Environmental Stresses Constrain Soil Microbial Community Functions by Regulating Deterministic Assembly and Niche Width.

Increasing evidence indicates that the loss of soil microbial α-diversity triggered by environmental stress negatively impacts microbial functions; however, the effects of microbial α-diversity on community functions under environmental stress are poorly understood. Here, we investigated the changes in bacterial and fungal α- diversity along gradients of five natural stressors (temperature, precipitation, plant diversity, soil organic C and pH) across 45 grasslands in China and evaluated their connection with microbial functional traits. By quantifying the five environmental stresses into an integrated stress index, we found that the bacterial and fungal α-diversity declined under high environmental stress across three soil layers (0-20 cm, 20-40 cm and 40-60 cm).

Long-Term Drought Persistently Shifts Plant and Soil Microbial Communities but Has Limited Impact on CO Fluxes Under Subsequent Drought.

Droughts are increasing with climate change, affecting the functioning of terrestrial ecosystems and limiting their capacity to mitigate rising atmospheric CO levels. However, there is still large uncertainty on the long-term impacts of drought on ecosystem carbon (C) cycling, and how this determines the effect of subsequent droughts. Here, we aimed to quantify how drought legacy affects the response of a heathland ecosystem to a subsequent drought for two life stages of Calluna vulgaris resulting from different mowing regimes.

Oxidized high-density lipoprotein associates with cardiometabolic dysfunction in coronary artery disease and acute coronary syndrome.

Background: High-density lipoprotein (HDL) function, rather than its concentration, plays a crucial role in the development of coronary artery disease (CAD). Diminished HDL antioxidant properties, indicated by elevated oxidized HDL (nHDL) and diminished paraoxonase-1 (PON-1) activity, may contribute to vascular dysfunction and inflammation. Data on these associations in CAD patients, including acute coronary syndrome (ACS), remain limited.

Perinatal Arterial Ischemic Stroke in Monochorionic Twins: A Retrospective Observational Single-Center Cohort Study.

Background: Monochorionic twins, characterized by placental sharing and vascular anastomoses, carry a high risk of brain injury, including perinatal arterial ischemic stroke (PAIS). However, the pathophysiology and timing-related risk factors of PAIS remain unclear.

Methods: Retrospective cohort of all monochorionic twins with neuroimaging-confirmed PAIS born from 2005 to 2024 and evaluated at a Dutch national referral center.

The burden of dengue fever in travellers: a systematic literature review.

Background: Dengue is a mosquito-borne viral infection with growing global impact, including international travellers travelling to and from endemic regions. This systematic literature review aimed to assess the clinical and economic burden of dengue in travellers from non-endemic countries.

Methods: This systematic review was conducted following the PRISMA guidelines to assess the incidence, prevalence, mortality, healthcare resource use, and costs of dengue fever in travellers between non-endemic and endemic regions.

Neural dynamics of proactive and reactive cognitive control in medial and lateral prefrontal cortex.

Goal-directed behavior requires adjusting cognitive control, both in preparation for and in reaction to conflict. Theta oscillations and population activity in dorsomedial prefrontal cortex (dmPFC) and dorsolateral PFC (dlPFC) are known to support reactive control. Here, we investigated their role in proactive control using human intracranial electroencephalogram (EEG) recordings during a Stroop task that manipulated conflict expectations.

Predictors of mortality and hospitalised exacerbations in obstructive airway diseases.

Background: In Belgium, age-standardised hospital admission and mortality rates for asthma and COPD are higher than the European average. Understanding the factors that lead to a hospitalised exacerbation and/or mortality is needed to optimise patient management.

Methods: Patients ≥18 years old obtaining two claims for drugs for obstructive airway diseases (ATC code R03) in 1 year between 2017 and 2022 were identified in Belgian nationwide claims-based data.

Novel Precursor for h‑BN Synthesis on Ni(111) Substrates.

In this study, we report the synthesis of single-crystalline h-BN on Ni(111) under ultrahigh vacuum (UHV) conditions using hexamethylborazine (HMB) as a nonclassical precursor. The novel use of HMB facilitates the diffusion of methyl groups into the bulk of Ni(111), playing a critical role in the achievement of high-quality crystalline h-BN layers. The synthesis is performed on a 2 mm-thick Ni(111) single crystal and on a 2-μm-thick Ni(111) thin film on sapphire to evaluate the feasibility of synthesizing h-BN on industrially relevant substrates.

Investigating metal distribution patterns in pristine and ocean-weathered plastics using LA-ICP-TOFMS.

Plastic pollution in marine environments poses ecological risks, in part because plastic debris can release hazardous substances, such as metal-based additives. While microplastics have received considerable attention as vectors of contaminants, less is known about larger macroplastics and their role in the spatial and temporal redistribution of substances. In this study, pristine, store-bought plastic items and macroplastics recovered from the North Pacific Subtropical Gyre (NPSG) were analysed using Fourier-Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR) to identify polymer types, and bulk acid digestion followed by Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry (ICP-MS) for total metal quantification.

Anemia and iron deficiency in post-kidney transplantation: an unsolved challenge.

Anemia and iron deficiency (ID) are common and significant complications in kidney transplant recipients (KTRs) that can affect their health-related quality of life (HRQoL) and outcomes. Current anemia guidelines equate the post-transplant situation with the anemia associated with chronic kidney disease (CKD) in non-transplanted persons, not acknowledging relevant differences ranging from pathophysiology to clinical manifestation. Nephrologists caring for these patients tend to pay less attention to post-transplant anemia (PTA) and ID than in non-transplanted persons with CKD.

Unraveling access barriers and challenges of sexual and reproductive health services for individuals with psychosocial disabilities in Nigeria: insights from family, caregivers, and community stakeholders.

Background: Psychosocial disability (PSD) refers to the limitations experienced by persons with mental illness (PWMI) in interacting with their social environment. Persons with psychosocial disabilities (PPSD) face significant barriers to accessing sexual and reproductive health (SRH) services due to structural and institutional barriers. Despite commitments under the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD), there are persistent rights violations and denial of PPSD to exercise their rights and access services related to SRH care.

Morning administration of anthracyclines is associated with a lower risk of cancer therapy-related cardiac dysfunction.

Aims: Pre-clinical studies point towards an administration time-dependency of anthracycline-induced cancer therapy-related cardiac dysfunction (CTRCD). This retrospective study aimed to investigate the association between time-of-day of AC administration and CTRCD.

Methods And Results: Patients from two cardio-oncology outpatient clinics, treated with ACs for any malignancy, were included.

Comprehensive analysis of the systemic immune landscape across breast cancer subtypes and disease stages.

Background: Breast cancer is a systemic disease, yet the impact of tumor molecular subtype and disease stage on the systemic immune landscape remains poorly understood. In this study, we comprehensively analyzed the systemic immune landscape in a large cohort of breast cancer patients, encompassing all molecular subtypes and disease stages, alongside a control group of healthy donors.

Materials And Methods: Using multi-parameter flow cytometry, we assessed the abundance, phenotype, and activation status of diverse innate and adaptive immune cell populations across peripheral blood samples from 355 breast cancer patients and 65 healthy donors.

OpenML: Insights from 10 years and more than a thousand papers.

OpenML is an open-source platform that democratizes machine-learning evaluation by enabling anyone to share datasets in uniform standards, define precise machine-learning tasks, and automatically share detailed workflows and model evaluations. More than just a platform, OpenML fosters a collaborative ecosystem where scientists create new tools, launch initiatives, and establish standards to advance machine learning. Over the past decade, OpenML has inspired over 1,500 publications across diverse fields, from scientists releasing new datasets and benchmarking new models to educators teaching reproducible science.

ASReview LAB v.2: Open-source text screening with multiple agents and a crowd of experts.

ASReview LAB v.2 introduces an advancement in AI-assisted systematic reviewing by enabling collaborative screening with multiple experts ("a crowd of oracles") using a shared AI model. The platform supports multiple AI agents within the same project, allowing users to switch between fast general-purpose models and domain-specific, semantic, or multilingual transformer models.

Transmission networks of long-term and short-term knowledge in a foraging society.

Cultural transmission across generations is key to cumulative cultural evolution. While several mechanisms-such as vertical, horizontal, and oblique transmission-have been studied for decades, how these mechanisms change across the life course, beyond childhood, remains unclear. Furthermore, it is under-explored whether different mechanisms apply to distinct learning processes: long-term learning-where individuals invest time and effort to acquire skills-and short-term learning-where individuals share information of immediate use.

Humans exercising in the heat: A review on sweat models and a comparison to recent experimental datasets.

Sweating is a vital thermoregulatory mechanism in humans for maintaining thermal balance during exercise and exposure to hot environments. The development of models that predict sweat rate based on body temperature has been ongoing for over half a century. Here, we compared predicted water loss rates (WLR) from these models to actual observations collected during 780 participant-exposures in three independent laboratory-based experiments.

Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi enhance nitrate ammonification in hyphosphere soil.

Microbial nitrate ammonification is a crucial process to retain nitrogen (N) in soils, thereby reducing N loss. Nitrate ammonification has been studied in enrichment and axenic bacterial cultures but so far has been merely ignored in environmental studies. In particular, the capability of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) to regulate nitrate ammonification has not yet been explored.

[Important medical-dental interactions. Oral manifestations of systemic auto-immune diseases].

Systemic auto-immune diseases are relatively common. This article describes the oral manifestations of disorders that might be seen in patients with the most prevalent auto-immune diseases, specifically rheumatoid arthritis, systemic lupus erythematosus and Sjögren's disease. The article gives guidelines for dentists and other carers within the oral care system for this category of patients.

[Pain education for patients with chronic facial pain].

In dental practice, it regularly happens: a patient presents with a prolonged pain complaint where there appears to be no sign of tissue damage (any longer). Patients with chronic facial pain may be experiencing altered nociception. This is associated with processes of sensitization and impaired signal inhibition in the somatosensory system.

[Occlusal dysaesthesia: an unusual, persistent somatic symptom].

Occlusal dysaesthesia - also known as phantom bite - is the perception of an altered bite without any objectively verifiable occlusal discrepancy. Approximately 75% of cases arise following dental treatment or trauma. The sensation of a changed bite often occurs in dental practice as a temporary discomfort following a dental procedure.