The TLR7/8 agonist INI-4001 enhances the immunogenicity of a Powassan virus-like-particle vaccine.

Powassan virus (POWV) is a pathogenic tick-borne flavivirus that causes fatal neuroinvasive disease in humans. There are currently no approved therapies or vaccines for POWV infection. Here, we develop a POW virus-like-particle (POW-VLP) based vaccine adjuvanted with the novel synthetic Toll-like receptor 7/8 agonist INI-4001.

Community starts at home: Toward understanding the dynamic relationship between home usability and community participation for people with mobility disabilities.

To foster meaningful participation within a community, people must have access to suitable and safe housing. Unfortunately, many people with disabilities currently reside in homes that fail to meet their functional, social, and psychological needs. Limited research has explored the interaction between housing and home usability on community participation for people with disabilities.

Intrinsic and environmental drivers of pairwise cohesion in wild Canis social groups.

Animals within social groups respond to costs and benefits of sociality by adjusting the proportion of time they spend in close proximity to other individuals in the group (cohesion). Variation in cohesion between individuals, in turn, shapes important group-level processes such as subgroup formation and fission-fusion dynamics. Although critical to animal sociality, a comprehensive understanding of the factors influencing cohesion remains a gap in our knowledge of cooperative behavior in animals.

Childhood developmental environment affects adult intestinal inflammation levels: preliminary evidence from older adults in the United States.

Background: The Old Friends Hypothesis suggests limited exposure to symbionts during development leads to immune system dysregulation (e.g. allergies, autoimmunity) and inflammatory conditions (e.

Understanding Membership in Alternative Health Social Media Groups and Its Association with COVID-19 and Influenza Vaccination: Web-Based Cross-Sectional Survey.

Background: Social media platforms have become home to numerous alternative health groups where people share health information and scientifically unproven treatments. Individuals share not only health information but also health misinformation in alternative health groups on social media. Yet, little research has been carried out to understand members of these groups.

Transfer learning for metamaterial design and simulation.

We demonstrate transfer learning as a tool to improve the efficacy of training deep learning models based on residual neural networks (ResNets). Specifically, we examine its use for study of multi-scale electrically large metasurface arrays under open boundary conditions in electromagnetic metamaterials. Our aim is to assess the efficiency of transfer learning across a range of problem domains that vary in their resemblance to the original base problem for which the ResNet model was initially trained.

Rural disability, self-reliance, and the utilization of mental health services.

Background: The intersection of rurality, disability, self-reliance values, and utilization rates of mental health services (MHS) is under-researched.

Objective: To better understand the differences between unmet need and no perceived need for MHS between noncore, micropolitan, and metropolitan adults with disabilities.

Methods: We conducted logistic regression analyses of the 2022 National Survey on Health and Disability (NSHD) to identify associations between demographic characteristics and odds of reporting unmet need for MHS or no perceived need for MHS.

Different complex regulatory phenotypes underlie hybrid male sterility in divergent rodent crosses.

Hybrid incompatibilities are a critical component of species barriers and may arise due to negative interactions between divergent regulatory elements in parental species. We used a comparative approach to identify common themes in the regulatory phenotypes associated with hybrid male sterility in two divergent rodent crosses, dwarf hamsters and house mice. We investigated three potential characteristic gene expression phenotypes in hybrids including the propensity of transgressive differentially expressed genes towards over or underexpression, the influence of developmental stage on patterns of misexpression, and the role of the sex chromosomes on misexpression phenotypes.

Stability Studies of a Tetraethyl Orthosilicate-Based Thixotropic Drug Delivery System.

This study assessed the effects of formulation components on the long-term stability of a previously described tetraethyl orthosilicate-based drug delivery system. Early stability studies of a product concept are crucial not only to provide information on the overall system stability and individual components' contributions to it, but also to identify opportunities for dosage form optimization and to define its use case. We assessed the time-dependent thixogel properties-specifically, mechanical strength, thixotropy, release of model drug, and dry substance-in both real-time and accelerated shelf-life determination set-ups.

Exploring Contraceptive Experiences of Abortion-Fund Clients in the Rocky Mountain Region of the United States from a Reproductive Justice Lens.

Objective: This study focuses on the contraceptive experiences of abortion fund applicants to draw attention to various elements that restrict the realization of reproductive justice in the Rocky Mountain Region of the United States.

Methods: This study uses qualitative data from 830 applications to an abortion fund submitted between 2013 and 2022.

Results: Our findings highlight a range of experiences, from contraceptive failure and side effects, to diminished access and reproductive coercion.

ULTRA-effective labeling of tandem repeats in genomic sequence.

Unlabelled: In the age of long read sequencing, genomics researchers now have access to accurate repetitive DNA sequence (including satellites) that, due to the limitations of short read-sequencing, could previously be observed only as unmappable fragments. Tools that annotate repetitive sequence are now more important than ever, so that we can better understand newly uncovered repetitive sequences, and also so that we can mitigate errors in bioinformatic software caused by those repetitive sequences. To that end, we introduce the 1.

Divergent Population Trends of Two Sympatric Auk Species in the Rapidly Warming Gulf of Maine.

Rapidly warming global temperatures are having a widespread influence on wildlife communities across taxa, with southern-edge populations often experiencing the greatest negative impacts. However, sympatric species may exhibit divergent demographic responses due to differences in life history strategies and niche separation. We used integrated population models to estimate abundance, survival, and productivity for Atlantic Puffins and Razorbills nesting at the southern edge of their breeding range in the rapidly warming Gulf of Maine.

The combined treatment with ketogenic diet and metformin slows tumor growth in two mouse models of triple negative breast cancer.

Background: Many tumors contain hypoxic microenvironments caused by inefficient tumor vascularization. Hypoxic tumors have been shown to resist conventional cancer therapies. Hypoxic cancer cells rely on glucose to meet their energetic and anabolic needs to fuel uncontrolled proliferation and metastasis.

Optimizing the Accuracy and Precision of the Minimal Detectable Change Statistic: Secondary Analysis of Test-Retest Data from the NIH Toolbox Study.

Objective: The minimal detectable change (MDC) statistic is often used by clinicians to monitor change in patients. However, the way in which the MDC is traditionally calculated might be suboptimal in terms of accuracy and precision, potentially resulting in erroneous clinical decisions. This study compared the performance of the MDC statistic as traditionally calculated to that of 2 regression-based alternatives.

Amphibian richness, rarity, threats, and conservation prospects across the U.S. National Park System.

We assessed amphibian diversity, rarity, and threats across the National Park System (U.S.A.

Understanding loneliness and its correlates among people with spinal cord injury.

Purpose: To conduct the first known comprehensive examination of loneliness and its correlates in a diverse sample of people with spinal cord injury (SCI).

Methods: A cross-sectional sample of 343 people with SCI provided responses to the 20-item UCLA Loneliness Scale-Version 3. We examined the relation of loneliness to measures of demographic, disability, physical health, and social characteristics.

Hummingbirds rapidly respond to the removal of visible light and control a sequence of rate-commanded escape manoeuvres in milliseconds.

Hummingbirds routinely execute a variety of stunning aerobatic feats, which continue to challenge current notions of aerial agility and controlled stability in biological systems. Indeed, the control of these amazing manoeuvres is not well understood. Here, we examined how hummingbirds control a sequence of manoeuvres within milliseconds, and tested whether and when they use vision during this rapid process.

Integration of horizontally acquired light-harvesting genes into an ancestral regulatory network in the cyanobacterium MBIC11017.

The acquisition of new capabilities by horizontal gene transfer (HGT) shapes the distribution of traits during microbial diversification. In the Chlorophyll (Chl) -producing cyanobacterium , the genes involved in the production and disassembly of the light-harvesting phycobiliprotein phycocyanin (PC) were lost in the common ancestor but then subsequently regained via HGT in strain MBIC11017. However, it remains unknown how the HGT-acquired PC genes in MBIC11017 have been reintegrated into its existing regulatory network after tens of millions of years since their loss.

Validation of livability environmental limits to heat and humidity.

Rising global temperatures, driven by climate change, pose a threat to human health and regional livability. Empirical data and biophysical model-derived estimates suggest that the critical environmental limits (CELs) for livability are dependent on ambient temperature and humidity. We use a well-validated, physiology-based, six-cylinder thermoregulatory model (SCTM) to independently derive CELs during sustained minimal, light, and moderate activity across a broad range of ambient temperatures and humidity levels and compare with published data.