An infographic on laboratory animal veterinarians.

Background: Laboratory animal veterinarians play a crucial role as a bridge between the ethical use of laboratory animals and the advancement of scientific and medical knowledge in biomedical research. They alleviate pain and reduce distress through veterinary care of laboratory animals. Additionally, they enhance animal welfare by creating environments that mimic natural habitats through environmental enrichment and social associations.

Construction of a bacterial surface display system using split green fluorescent protein (GFP) in Escherichia coli.

The cell surface display system employs carrier proteins to present target proteins on the outer membrane of cells. This system enables functional proteins to be exposed on the exterior of living cells without cell lysis, allowing direct interaction with the surrounding environment. A major limitation of conventional approaches is the difficulty in displaying large-sized enzymes or antibodies, despite their critical roles in applications requiring functional domains that must remain intact, such as catalytic or antigen-binding sites.

Antitumor Effects of Doxorubicin-Loaded Cellulose Nanoparticles in the Rabbit VX2 Liver Tumor Model.

Purpose: To evaluate the preclinical efficacy and safety of transarterial chemoembolization (TACE) using doxorubicin-loaded biocompatible cellulose nanoparticles in a rabbit VX2 liver tumor model.

Materials And Methods: Following institutional animal care committee approval, 23 rabbits with VX2 liver tumors were randomized into three groups: Group A (n = 9) received doxorubicin-loaded cellulose nanoparticles with ethiodized oil; Group B (n = 9) received doxorubicin with ethiodized oil; and Group C (n = 5) served as untreated controls. Tumor size was monitored via ultrasound for 4 weeks, and serum liver enzymes (aspartate transaminase and alanine transaminase) were measured on days 1, 3, and 7 to assess hepatotoxicity.

Enhancing Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy in a Virtual Reality: A Prospective Interventional Study.

The increasing prevalence of depression has highlighted Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT) as an effective treatment. However, conventional MBCT has several limitations, including barriers to access, the need for trained professionals, and inconsistent levels of participant engagement. The feasibility of using Virtual Reality (VR) for MBCT has emerged as a promising solution, but further research is needed to assess its therapeutic potential.

All-Water-Based Nanofabrication of Multilayer Biopolymer/Inorganic Reflectors with Reconfigurable Structural Color Patterns.

Achieving high performance nanoscale photonic functionalities remains extraordinarily challenging when using naturally derived biomaterials. The ability to manipulate ultrathin films of structural proteins─combined with photolithographic control of their polymorphism─unlocks a compelling route toward engineering biopolymer-based photonic crystals with precisely defined photonic bandgaps and reconfigurable structural colors. In this work, we describe a robust, water-based fabrication process for silk/inorganic hybrid one-dimensional (1D) photonic crystals that overcomes many of the conventional difficulties in ensuring reproducibility, uniformity, and reliability at the nanoscale.

Association between changes in secondhand smoke exposure and incident metabolic syndrome among Korean former smokers.

Background And Aims: Although secondhand smoke (SHS) exposure has been linked with metabolic syndrome (MetS) in never-smokers, its effects among individuals who have quit smoking remain unclear. This study investigated the relationship between changes in SHS exposure and incident MetS in a large cohort of Korean former smokers.

Methods And Results: We analyzed 17,269 Korean former smokers without MetS at baseline from a longitudinal cohort, with a median follow-up of three years.

Development of a Social Communication Intervention Mobile App for Adolescents With Autism Spectrum Disorder and Social Communication Disorder: Protocol for a Pilot Randomized Clinical Trial.

Background: Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and social communication disorder (SCD) are neurodevelopmental disorders characterized by deficits in social communication that hinder social adaptation, with limited pharmacological options for therapy owing to the absence of identified biomarkers. Individuals with ASD or SCD require lifelong interventions tailored to their development stages. However, most existing interventions primarily focus on early childhood, leaving adolescents relatively underserved.

Passive acoustic monitoring of sound characteristics and vocalization patterns of the brown croaker.

Passive acoustic monitoring is an observation method for detecting and characterizing ocean soundscapes, and it has recently been used to observe underwater marine life. The brown croaker () is an important fish species in the Northwest Pacific Ocean that produces biological sounds. In this study, the sounds of 150 adult brown croakers were recorded continuously for three weeks using a self-recording hydrophone.

Functionalized hyaluronic acid biomaterials-encouraged cancer immunotherapy through CD44-mediated targeting and cell surface engineering: A review.

Modified hyaluronic acid (HA) biomaterials have received considerable attention in recent years, especially in developing innovative therapeutic strategies for targeted disease interventions. HA serves to shield therapeutics from the physiological environment, while enabling safe delivery and promoting uptake into specific cells. As a hydrophilic chain polymer, HA is readily chemically modified into functional biomaterials for drug delivery and cancer immunotherapy.

Modulation of fibronectin extracellular matrix enhances anti-tumor efficacy of immune checkpoint blockade.

The success of immune checkpoint inhibitors is limited by multiple factors, including poor T cell infiltration and function within tumors, partly due to a dense extracellular matrix (ECM). Here, we investigate modulating the ECM by targeting integrin α5β1, a major fibronectin-binding and organizing integrin, to improve immunotherapy outcomes. Use of a function-blocking murinized α5β1 antibody reduces fibronectin fibril formation, enhances CD8 T cell transendothelial migration, increases vascular permeability, and decreases vessel-associated collagen.

HPV-associated squamous cell carcinoma in situ arising from urethral caruncle: A case of the unusual occurrence in the common urogenital lesion.

Introduction And Importance: Urethral caruncle is one of the most prevalent urethral inflammatory disease in postmenopausal females. Although urethral caruncle is neither neoplastic nor preneoplastic, there have been rare reports of malignant neoplasm arising from them. Furthermore, none of them revealed association between urethral caruncle lesion and HPV (human papilloma virus) infection.

Intraspecific variation in paralytic shellfish toxin compositions of Alexandrium catenella strains isolated from Jinhae-Masan Bay, Korea: effects of temperature and salinity on growth and toxicity.

A total of 27 Alexandrium catenella strains isolated from Jinhae-Masan Bay were examined to assess differences in the toxicity and composition of paralytic shellfish toxins (PST). The strains exhibited widely variable toxicity, ranging from 0.02 to 360.

Parental and child problematic smartphone use over time: Six-year within-dyad analysis in two Korean cohorts.

Emerging evidence suggests a positive link between parental and child problematic smartphone use (PSU), yet the direction and reciprocity of this relationship over time remain unclear. Here, we address this gap by examining six years (2018-2023) of PSU data from 4,086 parent-child dyads in South Korea, comprising two cohorts: a child cohort (1,984 dyads; mean child age = 11.00, 51.

A higher intake of white-edible-colored fruits and vegetables is associated with lower gastrointestinal cancer risk among Korean adults in a prospective cohort study.

Although fruits and vegetables were studied botanically in previous studies, few have examined their associations with gastrointestinal (GI) cancer risk based on color classification. Color is familiar to the public and translates phytochemical science into dietary guidance. We hypothesized that the intake of fruits and vegetables would be differently associated with GI cancer risk by color.

Uptake characterization of soil arsenic species and its effects on nitrogen cycle in soybean (Glycine max (L.) Merrill) cultivation: A comparison with cadmium.

This study aimed to elucidate the effects of arsenic species [As(III)/As(V)] and cadmium [Cd(II)] on nitrification and nitrogen fixation in soybean (Glycine max (L.) Merrill) cultivation, and to identify nitrogen cycle disruption mechanisms in realistic soil environments with a focus on soil-metal-plant-microbe interactions. We examined heavy metal(loid)s uptake in plant tissues, changes in nitrogen species in porewater, nitrogenase activity, the contents of essential trace metals (Mo and Fe) in nitrogenase, and nitrogen-related microbial communities.

Dynamic network compression via probabilistic channel pruning.

Neural network compression problems have been extensively studied to overcome the limitations of compute-intensive deep learning models. Most of the state-of-the-art solutions in this context are based on network pruning that identify and remove unimportant weights, filters or channels. However, existing methods often lack actual speedup or require complex pruning criteria and additional training (fine-tuning) overhead.

Parenting stress in autism spectrum disorder: A comparative analysis with other developmental disabilities.

Objective: To compare parenting stress between parents of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and other developmental disabilities (DDs) and to examine ASD's influence on parenting stress through mediation analysis.

Methods: We retrospectively analyzed 48 children with ASD (ASD group) and 77 with non-ASD DDs (non-ASD group), along with one of their parents, at the Gyeongsang National University Hospital between May 2021 and August 2024. All underwent developmental assessments and completed the Korean version of the Parenting Stress Index-4 and the Child Interactive Behavior Test (CIBT).

User Engagement With a Mobile Health App for People Living With HIV: Observational Study Based on an Engagement Evaluation Framework.

Background: Mobile health (mHealth) interventions can be effective for people living with HIV, who are sensitive to privacy breach risks. Understanding the perceived experiences of intervention participants can provide comprehensive insights into potential users and predict intervention effectiveness. Thus, it is necessary to plan engagement measurement and consider ways to enhance engagement during the app development phase.

Thiazole-Thiadiazole Compounds for Enzymatic Modulation and Therapeutic Targeting in Diabetes Mellitus.

One of the most significant problems facing the scientific community in the 21st century is diabetes mellitus. There is an urgent need to create new powerful compounds that can fight this terrible disease because the number of instances of diabetes and drug-resistant diabetes is rising. We have synthesized a novel series of thiazole-derived thiadiazole-based Schiff base derivatives (1-10) in an effort to identify potential antidiabetic agents.

Outcomes following transition from ibrutinib to zanubrutinib in patients with Waldenström macroglobulinemia from ASPEN.

Zanubrutinib is a next-generation covalent Bruton tyrosine kinase (BTK) inhibitor designed to provide complete and sustained BTK occupancy for efficacy across disease-relevant tissues, with fewer off-target adverse events (AEs) than other covalent BTK inhibitors. In the phase 3 ASPEN study (BGB-3111-302), comparable efficacy and a favorable safety profile versus ibrutinib were demonstrated in patients with MYD88-mutated Waldenström macroglobulinemia (WM), leading to approval of zanubrutinib for patients with WM. BGB-3111-LTE1 (LTE1) is a long-term extension study to which eligible patients, including patients from comparator treatment arms, could enroll following participation in various parent studies of zanubrutinib to treat B-cell malignancies.

Characteristics of children with disability through infant and children's health screening in South Korea.

Purpose: This study aimed to investigate the epidemiological data of children with disabilities obtained by the INfants and Children's Health Screening (INCHS) program in South Korea.

Methods: We conducted a retrospective case-control study by extracting data from the Korean National Health Insurance Service Database for children who were diagnosed with disabilities within 60 months of birth. Chi-square and Fisher's exact tests were performed to compare 35,072 children born after the introduction of the INCHS program (2008-2014) with a control group born before (2002-2007).

A volumetric modulated arc therapy-based dynamic conformal arc technique with limited monitor units (VMATliMU) to reduce multileaf collimator interplay effects: A computational phantom study for stage I non-small-cell lung cancer.

Volumetric modulated arc therapy (VMAT) for lung cancer involves complex multileaf collimator (MLC) motion, which increases sensitivity to interplay effects with tumour motion. Current dynamic conformal arc methods address this issue but may limit the achievable dose distribution optimisation compared with standard VMAT. This study examined the clinical utility of a VMAT technique with monitor unit limits (VMATliMU) to mimic conformal arc delivery and reduce interplay effects while maintaining plan quality.