Primary dopaminergic cell transplantation is a potential therapeutic strategy for Parkinson’s disease. However, the procedure commonly involves placing donor neurons heterotopically into the host striatum. To gain insights into the potential to reform circuitry between the substantia nigra and striatum, a sagittal explant system, including the striatum, medial forebrain bundle (MFB) and ventral mesencephalon (VM), was generated from postnatal rats. This ex vivo system provided a platform to test the potential for heterotopic or homotopic grafts of whole embryonic day 14 (E14) rat VM, or sub-dissected regions of the A9 or A10 cell groups, to reform midbrain dopaminergic circuitry. Results showed that homotopically placed whole VM tissue, and sub dissected A10 donor tissue were able to extend tyrosine hydroxylase+ (TH+) projections along the full rostro-caudal extent of the MFB. However, homotopically grafted A9 dopamine neurons showed little capacity to extend TH+ neurites beyond the graft region. In addition, heterotopic placement of A9 tissue adjacent to the host striatum revealed selective infiltration of TH+ projections into the dorsal striatum, where they displayed functional electrophysiological connectivity. This was in opposition to A10 heterotopic grafts, where TH+ projections were more random and where there was no evidence of synaptic coupling in the host. Such results illustrate the fundamental utility of this explant system for exploring dopaminergic circuitry reconstruction ex vivo, and indicates that reformation of the nigrostriatal circuitry may be limited for the A9 group in isolation, and that the A10 (mesolimbic) neurons may be needed to pioneer the MFB pathway.

Objective To determine if the Pregnolia System (PS) for cervical stiffness (CS) assessment is feasible for an induction of labour (IOL) cohort and to inform whether a definitive, IOL outcome prediction study is justified. Design Single-centre, prospective, observational, feasibility study. Setting Liverpool Women’s Hospital (Liverpool, UK) IOL suite. Population 100 primiparous, term pregnant women with intact membranes undergoing IOL. Methods Participants underwent a CS assessment using the PS and routine Bishop score (BS) before IOL commenced. Participants completed an acceptability questionnaire. Decision for IOL was as per clinical team and unit policy. Clinical outcomes were collected from electronic records after delivery. Main Outcome Measures Feasibility outcomes; recruitment rate, acceptability profile and assessment tool fidelity in this cohort. Clinical outcomes; exploring associations between PS CS results and IOL outcomes of interest. Results Recruitment was good at 68% (100/148). Reliability analysis of completed CS assessments showed internal consistency to be excellent (Cronbach’s Alpha 0.967). The PS assessment had a lower discomfort score compared to Bishops Score assessment (mean difference 3.73). Both cervical assessment tools had poor diagnostic capability for outcomes following induction of labour including vaginal delivery (PS AUC 0.466 95%CI 0.340, 0.593, BS AUC 0.621 95% CI 0.497-0.745) and failed IOL caesarean section (PS AUC 0.563 95%CI 0.354, 0.780, BS AUC 0.463, 95% CI 0.239-0.687). Conclusion This novel study confirms feasibility of the PS for pre-induction cervical assessment. However, it could not determine clinical utility in this cohort due to study design for feasibility outcomes.

Water-in-natural-salt electrolytes offer a fluorine-free route to safe, high-voltage aqueous energy storage. We study a homologous series of potassium carboxylates at 20 m to show how anion amphiphilicity governs structure, transport, and stability. Small-angle X-ray scattering reveals a pre-peak shifting to lower q from formate to butyrate, consistent with a longer modulation length and a distorted-L3 morphology. Molecular dynamics confirms the pre-peak arises from concentration–concentration fluctuations that co-localize water and K⁺, with anticorrelated anions. Water is predominantly interfacial; cluster analysis shows decreasing average size from formate to acetate, correlating with a wider electrochemical window. Conductivity decreases and Vogel temperatures increase along the series, linking transport to medium-range segregation. A mid-q shoulder emerges in SAXS for longer tails, marking local charge alternation. Tail length thus controls modulation length, water clustering, and the trade-off between stability and mobility, offering a design rule for fluorine-free aqueous electrolytes.

The size of perovskites is a crucial factor to impact third-order nonlinear optical (NLO) properties. The inherent channels of metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) can be utilized for achieving the size reduction of perovskites. Confining small-sized perovskites within the MOFs channels to form composite materials helps to regulate the NLO properties of perovskites. In this work, a self-assembly strategy is employed to confine MBAPbBr 3 (MBA= Methylphenylethylamine) within the 1D channels of a Zn-MOF {[Zn 1.75L 0.625(Pz-NH 2) 0.25( μ 3-O) 0.25( μ 2-O) 0.25(H 2O) 1.25]•4CH 3CN} n (L = 5,5’-(1 H-2,3,5-triazole-1,4-diyl)di-isophthalic acid), obtaining small-sized perovskites. At the excitation wavelengths of 532, 900, or 1064 nm, the NLO absorption coefficient and NLO refractive index of MBAPbBr 3@Zn-MOF were enhanced by an order of magnitude compared with those of intrinsic MBAPbBr 3. Femtosecond transient absorption spectroscopy and theoretical calculations indicate that the strong charge interactions and bandgap coupling between the Zn-MOF and perovskite enhance the light absorption cross-section and the lifetime of photogenerated carriers, thereby facilitating the multi-photon absorption-induced excited-state absorption process and enabling the materials to achieve higher energy conversion. This work explores the influence of the tiny size of perovskites and the charge interaction with MOFs on the third-order NLO properties, providing a new perspective for the design and regulation of third-order NLO materials.

IntroductionJuvenile Polyposis Syndrome (JPS) is a rare genetic disorder with a high risk of colorectal cancer, with an incidence rate ranging from 1 in 100,000 to 1 in 160,000. The lifetime risk of developing colorectal cancer in affected individuals can be as high as 39%–68%[1, 2]. Macroscopically, JPS is characterized by polypoid lesions that are pedunculated, exophytic, and smooth-surfaced, while histologically, the polyps are composed of dilated glands rich in mucus and accompanied by inflammatory cell infiltration [3]. According to the NCCN guidelines ”Genetic/Familial High-Risk Assessment: Colorectal,” individuals who meet at least one of the following criteria can be clinically diagnosed with JPS: (1) the presence of ≥5 juvenile polyps in the colon; (2) multiple juvenile polyps in the gastrointestinal tract; (3) at least one juvenile polyp in an individual with a family history of JPS [4]. Patients who meet the clinical diagnostic criteria for JPS typically carry pathogenic mutations in the BMPR1A or SMAD4 genes. SMAD4 is a key intracellular mediator of the transforming growth factor-β (TGF-β) superfamily signaling pathway [5], and the BMPR1A receptor is also a member of the TGF-β superfamily. Studies have shown that approximately 20% of JPS patients harbor pathogenic mutations in the coding regions of the BMPR1A or SMAD4 genes [6]. Currently, most clinical cases of JPS are associated with pathogenic mutations in either the BMPR1A or SMAD4 genes. Here, we report a novel de novo BMPR1A frameshift mutation (c.802_806delinsA; p.E268Tfs*14) in a three-generation JPS family and discuss its clinical implications. .

003;167(8):1142–1147. 10. Hero B, et al. Maturation and spontaneous regression in neuroblastoma—biology and treatment strategy. Pediatr Blood Cancer. 2008;51(2):203–212. 11. Twist CJ, et al. Maturation of neuroblastoma to ganglioneuroma with associated biochemical changes. Cancer. 2004;101(1):60–68.

Acute Soft Head Syndrome; A Rare Complication of Sickle Cell Anemia: A Case Report.Mohammed Nuru-Deen Fuseini1 | John G. G. Banin2 | Suabir Sulemana31Department of Emergency medicine, AngloGold Ashanti Health Foundation, Obuasi, Ghana 2Department of Emergency medicine, AngloGold Ashanti Health Foundation, Obuasi, Ghana3Department of Internal medicine, AngloGold Ashanti Health Foundation, Obuasi, GhanaCorrespondence: Mohammed Nuru-Deen Fuseini (fuseininurudeen22@gmail.com)Funding: The authors received no specific funding for this work.Keywords: Acute soft head syndrome, Sickle cell disease, Subgaleal hematoma, Intracranial involvement, Hematopoiesis, Skull bone infarction

Background: renal cystic disease encompasses a complex group of pathologic and clinical entities, with varied but distinctive features. Unilateral renal agenesis is defined as the complete absence of one kidney and the ipsilateral ureter in the typical lumbar location, the renal loggia. In the case of prenatal diagnosis of foetal kidney

Cotton (genus Cossypium) fibres, which grow naturally in bolls around the seeds of cotton plants, have been used for centuries to produce fabric. The presumed natural function of cotton is that these lightweight and fluffy fibres may support wind dispersal of the seeds inside. However, cotton fibres are also frequently found in the nests of animals such as birds and we argue therefore that cotton fibres have also, or instead, evolved to encourage ‘caliochory’: seed dispersal by animals that carry seeds to their nesting locations. To test this idea, we studied cotton collecting behaviour and use in nest building in two mousebird species (family Coliidae) in Eswatini. Our findings revealed that cotton seeds are still present in large numbers inside the fibres that mousebirds used in their nests, and when the nests degrade after the breeding season, the seeds end up on the ground. By colour-marking individual cotton seeds on their original vines, we found that seeds within a nest could originate from multiple parent plants located considerable distances from the nest (up to 1,020 m). Moreover, video recordings revealed cases where mousebirds purposely collected cotton from other nests, potentially spreading the seeds even further away from the parent plant. Together, these findings show that cotton, by functioning as nest material, facilitates seed dispersal to favourable environments over barriers and ranges that arguably exceed distances possible by wind. The fact that mousebirds appear to travel great distances to purposely collect cotton for their nest suggests that cotton is the result of mutualistic co-evolution with birds, and potentially other nest-building animals.

Key Clinical Message: Pancreatic carcinosarcoma is an extremely rare and aggressive malignancy with both epithelial and mesenchymal components. This case contributes to the limited global literature, emphasizing the importance of awareness, accurate diagnosis, and further research to improve understanding and management of this lethal tumor.Keywords: Carcinosarcoma, Pancreas, Carcinoma, Pancreaticoduodenectomy, Sarcoma

KEY CLINICAL MESSAGE:Dyskeratosis congenita (DC) is a rare multisystem disorder leading to chronic liver disease. Screening for the characteristic mucocutaneous triad of DC in patients with liver cirrhosis should not be overlooked. Though DC is an incurable disease, early diagnosis of cirrhosis is important for the timely management of complications of cirrhosis.

Key Clinical MessageThe placement of a nasopharyngeal airway following coblation is an effective intervention for managing acquired nasopharyngeal stenosis and preventing postoperative restenosis in pediatric patient.

Understanding the status and global trends of soil invertebrate diversity requires accurate and comparable data across geographical regions. However, soil animal extraction approaches still vary among laboratories, and no commonly accepted, openly available and well-documented protocols exist across taxa. Here, we present harmonised methodologies, assembled by an international group of experts, for extracting soil- and litter-inhabiting nematodes, enchytraeids, microarthropods, and larger invertebrates. The protocols are illustrated with images and videos, and include advice for overcoming the most frequent issues (‘expert tips’) for increasing extraction efficiency and reproducibility. In addition, we provide results from two pilot experiments on nematode and large invertebrate extractions. First, we show that using two layers of milk filters instead of one in wet extraction of nematodes yields very similar extraction efficiency and has little effect on the sample cleanliness. Second, we demonstrate that on average approximately 31.3% of large soil animals (3 mm and more in body length) are overlooked during hand sorting but were then captured in heat extraction of the sorted samples across three geographically distinct laboratories. The extent of bias varied by collection team and taxon, with particularly high collection bias for Pseudoscorpiones (64.4% overlooked), Diptera (62.9%) and Coleoptera larvae (57.1%). Observed differences among the laboratories call for standardized ring tests of extraction efficiency across regions and research groups. Overall, we provide openly available protocols for assessing soil animal taxa in ecological studies worldwide, facilitating comparisons for a better understanding of the dynamics of global soil biodiversity.

The MYB family has been extensively studied in model organisms, but research on them in vegetable crops such as cabbage ( Brassica oleracea L. var. capitata L.) still needs to be supplemented and improved. We cloned BoMYB2 and further determined its role in the response of cabbage to drought stress. We found that the overexpression of BoMYB2, which is induced by ABA, can significantly enhance the drought stress tolerance of cabbage, and the opposite phenotype was observed in BoMYB2 - silenced lines. Two proteins, BoMYC2 and BoAREB1, that interact with BoMYB2 were verified through yeast two - hybrid, luciferase complementation assay, pull - down assay, etc. Overexpressing them in Arabidopsis thaliana significantly improved the drought stress tolerance of A. thaliana. Transient silencing of them in cabbage seedlings reduced the plant’s drought tolerance. Both of them are also induced by ABA, and they cooperate with BoMYB2 to promote the antioxidant capacity of plants under drought stress, affect the expression of downstream genes, and increase the survival rate of plants in drought environments. In summary, our results indicate that BoMYB2 - BoMYC2 and BoMYB2 - BoAREB1 play important roles in the ABA - signal - mediated drought regulation process of cabbage.

Increasing pressure on the Amazon rainforest from illegal mining and deforestation threatens biodiversity. Current surveillance strategies remain insufficient due to the vast size of the territory. This article presents the deployment of a Remote Monitoring System (RMS) in the Colombian Amacayacu National Natural Park designed to detect unauthorized entries into the park via waterways. However, achieving effective data collection depends among other factors on the equipment performance in the field, revealing two critical issues: equipment protection against environmental conditions and strategies to prevent vandalism or theft. Solutions to these concerns are rarely addressed in detail in the literature, thus limiting replicability. Therefore, this work proposes three solutions for the enclosure design of the RMS. First, mounting and housing components were designed to withstand environmental conditions, some manufactured with 3D printing. Second, a camouflage strategy was implemented to reduce the system’s visibility in the environment, through color selection and a pixelated pattern, minimizing the risk of vandalism. Finally, resistant materials, paints, and coatings were selected to protect the equipment against humidity and corrosion, supported by exposure tests such as a salt spray chamber test conducted to prevent potential material failures. This experience covers the field assessment, design, and installation of the RMS prototype, and offers recommendations based on practical, validated solutions to improve monitoring deployments using long-term outdoor, and unattended technological devices.

\captionsetup [figure]justification=raggedright, singlelinecheck=false, font=footnotesize \captionsetup[subfigure]justification=centering [1]¿m#1 The stability of buried interfaces is critical to the long-term performance of perovskite solar cells (PSCs), yet it is often compromised by the light-induced oxidation of iodide ions, followed with structural degradation. To address this issue, we incorporated boric acid (BA) into the SnO2 electron transport layer (ETL). The addition of BA not only enhances the carrier mobility and hydrophilicity of the SnO2 layer but also effectively suppresses the deprotonation of formamidine iodide (FAI) and the oxidation of iodide ions. As a result, the stability of the perovskite film on the BA-SnO2 substrate under intense UV illumination was highly improved. Furthermore, devices with the modified ETL retained 80% of their initial efficiency after 1500 hours of aging at 85 ℃, significantly outperforming the control devices, which retained only 60%. This work demonstrates that ETL modification with BA is a highly effective strategy for stabilizing buried interfaces and enhancing the overall durability of PSCs.

Studies using climatic gradients play a key role in our understanding of the importance of rainfall and temperature as factors regulating species diversity and distribution, and thus of likely responses to climate change. However, such studies currently consider above-ground species only, ignoring the diverse hypogaeic (subterranean) invertebrate fauna. Here, we assess the extent to which the responses of hypogaeic ant assemblages to a rainfall gradient in the Australian seasonal tropics are congruent with those of epigaeic (ground-dwelling) assemblages. We sampled at 20 sites covering a gradient of over 1000 km and 1100 mm in mean annual rainfall (MAR). We predicted that the different assemblages would display contrasting patterns because the epigaeic fauna is highly arid-adapted whereas the hypogaeic fauna is mesic-adapted in Australian savannas. We collected 392 epigaeic and 17 hypogaeic species. Epigaeic ant abundance and species diversity tended to increase with decreasing rainfall, whereas the reverse was shown by hypogaeic species. In contrast, the phylogenetic diversity (PD) of both epigaeic and hypogaeic assemblages showed only weak or no variation with rainfall. The low response of PD reflected the fact that additional species tended to come from the same rather than additional genera: genus-level diversity did not change with MAR. Epigaeic species composition formed three distinct clusters, corresponding to low, moderate and high MAR, whereas hypogaeic ants did not. Our findings show that ant assemblages can have stratum-specific responses to climatic gradients, reflecting different evolutionary histories of their constituent taxa. This may be true for other taxa, and has important implications for predicting responses to climate change. Lastly, we also show that different levels and facets of diversity have contrasting responses to climatic gradients. We thus advocate for ecological research simultaneously assessing assemblages of several strata, as well as varying levels and facets of their diversity.

How wild organisms are responding to climate change is one of the most pressing issues of the 21st century. As ectotherms, insects are particularly vulnerable to increases in temperature and extreme weather events because their fitness and survival are directly linked to abiotic conditions. For holometabolous insects with a wide geographic range, it is important to quantify upper thermal and lower hydric limits for multiple populations and life stages that differ in habitat usage and mobility. Population differences in egg survival are understudied despite the importance this life stage plays in population dynamics. As a sessile life stage, eggs likely experience strong selection pressures in response to extreme heat and drought. In this paper, we tested for genetic and phenotypic differences in egg survival for multiple USA populations of the invasive mosquito vector, Aedes albopictus. We found evidence of interpopulation differences in egg survival in response to high temperature and low humidity as well as plasticity in survival depending on experimental conditions. Some populations consistently had low survivorship across experiments. We found that field-collected eggs have low survivorship under field conditions, suggesting that egg survivorship may be low in nature. Finally, we showed that eggs experiencing high temperatures produced larvae that were unable to develop to the fourth instar during a simulated heatwave. Combined, our results reveal phenotypic plasticity and genetic variation in thermal and hydric tolerance for a globally invasive species.