Where the Patterns Are: Repetition-Aware Compression for Colored de Bruijn Graphs.

We describe lossless compressed data structures for the de Bruijn graph (or c-dBG). Given a collection of reference sequences, a c-dBG can be essentially regarded as a map from -mers to their . The color set of a -mer is the set of all identifiers, or , of the references that contain the -mer.

Voice pitch and gender in autism.

It is has often been observed that autistic individuals have higher-pitched voices than non-autistic ones, but no clear explanation for this difference has been put forth. However, autistic males are still dramatically over-represented in published research, including the acoustic studies that report higher pitch in autistic participants. In this study, we collected speech samples from a group of autistic and neurotypical adults that, unlike in most studies, was perfectly balanced between groups and genders.

Selective Labeling of Small Microplastics with SERS-Tags Based on Gold Nanostars: Method Optimization Using Polystyrene Beads and Application in Environmental Samples.

Microplastics pollution is being unanimously recognized as a global concern in all environments. Routine analysis protocols foresee that samples, which are supposed to contain up to hundreds of microplastics, are eventually collected on nanoporous filters and inspected by microspectroscopy techniques like micro-FTIR or micro-Raman. All particles, whether made of plastic or not, must be inspected one by one to detect and count microplastics.

Electrochemical sensors for fast classification of different Cannabis sativa L. samples according to total Δ-tetrahydrocannabinol content.

In this work, we investigated the ability of an electrochemical sensor to recognize Cannabis sativa L. samples with different total content of Δ-tetrahydrocannabinol (Δ-THC), determined by the levels of the psychoactive cannabinoid and of its biosynthetic precursor Δ-tetrahydrocannabinolic acid (Δ-THCA), using a multivariate approach. The voltammetric responses recorded with screen-printed electrodes modified with carbon black reflected the compositional differences from the different samples, in terms of cannabinoids of the vegetal material.

Hypoxia extreme events in a changing climate: Machine learning methods and deterministic simulations for future scenarios development in the Venice Lagoon.

Climate change pressures include the dissolved oxygen decline that in lagoon ecosystems can lead to hypoxia, i.e. low dissolved oxygen concentrations, which have consequences to ecosystem functioning including biogeochemical cycling from mild to severe disruption.

Effects of COVID-19 nursing home restrictions on people with dementia involved in a Supportive Care programme.

Background: Supportive Care is a person-centred approach encompassing non-pharmacological interventions targeted towards persons with dementia to contain the effects of their behavioural disorders, improving their quality of life.

Aims: To investigate the effects of lockdown restrictions during the first wave of COVID-19 pandemic on behavioural symptoms of patients involved in a Supportive Care programme in an Italian nursing home.

Methods: Analysis is based on Neuropsychiatric Inventory (NPI) scores and related symptoms data collected before (October/November 2019) and after (July 2020) the introduction of COVID-19 restrictions on a non-random sample of 75 patients living in two units of the facility: 38 involved in a Supportive Care programme and 37 receiving standard care (Control).

Association between long-term exposure to low ambient PM and cardiovascular hospital admissions: A UK Biobank study.

Introduction: A causal link between air pollution exposure and cardiovascular events has been suggested. However fewer studies have investigated the shape of the associations at low levels of air pollution and identified the most important temporal window of exposure. Here we assessed long-term associations between particulate matter < 2.

Inequalities in global residential cooling energy use to 2050.

Intersecting socio-demographic transformations and warming climates portend increasing worldwide heat exposures and health sequelae. Cooling adaptation via air conditioning (AC) is effective, but energy-intensive and constrained by household-level differences in income and adaptive capacity. Using statistical models trained on a large multi-country household survey dataset (n = 673,215), we project AC adoption and energy use to mid-century at fine spatial resolution worldwide.

The effect of parental health shocks on living arrangements and employment.

This study investigates the impacts of health shocks among older individuals on the dynamics of their living arrangements in Europe and the United States. Exploiting unpredicted health shocks, we use an event-study difference-in-differences approach to demonstrate that health shocks increase difficulties with activities of daily living and instrumental activities of daily living, thereby increasing the need for care. Our findings indicate that health shocks raise the probability of nursing home residency and co-residence with adult children by 0.

Fibration symmetry-breaking supports functional transitions in a brain network engaged in language.

In his book 'A Beautiful Question', physicist Frank Wilczek argues that symmetry is 'nature's deep design,' governing the behavior of the universe, from the smallest particles to the largest structures. While symmetry is a cornerstone of physics, it has not yet been found widespread applicability to describe biological systems, particularly the human brain. In this context, we study the human brain network engaged in language and explore the relationship between the structural connectivity (connectome or structural network) and the emergent synchronization of the mesoscopic regions of interest (functional network).

Inflammation related to inhalation of nano and micron sized iron oxides: a systematic review.

Inhalation exposure to iron oxide occurs in many workplaces and respirable aerosols occur during thermal processes (e.g. welding, casting) or during abrasion of iron and steel products (e.

Small energy benefits of in-wake flying in long-duration migratory flights.

During long-distance migrations, some bird species make use of in-wake flying, which should allow them to profit from the upwash produced by another bird. While indirect evidence supports energy saving as the primary benefit of in-wake flying, measurements are still missing. We equipped migrating northern bald ibises () with high-precision global navigation satellite system data loggers to track their position in the flock.

Atomically precise rhodium-indium carbonyl nanoclusters: synthesis, characterization, crystal structure and electron-sponge features.

In this paper we present the investigation of the reactivity of [Rh(CO)] with InCl, with the aim of expanding the more general study that allowed us to obtain, among other species, the icosahedral [RhE(CO)] ( = 4 when E = Ge or Sn; = 3 when E = Sb or Bi) family of clusters. Indeed, the study resulted in the isolation and characterization of the analogous In-centred icosahedral [RhIn(CO)] nanocluster (1), which is isoelectronic and isostructural with the [RhE(CO)] congeners. During the course of the reaction two more new species, namely the octahedral [Rh(CO)InCl] (2) and the dimeric [{Rh(CO)InCl}] (3) have also been identified.

Machine Learning Streamlines the Morphometric Characterization and Multiclass Segmentation of Nuclei in Different Follicular Thyroid Lesions: Everything in a NUTSHELL.

The diagnostic assessment of thyroid nodules is hampered by the persistence of uncertainty in borderline cases and further complicated by the inclusion of noninvasive follicular tumor with papillary-like nuclear features (NIFTP) as a less aggressive alternative to papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC). In this setting, computational methods might facilitate the diagnostic process by unmasking key nuclear characteristics of NIFTP. The main aims of this work were to (1) identify morphometric features of NIFTP and PTC that are interpretable for the human eye and (2) develop a deep learning model for multiclass segmentation as a support tool to reduce diagnostic variability.

Excitation and detection of coherent nanoscale spin waves via extreme ultraviolet transient gratings.

The advent of free electron lasers has opened the opportunity to explore interactions between extreme ultraviolet (EUV) photons and collective excitations in solids. While EUV transient grating spectroscopy, a noncollinear four-wave mixing technique, has already been applied to probe coherent phonons, the potential of EUV radiation for studying nanoscale spin waves has not been harnessed. Here we report EUV transient grating experiments with coherent magnons in Fe/Gd ferrimagnetic multilayers.

A Physics-Informed Neural Network approach for compartmental epidemiological models.

Compartmental models provide simple and efficient tools to analyze the relevant transmission processes during an outbreak, to produce short-term forecasts or transmission scenarios, and to assess the impact of vaccination campaigns. However, their calibration is not straightforward, since many factors contribute to the rapid change of the transmission dynamics. For example, there might be changes in the individual awareness, the imposition of non-pharmacological interventions and the emergence of new variants.

Generalized Kinetic Equations with Fractional Time-Derivative and Nonlinear Diffusion: H-Theorem and Entropy.

We investigate the H-theorem for a class of generalized kinetic equations with fractional time-derivative, hyperbolic term, and nonlinear diffusion. When the H-theorem is satisfied, we demonstrate that different entropic forms may emerge due to the equation's nonlinearity. We obtain the entropy production related to these entropies and show that its form remains invariant.

Temperature-related mortality burden and projected change in 1368 European regions: a modelling study.

Background: Excessively high and low temperatures substantially affect human health. Climate change is expected to exacerbate heat-related morbidity and mortality, presenting unprecedented challenges to public health systems. Since localised assessments of temperature-related mortality risk are essential to formulate effective public health responses and adaptation strategies, we aimed to estimate the current and future temperature-related mortality risk under four climate change scenarios across all European regions.

Biodegradation of hydroxylated boron nitride nanoplatelets, their toxic effect and drug delivery application.

Boron nitride is extensively used in various biomedical applications and often interacting with the blood circulatory system. However, the effect of its biotransformation in blood plasma, drug delivery applications, and antitumor effects remains unclear. Herein, we synthesized hydroxylated BN nanoplatelets (-OH/BNNPs) that are used to load doxorubicin (DOX) for cancer therapy.

High resolution mapping of nitrogen dioxide and particulate matter in Great Britain (2003-2021) with multi-stage data reconstruction and ensemble machine learning methods.

In this contribution, we applied a multi-stage machine learning (ML) framework to map daily values of nitrogen dioxide (NO) and particulate matter (PM and PM) at a 1 km resolution over Great Britain for the period 2003-2021. The process combined ground monitoring observations, satellite-derived products, climate reanalyses and chemical transport model datasets, and traffic and land-use data. Each feature was harmonized to 1 km resolution and extracted at monitoring sites.