Environment and management jointly shape the spatial patterns of plant species diversity of moist grasslands in the mountains of northeastern Yunnan.

Grasslands account for about a quarter of the Earth's land area and are one of the major terrestrial ecosystems, with significant ecological and economic values. The influence of environmental factors and management types on grassland biodiversity has garnered considerable attention. This study investigated how patterns of species richness are influenced by geographical distance, environmental gradients, and management type in the moist mountain grasslands of northeastern Yunnan, China.

Genetic structure of populations in wildlife of north and northeast Iran.

is a parasite prevalent in the temperate regions of the vast Palearctic realm, including Iran. In this study, we investigated infection in road-killed animals and carcasses in northern and northeastern Iran by artificial digestion. We assessed species identification and intraspecific genetic diversity using the markers 5S ribosomal DNA intergenic spacer (5S rDNA), internal transcribed spacer I (ITS1), and cytochrome oxidase subunit I ().

Longitudinal Trends in Physical Activity Among Older Adults With and Without HIV in Uganda.

Introduction: Physical Activity (PA) and its links to frailty, quality of life (QoL), and other comorbidities in older Ugandans living with HIV remain under-explored.

Methods: We analyzed data from three annual assessments of older people living with HIV (PLWH) and age- and sex-similar people not living with HIV (PnLWH). We fitted linear generalized estimating equations (GEE) regression models to estimate the correlates of PA, including demographics, frailty, QoL, HIV, and other comorbidities.

ECGEFNet: A two-branch deep learning model for calculating left ventricular ejection fraction using electrocardiogram.

Left ventricular systolic dysfunction (LVSD) and its severity are correlated with the prognosis of cardiovascular diseases. Early detection and monitoring of LVSD are of utmost importance. Left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) is an essential indicator for evaluating left ventricular function in clinical practice, the current echocardiography-based evaluation method is not avaliable in primary care and difficult to achieve real-time monitoring capabilities for cardiac dysfunction.

Gender Imbalance in Citation Practices in Communication Sciences and Disorders Before and During the COVID-19 Pandemic.

Purpose: Despite recent advances, gender inequality remains a major concern within the workforce. One manifestation of gender inequality in academia is the undercitation of women-authored compared to men-authored papers that is thought to reflect implicit biases and has important implications for the academic advancement for research-intensive female faculty. These studies largely stem from male-dominant professions.

Spontaneous Anthropocentric Language Use in University Students' Explanations of Biological Concepts Varies by Topic and Predicts Misconception Agreement.

Previous research has shown that students employ intuitive thinking when understanding scientific concepts. Three types of intuitive thinking-essentialist, teleological, and anthropic thinking-are used in biology learning and can lead to misconceptions. However, it is unknown how commonly these types of intuitive thinking, or cognitive construals, are used spontaneously in students' explanations across biological concepts and whether this usage is related to endorsement of construal-consistent misconceptions.

Decoupling evolution of water footprint of energy and its driving factors: Evidence from Northeast China.

Energy and water are interlinked and inseparable resources of vital importance to the survival and development of human society. Exploring the relationship between energy and water is of great practical significance for the sustainable development of resources. The uneven regional distribution of energy and water in China has exacerbated energy-related water shortages.

Graphene-based single-atom catalysts for electrochemical CO reduction: unraveling the roles of metals and dopants in tuning activity.

Discovering electrocatalysts that can efficiently convert carbon dioxide (CO) to valuable fuels and feedstocks using excess renewable electricity is an emergent carbon-neutral technology. A single metal atom embedded in doped graphene, , single-atom catalyst (SAC), possesses high activity and selectivity for electrochemical CO reduction (COR) to CO, yet further reduction to hydrocarbons is challenging. Here, using density functional theory calculations, we investigate stability and reactivity of a broad SAC chemical space with various metal centers (3d transition metals) and dopants (2p dopants of B, N, O; 3p dopants of P, S) as electrocatalysts for COR to methane and methanol.

The Impact of Peer-Based Recovery Support Services: Mediating Factors of Client Outcomes.

Research demonstrates a positive impact of Peer Based Recovery Support Services (PBRSS) facilitated by peer recovery specialists (PRS), who are people in recovery from behavioral health conditions (e.g., substance use disorders [SUD] and mental health conditions).

Prevalence of processed foods in major US grocery stores.

The offering of grocery stores is a strong driver of consumer decisions. While highly processed foods such as packaged products, processed meat and sweetened soft drinks have been increasingly associated with unhealthy diets, information on the degree of processing characterizing an item in a store is not straightforward to obtain, limiting the ability of individuals to make informed choices. GroceryDB, a database with over 50,000 food items sold by Walmart, Target and Whole Foods, shows the degree of processing of food items and potential alternatives in the surrounding food environment.

All-angle unidirectional flat-band acoustic metasurfaces.

Flat bands have empowered novel phenomena such as robust canalization with strong localization, high-collimation and low-loss propagation. However, the spatial symmetry protection in photonic or acoustic lattices naturally forces flat bands to manifest in pairs aligned at an inherently specific angle, resulting in a fixed bidirectional canalization. Here, we report an acoustic flat-band metasurface, allowing not only unidirectional canalization at all in-plane angles but also robust tunability in band alignment.

Microwave synthesis of molybdenum disulfide quantum dots and the application in bilirubin sensing.

Molybdenum disulfide quantum dots (MoS2 QDs) is a new type of graphite like nanomaterial, which exhibited well chemical stability, unique fluorescence characteristics, and excellent biocompatibility. The conventional hydrothermal synthesis of MoS2 generally requires a long-term reaction at high temperature and high pressure. Herein, we have developed a simple and fast MoS2 QDs synthesis scheme using microwave heating, and further modified the surface of MoS2 QDs using 3-aminophenylboronic acid.

Baseline infection prevalence, risk factors and treatment outcomes of visceral leishmaniasis in Northeastern Uganda: A cross-sectional study.

Introduction: Visceral leishmaniasis (VL) also known as Kala-azar is one of the neglected tropical diseases (NTD) of public health importance. Despite being a disease of a long history, the condition remains poorly studied especially in East Africa. For instance, whereas, the geographical location of the disease is known, there is a stark paucity of data on the burden, risk factors and clinical outcomes of this contribution in Northeastern Uganda.

Business environment and its impact on high-quality economic development: A configurational analysis of enhancement pathways.

The nexus between the business environment and high-quality economic development is pivotal for fostering sustainable growth. This study delves into their interrelationship, recognizing its profound practical significance. We have developed a comprehensive index system to evaluate high-quality economic development, encompassing four key dimensions: green development quality, robust economic growth, innovation dynamics, and equitable societal benefits.

Studying the Digital Intervention Engagement-Mediated Relationship Between Intrapersonal Measures and Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis Adherence in Sexual and Gender Minority Youth: Secondary Analysis of a Randomized Controlled Trial.

Background: Improving adherence to pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) via digital health interventions (DHIs) for young sexual and gender minority men who have sex with men (YSGMMSM) is promising for reducing the HIV burden. Measuring and achieving effective engagement (sufficient to solicit PrEP adherence) in YSGMMSM is challenging.

Objective: This study is a secondary analysis of the primary efficacy randomized controlled trial (RCT) of Prepared, Protected, Empowered (P3), a digital PrEP adherence intervention that used causal mediation to quantify whether and to what extent intrapersonal behavioral, mental health, and sociodemographic measures were related to effective engagement for PrEP adherence in YSGMMSM.

Lanthanide-Assisted Function Tailoring of the HOF-Based Logic Gate Sensor Array for Biothiol Detection and Disease Discrimination.

The advancement of lanthanide fingerprint sensors characterized by targeted emission responses and low self-fluorescence interference for the detection of biothiols is of considerable importance for the early diagnosis and treatment of cancer. Herein, the lanthanide "personality function tailoring" HOF composite sensor array is designed for the specific discrimination of biothiols (GSH, Cys, and Hcy) based on the activation of various luminescent molecules, such as r-AuNCs/luminol via HOF surface proximity. Lumi-HOF@Ce serves as a versatile platform for catalyzing the oxidation of -phenylenediamine (OPD) to generate yellow fluorescent oligomers, accompanied by the fluorescence attenuation of luminol.

Clair3-RNA: A deep learning-based small variant caller for long-read RNA sequencing data.

Variant calling using long-read RNA sequencing (lrRNA-seq) can be applied to diverse tasks, such as capturing full-length isoforms and gene expression profiling. It poses challenges, however, due to higher error rates than DNA data, the complexities of transcript diversity, RNA editing events, etc. In this paper, we propose Clair3-RNA, the first deep learning-based variant caller tailored for lrRNA-seq data.

Correlation of Total Polyphenol and Flavonoid Content With Antioxidant Activity of Caucasian Bee Honey.

Honey is a natural product gathered by honeybees from the pollen and nectar of various plants and flowers. The homeland of the Caucasian honey bee, which draws attention with its honey production and is one of the most productive bee races known in the world, is Northeastern Anatolia in Türkiye. This study aims to determine and correlate the phenolic content and antioxidant activity of 54 honey samples obtained from the most important gene centers of the Caucasian bee in Türkiye.

Deciphering the endogenous SUMO-1 landscape: a novel combinatorial peptide enrichment strategy for global profiling and disease association.

Small ubiquitin-like modifier (SUMO) plays a pivotal role in diverse cellular processes and is implicated in diseases such as cancer and neurodegenerative disorders. However, large-scale identification of endogenous SUMO-1 faces challenges due to limited enrichment methods and its lower abundance compared to SUMO-2/3. Here we propose a novel combinatorial peptide strategy, combined with anti-adhesive polymer development, to enrich endogenous SUMO-1 modified peptides, revealing a comprehensive SUMOylation landscape.

A new species of the genus Komatsu, 1970 (Araneae, Leptonetidae) from Jilin, China.

Background: Komatsu, 1970 comprises 68 species, distributed in Japan (28), Korea (31) and southeast of China (9). This genus has not been recorded in the north-eastern part of China.

New Information: A new species: sp.

Atp1a2 and Kcnj9 Are Candidate Genes Underlying Sensitivity to Oxycodone-Induced Locomotor Activation and Withdrawal-Induced Anxiety-Like Behaviors in C57BL/6 Substrains.

Opioid use disorder is heritable, yet its genetic etiology is largely unknown. C57BL/6J and C57BL/6NJ mouse substrains exhibit phenotypic diversity in the context of limited genetic diversity which together can facilitate genetic discovery. Here, we found C57BL/6NJ mice were less sensitive to oxycodone (OXY)-induced locomotor activation versus C57BL/6J mice in a conditioned place preference paradigm.

Human presence shifts the landscape of fear for a free-living mammal.

Humans may play a key role in providing small prey mammals spatial and temporal refuge from predators, but few studies have captured the heterogeneity of these effects across space and time. Global COVID-19 lockdown restrictions offered a unique opportunity to investigate how a sudden change in human presence in a semi-urban park impacted wildlife. Here, we quantify how changes in the spatial distributions of humans and natural predators influenced the landscape of fear for the California ground squirrel (Otospermophilus beecheyi) in a COVID-19 pandemic (2020) and non-COVID (2019) year.

Factors Influencing Telehealth Satisfaction Among Liver and Kidney Transplant Recipients.

Solid organ transplant (SOT) recipients now have widespread access to telehealth, but the factors influencing their satisfaction still need to be understood. This cross-sectional study explored potential contributors to telehealth satisfaction among SOT recipients, including liver, kidney, and simultaneous liver-kidney recipients. A total of 136 adult SOT recipients completed an online survey.

Microfluidic fractionation of microplastics, bacteria and microalgae with induced-charge electro-osmotic eddies.

Background: Fractionation of microalgal cells has important applications in producing pharmaceuticals and treating diseases. Multiple types of microalgal cells generally coexist in the oceans or lakes and are easily contaminated by microplastics and bacteria. Therefore, it is of paramount significance to develop an effective fractionation approach for microalgal cells for biological applications.

Disclosure costs: The impact of bipolar diagnosis and social desirability on stigma.

Background: The previous literature concerned with understanding stigma affecting patients with bipolar disorder relies predominantly on qualitative and survey approaches, and rarely contends with the potential role of social desirability on disclosure. The current project employs a 2 × 2 experimental approach to establish the presence of stigmatizing attitudes in a context with real social consequences (i.e.