Investigation of and in Pakistan, with notes on the detection of tickborne Rickettsiales.

There is limited information on the occurrence of and ticks, as well as associated and species in Pakistan. Addressing this knowledge gap, the current study aimed at morphomolecular confirmation of these ticks and molecular assessment of associated Rickettsiales bacteria (, and spp.) in Balochistan, Pakistan.

Functional imaging derived ADHD biotypes based on deep clustering: a study on personalized medication therapy guidance.

Background: Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is one prevalent neurodevelopmental disorder with childhood onset, however, there is no clear correspondence established between clinical ADHD subtypes and primary medications. Identifying objective and reliable neuroimaging markers for categorizing ADHD biotypes may lead to more individualized, biotype-guided treatment.

Methods: Here we proposed a graph convolution network for biological subtype detection (GCN-BSD) using both functional network connectivity (FNC) and non-imaging phenotypic data for ADHD biotype.

Phosphoribosyl pyrophosphate synthetase 1 () associated retinal degeneration: an international study.

Introduction: Phosphoribosyl pyrophosphate synthetase 1 () is an X-linked gene critical for nucleotide metabolism. Pathogenic variants cause three overlapping phenotypes: Arts syndrome (severe neurological disease), Charcot-Marie-Tooth type 5 [CMTX5] (peripheral neuropathy), and non-syndromic sensorineural hearing loss (SNHL). Each may be associated with retinal dystrophy.

Constructing the Dirac Electronic Behavior Database of Under-Stress Transition Metal Dichalcogenides for Broad Applications.

Discovering and utilizing the unique optoelectronic properties of transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDCs) is of great significance for developing next-generation electronic devices. In particular, research on Dirac state modulations of TMDCs under external strains is lacking. To fill this research gap, it has established a comprehensive database of 90 types of TMDCs and their response behaviors under external strains have been systematically investigated regarding the presence of Dirac cones and electronic structure evolutions.

Optimizing transcutaneous spinal stimulation: excitability of evoked spinal reflexes is dependent on electrode montage.

Background: There is growing interest in use of transcutaneous spinal stimulation (TSS) for people with neurologic conditions both to augment volitional control (by facilitating motoneuron excitability), and to decrease spasticity (by activating inhibitory networks). Various electrode montages are used during TSS, with little understanding of how electrode position influences spinal circuit activation. We sought to identify the thoracolumbar electrode montage associated with the most robust activation of spinal circuits by comparing posterior root-muscle reflexes (PRM reflexes) elicited by 6 montages.

Innovative ultrasound assisted synthesis of sponge like cerium dioxide nanostructure using Rosa Damascena extract and its efficient performance for cancer therapy.

In this work, cerium dioxide nanostructures were synthesized in an easy sonochemical way. CeO nanoparticles have received much attention in nanotechnology. CeONPs, exhibit biomimetic properties depending on their size, ratio of valency on their surface, and the ambient physico-chemical properties.

Adaptive Significance of Non-coding RNAs: Insights from Cancer Biology.

The molecular basis of adaptive evolution and cancer progression are both complex processes that share many striking similarities. The potential adaptive significance of environmentally-induced epigenetic changes is currently an area of great interest in both evolutionary and cancer biology. In the field of cancer biology intense effort has been focused on the contribution of stress-induced non-coding RNAs (ncRNAs) in the activation of epigenetic changes associated with elevated mutation rates and the acquisition of environmentally adaptive traits.

Exploration of an adaptive proton therapy strategy using CBCT with the concept of digital twins.

This study aims to develop a digital twin (DT) framework to achieve adaptive proton prostate stereotactic body radiation therapy (SBRT) with fast treatment plan selection and patient-specific clinical target volume (CTV) setup uncertainty. Prostate SBRT has emerged as a leading option for external beam radiotherapy due to its effectiveness and reduced treatment duration. However, interfractional anatomy variations can impact treatment outcomes.

Two-Layer Retrieval-Augmented Generation Framework for Low-Resource Medical Question Answering Using Reddit Data: Proof-of-Concept Study.

Background: The increasing use of social media to share lived and living experiences of substance use presents a unique opportunity to obtain information on side effects, use patterns, and opinions on novel psychoactive substances. However, due to the large volume of data, obtaining useful insights through natural language processing technologies such as large language models is challenging.

Objective: This paper aims to develop a retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) architecture for medical question answering pertaining to clinicians' queries on emerging issues associated with health-related topics, using user-generated medical information on social media.

Genetic variation of hemolysin co-regulated protein 1 affects the immunogenicity and pathogenicity of Burkholderia pseudomallei.

Hemolysin co-regulated protein 1 (Hcp1) is a component of the cluster 1 Type VI secretion system (T6SS1) that plays a key role during the intracellular lifecycle of Burkholderia pseudomallei. Hcp1 is recognized as a promising target antigen for developing melioidosis diagnostics and vaccines. While the gene encoding Hcp1 is retained across B.

Demystifying visual word form area visual and nonvisual response properties with precision fMRI.

The visual word form area (VWFA) is a region in the left ventrotemporal cortex (VTC) whose specificity remains contentious. Using precision fMRI, we examine the VWFA's responses to numerous visual and nonvisual stimuli, comparing them to adjacent category-selective visual regions and regions involved in language and attentional demand. We find that VWFA responds moderately to non-word visual stimuli, but is unique within VTC in its pronounced selectivity for visual words.

Cerebral vein thrombosis: management tactics with a focus on pregnancy, the use of hormone therapy and assisted reproductive technologies.

Cerebral vein thrombosis is a rare, life-threatening condition that has now become more commonly diagnosed due to advancements in imaging techniques. Our purpose is to improve understanding of pathogenesis, diagnosis and pregnancy and IVF management in patients with a history of cerebral thrombosis. We present an overview of the modern tactics of anticoagulant therapy for cerebral thrombosis with a focus on pregnancy, the use of hormone therapy, and assisted reproductive technologies.

Associations between cannabis use and same-day health and substance use behaviors.

Objective: Cannabis use has increased in the United States as states have legalized/decriminalized recreational and/or medicinal use. The primary aim of this study was to examine daily associations between cannabis use and health (physical activity [PA]) and substance use (alcohol consumption, cigarette use) behaviors.

Method: Data from a 28-day nationwide study that prompted daily ecological momentary assessments (EMAs) were used to assess daily cannabis use, moderate-to-vigorous PA (MVPA), alcohol containing drinks consumed, and cigarettes smoked.

Ciliary muscle traction during accommodation is able to induce optic nerve head deformation.

Objectives: To use finite element (FE) modeling and in vivo optical coherence tomography (OCT) imaging to explore the effect of ciliary muscle traction on optic nerve head (ONH) deformation during accommodation.

Methods: We developed a FE model to mimic the ciliary muscle traction during accommodation, and varied the stiffness of the sclera, choroid, Bruch's membrane (BM), prelaminar neural tissue and lamina cribrosa (LC) to assess their effects on accommodation-induced ONH strains. To validate the FE model, OCT images of the right eyes' ONHs from 20 subjects (25 ± 1.

Lower ACLR Failure Rates in Bone-Soft Tissue Versus Soft Tissue-Only Allografts in Adults: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis.

Background: While allografts are commonly used for anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction (ACLR), evidence to guide specific allograft selection is lacking.

Purpose: To compare clinical and graft failure rates after ACLR using soft tissue-only allografts and bone-soft tissue allografts in adults.

Study Design: Systematic review and meta-analysis; Level of evidence, 4.

Multi-Layered Microneedles Loaded with Microspheres.

Delivery of therapies into skin is attractive for medical indications including vaccination and treatment of dermatoses but is highly constrained by the stratum corneum barrier. Microneedle (MN) patches have emerged as a promising technology to enable non-invasive, intuitive, and low-cost skin delivery. When combined with biodegradable polymer formulations, MN patches can further enable controlled-release drug delivery without injection.

AND-gated protease-activated nanosensors for programmable detection of anti-tumour immunity.

The forward design of biosensors that implement Boolean logic to improve detection precision primarily relies on programming genetic components to control transcriptional responses. However, cell- and gene-free nanomaterials programmed with logical functions may present lower barriers for clinical translation. Here we report the design of activity-based nanosensors that implement AND-gate logic without genetic parts via bi-labile cyclic peptides.

Skillful seasonal predictions of continental East-Asian summer rainfall by integrating its spatio-temporal evolution.

Skillful seasonal climate prediction is critical for food and water security over the world's heavily populated regions, such as in continental East Asia. Current models, however, face significant difficulties in predicting the summer mean rainfall anomaly over continental East Asia, and forecasting rainfall spatiotemporal evolution presents an even greater challenge. Here, we benefit from integrating the spatiotemporal evolution of rainfall to identify the most crucial patterns intrinsic to continental East-Asian rainfall anomalies.

Influencers in Policy Fields on Social Media: Global Longitudinal Study of Dietary Sodium Reduction Posts, 2006-2022.

Background: Excessive sodium intake is a major concern for global public health. Despite multiple dietary guidelines, population sodium intakes are above recommended levels. Lack of health literacy could be one contributing issue and contemporary health literacy is largely shaped by social media.

Classification of non-TCGA cancer samples to TCGA molecular subtypes using compact feature sets.

Molecular subtypes, such as defined by The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA), delineate a cancer's underlying biology, bringing hope to inform a patient's prognosis and treatment plan. However, most approaches used in the discovery of subtypes are not suitable for assigning subtype labels to new cancer specimens from other studies or clinical trials. Here, we address this barrier by applying five different machine learning approaches to multi-omic data from 8,791 TCGA tumor samples comprising 106 subtypes from 26 different cancer cohorts to build models based upon small numbers of features that can classify new samples into previously defined TCGA molecular subtypes-a step toward molecular subtype application in the clinic.

Disentangling Sources of Momentum Fluctuations in Xe+Xe and Pb+Pb Collisions with the ATLAS Detector.

High-energy nuclear collisions create a quark-gluon plasma, whose initial condition and subsequent expansion vary from event to event, impacting the distribution of the eventwise average transverse momentum [P([p_{T}])]. Disentangling the contributions from fluctuations in the nuclear overlap size (geometrical component) and other sources at a fixed size (intrinsic component) remains a challenge. This problem is addressed by measuring the mean, variance, and skewness of P([p_{T}]) in ^{208}Pb+^{208}Pb and ^{129}Xe+^{129}Xe collisions at sqrt[s_{NN}]=5.

Crystal-Field Effects in the Formation of Wigner-Molecule Supercrystals in Moiré Transition Metal Dichalcogenide Superlattices.

For moiré bilayer TMD superlattices, full-configuration-interaction (FCI) calculations are presented that take into account both the intra-moiré-quantum-dot (MQD) charge-carrier Coulombic interactions, as well as the crystal-field effect from the surrounding moiré pockets (inter-moiré-QD interactions). The effective computational embedding strategy introduced here allows for an FCI methodogy that enables the complete interpretation of the counterintuitive experimental observations reported recently in the context of moiré TMD superlattices at integer fillings ν=2 and 4. Two novel states of matter are reported: (i) a genuinely quantum-mechanical supercrystal of sliding Wigner molecules (WMs) for unstrained moiré TMD materials (when the crystal field is commensurate with the trilobal symmetry of the confining potential in each embedded MQD) and (ii) a supercrystal of pinned Wigner molecules when the crystal field is incommensurate with the trilobal symmetry or straining of the whole material is involved.

Electro-chemo-mechanics of anode-free solid-state batteries.

Anode-free solid-state batteries contain no active material at the negative electrode in the as-manufactured state, yielding high energy densities for use in long-range electric vehicles. The mechanisms governing charge-discharge cycling of anode-free batteries are largely controlled by electro-chemo-mechanical phenomena at solid-solid interfaces, and there are important mechanistic differences when compared with conventional lithium-excess batteries. This Perspective provides an overview of the factors governing lithium nucleation, growth, stripping and cycling in anode-free solid-state batteries, including mechanical deformation of lithium, the chemical and mechanical properties of the current collector, microstructural effects, and stripping dynamics.

Three-dimensional photoluminescence imaging of threading dislocations in GaN by sub-band optical excitation.

GaN is rapidly gaining attention for implementation in power electronics but is still impacted by its high density of threading dislocations (TDs), which have been shown to facilitate current leakage through devices limiting their performance and reliability. Here, we discuss a novel implementation of photoluminescence (PL) imaging to study TDs in regions within vertically structured p-i-n GaN (PIN) diodes consisting of metalorganic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD) epitaxial layers grown on ammonothermal GaN (am-GaN) substrates. PL imaging with a sub-bandgap excitation energy (3.