Bikash Pandey,1 Pujan Pant,1 Aayush Bist,2 Nishant Pandey3

Fish exhibit a diverse array of reproductive strategies adapted to various ecological niches. Parental egg-care, including live-bearing, mouth-brooding, and male egg protection by brood pouches, represents an effective strategy for ensuring larval survival and has emerged independently in multiple lineages. Despite the recognized evolutionary bias that favors a strategy transition from non-carer to egg-carer, the genetic mechanisms underlying this bias and the commonalities among parental egg-care species remain elusive. This study explores the relationship between egg-care and the chorion hardening system crucial for protecting eggs in non-care species. By analyzing whole genome sequences of 240 species of Acanthopterygii fish across 25 orders, we discovered that multiple genes associated with chorion hardening have become pseudogenes in various egg-care species, indicating a collapse of the chorion hardening system in these fish. These findings suggest that the evolutionary bias in fish reproductive strategies not only aims to enhance survival efficiency but also imposes a constraint on egg-care species, preventing them from reverting to a reproductive strategy for relying on a hardened chorion. In particular, alveolin, previously characterized as a single mutant resulting in significantly fragile chorion in medaka, suggests a strong correlation between egg-care strategy and gene loss. Our results suggest an evolutionary deadend because gene loss may impose an evolutionary constraint at the behavioral level. The observed association between gene loss and reproductive strategies provides insights into suitable reproductive environments for each species and may facilitate non-invasive estimation of reproductive strategies in species with unknown breeding strategies.

Leveraging mRNA platform for the development of vaccines against egg allergyXianyu Shao1,2,4*, Changzhen Weng1,2*, Lijing Liu1,2,4*, Kun Guo1,2,4*, Zhutao Lu1,2, Lulu Huang1,2, Zhenhua Di1,2, Yixuan Guo1,2, Guorong Di1, Renmei Qiao1, Jingyi Wang1,2, Yong Yang1,2,3#, Shiyu Sun1,2#, Shentian Zhuang1,2#, Ang Lin1,2,4,5#

Understanding the spatial distribution of rare species is fundamental to biodiversity conservation. The Black-necked Crane (Grus nigricollis), a flagship species of alpine wetlands and a first-class nationally protected wildlife in China, serves as an important indicator for ecosystem health. Based on the distribution site data and ecological environment data of Black-necked Crane, this study used the Maximum Entropy model (MaxEnt) and Random Forest model (RF) to predict the suitable distribution area of Black-necked Crane. Model performance evaluation through the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC) demonstrated that the Random Forest model achieved superior predictive accuracy (AUC=0.945), showing strong concordance with known crane distributions. Key environmental determinants of habitat suitability were identified as distance to buildings (d_b), distance to roads (d_r), and isothermality (Bio3), with average contribution rates of 15.1%, 15.05%, and 5.85%, respectively. High-probability suitable areas were primarily concentrated in riparian wetlands of Nyingchi City, with an optimal habitat core at the T-shaped valley confluence of the Yarlung Tsangpo and Nyang rivers. Through comparative analysis of MaxEnt and RF, this study significantly reduced spatial uncertainties in habitat suitability predictions.These findings provide critical spatial baselines for targeted conservation strategies of this sacred plateau species, particularly in maintaining connectivity of critical wetland habitats under climate change scenarios.

Efficacy and safety of omalizumab for tolerating refractory carboplatin desensitization in a pediatric patient.Authors: Jeremy Richard Brozyna, MD PhD1Reena Patel, DO1,2William Bradford Fancher, MD1John Anderson, MD2Amy CaJacob, MD1Division of Allergy and Immunology, Department of Pediatrics, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, AL, USA.AllerVie Health, Birmingham, AL, USA.Running title: Omalizumab-adjunct carboplatin tolerance.Corresponding author:Jeremy R. Brozyna, MD PhD1600 7th Ave SouthCPP N M20Birmingham, AL 35233Office: 205-638-9072Fax: 205-638-2833j.brozyna@saba.eduWord Count: 1,108Figures: 0Tables: 2

Biodiversity is losing due to human disturbances, resulting in a decreased population and extinction in the areas. This study aimed to compare mammal diversity. A total of 1,735 independence photographs were captured over 5,554 trap nights, identifying 16 species in the Khao Kheow - Khao Chomphu Wildlife Sanctuary between 2022 (1Y) and 2023 (2Y). The interior (Int) had higher species richness than the edge (Edg) in all seasons. The species richness of the large area had increased in 2Y. The diversity index was highest in Int_large in the dry season of 1Y (H’ = 1.842, SD = 0.441), and the lowest in Edg_small in the wet season of 2Y. The evenness index was highest in Edg_small in the dry season of 1Y (E = 0.971, SD = 0.506), and the lowest in Edg_small in the wet season of 2Y. The mammalian species in the disturbed area by human activities (Dis_human) and Interior of both large and small areas were higher than the edge of both large and small areas (p < 0.05). The species in large and small areas were not significantly different in 2Y (p > 0.05), except that Int_large was significantly different in 1Y of the small area when compared to 2Y, and Edg_samll of both years (p < 0.05). The vulnerable (VU) mainland serow was decreased in Int_large, while Edg_large was stable. In Dis_human, the critically endangered (CR) banteng and Sunda pangolin experienced a decrease. Only the mainland serow was increased in Int and Edg of the small area. The high risk was found in small and Dis_human. The Dis_humans were found near water sources, which are crucial factors for mammal habitat utilization. Small undisturbed areas within Int_large and the conservation zones provide suitable habitat for mammals.

Invasive alien species (IAS) present a major threat to biodiversity and ecosystem services. Managing and controlling them is of paramount importance. To guide conservation efforts, detailed maps of potential distributions of IAS, as for instance produced by species distribution models (SDMs), are very useful, but lacking in the dimension of probability of invasion success. An important barrier to the successful establishment of IAS is climate. The Niche Margin Index provides a measure of (dis)similarity between the native climatic niche of IAS and the environmental conditions in another site (which, for these purposes, would be a (potential) invasion site). This measure was shown to be positively correlated with invasion success in invasive vertebrates. For invasive plants, however, special caution is advised to pick the method to define the native climatic niche. This study examines the effect on NMI of using three different methods to define the native range: the full native range polygons, the geographical occurrences of the species inside the native range, and a thresholded SDM inside the native range. The last method occupies the middle ground between the first and second, which present the highest and lowest NMI, respectively (i.e. occurrences < SDMs < range polygons). This has implications for nature conservation and invasion science, as it points out new considerations that must be made before the probability of invasion success is assessed in plant species.

Silicon dioxide (SiO 2) has emerged as a highly promising anode candidate for next-generation electrochemical energy storage systems, owing to its facile synthesis and cost-effective production. Silicon dioxide (SiO 2) has emerged as a promising anode candidate for lithium-ion batteries, owing to its negligible volumetric expansion, superior cycling stability, and enhanced safety characteristics. Nevertheless, the practical implementation of SiO 2 as an anode material is constrained by critical limitations, including significant volumetric swelling during cycling and inherently low electrical conductivity. Through rational preparation and modification methods, these limitations can be effectively addressed, offering new opportunities for advancing lithium-ion battery technology. This review systematically overviews recent advancements in SiO 2-based anode research, critically examines persistent challenges, and outlines emerging opportunities for future development in the field.

Viral suppressors of RNA silencing (VSRs) are proteins that interfere with antiviral defense mechanisms and enhance infection. For plant viruses, VSRs can be encoded in viral genomes and satellite molecules and play an important role in the virus life cycle and in overcoming host defenses. However, a comprehensive review on multifunctionality of VSRs and their role in the spread of plant diseases worldwide has not been performed. Here, we aim to synthesize the current understanding of the role of VSRs in the pathogenesis of Solanaceous plants, a family that includes many crop and medicinal plants. We focus on three key areas: (1) the diversity of VSRs and the mechanisms used to suppress anti-viral defense, (2) the role of VSRs in viral pathogenesis beyond interfering with host RNA-silencing, and (3) the co-evolution between VSRs and plant host proteins. Additionally, we describe how VSRs promote the development of diseases by altering various steps in the process of viral pathogenicity by inducing counter-defense mechanisms. Specifically, a substantial body of evidence suggests that VSRs induce suppression of antiviral silencing, abrogation of phytohormone signaling, and R-gene-mediated host defense. Furthermore, we discuss how identifying and characterizing novel interactions between VSRs and Solanaceous host factors may be leveraged for developing sustainable pathogen and pest management strategies.

Belief Propagation(BP) decoders of Polar Codes can run in parallel and have a remarkable throughput achievement at a cost of performance degradation, when compared with other decoding algorithms of polar codes. The existing improved algorithms still have a gap to be optimized in performance, complexity or latency. This paper proposes a modified BP flipping algorithm by introducing random penalty items into the reliability metrics of bits to correct un-converged errors under the type of noise with Gaussian distributions considered. Simulation results illustrate that the proposed penalizing method can exhibit significant performance gains over the original BP and other three existing BP flipping decoding algorithms with different blocks in the additive white Gaussian noise channel(AWGN) under a lower decoding latency. This shows the proposed scheme identifies the error-prone bits more efficiently.

Diatoms are widely used as environmental sentinels and are commonly studied through morphological identification, requiring specialist knowledge (which is increasingly scarce) and costly, time-consuming, and identifying species. DNA metabarcoding offers an alternative method to semi-automate some identification processes to circumvent these difficulties, thus minimizing identification costs while providing objective and reliable information. However, discrepancies between marker genes and morphological identification remain unsolved. This study investigated the 66 diatom communities on 28 high mountain mires in the Pyrenees by identifying morphological species and sequencing the Cytochrome c oxidase I (COI) and 18S rRNA markers. We assessed whether morphological and molecular approaches reveal the same patterns of alpha and beta diversity. Our results showed a strong correlation between beta diversity patterns of diatoms obtained by morphological identification and genetic markers. In contrast, alpha diversity calculated through molecular studies underestimated species richness and the Shannon index. The diatom community was chiefly driven by pH, Mg, and temperature, reflecting these patterns in morphological and molecular data. DNA metabarcoding also proved to represent diatom community patterns and the roles of the environmental drivers as clearly as in morphological identifications in high mountain mire diatom communities.

AbstractEthmocephaly is the most severe form of holoprosencephaly, which results from incomplete cleavage of the forebrain during embryogenesis. It is incompatible with life. Here we reported a case of ethmocephaly in a clomiphene citrate induced pregnancy. Hereby we reported a 32-year-old woman, gravida 6, at a gestational age of 23 weeks, presented for routine antenatal care. Up on ultrasound scanning, there were brain abnormalities, like a single dilated ventricle, absent falx cerebri, and facial profile abnormalities like proboscis. After delivery, on physical examination of the newborn, we found ocular hypotelorism, a 5 cm midline proboscis located above the eyes, and absent nasal structures. The mother had used clomiphene for two cycles prior to conception, with no other notable medical history. In conclusion, ethmocephaly is a severe and typically fatal condition requiring early prenatal detection for better planning. While there is no clear link between clomiphene use and holoprosencephaly, further research is needed to explore any potential risks and guide clinical practice.Keywords:  Ethmocephaly, holoprosencephaly, hypotelorism, proboscis, Clomiphene citrate

Background: Identifying women at risk of difficult labor is one of the important contents of prenatal assessment, but there is no consensus yet. There are still few studies evaluating the relationship between the combination of maternal and fetal physical measurement characteristics and the occurrence of labor dystocia. Research aim: To assess the relationship between the ratio of fetal head circumference(HC) to interischial spine diameter(ISD) calculated shortly before delivery and the occurrence of labor dystocia leading to cesarean section(CS). Methods: According to the inclusion criteria, 171 cases of women who underwent labor dystocia leading to CS were selected as the study group, and randomly select 330 cases from the parturients who delivered vaginally and met the inclusion criteria as the control group. We faithfully recorded the detailed medical data from patient case notes. Results: CS for labor dystocia was associated with lower ISD (100.2±4.2 vs 103.1 ± 3.34 mm; P<0.001), higher BPD/ISD ratio (0.95±0.05 vs 0.92±0.04; P<0.001), and higher HC/ISD ratio (3.35±0.17 vs 3.23±0.13; P<0.001), compared with vaginal delivery. Logistic regression analysis showed that BPD/ISD (aOR, 6.01 (95% CI, 3.67–9.83); P<0.001), and the HC/ISD ratio (aOR, 1.66 (95% CI, 1.45–1.90); P<0.001) were associated independently with CS for labor dystocia. Conclusion: Our research findings indicate that the BPD/ISD and HC/ISD ratios are significantly correlated with labor dystocia leading to cesarean section. Among them, the HC/ISD ratios has a fair specificity, negative predictive value and positive predictive value, and has good predictive value in identifying cases that will undergo cesarean section due to labor dystocia.

Background: pathological changes in tissue lead to changes in elasticity and stiffness. Strain is deformation of tissue when exposed to pressure. Elasticity is return of tissue to original form when this pressure is removed. Palpation; a clinical method of examination used for thousands of years, is a method to test elasticity and stiffness of tissues. However, palpation is totally subjective and is not suitable for deeper tissues. Elastosonography; a new method to test tissue stiffness. It is suitable for deeper tissue, but it is subjective. Recently, SWE which is objective and quantitative has been developed to test for tissue stiffness.

For the 2016/17 central Italy earthquake sequence, various studies reported spatiotemporal variations in the Gutenberg–Richter b-value, including its unexpected increase before and near the Mw6.5 Norcia mainshock. Here we investigate this specific observation with a combination of machine-learning techniques. Before the mainshock, we identify two seismicity volumes with asynchronous activity and disparate fault orientations. Throughout the sequence, seismicity associated with these two volumes have spatially distinct b-values that remain stable over time, indicating that the b-value depends on the activated small-scale structure. Our observation suggests that a temporal b-value variation in a large volume, or the entire extent of the sequence, originates from individual structures with distinct b-values being active at different times. In other words, temporal b-value variation predominantly correlates with spatial seismicity variations rather than temporal stress changes. Our findings highlight that b-value interpretation must acknowledge the structural heterogeneity, such as associated fault segments and their orientations.

A document by Saba Soori. Click on the document to view its contents.

This study used molecular dynamics (MD) simulations to investigate the defect healing mechanisms in Fe-Cr-Ni single crystal alloys under multiaxial cyclic loading. This study, which focuses on improving the mechanical strength of these alloys for applications in the aerospace, automotive, nuclear, and marine sectors, looks at the healing of pre-existing defects at the atomic level. Triaxial cyclic loading simulations at 300 K show that defect healing is predominantly achieved by dislocation processes like as cross-slip and climb, which are combined with atomic diffusion and crystalline structure recovery. The growth of dislocation tangles and stacking faults, as well as the transition from extrinsic to intrinsic stacking faults, is crucial for void closure and material strength. The complete healing of pre-existing voids is achieved by the 15 th cycle, as indicated by reductions in dislocation density, void size, and the stabilization of potential energy. In comparison, complete healing is observed by the 19 th and 27 th cycles under biaxial and uniaxial cyclic loading, respectively. Furthermore, phase transformation analysis reveals that the FCC phase remains predominant, while localized increases in the HCP phase contribute to structural recovery. This study provides solutions to enhance the fatigue resistance, structural integrity, and long-term performance of Fe-Cr-Ni alloys under cyclic loading situations by revealing important light on the atomic-scale defect healing mechanisms.

High-Level Synthesis (HLS) design space exploration plays a pivotal role in electronic design automation by automatically converting high-level descriptions (e.g., C/C++/SystemC) into register-transfer level (RTL) code, significantly enhancing hardware design efficiency. However, the HLS design space remains vast and complex, involving multiple factors such as computational modules, data flow, control flow, and memory allocation, making traditional heuristic searches and experience-driven methods ineffective for efficient optimization. Conventional heuristic searches and graph neural network-based learning approaches exhibit limitations when handling heterogeneous structures. Current research predominantly focuses on homogeneous graph neural networks or statistical model-based methods, neglecting the inherent heterogeneity in HLS designs. This paper presents the first heterogeneous graph neural network (HGNN)-based prediction framework that models HLS designs as heterogeneous graphs to precisely capture complex interactions among different types of computational units, data dependencies, and optimization strategies. We design a multi-layer heterogeneous graph message-passing mechanism combined with a self-supervised learning strategy to enhance prediction accuracy and generalization capability in design space exploration. Experimental results demonstrate that our model can accurately estimate latency and resource utilization for unseen designs (i.e., novel CDFGs) within a few milliseconds.

This study provides the first comprehensive baseline of biomass and productivity for mangrove forests in the understudied “polyhaline zone” of the Sundarbans Reserve Forest (SRF), Bangladesh, with significant implications for global carbon accounting and climate resilience strategies. Over a one-year period (September 2022 to September 2023), we quantified changes in stand structure, above- and below-ground biomass, and litterfall in a 700 m² sample plot, establishing critical reference values for future monitoring and conservation efforts. Excoecaria agallocha dominated numerically, though Avicennia officinalis contributed most to biomass stocks despite lower stem density, revealing important species-specific carbon storage efficiencies. The total above-ground biomass (AGB) and below-ground biomass (BGB) were 414 Mg ha⁻¹ and 365.5 Mg ha⁻¹, respectively, with an unusually high below-ground allocation (47% of total biomass) compared to global averages. This distinctive carbon allocation pattern suggests adaptive strategies to high-salinity environments and represents a significant, stable carbon reservoir. The mean annual litterfall was 5.15 Mg ha⁻¹ yr⁻¹, with reproductive components contributing 58.4% of litterfall biomass, indicating high reproductive investment under salinity stress. Net primary productivity (NPP) was 29.9 Mg ha⁻¹ yr⁻¹, with above-ground NPP contributing 66.4%, demonstrating substantial carbon sequestration capacity even under high salinity conditions. The above-to-below-ground biomass ratio averaged 1.3, significantly lower than terrestrial forests, highlighting the distinctive carbon storage mechanisms of mangroves in high-salinity environments. This baseline study advances our understanding of how mangrove ecosystems function as carbon sinks and provides reference data for climate change mitigation strategies, Blue-Carbon Initiatives, and resilience-focused conservation management in the similar ecosystems globally.

Lower respiratory tract infections (LRTIs) are one of the leading causes of hospitalization in children, with their associated respiratory pathogens typically following seasonal epidemic patterns. However, the COVID-19 pandemic has profoundly altered the landscape of pediatric respiratory infections, causing unprecedented shifts in the epidemiology of common respiratory pathogens. To date, long-term epidemiological surveillance remains limited, particularly in pediatric populations. We aimed to investigate the dynamic changes of the etiologies of hospital admissions for common pathogen-associated LRTIs over 8 years, and the results indicate that, in the pre-pandemic era, the most common causes of LRTIs were Mycoplasma pneumoniae (MP) (34.98%), respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), (20.62%) and parainfluenza virus (PIV) (8.16%). Adenovirus (ADV) has surged in the post-pandemic era, surpassing PIV to become one of the leading causes of hospitalized LRTIs cases in children. In contrast, influenza B virus was not significantly affected by NPIs ( P>0.05). Additionally, we observed a rising age trend in children with LRTIs associated with RSV, PIV, ADV, and Influenza A virus (IAV). Furthermore, a model by seasonal autoregressive integrated moving average (SARIMA) time series suggested that the lifting of NPIs led to a rapid rebound of respiratory pathogens, with a gradual return to seasonal trends.

A document by Sweekar Dahal. Click on the document to view its contents.

1. INTRODUCTIONCaplan-Collinet syndrome, also known as rheumatoid pneumoconiosis, is a combination of silicosis and rheumatoid arthritis. It has been described since the 1950s and is now rare [1]. It occurs most frequently in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients with a history of exposure to inhaled inorganic dust particles from coal and silica, and rarely from asbestos [2]. Its prevalence ranged from 0.74 to 0.89% [3].Caplan-Collinet syndrome is a very rare entity, under-diagnosed in our context despite the large number of people exposed. To our knowledge, no case of Caplan-Collinet syndrome has been reported in Burkina Faso. We report a case of Caplan-Collinet syndrome hospitalized in the Pneumo-Phtisiology Department of the Yalgado Ouédraogo University Hospital in Ouagadougou (Burkina Faso).

Radar beamforming is one of the most important technologies in the radar system, and the anti unmanned aerial vehicle (anti-UAV) radar beamforming is usually difficult because of its complex beams. In this paper, a beamforming method based on a hybrid basic beams super position for anti-UAV radar and a modulation parameter decoupling method are proposed. Basic beams based on a window function and their improved versions with fast attenuation side lobe, are combined by different weightings on different pointing directions to obtain the anti-UAV radar beam. A basic beams generation method for improving the attenuation side lobe of the original basic beams is proposed by minimizing the total power without any power loss in one specific pointing direction. To obtain the optimal weightings for different direc tions, the average beamforming error is minimized and then solved by a genetic algorithm. The method for decoupling the modulation param eters is also derived mathematically. Three groups of experiments with different types of beams are carried out. The experimental results show that the proposed method with hybrid beams can obtain a better beam forming effect in terms of side lobe level based on the window function under different types of anti-UAV radar beams.

The site-selective C‒H thiocyanation of quinoline has potential application value but remains undeveloped. We report herein an electrochemical C3-thiocyanation of quinoline derivatives under external oxidant-free conditions. The key to success for this reaction is the in situ formation of activated silylquinolinium salts. This method exhibits mild reaction conditions, broad substrate scope, and excellent site-selectivity. The practicality of this protocol is further demonstrated by a scale-up reaction, follow-up transformations, and late-stage thiocyanation of quinoline-based bioactive molecules.