Several studies have reported on the association between parental and childhood psychopathologies. Despite this, little is known about the psychopathologies between parents and children in a non-clinical population. We present such a study, the first in a Kenyan setting in an attempt to fill this gap. The objective of this study was to determine the association between self-rating psychopathology in children, parent-rating psychopathology in their children and self-rating psychopathology in parents in a non-clinical population of children attending schools in Kenya. We identified 113 participants, comprising children and their parents in 10 randomly sampled primary schools in South East Kenya. The children completed the Youth Self-Report (YSR) scale and parents completed the Child Behavior Check List (CBCL) on their children and the Adult Self-Reports (ASR) on themselves. These instruments are part of the Achenbach System of Empirically Based Assessment (ASEBA), developed in the USA for a comprehensive approach to assessing adaptation and maladaptive behavior in children and adolescents. There was back and forth translation of the instruments from English to Swahili and the local dialect, Kamba. Every revision of the English translation was sent to the instrument author who sent back comments until the revised version was in sync with the version developed by the author. We used the ASEBA in-built algorithm for scoring to determine cut-off points for problematic and non-problematic behavior. Correlations, linear regression and independent sample t-test were used to explore these associations. The mean age of the children was 12.7. While there was no significant association between child problems as measured by YSR (self-reported) and parent problems as measured by ASR and CBCL in the overall correlations, there was a significant association when examining specific groups (clinical range vs. non-clinical). Moreover, significant association existed between total problems on YSR and ASR internalizing problems (t=-2.3,p = 0.023), with clinical range having a higher mean than the normal range. In addition, a significant relationship (p < 0.05) was found between psychopathology in children as reported by both parents (CBCL) and psychopathology in parents as self-reported (ASR).Mothers were more likely to report lower syndrome scores of their children as compared to fathers. Our findings indicate discrepancies between children self-rating and parent ratings, suggesting that one cannot manage psychopathology in children without reference to psychopathology in their parents. We suggest broad-based psycho-education to include children and parents to enhance shared awareness of psychopathology and uptake of treatment.

UNASSIGNED: To understand brain function in natural real-world settings, it is crucial to acquire brain activity data in noisy environments with diverse artifacts. Electroencephalography (EEG), while susceptible to environmental and physiological artifacts, can be cleaned using advanced signal processing techniques like Artifact Subspace Reconstruction (ASR) and Independent Component Analysis (ICA). This study aims to demonstrate that ASR and ICA can effectively extract brain activity from the substantial artifacts occurring while skateboarding on a half-pipe ramp.
UNASSIGNED: A dual-task paradigm was used, where subjects were presented with auditory stimuli during skateboarding and rest conditions. The effectiveness of ASR and ICA in cleaning artifacts was evaluated using a support vector machine to classify the presence or absence of a sound stimulus in single-trial EEG data. The study evaluated the effectiveness of ASR and ICA in artifact cleaning using five different pipelines: (1) Minimal cleaning (bandpass filtering), (2) ASR only, (3) ICA only, (4) ICA followed by ASR (ICAASR), and (5) ASR preceding ICA (ASRICA). Three skateboarders participated in the experiment.
UNASSIGNED: Results showed that all ICA-containing pipelines, especially ASRICA (69%, 68%, 63%), outperformed minimal cleaning (55%, 52%, 50%) in single-trial classification during skateboarding. The ASRICA pipeline performed significantly better than other pipelines containing ICA for two of the three subjects, with no other pipeline performing better than ASRICA. The superior performance of ASRICA likely results from ASR removing non-stationary artifacts, enhancing ICA decomposition. Evidenced by ASRICA identifying more brain components via ICLabel than ICA alone or ICAASR for all subjects. For the rest condition, with fewer artifacts, the ASRICA pipeline (71%, 82%, 75%) showed slight improvement over minimal cleaning (73%, 70%, 72%), performing significantly better for two subjects.
UNASSIGNED: This study demonstrates that ASRICA can effectively clean artifacts to extract single-trial brain activity during skateboarding. These findings affirm the feasibility of recording brain activity during physically demanding tasks involving substantial body movement, laying the groundwork for future research into the neural processes governing complex and coordinated body movements.

The waste slag known as jarosite residue (JR) and arsenic sulfide residue (ASR) were produced following the creation of zinc by hydrometallurgical procedures. The increasing annual zinc mining has led to growing pressure to dispose of the resulting JR and ASR from zinc smelting, making it crucial to assess their environmental impact and feasibility for utilization. The main components, distribution characteristics of elements, and potential environmental risks of zinc smelting wastes are studied through toxicity leaching tests, sequential extraction procedures, and various characterization technologies such as XRF, XRD, and SEM-EDS. The mineral compositions of JR are natrojarosite, franklinite, and gunningite, and zinc mainly adheres to the crevices of the natrojarosite mineral. Meanwhile, the ASR of flocculent structures is composed of orpiment, greenockite, arsenic oxide, and calvertite, and As appears in the form of the S-As-O phase. The Zn, Cu, and Cd in JR were dominated by exchangeable bound (81.53-96.6 %), and the main form of As, Cd, Se, and Tl in ASR was organic matter bound (87.0-99.21 %). The Risk Assessment Code (RAC) method confirmed the risk of Cd, Cu, Zn, and Mo in JR is high, while the risk of Cd, Pb, and Cr in ASR is moderate. Compared to the standard value of \"Identification Standard for Toxicity of Hazardous Waste Leaching (GB5085.3-2007)\", the leachate concentrations of Zn in JR as well as Cd and As in ASR were exceeded, suggesting that the JR and ASR were in the type of hazardous waste and posed an environmental risk. The study provides theoretical guidance for the future rational management and effective utilization of hazardous waste.

Although 14-3-3 proteins have been implicated in plant growth, development, and stress response, their roles in pepper immunity against R. solanacearum remain poorly understood. In this study, a 14-3-3-encoding gene in pepper, Ca16R, was found to be upregulated by R. solanacearum inoculation (RSI), its silencing significantly reduced the resistance of pepper plants to RSI, and its overexpression significantly enhanced the resistance of Nicotiana benthamiana to RSI. Consistently, its transient overexpression in pepper leaves triggered HR cell death, indicating that it acts positively in pepper immunity against RSI, and it was further found to act positively in pepper immunity against RSI by promoting SA but repressing JA signaling. Ca16R was also found to interact with CaASR1, originally using pull-down combined with a spectrum assay, and then confirmed using bimolecular fluorescence complementation (BiFC) and a pull-down assay. Furthermore, we found that CaASR1 transient overexpression induced HR cell death and SA-dependent immunity while repressing JA signaling, although this induction and repression was blocked by Ca16R silencing. All these data indicate that Ca16R acts positively in pepper immunity against RSI by interacting with CaASR1, thereby promoting SA-mediated immunity while repressing JA signaling. These results provide new insight into mechanisms underlying pepper immunity against RSI.

Adherent-invasive Escherichia coli (AIEC) strain LF82, isolated from patients with Crohn\'s disease, invades gut epithelial cells, and replicates in macrophages contributing to chronic inflammation. In this study, we found that RstAB contributing to the colonization of LF82 in a mouse model of chronic colitis by promoting bacterial replication in macrophages. By comparing the transcriptomes of rstAB mutant- and wild-type when infected macrophages, 83 significant differentially expressed genes in LF82 were identified. And we identified two possible RstA target genes (csgD and asr) among the differentially expressed genes. The electrophoretic mobility shift assay and quantitative real-time PCR confirmed that RstA binds to the promoters of csgD and asr and activates their expression. csgD deletion attenuated LF82 intracellular biofilm formation, and asr deletion reduced acid tolerance compared with the wild-type. Acidic pH was shown by quantitative real-time PCR to be the signal sensed by RstAB to activate the expression of csgD and asr. We uncovered a signal transduction pathway whereby LF82, in response to the acidic environment within macrophages, activates transcription of the csgD to promote biofilm formation, and activates transcription of the asr to promote acid tolerance, promoting its replication within macrophages and colonization of the intestine. This finding deepens our understanding of the LF82 replication regulation mechanism in macrophages and offers new perspectives for further studies on AIEC virulence mechanisms.

UNASSIGNED: Our aim was to explore the disease burden caused by gallbladder and biliary tract cancer globally, regionally, and nationally, by age and sex.
UNASSIGNED: The absolute number of cases and age-standardized rates (ASR) of incidence, prevalence, mortality, and disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) due to gallbladder and biliary tract cancer were extracted from the Global Burden of Disease (GBD) Study 2019. We estimated the trends in disease burden by calculating the percentage change in the absolute number of cases and the estimated annual percentage change (EAPC) in ASR, by social development index (SDI), region, nation, sex, and age.
UNASSIGNED: From 1990 to 2019, the number of incident cases, prevalent cases, deaths, and DALYs worldwide significantly increased by 1.85-fold, 1.92-fold, 1.82-fold, and 1.68-fold, respectively. However, the age-standardized rates of incidence, prevalence, mortality, and DALYs tend to decrease globally over time. Nevertheless, heterogeneous disease burden patterns exist between geographic regions due to different geographical risk factors, distinct epidemiologically predominant gallbladder and biliary tract cancer subtypes, and potential genetic predispositions or ethnicity. Additionally, socioeconomic status mediates the regional variation in disease burden, with increasing SDI or HDI scores associated with downward trends in the age-standardized rates of incidence, prevalence, mortality, and DALYs. Older individuals and females are at higher risk of gallbladder and biliary tract cancer, but the increasing burden of early-onset gallbladder and biliary tract cancer is a cause for concern, especially for those living in lower SDI areas and males. High BMI is the primary risk factors underlying gallbladder and biliary tract cancer, accounted for 15.2% of deaths and 15.7% DALYs globally in 2019.
UNASSIGNED: Our study comprehensively elucidated the distribution and dynamic trends of gallbladder and biliary tract cancer burden over the past three decades, from multiple dimensions. These findings emphasize the importance of promoting a healthy lifestyle as a population-level cancer prevention strategy and tailoring cancer control actions based on localized risk factors and the epidemic profiles of gallbladder and biliary tract cancer by anatomical subtype.

How a protein\'s function influences the shape of its fitness landscape, smooth or rugged, is a fundamental question in evolutionary biochemistry. Smooth landscapes arise when incremental mutational steps lead to a progressive change in function, as commonly seen in enzymes and binding proteins. On the other hand, rugged landscapes are poorly understood because of the inherent unpredictability of how sequence changes affect function. Here, we experimentally characterize the entire sequence phylogeny, comprising 1,158 extant and ancestral sequences, of the DNA-binding domain (DBD) of the LacI/GalR transcriptional repressor family. Our analysis revealed an extremely rugged landscape with rapid switching of specificity, even between adjacent nodes. Further, the ruggedness arises due to the necessity of the repressor to simultaneously evolve specificity for asymmetric operators and disfavors potentially adverse regulatory crosstalk. Our study provides fundamental insight into evolutionary, molecular, and biophysical rules of genetic regulation through the lens of fitness landscapes.

Pneumocystis jirovecii pneumonia (PJP) is a serious and sometimes fatal infection occurring in immunocompromised individuals. High-risk patients include those with low CD4 counts due to human immunodeficiency virus infection and transplant recipients. The incidence of PJP is increasing, and rapid detection of PJP is needed to effectively target treatment and improve patient outcomes. A common method used is an immunofluorescent assay (IFA), which has limitations, including labor costs, low sensitivity, and requirement for expert interpretation. This study evaluates the performance of the DiaSorin Molecular Pneumocystis jirovecii analyte-specific reagent (ASR) in a laboratory-developed test (LDT) for the direct detection of P. jirovecii DNA without prior nucleic acid extraction. Respiratory samples (n = 135) previously tested by IFA from 111 patients were included. Using a composite standard of in-house IFA and reference lab PJP PCR, the percent positive agreement for the LDT using the DiaSorin ASR was 97.8% (90/92). The negative percent agreement was 97.7% (42/43). The lower limit of detection of the assay was determined to be 1,200 copies/mL in bronchoalveolar lavage fluid. Analytical specificity was assessed using cultures of oropharyngeal flora and common respiratory bacterial and fungal pathogens. No cross-reactivity was observed. Our study suggests that the DiaSorin Pneumocystis ASR accurately detects P. jirovecii DNA and demonstrates improved sensitivity compared to the IFA method.
OBJECTIVE: Our study is unique compared to other previously published studies on the DiaSorin analyte-specific reagent (ASR) because we focused on microbiological diagnostic methods commonly used (immunofluorescent assay) as opposed to pathology findings or reference PCR. In addition, in our materials and methods, we describe the protocol for the use of the DiaSorin ASR as a singleplex assay, which will allow other users to evaluate the ASR for clinical use in their lab.

This study developed a metamaterial-inspired split-ring resonator (SRR) based inversion symmetry-shaped structure for airport surveillance radar and local area wireless network applications. The proposed device exhibited suitability for S- and C-band applications, featuring distinct resonance peaks at 2.8 and 4.9 GHz, respectively. The two-layer double negative metamaterial unit cell comprises a copper-based resonator, patch, and a low-loss substrate material known as Rogers RT5800 with a thickness of 1.575 mm. The 8 × 8 mm2 structure unit cell was identified with an effective medium ratio (EMR) of 13.4 at the resonance peak of 2.8 GHz. With the alteration of the metamaterial unit cell structure, the electric field, surface current distribution, magnetic field, and design evolution were observed, analysed, and investigated in this study. Meanwhile, the retrieved data from the reflection and transmission coefficients from CST Microwave Studio were validated using the Ansys High-Frequency Structure Simulator (HFSS) software. A Vector Network Analyzer (VNA) further measured the numerical results. Based on the findings, the proposed novel double negative metamaterial device is suitable for radar communication and satellite applications, especially airport surveillance radar (ASR) and wireless local area network (WLAN), due to its high EMR at the desired resonance frequency.

The integration of Artificial Intelligence (AI) holds immense potential for revolutionizing education; especially, in contexts where multimodal learning experiences are designed. This paper investigated the potential benefits of Generative Artificial Intelligence (AI) in education, concentrating on the design and evaluation of an AI Educational Video Assistant tailored for multimodal learning experiences. The tool, utilizing the principles of the Cognitive Theory of Multimedia Learning (CTML), comprises three modules: Transcription, Engagement, and Reinforcement, each focusing on distinct aspects of the learning process. It Integraties Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR) using OpenAI\'s Whisper and Google\'s Large Language Model (LLM) Bard. Our twofold objective includes both the development of this AI assistant tool and the assessment of its effect on improving the learning experiences. For the evaluation, a mixed methods approach was adopted, combining human evaluation by nine educational experts with automatic metrics. Participants provided their perceptions on the tool\'s effectiveness in terms of engagement, content organization, clarity, and usability. Additionally, automatic metrics including Content Distinctiveness and Readability scores were computed. The results from the human evaluation suggest positive impacts across all assessed domains. The automatic metrics further proved the tool\'s ability in content generation and readability. Collectively, these preliminary results highlight the tool\'s potential to revolutionize educational design and provide personalized and engaging learning experiences.