Lysogenic control of Bacillus subtilis morphology and fitness by Spbetavirus phi3T.

In lysogenic conversion, temperate phages can profoundly alter the phenotypes of their bacterial hosts. When studying the effects of SPbeta-like viruses on a Bacillus subtilis soil isolate, we observed that phage phi3T induced a stable and heritable acquisition of a spherical cell morphology, departing from the typical rod shape of its ancestor. Although time-lapse imaging revealed that the lysogen retained cell wall integrity and symmetric division, it exhibited reduced fitness and increased susceptibility to cell wall-targeting antimicrobials.

Super-Resolution Axial Imaging for Quantifying Piconewton Traction Forces in Live Cells.

Cell mechanics play a pivotal role in regulating numerous biological processes. Although super-resolution microscopy enables the imaging of cellular forces in the lateral dimension with sub-10-nm resolution, achieving comparable resolution along the axial dimension remains a significant challenge. Here, we introduce metal-induced energy transfer (MIET)-based tension probe microscopy (MIET-TPM), a technique for mapping cellular mechanical forces with nanometer precision in the axial direction.

Chemical crosslinking extends and complements UV crosslinking in analysis of RNA/DNA nucleic acid-protein interaction sites by mass spectrometry.

Ultraviolet (UV) crosslinking with mass spectrometry (XL-MS) has been established for identifying RNA- and DNA-binding proteins along with their domains and amino acids involved. Here, we explore chemical XL-MS for RNA-protein, DNA-protein, and nucleotide-protein complexes in vitro and in vivo. We introduce a specialized nucleotide-protein-crosslink search engine, NuXL, for robust and fast identification of such crosslinks at amino acid resolution.

Pathway-Specific Polygenic Scores for Predicting Clinical Lithium Treatment Response in Patients With Bipolar Disorder.

Background: Polygenic scores (PGSs) hold the potential to identify patients who respond favorably to specific psychiatric treatments. However, their biological interpretation remains unclear. In this study, we developed pathway-specific PGSs (PS) for lithium response and assessed their association with clinical lithium response in patients with bipolar disorder.

Extracellular vesicles from the follicular fluid of competent oocytes improve blastocyst yields when supplemented during simulated physiological oocyte maturation in cattle.

The objectives of this work were to evaluate: i) the miRNA profile of extracellular vesicles (EVs) isolated from bovine follicular fluid (FF) of follicles enclosing competent (FF-C) and non-competent (FF-NC) oocytes; ii) the effect of incubating bovine cumulus-oocyte complexes (COCs) during a simulated physiological oocyte maturation system (SPOM) with EVs derived from FF-C and FF-NC on developmental capacity, iii) the effect of miR-143, one of the most abundant miRNAs found in EVs isolated from FF-C, during SPOM on oocyte competence. FF was collected from individual follicles of abattoir-derived ovaries and retrospectively categorized based on the developmental outcome of corresponding oocytes: blastocyst (B), cleaved-arrested (C), and uncleaved (U). EVs were isolated from FF pools by ultracentrifugation, characterized by Nanosight, TEM, and Western Blot, and analyzed for miRNA profile.

SMAS: Structural MRI-based AD Score using Bayesian supervised VAE.

This study introduces the Structural MRI-based Alzheimer's Disease Score (SMAS), a novel index intended to quantify Alzheimer's Disease (AD)-related morphometric patterns using a deep learning Bayesian-supervised Variational Autoencoder (Bayesian-SVAE). The SMAS index was constructed using baseline structural MRI data from the DELCODE study and evaluated longitudinally in two independent cohorts: DELCODE (n=415) and ADNI (n=190). Our findings indicate that SMAS has strong associations with cognitive performance (DELCODE: r=-0.

Amino acid residues 655 and 969 in the spike protein of Omicron subvariant BA.1 control use of TMPRSS2 versus Cathepsin L dependent entry pathways and cell tropism.

The spike (S) protein of the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) is activated by the host cell proteases cathepsin L or TMPRSS2. The ancestral virus circulating in Wuhan in 2020 and early variants mainly use TMPRSS2 for entry into Calu-3 lung cells while the Omicron subvariant BA.1 and most subsequently circulating Omicron subvariants employ both cathepsin L and TMPRSS2 for Calu-3 cell entry.

Deficiency of Human Mesenchymal Stem Cells: Impact on Osteogenic, Chondrogenic, and Adipogenic Differentiation.

Xylosyltransferase-I (XT-I) plays a crucial role in skeletal development and cartilage integrity. An XT-I deficiency is linked to severe bone disorders, such as Desbuquois dysplasia type 2. While animal models have provided insights into XT-I's role during skeletal development, its specific effects on adult bone homeostasis, particularly in human mesenchymal stem cell (hMSC) differentiation, remain unclear.

A Pilot EEG Study on the Acute Neurophysiological Effects of Single-Dose Astragaloside IV in Healthy Young Adults.

This study aimed to explore the acute neurophysiological effects of a single oral dose of Astragaloside IV (AS-IV) on EEG-measured brain oscillations and cognitive-relevant spectral markers in healthy young adults. Twenty healthy adults (8 females, 12 males; mean age: 23.4±2.

Benefit of Chemoradiotherapy Versus Chemotherapy After Induction Therapy for Conversion of Unresectable Into Resectable Pancreatic Cancer: The Randomized CONKO-007 Trial.

Purpose: To determine the benefit, measured as complete removal of a tumor so that no tumor cells are detectable during histopathologic examination of the resection margin (R0 resection rate), of induction chemotherapy plus chemoradiotherapy (CRT) compared with chemotherapy alone for unresectable pancreatic tumors.

Patients And Methods: CONKO-007, an investigator-initiated open-label, multicentric, phase III randomized clinical trial, enrolled 525 patients with unresectable tumors, and 495 patients received induction chemotherapy (402 with fluorouracil, irinotecan, and oxaliplatin [FOLFIRINOX] and 93 with gemcitabine). Patients without progression after 3 months of induction chemotherapy (n = 336) were randomly assigned for continuation of the same chemotherapy (n = 167) or CRT (n = 169; 50.

An anesthetic protocol for preserving functional network structure in the marmoset monkey brain.

Initiatives towards acquiring large-scale neuroimaging data in non-human primates promise improving translational neuroscience and cross-species comparisons. Crucial among these efforts is the need to expand sample sizes while reducing the impact of anesthesia on the functional properties of brain networks. Yet, the effects of anesthesia on non-human primate brain networks remain unclear.

Reduced expression of fMRI subsequent memory effects with increasing severity across the Alzheimer's disease risk spectrum.

In functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies, episodic memory is commonly investigated with the subsequent memory paradigm in which brain activity is recorded during encoding and analyzed as a function of subsequent remembering and forgetting. Impaired episodic memory is common in individuals with or at risk for Alzheimer's disease (AD), but only few studies have reported subsequent memory effects in AD or its risk states like mild cognitive impairment (MCI). One reason for this might be that subsequent memory responses may be blunted in AD or MCI and thus less likely to manifest in fMRI signal differences.

Real life data with a six months follow-up from dietary interventions, biologic therapy and functional endoscopic surgery (FESS) in patients with chronic rhinosinusitis with nasal polyps (CRSwNP).

Chronic rhinosinusitis with nasal polyps (CRSwNP) is a chronic inflammatory condition associated with significant morbidity. While established treatments such as functional endoscopic sinus surgery (FESS) and biologic therapy have demonstrated efficacy, they come with limitations, including cost, accessibility, and patient adherence. Growing evidence suggests that dietary factors, particularly arachidonic acid and salicylic acid, influence inflammatory pathways relevant to CRSwNP, yet real-world data on dietary interventions remain scarce.

Strategy for One-Step Optimization of Metal Oxide Passivating Contact Materials for Si Heterojunction Solar Cells through Growth Angle Variation.

High-efficiency silicon (Si) heterojunction (SHJ) solar cell technology is currently limited by multi-step fabrication protocol required for optimal passivation and carrier selectivity. Here, a novel, one-step oblique-angle reactive sputtering strategy is presented that leverages angle-dependent ion-bombardment to simultaneously tailor the bulk and interfacial properties of metal oxide contact material on Si via in situ ion assisted oxidation. Using vanadium oxide (VO) as a model system, it has been demonstrated that the deposition at a glancing angle of 80° yields a phase-pure, high-work-function VO film-essential for field effect passivation, while also facilitating stoichiometric improvement of the retained native silicon oxide layer on Si surface.

1-4-2: Evaluation of applied mechanical power to individual lungs in a simulator-based setting of one ventilator for two patients.

Background: The concept of ventilating multiple patients concurrently using a single ventilator has been proposed as a solution when the demand for ventilators surpasses the available supply. While the practicality of this approach has been established, a thorough evaluation of the risks involved has yet to be comprehensively addressed.

Methods: Two circuits, a simple one (circuit-1) and another with an adjustable resistance valve (circuit-2), were evaluated within an experimental framework utilizing two computer-controlled lung simulators (TestChest and ASL 5000).

Adding Anodal Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation to Mindfulness Meditation Abolishes Mindfulness-induced Improvements in Emotion Regulation in Fibromyalgia: A Responder Analysis.

Objectives: Mindfulness-based interventions (MBIs) seem to improve emotion regulation (ER) in disorders involving emotional dysregulation like fibromyalgia. Despite the therapeutic potential of transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) in fibromyalgia, its concurrent application with mindfulness meditation (MM) has not yet been explored. Potential synergistic effects may arise from aligning neural mechanisms underlying both interventions.

Mass development of a filamentous and likely nitrophilous aerophytic green alga on tree bark: sp. nov. (Chlorophyta, Trebouxiophyceae).

Introduction: A filamentous green alga forming significant biomass on twigs and needles was observed to have increased invasively in Denmark in recent decades. It was particularly abundant in coniferous plantations in western parts of Denmark that experience the highest modelled concentration of atmospheric nitrogen deposition. However, its species identity and taxonomy remained unknown.

Microglia-neuron crosstalk through Hex-GM2-MGL2 maintains brain homeostasis.

As tissue-resident macrophages of the central nervous system parenchyma, microglia perform diverse essential functions during homeostasis and perturbations. They primarily interact with neurons by means of synaptic engulfment and through the rapid elimination of apoptotic cells and non-functional synapses. Here, by combining unbiased lipidomics and high-resolution spatial lipid imaging, deep single-cell transcriptome analysis and novel cell-type-specific mutants, we identified a previously unknown mode of microglial interaction with neurons.

Management of channelopathies in children.

Cardiac channelopathies are a group of hereditary diseases that expose affected children and adolescents to an increased risk of syncope and sudden cardiac death (SCD) due to malignant ventricular tachyarrhythmias. Although cardiac channelopathies are rare, with an estimated prevalence of 1:2000-1:10,000, early recognition in order to start treatment and prevent SCD is warranted. The following article provides an overview of current recommendations and facts on the diagnosis and treatment of cardiac channelopathies in children and adolescents.

Large-scale copy number variant analysis in genes linked to Parkinson´s disease.

Genetic studies of Parkinson's disease (PD) have focused on single nucleotide variants (SNVs), with limited attention to copy number variants (CNVs). This study investigates CNVs in PD using candidate PD-related genes and genome-wide approaches. We identified CNVs from the ProtectMove project genotyping data of 2364 PD patients and 2909 controls using PennCNV.

Intravenous ferric carboxymaltose in heart failure with iron deficiency (FAIR-HF2 DZHK05 trial): Sex-specific outcomes.

Aims: Intravenous iron has emerged as a guideline-recommended therapy in patients with heart failure and iron deficiency, but the potential sex-related differences in efficacy are unknown. We aimed to assess sex-specific outcomes in the Intravenous Iron in Patients with Systolic Heart Failure and Iron Deficiency to Improve Morbidity & Mortality (FAIR-HF2-DZHK05) trial.

Methods And Results: FAIR-HF2 included 1105 heart failure patients with a left ventricular ejection fraction ≤45% and iron deficiency.

Progression to Parkinson's dementia is not modulated by genetic risk variants for Alzheimer's or Parkinson's disease.

Parkinson's disease (PD) is marked by motor symptoms and often accompanied by mild cognitive impairment (PD-MCI), affecting up to 50% of patients and preceding PD dementia (PDD). Genetic factors may influence this progression, yet the underlying mechanisms remain unclear. This study investigated genetic factors influencing the progression from PD-MCI to PDD using polygenic risk scores (PRS).

Advances in the management of osteoporosis.

Osteoporosis is a chronic disease mainly prevalent in older people. A hip fracture, its most devastating complication, is associated with a one in five chance of mortality in the first year. This review discusses emerging risk factors for bone fragility including diabetes, sarcopenia, and bariatric surgery.

A spatiotemporal atlas of mouse gastrulation and early organogenesis to explore axial patterning and project in vitro models onto in vivo space.

During gastrulation, mouse epiblast cells form the three germ layers that establish the body plan and initiate organogenesis. While single-cell atlases have advanced our understanding of lineage diversification, spatial aspects of differentiation remain poorly defined. Here, we applied spatial transcriptomics to mouse embryos at embryonic (E) E7.