Relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis (RRMS) is defined by elevated IgG/IgA/IgM responses targeting Epstein-Barr Virus (EBV) nuclear antigen 1 (EBNA) and deoxyuridine-triphosphatases (dUTPases) of Human herpsesvirus-6 (HHV-6) and EBV. These responses suggest that the viruses are being replicated and reactivated. An increased prevalence of chronic fatigue syndrome, depression, and anxiety is associated with signs of immune activation in RRMS. Nevertheless, there is a lack of data regarding the association between viral reactivation and neuropsychiatric symptoms of RRMS. This study investigated the IgG/IgA/IgM responses to EBNA, and EBV and HHV-6-dUTPases, in 58 remitted RRMS patients and 63 normal controls. The McDonald criteria were employed to establish the diagnosis of MS. The Expanded Disability Status Scale (EDSS) and the Multiple Sclerosis Severity Score were employed to evaluate disabilities caused by RRMS. We evaluated the scores of the Hamilton Depression (HAMD) and Anxiety (HAMA) Rating Scales, and Fibro-Fatigue (FF) scale. One latent construct was extracted from the EDSS, MSSS, FF, HAMD, and HAMA scores. We discovered that the combined effects of IgG and IgM-HHV-6-dUTPAses accounted for 63.7% of the variance in this construct. Furthermore, the total FF, HAMA, and HAMD scores were substantially associated with the IgG and IgM-HHV-6-dUTPAses, accounting for approximately 38.7% to 51.0% of the variance. The three neuropsychiatric rating scale scores were also significantly correlated with IgA reactivity directed to both dUTPases and IgG/IgA/IgM to EBNA. In conclusion, the reactivation and replication of HHV-6 and EBV significantly contributes to chronic fatigue syndrome, as well as symptoms of depression and anxiety due to RRMS.

Soil quality is a crucial attribute for maintain biological productivity, human health and ecosystem service function. However, the distribution of saline-alkali soil quality and its influencing factors in the Yellow River Delta region remain unclear, which hinders sustainable agricultural development. The study evaluated the quality of soil under different use types and depths in the southern Yellow River Delta region. We collected 134 soil samples from two soil layers at 67 soil sample points across three land use types. Spatial distribution maps revealed that inland areas exhibited better soil texture and nutrient levels compared to coastal areas. All nutrients were higher in 0-20 cm soil layer than that in 20-40 cm soil layer except soil total potassium. The spatial distribution pattern of Soil Quality Index (SQI) showed higher values at the center gradually declining towards the edge of the study area. Furthermore, SQI in cultivated land was 1.8-8% and 52.7-84% higher than that in forest land and wasteland, respectively. The SEM results indicated that distance from sea indirectly influenced soil quality with different mechanisms between two soil layers. The model in 0-20 cm soil layer, SQI was indirectly affected by chemical properties, nutrients and based ions, explained 85% of the variation in SQI. In 20-40 cm soil layer, SQI mainly effected by chemical properties explained 83% of the variation in SQI. The result could provide reference for land use, selecting suitable crops according to soil properties, which is important for promoting sustainable agriculture in the region.

Introduction: Individuals with hearing disorders such as tinnitus often experience high levels of stress, anxiety, depression, and decreased sound tolerance. These factors may be related to maladaptive autonomic regulation, affecting their response to acute stress. Heart rate variability (HRV) is a reliable measure of autonomic activity, but its interaction with psychological factors is not well understood. Objectives: The aim was to develop a multimodal stress induction protocol in a non-clinical population and to determine how psychological factors influence physiological responses. Methods: Electrocardiograms were recorded from 30 healthy young adults during three stress tasks: mental arithmetic, noise exposure, and a cold pressor test. Heart rate (HR) and root mean square of successive differences (RMSSD) were used to index autonomic activity. Participants also completed questionnaires on perceived stress, noise sensitivity, anxiety, and depression to examine relationships with HRV. Results: All tasks produced significant time-dependent effects on HRV features, but to different extents. Mental arithmetic produced the largest increase in HR and decrease in RMSSD. In contrast, the noise task showed a significant decrease in HR without a change in RMSSD, suggesting that the task induced relaxation. In the CPT, females showed increased HR but a decrease in RMSSD, whereas males showed the reverse pattern. Psychological factors significantly interacted with HRV dynamic changes during mental and noise tasks, but not during CPT. Conclusions: HRV responses to acute stress are non-stationary and influenced by psychological factors. Thus, this protocol presents an original approach to study autonomic activity in stress-related conditions such as tinnitus.

Motivation and emotion effects on cognition are well-studied, but their neural interactions are less understood. In three EEG experiments (N = 32 each), we investigated this under different cognitive task demands, focusing on intrinsic motivation (i.e., self-determined choice) and emotional picture processing. In Experiment 1, a time production task, participants estimated two-second intervals while viewing emotional pictures (neutral, negative, positive), with picture categories (e.g., humans, vehicles, animals) either self-chosen or assigned pseudorandomly (‘self’ vs. ‘no choice’). Enhanced pre-stimulus contingent negative variation (CNV) amplitudes were observed for ‘self’ trials. Late positive potential (LPP) amplitudes were enhanced for self-chosen pictures and highest for negative compared to neutral and positive pictures. However, no motivation-emotion interaction was found, suggesting independent effects on attentional resource allocation. Experiment 2 involved a less demanding active viewing task. No CNV effect related to self-determined choice was present. As in Experiment 1, self-determination and emotional content modulated LPP amplitudes, but again, no interaction was found. Comparing both experiments, this experiment revealed overall higher LPP effects, indicating dependence on cognitive task demands. Experiment 3 excluded the ‘self’ condition, confirming that emotional LPP effects remained unaffected when motivational context was eliminated. These findings suggest that self-determined choice enhances task preparation depending on task context, and that attention during task processing is modulated by self-determination and emotional content similarly across task contexts, albeit elevated in low-load tasks. Results align with models on resource competition in attention allocation but suggest distinct processes for motivation induced by self-determined choice and emotion processing.

Immunotherapy for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) often does not achieve the desired results. Immunogenic cell death (ICD) has significant potential to trigger the body’s immune response against tumors, offering a hopeful strategy to improve immunotherapy for HCC. Arsenic trioxide (ATO), which induces ICD, may markedly increase the effectiveness of programmed cell death protein 1 (PD-1) inhibitors in the therapy of HCC. However, the complex mechanisms behind this synergistic effect are not yet fully understood. This study aims to elucidate the functions and mechanisms of ATO in HCC and to explore its potential to enhance immunotherapy for HCC. The results showed that ATO dose-dependently reduced the viability of HCC cells. Concurrently, ATO treatment led to an increase in ROS levels and induced ERS, which activated ICD-related damage associated molecular patterns (DAMPs). As a result, this process prompted dendritic cell maturation and enhanced the tumor immune microenvironment. ATO treatment increased the immunogenicity of HCC cells, allowing them to function as both prophylactic and therapeutic vaccines against HCC and to augment anti-tumor immunity. Finally, ATO was found to improve the effectiveness of PD-1 inhibitors in treating HCC in vivo. Therefore, we conclude that ATO effectively bolstered the body’s immune response by triggering ROS/ERS-mediated ICD, which significantly enhanced the therapeutic effectiveness of PD-1 inhibitors against HCC.

Let G be a graph with vertex set V. A function f : V→{−1 ,0 ,2} is called a Roman balanced dominating function (RBDF) of G if ∑ u ∈ N G [ v ] f ( u ) = 0 for each vertex v∈ V. The maximum (resp. minimum) Roman balanced number γ Rb M ( G ) (resp. γ Rb m ( G ) ) is the maximum (resp. minimum) value of ∑ v ∈ V f ( v ) among all Roman balanced dominating functions f. A graph G is called Rd-balanced if γ Rb M ( G ) = γ Rb m ( G ) = 0 . We present several lower and upper bounds on γ Rb M ( G ) and γ Rb m ( G ) and further determine several classes of Rd-balanced graphs.

Note: Cobalt nanowires with a diameter of about 93 nm  are made using the electro-deposition technique on the aluminum mold of the nanowires by the galvano-static deposition method. Aluminum mold is made through multi-stage monodizing of pure aluminum sheet.Fabrication of vertical cobalt nanowire arrays aligned on flat surfaces and field emission (FE) using them as electron cathodes.  These arrays are made by electrodeposition in the form of nanoparticles on Au/Ti substrates. / Si are obtained at very low temperature (<100 °C).

The development of high-quality, stable, and cost-effective micro/nano dual-band lasing for multifunctional applications remains a crucial endeavor. In this study, we demonstrate high-Q dual-band whispering gallery mode lasing, emitting ultraviolet and blue lasing, using an independent core-shell microdisk. The GaN-based microdisk with InGaN/GaN quantum wells serves as the core, while a SiO 2 layer is deposited on the sidewalls to construct the core-shell structure. This independent structure is fabricated using the graphically epitaxial lift-off method, which effectively mitigates light leakage issues associated with the substrate and facilitates flexible device integration. Compared to the microdisk without a SiO 2 shell coating, the threshold of ultraviolet lasing in the core-shell microdisk is reduced by 1.6 times, the Q-factor is enhanced by 21.7%, and blue lasing is successfully achieved. To further enhance the lasing quality in the blue band, we employed temperature regulation, resulting in a 1.9-fold increase in Q-factor. Additionally, due to thermal expansion and thermo-optical effects, a blue shift in the lasing mode is observed with decreasing temperature, exhibiting a slope of 0.007 nm/K. The underlying physical mechanisms are thoroughly analyzed using steady-state and time-resolved PL, along with FDTD field simulations. In summary, the generation and control of dual-band lasing within a single microcavity present significant implications for the realization of multifunctional devices.

Continuum robots, with their slender, flexible structures, are increasingly utilized in delicate tasks. These robots must navigate confined spaces with high precision, often employing follow-the-leader (FTL) motion to ensure minimal trauma. The baseline FTL motion planning algorithm can not adjust the continuum robot's configuration using all the segments, especially the tail of the robot. Furthermore, it has limitations in dynamic, obstacle-rich environments, where real-time re-planning and obstacle avoidance are essential but often not sufficiently addressed. To address the above gaps, we propose a novel FTL motion planning framework inspired by snake hole-digging motions that can configure its optimal shape during the insertion task. Our approach outperforms the baseline FTL by 75.36%. The framework incorporates real-time obstacle avoidance by integrating Control Barrier Functions (CBF) and Quadratic Programming (QP) into the motion re-planning process. To avoid deviations caused by obstacle avoidance, the Control Lyapunov Function (CLF) is also integrated, forming a CLF-CBF-QP framework for online motion re-planning. The target reaching error of using CLF-CBF-QP decreases by 69.15% compared to using only CBF-QP. We also provide the open-source code of this work online.

Radio environment maps (REMs) have been used to visualize the information of invisible electromagnetic spectrum. Although in the past there have been many research activities dealing with the reconstruction of static REMs, they did not consider the time variation of the dynamic spectrum operational environment. In this paper, we present a novel time-variant REM reconstruction methodology based on sparsely distributed sensors which jointly considers sensor layout optimization, propagation model improvement, and missing spectrum data recovery. To improve the sampling efficiency, the positions of sensors are first optimized based on a greedy-matching strategy and a gradient descend method. Then, by using the sampled spectrum data obtained from these sensors, the accuracy of commonly employed propagation models is improved and subsequently used to construct a channel dictionary for such time-varying environments. By exploring the heterogeneity of dynamic spectrum operational environments, an improved optimal reconstruction method is designed to recover the spectrum data using their spatial-temporal correlation. By considering a typical university campus environment as a case study, simulation and measurement data are obtained to reconstruct the time-variant REM. Through the simulation data, the reconstruction performance results are compared with those obtained from other state-of-the-art methods showing that the proposed methodology outperforms the others with respect to the sampling scheme and missing rate. Additionally, field measurement results have demonstrated that the proposed approach can effectively reconstruct time-variant REMs under dynamic scenarios.

The growing complexity and scale of modern deep learning models have improved the ability to generate and understand human language, yet challenges persist in achieving robust generalization and syntactic flexibility. Dynamic Syntactic Insertion (DSI) addresses these limitations through the novel introduction of random syntactic variations during the finetuning phase, enhancing the model's capacity to process diverse linguistic structures. Through empirical experiments on the GPT-NeoX architecture, significant performance improvements were observed across multiple metrics, including syntactic robustness, fluency, and generalization accuracy. The DSI-enhanced model consistently outperformed the baseline, particularly in handling syntactically complex and perturbed datasets, demonstrating its adaptability to a broader range of linguistic inputs. Furthermore, the incorporation of syntactic variability led to reductions in perplexity and increased performance across tasks on the GLUE benchmark, highlighting the method's effectiveness. The findings from this study suggest that syntactic augmentation techniques, such as DSI, provide a promising pathway for improving the resilience and adaptability of language models across diverse tasks and linguistic environments.

Traditionally, Radioactive Particle Tracking (RPT) relies on nuclear mathematical models to triangulate the position of a radioactive tracer, a process that involves significant computational resources and manual calibration. This work presents a novel methodology leveraging artificial intelligence and collaborative robotics to overcome these limitations. In this approach, a collaborative robot is employed to maneuver a radioactive tracer, generating a precise and extensive dataset that correlates physical positions with radiation levels measured by surrounding detectors. This dataset is then used to train an Artificial Neural Network (ANN) to reconstruct the particle positions. Results demonstrate that this approach provides superior accuracy in position reconstruction and flow field prediction, compared to traditional methods. The proposed technique offers significant advantages, including reduced computational complexity, faster and more accurate data acquisition, and the ability to handle complex geometries and flow conditions. These improvements make RPT method a promising tool for industrial applications.

Intramuscular fat (IMF) content is closely linked to meat quality, and the process of IMF deposition is intricate. Despite numerous transcriptomic studies on IMF, varying sample sizes and data analysis methods have led to inconsistent gene expression patterns and results. To identify the pivotal genes influencing pig IMF content, we performed a meta-analysis on 10 pig muscle transcriptome datasets with a total of eighty samples, including forty each of high and IMF samples. Subsequently, we conducted PPI network analysis, as well as GO and KEGG functional enrichment analysis, and quantified the trait locus (QTL) analysis on the differentially expressed genes (DEGs).The meta-analysis revealed 494 DEGs, with 321 upregulated and 173 downregulated DEGs observed in the high IMF group. These DEGs were found to be enriched in processes associated with adipocyte differentiation and fat anabolism. Notably, a cluster comprising five genes (FASN, SCD, PLIN1, LEP, and G0S2) was identified. QTL analysis demonstrated that five DEGs, including FASN and SCD, corresponded to six QTLs associated with IMF.Based on our findings, we propose that FASN, SCD, PLIN1, LEP, G0S2, PTN, DGAT2, and ADIPOQ are the key genes influencing IMF content in pigs. Moreover, we assert that meta-analysis is a reliable method for integrating transcriptome data and identifying the crucial genes that impact IMF content.

A document by Irina L. Savostyanova. Click on the document to view its contents.

Background: NPC (representing nasopharyngeal carcinoma) manifests stealthily, with pronounced invasiveness, resulting in most patients reaching an advanced stage by the time of their first diagnosis. AS-IV (short for “Astragaloside IV”), a major bioactive component in the traditional Chinese medicinal herb Huang Qi (Astragalus membranaceus), exhibits numerous pharmacological effects, including anti-cancerous effects and anti-inflammatory effects. SATB2 (short for “special AT-rich binding protein-2”) has been identified as a diagnostic marker for NPC. At present, the precise mechanism through which AS-IV regulates NPC aggravation remains unclear. Methodology: CCK-8 assays were performed to evaluate the impact of AS-IV on cell viability and identify the appropriate concentration gradients of AS-IV. AS-IV’s interferences with NPC cell transference, penetration, autophagy, and apoptosis were analyzed based on results from transwell assays, immunofluorescence (IF) assays, and flow cytometry (FCM) assays. Via western blotting, the content of SATB2 in NPC cells was tested and excess SATB2’s impacts on cellular biological traits were investigated. Besides, a Wnt signaling pathway blocking agent was administered to the SATB2-overexpressed NPC cells treated with AS-IV, followed by testing on the contents of proteins linked to the Wnt pathway. Further, subcutaneously transplanted NPC models were formed in nude mice to make clear the influence of AS-IV on in-vivo NPC expansion, alongside the testing of TUNEL-positive cell numbers in these tumor tissues. Results: Following the administration of AS-IV, the activity of NPC cells was diminished greatly, accompanied by inhibited cell transference, penetration, and autophagy, as well as driven cell apoptosis. However, this effect of AS-IV depended on its dosage. In NPC cells (especially in CNE-2 and 5-8F cells), SATB2 exhibited notably high contents. Once overexpressed, SATB2 partially prevented AS-IV from suppressing the aggravation of NPC cells. Upon treatment with AS-IV, NPC cells experienced a marked drop in the contents of proteins linked to the Wnt pathway; such contents however were elevated after overexpressing SATB2 but somewhat fell off with the further supplementation of DKK-1. Furthermore, AS-IV impeded in-vivo NPC expansion, and this impeding effect was offset partially following the heightening of SATB2 production. Conclusion: AS-IV deactivates the Wnt pathway by weakening the SATB2 production, thereby holding up NPC cells’ transference, penetration, and autophagy while fostering apoptosis.

; Introduction: A 22-year-old male with no prior cardiovascular history presented with frequent symptomatic ventricular premature contractions (VPCs) with multiple QRS morphologies despite bisoprolol treatment. Results: The coupling intervals progressively increased from VPC1 to VPC3, and VPC2 was the most frequent (VPC1: 9.3%, VPC2: 30.2%, VPC3: 0.5%). The earliest activation site was identified at the left-right coronary cusp junction. Single ventricular extrastimuli with variable coupling intervals from this site successfully reproduced QRS morphologies identical to VPC 1-3. Conclusion: The findings revealed the utility of unique pace-mapping technique in cases of VPCs with multiple morphologies.

EinführungSpracherwerb ist ein faszinierender Prozess, der sich mit dem Wachstum der Kinder entwickelt. Insbesondere ist die Altersgruppe von 6 bis 12 Jahren entscheidend für das Erlernen neuer Sprachen, da Kinder in diesem Stadium über einzigartige kognitive Fähigkeiten verfügen, die diesen Prozess erleichtern. Als marokkanischer Lehrer habe ich die Vorzüge und Herausforderungen beobachtet, mit denen junge Lernende beim Erlernen zusätzlicher Sprachen konfrontiert sind. Dieser Artikel wird die kognitiven, sozialen und emotionalen Faktoren untersuchen, die das Sprachenlernen bei Kindern im Alter von 6 bis 12 Jahren beeinflussen.

Introduction Early detection and intervention in psychotic disorders are public health issues that have led to the creation of specific care systems in France, the visibility of which is still debated. Moreover, these services are often concentrated in adult rather than child psychiatry, which may increase the duration of untreated psychosis. Methods The main objective of this study was to take stock of the care provided in the adolescent unit of the Candélie hospital (Lot-et-Garonne, France) in 2023 and the proportion of adolescents aged over 15 diagnosed with a mental health condition at risk who were followed up. The second objective was to propose an experimental approach to improving care for this group of patients by introducing an advanced practice nurse. Results The results of the retrospective study carried out in 2022 show that staffing levels and care units in adolescent medicine are saturated. Depending on the system, between 19% and 39% of patients are classified as mentally vulnerable. The construction of an Ishikawa diagram highlights three major issues on which the advanced nurse practitioner could intervene: support for one of the systems under particular pressure (RESEDA), the resumption of part of the medical activities given the shortage of doctors, and the child psychiatry-adult psychiatry relay. Conclusion Restructuring existing systems to include initial consultation and monitoring of these adolescents and their families by advanced practice nurses would reduce the duration of untreated psychosis and allow earlier intervention with these adolescents.

A document by Natalia A. Virts. Click on the document to view its contents.

A document by Abiodun John Ologunowa. Click on the document to view its contents.

Offshore wind has an important role in achieving net zero targets and is a vital contributor to addressing the energy crisis. Continued expansion in offshore wind is driving industry and governments across the world to explore deeper and more exposed sites. Standard wind measurements using meteorological masts are more challenging, or even impractical at such sites. As a result, floating LIDAR and physics-based mesoscale models are increasingly being deployed as cost-effective solutions for resource assessment. This study investigates the performance of a meso-microscale coupled Weather Research and Forecasting model by comparing against using 15-months of in-situ wind data collected from two floating LiDAR systems deployed in the Celtic Sea, Southwest UK. Wind speed measurements from model and measurement were compared directly. Vertical wind speed gradient estimates, chosen to quantify how the two data sets predicted wind shear, were also compared, along with estimates of energy generation, as predicted by the two data sets. At approximate turbine hub height (150 m), the model predicted mean wind speeds are 2.38% and 2.81% lower than the measurements and 4.96% and 4.51% lower at the P95 wind speed, for the two measurement locations. However, the differences are greater at wind speeds faster than the turbine cut-out speed. The inverse is true at for windspeeds, below the turbine cut-in speed, where model predicted wind speeds are greater than the measurements. As these high and low wind speeds do not contribute to energy generation, the differences between model-predicted and measurement-predicted energy production are smaller, with model estimates lower by 0.56% and 1.32% for the two measurement sites. Model calculated wind speed gradients were notably different from the measurement-calculated wind speed gradients. In particular, the 90 th percentile value is 35% lower than that predicted by measurements. Attempts to account for this when calculating energy generation suggested that the model estimates were lower than measurements by a much lower margin of 0.6% and 1.37%for the two floating LiDAR locations. This work identifies differences between numerical model predictions and floating Lidar measurements for a proposed offshore wind site. Of the parameters considered, the energy production estimates show the least difference. This helps inform studies looking to accurately evaluate wind resource at more exposed sites. However, usage of wind data that specifically relies on accuracy for large or small wind speeds, such as engineering design, or weather window calculations will be required to consider the impact of the observed differences on their results.

Background A 32-year-old Filipino female with rheumatoid arthritis and lichen planus of low activity was admitted following a five-week period of painful oral mucosal and cutaneous bullae and erosions over her prior lichen planus lesions following her first Moderna COVID-19 vaccine. Skin biopsy revealed lichenoid dermatitis.. Systemic workup failed to show

The rapid expansion of deep learning models has brought unprecedented improvements in language comprehension, yet challenges remain in handling complex contextual dependencies and ambiguous inputs. Introducing stochastic variability into the embedding process, Stochastic Multi-Level Embedding Fusion (SMEF) offers a novel approach to enrich the flexibility of token representations and improve generalization. Through its multi-level fusion mechanism, SMEF allows the model to dynamically alternate between different linguistic representations during training, resulting in significant gains in accuracy and robustness across diverse tasks. Experiments conducted on an open-source language model demonstrate consistent performance improvements in benchmarks such as sentiment analysis and question answering, with SMEF contributing to enhanced contextual understanding and mitigating overfitting. Despite the slight computational overhead, the method presents a valuable enhancement to the existing architecture, achieving notable success in expanding the model's ability to adapt to varying contexts and disambiguate complex language structures.

Museum specimens offer a unique and powerful tool for understanding the impact of anthropogenic change on populations over time. Morphological traits can be impacted by many different environmental variables that are difficult to separate from one another as potential driving factors. Comparative analyses among similar species jointly experiencing change in the same environmental variables can help pinpoint the selective pressures driving temporal morphological change. We assessed temporal change in bill size, tarsus length, and body size between six species of songbirds from the San Francisco Bay Area over the past 150 years. Proxies for body size (wing and tarsus length) exhibited idiosyncratic temporal changes among species. In contrast, we found a significant increase in bill surface area across all but one species. Quantile regression analyses on bill size variation additionally revealed that temporal increases over the past century have been driven by increases in the largest bill sizes in some species, but increases in the smallest bills over time in others. The climate variables best explaining temporal change in bill size also differed among species with some species responding more to changing summer variables (e.g. maximum annual temperature) and others in response to a changing winter climate. These results together suggest that different sympatric, resident bird species may be experiencing temporal morphological change in response to selective pressures experienced at different seasons. Our finding provides support for the season of critical thermal stress hypothesis that suggests variation in functional traits will be shaped by the season that imposes the greatest selective force on a population. Overall, this study has important implications for future research on the role of bills in thermoregulation and for conservation efforts based on the adaptive capacity of birds to respond to climate change.