updates

In the post-Green Revolution era, disparities in dietary access, rising obesity rates, demographic shifts, adoption of plant-based diets, and the impact of climate change collectively contribute to a progressive decline in dietary nutritional value, exacerbating B vitamin deficiencies across both low- and high-income countries. While the prevailing focus of biofortification has been on three micronutrients - provitamin A, iron, and zinc - utilizing conventional breeding, it is imperative to diversify biofortification strategies to combat micronutrient malnutrition...

In recent years, there has been an intense debate about how learning in biological neural networks (BNNs) differs from learning in artificial neural networks. It is often argued that the updating of connections in the brain relies only on local information, and therefore a stochastic gradient-descent type optimization method cannot be used. In this article, we study a stochastic model for supervised learning in BNNs. We show that a (continuous) gradient step occurs approximately when each learning opportunity is processed by many local updates...

BACKGROUND: Volumetric modulated arc therapy (VMAT) machine parameter optimization (MPO) remains computationally expensive and sensitive to input dose objectives creating challenges for manual and automatic planning. Reinforcement learning (RL) involves machine learning through extensive trial-and-error, demonstrating performance exceeding humans, and existing algorithms in several domains. PURPOSE: To develop and evaluate an RL approach for VMAT MPO for localized prostate cancer to rapidly and automatically generate deliverable VMAT plans for a clinical linear accelerator (linac) and compare resultant dosimetry to clinical plans...

The box tree moth Cydalima perspectalis (Walker) (Lepidoptera: Crambidae) (BTM) is a native moth throughout eastern Asia, having recently become invasive in Europe (2007) where it feeds on boxwood (= box tree), Buxus spp. The moth rapidly spread across Europe and the Caucasus causing damage to both ornamental and wild Buxus. In 2018, C. perspectalis was found in Toronto, ON, Canada, and has since spread south into the US. To better predict where the moth will establish and have significant impact on ornamental trade in North America, we used most recent scientific literature and distribution points to update the temperature and diapause indices of an existing ecoclimatic CLIMEX model...

With the generation of spatially resolved transcriptomics of microbial biofilms, computational tools can be used to integrate this data to elucidate the multi-scale mechanisms controlling heterogeneous biofilm metabolism. This work presents a Multi-scale model of Metabolism In Cellular Systems (MiMICS) which is a computational framework that couples a genome-scale metabolic network reconstruction (GENRE) with Hybrid Automata Library (HAL), an existing agent-based model and reaction-diffusion model platform...

This article reviews noteworthy investigations and society recommendations published in 2023 relevant to the care of critically ill cardiothoracic surgical patients. We reviewed 3,214 articles to identify 18 publications that add to the existing literature across a variety of topics including resuscitation, nutrition, antibiotic management, extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO), neurologic care following cardiac arrest, coagulopathy and transfusion, steroids in pulmonary infections, and updated guidelines in the management of acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS)...

Genetically engineered microorganisms (GEMs) represent a new paradigm in our ability to address the needs of a growing, changing world. GEMs are being used in agriculture, food production and additives, manufacturing, commodity and noncommodity products, environmental remediation, etc., with even more applications in the pipeline. Along with modern advances in genome-manipulating technologies, new manufacturing processes, markets, and attitudes are driving a boom in more products that contain or are derived from GEMs...

No abstract text is available yet for this article.

In this podcast, we discuss the 2023 update of the International Working Group on the Diabetic Foot (IWGDF) Guidelines on the prevention of foot ulcers in people with diabetes. Prevention of foot ulcers is paramount, to reduce their large burden on patients and society. Nevertheless, many clinical guidelines do not cover prevention as a topic. The IWGDF Guidelines ensure that a full chapter is dedicated to ulcer prevention. In that chapter, the key cornerstones of prevention are outlined, as well as the importance of integrated preventative foot care...

Understanding gene evolution across genomes and organisms, including ctenophores, can provide unexpected biological insights. It enables powerful integrative approaches that leverage sequence diversity to advance biomedicine. Sequencing and bioinformatic tools can be inexpensive and user-friendly, but numerous options and coding can intimidate new users. Distinct challenges exist in working with data from diverse species but may go unrecognized by researchers accustomed to gold-standard genomes. Here, we provide a high-level workflow and detailed pipeline to enable animal collection, single-molecule sequencing, and phylogenomic analysis of gene and species evolution...

The ammonia fiber expansion (AFEX) pretreatment of lignocellulosic biomass offers a significant advantage in terms of obtaining high glucan conversion, with the added benefit of ammonia being fully recyclable. However, despite the high efficiency of AFEX in pretreating lignocellulose, relatively high enzyme loading is still required for effective cellulose conversions. In this study, we have updated the AFEX pretreatment method; ammonia and sodium sulfite (ASS) can be used to produce a more digestible substrate...

PURPOSE: Several studies have investigated the association between anorexia nervosa and polymorphisms of genes regulating serotonin neurotransmission, with a focus on the rs6311 polymorphism of 5-HTR2A. However, inconsistent results of these studies and conflicting conclusions of existing meta-analyses complicate the understanding of a possible association. We have updated these results and evaluated the involvement of other serotonin receptor gene polymorphisms in anorexia nervosa. METHODS: Adhering to PRISMA guidelines, we have searched studies on anorexia nervosa and serotonin-regulating genes published from 1997 to 2022, selected those concerning receptor genes and meta-analyzed the results from twenty candidate gene studies on the 5-HTR2A rs6311 polymorphism and the 5-HTR2C rs6318 polymorphism...

Since a previous systematic review published in 2016, there have been further studies investigating the association of changes in cognitive function following bariatric surgery. All studies since the original review that reported at least one element of cognitive function before and after bariatric surgery were eligible. A total of 137 additional studies were identified; 13 were included in addition to the 18 studies previously. Almost all studies reported improvements in at least one domain. Most revealed improvements were limited to a few domains and were not universal...

BACKGROUND: The EORTC QLQ-STO22 (QLQ-STO22) is a firmly established and validated measure of health-related quality of life (HRQoL) for people with gastric cancer (GC), developed over two decades ago. Since then there have been dramatic changes in treatment options for GC. Also, East Asian patients were not involved in the development of QLQ-STO22, where GC is most prevalent and the QLQ-STO22 is widely used. A review with appropriate updating of the measure was planned. This study aims to capture HRQoL issues associated with new treatments and the perspectives of patients and health care professionals (HCPs) from different cultural backgrounds, including East Asia...

PURPOSE: Merkel cell carcinoma (MCC) is a rare neuroendocrine tumor of the skin, which mainly occurs in the sun exposed sites of white patients over 65 years, with a higher recurrence and metastasis rate. Clinically, MCC overlapping Bowen's disease (BD) is a very rare subtype of MCC. Few cases in the literature have been described and the management is not well defined. We summarize and update the epidemiology, clinical and histopathological features, metastasis characteristics, local recurrence rate and management of it by presenting two cases of MCC overlapping BD and reviewing the literature over the last 11 years...

INTRODUCTION: The growing prevalence of obesity in the USA disproportionately affects Latinos compared to non-Latino Whites. Immigration and acculturation have been associated with unhealthy dietary shifts among Latino immigrants, a phenomenon known as dietary acculturation. Emerging evidence points to a more nuanced relationship between dietary habits, immigration, and acculturation, highlighting the need for a more current comprehension of dietary acculturation. OBJECTIVE: We explored how Latino immigrants' experiences in migrating to the USA have affected their perceived dietary habits and their experiences of how supportive the USA is in establishing healthy practices compared to their native country...

One-body reduced density matrix functional theory provides an alternative to density functional theory, which is able to treat static correlation while keeping a relatively low computation scaling. Its disadvantageous cost comes mainly from a slow convergence of the self-consistent energy optimization. To improve on that problem, we propose in this work the use of the Hessian of the energy, including the coupling term. We show that using the exact Hessian is very effective at reducing the number of iterations...

Accurate annotation to single-nucleotide resolution of the transcribed regions in genomes is key to optimally analyse RNA-seq data, understand regulatory events and for the design of experiments. However, currently most genome annotations provided by GenBank generally lack information about untranslated regions. Additionally, information regarding genomic locations of non-coding RNAs, such as sRNAs, or anti-sense RNAs is frequently missing. To provide such information, diverse RNA-seq technologies, such as Rend-seq, have been developed and applied to many bacterial species...

This editorial introduces the Special Issue "Effects of Environmental Organic Pollutants on Environment and Human Health: The Latest Updates" [...].

INTRODUCTION: Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), which presents a significant healthcare and socioeconomic burden, is currently one of the main issues in the field of therapy. Hence, it is imperative to tackle this matter by evaluating the safety and efficacy of the available treatments and determining the ideal approach for each patient. AREAS COVERED: We reviewed the pharmacokinetics characteristics and safety of pharmacologic interventions administered in diarrhea-predominant IBS (IBS-D) patients...