julilili42/papers huggingface dataset:
High-Frequency Microfluidic Fractionation for Compound-Resolved Bioactivity-Based Metabolomics
2025-10-25

Specialized metabolites represent a prolific source of potential drug candidates. However, the process from detecting bioactivity in a crude metabolite extract to unambiguously identifying the active agent is a tedious and expensive endeavor. Speeding up this procedure is crucial, as new drugs, such as antibiotics, are urgently needed. Furthermore, the systematic functional assessment of complex metabolome samples represents a key bottleneck in nontargeted metabolomics, which once solved, holds the potential to fundamentally advance our systematic understanding of biology. To tackle this central bioanalytical challenge, we developed a compound-resolved bioactivity-based metabolomics workflow that combines nontargeted liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS), high frequency fractionation on microfluidic devices and subsequent readout with luminescent bioreporter strains. Central for this workflow is a custom high-speed (∼1 Hz frequency) fractionation device that spots the mobile phase onto a microfluidic paper-analytical device (μPAD) in parallel to MS/MS data acquisition. Subsequently, the μPAD can be overlaid with a bioreporter strain, which displays cellular stress by expressing luciferase. The luminescence signal can then be correlated to MS signals through their chromatographic profiles. We evaluated five different luciferase-expressing bioreporter strains which provide information about different antibacterial modes of action, and tested the workflow with different antibiotic standards and mixtures thereof, as well as crude extracts from the known antibiotic producer <i>Saccharopolyspora erythraea</i>. Our results demonstrated high sensitivity (up to 1 ng/spot, depending on compound and bioreporter) and the rapid identification of multiple antimicrobial compounds out of crude extracts, highlighting the practicality and high-throughput capability of this compound-resolved bioactivity-based metabolomics approach.
Challenges of Future Patient Recruitment: A Cross-Sectional Study in Conservative Dentistry Teaching
2025-10-25

Background: Direct clinical training on real patients is essential in dental education. However, the declining patient inflow increasingly challenges this objective. This cross-sectional study aimed to assess patients’ experiences and preferences to derive recommendations for improving patient recruitment. Material and Methods: Over a period of one year, patients treated by students in the courses and final examinations at the dental school of conservative dentistry were questioned using a specially designed questionnaire and reviewed using their medical records. They were asked about their complete treatment process, and patient files were used to record socio-demographic as well as economic and appointment-specific data. Results: We analysed 297 patients (142 women, 47.8%; 155 men, 52.2%) treated by undergraduates across two semesters (four courses) and two final examinations. Median age was 57.0 years (IQR 46–67; mean 55.2, SD 15.2; range 14–85) with no sex-based difference (p &gt; 0.05). Arrival was predominantly by car (72.7%, n = 216); median one-way distance was 20.5 km (IQR 11.2–32.1); and 58.4% were employed, while 41.6% were not employed (33.7% retired, 7.9% unemployed). The leading reason for course attendance was “satisfaction with previous treatments” (65.32%). Information sources were reported by 290/297 (98%); the most common was already being a course patient (143, 48.1%). Most patients attended one appointment (109, 36.7%). Median travel cost per appointment (including parking) was €17.0 (typically €10.0–€23.5). Of 285 respondents, 93.68% answered “Yes” to satisfaction with student treatment. Conclusions: Important steps include enhancing parking facilities, optimizing recall systems and appointment accessibility, and strengthening relationships with regular patients to encourage word-of-mouth referrals. The main focus is to maintain high clinical quality, ensure affordability, and further reduce patient copayments where possible.
Boosting the Magnetic Response of a Composite Nanostructure in the Near‐Visible Region with a Fano Resonance
2025-10-26

Plasmonic nanostructures can show a magnetic response in addition to an electrical one by guiding the plasmonic displacement current along a circular loop, inducing a magnetic dipole. Achieving a magnetic response at optical frequencies requires composite nanostructures with multiple elements to prevent saturation effects. A composite nanostructure consisting of three nanorods is presented that form a split‐ring resonator with two additional gaps. The optical behavior of this nanostructure is investigated with both numerical simulation and experimental fabrication and measurement. Moreover, it is demonstrated that adding a nanorod below the central element facilitates an additional dark magnetic mode that causes a Fano resonance in the structure, increasing the magnetic near‐field enhancement and the overall magnetic response of the nanostructure.
Origin of Euhedral Silicate Megacrysts in Magmatic Sulfide Ore at the Nova-Bollinger Ni-Cu-PGE Deposit
2025-10-27

Abstract Silicate megacrysts of orthopyroxene, garnet, and plagioclase up to 10 cm in size are observed within massive Ni-Cu-PGE sulfides and emulsion-textured rocks at the Nova-Bollinger deposit (Western Australia). Petrographic, chemical, and cathodoluminescence analyses reveal that the megacrysts differ significantly from their counterpart mineral phases in the host intrusion and country rock in terms of size, morphology, major and trace element compositions, and luminescence properties. Notably, garnet and orthopyroxene megacrysts show pronounced negative Eu anomalies and depleted light REE patterns, suggesting a magmatic origin. This is particularly interesting for garnet, as it is otherwise only found in the metamorphic country rock. Additionally, the megacrysts commonly exhibit skeletal crystal morphologies and contain both sulfide and silicate melt inclusions. These features, along with their frequent intergrowth with emulsion textures, strongly suggest crystallization from a sulfide-silicate melt emulsion. These megacrysts and their hosting emulsion-textured rocks are restricted to sulfide infiltration fronts, where hot sulfide melt percolated into metamorphic country rock, causing partial melting. The resulting anatectic silicate melt, immiscible and less dense than the infiltrating sulfide melt, rose and mingled with the sulfide to form an emulsion. This process could have promoted megacryst formation within the silicate melt portion of the emulsion, as the large grain size could be the result of the combination of early, most likely seeded, nucleation and the elevated volatile and flux content of the anatectic silicate melt. Additionally, the constant movement of the emulsion could continuously supply fresh material onto the growing crystals, thus allowing them to grow to large sizes. Once the movement of the melts decreases, the immiscible melts can separate, leaving the megacrysts behind in massive sulfides. Furthermore, while plagioclase coexists with garnet and orthopyroxene, orthopyroxene and garnet never coexist as megacrysts. This is likely to be a temperature effect, as orthopyroxene is mostly associated with pyrrhotite-dominated sulfides (after monosulfide solid solution), which records temperatures up to 1100 °C, whereas garnet is associated with chalcopyrite-dominated sulfides (after intermediate solid solution), which start to crystallize at temperatures around 880 °C.
Uncovering attempted movements of the paralyzed upper limb after stroke through EEG and EMG
2025-10-27

Detecting attempted movements of a paralyzed limb is a key step for neural interfaces for motor rehabilitation and restoration after a stroke. In this paper, we present a systematic evaluation of electroencephalographic (EEG) and electromyographic (EMG) activity to decode when stroke patients with severe upper-limb paralysis attempt to move their affected arm. EEG and EMG recordings of 35 chronic stroke patients were analyzed. We trained classifiers to discriminate between rest and movement attempt states relying on brain, muscle, or both types of signals combined. Our results reveal that: (i) EEG and residual EMG activity provide complementary information to detect attempted movements, obtaining significantly higher decoding accuracy when both sources of activity are combined; (ii) EMG-based, but not EEG-based, decoding accuracy correlates with the degree of impairment of the patient; and (iii) the percentage of patients that achieve decoding accuracy above the chance level strongly depends on the type of features considered, and can be as low as 50% of them if only ipsilesional EEG is used. These results offer new perspectives to develop improved neurotechnologies that establish a more accurate contingent link between the central and peripheral nervous system after a stroke, leveraging Hebbian learning and facilitating functional plasticity and recovery.
DNA methylation patterns facilitate tracing the origin of neuroendocrine neoplasms
2025-10-27

Abstract Neuroendocrine neoplasms (NEN) are thought to originate from diffuse neuroendocrine networks and therefore most frequently arise in the gastrointestinal tract and lungs. The liver is a frequent site of metastasis of NEN but also the existence of primary hepatic NEN has been proposed. Due to the impact on disease management, it is urgently required to discriminate the origin of hepatic NEN metastases and to identify clinically relevant subgroups. Using a comprehensive set of NEN ( N = 212) from two independent cohorts, we show that the DNA methylation profiles of NEN of distinct anatomical localizations differ significantly and primary tumor-metastasis pairs cluster together, enabling the identification of the tumor origin. Furthermore, the subgroup of hepatic NEN without clinically detectable primary tumor, thus classified as primary hepatic NEN, does not form a distinct cluster by DNA methylation analysis but colocalizes with various subgroups of extrahepatic NEN. Organ-specific subtyping of NEN delineates a foregut-like epigenetic profile for hepatic NEN with unknown primary. We propose a classifier with high prediction accuracy for each of the different organ sites. In conclusion, our results demonstrate that DNA methylation profiling enables precise prediction of NEN origin and suggests that a substantial proportion of presumed primary hepatic NEN may in fact represent misclassified secondary hepatic NEN of unknown primary.
The German translation of the Oxford utilitarianism scale: Validation and the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on the observations
2025-10-27

The study of utilitarian inclinations is probably the most experimentally investigated aspect of morality. The Oxford Utilitarianism Scale has been developed to provide a self-report tool for reliable measurement of utilitarian views while addressing serious methodological issues with previous measures. In this study, we have translated and validated a German version of the Oxford Utilitarianism Scale (OUS-DE). The scale consists of two subscales: Impartial Beneficence (IB-DE) and Instrumental Harm (IH-DE). We conducted a procedure in a general German sample (N S1 = 378, 243 women, M age = 25.37) before the Covid-19 pandemic. A confirmatory factor analysis demonstrated a good fit of a two-factor model for OUS-DE, while internal consistency and construct reliability were acceptable. Both in the pre-pandemic and the post-pandemic sample (N S2 = 348, 206 women, M age = 24.61) we found a sex/gender difference, with women scoring significantly higher in the IB-DE subscale than men. We also found that the mean agreement with the IB-DE subscale decreased after the pandemic. In a separate third sample (N S3 = 39, 19 women, M age = 23.72), we observed an inverse U-shape relationship between moral behavior related to quarantine requirements and the IH-DE subscale, as measured during the peak pandemic restrictions in late 2020. Repeated OUS-DE measurement in this sample showed stability in responders’ utilitarian beliefs post-pandemic. In sum, OUS-DE is the first available measurement of utilitarian inclinations in German. The scale will enable further research on how utilitarian preconceptions affect behavior in German-speaking populations.
Shared cognitive biases influence numerical judgments in macaques and crows
2025-10-27

Cognitive biases, which come from the shortcuts our brains use to make decisions, often lead people to misjudge sizes, amounts, or other magnitudes. However, it is still unclear how these biases evolved. Nonhuman animals like primates and corvids share with humans a nonsymbolic number sense. Whether biases in magnitude estimation are evolutionarily widespread in animals remains an open question. We investigated numerical estimation in macaque monkeys and carrion crows—two distantly related but numerically proficient vertebrates—using a delayed match-to-numerosity task with dot arrays. Both species exhibited key biases commonly observed in humans during numerical estimation tasks: scalar variability (increasing response variability with numerosity), regression to the mean (overestimation of small and underestimation of large numerosities), and a sequential effect (estimates biased toward previous trial numerosities). Traditionally, these biases have been attributed either to static influences of overall task history or to dynamic effects from recent trials. Here, we demonstrate that a Bayesian model incorporating dynamic priors based on multiple previously encountered numerosities can account for all observed behavioral patterns. Our findings suggest that numerical judgments in both species are shaped by uncertainty and the integration of recent experience, revealing shared Bayesian-like mechanisms for cognitive biases across distantly related animals.
Discovery and Heterologous Expression of the Soil Metagenome-Derived Lasso Peptide Metanodin with an Unprecedented Ring Structure
2025-10-27

Culture-independent metagenomic approaches have proven to be effective tools for identifying previously hidden biosynthetic gene clusters (BGCs) encoding novel natural products with potential medical relevance. However, producing these compounds remains challenging as metagenomic BGCs often originate from organisms phylogenetically distant from available heterologous hosts. Lasso peptides, a subclass of ribosomally synthesized and post-translationally modified peptide (RiPP) natural products, exhibit diverse bioactivities, yet no lasso peptide has previously been discovered directly from a metagenome. Here, we report the discovery and heterologous expression of the first soil metagenome-derived lasso peptide. Expression of its biosynthetic gene cluster in <i>Escherichia coli</i>, followed by mass spectrometry analysis, strongly supported the predicted amino acid sequence and lasso structure of the peptide. Notably, this lasso peptide is the first to feature asparagine as the ring-forming residue at position one. Taxonomic analysis of the corresponding BGC identified an uncultivated member of the <i>Steroidobacterales</i> family (<i>Gammaproteobacteria</i>) as the closest known relative of the potential native host. These findings underscore the potential of metagenomic genome mining to reveal structurally novel RiPPs and to expand our understanding of the natural diversity of lasso peptides.
Automatic Apparent Nasal Index from Single Facial Photographs Using a Lightweight Deep Learning Pipeline: A Pilot Study
2025-10-27

Background and Objectives: Quantifying nasal proportions is central to facial plastic and reconstructive surgery, yet manual measurements are time-consuming and variable. We sought to develop a simple, reproducible deep learning pipeline that localizes the nose in a single frontal photograph and automatically computes the two-dimensional, photograph-derived apparent nasal index (aNI)—width/height × 100—enabling classification into five standard anthropometric categories. Materials and Methods: From CelebA we curated 29,998 high-quality near-frontal images (training 20,998; validation 5999; test 3001). Nose masks were manually annotated with the VGG Image Annotator and rasterized to binary masks. Ground-truth aNI was computed from the mask’s axis-aligned bounding box. A lightweight one-class YOLOv8n detector was trained to localize the nose; predicted aNI was computed from the detected bounding box. Performance was assessed on the held-out test set using detection coverage and mAP, agreement metrics between detector- and mask-based aNI (MAE, RMSE, R2; Bland–Altman), and five-class classification metrics (accuracy, macro-F1). Results: The detector returned at least one accepted nose box in 3000/3001 test images (99.97% coverage). Agreement with ground truth was strong: MAE 3.04 nasal index units (95% CI 2.95–3.14), RMSE 4.05, and R2 0.819. Bland–Altman analysis showed a small negative bias (−0.40, 95% CI −0.54 to −0.26) with limits of agreement −8.30 to 7.50 (95% CIs −8.54 to −8.05 and 7.25 to 7.74). After excluding out-of-range cases (&lt;40.0), five-class classification on n = 2976 images achieved macro-F1 0.705 (95% CI 0.608–0.772) and 80.7% accuracy; errors were predominantly adjacent-class swaps, consistent with the small aNI error. Additional analyses confirmed strong ordinal agreement (weighted κ = 0.71 linear, 0.78 quadratic; Spearman ρ = 0.76) and near-perfect adjacent-class accuracy (0.999); performance remained stable when thresholds were shifted ±2 NI units and across sex and age subgroups. Conclusions: A compact detector can deliver near-universal nose localization and accurate automatic estimation of the nasal index from a single photograph, enabling reliable five-class categorization without manual measurements. The approach is fast, reproducible, and promising as a calibrated decision-support adjunct for surgical planning, outcomes tracking, and large-scale morphometric research.
Effect of Silicon‐Based Electrolyte Additive on the Solid‐Electrolyte Interphase of Rechargeable Mg Batteries
2025-10-27

Abstract The unstable solid‐electrolyte interface (SEI) poses a major obstacle to the widespread use of rechargeable magnesium batteries (RMBs) as high‐volumetric‐capacity next‐generation energy storage systems. This issue is effectively mitigated by adding 3 wt.% tris(trimethylsilyl) borate (TMSB, C9H27BO3Si3) to a state‐of‐the‐art Cl‐free magnesium tetrakis(hexafluoroisopropyloxy)borate in dimethoxyethane (Mg[B(hfip) 4 ] 2 /DME) non‐aqueous electrolyte. The modified electrolyte enables stable Mg||Mo 6 S 8 (Chevrel phase, CP) full cell operation for up to 1000 cycles at a 1C rate. Tip‐enhanced Raman spectroscopy (TERS) reveals that TMSB scavenges degraded electrolyte components and facilitates the formation of a uniform and thin SEI on the magnesium anode. Reflection anisotropy spectroscopy (RAS) further demonstrates that TMSB transforms the interfacial structure, creating a more isotropic and robust SEI during the initial stripping and plating process, thereby extending electrochemical cycling stability. This approach presents a compelling pathway for practical RMB development by stabilizing the SEI and optimizing magnesium electrolyte formulations.
Wanted: social media campaign support! A principal-agent study on the management of influencer collaborations by political parties in three EU countries
2025-10-27

Purpose While corporate communicators have been quick to embrace collaboration with social media influencers, communication managers in political parties have been more hesitant. However, as it is becoming obvious that the influence of influencers extends also to the political domain, political communicators are increasingly starting to consider influencer collaborations. This study draws on principal-agent theory (PAT) to examine the reasons for political communicators' hesitancy and investigate how they manage influencer collaborations. Design/methodology/approach This study is based on 26 expert interviews with communication managers from political parties in Finland, Germany and Romanian. Interviews were analyzed in a qualitative content analysis. Findings This study identifies procedures to evaluate influencers' characteristics, intentions and actions that communication managers apply to cope with information asymmetries. While interviewees are generally confident that these procedures help them cope with the information asymmetries PAT implies, their confidence levels vary widely. Notably, confidence levels depend less on the concrete procedures the communication managers have developed but rather on individual information needs. Originality/value This study expands research on the management of influencer campaigns by examining campaigns in the political domain and by theorizing the client–influencer relationship. Furthermore, this study offers the first cross-country investigations in research on the management of influencer campaigns.
Polyelectrolyte Multilayer Coatings As a Tunable Tool to Control Inflammatory Response to Biomaterials in Vitro
2025-10-28

The immune response to implanted medical devices can impact their performance and longevity in the body. Instead of designing implants to produce the desired immune responses, this might more easily be achieved with the use of surface modification technology, which can alter the biological profile of the implant without compromising function or performance. In the present study, we generated two polyelectrolyte (PE) multilayer (PEM) coatings from polystyrenesulfonate (PSS) and poly(allylamine hydrochloride) (PAH). These two coatings had identical chemical compositions, but the wettability and surface charge were adjusted by altering the deposition conditions. Testing the immune response to these coatings <i>in vitro</i> showed that the differing surface properties of the two coatings impacted morphology (circularity) and actin-cytoskeleton formation (podosomal structures) of THP-1-derived macrophages. We furthermore observed a substantial pro-inflammatory response toward the coating with the medium hydrophilic properties and moderate surface charge density (PEM_MH), while the highly hydrophilic and strongly negatively charged coating (PEM_HH) resulted in a much milder inflammatory response. Application of the latter coating to implant materials that elicited pronounced inflammatory responses resulted in a substantial reduction in the inflammatory response observed. This was validated by using blood-derived primary human immune cells. The dampened pro-inflammatory effect could be observed with two different materials: polymer membranes and titanium. Our results highlight the promise of pure PEM coatings without any additional substances as a tool to tune the immune response toward established medical implants.
Lanthanoid Luminophores with Linear, Bipyridine-Based Antenna Ligands
2025-10-28

A new, linear octadentate chelator, "en-pypa," based on 2,2'-bipyridine-6-carboxylic acid, has been developed. This ligand can bind trivalent lanthanoids (e.g., Sm, Eu, Tb, Dy, Tm, Yb, and Lu) very rapidly and yields well-defined complexes that exhibit relatively strong luminescence in aqueous solution. This study reports the synthesis, as well as the structural and photophysical characterization. In addition, nonradiative deactivation of near-infrared luminescence by the ligand N-H oscillators is addressed by comparison of the luminescence from the Yb complexes of en-pypa and its methylated analogue.