Artificial intelligence and machine learning in cell-free-DNA-based diagnostics.

The discovery of circulating fetal and tumor cell-free DNA (cfDNA) molecules in plasma has opened up tremendous opportunities in noninvasive diagnostics such as the detection of fetal chromosomal aneuploidies and cancers and in posttransplantation monitoring. The advent of high-throughput sequencing technologies makes it possible to scrutinize the characteristics of cfDNA molecules, opening up the fields of cfDNA genetics, epigenetics, transcriptomics, and fragmentomics, providing a plethora of biomarkers. Machine learning (ML) and/or artificial intelligence (AI) technologies that are known for their ability to integrate high-dimensional features have recently been applied to the field of liquid biopsy.

Mechanistic investigation of impact of malic acid, ultrasound and dual treatment on starch digestibility of cooked whole rice grains.

Physical, chemical, and dual modifications can all significantly affect the digestibility of isolated rice granules, while their effects on the starch digestibility of whole cooked rice grains remain elusive. Therefore, the impact of malic acid, ultrasound, and ultrasound + malic acid dual treatment on the starch digestibility of cooked rice grains with different starch molecular structures was investigated in this study. Ultrasound mainly caused cavitation on the surface of rice grains, promoting the leaching of materials (> 11 %) and amylose during cooking.

The clinical and molecular landscape of diffuse hemispheric glioma, H3 G34-mutant.

Background: Diffuse hemispheric glioma, histone 3 (H3) G34-mutant, has been newly defined in the 2021 WHO classification of central nervous system tumors. Here we sought to define the prognostic roles of clinical, neuroimaging, pathological, and molecular features of these tumors.

Methods: We retrospectively assembled a cohort of 114 patients (median age 22 years) with diffuse hemispheric glioma, H3 G34-mutant, CNS WHO grade 4 and profiled the imaging, histological and molecular landscape of their tumors.

Longitudinal Changes of Retinal Nerve Fiber Layer and Ganglion Cell-Inner Plexiform Layer in Highly Myopic Glaucoma: A 3-year Cohort Study.

Purpose: To describe the longitudinal changes in peripapillary retinal nerve fiber layer (pRNFL) and macular ganglion cell-inner plexiform layer (mGC-IPL) thicknesses in highly myopic eyes with and without glaucoma, and to investigate the effects of high myopia (HM) on the sectoral patterns of pRNFL and mGC-IPL thinning.

Design: Longitudinal cohort study.

Participants: A total of 243 eyes from 243 individuals with 3-year follow-up were included in this study: 109 eyes in the HM group, 64 eyes in the open-angle glaucoma (OAG) group and 70 eyes in the highly myopic glaucoma (HMG) group.

Comparing psychiatric symptom networks between individuals in resilience and non-resilience trajectories of adaptation amid the global pandemic.

Objective: The current study compared symptom networks between individuals exhibiting resilience and non-resilience trajectories of adaptation two years after the COVID-19 outbreak.

Method: A population-representative sample (N = 906) reported symptoms of anxiety and depression in February-July 2020 (T1), March-August 2021 (T2), and September 2021-February 2022 (T3), as well as symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and adjustment disorder (AD) at T3. After differentiating between individuals with resilience and non-resilience trajectories using growth mixture modeling, network analyses were conducted to investigate group differences in T3 network symptoms (undirected and directed).

Characterization of extracellular vesicles released from MED4 at the steady state and under a light-dark cycle.

Bacterial extracellular vesicles (EVs) are vesicles secreted by bacteria into the extracellular environment. Containing DNA, RNA and proteins, EVs are implicated to mediate intercellular communications. The marine cyanobacterium , the most abundant photosynthetic organism in marine ecosystems, has been shown to generate EVs continuously during cell growth.

Contrastive independent subspace analysis network for multi-view spatial information extraction.

Multi-view classification integrates features from different views to optimize classification performance. Most of the existing works typically utilize semantic information to achieve view fusion but neglect the spatial information of data itself, which accommodates data representation with correlation information and is proven to be an essential aspect. Thus robust independent subspace analysis network, optimized by sparse and soft orthogonal optimization, is first proposed to extract the latent spatial information of multi-view data with subspace bases.

Toxicological effects of the environmental pollutant perfluoronanoic acid on the ground-dwelling arthropod Solenopsis invicta.

Perfluorononanoic acid (PFNA), widely employed in surfactants, coatings, plastics, corrosion inhibitors, and fire-extinguishing agents, is less regulated than PFOS or PFOA but displays higher bioaccumulation and potential toxicity. Most toxicity assessments have focused on mammals, fish, and algae, with limited research on ground-dwelling arthropods, especially ants. Here, we examined PFNA's toxic effects on red imported fire ants (RIFAs), a prevalent ground-dwelling species in South China.

Intolerance of uncertainty, aging, and anxiety and mental health concerns: A scoping review and meta-analysis.

Although intolerance of uncertainty (IU) is associated with negative outcomes, studies focusing on older adults are still emerging. Specifically, the relationship between IU and psychological health in this population remains unclear. Moreover, no review has focused on understanding the unique contributions of IU and aging to anxiety and mental health in older adults.

Cross-diffusion waves by cellular automata modeling: Pattern formation in porous media.

Porous earth materials exhibit large-scale deformation patterns, such as deformation bands, which emerge from complex small-scale interactions. This paper introduces a cross-diffusion framework designed to capture these multiscale, multiphysics phenomena, inspired by the study of multi-species chemical systems. A microphysics-enriched continuum approach is developed to accurately predict the formation and evolution of these patterns.

Non-viral, high throughput genetic engineering of primary immune cells using nanostraw-mediated transfection.

Transfection of proteins, mRNA, and chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) transgenes into immune cells remains a critical bottleneck in cell manufacturing. Current methods, such as viruses and bulk electroporation, are hampered by low transfection efficiency, unintended transgene integration, and significant cell perturbation. The Nanostraw Electro-actuated Transfection (NExT) technology offers a solution by using high aspect-ratio nanostraws and localized electric fields to precisely deliver biomolecules into cells with minimal disruption.

Young Adult Community Health Advisor-Led Intervention to Promote Colorectal Cancer Screening Uptake Among South Asians in Hong Kong: A Randomized Controlled Trial.

Background: Colorectal cancer is the most common cancer globally, and its prevalence is high in minority populations.

Objectives: To investigate the effectiveness of a young adult community health advisor (YACHA)-led intervention in enhancing the colorectal cancer (CRC) screening uptake rate among asymptomatic South Asians aged 50 to 75 years residing in Hong Kong and to investigate the acceptability of this intervention.

Methods: A randomized controlled trial design was adopted.

Adherence to Oral Anticancer Agents Among Adults With Gastrointestinal Tract Cancer: A Scoping Review.

Background: Patients with gastrointestinal tract cancer reported suboptimal adherence to oral anticancer agents (OAAs), reducing their therapeutic benefit and increasing mortality risk. A scoping review can comprehensively map available evidence on adherence to OAAs and inform appropriate support to improve treatment outcomes.

Objective: The aim of this study was to comprehensively map studies on adherence to OAAs among adults with gastrointestinal tract cancer, including the adherence rate, nonadherence reasons, influential factors, management strategies, and theories that guide these studies.

Rich Phase Behaviors of One-Dimensional Interfacial Water via Tuning Interfacial Water-Solid Interaction.

Despite numerous studies of water structures at the two-dimensional water-solid interfaces, much less is known about the phase behaviors of water at the one-dimensional (1D) liquid-solid interface. In this work, the 1D interfacial water phase behavior on the outer surface of carbon nanotube-like (CNT-like) models is studied by tuning the Lennard-Jones potential parameter ε of the surface atoms at various temperatures. Extensive molecular dynamics simulations show that ice nanotubes (INTs) can be spontaneously formed on CNT-like model surfaces without nanoconfinement.

Digital channel-enabled distributed force decoding via small datasets for hand-centric interactions.

Tactile interfaces are essential for enhancing human-machine interactions, yet achieving large-scale, precise distributed force sensing remains challenging due to signal coupling and inefficient data processing. Inspired by the spiral structure of and the processing principles of neuronal systems, this study presents a digital channel-enabled distributed force decoding strategy, resulting in a phygital tactile sensing system named PhyTac. This innovative system effectively prevents marker overlap and accurately identifies multipoint stimuli up to 368 regions from coupled signals.

Rupture phases reveal geometry-related rupture propagation in a natural earthquake.

Understanding and deciphering wiggles from seismograms has been a long endeavor to understand the internal structure of the Earth and to explore earthquake source properties. Here, we make an attempt to decipher the continuous rupture phases as large near-fault velocity pulses along the East Anatolian Fault in the 2023 moment magnitude () 7.8 Kahramanmaraş, Türkiye, earthquake.

Optimizing multi label student performance prediction with GNN-TINet: A contextual multidimensional deep learning framework.

As education increasingly relies on data-driven methodologies, accurately predicting student performance is essential for implementing timely and effective interventions. The California Student Performance Dataset offers a distinctive basis for analyzing complex elements that affect educational results, such as student demographics, academic behaviours, and emotional health. This study presents the GNN-Transformer-InceptionNet (GNN-TINet) model to overcome the constraints of prior models that fail to effectively capture intricate interactions in multi-label contexts, where students may display numerous performance categories concurrently.

Life satisfaction around the world: Measurement invariance of the Satisfaction With Life Scale (SWLS) across 65 nations, 40 languages, gender identities, and age groups.

The Satisfaction With Life Scale (SWLS) is a widely used self-report measure of subjective well-being, but studies of its measurement invariance across a large number of nations remain limited. Here, we utilised the Body Image in Nature (BINS) dataset-with data collected between 2020 and 2022 -to assess measurement invariance of the SWLS across 65 nations, 40 languages, gender identities, and age groups (N = 56,968). All participants completed the SWLS under largely uniform conditions.

Reconstructing prehistoric lifeways using multi-Isotope analyses of human enamel, dentine, and bone from Legaire Sur, Spain.

Megalithism has been repetitively tied to specialised herding economies in Iberia, particularly in the mountainous areas of the Basque Country. Legaire Sur, in the uplands of Álava region, is a recently excavated passage tomb (megalithic monument) that held a minimum number of 25 individuals. This study analysed the carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, and strontium isotope ratios of 18 individuals, in a multi-tissue sampling study (successional tooth enamel sampling, incremental dentine sampling, and bulk bone collagen sampling).

SNHG17 Reprograms Energy Metabolism of Breast Cancer by Activating Mitochondrial DNAs Transcription.

In most solid tumors, cellular energy metabolism is primarily dominated by aerobic glycolysis, which fulfills the high demand for biomacromolecules at the expense of reduced ATP production efficiency. Elucidation of the mechanisms by which rapidly proliferating malignant cells acquire sufficient energy in this state of inefficient ATP production from glycolysis could enable development of metabolism targeted therapeutic strategies. In this study, we observed a significant association between elevated expression levels of the long non-coding RNA (lncRNA) SNHG17 and unfavorable prognosis in breast cancer (BCa).

Consistency of interest mediates the positive relationship between growth mindset and presence of meaning in life among Hong Kong adolescents: A cross-lagged panel study.

Meaning in life protects individuals from mental distress during social upheaval. We posit that a growth mindset and consistency of interest positively predict meaning in life during social upheaval. The present research tested the hypothesis that among adolescence living in a period of social upheaval, the presence of a growth mindset (the belief in malleability of valued personal attributes) positively predicts persistent engagement in purpose-congruent interests (consistency of interest), which in turn positively predicts the feeling that life is meaningful (presence of meaning in life).

Benefit Finding and Growth Among Family Caregivers of Individuals With Mental Illness: A Scoping Review.

Benefit finding is a concept that represents finding positive changes or benefits through difficult experiences. To map the currently available studies on benefit finding and growth among family caregivers of individuals with mental illness, we conducted a scoping review based on methodological frameworks. A systematic search for studies published in English was conducted using MEDLINE, PsycINFO, PsycARTICLES, CINAHL, and PTSDpubs from inception to August 2023.

Exploring Social-Ecological Pathways From Sexual Identity to Sleep Among Chinese Women: Structural Equation Modeling Analysis.

Background: Women and sexual minority individuals have been found to be at higher risk for experiencing poor sleep health compared to their counterparts. However, research on the sleep health of sexual minority women (SMW) is lacking in China.

Objective: This study aimed to examine sleep quality and social support for Chinese women with varied sexual identities, and then investigate the in-depth relationships between sexual identity and sleep.

Topological bound states in the continuum in a non-Hermitian photonic system.

Topological insulators and bound states in the continuum represent two fascinating topics in the optical and photonic domain. The exploration of their interconnection and potential applications has emerged as a current research focus. Here, we investigated non-Hermitian photonics based on a parallel cascaded-resonator system, where both direct and indirect coupling between adjacent resonators can be independently manipulated.