First evidence of transovarial transmission of Kyasanur Forest disease virus in Haemaphysalis and Rhipicephalus ticks in the wild.

Background: Kyasanur forest disease virus (KFDV) is a tick-borne flavivirus causing debilitating and potentially fatal disease in people in the Western Ghats region of India. The transmission cycle is complex, involving multiple vector and host species, but there are significant gaps in ecological knowledge. Empirical data on pathogen-vector-host interactions and incrimination have not been updated since the last century, despite significant local changes in land use and the expansion of KFD to new areas.

Propagation of neuronal micronuclei regulates microglial characteristics.

Microglia-resident immune cells in the central nervous system-undergo morphological and functional changes in response to signals from the local environment and mature into various homeostatic states. However, niche signals underlying microglial differentiation and maturation remain unknown. Here, we show that neuronal micronuclei (MN) transfer to microglia, which is followed by changing microglial characteristics during the postnatal period.

Design of antiferroelectric polarization configuration for ultrahigh capacitive energy storage via increasing entropy.

Electric field induced antiferroelectric-ferroelectric phase transition is a double-edged sword for energy storage properties, which not only offers a congenital superiority with substantial energy storage density but also poses significant challenges such as large polarization hysteresis and poor efficiency, deteriorating the operation and service life of capacitors. Here, entropy increase effect is utilized to simultaneously break the long-range antiferroelectric order and locally adjust the fourfold commensurate modulated polarization configuration, leading to a breakthrough in the trade-off between recoverable energy storge density (14.8 J cm) and efficiency (90.

A singular theory of sensorimotor coordination: On targeted motions in space.

Gravity has long been purported to serve a unique role in sensorimotor coordination, but the specific mechanisms underlying gravity-based visuomotor realignment remain elusive. In this study, astronauts (9 males, 2 females) performed targeted hand movements with eyes open or closed, both on the ground and in weightlessness. Measurements revealed systematic drift in hand-path orientation seen only when eyes were closed and only in very specific conditions with respect to gravity.

Estimating the epidemiological and economic impact of providing nutritional care for tuberculosis-affected households across India: a modelling study.

Background: Approximately 20% of global tuberculosis incidence is attributable to undernutrition, increasing to more than a third in India. Targeting nutritional interventions to tuberculosis-affected households is a policy priority, but understanding of epidemiological and economic impacts is limited. We aimed to estimate the population-level epidemiological and economic effect of such an intervention.

Novel efficient reservoir computing methodologies for regular and irregular time series classification.

Time series is a data structure prevalent in a wide range of fields such as healthcare, finance and meteorology. It goes without saying that analyzing time series data holds the key to gaining insight into our day-to-day observations. Among the vast spectrum of time series analysis, time series classification offers the unique opportunity to classify the sequences into their respective categories for the sake of automated detection.

GLAC-Unet: Global-Local Active Contour Loss with an Efficient U-Shaped Architecture for Multiclass Medical Image Segmentation.

The field of medical image segmentation powered by deep learning has recently received substantial attention, with a significant focus on developing novel architectures and designing effective loss functions. Traditional loss functions, such as Dice loss and Cross-Entropy loss, predominantly rely on global metrics to compare predictions with labels. However, these global measures often struggle to address challenges such as occlusion and nonuni-form intensity.

Validation of a Fingertip Home Sleep Apnea Testing System Using Deep Learning AI and a Temporal Event Localization Analysis.

Study Objectives: This paper validates TipTraQ, a compact home sleep apnea testing (HSAT) system. TipTraQ comprises a fingertip-worn device, a mobile application, and a cloud-based deep learning artificial intelligence (AI) system. The device utilizes PPG (red, infrared, and green channels) and accelerometer sensors to assess sleep apnea by the AI system.

Anthropometric and Angular Measurements in Healthy Persian Females in Comparison to the Golden Ratio.

Introduction: Anthropology is the scientific exploration of the human body morphology. The present study aims to establish the anthropometric norms among young Persian ethnic women and compare them with golden proportion, a mathematical formula in facial esthetics.

Methods: This cross-sectional study was performed on Persian women between July 2020 and January 2021.

Timing based clustering of childhood BMI trajectories reveals differential maturational patterns; Study in the Northern Finland Birth Cohorts 1966 and 1986.

Background/objectives: Children's biological age does not always correspond to their chronological age. In the case of BMI trajectories, this can appear as phase variation, which can be seen as shift, stretch, or shrinking between trajectories. With maturation thought of as a process moving towards the final state - adult BMI, we assessed whether children can be divided into latent groups reflecting similar maturational age of BMI.

The long-term effects of cardiometabolic risk factors on mortality and life expectancy: evidence from a health check-up cohort study.

Objective: Cardiometabolic risk factors significantly contribute to disease burden. This study explored the effects of hypertension (HTN), diabetes mellitus (DM), and hyperlipidemia (HLP) on mortality. It stratified findings by age group and comorbidity severity using the Charlson Comorbidity Index (CCI) score.

Dual-Grid and Mixed-Precision Methods for Accelerating Plane-Wave Hybrid Functional Electronic Structure Calculations.

Hybrid functionals that incorporate exact Hartree-Fock exchange (HFX) into density functional theory (DFT) are crucial for accurately predicting the electronic structures of extended systems in condensed-matter physics and materials science. Although the exact exchange contributes only a small fraction of the total energy, HFX calculations in hybrid functionals demand significant computational resources. Here, we introduce dual-grid and mixed-precision techniques, based on two low-rank approximations, adaptively compressed exchange (ACE) and interpolative separable density fitting (ISDF) methods, to significantly improve the computational efficiency of plane-wave hybrid functional calculations in the software package PWDFT (plane wave density functional theory).

Single cell derived multicellular meristem: insights into male-to-hermaphrodite conversion and de novo meristem formation in ceratopteris.

Land plants alternate between asexual sporophytes and sexual gametophytes. Unlike seed plants, ferns develop free-living gametophytes. Gametophytes of the model fern Ceratopteris exhibit two sex types: hermaphrodites with pluripotent meristems and males lacking meristems.

Defining the Critical Requisites for Accurate Simulation of SARS-CoV-2 Viral Dynamics: Patient Characteristics and Data Collection Protocol.

Mathematical models of viral dynamics are crucial in understanding infection trajectories. However, severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) viral load data often includes limited sparse observations with significant heterogeneity. This study aims to: (1) understand the impact of patient characteristics in shaping the temporal viral load trajectory and (2) establish a data collection protocol (DCP) to reliably reconstruct individual viral load trajectories.

Socioeconomic correlates of urban mobility trends in two Australian cities during transitional periods of the COVID-19 pandemic.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, both government-mandated lockdowns and discretionary changes in behaviour combined to produce dramatic and abrupt changes to human mobility patterns. To understand the socioeconomic determinants of intervention compliance and discretionary behavioural responses to epidemic threats, we investigate whether changes in human mobility showed a systematic variation by socioeconomic status during two distinct periods of the COVID-19 pandemic in Australia. We analyse mobility data from two major urban centres and compare the trends during mandated stay-at-home policies and after the full relaxation of nonpharmaceutical interventions, which coincided with a large surge of COVID-19 cases.

Toxicity assessment and bioimaging potential of carbon dots synthesized from banana peel in zebrafish model.

Zebrafish serve as a pivotal model for bioimaging and toxicity assessments; however, the toxicity of banana peel-derived carbon dots in zebrafish has not been previously reported. The aim of this study was to assess the toxicity of carbon dots derived from banana peel in zebrafish, focusing on two types prepared through hydrothermal and pyrolysis methods. Banana peels were synthesized using hydrothermal and pyrolysis techniques and then compared for characteristics, bioimaging ability, and toxicity in zebrafish as an animal model.

The Disease and Economic Burden of HBV and HCV in Ethiopia.

As the second most populated country in Africa, Ethiopia needs public health measures to control diseases that impact its population. The goal of this study is to analyse disease burdens of HBV and HCV, while also highlighting their estimated associated costs for the country. A literature review and a Delphi process reflecting input of Ethiopian experts and the National Viral Hepatitis Technical Working Group were used to complement mathematical modelling to estimate HBV and HCV disease and economic burdens.

Repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation combined with imaginal exposure therapy for adolescents with acute stress disorder: case report.

Acute stress disorder (ASD) is a transient psychiatric disorder that may arise subsequent to abrupt, extreme trauma exposure, and serves as a reliable indicator for the subsequent development of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) (Bryant, 2011; Battle, 2013). It exhibits rapid progression in the aftermath of trauma and persists for a duration of days or weeks (not exceeding one month), manifesting symptoms of dissociation, re-experiencing, avoidance, and hyperarousal (Bielas et al., 2018).

Clinical efficacy and safety of vortioxetine as an adjuvant drug for patients with bipolar depression.

Objectives: Whether vortioxetine has a utility as an adjuvant drug in the treatment of bipolar depression remains controversial. This study aimed to validate the efficacy and safety of vortioxetine in bipolar depression.

Methods: Patients with bipolar Ⅱ depression were enrolled in this prospective, two-center, randomized, 12-week pilot trial.

Deep eutectic solvent enhances antibacterial activity of a modular lytic enzyme against Acinetobacter baumannii.

In this study, we evaluated the combined effect between MLE-15, a modular lytic enzyme composed of four building blocks, and reline, a natural deep eutectic solvent. The bioinformatic analysis allowed us to determine the spatial architecture of MLE-15, whose components were bactericidal peptide cecropin A connected via a flexible linker to the cell wall binding domain (CBD) of mesophilic 201ϕ2 - 1 endolysin and catalytic domain (EAD) of highly thermostable Ph2119 endolysin. The modular enzyme showed high thermostability with the melting temperature of 93.

Training data diversity enhances the basecalling of novel RNA modification-induced nanopore sequencing readouts.

Accurately basecalling sequence backbones in the presence of nucleotide modifications remains a substantial challenge in nanopore sequencing bioinformatics. It has been extensively demonstrated that state-of-the-art basecallers are less compatible with modification-induced sequencing signals. A precise basecalling, on the other hand, serves as the prerequisite for virtually all the downstream analyses.

The border effect in diamond microdosimeters and its impact on hadron therapy applications.

The increasing interest in hadron therapy has heightened the need for accurate and reliable methods to assess radiation quality and the biological effectiveness of particles used in treatment. Microdosimetry has emerged as a key tool for this, demonstrating its potential, reliability, and suitability. In this context, solid-state microdosimeters offer technological advantages over traditional tissue-equivalent proportional counters, and recent advancements have further improved their performance and reliability.

Natural language processing to evaluate texting conversations between patients and healthcare providers during COVID-19 Home-Based Care in Rwanda at scale.

Community isolation of patients with communicable infectious diseases limits spread of pathogens but our understanding of isolated patients' needs and challenges is incomplete. Rwanda deployed a digital health service nationally to assist public health clinicians to remotely monitor and support SARS-CoV-2 cases via their mobile phones using daily interactive short message service (SMS) check-ins. We aimed to assess the texting patterns and communicated topics to better understand patient experiences.

Talent Identification: Time to Move Forward on Estimation of Potentials? Proposed Explanations and Promising Methods.

The scientific literature on talent identification is extensive, with significant advancements made over the past 30 years. However, as with any field, the translation of research into practice and its impact on the field have been slower than anticipated. Indeed, recent findings highlight a pervasive relative age effect, the effects of maturation being often overlooked, disparate populations between young and senior performers, and a necessity to embrace a holistic approach.