Influence of surface type on outdoor gait parameters measured using an In-Shoe Motion Sensor System.

The objectives of this study were to measure outdoor gait parameters using an In-Shoe Motion Sensor System (IMS) and evaluate how different types of surfaces affect various gait dynamics. Accurate outdoor gait data are crucial for effective fall risk assessment because surface irregularities and tripping hazards often result in falls during walking. An IMS was used in this study to collect spatiotemporal, spatial, and foot parameters from 27 healthy adults walking on indoor asphalt, soil, and grass surfaces.

Diurnal variations in gait parameters among older adults with early-stage knee osteoarthritis: insights from wearable sensor technology.

Knee osteoarthritis (KOA) significantly impairs mobility in older adults. Understanding its impact on gait dynamics throughout the day is crucial for optimizing management strategies. This study aimed to explore diurnal variations in gait parameters among older adults with KOA using an in-shoe motion sensor (IMS) system equipped with accelerometers and gyroscopes.

Multiple liver, splenic and psoas abscesses due to melioidosis: A case report.

Melioidosis is caused by community-acquired gram-negative bacillus which resides in soil and water. It was first described in 1912 in Burma and 1927 in Sri Lanka. Melioidosis presents with non-specific clinical and biochemical findings.

Is the rise in childhood obesity rates leading to an increase in hospitalizations due to dengue?

Background: Obesity and diabetes are known risk factors for severe dengue. Therefore, we sought to investigate the association of obesity with increased risk of hospitalization, as there is limited information.

Methods And Findings: Children aged 10 to 18 years (n = 4782), were recruited from 9 districts in Sri Lanka using a stratified multi-stage cluster sampling method.

Magnetic field platform for experiments on well-mixed and spatially structured microbial populations.

Magnetic fields have been shown to affect sensing, migration, and navigation in living organisms. However, the effects of magnetic fields on microorganisms largely remain to be elucidated. We develop an open-source, 3D-printed magnetic field exposure device to perform experiments on well-mixed and spatially structured microbial populations.

application methods differentially affect the tomato growth, rhizomicrobiome, and rhizosphere soil suppressiveness against .

spp. are widely used to enhance crop growth and suppress diverse diseases. However, inconsistent field efficacy remains a major barrier to their use as a reliable alternative to synthetic pesticides.

Fitness effects of a demography-dispersal trade-off in expandingmats.

Fungi expand in space and time to form complex multicellular communities. The mechanisms by which they do so can vary dramatically and determine the life-history and dispersal traits of expanding populations. These traits influence deterministic and stochastic components of evolution, resulting in complex eco-evolutionary dynamics during colony expansion.

Neuromuscular Dysfunction Precedes Cognitive Impairment in a Mouse Model of Alzheimer's Disease.

Alzheimer's disease (AD) develops along a continuum that spans years prior to diagnosis. Decreased muscle function and mitochondrial respiration occur years earlier in those that develop AD; however, it is unknown what causes these peripheral phenotypes in a disease of the brain. Exercise promotes muscle, mitochondria, and cognitive health and is proposed to be a potential therapeutic for AD, but no study has investigated how skeletal muscle adapts to exercise training in an AD-like context.

Colonization efficiency of multidrug-resistant Neisseria gonorrhoeae in a female mouse model.

The rapid occurrence of gonococcal resistance to all classes of antibiotics could lead to untreatable gonorrhea. Thus, development of novel anti-Neisseria gonorrhoeae drugs is urgently needed. Neisseria gonorrhoeae FA1090 is the most used in gonococcal infection mouse models because of its natural resistance to streptomycin.

Investigating Subtypes of Motor Skills and Activities of Daily Living among Young Children with Motor Delay.

The purpose of this study was to classify preschool children into subtypes based on motor skills and to characterize the activities of daily living for each subtype. The subjects were 45 preschool children whose scores on the Movement Assessment Battery for Children-Second Edition (MABC-2) and the Functional Independence Measure for Children (WeeFIM) were measured. The fine score and gross score were calculated from the MABC-2, and a cluster analysis was performed.

Knowledge of nosocomial infections, standard precautions, and source of information among physiotherapy undergraduates in Sri Lanka; an observational study.

Background: Physiotherapists and physiotherapy undergraduates have direct contact with patients which make them transmitters of infections if they do not follow standard precautions. Hence, the purpose of this study was to assess the knowledge of nosocomial infections, standard precautions, and source of information among physiotherapy undergraduates in Sri Lanka.

Methods: An observational Google based survey study was conducted among 294 physiotherapy undergraduates, of which there were 103 in University of Peradeniya, 103 in University of Colombo, and 88 in General Sir John Kotelawala Defence University.

Evaluation of 1,3,4-Thiadiazole Carbonic Anhydrase Inhibitors for Gut Decolonization of Vancomycin-Resistant Enterococci.

Vancomycin-resistant enterococci (VRE), and , are high-priority drug-resistant pathogens in need of new therapeutic approaches. VRE originate in the gastrointestinal tract of carriers and can lead to more problematic downstream infections in the healthcare setting. Having a carrier of VRE admitted into a healthcare setting increases the risk to other patients for acquiring an infection.

Explanation of hand, foot, and mouth disease cases in Japan using Google Trends before and during the COVID-19: infodemiology study.

Background: Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic affects common diseases, but its impact on hand, foot, and mouth disease (HFMD) is unclear. Google Trends data is beneficial for approximate real-time statistics and because of ease in access, is expected to be used for infection explanation from an information-seeking behavior perspective. We aimed to explain HFMD cases before and during COVID-19 using Google Trends.

Significant Features for Human Activity Recognition Using Tri-Axial Accelerometers.

Activity recognition using wearable sensors has become essential for a variety of applications. Tri-axial accelerometers are the most widely used sensor for activity recognition. Although various features have been used to capture patterns and classify the accelerometer signals to recognise activities, there is no consensus on the best features to choose.

Designing Tangibles to Support Emotion Logging for Older Adults: Development and Usability Study.

Background: The global population is aging, leading to shifts in health care needs. In addition to developing technology to support physical health, there is an increasing recognition of the need to consider how technology can support emotional health. This raises the question of how to design devices that older adults can interact with to log their emotions.

Loneliness in older people and COVID-19: Applying the social identity approach to digital intervention design.

The COVID-19 pandemic is worsening loneliness for many older people through the challenges it poses in engaging with their social worlds. Digital technology has been offered as a potential aid, however, many popular digital tools have not been designed to address the needs of older adults during times of limited contact. We propose that the Social Identity Model of Identity Change (SIMIC) could be a foundation for digital loneliness interventions.

Soybean Roots and Soil From High- and Low-Yielding Field Sites Have Different Microbiome Composition.

The occurrence of high- (H) and low- (L) yielding field sites within a farm is a commonly observed phenomenon in soybean cultivation. Site topography, soil physical and chemical attributes, and soil/root-associated microbial composition can contribute to this phenomenon. In order to better understand the microbial dynamics associated with each site type (H/L), we collected bulk soil (BS), rhizosphere soil (RS), and soybean root (R) samples from historically high and low yield sites across eight Pennsylvania farms at V1 (first trifoliate) and R8 (maturity) soybean growth stages (SGS).

Genomics and Informatics, Conjoined Tools Vital for Understanding and Protecting Plant Health.

Genomics' impact on crop production continuously expands. The number of sequenced plant and microbial species and strains representing diverse populations of individual species rapidly increases thanks to the advent of next-generation sequencing technologies. Their genomic blueprints revealed candidate genes involved in various functions and processes crucial for crop health and helped in understanding how the sequenced organisms have evolved at the genome level.

Complete genome for serovar 8 reference strain 405: comparative analysis with draft genomes for different laboratory stock cultures indicates little genetic variation.

We report here the complete genome sequence of the widely studied serovar 8 reference strain 405, generated using the Pacific Biosciences (PacBio) RS II platform. Furthermore, we compared draft sequences generated by Illumina sequencing of six stocks of this strain, including the same original stock used to generate the PacBio sequence, held in different countries and found little genetic variation, with only three SNPs identified, all within the gene. However, sequences of two small plasmids, pARD3079 and p405tetH, detected by Illumina sequencing of the draft genomes were not identified in the PacBio sequence of the reference strain.

InNetGAN: Inception Network-Based Generative Adversarial Network for Denoising Low-Dose Computed Tomography.

Low-dose Computed Tomography (LDCT) has gained a great deal of attention in clinical procedures due to its ability to reduce the patient's risk of exposure to the X-ray radiation. However, reducing the X-ray dose increases the quantum noise and artifacts in the acquired LDCT images. As a result, it produces visually low-quality LDCT images that adversely affect the disease diagnosing and treatment planning in clinical procedures.

Mitochondria-localized AMPK responds to local energetics and contributes to exercise and energetic stress-induced mitophagy.

Mitochondria form a complex, interconnected reticulum that is maintained through coordination among biogenesis, dynamic fission, and fusion and mitophagy, which are initiated in response to various cues to maintain energetic homeostasis. These cellular events, which make up mitochondrial quality control, act with remarkable spatial precision, but what governs such spatial specificity is poorly understood. Herein, we demonstrate that specific isoforms of the cellular bioenergetic sensor, 5' AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPKα1/α2/β2/γ1), are localized on the outer mitochondrial membrane, referred to as mitoAMPK, in various tissues in mice and humans.

Fusarium Head Blight of Small Grains in Pennsylvania: Unravelling Species Diversity, Toxin Types, Growth, and Triazole Sensitivity.

is the main causal species of Fusarium head blight (FHB) globally. Recent changes in the trichothecene (toxin) types in the North American FHB pathogens support the need for continued surveillance. In this study, 461 isolates were obtained from symptomatic spikes of wheat, spelt, barley, and rye crops during 2018 and 2019.

Complex II subunit SDHD is critical for cell growth and metabolism, which can be partially restored with a synthetic ubiquinone analog.

Background: Succinate dehydrogenase (Complex II) plays a dual role in respiration by catalyzing the oxidation of succinate to fumarate in the mitochondrial Krebs cycle and transferring electrons from succinate to ubiquinone in the mitochondrial electron transport chain (ETC). Mutations in Complex II are associated with a number of pathologies. SDHD, one of the four subunits of Complex II, serves by anchoring the complex to the inner-membrane and transferring electrons from the complex to ubiquinone.

Aseptic meningitis as the initial presentation of Leptospira borgpetersenii serovar Tarassovi: two case reports and a literature review.

Background: Leptospirosis is a zoonotic illness caused by pathogenic spirochetes of the genus Leptospira. The disease spectrum ranges from a mild influenza-like presentation to a more serious Weil's syndrome. Leptospirosis rarely presents as a primary neurological syndrome.