Circadian clock crosstalks with autism.

Background: The mechanism underlying autism spectrum disorder (ASD) remains incompletely understood, but researchers have identified over a thousand genes involved in complex interactions within the brain, nervous, and immune systems, particularly during the mechanism of brain development. Various contributory environmental effects including circadian rhythm have also been studied in ASD. Thus, capturing the global picture of the ASD-clock network in combined form is critical.

Preparation of PANI modified TiO and characterization under pre- and post- photocatalytic conditions.

Polyaniline (PANI) is a promising conducting polymer for surface modification of TiO to overcome limitations of the use of visible light and attain increased photocatalytic efficiency for the removal of organic contaminants. In this study, a series of polyaniline modified TiO (PANI-TiO) composites were prepared by using "in-situ" chemical oxidation polymerization method. The composites were systematically characterized by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (equipped with an attenuated total reflection accessory, FTIR-ATR), Raman spectroscopy, X-ray diffractometry (XRD), scanning electron microscopy coupled with energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (SEM-EDAX), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), ultraviolet-visible diffuse reflectance spectroscopy (UV-DRS), photoluminescence spectroscopy (PL), nitrogen (N) physisorption (Brunauer - Emmett - Teller surface area (S) and Barrett-Joyner-Halenda (BJH) pore size analysis), thermogravimetry-derivative thermogravimetry (TG-DTG) techniques.

Evaluation of bioplastics biodegradation under simulated landfill conditions.

Bioplastics that are generated from renewable sources have been regarded as an alternative to conventional plastics. Polylactic acid (PLA) is one of the mostly produced bioplastics because of its long shelf life for various applications. Even though bioplastics have drawn attention recently, their ultimate fate in landfills is still unknown.

Shrinkage of olfactory amygdala connotes cognitive impairment in patients with Parkinson's disease.

Unlabelled: During the caudo-rostral progression of Lewy pathology, the amygdala is involved relatively early in Parkinson's disease (PD). However, lesser is known about the volumetric differences at the amygdala subdivisions, although the evidence mainly implicates the olfactory amygdala. We aimed to investigate the volumetric differences between the amygdala's nuclear and sectoral subdivisions in the PD cognitive impairment continuum compared to healthy controls (HC).

Homozygous Mutations in Thyroid Peroxidase (TPO) in Hypothyroidism with Intellectual Disability, Developmental Delay, and Hearing and Ocular Anomalies in Two Families: Severe Manifestation of Untreated TPO-deficiency Poses a Diagnostic Dilemma.

Intellectual disability (ID) involves compromised intellectual, learning and cognitive skills, and behavioral capabilities with reduced psychomotor skills. One of the preventable causes of ID is congenital hypothyroidism (CH), which may be due to biallelic mutations in (). In low- and middle-income countries with no newborn screening programs, CH poses a great risk of ID and long-term morbidity.

Effects of elastic therapeutic taping on along-muscle fascicle local length changes: Magnetic resonance and diffusion tensor imaging based assessment.

Elastic therapeutic taping is utilized for prevention and treatment of various neuromusculoskeletal disorders and sports injuries. Kinesio taping (KT) is a popular version of this practice. Despite being widely used to improve muscular function, an understanding of KT effects on muscular mechanics are lacking.

Comparing the Outcomes of Virtual Reality-Based Serious Gaming and Lecture-Based Training for Advanced Life Support Training: Randomized Controlled Trial.

Background: Simulation-based Advanced Cardiac Life Support (ACLS) or Advanced Life Support (ALS) training for health care professionals is important worldwide for saving lives. Virtual reality (VR)-based serious gaming can be an alternative modality to be used as a part of simulation-based ALS training.

Objective: The aim of this study is to investigate whether a VR-based ALS serious game module can replace classroom-based ALS lectures, the latter being part of existing conventional ALS training protocols in addition to skills training.

Cheminformatics and Machine Learning Approaches to Assess Aquatic Toxicity Profiles of Fullerene Derivatives.

Fullerene derivatives (FDs) are widely used in nanomaterials production, the pharmaceutical industry and biomedicine. In the present study, we focused on the potential toxic effects of FDs on the aquatic environment. First, we analyzed the binding affinity of 169 FDs to 10 human proteins (1D6U, 1E3K, 1GOS, 1GS4, 1H82, 1OG5, 1UOM, 2F9Q, 2J0D, 3ERT) obtained from the Protein Data Bank (PDB) and showing high similarity to proteins from aquatic species.

Search for Exotic Higgs Boson Decays H→AA→4γ with Events Containing Two Merged Diphotons in Proton-Proton Collisions at sqrt[s]=13 TeV.

We present the first direct search for exotic Higgs boson decays H→AA, A→γγ in events with two photonlike objects. The hypothetical particle A is a low-mass spin-0 particle decaying promptly to a merged diphoton reconstructed as a single photonlike object. We analyze the data collected by the CMS experiment at sqrt[s]=13  TeV corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 136  fb^{-1}.

Observation of Same-Sign WW Production from Double Parton Scattering in Proton-Proton Collisions at sqrt[s]=13 TeV.

The first observation of the production of W^{±}W^{±} bosons from double parton scattering processes using same-sign electron-muon and dimuon events in proton-proton collisions is reported. The data sample corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 138  fb^{-1} recorded at a center-of-mass energy of 13 TeV using the CMS detector at the CERN LHC. Multivariate discriminants are used to distinguish the signal process from the main backgrounds.

Observation of the Rare Decay of the η Meson to Four Muons.

A search for the rare η→μ^{+}μ^{-}μ^{+}μ^{-} double-Dalitz decay is performed using a sample of proton-proton collisions, collected by the CMS experiment at the CERN LHC with high-rate muon triggers during 2017 and 2018 and corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 101  fb^{-1}. A signal having a statistical significance well in excess of 5 standard deviations is observed. Using the η→μ^{+}μ^{-} decay as normalization, the branching fraction B(η→μ^{+}μ^{-}μ^{+}μ^{-})=[5.

Polymer-lipid hybrid nanoparticles as potential lipophilic anticancer drug carriers.

Nanocarrier systems are widely used for drug delivery applications, but limitations such as the use of synthetic surfactants, leakage of toxic drugs, and a poor encapsulation capacity remain as challenges. We present a new hybrid nanocarrier system that utilizes natural materials to overcome these limitations and improve the safety and efficacy of drug delivery. The system comprises a biopolymeric shell and a lipid core, encapsulating the lipophilic anticancer drug paclitaxel.

Interpretable radiomics method for predicting human papillomavirus status in oropharyngeal cancer using Bayesian networks.

Objectives: To develop a simple interpretable Bayesian Network (BN) to classify HPV status in patients with oropharyngeal cancer.

Methods: Two hundred forty-six patients, 216 of whom were HPV positive, were used in this study. We extracted 851 radiomics markers from patients' contrast-enhanced Computed Tomography (CT) images.

Human ACE2 orthologous peptide sequences show better binding affinity to SARS-CoV-2 RBD domain: Implications for drug design.

Computational methods coupled with experimental validation play a critical role in the identification of novel inhibitory peptides that interact with viral antigenic determinants. The interaction between the receptor binding domain (RBD) of SARS-CoV-2 spike protein and the helical peptide of human angiotensin-converting enzyme-2 (ACE2) is a necessity for the initiation of viral infection. Herein, natural orthologs of human ACE2 helical peptide were evaluated for competitive inhibitory binding to the viral RBD by use of a computational approach, which was experimentally validated.

Interstitial flow, pressure and residual stress in the aging carotid artery model in FEBio.

Vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMCs) are subject to interstitial flow-induced shear stress, which is a critical parameter in cardiovascular disease progression. Transmural pressure loading and residual stresses alter the hydraulic conductivity of the arterial layers and modulate the interstitial fluid flux through the arterial wall. In this paper, a biphasic multilayer model of a common carotid artery (CCA) with anisotropic fiber-reinforced soft tissue and strain-dependent permeability is developed in FEBio software.

Open Genes-a new comprehensive database of human genes associated with aging and longevity.

The Open Genes database was created to enhance and simplify the search for potential aging therapy targets. We collected data on 2402 genes associated with aging and developed convenient tools for searching and comparing gene features. A comprehensive description of genes has been provided, including lifespan-extending interventions, age-related changes, longevity associations, gene evolution, associations with diseases and hallmarks of aging, and functions of gene products.

Comparison of the human's and camel's red blood cell deformability by optical tweezers and Raman spectroscopy.

Red blood cells of vertebrates have undergone evolutionary changes over time, leading to the diversification of morphological and mechanical properties of red blood cells (RBCs). Among the vertebrates, camelids have the most different RBC characteristics. As a result of adaptation to the desert environment, camelid RBCs can expand twice as much of their total volume in the case of rapid hydration yet are almost undeformable under mechanical stress.

Strong Constraints on Jet Quenching in Centrality-Dependent p+Pb Collisions at 5.02 TeV from ATLAS.

Jet quenching is the process of color-charged partons losing energy via interactions with quark-gluon plasma droplets created in heavy-ion collisions. The collective expansion of such droplets is well described by viscous hydrodynamics. Similar evidence of collectivity is consistently observed in smaller collision systems, including pp and p+Pb collisions.

Machine learning models to predict the relationship between printing parameters and tensile strength of 3D Poly (lactic acid) scaffolds for tissue engineering applications.

3D printing is an effective method to prepare 3D scaffolds for tissue engineering applications. However, optimization of printing conditions to obtain suitable mechanical properties for various tissue engineering applications is costly and time consuming. To address this problem, in this study, scikit-learn Python machine learning library was used to apply four machine learning-based approaches which are ordinary least squares (OLS) linear regression, random forest (RF), light gradient Boost (LGBM), extreme gradient boosting (XGB) and artificial neural network models to understand the relationship between 3D printing parameters and tensile strength of poly(lactic acid) (PLA).

Calendar ageing modelling using machine learning: an experimental investigation on lithium ion battery chemistries.

The phenomenon of calendar ageing continues to have an impact on battery systems worldwide by causing them to have undesirable operation life and performance. Predicting the degradation in the capacity can identify whether this phenomenon is occurring for a cell and pave the way for placing mechanisms that can circumvent this behaviour. In this study, the machine learning algorithms, Extreme Gradient Boosting (XGBoost) and artificial neural network (ANN) have been used to predict the calendar ageing data belonging to six types of cell chemistries namely, Lithium Cobalt Oxide, Lithium Iron Phosphate, Lithium Manganese Oxide, Lithium Titanium Oxide, Nickle Cobalt Aluminum Oxide and Nickle Manganese Cobalt Oxide.

Multifunctional Silk Fibroin/Carbon Nanofiber Scaffolds for In Vitro Cardiomyogenic Differentiation of Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells and Energy Harvesting from Simulated Cardiac Motion.

In this proof-of-concept study, cardiomyogenic differentiation of induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) is combined with energy harvesting from simulated cardiac motion in vitro. To achieve this, silk fibroin (SF)-based porous scaffolds are designed to mimic the mechanical and physical properties of cardiac tissue and used as triboelectric nanogenerator (TENG) electrodes. The load-carrying mechanism, β-sheet content, degradation characteristics, and iPSC interactions of the scaffolds are observed to be interrelated and regulated by their pore architecture.

Surfactant-enhanced in-situ oxidation of DNAPL source zone: Experiments and numerical modeling.

In this study we investigate the synergetic effects of combining surfactant-enhanced dissolution with in-situ oxidation of a pool-dominated PCE DNAPL source zone entrapped in porous media. Flow cell flushing experiments packed with silica sand and natural calcareous soil were conducted with a surfactant (Tween 80) and permanganate (MnO) used as dissolution and oxidation agents, respectively. The resultant breakthrough curves exhibited a multiple step behavior with mass removal controlled in the latter stages by the less-accessible DNAPL mass.