Environmental DNA (eDNA) metabarcoding has gained growing attention as a strategy for monitoring biodiversity in ecology. However, taxa identifications produced through metabarcoding require sophisticated processing of high-throughput sequencing data from taxonomically informative DNA barcodes. Various sets of universal and taxon-specific primers have been developed, extending the usability of metabarcoding across archaea, bacteria, and eukaryotes. Accordingly, a multitude of metabarcoding data analysis tools and pipelines have also been developed. Often, several developed workflows are designed to process the same amplicon sequencing data, making it somewhat puzzling to choose one amongst the plethora of existing pipelines. However, each pipeline has its own specific philosophy, strengths, and limitations, which should be considered depending on the aims of any specific study, as well as the bioinformatics expertise of the user. In this review, we outline the input data requirements, supported operating systems, and particular attributes of thirty-one amplicon processing pipelines with the goal of helping users to select a pipeline for their metabarcoding projects.

The effects of various heat treatments on the microstructure and mechanical properties of laser beam powder bed fused AlSi10Mg were investigated. Specimens were solutionized at three different temperatures of 425, 475 and 525 °C followed by natural aging (T4) prior to microstructural and mechanical characterization. In addition, the effect of aging was studied by artificially aging (i.e., T7) some of the solutionized specimens at 165 °C. Solutionizing at all temperatures was observed to fully dissolve the additive manufacturing (AM) induced dendritic microstructure, leaving bulky Si and needle-shaped β-AlFeSi precipitates in the grain interiors and boundaries. Tensile results revealed that T4 specimens exhibited more ductility, while T7 specimens showed substantially higher strengths with slightly reduced ductility. Interestingly, no significant effect of heat treatment on strain-life fatigue behavior was observed. Fractography found the Si-particles to be responsible for tensile fracture, while AM volumetric defects were the main initiators of fatigue cracks.

Background: Due to the highly coarse chromatin, multi-dimensionality of the histo image, irregularity of shape and size, texture, and appearance, nuclei extraction is challenging. To address these complexities, a deep learning algorithm called a stacked sparse autoencoder had been considered a research factor in this paper. Methods and Material: This paper focuses on detecting the epithelial regions and extracting high-level features to segment the patches based on the nuclei and classify the biomarkers concerning the nuclei patches. We used 6,53,400 microscopic image patches of 363 patients sourced from the BreakHis database, of which 4,90,050 prominent image patches containing only nuclei were utilized for Biomarker classification (Basically eliminating the non-nuclei patches from 363 Whole slide Images (WSI)). The non-nuclei patches were eliminated due to imbalanced class distribution. Results: The classifier finally classifies if the nuclei detected based on the features are benign or malignant, or normal with an accuracy of 99.73%, using which the early prediction is performed by extracting and classifying the biomarkers HER2 and ER. The overall classification rate of classifying HER-2 and ER is 97.52%. Conclusion: The HER2 +ve was classified with intensity above 23%, and Total nuclei in the range 150-1000 are termed ER positive. Based on these 40 patients with HER2 +ve and 25 patients with ER +ve were detected out of 363 patients. From the observation, it is concluded that 25-40 patients are risked of breast cancer in the next 5 years due to the cell proliferation rate of 7000.

Aim: Nirmatrelvir as a new 3CL protease inhibitor for treating COVID-19 drug of antiviral drug, the potential side effects have not yet been fully studied yet. The aim of this study was to identify potential risk of Nirmatrelvir by analyzing post-marketing safety data based on the largest publicly available worldwide pharmacovigilance database. Methods: We analyzed Nirmatrelvir adverse events to detect and characterize relevant safety signals based on the FDA Adverse Event Reporting System database in 2022. Case/non-case approach were used to estimate the reporting odds ratio (ROR) and information component (IC) with relevant confidence intervals (95% CI) for AEs with ≥4 counts. Results: Total of 26846 cases were included. Disease recurrence [ROR(95%CI)=413.2(395.6-431.59)], dysgeusia [ROR(95%CI)=110.84(106.04-115.85)], anosmia [ROR(95%CI)=15.21(12.76-18.11)], ageusia [ROR(95%CI)=9.80(8.50-11.3)] and urticaria [ROR(95%CI)=1.91(1.69-2.17)] were the main safety signals. In addition, abdominal pain upper and skin toxicity were two specific safety signals of Nirmatrelvir. In pregnant population, a significant increased ROR was found in life-threatening [ROR(95%CI)=5.12(1.38-19.00)]. Conclusion: We identified that disease recurrence, dysgeusia, abdominal pain upper and skin toxicity were the main and specific safety signals of Nirmatrelvir. Clinician and pharmacist should pay attention on these AEs. Notably, a potential risk of Nirmatrelvir in pregnant population should be alerted.

A key to achieve the goals put forward in the UN's 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, it will need transformative change to our agrifood systems. We must mount to the global challenge to achieve food security in a sustainable manner in the context of climate change, population growth, urbanization, and depletion of natural resources. Rice is one of the major staple cereal crops that has contributed, is contributing, and will still contribute to the global food security. To date, rice yield has held pace with increasing demands, due to advances in both fundamental and biological studies, as well as genomic and molecular breeding practices. However, future rice production depends largely on the planting of resilient cultivars that can acclimate and adapt to changing environmental conditions. This Special Issue highlight with reviews and original research articles the exciting and growing field of rice-environment interactions that could benefit future rice breeding. We also outline open questions and propose future directions of 2050 rice research, calling for more attentions to develop environment resilient rice especially hybrid rice, upland rice and perennial rice.

A group of viruses, collectively known as Pteropine orthoreoviruses (PRVs), have recently been found in fruit bats and humans in Southeast Asia, Australia, and some African countries. This article intends to briefly discuss what is known about these viruses and their potential significance in public health and to advocate for increased surveillance of these zoonotic viruses to prevent potential future disease outbreaks, as well as to highlight a recent publication on this topic that was selected as an editor’s choice article in the Journal of Medical Virology 1.

Gastric metastases originating from breast carcinomas and type 4 advanced gastric cancers are often difficult to distinguish because of their similar endoscopic and pathologic characteristics. This often delays early intervention and accordingly affects prognosis. Immunohistochemical analyses are important for both diagnosis and treatment of breast carcinomas.

Primary scrotal lipoma is a rare urological diagnosis. It is usually diagnosed incidentally as most of time initial diagnosis may be confused with other common etiology of scrotal masses. Here, we present a case a rare case of scrotal lipoma with initial misdiagnosis of hydrocele at primary health facility.

The main purpose of this study is to investigate numerically the thermal performance of a parabolic trough solar collector’s absorber tube that contains a novel kind of inserts with the objective to improve the heat transfer between the heat transfer fluid and the absorber tube. In the first part of this paper, the diameter and the length of the cylindrical inserts are investigated based on Finite Volume Method and Monte Carlo Ray Tracing method for Reynolds number ranges from 2.36∙10^4 to 7.09∙10^4. In the second part, the eccentricity of the cylindrical inserts is investigated under the same operating conditions. The Therminol ®VP1 is the HTF that used in this investigation intermediate fluid. The numerical simulation indicates that the perturbators enhance the thermal behavior of receiver and reduces the absorber tube’s temperature difference.

Surfactin is a signal to trigger biofilm formation against harsh environments. Generally, harsh environments can result in change of the cellular redox state to induce biofilm formation, but we know little about whether the cellular redox state influences biofilm formation via surfactin. Here, the reductant glucose could reduce surfactin and enhance biofilm formation by a surfactin-independent way. The oxidant H2O2 led to a decrease of surfactin accompanying with weakened biofilm formation. Spx and PerR were both necessary for surfactin production and biofilm formation. H2O2 improved surfactin production but inhibited biofilm formation by a surfactin-independent manner in Δspx, while it reduced surfactin production without obvious influence on biofilm formation in ΔperR. The ability against H2O2 stress was enhanced in Δspx, but weakened in ΔperR. Thereby, PerR was favorable for resisting oxidative stress, while Spx played a negative role in this action. Knockout and compensation of rex also supported that the cells could form biofilm by a surfactin-independent way. Collectively, surfactin is not a unique signal to trigger biofilm formation, and the cellular redox state can influence biofilm formation by a surfactin- dependent or independent way in B. amyloliquefaciens.

Deposition of hydroxyapatite crystals in the para-articular soft tissues is a well-known condition. However, this condition has been rarely described in acromioclavicular joint . We report a case of 55 year gentleman, presented with acute onset of shoulder pain , who was diagnosed with calcific periarthritis of acromioclavicular joint.

Biomass-derived wastes as the additive of non-degradable plastics have been paid more attention due to the ever-growing environmental pollution and energy crisis. Herein, the spent coffee grounds (SCG) have been used as fillers in polypropylene (PP) after the heat treatment to realize its recycling utilization. The effect of the heat treatment atmosphere on the properties of the obtained SCG and SCG/PP composites has been investigated systematically. The results show that the residual coffee oil can be removed more thoroughly under an air atmosphere than under a nitrogen atmosphere at a relatively low cost and an eco-friendly process. The lower residual oil rate of SCG is beneficial to improve the comminution and further enhance the affinity with the PP matrix. The obtained SCG/PP composite holds lower water absorption, higher hydrophobicity, and better mechanical properties, implying its potential applications in the field of food packaging.

Background Misophonia is often characterized by excessive negative emotional responses, including anger and anxiety, to “trigger sounds” which are typically day-to-day sounds, such as those generated from people eating. Misophonia (literally ‘hatred of sounds’) has commonly been understood within an auditory processing framework where sounds cause distress due to aberrant processing in the auditory and emotional systems of the brain. However, recent evidence from brain imaging shows involvement of the motor system while listening to trigger sounds suggesting that the perception of an action (e.g., mouth movement) produced by a trigger person, not the sound per se, drives distress in misophonia. Observation or listening to sounds of another’s actions are known to prompt automatic mimicry/imitations. Apart from anecdotal evidence and a few case studies, a relationship between mimicry and misophonia has not been evaluated. Method We addressed this ‘gap’ by collecting data on misophonia symptoms and mimicry behaviour using online questionnaires from 676 participants. Results The analysis shows, (i) the tendency to mimic varies in direct proportion to misophonia severity assessed using a self-reported questionnaire, (ii) compared to other human and environmental sounds, trigger sounds of eating and chewing are more likely to trigger mimicking, and (iii) the act of mimicking provides relief from distress to most people with misophonia. Conclusion Mimicry is widely prevalent in misophonia and is elicited by the most common trigger sounds of eating. The data provides support to the model that misophonia is not a disorder of sound-processing but rather its basis lies in social perception.

Objective: Intrusive thoughts are characterized by a sense of intrusiveness of foreign entry into cognition. While not always consisting of negative content, intrusive thoughts are almost solely investigated in that context. Involuntary Musical Imagery (INMI) offers a promising alternative, as it is a type of involuntary cognition that can be used to evaluate intrusiveness without negative content. Methos: In Study 1, 200 participants completed self-report questionnaires to assess several aspects of intrusiveness: meta-awareness, control, repetitiveness, frequency, and subjective experience of INMI. In Study 2, 203 participants completed self-report questionnaires to explore the clinical characteristics (depression, stress, anxiety, and rumination) which might mediate the connection between INMI frequency and INMI negative experience. Results: Study 1 revealed, through exploratory factor analysis, that intrusiveness shares variance with the negative experience of INMI but not with INMI frequency. In study 2, ruminative thinking was found to mediate the relationship between frequent INMI and negative experience of INMI. Conclusion: These results suggest that INMI might be used to investigate intrusiveness in the lab without the potential confound of negative emotions. In addition, the results suggest that neither the content nor the frequency of intrusive thoughts can solely explain why these thoughts are aversive to some but not others. Ruminative style might be the missing link to explain how and why these intrusive thoughts become aversive and obsessive. In other words, we suggest that the cause for intrusiveness lies not in the thought or repetitiveness, but in the thinker.

Currently, solid-state fluorescent carbonized polymer dots (CPDs) have attracted attention increasingly due to their applications for op-toelectronic display. However, designing CPDs possessing solid-state fluorescence and clarifying the fluorescence mechanism still remain challenging. Herein, we initially synthesized a novel type of polythiophene derivatives CPDs, poly-4,4’-(thiophene-3,4-diyl)dibenzoic acid carbonized polymer dots (PDBA-CPDs) with solid-state fluorescence. Subsequently, the structural and optical characterization re-vealed that solid-state fluorescence originating from the aggregation induced emission of the CPDs. In brief, in aggregation state, the remaining polymer structure groups on the surface of the CPDs overlapped and weakened the non-radiative transition, enhancing sol-id-state fluorescence emission. Thirdly, three polythiophene-derived CPDs were designed to further demonstrate the aggregation in-duced solid-state fluorescence mechanism. Finally, owing to their unique properties of solid-state fluorescence, the white LEDs (light emitting diodes) were fabricated with high color rendering index (CRI) of 82.7 and CIE coordinates of (0.37, 0.39) using commercial 460 nm chip. This work facilitates the development of CPDs’ solid-state fluorescence mechanisms and advances the application of CPDs in the field of optoelectronics.

Background: Clinical informatics tools to integrate data from multiple sources have the potential to catalyze population health management of childhood cancer survivors at high risk for late heart failure through the implementation of previously validated risk calculators. Methods: The Oklahoma cohort (n=365) harnessed data elements from Passport for Care (PFC) and the Duke cohort (n=274) integrated cancer registry and electronic health record data, using standard query language, to automatically extract chemotherapy exposures for survivors <18 years old at diagnosis. The Childhood Cancer Survivor Study (CCSS) late cardiovascular risk calculator was implemented and risk groups for heart failure were compared to the Children’s Oncology Group (COG) Long-Term Follow-up Guidelines. Results: The Oklahoma and Duke cohorts both observed good overall concordance between the CCSS and COG risk groups for late heart failure with weighted Kappa statistics of 0.70 and 0.75, respectively. Low-risk groups showed excellent concordance (Kappa >0.9). Moderate and high-risk groups showed moderate concordance (Kappa 0.44-0.60 across both cohorts). In the Oklahoma cohort, adolescents at diagnosis were significantly less likely to receive guideline-adherent care for echocardiogram surveillance compared with survivors <13 years old at diagnosis (OR 0.22; 95% CI 0.10-0.49). Conclusions: Clinical informatics tools represent a feasible approach to leverage discrete data elements regarding key treatment exposures from PFC or the EHR to successfully implement previously validated late cardiovascular risk prediction models on a population health level. Real-world evidence on the concordance of CCSS, COG, and IGHG risk groups promises to refine current guidelines and identify inequities in guideline-adherent care.

Objectives This systematic review provides an overview of the effect of malnutrition on the pharmacokinetics of chemotherapy in children with cancer. Methods PubMed, Embase and Cochrane were searched to identify eligible studies. Malnutrition was referred to as undernutrition, as defined by the World Health Organisation and the Gomez Criteria. Results Four studies with a total of 668 children with cancer were included and n=121 (18%) were malnourished. In vincristine, the differences in pharmacokinetic parameters were statistically significant where clearance rates were commonly lower and area under the curve was increased in malnourished children. Conclusion The results are suggestive for pharmacokinetic alterations of chemotherapy in malnourished children with cancer. However, the data is scarce, groups are small, and most studies have been performed in high-income countries. Pharmacokinetic research among (severely) malnourished children with cancer is needed in order to improve their outcome, directed by sub-group and ultimately individualized drug dosing.

The Gempylidae (snake mackerels) family, belonging to the order Perciformes, consists of about 24 species described in 16 genera primarily distributed in tropical, subtropical, and temperate areas worldwide. Despite substantial research on this family utilizing morphological and molecular approaches, taxonomy categorization in this group has remained puzzling for decades prompting the need for further investigation into the underlying evolutionary history among the gempylids using molecular tools. In this study, we characterized and compared eight complete mitochondrial genomes for five Gempylidae species [Neoepinnula minetomai, Neoepinnula orientalis, Rexea antefurcata, Rexea prometheoides, and Thyrsites atun] using Ion-Torrent sequencing. Using Bayesian Inference and Maximum-Likelihood tree search methods, we investigated the evolutionary relationships of seventeen Gempylidae species using mitogenome data. In addition, we estimate divergence times for extant gempylids. We identified two major clades that formed approximately 48.05 (35.89 – 52.04 mya) million years ago; Gempylidae 1 [Lepidocybium flavobrunneum, Ruvettus pretiosus, Neoepinnula minetomai, Neoepinnula orientalis, and Epinnula magistralis], and Gempylidae 2 [Thyrsites atun, Promethichthys prometheus, Nealotus tripes, Diplospinus multistriatus, Paradiplospinus antarcticus, Rexea antefurcata, Rexea nakamurai, Rexea prometheoides, Rexea solandri, Thyrsitoides marleyi, Gempylus serpens, and Nesiarchus nasutus]. The present study demonstrates the superior performance of complete mitogenome data compared to individual genes in phylogenetic reconstruction. In addition to Cytochrome c oxidase subunit 1, NADH dehydrogenase subunit 2, and Cytochrome b, which are frequently employed in phylogenetic investigations, NADH dehydrogenase subunit 5 provided adequate resolving power. Analyses of selection pressure revealed purifying selection is predominant in Gempylidae mitogenomes. By including T. atun individuals from different regions we demonstrate the potential for the application of mitogenomes in species phylogeography.