Search Results (5,249)

Antimicrobial resistance has renewed interest in bacteriophage therapy, yet bacterial evolution frequently undermines treatment efficacy. Combination phage therapy is commonly implemented as simultaneous phage cocktails, but whether this is optimal remains in question. Here, we experimentally compared simultaneous versus sequential administration of two phages, an evolved λ called ‘λtrn’ and T2, on Escherichia coli K-12 under controlled laboratory conditions. Across replicated experiments, treatment outcome depended strongly on delivery strategy, dosing order, and timing. Contrary to expectations, sequential delivery consistently achieved greater and more sustained bacterial suppression than simultaneous cocktails, although only when T2 initiated the sequence. Phenotypic assays revealed that treatment differences were driven by the accessibility and timing of cross-resistance evolution. λ-first treatments rapidly selected for cross-resistant bacteria prior to exposure to the second phage, rendering subsequent treatment ineffective. In contrast, T2-first sequential treatments delayed or limited cross-resistance and frequently produced single-phage resistance or collateral sensitivity. Cocktail treatments showed intermediate dynamics, with cross-resistance evolving more slowly but consistently. Whole genome sequencing identified distinct genetic routes to cross-resistance, including regulatory mutations in envZ affecting expression of the phage receptor OmpF, as well as envelope-modifying, mucoidy-associated mutations. Engineering envZ mutations into unevolved backgrounds confirmed the mutation’s sufficiency to confer low-cost cross-resistance. Together, these results demonstrated that phage therapy efficacy depended not only on phage composition but on how selection pressures were ordered in time, highlighting evolutionary steering as a powerful principle for multi-phage therapy design. Full article

Background/Objectives: Cervical drainage has traditionally been used after thyroidectomy to reduce postoperative fluid accumulation and mitigate bleeding-related complications. However, advances in surgical technique, perioperative hemostasis, and postoperative care pathways have led to an increase in the use of short-stay and outpatient thyroidectomy, prompting renewed evaluation of the role of routine drainage. The objective of this systematic review and meta-analysis was to examine the association between postoperative cervical drainage and postoperative outcomes following thyroidectomy. Methods: A systematic literature search was conducted across PubMed/MEDLINE, Google Scholar, Semantic Scholar, and the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials to identify studies comparing thyroidectomy with versus without cervical drainage. Studies published between January 2005 and January 2026 were eligible for inclusion. Randomized controlled trials and non-randomized comparative studies involving adult patients were included. The outcomes of interest were cervical hematoma, surgical site infection (SSI), seroma formation, postoperative bleeding, reoperation, and length of hospital stay. Random-effects meta-analyses were performed using odds ratios for binary outcomes and mean differences for continuous outcomes. Sensitivity and influence analyses were conducted to assess robustness. The results were additionally examined in prespecified sensitivity analyses restricted to randomized trials, and study-design-stratified estimates are presented. Results: Thirty studies comprising 2810 patients were included. Drain use was not statistically significantly associated with postoperative cervical hematoma (OR 1.28, 95% CI 0.93–1.75; p = 0.124). In contrast, drain use was associated with a significantly increased risk of surgical site infection (OR 2.04, 95% CI 1.46–2.85; p = 0.0002) and a significantly longer postoperative length of hospital stay (mean difference 1.96 days, 95% CI 0.42–3.50; p = 0.016). No statistically significant associations were observed between drainage and seroma formation (OR 0.95, 95% CI 0.70–1.30; p = 0.750), postoperative bleeding (OR 1.26, 95% CI 0.85–1.86; p = 0.228), or reoperation (OR 0.89, 95% CI 0.59–1.32; p = 0.525). Sensitivity and influence analyses demonstrated consistent results across analytical approaches and study designs. Conclusions: In thyroidectomy, routine cervical drainage is not associated with a reduction in bleeding-related complications and is associated with adverse recovery-related outcomes, including increased risk of surgical site infection and prolonged hospitalization. Overall, the findings indicate that routine cervical drainage after thyroidectomy offers no clear advantage in preventing postoperative complications and may be associated with adverse postoperative outcomes. Routine cervical drainage after thyroidectomy was not associated with a protective effect on complications and showed associations with less favorable recovery-related outcomes. Full article

Energetic materials are widely used in many fields and their safety is of great concern, while the factors affecting impact sensitivity and the mechanisms of chemical bond breaking and energy transfer are still unclear. In this study, first-principles calculations were employed to elucidate the electronic and vibrational characteristics of TATB and LLM-105. Both materials are indirect semiconductors. However, LLM-105 exhibits a markedly smaller band gap and more localized nitro-antibonding conduction states, suggesting enhanced electronic excitability and potential trigger-bond activation. Phonon analysis reveals dense nitro-dominated vibrational modes in the doorway frequency region (200–700 cm⁻¹), particularly in LLM-105, which may favor vibrational energy localization. In contrast, the larger band gap, delocalized conduction states, and extensive hydrogen-bonding network of TATB promote electronic and phononic energy delocalization, consistent with its lower sensitivity. These findings demonstrate that coupled electronic and vibrational effects govern stability differences in energetic materials and provide a theoretical framework for sensitivity modulation. Full article

Blind image quality assessment (BIQA) without reference images remains significantly challenging due to the fact that perceptual quality is largely determined by subtle, spatially localized distortions. However, existing Contrastive Language–Image Pre-training (CLIP)-based methods exhibit limited sensitivity to fine-grained degradations such as local blur, noise, compression artifacts, and exposure inconsistencies, since they are optimized for global semantic alignment. To overcome these limitations, we propose a fine-grained vision–language framework that enhances distortion-aware representation by considering both fine-grained visual and detailed textual domains. Specially, our method employs a fine-grained CLIP architecture in conjunction with explicit textual descriptions to enable the effective identification of subtle regional degradations. Furthermore, a parameter-efficient prompt-tuning strategy is utilized to facilitate the learning of task-adaptive prompt representations tailored to image quality assessment (IQA). Extensive experiments on three widely used in-the-wild IQA benchmarks show that the proposed method achieves strong consistency with human subjective judgments: our training-free FGCLIP-IQA reaches a maximum SROCC of 0.732 on KonIQ-10k, outperforming the vanilla CLIP-IQA baseline, while the prompt-tuned FGCLIP-IQA+ further achieves a maximum SROCC of 0.909 on KonIQ-10k with only a small number of learnable parameters and exhibits robust cross-dataset generalization capabilities. These results demonstrate that the fine-grained vision–language alignment shows great potential for future development, and provides an efficient and accurate solution for the BIQA task. Full article

This study evaluates the performance of eleven Planetary Boundary Layer (PBL) schemes within the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model over the Central Amazon Basin, focusing on contrasting wet and dry season conditions observed during the GoAmazon2014/5 campaign. High-resolution (1 km) simulations were conducted for representative periods in each season and validated against in situ observations. Model performance was assessed using multiple statistical metrics with the explicit separation of daytime convective and nighttime stable PBL regimes. Results reveal substantial variability among PBL schemes, strongly modulated by the season and diurnal cycle. Overall performance was higher during the wet period, whereas dry period simulations exhibited larger uncertainties, particularly under nocturnal conditions. The Shin–Hong (SH) PBL scheme had the best skill on average to reproduce the observed PBL height (PBLH) during the wet period, while the University of Washington (UW) PBL scheme was the best during the dry period. The Mellor–Yamada–Janjic (MYJ) PBL scheme had the best skill for daytime PBLH in both periods. Spatial analysis demonstrated how PBL schemes impact the PBLH distribution over the Central Amazon Basin, revealing a river-influenced pattern. These findings highlight the strong sensitivity of the Amazon PBL depth to PBL schemes and underscore the importance of appropriate PBL parameterizations and the vertical resolution for tropical applications. Full article

Visual mental imagery, the ability to generate and manipulate internal visual experiences without direct sensory input, links perception with memory, planning, and higher cognition. In this targeted narrative review, we synthesize neuroimaging and lesion evidence on the brain basis of visual imagery, with a focus on neuroradiological correlates of the ventral and dorsal visual pathways. Unlike prior cognitive neuroscience reviews that primarily emphasize functional mechanisms, this review is neuroradiology-oriented and integrates lesion patterns and white-matter disconnection to support clinico-radiological interpretation of imagery complaints. Using a dual-stream framework, we contrast ventral occipito-temporal systems that preferentially support object imagery (appearance-based features such as form, faces/objects, and color, with texture remaining under-studied) with dorsal occipito-parietal systems that preferentially support spatial imagery (relations, transformations, and navigation). Across studies, imagery recruitment is strongly task- and stage-dependent: ventral regions are most often engaged during object-focused imagery, whereas parietal regions are prominent during spatial transformation tasks, with evidence for interaction between pathways when demands require both content and spatial operations. Structural and clinico-radiological findings indicate that imagery impairment can arise from focal posterior lesions and posterior neurodegenerative syndromes but also from network disruption affecting long-range connections that support top-down access to posterior representations. Finally, emerging work on aphantasia and hyperphantasia supports a network-level view in which imagery vividness relates to how effectively higher-order systems engage visual representations. We conclude that standardized, stream-sensitive tasks and multimodal approaches combining functional and structural imaging with lesion-based evidence are key to discovering clinically actionable biomarkers of imagery dysfunction. Full article

Environmental contamination with fluorinated compounds has increased markedly due to their widespread use in industry, medicine, and agriculture. Fluoride ions and fluoroquinolone antibiotics may enter soils through fertilizers, wastewater, and manure application, where they can interact with plant-associated microbial communities. In the present study, we investigated the effects of inorganic fluoride (applied as sodium fluoride, NaF) and the fluoroquinolone antibiotic pefloxacin on the growth and microbiome composition of Eruca sativa L. Plants were cultivated under controlled conditions and exposed for four weeks to NaF or pefloxacin at equimolar concentrations of 10 and 20 µM/kg soil. Morphological parameters, including biomass accumulation, root length, leaf dimensions, and leaf area, were not significantly affected by either treatment. Nevertheless, increased variability of growth traits was observed, particularly in plants exposed to NaF. High-throughput sequencing of the 16S rRNA gene revealed pronounced, treatment-specific alterations in both rhizosphere and phyllosphere bacterial communities. The rhizosphere microbiome was relatively stable at higher taxonomic levels but exhibited selective enrichment of Actinomycetota, including the class Thermoleophilia, under NaF exposure. In contrast, the phyllosphere microbiome showed strong sensitivity to fluoride, with a marked increase in Betaproteobacteria, dominated by Burkholderiales. Changes induced by pefloxacin were weaker and more diffuse. Our results demonstrate that plant-associated microbiomes respond to fluorinated compounds at concentrations that do not induce visible plant stress. The phyllosphere microbiome, in particular, represents a sensitive indicator of fluoride exposure and may serve as an early-warning system for environmental contamination. Full article

Pharmacological antidepressant treatments alter the molecular and functional reactivity of stress-sensitive neural networks. However, how classical versus rapid-acting antidepressants differentially modulate acute stress-induced transcriptional responses across brain regions remains unclear. Here, we compared imipramine and ketamine in mice exposed to acute swim stress, assessing transcriptional adaptations across the frontal cortex, hippocampus, and striatum. Swim stress induced significant widespread activation of cFOS, which led to drug-specific modulations: imipramine primarily significantly dampened cortical and striatal cFOS expression, whereas ketamine preserved stress-evoked neuronal activation. In contrast, hippocampal activation was significantly robust but largely unaffected, indicating that acute antidepressant drug effects during stress coping preferentially target cortical and striatal plasticity mechanisms. In contrast, BDNF expression was altered only within the striatal region, where imipramine attenuated the stress-related increase in BDNF expression. Statistical analysis of behavioral outcomes during the swim stress confirmed a shared facilitation of active coping, yet these similar outcomes emerged from distinct molecular programs. Together, the data demonstrate that the treatment effects of the two substances diverge mechanistically, revealing cortical and striatal transcriptional signatures of classical versus rapid-acting antidepressant action. While these findings suggest potential translational relevance for understanding distinct mechanisms, further studies in humans are required to validate these signatures and their clinical implications. Full article

Background/Objectives: Presbyopia is an age-related decline in near vision associated with lens stiffening and neuroretinal changes, while evidence for the effects of berry-derived phytochemicals remains limited. We investigated whether AKB, a double-standardised berry extract (anthocyanins ≥ 25%, iridoids ≥ 4.5%) from Aronia melanocarpa, Lonicera caerulea, and Vaccinium myrtillus, influences visual performance and circulating biomarkers potentially relevant to ocular homeostasis. Methods: In a randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled, two-period crossover trial, 23 adults aged >50 years received AKB (400 mg twice daily) or placebo for 6 weeks, separated by a 5-week washout. Results: Compared with placebo, AKB was associated with improvements in selected visual-function outcomes, including near contrast sensitivity and visual-field parameters, together with directionally favourable changes in VEP and OCT readouts. AKB supplementation was also associated with lower circulating αA-/αB-crystallin and ALDH1A1 levels and higher circulating TRPV4 levels, whereas systemic antioxidant enzymes and advanced glycation end-products remained unchanged. Given the small sample size and the indirect nature of the biomarker assessment, these findings should be considered preliminary. Conclusions: Overall, short-term AKB supplementation was associated with modest, exploratory changes in selected functional and systemic biomarker outcomes, but larger and longer-term studies are needed to confirm clinical relevance and clarify underlying mechanisms. Full article

Background/Objectives: Chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) is characterized by genetic and epigenetic alterations. This study aimed to assess the methylation status of E-Cadherin and MMP-9 gene promoters and to explore their relationships with disease pathogenesis and hematological parameters in CLL patients. Methods: A case–control study was conducted with 70 newly diagnosed CLL patients and 70 age- and sex-matched healthy controls. Promoter methylation of E-Cadherin and MMP-9 genes was evaluated using methylation-specific PCR (MSP) and methylation-sensitive restriction enzyme PCR (MSRE-PCR), respectively. Results: The median patient age was 62 years, and 68.5% were males. Binet stage A was the most common stage (57.3%). E-Cadherin promoter methylation was detected in 75.7% of CLL patients and 77.1% of controls (p = 0.91), showing no significant association with disease occurrence; however, it showed a significant correlation with higher lymphocyte counts (p = 0.01). In contrast, MMP-9 promoter methylation was significantly less frequent in CLL cases (70.0%) than in controls (100%, p = 0.001). Unmethylated MMP-9 correlated significantly with female gender (p = 0.02), lower hemoglobin (p = 0.031), reduced platelet counts (p = 0.001), and higher lymphocyte counts (p = 0.035). Conclusion: MMP-9 promoter hypomethylation may play a pathogenic role in CLL and is associated with female gender and cytopenia, whereas E-Cadherin methylation appears to be non-specific. MMP-9 methylation status could therefore serve as a potential biomarker for CLL biology and prognosis. Full article

Background/Objectives: Contrast-associated acute kidney injury (CA-AKI) remains an important cause of morbidity and mortality in patients undergoing procedures that require intravascular contrast administration. Therefore, the early identification of high-risk individuals is paramount, above all for ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) patients in need of urgent percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI). Methods: This retrospective study evaluated the prognostic value of the Pan-Immune-Inflammation Value (PIV), a composite inflammatory index, in predicting CA-AKI among patients presenting with STEMI who received urgent PCI within a 12 h window from the onset of symptoms. Results: This study recruited 2325 patient. CA-AKI was defined as a >25% or ≥0.5 mg/dL increase in serum creatinine within 48–72 h after the procedure. Patients were categorized into CA-AKI (+) and CA-AKI (−) groups. PIV levels were significantly higher in patients who developed CA-AKI (502.5 ± 324.5 vs. 264.7 ± 165.8; p < 0.001). ROC analysis identified a PIV cutoff value of >320, yielding an AUC of 0.753 (95% CI: 0.740–0.787; p < 0.001), with 67% sensitivity and 66.9% specificity. Multivariate logistic regression confirmed that PIV > 320 independently predicted CA-AKI (OR 2.118; 95% CI: 1.329–3.790; p < 0.001). In multivariable analysis, age, Killip class, contrast volume, and PIV > 320 were identified as independent predictors of CA-AKI. Conclusions: Elevated admission PIV serves as an independent and practical biomarker for predicting CA-AKI in STEMI patients undergoing PCI. Full article

In the contemporary digital landscape, AI (Artificial Intelligence) emerged as a pivotal tool in enhancing the defense technologies developed across the entire network infrastructure. As reliance on AI-based decision-making grew, so did the imperative need for interpretability, transparency, and trustworthiness, leading to the development and integration of XAI (eXplainable Artificial Intelligence). This research paper provides a comprehensive overview of the current state of the art in XAI approaches that can be effectively implemented for network traffic monitoring, especially in critical digital infrastructures. The main contribution of this research article consists of the comparative analysis of the XAI SHAP (Shapley Additive Explanation) method applied to different datasets obtained from real-time network traffic monitoring, utilizing several representative parameters, which demonstrates the performance, vulnerabilities, and limitations of the proposed method, and also the security implications of the system resources from a cybersecurity perspective. Experimental results show that Ethernet networks offer higher predictability and clearer decision boundaries. Consequently, they are a safer solution for deployment in sensitive network architectures. In contrast, BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) Wi-Fi environments exhibit greater randomness. Full article

Early life represents a critical developmental programming window during which nutrition and microbial exposures shape long-term physiological function. Feeding mode is a major determinant of infant gut microbiota assembly and metabolic activity. This narrative review synthesizes current evidence comparing breastfeeding (BF) and formula feeding in relation to microbial composition, functional capacity, and immune programming during the preweaning and early postweaning periods. BF may support a relatively stable, bifidobacteria-dominated microbiota enriched in pathways involved in carbohydrate utilization, vitamin biosynthesis, and immune modulation. Human milk oligosaccharides, secretory IgA, lactoferrin, and milk-associated microbes collectively guide microbial succession, enhance barrier integrity, and support immune tolerance. In contrast, formula-fed infants typically exhibit greater microbial diversity, earlier transition toward adult-like profiles, and increased abundance of facultative anaerobes, alongside the enrichment of pathways related to bile acid and amino acid metabolism. Microbiota patterns in formula-fed infants are further influenced by formula composition, including protein load, lipid structure, and supplementation with prebiotics, probiotics, and human milk oligosaccharide analogues. Although advances in formula design have reduced compositional gaps, functional differences in microbial stability and immune programming persist. Recognizing early infancy as a sensitive programming window underscores the need for microbiome-informed nutritional strategies and longitudinal, multi-omics research to clarify causal mechanisms and optimize early-life interventions. Full article

Clonal propagation of rust-resistant sugar pine (Pinus lambertiana Dougl.) is currently limited by extreme rooting recalcitrance and highly variable donor responses to nursery management. This study identified seed zone-specific nutritional sensitivities and evaluated rooting success; we hypothesized that northern seed sources would exhibit greater sensitivity to high nutrient loads and that stable microclimates would outperform high-intensity rooting systems. In Study 1, seedlings from five United States Department of Agriculture seed zones were grown for 27 weeks in five nutrient solutions (tap-water control, modified Hoagland, Foliage-Pro^®, Andrejow, and FloraNova^®) spanning 0.72–3.00 dS m⁻¹. The nutrient-rich Foliage-Pro^® and FloraNova^® solutions defined the upper end of the nutrient-intensity range and revealed strong seed zone contrasts: northern zones (526, 550) showed marked sensitivity, with survival declining from 70 to 100% in the control to 15–40% under the highest-EC formulations, whereas southern zones (992, 993) maintained high survival (≥75%) across all treatments and exhibited increased branching (up to 3.7 branches plant⁻¹) under higher-nutrient solutions. In Study 2, stem cuttings were rooted in three environments (non-mist, hydroponic, and aeroponic) and four hormone treatments (control, Clonex^®, Dip’n Grow^®, and IBA + Ethrel). Rooting occurred exclusively in the non-mist propagator; untreated controls achieved 65% success and outperformed all hormone treatments (0–10%). These results demonstrate that P. lambertiana propagation depends on seed zone-specific donor nutrition and stable, hormone-independent rooting environments. Full article

We present the first secure multiplicative aggregation protocol as a variant of secure aggregation. In this case, a server can compute the component-wise product of the input vectors of users while handling the possible dropout of users during protocol execution. Using pairwise masks, threshold secret sharing and the secure aggregation protocol itself, our construction is correct and secure against semi-honest adversaries. We also consider secure aggregation protocols for the case in which fixed users can reuse their private keys to do aggregation many times, and we propose key reusable secure aggregation protocols. Our protocols have an overhead polynomial in the number of users. We conduct a comprehensive evaluation of our proposed protocols. For multiplicative aggregation protocol, experiments varying the number of users (K) from 50 to 300 (with fixed input size $X_u=100$ KB) demonstrate that user computation scales monotonically with K and is largely insensitive to dropout rates. In contrast, server computation is highly dropout-sensitive and exhibits a steeper growth rate with respect to K. When varying the input size (10–250 KB) with a fixed K, both user and server communication overheads increase linearly, while server computation remains the primary bottleneck affected by dropouts. We compare reusable and non-reusable secure aggregation protocol over repeated interactions $q\in \{1,\dots ,10\}$ at $X_u=100$ KB and $K=100$, showing that reusing Round 1 reduces the cumulative user computation time by about 2.5 times and reduces the cumulative server computation overhead by about 1.2 times at $q=10$ while leaving the server communication overhead nearly unchanged, which indicates that the overall communication overhead is dominated by the non-reused rounds. Full article