Lumpy skin disease (LSD) is an economically important poxviral disease endemic to Asia, Europe, and Africa. Recently, LSD has spread to naïve countries, including India, China, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Myanmar, Vietnam, and Thailand. Here, we describe the complete genomic characterization of LSDV from India, LSDV-WB/IND/19 isolated from a calf in Vero cells determined by Illumina next-generation sequencing (NGS). The LSDV-WB/IND/19 has a genome size of 150969 bp encoding 156 putative ORFs. Phylogenetic analysis based on complete genome sequence suggested that LSDV-WB/IND/19 is closely related to Kenyan LSDV strains with 10-12 variants with non-synonymous changes confined to LSD_019, LSD_049, LSD_089, LSD_094, LSD_096, LSD_140, and LSD_144 genes. In contrast, to complete kelch-like proteins in Kenyan LSDV strains, LSDV-WB/IND/19 LSD_019 and LSD_144 genes were found to encode truncated versions (019a, 019b, and 144a, 144b). LSD_019a and LSD_019b proteins of LSDV-WB/IND/19 resemble that of wild-type LSDV strains based on SNPs and the C-terminal part of LSD_019b except for deletion at K229, whereas the LSD_144a and LSD_144b proteins resemble that of Kenyan LSDV strains based on SNPs, however, C-terminal part of LSD_144a resembles that of vaccine-associated LSDV strains due to premature truncation. The NGS findings were confirmed by Sanger sequencing of these genes in Vero cell isolate as well as in the original skin scab along with similar findings in another Indian LSDV from scab specimens. LSD_019 and LSD_144 genes are thought to modulate virulence and host range in capripoxviruses. This study demonstrates the circulation of unique LSDV strains in India and highlights the importance of constant monitoring of the molecular evolution of LSDV and associated factors in the region in light of the emergence of recombinant LSDV strains.

PRES is a rare neurological disease possibly associated with the use of calcineurin inhibitors like cyclosporine A. Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), a novel coronavirus, is responsible for the outbreak of coronavirus disease 19 (COVID-19) and can cause neurological manifestations. We describe a case of CSA-related PRES whose diagnosis was difficult due to concurrent infection with SARS-CoV-2. The 16-year-old patient was known to have corticosteroid-resistant nephrotic syndrome secondary to minimal change disease. CSA was therefore introduced and on the fifth day of treatment, he presented with seizures followed by fever. Biological and MRI data were in favor of SARS-CoV-2 encephalitis. Relief of immunosuppression by discontinuation of CSA was decided and the patient was put on anticonvulsants. After being declared cured of COVID-19, which was without other clinical signs, the CSA was reintroduced but the patient presented with seizures the next day. This allowed us to rectify the diagnosis and relate the seizures to a CSA-related PRES. We concluded that infection with SARS-CoV-2 could be a differential diagnosis of a PRES related to anticalcineurins.

Since late 2021, the highly transmissible SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant has driven a new surge of infections across the world. We used a case-ascertained study to determine the features of household transmission of SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant in Shanghai, China. We collected detailed information on 323 pediatric cases and their 951 household members, all received consecutively intensive RT-PCR testing. We estimated the transmission parameters. Both secondary infection attack rates (SARI) and secondary clinical attack rates (SARC) among adult household contacts were computed, through which the transmission heterogeneities in infectivity and susceptibility were characterized and the vaccine effectiveness were estimated. The mean incubation period and serial interval of Omicron variant were estimated to be 4.6±2.1 days and 3.9±3.7 days. The overall SARI and SARC among adult household contacts were 77.11% (95% confidence interval [CI]: 73.58%-80.63%) and 67.03% (63.09%-70.98%). We found higher household susceptibility in females, while infectivity was not significantly different in primary cases by age, sex, vaccination status and clinical severity. Full vaccination and booster vaccination of inactivated vaccines were 14.8% (5.8%-22.9%) and 18.9% (9.0%-27.7%) effective against Omicron infection and 21.5% (10.4%-31.2%) and 24.3% (12.3%-34.7%) effective against symptomatic disease. Overall, we found high household transmission during the Omicron wave in Shanghai due to asymptomatic and pre-symptomatic transmission in the context of city-wide lockdown, indicating the importance of early detection and timely isolation of SARS-CoV-2 infections and quarantine of close contacts. Marginal effectiveness of inactivated vaccines against Omicron infection poses great challenge for prevention and control of the SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant.

In this paper, a filtering patch antenna with flexibly controllable radiation nulls is presented. The patch antenna is fed by an F-shaped probe consisting of two arms along the Y-axis and a metal column along the Z-axis. A broadside radiation null on the lower band is generated by cross-coupling. Meanwhile, a folded defected ground structure (DGS) is introduced to generate an upper band radiation null. By adjusting the parameters of F-probe and DGS, two radiation nulls can be controlled independently to achieve great out-of-band suppression. For demonstration, a prototype is fabricated and measured. The simulation results agree well with the measured ones. A flat in-band realized gain of filtering antenna is about 7.1dBi. The proposed filtering antenna operating at 2.33 GHz achieves a wide relative bandwidth of 9.8% and out-of-band suppression level is more than 24dB.

Objective: To identify an optimal magnetic resonance imaging-based classification for evaluating the efficacy of focused ultrasound ablation surgery (FUAS). Design：A retrospective cohort study. Setting: The Affiliated Nanchong Central Hospital of North Sichuan Medical College, Nanchong, Sichuan, China. Population: A total of 643 adenomyosis patients who received FUAS from June 2017 to December 2021. Methods: One-way ANOVA test and chi square test were used to identify an optimal classification for evaluating FUAS efficacy. Magnitude of the optimal classification relating to timing of recurrence in FUAS group was measured by cox regression with hazard ratio (HR) and 95% CI. K-M curve was applied to estimate the medium recurrence time of adenomyosis in the optimal classification. Main outcome measures: The identification of different classifications for FUAS efficacy and the factors contributing to recurrence after FUAS. Results: The rates of dysmenorrhea relief (χ2=10.079, P=0.018) and recurrence could be identified by classification 2 in FUAS group (χ2=10.582, P=0.014), but not in FUAS+ group (P＞0.05). Besides, the recurrence rate in FUAS group (22.2.0%) was higher than that in FUAS+ group (12.1%). Extrinsic subtype in classification 2 (HR=2.315, 95% CI 1.219～4.560, P=0.011) correlated to recurrence of adenomyosis in FUAS group. K-M curve showed that the medium recurrence time of extrinsic subtype (45.2 months) was shorter than that of other subtypes (52.0 months). Conclusions: Classification 2 was the optimal one to identify the rates of dysmenorrhea relief and recurrence. Extrinsic subtype was related to the earlier onset of recurrence after FUAS.

Agricultural productivity in dryland areas can strongly decrease with wind erosion. However, wind erosion events currently cannot be predicted. Here, we show that a comprehensive model of daily horizontal sediment flux with high spatio-temporal resolution can quantify the impact of surface wind erosion in different regions in South Australia with different land management practices. For example, the model showed that during the Millennium drought period (2001-2010), surface wind erosion led to the loss of fertile land, contributing to a decrease in agricultural productivity. Since 2013, surface wind erosion has decreased, likely owing to a change in farming practices that maintain higher ground coverage for longer periods. The model also showed that surface wind erosion was generally higher in farmed areas than in natural environments such as shrubs and forests. Within the farmed areas, the model indicated that management practices influenced the magnitude of surface wind erosion. We were able to validate our model using the frequency of dust storms as a proxy. Our model is a proof of concept that, through an improved understanding of how different land uses and management affect regional wind erosion severity, wind erosion models can inform future land management. They can provide critical information for land managers and policymakers to apply corrective measures for better and more cost-effective wind erosion management, thereby increasing or maintaining agricultural productivity in areas affected by wind erosion.

Transplantation-associated thrombotic microangiopathy (TA-TMA) is one of the most serious complications of allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (allo-HSCT) and is characterized by microvascular hemolytic anemia and thrombocytopenia. To further our understanding of the clinical characteristics of TA-TMA in pediatric patients, we retrospectively analyzed 20 pediatric patients with TA-TMA from August 1, 2016 to December 31, 2021 in our center. During this period, 209 patients received allo-HSCT in our department, 20 (9.6%) of whom developed TA-TMA. TA-TMA was diagnosed at a median of 94 (7–289) days post-HSCT. Eleven (55%) patients had early TA-TMA within 100 days post-HSCT, while the other 9 (45%) patients had TA-TMA thereafter. The most common symptom of TA-TMA was ecchymosis (55%), while the main signs were refractory hypertension (90%) and multi-cavity effusion (35%). Five (25%) patients had central nervous system symptoms (convulsions and lethargy). Median follow-up time was 8 (1–26) months. All 20 patients had progressive thrombocytopenia, with 16 patients receiving transfusion of platelets that was ineffective. Ruptured red blood cells were visible in only two patients with peripheral blood smears. Cyclosporine A or Tacrolimus (CNI) dose was reduced once TA-TMA was diagnosed. Nineteen cases were treated with low-molecular-weight heparin, 17 patients received plasma exchange, and 12 patients were treated with rituximab. TA-TMA-related mortality percentage in this study was 45% (9/20). Of the 11 patients who were effectively treated initially, 4 died of sepsis and acute respiratory failure. In conclusion, platelet decline and/or ineffective transfusion post-HSCT should be considered an early indicator of TA-TMA in pediatric patients. TA-TMA in pediatric patients may occur without evidence of peripheral blood schistocytes. Aggressive treatment is required once diagnosis is confirmed, but the long-term prognosis is poor.

Genomes retain evidence of the demographic history and evolutionary forces that have shaped populations. Across island systems, contemporary patterns of genetic diversity reflect complex population demography, including colonisation events, bottlenecks, gene flow and genetic drift. Here, we investigate whether island founder events have prolonged effects on genome-wide diversity and runs of homozygosity (ROH) distributions, using whole genome resequencing from six populations across three archipelagos of Berthelot’s pipit (Anthus berthelotii) - a passerine which has undergone island speciation relatively recently. Pairwise sequential Markovian coalescent (PSMC) analyses estimated divergence from its sister species approximately two million years ago. Results indicate that all Berthelot’s pipit populations had shared ancestry until approximately 50,000 years ago, when the Madeiran archipelago populations were founded, while the Selvagens were colonised within the last 8,000 years. We identify extensive long ROH (>1 Mb) in genomes in the most recently colonised populations of Madeira and Selvagens which have experienced sequential island founder events and population crashes. Population expansion within the last 100 years may have eroded long ROH in the Madeiran archipelago, resulting in a prevalence of short ROH (<1 Mb). Extensive long and short ROH in the Selvagens reflects strong recent inbreeding, small contemporary effective population size and past bottleneck effects, with as much as 37.7% of the autosomes comprised of ROH >250 kb in length. These findings highlight the importance of demographic history, as well as selection and genetic drift, in shaping contemporary patterns of genomic diversity across diverging populations.

In order to address the issue of 220 GHz receiver protection, a single-pole single-throw (SPST) switch based on GaAs PIN diodes is introduced in this research. The PIN diode with an I layer thickness of 400 nm and a cut-off frequency over 1.5THz was created in order to enable the SPST switch to operate in the terahertz frequency range. Therefore, a 220 GHz quasi-MMIC SPST switch was designed using GaAs PIN diodes and a 50 μm thin-film quartz foundry. The measurement reveals that the isolation is > 29 dB, insertion loss is < 3.2 dB in the frequency range of 220 GHz to 230 GHz and IP1dB is 17 dBm at 220 GHz.

The specific gravity of wood (WSG), a variable property, has a strong influence on the quality of the wood. Eccentric growth contributes to the variation of WSG within a tree but is poorly understood. To clarify the effects of eccentric growth on WSG variation, two opposite sides of the same tree, representing a differential growth rate, were used for the bivariate modelling of the long-short-axis system. The WSG values on the long and short axes were considered two distinct traits, and their common biological architecture was examined. By jointly modelling the long-short axis, correlations between aspect (spatial correlation) and contemporaneous correlation (within aspect) were examined. The variances of WSG in the long-short axis were different and non-zero. The spatial correlation was -0.03 in the outer wood modules and 0.52 in the core wood modules, averaging 0.25 for the entire WSG profile between the long-short axis. The contemporaneous correlation ranged from 0.79 to 0.86. The results suggest a spatial correlation between the long-short axis and this spatial correlation change with the developmental stage of the tree. The bivariate mixed model method provides the underlying physiological, genetic, and environmental mechanisms related to the long-short axis to explain, clarify, and predict the behaviour of complex wood formation associated with eccentric growth. When young, wood formed on opposite sides may be controlled by the same gene set, but in the outer wood shell, the cambium can be controlled by different and unrelated gene sets that drive WSG variation between aspects. It may be that cambium evolves to meet the needs of a changing crown architecture or local environment over time.

In many species, offspring display conspicuous adult-like colouration already early in life, even though they might be very vulnerable to predation at this stage. Yet, the signalling function of adult-like traits in nestlings has been little explored to date. Here, we investigated whether the yellow breast plumage of blue tit (Cyanistes caeruleus) nestlings shows patterns of condition-dependence and hence signals individual quality, as has been described for adult birds. During three consecutive breeding seasons, we therefore explored the association between nestling body mass and three colour components of the yellow breast plumage (i.e., UV chroma, carotenoid chroma and total brightness), considering both within and among nest effects. Carotenoid chroma was not affected by body mass. However, UV chroma and total brightness showed an among-nest effect of body mass, suggesting that they might signal aspects of genetic quality or parental rearing capacity. Interestingly, we also found a within-nest effect of body mass on total brightness, suggesting that this is a good candidate for a condition-dependent signal within the family. Thus, other family members could rely on brightness to adjust their behavioural strategies, such as feeding behaviour in parents. Our study thus reveals that certain colour components of the yellow breast plumage signal different aspects of offspring quality and suggest that they might have a correlated signalling value across life-history stages.

In the real environment, the unstable radar measurement noise can degrade the tracking performance of the maneuvering target. In this Letter, the iterative formulation of the noise is simplified, and the noise-adaptive matrix is introduced to calculate the fading factor of the strong tracking algorithm, so that the effect of measurement noise on the fading factor can be corrected in real time. The superior performance of the proposed method is verified by comparison with three existing improved methods on a typical example.

An important component of an automated surveillance environment is person re-identification. The problem is often addressed using data received from vision sensors using appearance-based features, which are heavily reliant on visual cues such as colour, texture, and so on, limiting the reliability of re-identification of an individual. Much research has been performed to solve the problem of re-identification utilising human gait using inertial measurement units (IMU) data, which is thought to be unique and offer a distinct biometric signature that is especially ideal for re-ID in uncontrolled conditions. The locomotive activity of walking was the primary emphasis. The current study utilised not only locomotive activities but also non-locomotive activities of daily living. The data was obtained from the WISDM lab. The data is collected while engaging in six distinct everyday activities. The dataset was originally gathered for the purpose of Human Activity Recognition. Nonetheless, each person is given a unique ID. This information was utilised to re-identify the individual. The dataset consists of data of 36 volunteers. Shanakht-Net, a novel convolutional neural network, is introduced. The F1-score obtained is 93\%. Precision, recall, and accuracy are assessed and reported as well.

Convolution-augmented transformers (Conformers) are recently proposed in various speech-domain applications, such as automatic speech recognition (ASR) and speech separation, as they can capture both local and global dependencies. In this paper, we propose a conformer-based metric generative adversarial network (CMGAN) for speech enhancement (SE) in the time-frequency (TF) domain. The generator encodes the magnitude and complex spectrogram information using two-stage conformer blocks to model both time and frequency dependencies. The decoder then decouples the estimation into a magnitude mask decoder branch to filter out unwanted distortions and a complex refinement branch to further improve the magnitude estimation and implicitly enhance the phase information. Additionally, we include a metric discriminator to alleviate metric mismatch by optimizing the generator with respect to a corresponding evaluation score. Objective and subjective evaluations illustrate that CMGAN is able to show superior performance compared to state-of-the-art methods in three speech enhancement tasks (denoising, dereverberation and super-resolution). For instance, quantitative denoising analysis on Voice Bank+DEMAND dataset indicates that CMGAN outperforms various previous models with a margin, i.e., PESQ of 3.41 and SSNR of 11.10 dB.

Schizophrenia (SCZ) is a severe psychiatric disorder characterized by positive symptoms, negative symptoms, and cognitive deficits. Although its pathoetiology remains unclear, it is known to involve small GTPase signaling. Rho kinase, an effector of small GTPase Rho, is highly expressed in the brain and plays a major role in neurite elongation and neuronal architecture. This study used a touchscreen-based visual discrimination (VD) task to investigate the effects of Rho kinase inhibitors on cognitive impairment in a methamphetamine (METH)–treated mouse model of SCZ. Systemic injection of the Rho kinase inhibitor fasudil dose-dependently ameliorated METH-induced impairment of VD. Fasudil also significantly suppressed the increase in the number of c-Fos–positive cells in the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) and dorsomedial striatum (DMS) following METH treatment. Bilateral microinjections of Y-27632, the other Rho kinase inhibitor, into the mPFC or DMS significantly ameliorated the METH-induced impairment of VD. Two proteins downstream of Rho kinase, myosin phosphatase-targeting subunit 1 (MYPT1; Thr696) and myosin light chain kinase 2 (MLC2; Thr18/Ser19), exhibited increased phosphorylation in the mPFC and DMS, respectively, after METH treatment, and fasudil inhibited these increases. Both haloperidol and fasudil ameliorated the METH-induced impairment of VD, while clozapine had little effect. Both haloperidol and clozapine suppressed METH-induced hyperactivity, but fasudil had no effect. Finally, haloperidol and clozapine significantly suppressed the METH-induced increase in MYPT1 (Thr696) phosphorylation in the mPFC, but not in the DMS. Thus, the METH-induced cognitive function impairment was ameliorated by treatment with Rho kinase inhibitors, which may act via the cortico-striatal circuit.

Autism is a neurodevelopmental condition with a range of symptoms that vary in intensity and severity from person to person. Genetic sequencing has identified thousands of genes containing mutations in autistic individuals, which may contribute to the development of autistic symptoms. Several of these genes encode G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) which are cell surface expressed proteins that transduce extracellular messages to the intracellular space. Mutations in GPCRs can impact their function, resulting in aberrant signalling within cells, and across neurotransmitter systems in the brain. This review summarises the current knowledge on autism-associated single nucleotide variations encoding missense mutations in GPCRs, and the impact of these genetic mutations on GPCR function. For some autism-associated mutations, changes in GPCR expression levels, ligand affinity, potency and efficacy have been observed; however, for many the functional consequences remain unknown. Thus, further work to characterise the functional impacts of the genetically identified mutations is required.

Many infectious diseases display strong seasonal dynamics. When both hosts and parasites are influenced by seasonal variables, it is unclear if the start of epidemics is limited by host or parasite factors or both. The Daphnia—Pasteuria host—parasite system exhibits seasonal epidemics. We experimentally tested if low Spring temperatures limit the onset of these epidemics. We used sediments from a natural population containing parasite spores at five constant temperatures ranging from 10-20 oC. We added either Daphnia magna resting stages (ephippia), juveniles from largely susceptible clonal cultures or juveniles from largely resistant clonal cultures from the same population. The acceleration of development with increasing temperature was much faster for the parasite than for the host. This finding supports our hypotheses that parasite outbreaks are limited by temperature, and not solely the availability of hosts. These results imply that climate change could lead earlier seasonal epidemics for this host-parasite system.

Studies of eco-evolutionary dynamics have integrated evolution with ecological processes at multiple scales (populations, communities, and ecosystems) and with multiple interspecific interactions (antagonistic, mutualistic, and competitive). However, evolution has often been conceptualized as a single process: short-term adaptive genetic change driven by natural selection. Here we argue that other diverse evolutionary processes should also be considered, to explore the full spectrum of feedbacks between ecological and evolutionary processes. Relevant but underappreciated processes include (1) drift and mutation, (2) disruptive selection causing lineage diversification or speciation reversal, (3) evolution driven by relative fitness differences that may decrease population growth, and (4) topics including multilevel selection, sexual selection and conflict, hard and soft selection, and genetic/genomic architectures/signatures. Because natural selection is not the sole mechanism of rapid evolution, it will be important to integrate a variety of concepts in evolutionary biology and ecology to better understand and predict eco-evolutionary dynamics in nature.

A document by Victor Agbafe. Click on the document to view its contents.

Short Commentary: Laser versus Sham for Genitourinary Syndrome of Menopause: a Randomised Controlled Trial

Pili (Canarium ovatum Engl.), an indigenous tree found in the Philippines, is highly regarded for its fruit due to its high economic value. During processing, the pulp is often discarded as waste but contains considerable amounts of oil and bioactive minor lipid components. The present study explored the antioxidant and antibacterial properties of saponified diethyl ether extract of pili pulp oil and relate this activity to the nature of compounds present in the extract thru GCMS. The extract indicated the elution of 18 major compounds which are mostly cyclic triterpenic (α- and β-amyrin, lupenone β-amyrone) and phytosterol (β-sitosterol, brassicasterol, stigmasterol) class of compounds. Characterization of the bioactivity of the extract showed high antioxidant activities measured by DPPH radical scavenging and lipid peroxidation inhibition activities that were comparable with that of α-tocopherol. Moreover, an observed bacteriocidal activity was demonstrated by the extract against E. coli and S. typhi with MIC values of 40 and 35 µg/mL, respectively. The observed bioactivity of the pili pulp oil extract can be attributed to these compounds which has high potential for the development and utilization in the food sector.

We identify critical science needed to understand conflict between black vultures and humans to inform effective management of this species in North America.

Harlequin Ichthyosis is a rare autosomal recessive disorder occurring in 1: 3,000,000 birth characterized by thick keratin skin with scaly appearance. Preterm deliveries, early marriage and consanguinity of marriage are some risk factors. Antenatal checkup of DNA for ABCA12 mutation helps in diagnosis but USG in places where not available.

We present a case of a 16-year-old female patient who has recently been diagnosed with anorexia nervosa. Although our findings reflect one clinical case, they are consistent with new reports showing that restrictions during a pandemic situation have long-term significant adverse effects on the mental and physical health of adolescents.