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NuFold: end-to-end approach for RNA tertiary structure prediction with flexible nucleobase center representation
Identification of a cryptic unbalanced translocation Der(22)t(12;22)(q24.33;q13.33) in a large Chinese family with Phelan-McDermid syndrome by nanopore sequencing
Quantum machine learning with Adaptive Boson Sampling via post-selection
BMI gain and dietary characteristics are risk factors of MASLD in non-obese individuals
Abstract This longitudinal observational study aimed to evaluate whether cardiometabolic factors and dietary characteristics are determinants of metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD) in non-obese individuals (body mass index [BMI] < 25 kg/m²). The study was conducted at the Japanese Red Cross Society Kyoto Daiichi Hospital. Clinical data were longitudinally recorded at annual health checks. The diagnosis of MASLD was based on the results of abdominal ultrasonography and cardiometabolic criteria. Lifestyle behaviors and dietary characteristics were assessed using a self-administered questionnaire. A total of 4,100 non-obese middle-aged and older participants (1,636 men and 2,464 women) were followed up for an average of 6.44 ± 4.16 years. During the follow-up period, there were 410 new cases of MASLD in men (25.1%) and 484 in women (19.6%). The incidence rate was higher for men (39.7 per 1,000 person-years) than for women (30.1 per 1,000 person-years). Multivariable-adjusted logistic regression analyses using the rate of change per year with standardized values found that BMI gain was strongly associated with the onset of MASLD for both men (OR: 1.90, 95% CI: 1.64–2.19) and women (OR: 1.95, 95% CI: 1.72–2.21). Increased waist circumference and triglycerides were also associated with MASLD onset for both men and women. Lowering of high-density lipoprotein cholesterol was identified as a risk factor for MASLD in both men and women. Regarding dietary characteristics, the onset of MASLD was significantly and negatively associated with “often eating vegetables” for men (OR: 0.73, 95% CI: 0.57–0.93) and “often eating soy products” for women (OR: 0.71, 95% CI: 0.58–0.88), even after adjusting for BMI change and other covariates. These findings suggest that maintaining body weight and favorable dietary characteristics are key factors in the prevention of MASLD in non-obese individuals.
Lactobacillus reuteri ZJ617 attenuates metabolic syndrome via microbiota-derived spermidine
Peptide nucleic acid-immobilised paper combined with multiplex recombinase polymerase amplification for the ultrasensitive and rapid detection of rifampicin-resistant tuberculosis
Anomalous entropy-driven kinetics of dislocation nucleation
Abstract The kinetics of dislocation reactions, such as dislocation multiplication, controls the plastic deformation in crystals beyond their elastic limit, therefore critical mechanisms in a number of applications in materials science. We present a series of large-scale molecular dynamics simulations that shows that one such type of reactions, the nucleation of dislocation at free surfaces, exhibit unconventional kinetics, including unexpectedly large nucleation rates under compression, very strong entropic stabilization under tension, as well as strong non-Arrhenius behavior. These unusual kinetics are quantitatively rationalized using a variational transition state theory approach coupled with an efficient numerical scheme for the estimation of vibrational entropy changes. These results highlight the need for a variational treatment of the kinetics to quantitatively capture dislocation reaction kinetics, especially at low-to-moderate strains where large deformations are required to activate reactions. These observations suggest possible explanations to previously observed unconventional deformation kinetics in both molecular dynamics simulations and experiments.
Impact of 17-alpha ethinyl estradiol (EE2) and diethyl phthalate (DEP) exposure on microRNAs expression and their target genes in differentiated SH-SY5Y cells
Abstract Environmental endocrine disruptor chemicals (EDCs) have raised significant concerns due to their potential adverse effects on human health, particularly on the central nervous system (CNS). This study provides a comparative analysis of the effects of 17-alpha ethinyl estradiol (EE2) and diethyl phthalate (DEP) on neuronal cell proliferation and neurotoxicity. Using differentiated SH-SY5Y human neuronal cells, we evaluated cell viability, microRNA (miRNA) regulation, and RNA expression following exposure to subtoxic concentrations of EE2 and DEP. Our results show that both EDCs downregulated specific miRNAs—miR-18b-5p, miR-200a-3p, and miR-653-5p—affecting key processes such as cell proliferation, survival, and apoptosis. Gene expression analysis revealed the upregulation of EGFR, IGF1R, BTG2, and SH3BP4, implicating these miRNAs in the regulation of the Ras and PI3K/Akt/mTOR pathways. Our findings highlight distinct cellular responses: DEP disrupts PTEN activity, while EE2 enhances phosphorylation within the PI3K/Akt/mTOR pathway, promoting pro-survival and anti-apoptotic signals. This study emphasizes the urgent need for regulatory measures to mitigate the neurotoxic effects of EDCs and offers valuable insights into their molecular impacts on brain health.
Noise amplification and ill-convergence of Richardson-Lucy deconvolution
Abstract Richardson-Lucy (RL) deconvolution optimizes the likelihood of the object estimate for an incoherent imaging system. It can offer an increase in contrast, but converges poorly, and shows enhancement of noise as the iteration progresses. We have discovered the underlying reason for this problematic convergence behaviour using a Cramér Rao Lower Bound (CRLB) analysis. An analytical expression for the CRLB diverges for spatial frequency components that approach the diffraction limit from below. The resulting mean noise variance per pixel diverges for large images. These results imply that a regular optimum of the likelihood does not exist, and that RL deconvolution is necessarily ill-convergent.
Relationship Between Body Mass Index and Low Skeletal Muscle Mass in Adults Based on NHANES 2011–2018
Correction for Gadea et al., The smallest electrochemical bubbles
CD133+PD-L1+ cancer cells confer resistance to adoptively transferred engineered macrophage-based therapy in melanoma
Retraction Note: Confidence level based complex polytopic fuzzy Einstein aggregation operators and their application to decision-making process
Taming large-scale genomic analyses via sparsified genomics
Abstract Searching for similar genomic sequences is an essential and fundamental step in biomedical research. State-of-the-art computational methods performing such comparisons fail to cope with the exponential growth of genomic sequencing data. We introduce the concept of sparsified genomics where we systematically exclude a large number of bases from genomic sequences and enable faster and memory-efficient processing of the sparsified, shorter genomic sequences, while providing comparable accuracy to processing non-sparsified sequences. Sparsified genomics provides benefits to many genomic analyses and has broad applicability. Sparsifying genomic sequences accelerates the state-of-the-art read mapper (minimap2) by 2.57-5.38x, 1.13-2.78x, and 3.52-6.28x using real Illumina, HiFi, and ONT reads, respectively, while providing comparable memory footprint, 2x smaller index size, and more correctly detected variations compared to minimap2. Sparsifying genomic sequences makes containment search through very large genomes and large databases 72.7-75.88x (1.62-1.9x when indexing is preprocessed) faster and 723.3x more storage-efficient than searching through non-sparsified genomic sequences (with CMash and KMC3). Sparsifying genomic sequences enables robust microbiome discovery by providing 54.15-61.88x (1.58-1.71x when indexing is preprocessed) faster and 720x more storage-efficient taxonomic profiling of metagenomic samples over the state-of-the-art tool (Metalign).
Advanced optical reinforcement materials based on three-dimensional four-way weaving structure and metasurface technology
By integrating the design principles of broadband metamaterial absorbers with woven structures, this study introduces a woven composite metamaterial (WCM) made of resin and AlCuFe quasicrystals, enabling optical materials to operate efficiently across a wide spectral range while withstanding mechanical deformation. This lightweight metamaterial features a unique 3D four-way braided structure combined with Dirac semimetals. Static analysis reveals that AlCuFe quasicrystals significantly enhance mechanical properties, with a Young's modulus reaching 38 GPa in the z direction and 18 GPa in the x and y directions at 40% fiber content and a 30° weaving angle. Frequency domain simulations show a high average absorption rate of 83.4% in the 3–12 μm range, primarily due to internal electromagnetic coupling. The study further reveals that the electromagnetic properties of the WCM are closely related to fiber content and weaving angle. As a lightweight optical material, the WCM shows strong application potential in fields such as aerospace and electromagnetic countermeasures.
A 780 nm optical frequency standard based on diffuse laser cooled 87Rb atoms
We demonstrate an optical frequency standard by locking the output frequency of an external cavity diode laser to the 780 nm D2 transition of diffuse laser cooled 87Rb atoms using frequency modulation spectroscopy (FMS). A 50-cm-long cold atomic cloud is obtained within a ϕ 2 cm ×l 50 cm vacuum glass tube, featuring greater simplicity and reliability. By analyzing the impact of power and detuning of cooling and repumping lasers, and power of frequency-modulated laser on FMS based on cold atoms, we choose the optimal parameter and lock the laser frequency to the 87Rb 52S1/2 (F = 2) → 52P3/2 (F′ = 3) cycling transition. The cold-atom-based optical frequency standard achieves an in-loop frequency stability of 3.3 × 10−15 at 1 s, with peak-to-peak frequency fluctuations being less than 50 Hz within 6000 s. This represents the integration of cold atoms into an optical frequency standard utilizing FMS for frequency stabilization. In contrast to the common cold-atom optical frequency standards, our approach requires fewer lasers and eliminates the need for a complex and expensive Pound–Drever–Hall (PDH) system. Its low complexity makes it a promising candidate for development into a space cold-atom clock, promoting advancements in space science and navigational positioning. Additionally, it possesses great potential to serve as an absolute wavelength standard.
Impact of mechanically applied strain on Auger recombination in InGaAs multiple quantum wells
We present the results of direct measurements of the effect of mechanically applied biaxial strain on Auger recombination rates in InGaAs quantum wells grown on InP. By mounting these structures on a flexible membrane, we applied strain mechanically rather than by changing the quantum well alloy fraction. Specifically, we employed time-resolved photoluminescence spectroscopy to probe the recombination dynamics in the degenerate carrier regime. From these measurements, we extract the non-degenerate cubic Auger coefficient C30. We found that applying 1.59% tensile biaxial strain increased the Auger C30 coefficient by 325% in one of our samples. These results support the hypothesis that the mechanical strain induced by heteroepitaxy plays a direct role in mitigating Auger recombination in InP-based telecommunication-range lasers.
Instantaneous self-recovery and ultra-low detection limit hydrogel electronic sensor for temporomandibular disorders intelligent diagnosis
BEOL-compatible Te-TeO<i>x</i> p-FETs with channel length down to 50 nm at cryogenic temperatures
In this work, we present p-type Te-TeOx FETs with BEOL-compatibility targeting high-performance computing at cryogenic temperatures. The devices feature aggressively scaled channel lengths (Lch of 50 nm) deposited using the sputtering method that is cost-effective, large-scale manufacturable, and highly controllable. We investigated the effects of oxygen content and film thickness in the sputtered channel layer on device performance. The device achieves a maximum transconductance (Gm, max) of 142 μS/μm, an on/off ratio exceeding 3 × 108, a subthreshold swing (SS) of 99 mV/Dec., a high hole mobility of 28.6 cm2/V s, and excellent NBTI and PBTI reliability characteristics at 77 K.