Volumetric, Microfluidic Plasmonic RT-PCR.

Decentralized molecular detection of pathogens remains an important goal for public health. Although polymerase chain reaction (PCR) remains the gold-standard molecular detection method, thermocycling using Peltier heaters presents challenges in decentralized settings. Recent work has demonstrated plasmonic PCR, where nanomaterials on a surface or nanoparticles in solution heat upon stimulation by light, as a promising method for rapid thermocycling.

Abrasion Effect on Heating Performance of Carbon Nanotube/Epoxy Composites.

The effects of abrasion on the heating performance of carbon nanotube (CNT)/epoxy composites were investigated in terms of Joule's heat, convective heat, and radiative heat under moderate-to-severe and localized abrasive conditions. While the overall heating behavior was characterized by the heating rate and the curvature of the transient response, a numerical solution of the heat equation was used to quantify convective and radiative heat transfers, incorporating the specific heat of each component, the convective heat transfer coefficient, and the Biot number. CNT reinforcement significantly improved wear resistance at a CNT concentration of 0.

Threatened synanthropes depend on intact forests: a critical evaluation of Moore et al. (2023).

Synanthropes are known for their remarkable adaptability to coexist with humans, yet increased visibility exposes them to significant threats, such as hunting or conflict over resources. Moore et al.'s review 'The rise of hyperabundant native generalists threatens both humans and nature' (https://doi.

Cryo-ET reveals the in situ architecture of the polar tube invasion apparatus from microsporidian parasites.

Microsporidia are divergent fungal pathogens that employ a unique harpoon-like apparatus called the polar tube (PT) to invade host cells. The long PT is fired out of the microsporidian spore over the course of just a few hundred milliseconds. Once fired, the PT is thought to pierce the plasma membrane of a target cell and act as a conduit for the transfer of the parasite into the host cell, which initiates infection.

Secure and scalable gene expression quantification with pQuant.

Next generation sequencing reads from RNA-seq studies expose private genotypes of individuals during computation. Here, we introduce pQuant, an algorithm that employs homomorphic encryption to ensure privacy-preserving quantification of gene expression from RNA-seq data across public and cloud servers. pQuant performs computations on encrypted data, allowing researchers to handle sensitive information without exposing it.

Your space or mine: Trait anxiety affects the peripersonal space plasticity in a social context.

Peripersonal space (PPS) is a plastic sector of space surrounding the body whose boundaries are mapped through multisensory integration and shifted by individual motor experiences. To date, nothing is known about PPS plasticity after a social motor interaction, and whether individual traits, such as anxiety, modulate it. Here, participants were instructed to manipulate small objects within their reaching space without tool-use, collaboratively helped by a confederate who employed a tool in her extrapersonal space.

Extracellular vesicle as a next-generation drug delivery platform for rheumatoid arthritis therapy.

Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a systemic autoimmune disorder characterized by chronic inflammation and progressive damage to connective tissue. It is driven by dysregulated cellular homeostasis, often leading to autoimmune destruction and permanent disability in severe cases. Over the past decade, various drug delivery systems have been developed to enable targeted therapies for disease prevention, reduction, or suppression.

Addressing Altered Anticipation as a Transdiagnostic Target through Computational Psychiatry.

Anticipation of future experiences is a crucial cognitive function impacted in various psychiatric conditions. Despite significant research advancements, the mechanisms underlying altered anticipation remain poorly understood, and effective targeted treatments are largely lacking. This review proposes an integrated computational psychiatry approach to address these challenges.

Protocol to identify transcription factor target genes using TargetOrtho2.

TargetOrtho2 uses transcription factor binding site information to predict transcription factor targets in C. elegans, based on an in silico phylogenetic footprinting approach. Here, we present a protocol to identify transcription factor target genes using a new version of TargetOrtho2.

Primitive audiovisual integration of speech.

An unintelligible video recording of a face uttering a sentence and an unintelligible acoustic sinusoid following the frequency variation of a single vocal resonance of the utterance were intelligible when presented together at their veridical synchrony. The intelligibility resulted from audiovisual sensory integration and phonetic perceptual analysis, which depended neither on the separate resolution of linguistic impressions in each modality nor on closed-set reports about a single pair of minimal phonemic contrast features. Likewise, audiovisual integration could not be attributed to Gestalt-derived similarity principles applied unimodally or bimodally.

Structure of activity in multiregion recurrent neural networks.

Neural circuits comprise multiple interconnected regions, each with complex dynamics. The interplay between local and global activity is thought to underlie computational flexibility, yet the structure of multiregion neural activity and its origins in synaptic connectivity remain poorly understood. We investigate recurrent neural networks with multiple regions, each containing neurons with random and structured connections.

A robust crystal structure prediction method to support small molecule drug development with large scale validation and blind study.

Crystal polymorphism is an important and fascinating aspect of solid state chemistry with far reaching implications in the pharmaceuticals, agrisciences, nutraceuticals, battery and aviation industries. Late appearing more stable polymorphs have caused numerous issues in the pharmaceutical industry. Experimental polymorph screening can be very expensive and time consuming, and sometimes may miss important low energy polymorphs due to an inability to exhaust all crystallization conditions.

Information on epilepsy genetics available online for people with epilepsy and their families.

Objective: To evaluate and compare the types of information available online about epilepsy genetics to people with epilepsy and their family members on websites and social media platforms.

Methods: To identify websites, we used the search terms "epilepsy," "genetic epilepsy," and "epilepsy genetics" in Google, using Incognito mode. We selected the first ten English, non-sponsored websites for analysis.

Oxytocin induces embryonic diapause.

Embryonic development in many species, including case reports in humans, can be temporarily halted before implantation during a process called diapause. Facultative diapause occurs under conditions of maternal metabolic stress such as nursing. While molecular mechanisms of diapause have been studied, a natural inducing factor has yet to be identified.

Grasp Force Assistance via Throttle-based Wrist Angle Control on a Robotic Hand Orthosis for C6-C7 Spinal Cord Injury.

Individuals with hand paralysis resulting from C6-C7 spinal cord injuries frequently rely on tenodesis for grasping. However, tenodesis generates limited grasping force and demands constant exertion to maintain a grasp, leading to fatigue and sometimes pain. We introduce the MyHand-SCI, a wearable robot that provides grasping assistance through motorized exotendons.

Visual mental imagery in typical imagers and in aphantasia: A millimeter-scale 7-T fMRI study.

Most of us effortlessly describe visual objects, whether seen or remembered. Yet, around 4% of people report congenital aphantasia: they struggle to visualize objects despite being able to describe their visual appearance. What neural mechanisms create this disparity between subjective experience and objective performance? Aphantasia can provide novel insights into conscious processing and awareness.

Getting to the Heart of the Matter: Exploring the Intersection of Cardiovascular Disease, Sex and Race and How Exercise, and Gut Microbiota Influence these Relationships.

Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is the leading cause of death worldwide, with physical inactivity being a known contributor to the global rates of CVD incidence. CVD incidence, however, is not uniform with recognized sex differences as well and racial and ethnic differences. Furthermore, gut microbiota have been associated with CVD, sex, and race/ethnicity.

Prevalence of Cooking with Polluting Fuels and Association with Elevated Blood Pressure Among Adults in Port au Prince, Haiti: A Cross-Sectional Analysis.

Background: Cooking with polluting fuels is common in low- and middle-income countries and may impact blood pressure, yet data on this association in urban Haiti is limited. This study describes the prevalence of polluting fuel use and indoor cooking, evaluates their associations with blood pressure, and evaluates whether effects are heterogeneous by sex in urban Haiti.

Methods: Using cross-sectional data from the Haiti Cardiovascular Disease Cohort study, prevalence of polluting fuel use and indoor cooking was estimated.

Evaluation by dental professionals of an artificial intelligence-based application to measure alveolar bone loss.

Background: Several commercial programs incorporate artificial intelligence in diagnosis, but very few dental professionals have been surveyed regarding its acceptability and usability. Furthermore, few have explored how these advances might be incorporated into routine practice.

Methods: Our team developed and implemented a deep learning (DL) model employing semantic segmentation neural networks and object detection networks to precisely identify alveolar bone crestal levels (ABCLs) and cemento-enamel junctions (CEJs) to measure change in alveolar crestal height (ACH).

Phylogeny does not predict the outcome of heterospecific pollen-pistil interactions in a species-rich alpine plant community.

Premise: Co-occurring plant species that share generalist pollinators often exchange pollen. This heterospecific pollen transfer (HPT) impacts male and female reproductive success through pollen loss and reductions in seed set, respectively. The resulting fitness cost of HPT imposes selection on reproductive traits (e.

CHO-S expression of a novel human recombinant IgG1 of anti-ALD antibody isolated by phage mutation display.

Aldosterone (ALD) is elevated in the serum and plasma of patients with various metabolism-related diseases, and anti-ALD antibodies are important materials in early diagnostic kits. However, current anti-ALD antibodies for clinical diagnosis are not specific, resulting in high false positives. We have developed an anti-ALD-601# rabbit monoclonal antibody that is commercially available and licensed for diagnosis.

A novel FTO-targeting nanodrug induces disulfidptosis and ameliorates the suppressive tumor immune environment to treat uveal melanoma.

Uveal melanoma (UM) is the most prevalent primary ocular malignancy in adults, with high lethality and limited effective treatment options. Despite identified driver mutations in GNAQ, GNA11, and BAP1, therapeutic advancements have been minimal. This study highlights the pivotal role of N6-methyladenosine (mA) modifications in UM pathogenesis and progression, focusing on the demethylase FTO as a therapeutic target.

Reduced cerebellar rhythm by climbing fiber denervation is linked to motor rhythm deficits in mice and ataxia severity in patients.

Cerebellar ataxia results from various genetic and nongenetic disorders and is characterized by involuntary movements that impair precision and motor rhythm. Here, we report that climbing fiber (CF) denervation is a common pathophysiology underlying motor rhythm loss in cerebellar ataxia. By examining cerebellar pathology in patients with spinocerebellar ataxia (SCA) types 1, 2, and 6 and multiple system atrophy, we identified CF degeneration with synaptic loss as a shared pathophysiology.

Transfer of learned object manipulations between two- and five-digit grasps.

Successful object manipulation involves integrating object properties into a motor plan and scaling fingertip forces through learning. This study investigated whether learned manipulations using a two-digit grip transfer to a five-digit grip and vice versa, focusing on the challenges posed by added degrees of freedom in force distribution. The goal of the task was to exert the necessary compensatory torque (Tcom) and vertical forces to minimize object roll on a visually symmetrical object that with an asymmetrical mass distribution.