Search Results (384)

Background/Objectives: Fetal alcohol spectrum disorders (FASDs) occur in nearly 5% of children in the United States and have been associated with alterations in neurological functions, neuroanatomical changes, and behavioral deficits encompassing an individual’s lifetime. Alterations in myelination have been reported in both rodent models and humans. The cerebellum is a heavily myelinated brain region, and oligodendrocyte and myelination transcripts have been reported to be altered in the cerebellum following early-life ethanol (EtOH) exposure in a mouse model. In this study, we investigated cerebellar-recruited behaviors in adult female mice that were exposed to EtOH from postnatal day (P) 4 to P9. We investigated whether changes in oligodendrocyte lineage markers were present in adulthood. Methods: C57BL/6J offspring received a total of 5.0 g/kg/day of either ethanol (EtOH) or saline in two separate doses delivered subcutaneously two hours apart from P4 to P9. On P21, offspring were weaned and housed with same-sex littermates throughout the duration of the study. From P60 to P90, females underwent behavioral testing including an open field test (OFT), rotarod, and balance beam. Behavior naïve littermates were euthanized on P105, and cerebella were collected for qPCR to assess oligodendrocyte lineage transcripts. Results: We reported that, following EtOH exposure from P4 to P9, adult female mice had increased ambulatory behaviors in the OFT and subtle changes in behavior in the rotarod and balance beam compared to saline-exposed controls. Despite the behavioral changes observed in adulthood, we found that alterations in oligodendrocyte lineage transcripts present on P10 did not persist into adulthood. Conclusions: Subcutaneous injection of EtOH from P4 to P9 resulted in long-term consequences in locomotor and cerebellar-recruited behaviors in female mice. Full article

Grass and birch pollen are major allergens in the United Kingdom (UK), responsible for seasonal respiratory diseases between late March and July. East Anglia is an under-represented region in pollen allergy research, while patterns of continuous days of high pollen levels have not been studied at all. Analysis of pollen statistics and trends in East Anglia addresses a regional gap for pollen exposure in the UK and assesses the intensity of the exposure. Trends and statistics for start, end, length, first high day (FH), number of high days (NH), seasonal pollen integral (SPIn) and number of high days occurring in a run together were presented. Birch pollen occurred from late March to late April, with little indication that onset, end or duration were changing temporally. Severity (SPIn) and the number of days in a run together have increased, in line with severity trends in nearby regions. Grass pollen occurred from late May until the third week in July, with almost no indication of changing trends in this region, apart from a likely earlier first high day. These results inform clinicians that the information and advice on when to treat hay fever symptoms and for how long should not change at the present time. Full article

There are limited data on sequential computed tomographic (CT) evaluation and objective CT assessment of the metacarpal condyles in Thoroughbred racehorses. This longitudinal study aimed to document changes in attenuation of the metacarpal condyles during the first two years of training and racing. Fan-beam CT examination of the metacarpophalangeal regions was performed on 40 non-lame Thoroughbred yearlings, and repeated four more times, approximately six months apart. Mean Hounsfield Unit (HU) measurements were obtained on sagittal reconstructions of the dorsal and palmar halves of the medial and lateral condyles and parasagittal grooves. One-way ANOVA with a post hoc Tukey’s Test was used to investigate differences between mean HU values over time at the different regions of interest. Multivariable mixed-effects linear regression models assessed the association between dorsal and palmar HU and potential explanatory variables. Mean HU increased significantly with training, especially during the first six months, with a maximal sequential mean increase found in the medial parasagittal groove (119.8 [95% confidence interval 85.3, 154.30], p < 0.001). Dorsal regions had higher HU than palmar regions, with the highest HU recorded in the dorsal aspect of the medial condyle at time 3 (mean HU 1120.1 ± 63.4). Condyles had higher HU than parasagittal grooves (p < 0.001), the palmar half of the right condyles had higher HU than the left (p = 0.045) and the dorsal aspect of the medial condyle had higher HU than the lateral (p < 0.001). An increasing number of race starts and higher body weight:height ratio were associated with higher HU (p < 0.001). The main limitation was the loss of horses to follow-up as the study progressed. In conclusion, density of most regions of the metacarpal condyles increased with time spent in training, reflecting adaption to racehorse training. Full article

Background/Objectives: Eye infection with herpes simplex virus type 1 (HSV-1) can result in keratitis, a leading cause of corneal blindness. We evaluated whether an experimental vaccine containing HSV-2 immunogens to prevent genital herpes also protects against HSV-1 eye infection and neuroinvasion. Methods: Mice were immunized twice, one month apart, with PBS or a nucleoside-modified lipid nanoparticle vaccine containing mRNA encoding for gC2, gD2, and gE2. One month later, 10⁶ plaque forming units (PFU) (10 lethal dose 50, LD₅₀) of the HSV-1 McKrae strain were added to the intact cornea of each eye. Results: The vaccine prevented death and markedly reduced eyelid and attached conjunctival inflammation (blepharoconjunctivitis) and weight loss compared with the PBS group. Tissues from the ocular conjunctiva and eye bulb, olfactory bulb/peduncle, trigeminal ganglia, and brain (brainstem, cerebrum, and cerebellum) were harvested 5 days post-infection from 5 mice each in the PBS and vaccine groups, and from another 10 mice in the vaccine group 7 weeks post-infection. At 5 days, HSV-1 was not detected in any tissue in the vaccine group, while viral titers were positive in 16 of 25 (64%), and HSV-1 DNA was detected in 22 of 25 (88%) individual tissues in the PBS group. Histopathological and immunohistochemical analysis at 5 days post-infection confirmed that the vaccine protected against inflammation; however, some animals experienced breakthrough blepharoconjunctivitis. At 7 weeks, 3 of 10 (30%) mice in the vaccine group had HSV-1 DNA detected in the eyes or trigeminal ganglia tissues, but no animal had HSV-1 DNA detected in brain tissues. The vaccine produced cross-reactive HSV-1 neutralizing antibodies and gD1 IgG binding antibodies, but low or undetectable cross-reactive binding antibodies to gC1 and gE1. Conclusions: Despite occasional mild, localized breakthrough infections, the vaccine provided disease-modifying immunity and was neuroprotective. The results suggest that a single herpes vaccine effective against genital HSV-2 may be neuroprotective against HSV-1 following eye infection. Full article

The influence of different voltage measurement and current injection configurations on the quality of image reconstruction in electrical impedance tomography (EIT) was investigated using numerical simulations. Adjacent and opposing techniques were systematically used to examine their effectiveness in voltage acquisition and current delivery. The simulation model employed 16 equally spaced electrodes arranged around a circular domain, with an injected alternating current of 1 mA at a frequency of 50 kHz. A circular object with a conductivity of 0.9 units was sequentially positioned at five distinct locations within the imaging domain, each spaced 0.05 units apart. The reconstructed images were analyzed for positional accuracy and contrast resolution. While each configuration offers specific advantages, they exhibit inherent limitations depending on the application. The results of this study enable the understanding of the trade-offs involved in selecting electrode drive and measurement strategies for optimizing image quality in EIT systems. Full article

This study evaluates the feasibility of continuous indoor pollutant monitoring as an indirect method for assessing extended ventilation performance in residential buildings. This research addresses key limitations of conventional short-term tracer-gas methods, which cannot account for occupant lifestyle, environmental fluctuations, and extended ventilation variability. The study employs a diffusion-based framework to interpret pollutant-concentration equalization across the residential space over extended monitoring periods. We conducted field experiments in an apartment unit equipped with both ducted and non-ducted ventilation systems. Pollutants (PM_2.5, CO₂, HCHO, and aromatic VOCs (BTEX + styrene)) were uniformly emitted. PM_2.5 and CO₂ were continuously monitored at six spatially distributed points using calibrated sensors, while HCHO and aromatic VOCs were quantified by repeated active sampling and laboratory analysis. Under ducted ventilation, average pollutant reduction rates reached 86.8% for PM_2.5, 58.3% for CO₂, and 53.6% for HCHO. Simultaneously, spatial concentration variance decreased by up to 71% within 120 min, indicating strong diffusion-driven equalizations. These results support the feasibility of extended ventilation performance monitoring using continuous pollutant sensing, with implications for IAQ management, energy optimization, and future integration with data-driven predictive models. Full article

The incidence of tuberculosis disease (TBD) in New Brunswick (NB) is low but has been rising over the past decade. Analyzing these trends can help identify specific risk factors and transmission patterns to guide targeted public health strategies. This study aimed to provide a comprehensive and detailed characterization of TBD in NB by examining data from 1 January 2002, to 31 December 2024. All TB patients with Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex (MTBC) clinical isolates identified in NB healthcare facilities were eligible for inclusion in the study. We analyzed demographic, drug susceptibility, and 24-locus Mycobacterial Interspersed Repetitive Unit-Variable Number Tandem Repeat (MIRU-VNTR) data from 166 patients. Most MTBC isolates were pan-susceptible to first-line anti-tuberculosis drugs (90.9–98.1%), with 2.4% showing multidrug resistance. The MIRU-VNTR demonstrated a high discriminatory power of 0.9982 and a low clustering rate of 20.4%. Two samples from the same patient, collected seven years apart, showed different genetic profiles, suggesting that the second episode was a new infection. The most prevalent MTBC lineage was East African Indian (n = 23, 13%). This study provides early insights into TB trends in NB, including what may be the first recorded case of TB reinfection in NB. Our findings will help guide future TB research, policies, and public health interventions in the region. Full article

Most of the existing Virtual World (VW)-based curriculum-related educational systems use conventional non-player characters (NPCs) to interact with users, represented as avatars, to guide and help them to accomplish learning activities. Also, a few of them use some kind of gamification and keep data for user interactions and activities, and even fewer allow for real-time tutor intervention. In this paper, we present the design, implementation, and evaluation of an educational system based on VW technology, which employs gamification features; two types of NPCs, one conventional and another LLM-based; and a database that stores, apart from educational information, information about the interactions users have with NPCs. Furthermore, we designed and implemented a learning management unit for online-tutor tracing and for supporting the learning progress of users. The evaluation of the system, via experimental use and questionnaires, shows that both types of NPCs were useful for different reasons, although there was a preference for the LLM-based NPC. LLM-based NPCs made dialogues more interesting and were perceived as more friendly and helpful, but conventional ones provided more targeted help. However, both were less interesting than the two gamification features: a scoring system and quizzes. Additionally, the effectiveness of the tutoring system was confirmed in terms of learning outcomes and overall experience, although in a subjective manner. Finally, online-tutor support was recognized as a very positive capability. Full article

Human mobility is commonly assessed in the laboratory environment, but accurate and robust joint motion measurement and task classification in the home setting are rarely undertaken. This study aimed to develop a digital twin model of a home to measure, visualize, and classify joint motion during activities of daily living. A fully furnished single-bedroom apartment was digitally reconstructed using 3D photogrammetry. Ten healthy adults performed 19 activities of daily living over a 2 h period throughout the apartment. Each participant’s upper and lower limb joint motion was measured using inertial measurement units, and body spatial location was measured using an ultra-wide band sensor, registered to the digital home model. Supervised machine learning classified tasks with a mean 82.3% accuracy. Hair combing involved the highest range of shoulder elevation (124.2 ± 21.2°), while sit-to-stand exhibited both the largest hip flexion (75.7 ± 10.3°) and knee flexion (91.8 ± 8.6°). Joint motion varied from room to room, even for a given task. For example, subjects walked fastest in the living room (1.0 ± 0.2 m/s) and slowest in the bathroom (0.78 ± 0.10 m/s), while the mean maximum ankle dorsiflexion in the living room was significantly higher than that in the bathroom (mean difference: 4.9°, p = 0.002, Cohen’s d = 1.25). This study highlights the dependency of both upper and lower limb joint motion during activities of daily living on the internal home environment. The digital twin modeling framework reported may be useful in planning home-based rehabilitation, remote monitoring, and for interior design and ergonomics. Full article

Since its launch in 2009, Bitcoin has become a market disruptor due to its primary function as a virtual currency supported by blockchain technology and the high volume of economic transactions it facilitates. This article examines the key theoretical principles that have contributed to Bitcoin’s recognition as a cryptocurrency. It assesses whether Bitcoin meets the criteria for being considered a form of money and evaluates its importance as a financial asset. This analysis of Bitcoin from 2014 to 2025 reveals that it does not sufficiently fulfill all the typical functions of money, such as serving as an internationally accepted means of payment, a unit of account, a securities depository, and a standard for deferred payments. Despite its usual close correlation with stock indices in financial markets, a decentralized digital currency like this still does not meet the requirements of fundamental analysis. In practice, this leads to its exclusion as a currency, since it does not fulfill the functions of money nor fully qualify as a crypto asset, as its value is primarily based on investors’ expectations of high returns. Apart from a lack of foundation in tangible goods or services that justifies their value and dependence on new investors, the findings do not indicate conditions typical of a developed pyramidal model. Nevertheless, this does not prevent future technological innovations from responding positively to the functions of money or from offering real money services, especially those related to service innovation and the digital economy. Full article

Affordable housing has evolved to meet the difficulties of increased demand by offering acceptable living spaces for middle- to low-income families and facilitating access to housing units based on their annual income. This research seeks to investigate the relationship between housing spacing standards and family desire for affordable multifamily housing. It sought to address the changes that were occurring in the internal spaces of multi-story housing because of the inhabitants’ evolving needs. The study investigates the habitability of 25 residential apartments within 6 affordable multifamily housing compounds established in Sulaymaniyah city in Iraq in accordance with Iraqi housing standards. The results show that the rise in family size was the key reason for the considerable physical changes and enhancements that families made to their units. Crucially, the study found an explicit relationship: the wider the difference between the actual habitable space and the minimum Iraqi standards, the more frequently modifications occurred. This implies that inflexible space standards fail to fulfill the actual needs of low-income families, forcing occupants to make alterations despite the possible deterioration of the unit’s internal environment. The study contributes to the discourse on affordable housing in Iraq by offering empirical evidence of household-driven change and underscoring the necessity of incorporating adaptability into future affordable housing design policies. Full article

A new concept for designing a visual magnification system is introduced. In this concept, apart from the conventional objective and the eyepiece group lenses in the system, an additional Power-Corrector (PC) group of lenses is introduced in the optical design. The Power-Corrector group is located between the objective and the intermediate image and allows an additional degree of freedom to the optical design. This enables improving the system’s performance such as the field of view (FOV) while eliminating the system’s aberrations or reducing them to an insignificant level. Incorporating the PC group achieves this by correcting aberrations that typically limit the performance of conventional eyepiece designs, allowing a wider acceptance angle for incoming light. Recent advances in wide field of view optical systems and compact optical design methodologies have highlighted the ongoing challenges in balancing field of view expansion with aberration control. In this configuration, the PC group unifies the units, the eyepiece and the objective groups, integrates their functionality to one coherent system such that the input focal length of the system is defined jointly by the focal lengths of the objective and the PC while the aberrations are corrected jointly by the PC and the eyepiece. Thus, while the system’s magnification is the ratio of the input focal length to the eyepiece focal length, the PC enables global optimization such that the PC and the eyepiece together have a combined aberration that is less than the characteristic aberration of the eyepiece. This integrated optimization enhances the FOV. Additionally, it maintains image quality, making the system more effective than traditional designs. Contemporary research in freeform optical surface design and optimization techniques demonstrates the growing importance of advanced aberration correction methods in modern optical systems. Using this concept, a compact imaging system with a wider FOV relative to customary designs with the same magnifications, was designed and manufactured. Full article

Spatial Daylight Autonomy (SDA) and Annual Sunlight Exposure (ASE) are widely adopted metrics for daylight performance assessment in sustainable building design. While valuable, the complexity of these metrics, particularly due to the influence of indirect bounced light, makes them difficult to interpret, especially in high-density residential buildings with multiple apartment units. Additionally, the computational intensity of such analyses limits their practical use in early-stage design or unit comparison. As a result, potential residents often rely solely on direct sunlight exposure when evaluating units without access to meaningful comparative data. To address this gap, this study proposes a simplified daylight evaluation metric, termed the Annual Daylight Index, that is both intuitive and computationally efficient. The index is defined as the total number of annual sunlight hours received across all floor areas of a building, divided by the number of rooms. Implemented using visual programming within a BIM environment, the method leverages a reverse sunlight tracing approach. Its accuracy and efficiency were verified by comparing results and computation times against established daylight simulation tools. The resulting index enables both micro (unit-level) and macro (building-level) comparisons, offering a practical tool for designers, residents, and researchers engaged in daylight evaluation of multi-unit housing projects. Full article

Acute kidney injury (AKI) occurs commonly in hospitalized patients, especially patients in intensive care units (ICUs). Medications are among the major causative factors of AKI. This narrative review addressed and updated different aspects of anti-infective-associated AKI, including amphotericin B, cidofovir, foscarnet, polymyxins, vancomycin, and aminoglycosides. There is no standard definition or operational criteria to describe anti-infective-associated AKI. Characteristically, it usually occurs during the first two weeks of treatment and is typically dose dependent. Functional resolution occurs, but kidney injury can affect renal functional reserve and increase susceptibility to future AKI events. A variety of pathophysiological mechanisms impacting glomerular, tubular, and interstitial components of the kidney are usually responsible for the development of AKI from anti-infective medications. Oxidative stress and inflammation play a pivotal role in the pathogenesis of antibiotic-related AKI. Numerous patient-related, medication-related, and co-administered-related scenarios have been demonstrated as risk factors for anti-infective-induced AKI. Apart from traditional indexes of kidney function (serum creatinine and urine output), novel biomarkers of kidney function (e.g., serum cystatin C) and damage (e.g., urinary kidney-injury molecule-1 and neutrophil gelatinase-associated lipocalin) have been noticed in recent clinical studies with promising findings. The efficiency of preventive strategies against anti-infective-associated AKI in most cases appears to be variable, relative, and modest. Close and regular monitoring of kidney function parameters is crucial during treatment with nephrotoxic antibiotics. Currently, there is no definitive treatment modalities for the management of AKI with anti-infectives. Therefore, supportive care is the mainstay of treatment. Full article

Background: Tuberculosis (TB) constitutes one of the leading causes of morbidity and mortality worldwide. Due to adopted prevention measures, good public health practices, and better treatment, its incidence, prevalence, and case fatality rates steadily fell. Objectives and Methods: Following a case–control research design, this study aimed to explore the risk factors of pulmonary TB among patients registered in the Aseer Region, Saudi Arabia. This study included 105 active TB cases (study group) and 143 (control group) who were randomly recruited from those attending the vaccination units at Primary Healthcare Centers in Aseer. Results: Participants differed significantly according to their nationality (with 65.7% being Saudi in the TB group compared with 89.5% Saudi nationals in the control, p < 0.001); educational status (with 27.6% being university graduates in the TB group compared with 53.8% in the control, p < 0.001); marital status, with most TB patients being single, compared with control (70.5%, and 44.1%, p < 0.001); monthly income, with lower income <5000 Saudi Riyals (SRs), among TB patients than control subjects (80% and 44.1%, p < 0.001); and body mass index (20% of the TB patients were underweight, compared with 6.3% in the control, p < 0.001). Also, participants differed significantly according to their residence, with more rural residence among TB patients than control (18.1% and 7%, p = 0.007), and type of houses, with 84.8% of TB patients living in apartments, compared to 68.5% of the control (p < 0.001). The binary logistic regression model of the possible risk factors related to pulmonary TB revealed that nationality, residence, and body mass index were the only significant independent risk factors (p < 0.001, p = 0.007, and p < 0.001). Conclusions: Personal characteristics of pulmonary TB patients include being non-Saudi, less educated, not married, unemployed, with a low monthly income, and being underweight. Risk factors related to place included residing in rural areas and living in the basement of a rented apartment. Full article