Endogenous viral elements: insights into data availability and accessibility.

Endogenous viral elements (EVEs) are remnants of viral genetic material endogenized into the host genome. They have, in the last decades, attracted attention for their role as potential contributors to pathogenesis, drivers of selective advantage for the host, and genomic remnants of ancient viruses. EVEs have a nuanced and complex influence on both host health and evolution, and can offer insights on the deep evolutionary history of viruses.

Engineering extracellular vesicles to transiently permeabilize the blood-brain barrier.

Background: Drug delivery to the brain is challenging due to the restrict permeability of the blood brain barrier (BBB). Recent studies indicate that BBB permeability increases over time during physiological aging likely due to factors (including extracellular vesicles (EVs)) that exist in the bloodstream. Therefore, inspiration can be taken from aging to develop new strategies for the transient opening of the BBB for drug delivery to the brain.

Systematizing the risk management process in clinical radiotherapy practice: Recommendations of the working group on risk management of the DGMP.

Purpose: The Deutsche Gesellschaft für Medizinische Physik [German Society of Medical Physics] has recently published two coherent reports, No. 25 and No. 28, detailing the design and implementation of a risk management (RM) process for German radiotherapy (RT) departments.

Leveraging large language models to construct feedback from medical multiple-choice Questions.

Exams like the formative Progress Test Medizin can enhance their effectiveness by offering feedback beyond numerical scores. Content-based feedback, which encompasses relevant information from exam questions, can be valuable for students by offering them insight into their performance on the current exam, as well as serving as study aids and tools for revision. Our goal was to utilize Large Language Models (LLMs) in preparing content-based feedback for the Progress Test Medizin and evaluate their effectiveness in this task.

Rfam 15: RNA families database in 2025.

The Rfam database, a widely used repository of non-coding RNA families, has undergone significant updates in release 15.0. This paper introduces major improvements, including the expansion of Rfamseq to 26 106 genomes, a 76% increase, incorporating the latest UniProt reference proteomes and additional viral genomes.

Legal aspects of generative artificial intelligence and large language models in examinations and theses.

The high performance of generative artificial intelligence (AI) and large language models (LLM) in examination contexts has triggered an intense debate about their applications, effects and risks. What legal aspects need to be considered when using LLM in teaching and assessment? What possibilities do language models offer? Statutes and laws are used to assess the use of LLM: - University statutes, state higher education laws, licensing regulations for doctors - Copyright Act (UrhG) - General Data Protection Regulation (DGPR) - AI Regulation (EU AI Act) LLM and AI offer opportunities but require clear university frameworks. These should define legitimate uses and areas where use is prohibited.

Rfam 15: RNA families database in 2025.

The Rfam database, a widely-used repository of non-coding RNA (ncRNA) families, has undergone significant updates in release 15.0. This paper introduces major improvements, including the expansion of Rfamseq to 26,106 genomes, a 76% increase, incorporating the latest UniProt reference proteomes and additional viral genomes.

Endogenous Bornavirus-like Elements in Bats: Evolutionary Insights from the Conserved Riboviral L-Gene in Microbats and Its Antisense Transcription in .

Bats are ecologically diverse vertebrates characterized by their ability to host a wide range of viruses without apparent illness and the presence of numerous endogenous viral elements (EVEs). EVEs are well preserved, expressed, and may affect host biology and immunity, but their role in bat immune system evolution remains unclear. Among EVEs, endogenous bornavirus-like elements (EBLs) are bornavirus sequences integrated into animal genomes.

Comprehensive survey of conserved RNA secondary structures in full-genome alignment of Hepatitis C virus.

Hepatitis C virus (HCV) is a plus-stranded RNA virus that often chronically infects liver hepatocytes and causes liver cirrhosis and cancer. These viruses replicate their genomes employing error-prone replicases. Thereby, they routinely generate a large 'cloud' of RNA genomes (quasispecies) which-by trial and error-comprehensively explore the sequence space available for functional RNA genomes that maintain the ability for efficient replication and immune escape.

Comprehensive transcriptome analysis reveals altered mRNA splicing and post-transcriptional changes in the aged mouse brain.

A comprehensive understanding of molecular changes during brain aging is essential to mitigate cognitive decline and delay neurodegenerative diseases. The interpretation of mRNA alterations during brain aging is influenced by the health and age of the animal cohorts studied. Here, we carefully consider these factors and provide an in-depth investigation of mRNA splicing and dynamics in the aging mouse brain, combining short- and long-read sequencing technologies with extensive bioinformatic analyses.

PAPAS promotes differentiation of mammary epithelial cells and suppresses breast carcinogenesis.

Extensive remodeling of the female mammary epithelium during development and pregnancy has been linked to cancer susceptibility. The faithful response of mammary epithelial cells (MECs) to hormone signaling is key to avoiding breast cancer development. Here, we show that lactogenic differentiation of murine MECs requires silencing of genes encoding ribosomal RNA (rRNA) by the antisense transcript PAPAS.

The International Virus Bioinformatics Meeting 2023.

The 2023 International Virus Bioinformatics Meeting was held in Valencia, Spain, from 24-26 May 2023, attracting approximately 180 participants worldwide. The primary objective of the conference was to establish a dynamic scientific environment conducive to discussion, collaboration, and the generation of novel research ideas. As the first in-person event following the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, the meeting facilitated highly interactive exchanges among attendees.

Differential Transcriptional Responses of Human Granulocytes to Fungal Infection with and .

Neutrophils are critical phagocytic cells in innate immunity, playing a significant role in defending against invasive fungal pathogens. This study aimed to explore the transcriptional activation of human neutrophils in response to different fungal pathogens, including and , compared to the bacterial pathogen . We identified distinct transcriptional profiles and stress-related pathways in neutrophils during fungal infections, highlighting their functional diversity and adaptability.

Navigating the Landscape: A Comprehensive Review of Current Virus Databases.

Viruses are abundant and diverse entities that have important roles in public health, ecology, and agriculture. The identification and surveillance of viruses rely on an understanding of their genome organization, sequences, and replication strategy. Despite technological advancements in sequencing methods, our current understanding of virus diversity remains incomplete, highlighting the need to explore undiscovered viruses.

Functional comparisons of the virus sensor RIG-I from humans, the microbat , and the megabat , and their response to SARS-CoV-2 infection.

A common hypothesis holds that bats (order ) are outstanding reservoirs for zoonotic viruses because of a special antiviral interferon (IFN) system. However, functional studies about key components of the bat IFN system are rare. RIG-I is a cellular sensor for viral RNA signatures that activates the antiviral signaling chain to induce IFN.

De novo genome assembly resolving repetitive structures enables genomic analysis of 35 European Mycoplasmopsis bovis strains.

Mycoplasmopsis (M.) bovis, the agent of mastitis, pneumonia, and arthritis in cattle, harbors a small genome of approximately 1 Mbp. Combining data from Illumina and Nanopore technologies, we sequenced and assembled the genomes of 35 European strains and isolate DL422_88 from Cuba.

Effect of two shampoo formulations on the prokaryotic and eukaryotic microbiota composition of the human scalp.

Objective: The human scalp is characterized by a moderately diverse microbial community, comprising prokaryotic (bacteria) and eukaryotic (fungi) members. Although the details are far from being fully understood, the human scalp microbiota is implicated in several scalp disorders, in particular dandruff formation. Hence, the protection of an intact and diverse scalp microbiota can be regarded as a quality criterion for hair and scalp care formulations.

VIRify: An integrated detection, annotation and taxonomic classification pipeline using virus-specific protein profile hidden Markov models.

The study of viral communities has revealed the enormous diversity and impact these biological entities have on various ecosystems. These observations have sparked widespread interest in developing computational strategies that support the comprehensive characterisation of viral communities based on sequencing data. Here we introduce VIRify, a new computational pipeline designed to provide a user-friendly and accurate functional and taxonomic characterisation of viral communities.

sp. nov., isolated from marine beach sediment.

A novel actinomycetal strain, designated M600PL45_2, was isolated from marine sediments obtained from Ingleses beach, Porto, on the Northern Coast of Portugal and was subjected to a polyphasic taxonomic characterisation study. The here described Gram-reaction-positive strain is characterised by the production of a brown pigment in both solid and liquid medium and forms typical helical hyphae that differentiate into smooth spores. The results of a phylogenetic analysis based on the 16S rRNA gene sequence indicated that M600PL45_2 has a high similarity to two members of the genus , ASO4wet (98.

Proportional and Simultaneous Real-Time Control of the Full Human Hand From High-Density Electromyography.

Surface electromyography (sEMG) is a non-invasive technique that measures the electrical activity generated by the muscles using sensors placed on the skin. It has been widely used in the field of prosthetics and other assistive systems because of the physiological connection between muscle electrical activity and movement dynamics. However, most existing sEMG-based decoding algorithms show a limited number of detectable degrees of freedom that can be proportionally and simultaneously controlled in real-time, which limits the use of EMG in a wide range of applications, including prosthetics and other consumer-level applications (e.

Real-space imaging of several molecular layers of Cin the rotational glass phase.

Cis a model system to study molecule-surface interactions and phase transitions due to its high symmetry and strong covalentbonding within the molecule versus weak van-der-Waals coupling between neighboring molecules. In the solid, at room temperature, the molecule rotates and behaves as a sphere. However, the pentagonal and hexagonal atomic arrangement imposes deviations from the spherical symmetry that become important at low temperatures.

Oxford nanopore technologies-a valuable tool to generate whole-genome sequencing data for serotyping and the detection of genetic markers in .

Bacteria of the genus pose a major risk to livestock, the food economy, and public health. infections are one of the leading causes of food poisoning. The identification of serovars of achieved by their diverse surface antigens is essential to gain information on their epidemiological context.

ChatGPT in medical school: how successful is AI in progress testing?

Background: As generative artificial intelligence (AI), ChatGPT provides easy access to a wide range of information, including factual knowledge in the field of medicine. Given that knowledge acquisition is a basic determinant of physicians' performance, teaching and testing different levels of medical knowledge is a central task of medical schools. To measure the factual knowledge level of the ChatGPT responses, we compared the performance of ChatGPT with that of medical students in a progress test.

Genomic analysis of 61 Chlamydia psittaci strains reveals extensive divergence associated with host preference.

Background: Chlamydia (C.) psittaci, the causative agent of avian chlamydiosis and human psittacosis, is a genetically heterogeneous species. Its broad host range includes parrots and many other birds, but occasionally also humans (via zoonotic transmission), ruminants, horses, swine and rodents.