Molecular insights into the elevator-type mechanism of the cyanobacterial bicarbonate transporter BicA.

Cyanobacteria are responsible for up to 80% of aquatic carbon dioxide fixation and have evolved a specialized carbon concentrating mechanism to increase photosynthetic yield. As such, cyanobacteria are attractive targets for synthetic biology and engineering approaches to address the demands of global energy security, food production, and climate change for an increasing world's population. The bicarbonate transporter BicA is a sodium-dependent, low-affinity, high-flux bicarbonate symporter expressed in the plasma membrane of cyanobacteria.

A review of the Segment Anything Model (SAM) for medical image analysis: Accomplishments and perspectives.

The purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of the developments that have occurred in the Segment Anything Model (SAM) within the medical image segmentation category over the course of the past year. However, SAM has demonstrated notable achievements in adapting to medical image segmentation tasks through fine-tuning on medical datasets, transitioning from 2D to 3D datasets, and optimizing prompting engineering. This is despite the fact that direct application on medical datasets has shown mixed results.

Evaluating the Justice and Risk Dimensions of Ethylene Oxide Governance in the US.

We investigate the governance and environmental justice (EJ) outcomes from the hazard reclassification of ethylene oxide (EtO) by the Environmental Protection Agency in 2016. In response to EtO pollution after 2018, federal and state regulators engaged constituents to respond to complaints about EtO but adhered to a cost-benefit governance approach that ultimately inhibited risk mitigation. We argue risk mitigation was constrained by path dependent approaches that simultaneously enabled recognition of constituent concerns about EtO pollution while minimizing the costs of institutional change.

Appreciating the Complexity of Local Gender-Based Violence Needs Assessments: Some Key Considerations and Tensions in Context.

Needs assessments can be a pragmatic method to shape interventions addressing gender-based violence. They are complex endeavors even-or especially-at the local level (e.g.

A honey bee-associated virus remains infectious and quantifiable in postmortem hosts.

Corpse-mediated pathogen transmission is a viable route through which naïve hosts can become infected, but its likelihood for honey bee-associated viruses is largely unknown. While these viruses can be easily detected in deceased bees, it remains unclear if they stay infectious within postmortem hosts or if enough viral RNA degradation-and subsequently virus inactivation-occurs post-host death to render these viruses inviable. This knowledge gap has important implications for how researchers perform honey bee virus studies and for our general understanding of honey bee virus transmission.

Impact of Vitamin A Deficiency on Iron Metabolism and Anemia: A Historical Perspective and Research Advances.

Vitamin A deficiency (VAD) and iron deficiency anemia coexist around the world, particularly in children and women of reproductive age in low- and middle-income countries. Within this scenario, there is a known interaction between vitamin A and iron, and it has been postulated that lack of vitamin A impairs iron metabolism, leading to vitamin A deficiency anemia (VADA). Current animal, epidemiological, and clinical studies support this notion.

Alkene Epoxidation and Oxygen Evolution Reactions Compete for Reactive Surface Oxygen Atoms on Gold Anodes.

Rates and selectivities for the partial oxidation of organic molecules on reactive electrodes depend on the identity and prevalence of reactive and spectator species. Here, we investigate the mechanism for the epoxidation of 1-hexene (CH) with reactive oxygen species formed by electrochemical oxidation of water (HO) on gold (Au) in an aqueous acetonitrile (CHCN) electrolyte. Cyclic voltammetry measurements demonstrate that oxygen (O) evolution competes with CH epoxidation, and the Au surface must oxidize before either reaction occurs.

The effect of TiO2 nanoparticles on antral follicles is dependent on the nanoparticle internalization rate.

Titanium dioxide nanoparticles (TiO2 NPs) are among the most widely produced metallic nanoparticles due to commercial and industrial applications in products including food, cosmetics, paints, and plastics. TiO2 NPs are released into the environment posing health risks for humans and wildlife. Widespread uses have raised concerns about the potential toxicity of TiO2 NPs in reproduction.

Tinnitus and COVID-19: effect of infection, vaccination, and the pandemic.

Introduction: The COVID-19 pandemic, which began worldwide around March 2020, has had an impact on hearing health, specifically tinnitus and hearing loss. Physiologically, COVID-19 infection, or medication used to treat the infection, has been reported to be a potential risk factor for tinnitus onset. In addition, tinnitus was reported to be a long COVID symptom or to occur after a COVID-19 vaccination in some cases.

MIBiG 4.0: advancing biosynthetic gene cluster curation through global collaboration.

Specialized or secondary metabolites are small molecules of biological origin, often showing potent biological activities with applications in agriculture, engineering and medicine. Usually, the biosynthesis of these natural products is governed by sets of co-regulated and physically clustered genes known as biosynthetic gene clusters (BGCs). To share information about BGCs in a standardized and machine-readable way, the Minimum Information about a Biosynthetic Gene cluster (MIBiG) data standard and repository was initiated in 2015.

An Alkyne-Containing Isoprenoid Analogue Based on a Farnesyl Diphosphate Scaffold Is a Biologically Functional Universal Probe for Proteomic Analysis.

Prenylation consists of the modification of proteins with either farnesyl diphosphate (FPP) or geranylgeranyl diphosphate (GGPP) at a cysteine near the C-terminus of target proteins to generate thioether-linked lipidated proteins. In recent work, metabolic labeling with alkyne-containing isoprenoid analogues including C15AlkOPP has been used to identify prenylated proteins and track their levels in different diseases. Here, a systematic study of the impact of isoprenoid length on proteins labeled with these probes was performed.

Special series on Impact of Real-Life Environmental Exposures on Reproduction.

Environmental exposures to endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs), air pollution, biosolids, fracking materials, some pharmaceutical agents, and heat stress adversely affect reproductive health and exert long-ranging effects on maternal, paternal, and child health (Gore et al. 2015; Brehm & Flaws 2019; Gonsioroski et al. 2020; Peretz et al.

Evaluating a Foundation Artificial Intelligence Model for Glaucoma Detection Using Color Fundus Photographs.

Purpose: To evaluate RETFound, a foundation artificial intelligence model, using a diverse clinical research dataset to assess its accuracy in detecting glaucoma using optic disc photographs. The model's accuracy for glaucoma detection was evaluated across race, age, glaucoma severity, and various training cycles (epochs) and dataset sample sizes.

Design: Evaluation of a diagnostic technology.

Monitoring mammary gland development in preweaning dairy heifers using ultrasound imaging.

Existing literature on the long-term effects of nutritional manipulation on milk production is incomplete and inconsistent as animals are typically culled before lactation. In addition, longitudinal studies are rarely conducted due to high costs and constraints related to tissue sampling; therefore, additional research is necessary to better understand the effect of early nutrition and growth on subsequent growth and milk production. Thirty Holstein heifer calves were pair-fed high (H; 27% CP and 20% fat) or low (L; 22% CP and 15%) milk replacers.

Changes in Caregivers' Use of the Online Medical Record Pre- and Post-COVID: Analysis of the Health Information National Trends Survey, 2018-2022.

Little is known about online medical record (OMR) use among caregivers, including changes in OMR use through the COVID-19 pandemic. This study compares OMR use among caregivers and non-caregivers before and during the COVID-19 pandemic, identifies reasons for non-use, and examines the association between caregiving status and characteristics with OMR use. Secondary data analysis of the nationally representative Health Information National Trends Survey data from 2018 to 2022 ( = 14,034).

Internalization and Cellular Fate of Protein Corona-Coated Nanoparticles by Multimodal Multi-Scale Microscopy.

Upon exposure to biological environments, nanoparticles are rapidly coated with biomolecules, predominantly proteins, which alter their colloidal stability, biodistribution, and cell interactions. Despite extensive efforts to investigate the nanoparticles' fate, only a few studies use high-resolution characterization methods that allow in-depth characterization, and the existing methodologies are unable to differentiate particles internalized at the onset of incubation from those taken up toward the end of an incubation period. In this study, these limitations related to incubation disparities are overcame and precisely monitored the spatiotemporal displacement of colloidally stable protein corona-coated nanoparticles within cells.

Association between Antibiotic Use and Subsequent Risk of Breast Cancer: A Nationwide Retrospective Cohort Study in South Korea.

Several studies have revealed a possible association between antibiotic use and breast cancer in the Western population of women. However, its association with the Asian population remains unclear. Data utilized in this nationwide population-based retrospective cohort study was obtained from the Korean National Health Insurance Service (NHIS) database.

Diet-Induced Obesity Modulates Close-Packing of Triacylglycerols in Lipid Droplets of Adipose Tissue.

Adipose-derived lipid droplets (LDs) are rich in triacylglycerols (TAGs), which regulate essential cellular processes, such as energy storage. Although TAG accumulation and LD expansion in adipocytes occur during obesity, how LDs dynamically package TAGs in response to excessive nutrients remains elusive. Here, we found that LD lipidomes display a remarkable increase in TAG acyl chain saturation under calorie-dense diets, turning them conducive to close-packing.

Charting the transcriptomic landscape of primary and metastatic cancers in relation to their origin and target normal tissues.

Metastasis is a leading cause of cancer-related deaths, yet understanding how metastatic tumors adapt from their origin to their target tissues remains a fundamental challenge. To address this, we assessed whether primary and metastatic tumors more closely resemble their tissues of origin or target tissues in terms of gene expression. We analyzed expression profiles from multiple cancer types and normal tissues, including single-cell and bulk RNA sequencing data from both paired and unpaired patient cohorts.