RESULTS: First, ancient DNA analysis of an elite nomadic warrior from Chinge-Tey I has been carried out, thus a third wide-genome dataset for Aldy-Bel culture- one of the earliest nomadic cultures in Asia, is presented in this study. Second, we undertook a comparative analysis of genome-wide data of three mentioned Aldy-Bel culture representatives and individuals of the other Bronze and Early Iron Age population groups of Asia to estimate their possible genetic connections. Then, kinship analysis was undertaken for these three Aldy-Bel culture individuals. Finally, mitochondrial and Y-chromosome haplogroups of Chinge-Tey princely person were compared to those of other Aldy-Bel culture representatives and to individuals of subsequent Scythian-type Uyuk-Sagly culture in Tuva.
CONCLUSION: (1) Generating the third wide-genome of the enabled us to undertake its comparison with two other genomes of Aldy-Bel culture representatives (Arzhan-2, graves 14 and 22) and with other Bronze and Early Iron Age population groups in Asia to trace the origin and genetic connection of Aldy-Bel population, representing one of the earliest Scythian-type nomadic group. (2) The results obtained show that the princely individual from Chinge-Tey I and two 'king's associates' from Arzhan-2 were genetically close to nomads of simultaneous Tasmola culture in Eastern and Central Kazakhstan and pastoralists buried in the Early Iron Age cemeteries of present-day Xinjiang (first of all, Abusanteer archaeological site). Aldy-Bel culture representatives appeared also close to individuals of the Middle Bronze Age Okunevo culture in the Minusinsk Basin. Besides, Aldy-Bel pastoralists turned out genetically close to nomads of the subsequent Uyuk-Sagly culture in Mongolia (5th - 3rd centuries BC). (3) Ancient DNA kinship analyses, undertaken for three Aldy-Bel culture individuals pointed out to the absence of their tribe kinship. (4) On the other hand, Chinge-Tey warrior's mitochondrial haplogroup G was previously described in two (graves 14 and 5) individuals from Arzhan-2, including a female individual from the "royal" tomb 5. This result provided a possibility of maternal kinship among this so called 'queen' from Arzhan-2 and the princely person from Chinge-Tey I. This possibility supported a hypothesis of their family ties suggested on archaeological materials. Y-chromosome haplogroup Q1b1, revealed for the princely person, was widely distributed among local people of Aldy-Bel and subsequent Uyuk-Sagly cultures.
METHODS: This multicentre retrospective cohort study enrolled neonates from six primary healthcare clinics, with three using KR plus TcB and three using KR only for NNJ screening. Neonates with a gestational age of ≥ 35 weeks and without prior phototherapy or exchange transfusion for hyperbilirubinemia were included in the study until reaching either day 10 of life or hospitalization for any reason, defining the study endpoint. The minimum sample size required was 379 neonates in each cohort. Generalized Poisson regression was used to compare the number of blood draws required for TSB sampling between the two cohorts.
RESULTS: Of 765 neonates included, the cohort using KR alongside TcB showed a 74% reduction in blood draw risk compared to KR alone cohort (IRR 0.26, 95% CI 0.23-0.39). There were no significant differences between cohorts in phototherapy initiation (25.5% vs. 24.4%), severe hyperbilirubinemia occurrence (0.0% vs. 0.0%) or rapid bilirubin level rise (0.3% vs. 0.8%).
CONCLUSION: Incorporating TcB alongside KR for NNJ screening significantly reduces the need for TSB sampling without causing an escalation in phototherapy initiation or severe hyperbilirubinemia occurrences, suggesting the potential to optimize NNJ management in the local primary care setting.
METHODS: This study adopted a quasi-experimental design. Two administrative classes were divided into the experimental group (15 boys and 16 girls) and the control group (16 boys and 15 girls) using the coin-toss method. The intervention intensity was moderate (60-69% of HRmax), lasting for 12 weeks, with 3 sessions per week, each lasting 40 min. Both groups focused on the teaching of fundamental motor skills (FMS). The experimental group was intervened with open physical games, while the control group was intervened with closed physical games. The Adolescent Attention Test was used to measure attention quality; the Children's Social and Emotional Skills Scale was used to measure social-emotional skills; the Test of Gross Motor Development-Third Edition was used to measure locomotors and manipulative skills; and the Fundamental Movement Skill Development Test for Children Aged 3 to 10 was used to measure stability skills. Based on SPSS 25.0 and GraphPad Prism 8 software, statistical analysis was conducted using independent samples t-tests, χ2 tests, MANOVA, and Pearson partial correlation analysis.
RESULTS: After the intervention, open physical games had a more positive effect on children's attention distribution (F = 6.223, p = 0.022, η 2 = 0.090). Open physical games had a more positive effect on children's self-awareness (F = 11.027, p = 0.002, η 2 = 0.165), others' awareness (F = 10.315, p = 0.002, η2 = 0.156), collective awareness (F = 6.494, p = 0.014, η 2 = 0.104), collective management (F = 12.108, p = 0.001, η 2 = 0.178), and overall social-emotional skills (F = 38.453, p
METHODS: This retrospective analysis relied on the secondary data recorded between January 2020 and August 2024. The Ministry of Health and Population provided the necessary data in a soft copy format (Excel file), which was statistically analyzed.
RESULTS: A total of 41135 suspected measles cases were reported between January 2020 and August 2024. A higher proportion was observed among males (54.72%), age groups of 0-4 years (69.34%), in 2023 (50.5%), Aden governorate (20.54%), and in the spring (32.25%). The overall incidence rate was 18.82 per 10,000 population, with a higher rate among males (19.8 cases), age groups of 0-4 years (93.87 cases), in 2023 (9.5 cases), and Abyan governorate (89.06 cases). The overall fatality rate cases were 424 (4.92%), with the highest rate among females (1.06%), aged 0-4 years (1.26%), in 2023 (1.32%), and the Al Hudaydah governorate (2.97%). Furthermore, 82.4% of suspected cases were among unvaccinated individuals and 10.2% among individuals vaccinated with one dose.
CONCLUSION: According to current findings, the alarming rise in measles cases in recent years poses a serious threat to Yemenis' lives if not addressed. Therefore, vaccination efforts should be strengthened, healthcare infrastructure needs to be improved, vaccine hesitancy must be addressed, and international collaboration must be cultivated to control and eliminate measles.
METHODS: This study utilized a random forest regression (RFR) model to estimate elbow flexion torque using mechanomyography (MMG) signals recorded during electrical stimulation of the biceps brachii (BB) muscle in 36 right-handed healthy subjects. Given the significance of both feature engineering and hyperparameter tuning in optimizing RFR performance, this study proposes a hybrid method leveraging the General Learning Equilibrium Optimizer (GLEO) to identify most informative MMG features and tune RFR hyperparameters. The performance of the GLEO-coupled with the RFR model was compared with the standard Equilibrium Optimizer (EO) and other state-of-the-art algorithms in physical and physiological function estimation using biological signals.
RESULTS: Experimental results showed that selected features and tuned hyperparameters demonstrated a significant improvement in root mean square error (RMSE), coefficient of determination (R2) and slope with values improving from 0.1330 to 0.1174, 0.7228 to 0.7853 and 0.6946 to 0.7414, respectively for the test dataset. Convergence analysis further revealed that the GLEO algorithm exhibited a superior learning capability compared to EO.
CONCLUSION: This study underscores the potential of the hybrid GLEO approach in selecting highly informative features and optimizing hyperparameters for machine learning models. These advancements are essential for evaluating muscle function and represent a significant advancement in musculoskeletal biomechanics research.
METHODS: In this double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled, 12-week intervention study, toddlers with at least 2 respiratory illness symptoms were randomly assigned into the probiotic (YLGB-1496) or placebo group at a 1:1 ratio. Follow-up examinations were conducted at baseline (week 0) and at weeks 6 and 12 of the intervention. The frequency of respiratory illness symptoms was assessed at these time points using validated questionnaires. Oral swabs and fecal samples were collected from participants at weeks 0, 6, and 12 to examine inflammatory cytokines.
RESULTS: Among the 120 toddlers initially included in the study, 115 completed the 12-week intervention (58 in the YLGB-1496 group and 57 in the placebo group). The risk of antibiotic use or clinical visits was significantly lower in the YLGB-1496 group than in the placebo group (antibiotic use odds ratio (OR) = 0.37 [0.369, 0.372]; clinical visit, OR = 0.743 [0.741, 0.744]), but these differences were nonsignificant after adjusting for other potential confounders (p > 0.05). The YLGB-1496 group presented a lower incidence of several respiratory symptoms than the placebo group, including fever (p
METHODS: Single-factor and orthogonal experiments were conducted to investigate the impacts of sweet osmanthus-to-white tea ratio and the concentrations of β-cyclodextrin, erythritol, and citric acid on sensory properties and total flavonoids content (TFC) of IOWT. Mixtures of the dried ingredients were spray-dried to produce IOWT.
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION: The optimal formulation of IOWT was as follows: sweet osmanthus-towhite tea ratio of 1:5, 4% β-cyclodextrin, 6% erythritol, and 0.5% citric acid. This optimized IOWT formulation obtained the highest sensory score of 89.5 and a TFC of 25.76%. Using ascorbic acid as a positive control, the in vitro antioxidant activities of the optimized IOWT formulation were assessed by measuring its ability to scavenge DPPH radicals, hydroxyl radicals, superoxide anion radicals, and ABTS radicals. At a concentration of 1.0 mg/mL, the optimized IOWT formulation exhibited scavenging rates of 88.01, 94.99, 97.57, and 99.11% against DPPH, hydroxyl radicals, superoxide anion radicals, and ABTS radicals, respectively, indicating strong in vitro antioxidant activities of IOWT. This study demonstrated promising potential for the development of novel white tea-based products.
METHODS: The proposed hybrid model leverages DenseNet121's dense connectivity for capturing intricate patterns and EfficientNetB0's computational efficiency and scalability. A dataset comprising 19 skin conditions with 19,171 images was used for training and validation. The model was evaluated using multiple performance metrics, including accuracy, precision, recall, and F1-score. Additionally, a comparative analysis was conducted against state-of-the-art models such as DenseNet121, EfficientNetB0, VGG19, MobileNetV2, and AlexNet.
RESULTS: The proposed HDTLM achieved a training accuracy of 98.18% and a validation accuracy of 97.57%. It consistently outperformed baseline models, achieving a precision of 0.95, recall of 0.96, F1-score of 0.95, and an overall accuracy of 98.18%. The results demonstrate the hybrid model's superior ability to generalize across diverse skin disease categories.
DISCUSSION: The findings underscore the effectiveness of the HDTLM in enhancing skin disease classification, particularly in scenarios with significant domain shifts and limited labeled data. By integrating complementary strengths of DenseNet121 and EfficientNetB0, the proposed model provides a robust and scalable solution for automated dermatological diagnostics.