Human T cell lymphotropic virus type 1 (HTLV-1) is a retrovirus that infects lymphocytes and causes severe diseases. HTLV-1 proviral load (PVL), i.e., the number of host cells that carry HTLV-1 proviral DNA integrated into their genome, can be measured in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) using quantitative polymerase chain reaction. In this narrative review, we discuss the usefulness of HTLV-1 PVL quantification and share our experience acquired during more than 30 years of follow-up of people living with HTLV-1 in the UK. Patients with HTLV-1-associated myelopathy have higher PVL than those with asymptomatic infection. This is consistent across studies in different countries. High PVL predates symptom onset for both inflammatory and proliferative diseases. High PVL is essential but not sufficient for the development of HTLV-1-associated diseases. Therefore, PVL quantification can be used to support the care of people living with HTLV-1 by identifying those most at risk of HTLV-1-associated diseases.

Following an application from Cárnicas Joselito S.A. pursuant to Article 14 of Regulation (EC) No 1924/2006 via the Competent Authority of Spain, the Panel on Nutrition, Novel Foods and Food Allergens (NDA) was asked to deliver an opinion on the scientific substantiation of a health claim related to \'Joselito ham increases antioxidant substances in the body, reduces blood pressure and plasma triglycerides, decreases oxidative stress and prevents effect in diseases related to the cardiovascular and intestinal systems\'. The scope of the application was proposed to fall under a health claim referring to disease risk reduction. The food constituent that is the subject of the health claim is Joselito, an Iberian ham characterised by a high content of oleic acid. The Panel considers that the food is sufficiently characterised. The Panel considers that lowering of LDL-cholesterol concentration and blood pressure is a beneficial effect by decreasing the risk of coronary heart disease. Upon a request from EFSA, the applicant identified one human intervention study as being pertinent to the claim. However, due to methodological limitations, the Panel considers that no conclusions can be drawn from this study for the scientific substantiation of the claim. The Panel notes that no human intervention studies from which conclusions could be drawn for the scientific substantiation of the claim were provided by the applicant. The Panel concludes that a cause and effect relationship has not been established between the intake of Joselito® ham and the reduction of LDL-cholesterol concentration or blood pressure.

The detection of meat quality defects can involve both subjective and objective methods. PSE-like meat is linked to a common pork defect and can be caused by rapid post-mortem damage of muscle fibers. This damage can again be linked to various factors, such as a low ultimate pH or a higher slaughter weight. PSE-like defects are characterized by discoloration, structural damage, and excessive moisture loss. However, the lack of suitable instrument-based methods makes the detection of PSE-like defects difficult, and subjective methods typically suffer from poorer reproducibility. The objective of this study was to establish how subjective visual evaluation correlates with electrical impedance spectroscopy and with traditional quality parameters. To do so, visual scoring was performed together with measurements of bioimpedance, color, and pH in two ham muscles (Adductor, Semimembranosus) for 136 animals 24-hours post-mortem. When comparing with visual scoring, Pearson correlation analysis shows the strongest correlation for bioimpedance (Py , r = -0.46, R2 = 21%), followed by pHu (r = 0.44, R2 = 19%). When using all five quality measures, i.e., Py , pHu, and CIELAB L * a * b *, the multivariate regression model had a prediction error of 0.76 for the visual scores. This was close to the error describing the subjective bias of visual scoring, more specifically the prediction error between the two observers (0.85). In all, Py showed the strongest correlation among instrument-based quality tests and alone may be used for predicting pork ham structural defects, i.e., as an instrument-based alternative for subjective, visual scoring. However, an instrument that combines Py with pH and/or L*a*b* would improve the prediction of PSE-like quality defects.

The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of extended maturation and temperature increase on the physico-chemical, biochemical, instrumental color and texture, sensory, and acceptability parameters of cured and boneless Iberian hams. Given the limited knowledge in this area, our objective was to develop a ham with enhanced proteolysis, potentially leading to increased bioactive peptide generation and superior sensory characteristics compared to salt-reduced counterparts. To achieve this, a batch of hams cured up to 38% loss at 30 °C and two batches cured up to 42% loss at 30 °C and 36 °C were evaluated. Results showed that the increase in processing time and temperature significantly enhanced (p < 0.05) ham proteolysis and amino acid content without adversely affecting its texture. No significant differences were observed in instrumental texture parameters or sensory attributes as evaluated by consumers. These processing conditions also increased the content of free amino acids, improving the product quality. Overall, these processing modifications resulted in hams with excellent sensory acceptability and enhanced bioactive potential despite the salt reduction.

SCARECROW-LIKE6 (SCL6) plays a role in the formation and maintenance of the meristem. In Larix kaempferi (Lamb.) Carr., an important afforestation tree species in China, SCL6 (LaSCL6) has two alternative splicing variants-LaSCL6-var1 and LaSCL6-var2-which are regulated by microRNA171. However, their roles are still unclear. In this study, LaSCL6-var1 and LaSCL6-var2 were transformed into the Arabidopsis thaliana (L.) Heynh. genome, and the phenotypic characteristics of transgenic A. thaliana, including the germination percentage, root length, bolting time, flower and silique formation times, inflorescence axis length, and branch and silique numbers, were analyzed to reveal their functions. It was found that LaSCL6-var1 and LaSCL6-var2 overexpression shortened the root length by 41% and 31%, respectively, and increased the inflorescence axis length. Compared with the wild type, the bolting time in transgenic plants was delayed by approximately 2-3 days, the first flower and silique formation times were delayed by approximately 3-4 days, and the last flower and silique formation times were delayed by about 5 days. Overall, the life cycle in transgenic plants was prolonged by approximately 5 days. These results show that LaSCL6 overexpression inhibited the transitions from the vegetative meristem to inflorescence meristem and from the flower meristem to meristem arrest in A. thaliana, revealing the roles of LaSCL6-var1 and LaSCL6-var2 in the fate transition and maintenance of the meristem.

Nanofluid is a specially crafted fluid comprising a pure fluid with dispersed nanometer-sized particles. Incorporation these nanoparticles into pure fluid results in a fluid with improved thermal properties in comparison of pure fluid. The enhanced properties of nanofluids make them highly sought after, in diverse applications, consisting of coolant of devices, heat exchangers, and thermal solar systems. In this study hybrid nanofluid consisting of copper, alumina and titanium nanoparticles on a curved sheet has investigated with impact of chemical reactivity, magnetic field and Joule heating. The leading equations have converted to normal equations by using appropriate set of variables and has then evaluated by homotopy analysis method. The outcomes are shown through Figures and Tables and are discussed physically. It has revealed in this study that Cu-nanofluid flow has augmented velocity, temperature, and volume fraction distributions than those of Al2O3-nanofluid and TiO2-nanofluid. Also, the Cu-nanofluid flow has higher heat and mass transfer rates than those of Al2O3-nanofluid and TiO2-nanofluid.

Inadequate domestic refrigeration is frequently cited as a factor that contributes to foodborne poisoning and infection, and consumer behaviour in this regard can vary largely. This study provides insight into the temperature profiles of domestic refrigerators in the Netherlands and the impact on the number of listeriosis cases related to ready-to-eat (RTE) cooked meat products. A survey was conducted among Dutch consumers (n = 1020) to assess their knowledge and behaviour related to refrigerators. Out of these participants, 534 measured their refrigerator\'s temperature, revealing an average temperature of 5.7 °C (standard deviation (SD) of 2.2 °C) with a maximum of 17 °C. Elderly people (65 years and older) had refrigerators with temperatures that were on average 0.6 °C higher than those of younger people (35 years or younger). The 24-hour temperature profiles of an additional set of actively surveyed refrigerators (n = 50) showed that the temperature measured on the upper shelf was significantly higher (mean 7.7 °C, SD 2.7 °C) than the temperature measured on the bottom shelf (5.7 °C, SD 2.1 °C). Quantitative Microbiological Risk Assessment (QMRA) predicted that the primary factors contributing to the risk of listeriosis were the initial concentration and the time and temperature during household storage. Scenario analysis revealed that storing opened RTE cooked meat products at home for either <7 days or at temperatures <7 °C resulted in a significant reduction of over 80 % in predicted illness cases. Among all illness cases, the elderly represented nearly 90 %. When assessing the impact of the disease in terms of Years of Life Lost (YLL), the contribution of the elderly was 59 %. Targeted communication, particularly directed towards the elderly, on the importance of storing RTE cooked meat products at the recommended temperature on the bottom or middle shelf as well as consuming within two to three days after opening, holds the potential to significantly reduce the number of cases.

A 55-year-old female presented with recent exacerbation of the chronic cough, dyspnea, and copious expectoration. The symptoms worsened during the winter months. In the past, she was misdiagnosed with pulmonary tuberculosis. A computed tomography scan revealed bronchiectasis changes, high attenuated mucus, and hypereosinophilia. The diagnosis of Allergic Bronchopulmonary Aspergillosis (ABPA) with subacute invasion was confirmed through bronchoscopy and fungal culture. Treatment with oral voriconazole significantly improved lung function and quality of life. This case highlights the importance of considering invasive pulmonary aspergillosis in patients with exacerbations of asthma and bronchiectasis. Early diagnosis and appropriate treatment are essential for improved outcomes in such cases.

Negative emotions of drivers may lead to some dangerous driving behaviors, which in turn lead to serious traffic accidents. However, most of the current studies on driver emotions use a single modality, such as EEG, eye trackers, and driving data. In complex situations, a single modality may not be able to fully consider a driver\'s complete emotional characteristics and provides poor robustness. In recent years, some studies have used multimodal thinking to monitor single emotions such as driver fatigue and anger, but in actual driving environments, negative emotions such as sadness, anger, fear, and fatigue all have a significant impact on driving safety. However, there are very few research cases using multimodal data to accurately predict drivers\' comprehensive emotions. Therefore, based on the multi-modal idea, this paper aims to improve drivers\' comprehensive emotion recognition. By combining the three modalities of a driver\'s voice, facial image, and video sequence, the six classification tasks of drivers\' emotions are performed as follows: sadness, anger, fear, fatigue, happiness, and emotional neutrality. In order to accurately identify drivers\' negative emotions to improve driving safety, this paper proposes a multi-modal fusion framework based on the CNN + Bi-LSTM + HAM to identify driver emotions. The framework fuses feature vectors of driver audio, facial expressions, and video sequences for comprehensive driver emotion recognition. Experiments have proved the effectiveness of the multi-modal data proposed in this paper for driver emotion recognition, and its recognition accuracy has reached 85.52%. At the same time, the validity of this method is verified by comparing experiments and evaluation indicators such as accuracy and F1 score.

Extracellular vesicles and particles (EVPs) are released from virtually all cell types, and may package many inflammatory factors and, in the case of infection, viral components. As such, EVPs can play not only a direct role in the development and progression of disease but can also be used as biomarkers. Here, we characterized immune signatures of EVPs from the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) of individuals with HTLV-1-associated myelopathy (HAM), other chronic neurologic diseases, and healthy volunteers (HVs) to determine potential indicators of viral involvement and mechanisms of disease.
We analyzed the EVPs from the CSF of HVs, individuals with HAM, HTLV-1-infected asymptomatic carriers (ACs), and from patients with a variety of chronic neurologic diseases of both known viral and non-viral etiologies to investigate the surface repertoires of CSF EVPs during disease.
Significant increases in CD8+ and CD2+ EVPs were found in HAM patient CSF samples compared to other clinical groups (p = 0.0002 and p = 0.0003 compared to HVs, respectively, and p = 0.001 and p = 0.0228 compared to MS, respectively), consistent with the immunopathologically-mediated disease associated with CD8+ T-cells in the central nervous system (CNS) of HAM patients. Furthermore, CD8+ (p < 0.0001), CD2+ (p < 0.0001), CD44+ (p = 0.0176), and CD40+ (p = 0.0413) EVP signals were significantly increased in the CSF from individuals with viral infections compared to those without.
These data suggest that CD8+ and CD2+ CSF EVPs may be important as: 1) potential biomarkers and indicators of disease pathways for viral-mediated neurological diseases, particularly HAM, and 2) as possible meditators of the disease process in infected individuals.