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Background The impact of human activities on the environmental resistome has been documented in many studies, but there remains the controversial question of whether the increased antibiotic resistance observed in anthropogenically impacted environments is just a result of contamination by resistant fecal microbes or is mediated by indigenous environmental organisms. Here, to determine exactly how anthropogenic influences shape the environmental resistome, we resolved the microbiome, resistome, and mobilome of the planktonic microbial communities along a single river, the Han, which spans a gradient of human activities. Results The bloom of antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) was evident in the downstream regions and distinct successional dynamics of the river resistome occurred across the spatial continuum. We identified a number of widespread ARG sequences shared between the river, human gut, and pathogenic bacteria. These human-related ARGs were largely associated with mobile genetic elements rather than particular gut taxa and mainly responsible for anthropogenically driven bloom of the downstream river resistome. Furthermore, both sequence- and phenotype-based analyses revealed environmental relatives of clinically important proteobacteria as major carriers of these ARGs. Conclusions Our results demonstrate a more nuanced view of the impact of anthropogenic activities on the river resistome: fecal contamination is present and allows the transmission of ARGs to the environmental resistome, but these mobile genes rather than resistant fecal bacteria proliferate in environmental relatives of their original hosts. -EAr6o8ZqqRG-rMJXcUMDB Video abstract.

Advancements in living standards, medical technologies, and nutrition have contributed to the global increase in life expectancy. However, the widening gap between life expectancy and healthy life expectancy indicates that a growing population requires ongoing medical care and hospitalization. The development of a home-use telediagnostic system is a promising solution for improving the quality of life for patients and healthcare providers to extend a healthy lifespan and reduce the burden on clinicians. Such a system also holds the potential for rapid health assessments during emergency situations, where timely triage is critical. This study reviews recent progress in noninvasive, multimodal sensor patches capable of continuously monitoring vital signs and biomarkers via the skin. Furthermore, we explore the integration of machine learning for real-time, on-device data analysis as an edge system, enabling autonomous health feedback without reliance on the Internet. Although several technical challenges remain before practical implementation, these innovations may pave the way for a paradigm shift in conventional medical care.

Antibiotic resistant bacteria (ARB) and their genes (ARGs) have become recognised as significant emerging environmental pollutants. ARB and ARGs in sewage sludge can be transmitted back to humans via the food chain when sludge is recycled to agricultural land, making sludge treatment key to control the release of ARB and ARGs to the environment. This study investigated the fate of antibiotic resistant Escherichia coli and a large set of antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) during full scale anaerobic digestion (AD) of sewage sludge at two U.K. wastewater treatment plants and evaluated the impact of thermal hydrolysis (TH) pre-treatment on their abundance and diversity. Absolute abundance of 13 ARGs and the Class I integron gene intI1 was calculated using single gene quantitative (q) PCR. High through-put qPCR analysis was also used to determine the relative abundance of 370 ARGs and mobile genetic elements (MGEs). Results revealed that TH reduced the absolute abundance of all ARGs tested and intI1 by 10–12 , 000 fold . After subsequent AD, a rebound effect was seen in many ARGs. The fate of ARGs during AD without pre-treatment was variable. Relative abundance of most ARGs and MGEs decreased or fluctuated, with the exception of macrolide resistance genes, which were enriched at both plants, and tetracyline and glycopeptide resistance genes which were enriched in the plant employing TH. Diversity of ARGs and MGEs decreased in both plants during sludge treatment. Principal coordinates analysis revealed that ARGs are clearly distinguished according to treatment step, whereas MGEs in digested sludge cluster according to site. This study provides a comprehensive within-digestor analysis of the fate of ARGs, MGEs and antibiotic resistant E . coli and highlights the effectiveness of AD, particularly when TH is used as a pre-treatment, at reducing the abundance of most ARGs and MGEs in sludgeand preventing their release into the environment.

The metal powder injection molding process is completed by mixing a metal powder and a binder, performing an injection molding and degreasing process, and then performing a sintering process for high density. The disadvantage of metal powder injection molding is that defects occurring during the process affect mechanical properties, which are worse in mechanical properties than in products manufactured by cold-rolling. In this study, the mechanical properties and microstructure of stainless steel 316L manufactured by the metal powder injection molding process were analyzed. Mechanical properties such as density, tensile strength, and fatigue life were analyzed. The density was measured using Archimedes’ principle, and a relative density of 94.62% was achieved compared to the theoretical density. The tensile strength was approximately 539.42 MPa and the elongation to fracture was approximately 92%. The fatigue test was performed at 80% of maximum tensile strength and a stress ratio of R = 0.1. The fatigue life was found in 55% (297 MPa) of maximum tensile strength that achieved 106 cycles. The microstructure was observed through scanning electron microscope after etching, and as a result, the average grain size was 88.51 μm. Using electron backscatter diffraction, inverse pole figure map, image quality map, and kernel average misorientation map of the specimen were observed in three different areas which were undeformed, uniformly deformed, and deformed. Based on these results, it is expected that research is needed to apply the metal powder injection molding process to the manufacture of agricultural machinery parts with complex shapes.

Background The increasing prevalence of resistance against the last-resort antibiotic colistin is a significant threat to global public health. Here, we discovered a novel colistin resistance mechanism via enzymatic inactivation of the drug and proposed its clinical importance in microbial communities during polymicrobial infections. Results A bacterial strain of the Gram-negative opportunistic pathogen Stenotrophomonas maltophilia capable of degrading colistin and exhibiting a high-level colistin resistance was isolated from the soil environment. A colistin-degrading protease (Cdp) was identified in this strain, and its contribution to colistin resistance was demonstrated by growth inhibition experiments using knock-out ( Δcdp ) and complemented ( Δcdp::cdp ) mutants. Coculture and coinfection experiments revealed that S. maltophilia carrying the cdp gene could inactivate colistin and protect otherwise susceptible Pseudomonas aeruginosa , which may seriously affect the clinical efficacy of the drug for the treatment of cystic fibrosis patients with polymicrobial infection. Conclusions Our results suggest that Cdp should be recognized as a colistin resistance determinant that confers collective resistance at the microbial community level. Our study will provide vital information for successful clinical outcomes during the treatment of complex polymicrobial infections, particularly including S. maltophilia and other colistin-susceptible Gram-negative pathogens such as P. aeruginosa . F8-_RZYnrmbideKrzEmgif Video abstract

Recently, data-driven decision-making has attracted great interest; this requires high-quality datasets. However, real-world datasets often feature missing values for unknown or intentional reasons, rendering data-driven decision-making inaccurate. If a machine learning model is trained using incomplete datasets with missing values, the inferred results may be biased. In this case, a commonly used technique is the missing value imputation (MVI), which fills missing data with possible values estimated based on observed values. Various data imputation methods using machine learning, statistical inference, and relational database theories have been developed. Among them, conventional machine learning based imputation methods that handle tabular data can deal with only numerical columns or are time-consuming and cumbersome because they create an individualized predictive model for each column. Therefore, we have developed a novel imputational neural network that we term the Denoising Self-Attention Network (DSAN). Our proposed DSAN can deal with tabular datasets containing both numerical and categorical columns; it considers discretized numerical values as categorical values for embedding and self-attention layers. Furthermore, the DSAN learns robust feature expression vectors by combining self-attention and denoising techniques, and can predict multiple, appropriate substituted values simultaneously (via multi-task learning). To verify the validity of the method, we performed data imputation experiments after arbitrarily generating missing values for several real-world tabular datasets. We evaluated both imputational and downstream task performances, and we have seen that the DSAN outperformed the other models, especially in terms of category variable imputation.

A comprehensive understanding of the antibiotic resistance gene (ARG) profiles of the skin commensal bacterium and opportunistic pathogen Staphylococcus epidermidis needs to be documented from a genomic point of view. Our study encompasses a comparative analysis of entire S. epidermidis genomes from various habitats, including those of 35 environmental isolates from the Han River sequenced in this study. Our results shed light on the distribution and diversity of ARGs within different S. epidermidis multi-locus sequence types, providing valuable insights into the ecological and genetic factors associated with antibiotic resistance. A comparison between S. epidermidis and Staphylococcus aureus revealed marked differences in ARG and virulence factor profiles, despite their overlapping ecological niches.

There is a growing body of evidence demonstrating an association between smoking and DNA methylation. Accordingly, DNA methylation is now considered a promising biomarker of smoking exposure. We evaluated the relationship between methylation markers (AHRR and F2RL3) and urine cotinine as well as self-reported smoking status. DNA methylation levels of AHRR and F2RL3 in blood as well as urine cotinine were measured in 330 adults (46 to 87 years of age). Pyrosequencing was performed to measure DNA methylation of AHRR and F2RL3 associated with smoking exposure. The lung cancer risk associated with DNA methylation and urine cotinine was analyzed using logistic regression analysis. The AHRR and F2RL3 genes were significantly hypomethylated in current smokers compared to in individuals who have never smoked. An inverse relationship was observed between urine cotinine and methylation levels. Methylation of AHRR and F2RL3 distinguished current smokers from never-smokers with high accuracy. Logistic multivariate analysis showed that AHRR methylation is significantly associated with the risk of lung cancer (OR = 0.96, P = 0.011). Our study validated the smoking-associated DNA methylation markers reported in a Korean population-based cohort. In conclusion, DNA methylation of AHRR and F2RL3 provided accurate measures for smoking exposure. Methylation markers reflecting the long-term effect of smoking on the risk of lung cancer showed better performance in distinguishing former smokers from never-smokers.

This parallel, single-center, pragmatic, randomized controlled study aimed to investigate the effectiveness and safety of motion style acupuncture treatment (MSAT; a combination of acupuncture and Doin therapy) to reduce pain and improve the functional disability of patients with acute low back pain (aLBP) due to road traffic accidents. Ninety-six patients with aLBP admitted to the Haeundae Jaseng Hospital of Korean Medicine in South Korea due to traffic accidents were treated with integrative Korean medicine (IKM) with additional 3-day MSAT sessions during hospitalization (MSAT group, 48 patients) or without (control group, 48 patients), and followed up for 90 days. The mean numeric rating scale (NRS) scores of low back pain (LBP) of the MSAT and control groups were both 6.7 (95% confidence interval [CI]: 6.3, 7.1) at baseline. After completing the third round of all applicable treatment sessions (the primary endpoint in this study), the mean NRS scores of the MSAT and control groups were 3.76 (95% CI: 3.54, 3.99) and 5.32 (95% CI: 5.09, 5.55), respectively. The difference in the mean NRS score between the two groups was 1.56 (95% CI: 1.25, 1.87). IKM treatment combined with MSAT can reduce pain and improve the range of motion of patients with aLBP. This trial is registered at ClinicalTrial.gov (NCT04956458). •We investigated the effectiveness and safety of MSAT.•To reduce pain and improve functional disability aLBP due to road traffic accidents.•IKM with MSAT can reduce pain and improve the range of motion of patients with aLBP.•Lumbar MSAT is an effective and safe treatment strategy for patients with aLBP.

This pilot study sought to evaluate the feasibility of utilizing vaginal self-swabs and urine samples for HPV-based cervical cancer screening in 700 women who had undergone conventional Pap smear screening via the national cervical cancer program in Korea. The cobas 4800 HPV test was utilized to detect HPV in the self-samples. Pap smear results revealed three cases of atypical squamous cells of undetermined significance, 649 cases of negative for an intraepithelial lesion or malignancy, and 48 non-specific inflammatory findings. High-risk HPV was detected in 6.7% of urine samples and 9.6% of vaginal self-swab samples. The overall agreement for HPV 16/18 between urine and vaginal self-swab samples was 99.1% (95%CI 98.1% to 99.6%). Colposcopic biopsy revealed one cervical intraepithelial neoplasia (CIN) 3 lesion, 12 CIN1 lesions, and 23 normal or chronic cervicitis lesions. In conclusion, urine and vaginal self-swab sampling was feasible and deemed a potential alternative for HPV detection in women who hesitate to participate in cervical cancer screening programs. Meanwhile, due to overall lower rates of abnormal cytology and sexual risk behaviors in Korea, a larger sample size than expected is needed to assess the sensitivity of CIN2+ detection via self-samples.