Browse Articles
Discover research articles across all indexed journals
Evaluation of the alkaline water effect on the salivary bacteria of children: preliminary randomized trial
Abstract Dental caries is a major public health concern among children, with Streptococcus species, particularly Streptococcus mutans, playing a key role in its development. This study aimed to compare the effect of alkaline water, chlorhexidine mouthwash, and tap water on the salivary Streptococcus count in children aged 10–12 years. A single-blinded preliminary clinical study was conducted on 60 healthy children aged 10–12 years. Three groups of participants were randomly assigned: one group used alkaline water, another group used mouthwash containing 0.12% chlorhexidine, and the third group used tap water as a control. Participants were followed for three weeks. Children with systemic diseases, orthodontic appliances, or recent use of antibiotics or corticosteroids were excluded. Unstimulated saliva samples were collected at baseline and after the intervention. Salivary Streptococcus counts were determined using standard microbiological techniques. After 3 weeks, mean salivary Streptococcus mutans counts (CFU ×10 5 /ml) were 3.0 ± 0.36 in the alkaline water group, 2.1 ± 1.9 in the chlorhexidine group, and 7.9 ± 0.3 in the tap water group. Both intervention groups demonstrated significantly lower bacterial counts compared with the control group ( p < 0.001), while chlorhexidine showed significantly lower counts than alkaline water. Within the short-term limitations of this study, rinsing with alkaline water demonstrated a significant reduction in salivary Streptococcus mutans counts, although chlorhexidine showed lower bacterial counts after 3 weeks under the conditions of this study. These preliminary findings suggest its potential as an adjunctive oral hygiene agent, and highlight the need for long-term clinical trials to assess its effectiveness in caries prevention. Trial registration : The trial was registered with the Clinical Trial.gov (Number and date NCT06511336, 07/09/2024).
Plug-and-play – enzymatic amino acid production from methanol and carbon dioxide
Abstract Amino acids are the building blocks of proteins and thus among the macronutrients to feed humankind. They have extensive industrial applications as animal feed and food additives like dietary supplements, and flavor enhancers and moreover as chemical precursors. We present the design of a synthetic enzyme cascade system for synthesizing a series of amino acids from methanol. This acts as a case study on how to contribute to the sustainable, renewable energy-based supply of food and feed. The modular nature of the cascade allows for plug-and-play module swapping and fine tuning of enzyme composition to customize the target compound. The one-pot enzymatic systems, capable of utilizing methanol, ammonia, and, partially, carbon dioxide, were employed to synthesize glycine, serine, L-aspartic acid, L-valine, L-glutamic acid, and L-proline. Considering the increasing availability of methanol produced from carbon dioxide through thermocatalytic and even electrocatalytic and photocatalytic processes, methanol represents a key intermediate in future CO 2 -based value chains. In this context, our study provides a pathway for amino acid synthesis and food and feed production based on methanol and CO 2 as carbon building blocks with reduced environmental impact.
A lightweight multimodal image fusion and enhancement method for smoke scenes
Room-temperature ferroelectricity in NaNbO3 membrane
An advanced hybrid intuitionistic fuzzy Z-number framework for IT impact analysis in E-learning systems
Resolving intrinsic dislocation structure in perovskite crystals using pulsed electron beam with atomic resolution
Prognostic value of systemic inflammatory markers in avelumab maintenance for advanced urothelial carcinoma: the multicentric SAILOR analysis
Redox-regulated in situ-forming hydrogel informed by single-cell transcriptomics for functional restoration of injured vocal folds
Evaluation and analysis of the impact of factors affecting urban flooding using SCS-TR20 and SBUH hydrological models
Pulsed-electron illumination does not reduce beam damage for imaging biological macromolecules
Abstract Radiation damage remains a fundamental limitation in cryo-electron microscopy (cryo-EM), constraining the total electron dose that can be used and thus limiting high-resolution imaging of biological specimens. Recent studies have proposed that temporally structured or pulsed electron beams could reduce radiation damage by allowing time for energy dissipation between individual electron interactions. To evaluate this hypothesis, we present a systematic investigation using a radiofrequency (RF) driven 300 kV Titan Krios microscope equipped with a cold field emission gun (c-FEG) to generate pulsed electron beams for specimens under cryogenic conditions. We compare radiation damage in three representative samples: paraffin 2D crystals, bacteriorhodopsin (purple membrane) 2D crystals, and plunge-frozen tobacco mosaic virus (TMV) in vitreous ice, under both pulsed and conventional ( = random) illumination, while keeping all other imaging conditions constant. Radiation damage is quantified by tracking the decay of computed diffraction intensities to determine the critical dose ( N e ). We observe no statistically significant difference in critical dose between pulsed and random illumination across all 3 samples. Our findings provide a critical reference point for future development and evaluation of temporally modulated electron sources in cryo-EM instrumentation.
Association between segmental and whole-body phase angle from bioelectrical impedance analysis and the physical function in community-dwelling older adults
Abstract Bioelectrical impedance analysis (BIA) and the derived phase angle (PhA) are recognized as a marker of cellular integrity and muscle quality, with emerging applications in the early detection of functional decline in older adults. However, evidence on the clinical utility of segmental PhA compared to whole-body measurements remains limited, particularly in community-dwelling populations. In contrast with previous Asian cohorts, this is the first study to systematically assess segmental and total PhA in a community-dwelling Spanish population. A cross-sectional study including 93 community-dwelling older adults aged ≥ 65 years was conducted in Southern Spain (median age: 75.5 years; 54.8% women and 45.2% men). Whole-body and segmental PhA (upper limbs, lower limbs, and trunk) were obtained using multifrequency BIA. Physical function was assessed using the Short Physical Performance Battery (SPPB), handgrip strength, gait speed (6-metre walk test), and lower-limb relative power (LL-rPOW). Multiple linear regression models adjusted by age, sex and BMI evaluated the associations between PhA and functional outcomes. Physical function outcomes (SPPB, LL-rPOW and Gait speed) showed numerically higher associations in an adjusted model with whole-body and lower-limb PhA. Lower-limb PhA demonstrated the highest association with SPPB (adjusted β = 0.538; p < 0.001) and was significantly associated with LL-rPOW (adjusted β = 0.356; p < 0.001) and gait speed (adjusted β = 0.335; p = 0.002). Upper-limb PhA had only significant association with handgrip strength (adjusted β = 0.220; p = 0.008). No significant associations were found for the PhA of the trunk. A clear anatomical specificity was observed, where the association strength of PhA increased when the anatomical region assessed matched the functional domain evaluated. Lower-limb PhA had higher numerically association with lower-extremity performance (SPPB, gait speed, LL-rPOW), whereas upper-limb PhA was primarily related to handgrip strength. Whole-body PhA was significantly associated with overall physical performance but lower-limb segmental PhA showed numerically higher standardized β values for lower-extremity outcomes, indicating greater regional specificity. These findings support segmental BIA as a rapid, non-invasive biomarker in primary care for stratification and monitoring functional status in community-dwelling older adults.
Engineering a robust and autonomous biological funneling for efficient valorization of lignin-related aromatics
Abstract Lignin-related aromatics are promising renewable feedstocks, but their microbial conversion into useful compounds is fundamentally constrained by substrate toxicity and metabolic flux imbalance. Here, we report an autonomous microbial system in Corynebacterium glutamicum , which integrates evolutionary engineering with multiplexed dynamic control to overcome these constraints. This system features a robust, evolved chassis with reinforced cellular defenses and upgraded aromatic efflux machinery. We engineer a layered, multi-input regulatory network that enables real-time, substrate-responsive and precise control of metabolic pathways. This system achieves 99.89% conversion of diverse lignin-related aromatics to protocatechuic acid and subsequently achieves a titer of 53.40 g L⁻¹. This further supports high-titer production of value-added downstream chemicals, including cis,cis -muconic acid and β-ketoadipic acid with titers of 51.90 g L⁻¹ and 38.33 g L⁻¹, respectively. This work establishes a versatile and scalable paradigm for the autonomous bioprocessing of lignin feedstocks into sustainable value-added products.
Targeting Circadian Rhythm to Treat Cancer Pain
Systematic review and meta-analysis of the effects of exercise in older adults with sarcopenia
Structure of core assembly of the Clostridioides difficile germinosome
Abstract The germinosome is the machinery of Clostridioides difficile that sets in motion the process of spore germination to vegetative bacteria. Three highly-regulated proteins—CspA, CspB and CspC—serve as key instigators of germination. We report that CspA and CspB exist independently as homodimers in solution. In the presence of CspC, a picomolar complex of CspA:CspC forms. Furthermore, we document that CspA binds to the germinant, taurocholate, and that the complex CspA:CspC:taurocholate serves as the receptor for glycine, the co-germinant. We report high-resolution X-ray and cryo-EM structures for the three proteins, and for the CspA:CspC:taurocholate complex. These structures show how the CspA:CspC heterodimer recognizes taurocholate and reveal that specific structural features in the three Csp proteins avoid the recognition of the germinant by homodimers. Remarkably, the homodimer of CspB organizes itself in a supramolecular fibril assembly comprised of a three-stranded right-handed superhelix. These proteins are targets for interference with the transition from spore to the vegetative form of C. difficile .
Zero-shot multimodal large language models underperform a domain-trained CNN baseline in pediatric wrist fracture detection
Abstract Multimodal large language models (LLMs) that process text and images are increasingly discussed for medical imaging, yet their diagnostic performance on radiographs remains poorly characterized. We evaluated three commercially available multimodal LLMs (GPT-4o, Claude 3.5 Sonnet, Gemini 1.5 Pro) in a strict zero-shot setting for pediatric wrist fracture detection and compared them with a domain-trained Inception v3 convolutional neural network (CNN) on the same GRAZPEDWRI-DX dataset. We constructed a balanced patient-level test cohort of 1,000 children (2,298 radiographs; 500 fracture, 500 non-fracture). The CNN achieved high diagnostic performance (AUROC 0.905, AUPRC 0.920), whereas all LLMs performed close to chance (accuracies < 0.55, Matthews correlation coefficients ≈ 0) and produced bounding boxes often inconsistent with expert annotations. These findings indicate that, in a strict zero-shot setting, the three commercial multimodal LLMs evaluated here lack reliable diagnostic ability for pediatric wrist fracture detection and should therefore be regarded as exploratory research tools rather than clinically dependable systems for pediatric radiograph interpretation.
Mitochondrial protein OPA3 sustains cardiac function by regulating calcium handling in male mice
Abstract Heart failure (HF) is a growing global health burden characterized by impaired cardiac contractility and progressive remodeling, driven in part by disrupted Ca 2+ handling and mitochondrial dysfunction. However, the molecular mechanisms coordinating these processes remain incompletely understood. Here we showed that OPA3 was decreased in both human and murine HF. Cardiomyocyte-specific deletion of Opa3 in male mice led to the progressive dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM), accompanied by impaired myocardial function, calcium cycling and mitochondria function. Mechanistically, OPA3 forms multimers that are required for its interaction with phospholamban (PLN), thereby maintaining sarcoplasmic reticulum (SR) Ca 2+ -ATPase (SERCA2a) activity and Ca 2+ handling. OPA3 is localized to the mitochondrial outer membrane, and its absence impaired mitochondrial function. Cardiomyocyte-specific overexpression of Opa3 improved cardiac dysfunction in both pressure overload- and doxorubicin-induced HF models. Our data define a critical role of OPA3-PLN-SERCA2a axis that regulates both mitochondria and SR function, representing a potential therapeutic target for HF.
Thermal performance of Casson hybrid nanofluid over expanding/contracting wedges with joule dissipation: a Falkner–Skan problem
Abstract The present investigation explores the heat-transfer attributes and fluid-flow properties of Casson hybrid nanofluid comprising of Cobalt and gold nanoparticles in the base liquid paraffin over an expanding/contracting surface using the Falkner–Skan model. The combination of the applied magnetic field, thermal radiation, and magnetic dissipation improves flow properties and thermal flow attributes. The augmented thermal efficacy of the hybrid nanofluid synergistically amplifies the heat transfer performance of the Casson fluid framework., which accounts for the non-Newtonian behaviour of the fluid, including radiation that augments the heat transfer near the wedge surface, whereas Joule dissipation introduces heat generation. The mathematical model presented for the proposed assumptions is transformed into dimensionless form utilizing transformation rules and then solved numerically, adopting the shooting method and integrating the Runge–Kutta fourth-order technique. The significant characteristics of several factors are presented graphically and elaborated briefly. It is noted that the non-Newtonian rheological characteristic of the fluid retards the thickness of the velocity bounding surface, and the enhanced Casson parameter favours augmenting the heat transfer rate. This enhancement is greater for the bi-hybrid nanofluid compared to the single nanofluid.