Distinct SARS-CoV-2 populational immune backgrounds tolerate divergent RBD evolutionary preferences.

Immune evasion is a pivotal force shaping the evolution of viruses. Nonetheless, the extent to which virus evolution varies among populations with diverse immune backgrounds remains an unsolved mystery. Prior to the widespread SARS-CoV-2 infections in December 2022 and January 2023, the Chinese population possessed a markedly distinct (less potent) immune background due to its low infection rate, compared to countries experiencing multiple infection waves, presenting an unprecedented opportunity to investigate how the virus has evolved under different immune contexts.

PySNV for complex intra-host variation detection.

Motivation: Intra-host variants refer to genetic variations or mutations that occur within an individual host organism. These variants are typically studied in the context of viruses, bacteria, or other pathogens to understand the evolution of pathogens. Moreover, intra-host variants are also explored in the field of tumor biology and mitochondrial biology to characterize somatic mutations and inherited heteroplasmic mutations.

Covariate-guided Bayesian mixture of spline experts for the analysis of multivariate high-density longitudinal data.

With rapid development of techniques to measure brain activity and structure, statistical methods for analyzing modern brain-imaging data play an important role in the advancement of science. Imaging data that measure brain function are usually multivariate high-density longitudinal data and are heterogeneous across both imaging sources and subjects, which lead to various statistical and computational challenges. In this article, we propose a group-based method to cluster a collection of multivariate high-density longitudinal data via a Bayesian mixture of smoothing splines.

Immune evasion and ACE2 binding affinity contribute to SARS-CoV-2 evolution.

Mutations in the SARS-CoV-2 genome could confer resistance to pre-existing antibodies and/or increased transmissibility. The recently emerged Omicron subvariants exhibit a strong tendency for immune evasion, suggesting adaptive evolution. However, because previous studies have been limited to specific lineages or subsets of mutations, the overall evolutionary trajectory of SARS-CoV-2 and the underlying driving forces are still not fully understood.

A longitudinal epigenome-wide association study of preeclamptic and normotensive pregnancy.

Background: While preeclampsia (PE) is a leading cause of pregnancy-related morbidity/mortality, its underlying mechanisms are not fully understood. DNA methylation (DNAm) is a dynamic regulator of gene expression that may offer insight into PE pathophysiology and/or serve as a biomarker (e.g.

Preconception stress exposure from childhood to adolescence and birth outcomes: The impact of stress type, severity and consistency.

The negative effects of prenatal stress on offspring health are well established, but there remains little understanding of the influence of stress prior to conception despite known effects on biological systems that are important for a healthy pregnancy. Furthermore, operational definitions of stress vary considerably, and exposure is often characterized summed, ordinal scales of events. We hypothesized that type, severity, and consistency of preconception stress would be associated with birthweight and gestational age (GA) at birth.

Serum α-KL, a potential early marker of diabetes complications in youth with T1D, is regulated by miRNA 192.

Despite the wealth of information on biomarkers of diabetes complications in adults with type 1 diabetes, data in the pediatric population is limited. Diabetic nephropathy (DN), the leading cause of mortality in type 1 diabetes T1D), could be potentially missed in youth, as albuminuria, the current "gold" standard, may be transient and may not reflect permanent renal impairment. Soluble alpha KL has emerged as a potential marker of early diabetic nephropathy.

The missense variant, rs373863828, in CREBRF plays a role in longitudinal changes in body mass index in Samoans.

Objective: A missense variant, rs373863828, in CREBRF is associated with obesity in Polynesians. We investigate whether rs373863828 and other factors are associated with body mass index (BMI) rate-of-change between 2010 and 2017-19 in Samoans.

Methods: We used sex-stratified models to test whether BMI rate-of-change was associated with rs373863828, baseline BMI, age, residence, physical activity, and household asset score in a cohort study of 480 Samoan adults measured in both 2010 (mean age 43.

Genomic Perspectives on the Emerging SARS-CoV-2 Omicron Variant.

A new variant of concern for SARS-CoV-2, Omicron (B.1.1.

Capturing the dynamic nature of stress exposure in the Pittsburgh Girls Study.

Background: The science of stress exposure and health in humans has been hampered by differences in operational definitions of exposures and approaches to defining timing, leading to results that lack consistency and specificity. In the present study we aim to empirically derive variability in type, timing and chronicity of stress exposure for Black and White females using prospectively collected data in the Pittsburgh Girls Study (PGS).

Methods: The PGS is an ongoing 20-year longitudinal, community-based study.

ACEP: improving antimicrobial peptides recognition through automatic feature fusion and amino acid embedding.

Background: Antimicrobial resistance is one of our most serious health threats. Antimicrobial peptides (AMPs), effecter molecules of innate immune system, can defend host organisms against microbes and most have shown a lowered likelihood for bacteria to form resistance compared to many conventional drugs. Thus, AMPs are gaining popularity as better substitute to antibiotics.

Measuring Variability in Rest-Activity Rhythms from Actigraphy with Application to Characterizing Symptoms of Depression.

The twenty-four hour sleep-wake pattern known as the rest-activity rhythm (RAR) is associated with many aspects of health and well-being. Researchers have utilized a number of interpretable, person-specific RAR measures that can be estimated from actigraphy. Actigraphs are wearable devices that dynamically record acceleration and provide indirect measures of physical activity over time.

[Isolation of filamentous fungi capable of enhancing sludge dewaterability and study of mechanisms responsible for the sludge dewaterability enhancement].

To study the influence of filamentous fungi on the sludge dewaterability is very significant for the development of biological treatment methods for enhancing sludge dewaterability. In this study, filamentous fungi capable of enhancing sludge dewaterability were isolated from sewage sludge and the related mechanisms responsible for the sludge dewaterability enhancement were investigated. A filamentous fungus Mucor circinelloides ZG-3 was successfully isolated from sludge, and sludge dewaterability could be drastically improved by this fungus.