Land Use Change Consistently Reduces α- But Not β- and γ-Diversity of Bees.

Land use change threatens global biodiversity and compromises ecosystem functions, including pollination and food production. Reduced taxonomic α-diversity is often reported under land use change, yet the impacts could be different at larger spatial scales (i.e.

Ubiquitin-mediated recruitment of the ATG9A-ATG2 lipid transfer complex drives clearance of phosphorylated p62 aggregates.

Autophagy is an essential cellular recycling process that maintains protein and organelle homeostasis. ATG9A vesicle recruitment is a critical early step in autophagy to initiate autophagosome biogenesis. The mechanisms of ATG9A vesicle recruitment are best understood in the context of starvation-induced non-selective autophagy, whereas less is known about the signals driving ATG9A vesicle recruitment to autophagy initiation sites in the absence of nutrient stress.

Atypical Neural Responses to Native and Non-Native Language in Infants at High Likelihood for Developing Autism.

Background: Language difficulties are common in autism spectrum disorder (ASD), a neurodevelopmental condition characterized by impairments in social communication as well as restricted and repetitive behaviors. Amongst infant siblings of children with an ASD diagnosis - who are at higher likelihood for developing ASD - a high proportion also show difficulties and delays in language acquisition.

Methods: In this study, we used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to examine atypicalities associated with language processing in 9-month-old infants at high (HL) and typical (TL) familial likelihood for ASD.

Evaluation of the Clinical Safety of the Low-Cost Warburg Therapy for the Treatment of Patients With Advanced Cancers.

Background: Rising cancer care costs are becoming cost prohibitive for lower income people worldwide. We developed the Warburg protocol as a low-cost option for the treatment of cancer that was inspired. It was developed to exploit an Achilles heel which is a hallmark of cancer cells; the metabolic requirement for higher levels of glucose than normal cells.

Effective real-time transmission estimations incorporating population viral load distributions amid SARS-CoV-2 variants and pre-existing immunity.

Background: Population-level viral load distribution, measured by cycle threshold (Ct), has been demonstrated to enable real-time estimation of Rt for SARS-CoV-2 ancestral strain. The generalizability of the framework under different circulating variants and pre-existing immunity remains unclear.

Methods: We obtained the first Ct record of local COVID-19 cases from July 2020 to January 2023 in Hong Kong.

Real-Time Indoor Environmental Quality (IEQ) Monitoring Using an IoT-Based Wireless Sensing Network.

In recent years, our time spent indoors has risen to around 90% and to maintain an occupant's comfort and well-being, Indoor Environmental Quality (IEQ) is monitored. Concerned with inhabitant's satisfaction and health, the adoption of smart solutions for IEQ monitoring and improvement has expanded. The solution this study explores is an occupant-centric approach involving the implementation of an Internet of Things (IoT) IEQ sensing network in a prominent office skyscraper in Hong Kong.

An adaptive weight ensemble approach to forecast influenza activity in an irregular seasonality context.

Forecasting influenza activity in tropical and subtropical regions, such as Hong Kong, is challenging due to irregular seasonality and high variability. We develop a diverse set of statistical, machine learning, and deep learning approaches to forecast influenza activity in Hong Kong 0 to 8 weeks ahead, leveraging a unique multi-year surveillance record spanning 32 epidemics from 1998 to 2019. We consider a simple average ensemble (SAE) of the top two individual models, and develop an adaptive weight blending ensemble (AWBE) that dynamically updates model contribution.

Interplay between viral shedding, age, and symptoms on individual infectiousness of influenza cases in households.

Background: Understanding factors affecting the infectiousness of influenza cases is crucial for disease prevention and control. Viral shedding is expected to correlate with infectiousness of cases, but it is strongly associated with age and the presence of symptoms.

Methods: To elucidate this complex interplay, we analyze with an individual-based household transmission model a detailed household transmission study of influenza with 442 households and 1710 individuals from 2008 to 2017 in Hong Kong, to characterize the household transmission dynamics and identify factors affecting transmissions.

Discovery of Inhibitors Targeting Protein-Protein Interaction between Bacterial RNA Polymerase and NusG as Novel Antimicrobials.

Bacterial RNA polymerase (RNAP), the core enzyme responsible for bacterial transcription, requires the NusG factor for efficient transcription elongation and termination. As the primary binding site for NusG, the RNAP clamp-helix (CH) domain represents a potential protein-protein interaction (PPI) target for novel antimicrobial agent design and discovery. In this study, we designed a pharmacophore model based on the essential amino acids of the CH for binding to NusG, such as R270, R278, and R281 ( numbering), and identified a hit compound with mild antimicrobial activity.

No increased risk of tuberculosis-related immune reconstitution inflammatory syndrome with integrase inhibitor-based antiretroviral therapy in people with HIV with profound immunosuppression.

Introduction: The issue of whether integrase inhibitors (INSTIs) may confer a higher risk of paradoxical tuberculosis-related immune reconstitution inflammatory syndrome (TB-IRIS) compared with other classes of antiretroviral in people with HIV with a profound level of immunosuppression remains insufficiently explored. We aimed to assess whether such a higher risk exists by examining a cohort of patients with TB-HIV initiating antiretroviral therapy (ART) in Hong Kong.

Methods: This was a retrospective review of 133 patients registered in the TB-HIV Registry of the Department of Health during the period 2014-2021.

Assessment of left ventricular wall thickness and dimension: accuracy of a deep learning model with prediction uncertainty.

Left ventricular (LV) geometric patterns aid clinicians in the diagnosis and prognostication of various cardiomyopathies. The aim of this study is to assess the accuracy and reproducibility of LV dimensions and wall thickness using deep learning (DL) models. A total of 30,080 unique studies were included; 24,013 studies were used to train a convolutional neural network model to automatically assess, at end-diastole, LV internal diameter (LVID), interventricular septal wall thickness (IVS), posterior wall thickness (PWT), and LV mass.

Comparing 11 early warning scores and three shock indices in early sepsis prediction in the emergency department.

Background: This study aimed to evaluate the discriminatory performance of 11 vital sign-based early warning scores (EWSs) and three shock indices in early sepsis prediction in the emergency department (ED).

Methods: We performed a retrospective study on consecutive adult patients with an infection over 3 months in a public ED in Hong Kong. The primary outcome was sepsis (Sepsis-3 definition) within 48 h of ED presentation.

Development of a luciferase-based Gram-positive bacterial reporter system for the characterization of antimicrobial agents.

Unlabelled: Mechanistic investigations are of paramount importance in elucidating the modes of action of antibiotics and facilitating the discovery of novel drugs. We reported a luciferase-based reporter system using bacterial cells to unveil mechanisms of antimicrobials targeting transcription and translation. The reporter gene encoding NanoLuciferase (NanoLuc) was integrated into the genome of the Gram-positive model organism, , to generate a reporter strain BS2019.

Changes in the epidemiology and clinical manifestations of human immunodeficiency virus-associated tuberculosis in Hong Kong.

Introduction: Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-associated tuberculosis (TB) remains an important health challenge worldwide. Although TB prevalence has decreased in the general population, there is limited information regarding temporal trends in the incidence of HIV-associated TB in Hong Kong. There are also insufficient data regarding changes in clinical manifestation patterns among HIV-associated TB patients over time.

Evaluating the impact of extended dosing intervals on mRNA COVID-19 vaccine effectiveness in adolescents.

Extending the dosing interval of a primary series of mRNA COVID-19 vaccination has been employed to reduce myocarditis risk in adolescents, but previous evaluation of impact on vaccine effectiveness (VE) is limited to risk after second dose. Here, we quantified the impact of the dosing interval based on case notifications and vaccination uptake in Hong Kong from January to April 2022. We estimated that the hazard ratio (HR) and odds ratio (OR) of infections after the second dose for extended (28 days or more) versus regular (21-27 days) dosing intervals ranged from 0.

CCSI: Continual Class-Specific Impression for data-free class incremental learning.

In real-world clinical settings, traditional deep learning-based classification methods struggle with diagnosing newly introduced disease types because they require samples from all disease classes for offline training. Class incremental learning offers a promising solution by adapting a deep network trained on specific disease classes to handle new diseases. However, catastrophic forgetting occurs, decreasing the performance of earlier classes when adapting the model to new data.

Prior infections and effectiveness of SARS-CoV-2 vaccine in test-negative studies: a systematic review and meta-analysis.

Prior infection with SARS-CoV-2 can provide protection against infection and severe COVID-19. We aimed to determine the impact of preexisting immunity on vaccine effectiveness (VE) estimates. We systematically reviewed and meta-analyzed 66 test-negative design studies that examined VE against infection or severe disease (hospitalization, intensive care unit admission, or death) for primary vaccination series.

Switching to tenofovir alafenamide in patients with virologically suppressed chronic hepatitis B and renal or hepatic impairment: final week 96 results from an open-label, multicentre, phase 2 study.

Background: Phase 3 studies in patients with chronic hepatitis B have shown tenofovir alafenamide to have non-inferior efficacy to tenofovir disoproxil fumarate, with improved renal and bone safety. We conducted this study to evaluate the safety and efficacy of switching to tenofovir alafenamide in participants with chronic hepatitis B and renal or hepatic impairment.

Methods: This open-label, multicentre, phase 2 study was done in eight countries or territories at 30 sites.

High-resolution climate data reveal an increasing risk of warming-driven activity restriction for diurnal and nocturnal lizards.

Widespread species experience a variety of climates across their distribution, which can structure their thermal tolerance, and ultimately, responses to climate change. For ectotherms, activity is highly dependent on temperature, its variability and availability of favourable microclimates. Thermal exposure and tolerance may be structured by the availability and heterogeneity of microclimates for species living along temperature and/or precipitation gradients - but patterns and mechanisms underlying such gradients are poorly understood.