Clinically Meaningful Improvements in Long COVID Symptoms Following Ketogenic Metabolic Therapy Combined with Lifestyle Interventions-A Clinical Case Report and Review of the Literature.

Approximately 400 million individuals globally are estimated to suffer from Long COVID, an infection-associated chronic condition that occurs after SARS-CoV-2 infection. Despite the high burden, there are no evidence-based or FDA-approved interventions to treat the condition. Given its complexity, a multicomponent approach grounded in a whole-person health model is likely required.

The paradoxical impact of drought on West Nile virus risk: insights from long-term ecological data.

Mosquito-borne diseases are deeply embedded within ecological communities, with environmental changes-particularly climate change-shaping their dynamics. Increasingly intense droughts across the globe have profound implications for the transmission of these diseases, as drought conditions can alter mosquito breeding habitats, host-seeking behaviours and mosquito-host contact rates. To quantify the effect of drought on disease transmission, we use West Nile virus as a model system and leverage a robust mosquito and virus dataset consisting of over 500 000 trap nights collected from 2010 to 2023, spanning a historic drought period followed by atmospheric rivers.

Inflamm-aging as a diverse and context-dependent process: from species and population differences to individual trajectories.

Inflamm-aging is widely considered a hallmark of aging, yet emerging evidence challenges its universality. Here, we re-examine inflamm-aging through an eco-evolutionary lens, underlining its context dependence across biological scales. Combining mechanistic, evolutionary, comparative, anthropological, genetic, and environmental evidence, we show how fundamental inflammatory mechanisms are integrated and regulated in diverse biological contexts, representing a suite of flexible stress responses.

The anaerobic fungus Neocallimastix californiae shifts metabolism and produces melanin in response to lignin-derived aromatic compounds.

Background: Biological deconstruction of lignocellulose for sustainable chemical production offers an opportunity to harness evolutionarily specialized enzymes and organisms for industrial bioprocessing. While hydrolysis of cellulose and hemicellulose by CAZymes yields fermentable sugars, ligninolysis releases a heterogeneous mix of aromatic compounds that likely play a crucial role in shaping microbial communities and microbial metabolism. Here, we interrogated the metabolomic and transcriptomic response of a lignocellulolytic anaerobic fungus, Neocallimastix californiae, to a heterogeneous mixture of aromatic compounds derived from lignin.

Patterns of sexual minority men's lifestyle and healthcare related activity spaces in Los Angeles.

For gay, bisexual, and other sexual minority men (SMM), geo-social exposures in residential and non-residential places are important to consider for health, as home, social, sexual, substance use, and healthcare-related locations may be different. We use survey data from a sample of 219 Black and Hispanic SMM within Los Angeles County to examine the places that individuals visit for eight specific activities, categorized as either lifestyle or healthcare-related. Spatial clustering techniques are used to identify hotspots, or places where individual's activities are clustered in space, for each activity.

Evaluating Sulfurization as a Blue Carbon Sink in a Southern California Salt Marsh.

Blue carbon ecosystems (BCEs) such as seagrass meadows, mangrove forests, and salt marshes are important carbon sinks that store carbon for millennia. Recently, organic matter (OM) sulfurization and pyritization have been proposed as mechanisms of net carbon storage in BCEs. At our study site, organic sulfur that is resistant to acid hydrolysis (protokerogen) is an order of magnitude less abundant than pyrite sulfur, suggesting a dominance of pyritization over sulfurization.

AI-Enhanced Fluorescein Angiography Detection of Diabetes-Induced Silent Retinal Capillary Dropout and RNA-Seq Identification of Pre-Symptomatic Biomarkers.

: Retinal capillary dropout, characterized by acellular capillaries or "ghost vessels," is an early pathological sign of diabetic retinopathy (DR) that remains undetectable through standard clinical imaging techniques until visible morphological changes, such as microaneurysms or hemorrhages, occur. This study aims to develop a non-destructive artificial intelligence (AI)-based method using fluorescein angiography (FA) images to detect early-stage, silent retinal capillary dropout. We utilized 94 FA images and corresponding destructive retinal capillary density measurements obtained through retinal trypsin digestion from 51 Nile rats.

Application of Genomic Offsets to Inform Freshwater Fisheries Management Under Climate Change.

Genomic tools are becoming increasingly necessary for mitigating biodiversity loss and guiding management decisions in the context of climate change. Freshwater fish species are particularly susceptible to the impacts of changing environments, including kokanee, the resident form of sockeye salmon (), which has already been negatively impacted by increases in extreme temperature throughout its distribution. A previous study using whole genome resequencing of wild kokanee stocks identified 1412 environmentally associated SNPs and demonstrated genomic offset, a measure of climate vulnerability, to be significantly correlated with higher increases in extreme warm temperatures across much of the species' range in western Canada.

Solution-like Water Transport Across Molecular to Macroscopic Length Scales in Crosslinked Poly(ethylene glycol diacrylate) Networks with Tailored Sidechains.

Poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG)-based materials, like PEG-diacrylate (PEGDA), are prized for their hydrophilic, inert properties, and leveraged in hydrogels and as membrane mimics. While network chemistry is often tuned for selective transport and antifouling, fundamental understanding of water dynamics at the network surface and impact on bulk transport is limited. We utilize Overhauser dynamic nuclear polarization (ODNP) to measure nanoscale water diffusivity near a tethered spin label at the water-polymer surface and compare to bulk water diffusivity from pulsed field gradient (PFG) NMR.

Biomolecular correlates of incubated sucrose-seeking within ventromedial prefrontal cortex are sex- and subregion-selective.

The similar temporal profile of incubated food- vs. drug-craving has led to the hypothesis that these behavioral phenomena may involve common, time-dependent, biochemical adaptations within neural circuits governing motivated behavior. Previously, we reported that the mTOR inhibitor Everolimus dose-dependently blocks incubated cocaine-seeking and reverses incubation-related changes in mTOR activation in the prelimbic (PL) subregion of the prefrontal cortex (PFC).

An essential experimental control for functional connectivity mapping with optogenetics.

To establish functional connectivity between two candidate neurons that might form a circuit element, a common approach is to activate an optogenetic tool such as Chrimson in the candidate pre-synaptic neuron and monitor fluorescence of the calcium-sensitive indicator GCaMP in a candidate post-synaptic neuron. While performing such experiments in Drosophila, we found that low levels of leaky Chrimson expression can lead to strong artifactual GCaMP signals in presumptive postsynaptic neurons even when Chrimson is not intentionally expressed in any particular neurons. Withholding all-trans retinal, the chromophore required as a co-factor for Chrimson response to light, eliminates GCaMP signal but does not provide an experimental control for leaky Chrimson expression.

Sailing together: A review of the pelagic Sargassum microbiome.

Pelagic Sargassum, denoting the two species S. natans and S. fluitans, has become a focal point of both scientific and public interest due to recent superbloom events.

A call for comparable measurements of underwater radiated noise related to vessel speed reduction programs.

Marine vessels are mandated or requested to reduce speed to meet operational, economic, and conservation goals. Vessel speed reduction (VSR) is a key strategy in global efforts to reduce ocean noise. Many regional VSR programs incorporate underwater acoustic monitoring to assess reductions in underwater radiated noise (URN) from vessels.

Inflammaging is minimal among forager-horticulturalists in the Bolivian Amazon.

An increase in chronic systemic inflammation in later life, termed inflammaging, is implicated in health risk. However, it is unclear whether inflammaging develops in all human populations, or if it is the product of environmental mismatch. We assessed inflammaging in Tsimane forager-horticulturalists of the Bolivian Amazon, using serum cytokines in a primarily cross-sectional sample (1134 samples from = 714 individuals, age 39-94, 51.

Impact of Tiny Fermi Pockets with Extremely High Mobility on the Hall Anomaly in the Kagome Metal CsV_{3}Sb_{5}.

The kagome metal CsV_{3}Sb_{5} exhibits an unusual charge-density-wave (CDW) order, where the emergence of loop current order that breaks time-reversal symmetry (TRS) has been proposed. A key feature of this CDW phase is a nonmonotonic Hall effect at low fields, often attributed to TRS breaking. However, its origin remains unclear.

Human neural organoid microphysiological systems show the building blocks necessary for basic learning and memory.

Brain Microphysiological Systems, including neural organoids derived from human induced pluripotent stem cells, offer a unique lens to study the intricate workings of the human brain. This paper investigates the foundational elements of learning and memory in neural organoids by quantifying immediate early gene expression in response to chemical modulation, input-specific short- and long-term synaptic plasticity, neuronal network dynamics, connectivity, and criticality to demonstrate the utility of these organoids in basic science research. Neural organoids showed synapse formation, glutamatergic and GABAergic receptor expression, immediate early gene expression basally and evoked, functional connectivity, criticality, and synaptic plasticity in response to theta-burst stimulation.

Sn-InAs Nanowire Shadow-Defined Josephson Junctions.

Hybrid superconductor-semiconductor platforms are foundational to advancing quantum information technologies, motivating the integration of materials with clean interfaces, robust superconductivity, and scalable architectures. Here, we report the synthesis and analysis of inclined InAs nanowires, conformally coated with β-Sn shells. These nanowires extend in opposite in-plane directions, forming a self-aligned, criss-cross network.

GLP-1RA Semaglutide Delays the Progression of ADPKD Through Regulation of Glycolysis, Mitochondria Function and Ketosis.

Autosomal dominant polycystic kidney disease (ADPKD) is a genetic disease that is caused by mutations in PKD genes. Glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) receptor agonists (GLP-1RAs) are a class of medications that mimic the actions of the hormone GLP-1, conferring beneficial effects on weight management and other metabolic conditions. However, whether GLP-1RA plays a kidney-protective action in ADPKD remains unknown.

A research agenda for GIScience in a time of disruptions.

Social issues, AI, and climate change are just a few of the disruptive focuses impacting science. The field of GIScience is well positioned to respond to accelerating disruptions due to the interdisciplinary nature of the field and the ability of GIScience approaches to be used in support of decision-making. This manuscript aims to start a conversation that will establish a research agenda for GIScience in an age of disruptions.

Periplasmic Binding Protein YiuA Enables to Scavenge Fe(III)-Catechol Siderophores.

, the pathogen causing plague, requires iron to grow. employs several uptake pathways for iron, including the siderophore yersiniabactin, as well as hemin and inorganic iron. The iron assimilation repertoire further harbors the uncharacterized YiuRABC pathway, presumed to transport an unidentified Fe(III)-siderophore(s).

Sensory modality of initiation cues modulates action goal-relevant neural representations.

The ability to produce goal-directed movement relies on the integration of diverse sensory cues which contribute to goal subtasks, such as trajectory planning and initiation. To achieve these subtasks, the central nervous system must flexibly weight sensory contributions depending on task context, and sensory cues from one modality may contribute to multiple subtasks. Neural representations of goal-relevant features are flexible to a variety of sensory contexts.

The dorsal/ventral subdivision of the hindbrain predates the tunicate/vertebrate split.

While the CNSs of the chordate sister clades Tunicata and Vertebrata have unmistakable homology, the extent of their conservation is still being uncovered. We report that the hindbrain of the tunicate , like those of vertebrates, has functionally-distinct dorsal and ventral domains. The dorsal hindbrain functions as a relay and processing center for peripheral sensory neurons, while in vertebrates the dorsal hindbrain forms the cerebellum.

Inactivation of NMDAR and CaMKII signaling within the prelimbic cortex blocks incubated cocaine- and sucrose-craving.

The incubation of craving is a term coined to characterize the behavioral phenomenon wherein cue-elicited craving strengthens over a period of abstinence. Incubated cocaine-craving is mediated, at least in part, by increased glutamate release within the prelimbic cortex (PL). We hypothesized that this glutamate release stimulates NMDA-type glutamate receptors (NMDARs) leading to calcium-dependent activation of CaMKII signaling that drives incubated craving.

Out of sight, but not out of mind: Key issues regarding seafloor macrolitter monitoring: Issued by the expert community "International Seafloor Macrolitter Imaging and Quantification".

Following a number of meetings devoted to knowledge sharing, identification of key issues, and discussing the best ways to move forward, a wide international expert community is now able to provide recommendations regarding the monitoring of seafloor macrolitter through observation and imaging. As the seafloor constitutes a major sink for marine litter including plastics, it is important to acquire robust and extensive data on litter distribution, abundance, types and size ranges across marine habitats. This should be done through widely agreed, harmonised, and non-destructive methods encompassing advanced technologies.

Collective Science to Inform Global Ocean Protections.

In June 2023, the United Nations adopted the High Seas Treaty. Two years later, signatories are poised to ratify this treaty and create a legal instrument to implement marine protected areas (MPAs) in our greatest global commons, ocean areas beyond national jurisdiction. Protection of the open and deep ocean is timely: we stand at the precipice of an industrial revolution in Earth's largest remaining wilderness.