds with Ala7, Gln9, Thr46, Ser49, and Phe92. The last one is also generated by the marketing antifolate agent methotrexate (MTX), adding some MTX-like character to the CuO NP inhibitor.

Creep behavior of frozen soil and creep analytical model of frozen wall

Origin, fate and function of extraembryonic tissues during mammalian development

Metavalent alloying and vacancy engineering enable state-of-the-art cubic GeSe thermoelectrics

Development of the Japanese version of the perceived time poverty scale

Background Employed households experience time poverty, which refers to feeling overwhelmed because of the struggle to balance work and life. Time poverty is subjectively perceived as a lack of personal free time. In Japan, long working hours and societal expectations regarding the division of work and family roles may influence the perception of time poverty. This issue is of significant concern, as it can impact individuals’ rest time and work productivity. However, there is currently no standardized measurement method to assess time poverty appropriately in the Japanese context. The lack of such a method challenges establishing a foundation for developing effective support strategies. Given this background, this study aimed to quantify time poverty among employed households by developing a Japanese version of the Perceived Time Poverty Scale and examining its reliability and validity. Methods In developing the Japanese version of the Perceived Time Poverty Scale, cultural adaptations were made in addition to the standard translation and back-translation procedures. Through discussions with researchers and translation experts, terms with differing scopes of interpretation in the Japanese context were revised, and expressions were adjusted to reflect the intended concepts better. The data for this study were collected through Wave 2 of the longitudinal survey, the Hama Study, conducted over a five-year period from 2022 to 2027. This survey randomly selected 10,000 employed households residing in Yokohama, Japan. Participants completed the Japanese version of the Perceived Time Poverty Scale developed in this study, along with the well-being scale, the Kessler Screening Scale for Psychological Distress, and the Japanese Short-Form UCLA Loneliness Scale. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses were conducted to evaluate the scale structure. Internal consistency was assessed using Cronbach’s alpha and McDonald’s omega coefficients. Furthermore, correlations between the Japanese version of the Perceived Time Poverty Scale and the other scales were examined to evaluate the structural validity of the scale. Results Data from 1,979 respondents who participated in the Wave 2 online survey were analyzed. The scale demonstrated high reliability, with a Cronbach’s alpha coefficient 0.90 (95% CI: 0.89–0.91). Exploratory factor analysis confirmed a single-factor structure and confirmatory factor analysis supported this structure with fit indexes (CFI =  0.957, TLI =  0.929, RMSEA =  0.136, SRMR =  0.035). Perceived time poverty was negatively correlated with sleep time and leisure time, and positively correlated with childcare time. Furthermore, perceived time poverty showed significant correlations with well-being, psychological distress, social isolation, and job satisfaction, confirming the validity of the developed scale. Conclusion The Japanese version of the Perceived Time Poverty Scale is a reliable tool with a certain degree of validity for assessing time poverty in Japan. This scale enables individuals and households to recognize time poverty as a modern form of poverty. Furthermore, businesses and local governments can utilize it as an indicator in practical settings, such as improving work environments, implementing childcare support programs, and promoting community health. Future longitudinal studies are needed to further validate the scale, including addressing issues related to model fit.

Graph convolution network for fraud detection in bitcoin transactions

Abstract Anti-money laundering has been an issue in our society from the beginning of time. It simply refers to certain regulations and laws set by the government to uncover illegal money, which is passed as legal income. Now, with the emergence of cryptocurrency, it ensures pseudonymity for users. Cryptocurrency is a type of currency that is not authorized by the government and does not exist physically but only on paper. This provides a better platform for criminals for their illicit transactions. New algorithms have been proposed to detect illicit transactions. Machine learning and deep learning algorithms give us hope in identifying these anomalies in transactions. We have selected the Elliptic Bitcoin Dataset. This data set is a graph data set generated from an anonymous blockchain. Each transaction is mapped to real entities with two categories: licit and illicit. Some of them are not labeled. We have run different algorithms for predicting illicit transactions like Logistic Regression, Long Short Term Memory, Support Vector Machine, Random Forest, and a variation of Graph Neural Networks, which is called Graph Convolution Network (GCN). GCN is of special interest in our case. Different evaluation parameters such as accuracy, ROC and F1 score are analyzed for different models. Our experimental results show that the proposed GCN model gives the accuracy $$98.5\%$$ , the AUC 0.9444 and the RMSE 0.1123, which concludes that our GCN is better than the existing models, in particular with the model proposed in Weber et al. (Anti-money laundering in bitcoin: experimenting with graph convolutional networks for financial forensics, 2019. http://arxiv.org/abs/1908.02591).

Accurate eye tracking from dense 3D surface reconstructions using single-shot deflectometry

The impact of cut-soiler technology on rice-wheat production in salt-affected areas of western Indo-Gangetic Plains of India

Soil salinization poses a significant challenge to agricultural productivity worldwide, particularly in the rice-wheat belt of the western Indo-Gangetic Plains (IGP), where excess sodium salts (sodicity) degrade soil health and threaten crop production. The cut-soiler, a farm machine developed in Japan, is an innovative and cost-effective solution. The cut-soiler constructs residue-filled, shallow subsurface drains, enhancing lateral and vertical water movement through the soil and improving soil conditions and crop productivity. Unlike previous studies confined to semi-controlled experimental settings, this research uniquely evaluates the effectiveness of cut-soiler technology on local farms severely affected by salinization, specifically addressing subsurface sodicity and recurrent waterlogging conditions that hinder agricultural profitability. From 2019 to 2023, feasibility trials were conducted in farmers’ fields across Punjab and Haryana, India, where gypsum was applied alongside crop residue to enhance subsurface soil reclamation. The analysis reveals significant improvements in the rice and wheat yields. The findings suggest that the application of a cut-soiler over an area of 20 hectares produces a positive net present value (NPV > 0), a benefit-cost ratio (BCR > 1), and an internal rate of return (IRR > 10%), thus supporting the financial viability of the investment for the reclamation of sodicity-affected regions. In addition, the cut-soiler reduces crop residue burning, contributing to environmental sustainability. The substantial yield increases observed in both experimental and conventional farming settings highlight the potential of cut-soiler technology to transform agricultural practices in salt-affected regions, improve crop productivity, and boost economic returns for local farmers.