Mutagenicity and carcinogenicity prediction of sugar substitutes: an approach with compound-gene interactions network.

Sugar substitutes are mostly artificial, man-made industrial products used as additives in food and beverages. Most of these substances flow through the digestive tract and food chains, becoming emerging organic contaminants in various abiotic and biotic environmental media. Here, we predict the mutagenicity and carcinogenicity of commonly used sugar substitutes using in silico based methods.

Reliably quantifying the severity of social symptoms in children with autism using ASDSpeech.

Several studies have demonstrated that the severity of social communication problems, a core symptom of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), is correlated with specific speech characteristics of ASD individuals. This suggests that it may be possible to develop speech analysis algorithms that can quantify ASD symptom severity from speech recordings in a direct and objective manner. Here we demonstrate the utility of a new open-source AI algorithm, ASDSpeech, which can analyze speech recordings of ASD children and reliably quantify their social communication difficulties across multiple developmental timepoints.

The association between preterm delivery and autism spectrum disorder in childhood: A retrospective cohort study.

Background: Prematurity complications are a leading cause of mortality and morbidity in offspring, including adverse neurodevelopmental outcomes. The association between preterm birth (PTB) and autism spectrum disorder (ASD) remains debated.

Objective: To investigate the association between PTB and ASD diagnosis during childhood.

Discovery of a DNA methylation profile in individuals with Sifrim-Hitz-Weiss syndrome.

Pathogenic heterozygous variants in CHD4 cause Sifrim-Hitz-Weiss syndrome, a neurodevelopmental disorder associated with brain anomalies, heart defects, macrocephaly, hypogonadism, and additional features with variable expressivity. Most individuals have non-recurrent missense variants, complicating variant interpretation. A few were reported with truncating variants, and their role in disease is unclear.

Unveiling the P-solubilizing potential of bacteria enriched from natural colonies of Red Sea Trichodesmium spp.

Phosphorus (P) is pivotal for all organisms, yet its availability is, particularly in the marine habitat, limited. Natural, puff-shaped colonies of Trichodesmium, a genus of diazotrophic cyanobacteria abundant in the Red Sea, have been demonstrated to capture and centre dust particles. While this particle mining strategy is considered to help evade nutrient limitation, details behind the mechanism remain elusive.

Transcatheter Aspiration of Tricuspid Vegetation.

Objective: This study sought to present the endovascular approach of transcatheter aspiration using the FlowTriever (Inari Medical) aspiration system for high surgical risk patients with right-sided infective endocarditis.

Key Steps: General anesthesia and transesophageal echocardiogram guidance; ultrasonography-guided femoral vein access, preclosure sutures, and insertion of a 24-F sheath; insertion of straight 24-F aspiration cannula over a stiff wire, parked in the superior vena cava; introduction of a 20-F curved cannula inside the 24-F cannula to create a telescopic assembly; accurate positioning using the right ventricle inflow/outflow projection in biplane mode; adjustment of the curved cannula radius by sliding the inner cannula in and out inside the mother cannula; manual aspiration of the vegetation; Postaspiration transesophageal echocardiogram assessment.

Potential Pitfalls: Avoid leaflet and annular injury and account for potential embolization.

NF-B Inhibitory Activity of the Di-Hydroxy Derivative of Piperlongumine (PL-18).

Inflammation is a critical response of the immune system to infection or injury, serving to repair and restore tissue homeostasis. While acute inflammation generally protects against harmful stimuli, prolonged and chronic inflammation have detrimental effects and disrupts tissue homeostasis. Due to the complex and multifactorial etiology of chronic inflammation, effective treatment remains elusive.

Hypertension at diagnosis of coarctation of the aorta as a risk factor for recoarctation.

Background: Coarctation of the aorta (CoA) is a narrowing of the aorta that affects 5-8% of congenital heart defects. Treatment options include surgical repair or transcatheter management with endovascular stenting or balloon dilatation. Late complications after operative repair include systemic hypertension, aortic valve abnormalities, aortic aneurysm, and recoarctation.

Multiple mutations in polyketide synthase led to disruption of Psittacofulvin production across diverse parrot species.

Polyketide synthases (PKSs) are crucial multidomain enzymes in diverse natural product biosynthesis. Parrots use a type I PKS to produce a unique pigment called psittacofulvin in their feathers. In domesticated budgerigars and lovebirds, the same amino acid substitution (R644W) within malonyl/acetyltransferase (MAT) domain of this enzyme has been shown to cause the blue phenotype with no psittacofulvin pigmentation, proposing a strong evolutionary constraint on the mechanism.

The clinical neuroscience of lucid dreaming.

During most dreams, the dreamer does not realize that they are in a dream. In contrast, lucid dreaming allows to become aware of the current state of mind, often accompanied by considerable control over the ongoing dream episode. Lucid dreams can happen spontaneously or be induced through diverse behavioural, cognitive or technological strategies.

Risk of atherosclerosis-related diseases in polymyositis and dermatomyositis patients: A large-scale population-based study.

Background And Aims: Several systemic autoimmune diseases predispose to the enhancement of Atherosclerotic Cardiovascular Disease (ASCVD). These findings underline the role of inflammation in atherogenesis. Dermatomyositis (DM) and polymyositis (PM) are polygenic autoimmune disorders involving mainly skeletal muscles.

Bernoulli trial under subsystem restarts: Two competing searchers looking for a target.

We study a pair of independent searchers competing for a target under restarts and find that introduction of restarts tends to enhance the search efficiency of an already efficient searcher. As a result, the difference between the search probabilities of the individual searchers increases when the system is subject to restarts. This result holds true independent of the identity of individual searchers or the specific details of the distribution of restart times.

Reduced Theta Inter-Trial Phase Coherence in Error Processing: A Marker of Neural Dysfunction in Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder.

Cognitive control deficits and increased intra-subject variability have been well established as core characteristics of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), and there is a growing interest in their expression at the neural level. We aimed to study neural variability in ADHD, as reflected in theta inter-trial phase coherence (ITC) during error processing, a process that involves cognitive control. We examined both traditional event-related potential (ERP) measures of error processing (i.

Epitaxial CuO Thin Films Deposited from Solution: the Enabling Role of Cu Diffusion into the GaAs Substrate.

Cuprous oxide (CuO) thin films were chemically deposited from a solution onto GaAs(100) and (111) substrates using a simple three-component solution at near-ambient temperatures (10-60 °C). Interestingly, a similar deposition onto various other substrates including Si(100), Si(111), glass, fluorine-doped tin oxide, InP, and quartz resulted in no film formation. Films deposited on both GaAs(100) and (111) were found alongside substantial etching of the substrates.

Altering the mechanical properties of self-assembled filaments through engineering of EspA bacterial protein.

Protein-based biomaterials are in high demand due to their high biocompatibility, non-toxicity, and biodegradability. In this study, we explore the bacterial secreted protein A (EspA), which self-assembles into long extracellular filaments, as a potential building block for new protein-based biomaterials. We investigated the morphological and mechanical properties of EspA filaments and how protein engineering can modify them.

Embracing Nature's Wisdom: Liposome-Mediated Amplification of Electrochemiluminescence for the Sensitive and Selective Immunoassay of Serum Amyloid A.

Serum amyloid A (SAA) is a key biomarker for diagnosing inflammatory responses in diseases like influenza and COVID-19. An electrochemiluminescence (ECL) biosensor has been constructed for signal enhancement in SAA detection by encapsulating 4,4',4″,4‴-(1,3,6,8-pyrenetetrayl) tetrakis-benzoic acid (TBAPy) into liposomes. Such biomimetic encapsulation shields the biologically important membrane to avoid aggregation of TBAPy and prevents quenching.

XIS-Temperature: A daily spatiotemporal machine-learning model for air temperature in the contiguous United States.

The challenge of reconstructing air temperature for environmental applications is to accurately estimate past exposures even where monitoring is sparse. We present XGBoost-IDW Synthesis for air temperature (XIS-Temperature), a high-resolution machine-learning model for daily minimum, mean, and maximum air temperature, covering the contiguous US from 2003 through 2023. XIS uses remote sensing (land surface temperature and vegetation) along with a parsimonious set of additional predictors to make predictions at arbitrary points, allowing the estimation of address-level exposures.

Risk of adverse pregnancy outcomes after abnormal hysterosalpingography.

Objective: To investigate the association between an abnormal hysterosalpingogram (HSG) and obstetrical and neonatal outcomes.

Design: A retrospective cohort study comparing outcomes between women with normal versus abnormal tubal patency and uterine cavity on HSG.

Results: Among 2181 women included in the study, 494 (22.

A proposed algorithm for management of patients with left bundle branch block post-TAVR: 1-year follow-up.

Background: Transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) has revolutionized the management of aortic stenosis and has become the standard of care across a broad spectrum of patients with aortic stenosis. However, it is still associated with high incidence of conduction abnormalities, particularly new left bundle branch block (LBBB). Management of these patients remains a challenge.

The use of a ChatGPT-4-based chatbot in teledermatology: A retrospective exploratory study.

Background And Objectives: Integration of artificial intelligence in healthcare, particularly ChatGPT, is transforming medical diagnostics and may benefit teledermatology. This exploratory study compared image description and differential diagnosis generation by a ChatGPT-4 based chatbot with human teledermatologists.

Patients And Methods: This retrospective study compared 154 teledermatology consultations (December 2023-February 2024) with ChatGPT-4's performance in image descriptions and diagnoses.

Reduction in EEG theta power as a potential marker for spatial disorientation during flight.

During flight, spatial disorientation (SD) commonly occurs when a pilot's perception conflicts with the aircraft's actual motion, attitude, or position. A prevalent form of SD is the somatogyral illusion, which is elicited by constant speed rotation and causes a false perception of motion in the opposite direction when the rotation ceases. This research aimed to investigate changes in brain activity that occur when experiencing a somatogyral illusion by simulating conditions closely mimicking flight conditions to gain insight into how to better manage this illusion during flight.

First evidence of molecular response of the shrimp Hippolyte inermis to biodegradable microplastics.

The increasing demand for sustainable alternatives to conventional plastics has propelled the interest in bioplastics. A few papers reported on the effects of plastics on crustaceans, but no indication about biodegradable polymers is available. Hippolyte inermis Leach, 1816 is a protandric shrimp commonly living on leaves of the seagrass Posidonia oceanica, in the Mediterranean Sea.

The PERFORMANCE II Trial: A Prospective Multicenter Investigation of a Novel Carotid Stent System.

Background: Several randomized clinical trials have shown that the composite endpoint of death, stroke, and myocardial infarction (MI) is equivalent between carotid artery stenting and carotid endarterectomy. However, the risk of minor stroke has been consistently higher with carotid artery stenting.

Objectives: The authors sought to evaluate the safety and effectiveness of a novel carotid stent system comprised of a stent, an adjustable integrated embolic filter and a postdilation balloon, in patients at elevated risk for adverse events from carotid endarterectomy.