Genetic variations underlying aminoglycoside resistance in antibiotic-induced Mycobacterium intracellulare mutants.

Mycobacterium avium complex (MAC) is an emerging pathogen leading to public health concerns in developing and developed countries, particularly among immunocompromised individuals and patients with structural lung diseases. Current clinical guidelines recommend combination antibiotic therapy for treating MAC pulmonary disease (MAC-PD). However, the rising prevalence of antibiotic resistance poses significant challenges, including treatment failure and clinical recurrence.

GLAC-Unet: Global-Local Active Contour Loss with an Efficient U-Shaped Architecture for Multiclass Medical Image Segmentation.

The field of medical image segmentation powered by deep learning has recently received substantial attention, with a significant focus on developing novel architectures and designing effective loss functions. Traditional loss functions, such as Dice loss and Cross-Entropy loss, predominantly rely on global metrics to compare predictions with labels. However, these global measures often struggle to address challenges such as occlusion and nonuni-form intensity.

Predisposition footprints in the somatic genome of Wilms tumours.

Ten percent of children with cancer harbour a mutation in a predisposition gene. In children with the kidney cancer, Wilms tumour, the prevalence is as high as 30%. Certain predispositions are associated with defined histological and clinical features, suggesting differences in tumourigenesis.

Two-Dimensional MXene Flakes with Large Second Harmonic Generation and Unique Surface Responses.

MXenes are a family of two-dimensional (2D) materials with broad and varied applications in biology, materials science, photonics, and environmental remediation owing to their layered structure and high surface area-to-volume ratio. MXenes have exhibited significant nonlinear optical characteristics, which have been primarily explored in the context of photonics applications, yet the second-harmonic generation (SHG) behavior of MXenes remains an unexplored aspect of their optical properties. Herein, we demonstrate and quantify large second-order responses of 2D TiCT MXenes both in aqueous solutions and on a silicon substrate for the first time.

Retinal Pigment Epithelium Curvature Can Predict Late Age-Related Macular Degeneration.

Purpose: Outer retinal band integrity strongly predicts late age-related macular degeneration (AMD). However, it is often assessed subjectively as "continuity" using inconsistent definitions. Alternatively, "curvature" of the outer retinal bands is a quantitative metric that strongly correlates with AMD biomarkers and can screen for intermediate AMD.

Circular economy, economic growth, and e-waste generation in EU27 countries: Further evidence from the novel circular economy index and threshold effect.

The circular economy has been identified as a critical keyword for achieving the Sustainable Development Goals. Nevertheless, there is a lack of in-depth empirical literature on the impact mechanisms of the circular economy (CE) and economic growth (GDP) in mitigating e-waste generation (waste electrical and electronic equipment - WEEE). Given Europe's leading position in e-waste generation per capita, the study aims to scrutinize the interplay between CE, GDP, and WEEE for 2010-2020.

Bearing-Constrained Leader-Follower Formation of Single-Integrators With Disturbance Rejection: Adaptive Variable-Structure Approaches.

This article studies the problem of stabilizing a leader-follower formation specified by a set of bearing constraints while disturbed by some unknown uniformly bounded disturbances. A set of leaders are positioned at their desired positions while each follower is modeled by a single integrator with an additive time-varying disturbance. Adaptive variable-structure control laws using displacements or only bearing vectors are applied to stabilize the desired formation.

Direct Exfoliation of Nanoribbons from Bulk van der Waals Crystals.

Confinement of monolayers into quasi-1D atomically thin nanoribbons could lead to novel quantum phenomena beyond those achieved in their bulk and monolayer counterparts. However, current experimental availability of nanoribbon species beyond graphene is limited to bottom-up synthesis or lithographic patterning. In this study, a versatile and direct approach is introduced to exfoliate bulk van der Waals crystals as nanoribbons.

Age and interpulse interval relation from newborn to adult sperm whale (Physeter macrocephalus) off Mauritius.

Sperm whales (Physeter macrocephalus) have been studied for decades, but the development of their clicks during the animal growth is not yet well known. The click they emit during socialization and echolocation contains information about the length of their acoustic organs and, therefore the length of the body through the interpulse interval (IPI). This paper provides the first IPI/age relationship for juvenile male and female sperm whales (Physeter macrocephalus) based on field recordings of individuals whose age is largely known.

Deciphering the actin structure-dependent preferential cooperative binding of cofilin.

The mechanism underlying the preferential and cooperative binding of cofilin and the expansion of clusters toward the pointed-end side of actin filaments remains poorly understood. To address this, we conducted a principal component analysis based on available filamentous actin (F-actin) and C-actin (cofilins were excluded from cofilactin) structures and compared to monomeric G-actin. The results strongly suggest that C-actin, rather than F-ADP-actin, represented the favourable structure for binding preference of cofilin.

Alzheimer's disease detection using data fusion with a deep supervised encoder.

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is affecting a growing number of individuals. As a result, there is a pressing need for accurate and early diagnosis methods. This study aims to achieve this goal by developing an optimal data analysis strategy to enhance computational diagnosis.

Associations of COVID-19-related fear with kidney disease quality of life and its subscales among hemodialysis patients as modified by health literacy: a multi-hospital survey.

Background: Receiving hemodialysis treatment makes end-stage renal disease (ESRD) patients highly vulnerable amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. Hence, their kidney disease quality of life (KDQOL) is affected. We aimed to examine the association between fear of COVID-19 (FCoV-19) and KDQOL, and the effect modification of Health literacy (HL) on this association.

Gene function characterization in Aspergillus niger using a dual resistance marker transformation system mediated by Agrobacterium tumefaciens.

Aspergillus niger is a well-known workhorse for the industrial production of enzymes and organic acids. This fungus can also cause postharvest diseases in fruits. Although Agrobacterium tumefaciens-mediated transformation (ATMT) based on antibiotic resistance markers has been effectively exploited for inspecting functions of target genes in wild-type fungi, it still needs to be further improved in A.

Co-pyrolysis of fly ash with sewage sludge for PCDD/F removal.

Fly ash generated from municipal waste incineration (MWI) contains various toxic substances, and it has to be properly treated before disposal or reuse. Water washing and thermal pyrolysis can improve the destruction efficiency of PCDD/Fs in fly ash generated from municipal solid waste incinerators. Since sulfur oxides and nitrogen compounds generated by the heating of the sewage sludge poison the catalytic active sites for PCDD/Fs formation on fly ash surface, co-pyrolysis of fly ash with sewage sludge effectively inhibits precursor formation and de novo synthesis reaction, resulting in the great reduction of PCDD/F formation.

Oral hygiene status and oral care motivation in children aged 7-9 years in a Vietnam primary school: A cross-sectional study.

Introduction: Oral hygiene is a crucial factor in oral health, especially in children. To increase the awareness of oral care behaviour among children, oral care motivation plays a critical role in daily dental practices. Therefore, this cross-sectional study was conducted to investigate the current oral hygiene status and evaluate the association between oral care motivation and oral hygiene index in 7-9-year-old children at Primary School in Hanoi, Vietnam.

Healthcare stereotype threat, healthcare access, and health outcomes in a probability sample of U.S. transgender and gender diverse adults.

Background: Health inequities among transgender and gender diverse (TGD) populations are well-documented and may be partially explained by the complex social power dynamics that lead to stigmatization. Healthcare Stereotype Threat (HCST) refers to the fear and threat of being perceived negatively based on identity-related stereotypes and may influence health and healthcare experiences. Few studies have investigated associations of HCST with healthcare access and health outcomes for TGD individuals.

Prominent transcriptomic changes in Mycobacterium intracellulare under acidic and oxidative stress.

Background: Mycobacterium avium complex (MAC), including Mycobacterium intracellulare is a member of slow-growing mycobacteria and contributes to a substantial proportion of nontuberculous mycobacterial lung disease in humans affecting immunocompromised and elderly populations. Adaptation of pathogens in hostile environments is crucial in establishing infection and persistence within the host. However, the sophisticated cellular and molecular mechanisms of stress response in M.

Site-directed genotype screening for elimination of antinutritional saponins in quinoa seeds identifies TSARL1 as a master controller of saponin biosynthesis selectively in seeds.

Climate change may result in a drier climate and increased salinization, threatening agricultural productivity worldwide. Quinoa (Chenopodium quinoa) produces highly nutritious seeds and tolerates abiotic stresses such as drought and high salinity, making it a promising future food source. However, the presence of antinutritional saponins in their seeds is an undesirable trait.