Abstract: Micro- and nanoplastics (MNPs) have now been detected in human blood, placenta, and arterial tissue, yet the oral cavity, which serves as the primary portal of environmental exposure, has received strikingly little mechanistic attention. This narrative review addresses that gap from an environmental microbiology perspective, synthesizing recent literature on periodontal disease, chronic low-grade inflammation, oral biofilms, dental materials, microbial–plastic interactions, and systemic chronic disease risk. Unlike prior reviews, we apply an explicit evidentiary framework that distinguishes what is directly demonstrated from what is biologically plausible but unproven, and we situate the periodontal environment specifically as a particle-retention and inflammatory-amplification niche. The strongest direct oral evidence shows that human dental calculus harbors at least 26 microplastic types, dominated by polyamide (41.4%), polyethylene (32.7%), and polyurethane (7.0%). Polyethylene isolated from calculus induces cytotoxicity, apoptosis, impaired migration, NF-κB activation, and upregulation of IL-1β and IL-6 in human gingival fibroblasts. The oral cavity is also a portal for environmental exposure and a local site of plastic generation: MNPs are released from chewing gum, oral care products, orthodontic appliances, and resin-based dental materials, while oral microorganisms have been documented to degrade methacrylate polymers. Across experimental systems, MNPs activate oxidative stress, inflammasome signaling, macrophage polarization, and barrier dysfunction — pathways that overlap extensively with the pathobiology of periodontitis. Environmental biofilm studies further indicate that plastic substrates can enhance extracellular polymeric substance production, quorum sensing, antibiotic resistance gene transfer, and pathogen persistence, suggesting a plausible but not yet proven oral plastisphere within plaque and calculus. We argue that periodontitis should be reconceptualized as a chronically inflamed particle-processing interface that may increase local MNP retention, cellular reactivity, and systemic inflammatory spillover, with implications for cardiovascular, metabolic, and other chronic disease risk pathways. Current evidence does not yet prove that environmental MNP exposure causes human periodontitis, and that evidentiary boundary is maintained throughout. A priority research agenda is proposed, centered on contamination-controlled subgingival biomonitoring stratified by periodontal status, spatially resolved multi-species biofilm models, polymer source attribution, and longitudinal clinical studies linking oral plastic burden to inflammatory and systemic outcomes.

Abstract: Contrastive learning–based models such as DrugCLIP have recently emerged as scalable tools for structure-based virtual screening by embedding protein structures and small molecules into a shared representation space. While these approaches demonstrate high throughput and competitive screening performance in ligand retrieval tasks, their ability to correctly identify biologically relevant ligand-binding pockets has not been systematically evaluated. Here, we construct a benchmarking dataset comprising 42 pharmacologically diverse human protein targets with experimentally validated drug-bound structures spanning multiple target families. Using this dataset, we evaluate the pocket recognition capability of DrugCLIP and compare its performance with a traditional structure-based workflow that integrates geometric pocket detection (Fpocket) with dynamics-informed pocket ranking (ESSA). DrugCLIP achieves perfect success rates for several well-studied target classes, including kinases (10/10), GPCRs (5/5), and nuclear receptors (5/5), but shows markedly reduced performance for ion channels (1/4) and transporters (2/5). Notably, pocket prediction accuracy does not strongly correlate with structural data availability, suggesting that intrinsic pocket characteristics rather than training data abundance primarily affect model performance. Across the benchmark, DrugCLIP does not outperform traditional pocket identification strategies (DrugCLIP vs. Fpocket+ESSA: 74% vs. 79%). Together, these results provide a quantitative evaluation of pocket recognition by contrastive learning–based models and highlight key limitations that should be considered when applying embedding-based approaches in prospective structure-based drug discovery.

Abstract: This paper critiques the established loss of simultaneity in special relativity which comes from Minkowski diagrams. Einstein's original thought experiment, with a train (observer M’), an embankment (observer M) and simultaneous lightnings, will become our test. For our purpose, lightnings will become photons. By applying the two postulates of special relativity (speed of light and principle of relativity), the paper shows that simultaneity should be observed by both observers. This would imply a superposition of some kind, as the photons meet simultaneously M and M’ while they are not at the same position. By using Lorentz invariance (therefore pure calculation), the conclusion of simultaneity for both observers will be confirmed. The superposition could be a quantum superposition. The conclusion is that Minkowski diagrams with their oblique coordinates are probably correct but, lacking the idea of superposition, fail to fully describe special relativity.

Abstract: One of the most promising approaches for replacing conventional power plants during the transition to clean energy is the conversion of existing coalfired power plants (CPPs) into nuclear power plants. This strategy offers numerous ecological and economic advantages. However, integrating a nuclear reactor with a steam turbine originally designed for a coal plant is far from trivial and involves significant technical challenges. The purpose of this work is to analyze and evaluate various options for coupling a HighTemperature GasCooled Small Modular Reactor (HTGR SMR) with a potentially suitable subcritical steam turbine from an existing CPP, thereby creating several repowering configurations. The main difficulties stem from the fact that the turbine was designed to operate with live steam at lower flow rates, temperatures, and pressures than those typically provided by an HTGR SMR. In addition, the feedwater temperature and pressure requirements for the HTGR SMR steam generator differ substantially from those in a CPP, leading at best to additional efficiency losses. Moreover, the overall thermal cycle layouts of the two systems are fundamentally different. Despite these challenges, technically feasible combinations can be achieved. However, determining which option is the most economically viable depends on numerous additional factors, including the specific characteristics of the individual CPP and the regulatory framework of the country in which it operates.

Abstract: Ticks are important arthropod vectors that transmit various pathogens to humans, livestock, and wildlife, thereby contributing significantly to the global burden of vector-borne diseases. The tick microbiome, consisting of bacteria, viruses, protozoa, and other microorganisms, plays a crucial role in pathogen transmission dynamics and the emergence of new zoonotic diseases. This review examines the characteristics of tick vectors, the composition and dynamics of tick-associated microbiomes, and their implications for zoonotic disease transmission. We analyze current knowledge of tick-borne pathogens, including Borrelia burgdorferi, Rickettsia species, Anaplasma species, and Coxiella species, and highlight the potential for microbiome constituents to serve as reservoirs for emerging pathogens. The complex interactions between tick hosts, their microbiomes, and vertebrate hosts create opportunities for pathogen evolution and interspecies transmission. Recent advances in molecular techniques have revealed previously unknown microbial diversity within tick populations, suggesting that many potential zoonotic pathogens remain undiscovered. We discuss future research directions, including field screening methodologies for pathogen detection, microbiome-based risk assessment approaches, and the development of novel prevention strategies, including tick vaccines.

Abstract: With the advent of the neural network era, traditional machine learning methods have increasingly been overshadowed. Nevertheless, continuing research on the role of geometry for learning in data science is crucial to envision and understand new principles behind the design of efficient machine learning. Linear classifiers are favored in certain tasks due to their reduced susceptibility to overfitting and their ability to provide interpretable decision boundaries. However, achieving both scalability and high predictive performance in linear classification remains a persistent challenge. Here, we propose a theoretical framework named geometric discriminant analysis (GDA). GDA includes the family of linear classifiers that can be expressed as a function of a centroid discriminant basis (CDB0) - the connection line between two centroids - adjusted by geometric corrections under different constraints. We demonstrate that linear discriminant analysis (LDA) is a subcase of the GDA theoretical framework, and we show its convergence to CDB0 under certain conditions. Then, based on the GDA framework, we propose an efficient linear classifier named centroid discriminant analysis (CDA) which is defined as a special case of GDA under a 2D plane geometric constraint. CDA training is initialized starting from CDB0 and involves the iterative calculation of new adjusted centroid discriminant lines whose optimal rotations on the associated 2D planes are searched via Bayesian optimization. CDA has good scalability (quadratic time complexity) which is lower than LDA and support vector machine (SVM) (cubic complexity). Results on 27 real datasets across classification tasks of standard images, medical images and chemical properties, offer empirical evidence that CDA outperforms other linear methods such as LDA, SVM and logistic regression (LR) in terms of scalability, performance and stability. Furthermore, we show that linear CDA can be generalized to nonlinear CDA via kernel method, demonstrating improvements on the linear version with tests on three challenging datasets of images and chemical data. GDA's general validity as a new theoretical framework may inspire the design of new classifiers under the definition of different geometric constraints, paving the way towards a deeper understanding of the role of geometry in learning from data.

Abstract: Glutamine is the most abundant amino acid in human plasma and tissues and plays essential roles in cellular metabolism, biosynthesis, and redox homeostasis. Beyond these canonical functions, glutamine availability and utilization have emerged as key regulators of multiple cellular stress responses, including the integrated stress response, endoplasmic reticulum stress, metabolic checkpoint signaling, and autophagy. During viral infection, host glutamine metabolism is frequently reprogrammed to meet the energetic and biosynthetic demands of viral replication, thereby inducing or reshaping glutamine-linked stress pathways. Increasing evidence indicates that these stress responses are not merely secondary consequences of infection but actively influence key stages of the viral life cycle, including viral entry, genome replication, protein synthesis, and host antiviral responses. In this review, we summarize current advances in understanding how glutamine metabolism regulates cellular stress responses in the context of both viral and non-viral infections, and how these pathways, in turn, modulate viral pathogenesis and host defense. We discuss the context-dependent roles of glutamine-linked stress signaling in either promoting viral replication or restricting infection, depending on viral species, host cell type, and metabolic conditions. Finally, we highlight emerging concepts and unresolved questions, including the potential of targeting glutamine metabolism and associated stress pathways as host-directed antiviral strategies. A deeper understanding of the interplay between glutamine metabolism, cellular stress responses, and viral infection may provide new insights into disease mechanisms and inform the development of novel therapeutic approaches.

Abstract: Residential construction is the only large-scale production system that has resisted the deflationary intelligence that reduced computation cost by a factor of ten trillion and genome-sequencing cost by fifteen million within a single generation. We argue this resistance is not coincidental: it is a structural consequence of a geometric compound of environmental distortions (D = exp(∑wₖ·ln(dₖ))) whose six channels have remained simultaneously elevated — a configuration that no single-channel intelligence intervention can overcome. We formalise distortion axiomatically, derive the geometric formula by necessity (not empirical fit), and introduce the Channel Synchronization Index (CSI) as an operational predictor of deflationary inflection: when CSI ≥ 3 channels compress simultaneously, a nonlinear phase transition in construction cost becomes likely. We calibrate a six-channel D_urban model against OECD, ILO, World Bank, and Eurostat data (2010–2026), compare current AI systems (GPT-4o, Claude 3.5/4, Gemini Ultra, agentic frameworks) by their D-compression capacity, and run a 10,000-scenario Monte Carlo simulation (Deucalion HPC, FCT Grant 2025.00020.AIVLAB.DEUCALION). Central estimate for sustained deflationary inflection: 2031–2035. Under a coordinated agentic AI scenario (CSI ≥ 5 by 2032), a 90% real price decline from peak becomes structurally achievable by 2050–2060. We provide eight falsifiability criteria. Definitions, axiom proofs, and full methodology are in the Appendix.

Abstract: Background: The negative impact of Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) on child development is documented. The parent-child relationship protects against ACEs and improves healthy child development. Hence, the parent-child environment plays a crucial role in preventing and mitigating ACEs through positive childhood experiences that elicit parental resilience. However, our understanding of the parent-child relation-ship within the social-ecological model (SEM) (i.e., intra- and interpersonal, community, and societal levels) is limited. Objective: This study explores parents’ perspectives on parental resilience as a protective factor for preventing ACEs and supporting PCEs at every level of the SEM, while considering parents’ personal ACE scores and emotional regulation (ER) scores. Method: This study uses a thematic analysis approach for qualitative research. In-depth individual interviews were conducted with members of a parent support group (PSG) (82% female, n = 14) based in a community-based organi-zation serving families (n = 17 parent interviews). Demographic information, ER, and ACE scores were collected for each participant. Results: Seven themes and 16 subthemes were identified, including parents experiencing aspects of emotional regulation from joining a PSG at all SEM levels, sensing a communication disconnect with school teachers, and parents desiring ACE prevention/mitigation training. Conclusion: ‪The insights on parental resilience perceptions are valuable and hold promise to inform future multi-level prevention strategies and mitigation practices using the SEM.

Abstract: Pediatric brain tumours are highly prevalent and remain one of the leading causes of cancer-related deaths in children. There are numerous different brain tumour types that are now well characterized by magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), patient clinical course, neuropathological and molecular genetic alterations. One of the challenges with treating pediatric brain tumours with systemic chemotherapy is the inability of several chemotherapeutic agents to cross the blood brain barrier (BBB) which serves as a protective mechanism for neuronal homeostasis. The BBB is primarily comprised of microvascular endothelial tight junctions. Controlling BBB permeability to allow for therapeutics to cross and combat brain tumors is now possible using MR-guided Focused Ultrasound (MRgFUS). In this approach, microbubbles are administered intra-venously prior to MRgFUS BBB disruption at the targeted tumour site in the brain. In the presence of MRgFUS, the microbubbles in the brain capillaries oscillate, and temporarily disrupt the BBB enabling systemically administered chemotherapy drugs to cross at the targeted site. In this review, we provide evidence supporting the use of MRgFUS BBB disruption to treat brain tumours in animal models, and in on-going human clinical drug trials. We conclude with efforts to harness the potency of the immune system using MRgFUS against pediatric brain tumours.

Abstract: Minimally invasive aortic valve replacement (MIAVR) via transaxillary access, right anterior thoracotomy (RAT), and ministernotomy has matured from niche innovation to guideline-endorsed standard, yet comparative data remain heterogeneous and fragmented. Objectives: This state-of-the-art review synthesizes contemporary evidence to define the role of each approach within modern valve care pathways. A PRISMA 2020 systematic review with PROSPERO registration identified studies reporting outcomes of isolated AVR performed through transaxillary, RAT, or ministernotomy access. Primary endpoints were 30-day mortality, operative times, and length of stay; secondary endpoints included complications, long-term survival, learning curves, and patient-reported outcomes. Forty-two studies encompassing 15,328 patients were included: transaxillary (n=2,156), RAT (n=4,892), and ministernotomy (n=8,280). All approaches achieved excellent perioperative safety (mortality 0.4–2.5%) and long-term survival comparable to full sternotomy, while consistently reducing blood loss, transfusion, ventilation time, and hospital stay. Ministernotomy offered broadest anatomical applicability and the shortest learning curve (20–30 cases). RAT combined complete sternal preservation, lowest bleeding rates, and superior cosmetic and functional recovery in anatomically suitable patients. Transaxillary access provided hidden scarring and attractive options in redo or sternum-avoidance scenarios, but higher reported stroke rates (2.0–6.3%) and greater technical demands limited its use to high-volume centres. MIAVR via ministernotomy, RAT, and transaxillary access now represents a mature, durable alternative to full sternotomy. A structured, anatomy- and centre experience–driven selection strategy is essential to fully realize its benefits across diverse patient populations.

Abstract: Dementia affects approximately 55 million people worldwide, yet the psychological experience of diagnosis and the determinants of post-diagnostic wellbeing remain underexplored relative to biomedical research priorities. The existing literature has been predominantly deficit-oriented, focusing on cognitive decline, neuropsychiatric symptoms, and carer burden, with limited attention to preserved psychological capacities and what supports flourishing following diagnosis. This narrative review applies a positive psychology framework to synthesise evidence on meaning, purpose, hope, and post-diagnostic adjustment in early-stage dementia. A central empirical observation motivating the review is the wellbeing paradox: the consistent finding that subjective wellbeing in early-to-moderate dementia is frequently higher than carers and clinicians predict, and is more strongly associated with psychosocial variables than with objective cognitive status. Evidence from the IDEAL cohort and related longitudinal research demonstrates that emotional responsiveness, need satisfaction, and capacity for meaning-making are preserved in early-stage dementia and constitute clinically relevant assets. Four positive psychology constructs are identified as evidence-based targets for intervention: hope, self-compassion, social identity, and meaningful engagement. Clinical implications include the integration of strengths-based assessment, meaning-centred group interventions, structured peer support, and validated positive outcome measures into post-diagnostic care pathways. Health equity considerations and research priorities are addressed, including the underrepresentation of minority ethnic communities and people with young-onset dementia in existing research. The review argues that meaningful progress requires deliberate reorientation of clinical, commissioning, and research priorities toward a positive psychology framework for dementia care.

Abstract: The transition from fossil-based resources to renewable feedstocks is a cornerstone of industrial decarbonization. A critical component of this shift lies in deriving intermediates and value-added products from biomass. Among renewable resources, lignin stands out as a promising candidate due to its wide availability, abundance, and non-competitiveness with food production, making it an ideal starting material. The removal and depolymerization of lignin to produce aromatic chemicals can significantly enhance the material usability of all lignocellulose constituents. The removal and depolymerization of lignin to produce aromatic chemicals can significantly enhance the material usability of all lignocellulose constituents. Herein, a process for the polyoxometalate-catalyzed oxidative depolymerization of technical lignins to produce the monoaromatic compounds vanillin (Va), methyl vanillate (MeVa), syringaldehyde (Sy), and methyl syringate (MeSy) is demonstrated, offering the possibility to achive high monoaromatic yields of up to 12wt%.

Abstract: The "Binding Problem" in neuroscience remains unsolved due to the temporal lag of synaptic transmission, which operates at scales (> 1 ms) insufficient for sub-millisecond conscious integration. Here, we propose a framework for cellular cognition anchored in acoustic-optical field coupling within the structured medium of the cytoplasm. We demonstrate that the microtubule (MT) lattice functions as a tunable acoustic metamaterial, where the 5,281 phosphorylation states of the "Hameroff Byte" act as a stochastic configuration space for phononic filtering. Integrating behavioral data from non-neural organisms like Stentor coeruleus, we show that associative conditioning within these molecular networks maximizes Integrative Causal Emergence (ICE). This process reifies the cellular "Self" as a unified causal agent through a "Wavefront Lock" mechanism—a state of high-order aperiodic symmetry protected from thermal decoherence by hierarchical cytoplasmic heterogeneities.

Abstract: Digital inclusion is increasingly recognized as a key driver of socioeconomic opportunity in rapidly urbanizing African cities, yet empirical evidence on its structural determinants remains limited. This study advances the literature by developing a multidimensional, data-driven framework to assess digital inclusion in Ziguinchor, Senegal. Using a unique household survey, it integrates technological access, service quality, affordability, electricity reliability, mobility constraints, and social capital. Principal Component Analysis (PCA) is used to construct standardized domain indices and a composite Digital Inclusion Index, while regression models quantify the relative influence of each domain, accounting for gender and age differences. The findings provide new empirical evidence that digital inclusion is driven primarily by material and infrastructural conditions, particularly device access, proximity and mobility constraints, and electricity reliability. In contrast, affordability and service quality play smaller roles, challenging dominant policy narratives focused on data costs. The study also reveals persistent gender and generational inequalities in digital access and use. By quantifying the relative weight of multidimensional constraints and linking them to spatial and infrastructural conditions, the research offers a replicable and policy-relevant analytical framework for secondary cities. It demonstrates that digital inclusion is not solely a connectivity issue but a structurally embedded outcome, requiring integrated interventions across infrastructure, mobility, and social equity domains.

Abstract: Chlorine Dioxide (ClO2) is a neutral oxidant molecule having a short life-span once in contact with electron donors (organic matter). ClO2 solutions have antiviral, antibiotic, anti-inflammatory, anticancer and wound healing activity and it was used at safe concentrations with patients of different countries during the COVID-19 pandemic. In Mexico 1067 COVID-19 patients received compassionate treatments with ClO2 during the 2020/2021 pandemic years. We describe the treatments and clinical report of these patients, as it concerns the Oxygen saturation (SpO2) recovery and we give a biochemical explanation. The number of healed patients was 1057, >99% of the total and SpO2 showed a hyperbolic fast increase. This happens because ClO2 attracts one electron from the organic matter and produces a Chlorite anion (ClO2-). This new molecule has a known metabolic activity in the blood stream. On the one side, it will have the mentioned anti-viral, antibiotic and on the other side it will also allow producing Oxygen (O2) to be transported by the hemoglobin. This reaction is mediated by an intermediate state of a Ferryl molecule (Fe=O) in the allosteric site of methemoglobin, which behaves as a reductase enzyme. This reaction explains the rapid and steady increase of O2-saturation in healed patients.

Abstract: Cardiac fibrosis is a central determinant of heart failure progression and arises from pathological remodeling characterized by fibroblast activation, myofibroblast differentiation, and excessive extracellular matrix deposition. In contrast, physiological remodeling permits adaptive cardiac growth without net fibrosis. Pregnancy represents an underexplored physiological model of reversible cardiac remodeling. In response to hemodynamic load, the maternal heart undergoes hypertrophic growth that resolves postpartum, constituting a natural paradigm of fibrosis-resistant cardiac adaptation. Pregnancy and lactation are accompanied by profound endocrine and immune reprogramming of maternal tissues. We propose that this hormonal milieu orchestrates coordinated crosstalk among endothelial cells, fibroblasts, and immune cell populations to suppress profibrotic pathways and preserve extracellular matrix homeostasis. Candidate regulators include estrogen, progesterone, prolactin family peptides, relaxin, oxytocin, and components of the renin–angiotensin–aldosterone system. During the postpartum and lactational period, prolactin and oxytocin may further promote reverse remodeling. These hormones likely act by modulating local cytokine and growth factor networks that otherwise drive fibroblast activation. By focusing on non-myocyte cardiac cells and extracellular matrix dynamics, this review positions pregnancy as a translational model to uncover endogenous anti-fibrotic mechanisms and identify novel therapeutic strategies for cardiac fibrosis.

Abstract: In multi-product industrial inspection, maintaining one memory bank per product yields costs that scale linearly with the number of product types. A shared bank with a fixed memory budget is more practical, but mixing embeddings from different products introduces inter-product interference. We call this memory pollution: nearest-neighbor queries retrieve features from other products, and budget allocations optimized on isolated banks degrade once retrieval is shared. Across 15 MVTec AD products, a per-product oracle allocator underperforms uniform allocation by 1.6 percentage points (pp) at 18 MB, and the wrong-neighbor rate (WNR) reaches 38% at 2.9 MB. We address this with a training-free router based on mean-embedding prototypes that identifies the product before nearest-neighbor search. The router adds 0.06 MB and achieves perfect top-1 accuracy over 30 product types (MVTec AD, VisA, BTAD). With routing, the performance gap across five allocation strategies shrinks to at most 1 pp. Top 1 routing with uniform allocation improves image-level area under the ROC curve (AUROC) from 90.8% to 91.1% at 18 MB. Coreset selection and clustering further provide 16× memory reduction with less than 1 pp AUROC loss. All components are training-free and operate on frozen DINOv3 features.

Abstract: BL Lac objects are active galactic nuclei notable for beamed nonthermal radiation, which is generated in one of the relativistic jets forming a small angle to our line-of-sight. The broadband spectra of BL Lacs show a two-component spectral energy distribution (SED). High-energy-peaked BL Lacs (HBLs) exhibit their lower-energy (synchrotron) peaks at UV to X-ray frequencies. Consequently, these objects are generally bright in the 0.3-10 keV bands (compared to other blazar subclasses) and allow us to carry out intense timing and spectral studies on the wide range of timescales (from years down to a few minutes). Although x-ray emission of HBLs is widely accepted to have a synchrotron origin, many problems associated with the jet particle content, their acceleration up to ultrarelativistic energies, and unstable mechanisms responsible for the extreme flux and spectral variability still remain to be solved. This review highlights the basic timing and spectral results obtained in the framework of the numerous timing and spectral studies of HBLs in the 0.3-10 keV band which is covered by the X-ray instruments operating onboard the different space missions. Moreover, the plausible physical processes ot be responsible for the observed HBL features (relativistic shocks, magnetic reconnection, turbulence etc.) are also addressed.

Abstract: This study evaluated the effect of byproduct from mining process of granite rock doses in cultures of high demand in soil fertility with annual and perennial cycles, such as soybean and Tamani perennial grass, for two years in the municipality of Paragominas-PA. Experimental design was in randomized blocks comprising five treatments and five replications. Treatments comprised doses of byproduct from granite rock of 1000, 2000, 4000 and 6000 kg ha-1 and a control treatment (without application) applied in soybean and Tamani perennial grass. Soil parameters and crops productivity were evaluated for two years. The higher doses showed positive effects on soil fertility parameters, including potassium increases. Crops productivity had low responses to application or residual effects of the byproduct from granite rock mining process from Tracuateua-PA. The byproduct from mining process of granite rock has low influence in soil fertility and yield of soybean and Tamani perennial grass.