Two-Photon-Driven Photoprotection Mechanism in Echinenone-Functionalized Orange Carotenoid Protein.

Orange carotenoid protein (OCP) is a photoactive protein that mediates photoprotection in cyanobacteria. OCP binds different ketocarotenoid chromophores such as echinenone (ECN), 3'- hydroxyechinenone (hECN), and canthaxanthin (CAN). In the dark, OCP is in an inactive orange form known as OCP; upon illumination, a red active state is formed, referred to as OCP, that can interact with the phycobilisome.

Grappa - a machine learned molecular mechanics force field.

Simulating large molecular systems over long timescales requires force fields that are both accurate and efficient. In recent years, E(3) equivariant neural networks have lifted the tension between computational efficiency and accuracy of force fields, but they are still several orders of magnitude more expensive than established molecular mechanics (MM) force fields. Here, we propose Grappa, a machine learning framework to predict MM parameters from the molecular graph, employing a graph attentional neural network and a transformer with symmetry-preserving positional encoding.

Early Patching Behaviors that Improve the Chances of Good Visual Acuity in Children Treated for Unilateral Congenital Cataract.

Objective: Achieving near normal vision following unilateral congenital cataract surgery is possible but requires early surgery, optical correction and consistent patching. Patching is often challenging for children and their caregivers. The goal of these analyses is to examine the association between reported consistency in patching during the first year after surgery and visual acuity.

Evaluating metagenomic analyses for undercharacterized environments: what's needed to light up the microbial dark matter?

Non-human-associated microbial communities play important biological roles, but they remain less understood than human-associated communities. Here, we assess the impact of key environmental sample properties on a variety of state-of-the-art metagenomic analysis methods. In simulated datasets, all methods performed similarly at high taxonomic ranks, but newer marker-based methods incorporating metagenomic assembled genomes outperformed others at lower taxonomic levels.

Vision screening for preschoolers with commercial insurance: impact of geography.

Background: The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends pediatric vision screening to detect and refer vision disorders during the critical early years when intervention yields the greatest benefits. We determined the rate of vision screening for US children 3-5 years of age with commercial insurance and compared rates among those living in rural versus urban areas. Children in rural compared with urban areas were expected to have lower rates of vision screening.