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The transferred microbiota from mother to baby constitutes the initial infant gastrointestinal microbiota and has an important influence on the development and health of infants in human. However, the reproductive tract microbiota of avian species and its inheritance have rarely been studied. We aimed to characterize the microbial community in the chicken reproductive tract and determine the origin of the chicken embryo gut microbiota. Microbiota in four different portions of chicken oviduct were determined using 16S rRNA metagenomic approach with the IonTorrent platform. Additionally, we analyzed the mother hen’s magnum and cloaca, descendent egg, and embryo gut microbiota. The microbial composition and relative abundance of bacterial genera were stable throughout the entire chicken reproductive tract, without significant differences between the different parts of the oviduct. The chicken reproductive tract showed a relatively high abundance of Lactobacillus species. The number of bacterial species in the chicken reproductive tract significantly increased following sexual maturation. Core genera analysis detected 21 of common genera in the maternal magnum and cloaca, descendent egg shell, egg white, and embryo gut. Some elements of the maternal oviduct microbiota appear to be transferred to the embryo through the egg white and constitute most of the embryo gut bacterial population.

Organic-inorganic hybrid perovskite solar cells (PSCs) have been extensively studied because of their outstanding performance: a power conversion efficiency exceeding 22% has been achieved. The most commonly used PSCs consist of CH 3 NH 3 PbI 3 (MAPbI 3 ) with a hole-selective contact, such as 2,2′,7,7′-tetrakis( N , N -di- p -methoxyphenylamine)-9,9-spiro-bifluorene (spiro-OMeTAD), for collecting holes. From the perspective of long-term operation of solar cells, the cell performance and constituent layers (MAPbI 3 , spiro-OMeTAD, etc.) may be influenced by external conditions like temperature, light, etc. Herein, we report the effects of temperature on spiro-OMeTAD and the interface between MAPbI 3 and spiro-OMeTAD in a solar cell. It was confirmed that, at high temperatures (85 °C), I − and CH 3 NH 3 + (MA + ) diffused into the spiro-OMeTAD layer in the form of CH 3 NH 3 I (MAI). The diffused I − ions prevented oxidation of spiro-OMeTAD, thereby degrading the electrical properties of spiro-OMeTAD. Since ion diffusion can occur during outdoor operation, the structural design of PSCs must be considered to achieve long-term stability.

Microinjection enables the precise delivery of substances into specific areas of small animals, such as zebrafish, whose xenograft models can be a promising platform for developing rapid and personalized cancer therapies. However, manual microinjection exhibits experimental variability and low reproducibility, as it relies on the expertise of researchers. To address these problems, automated microinjection systems have been developed in recent years. In this study, we propose a microrobotic system based on an image recognition AI model that extracts key feature points to define the pericardial space in zebrafish larvae at 2 days post-fertilization. Using the geometric relationships among feature points, the system optimizes the glass capillary insertion motion for precise microinjection. We also introduced a batch agarose microplate that prevents dehydration while stabilizing the larvae, which improved the survival rate compared to the conventional plate (log-rank test, p  < 0.0001). The proposed automation system achieved success rates of 80.8% ( n  = 1129) for microinjection and a 92.1% ( n  = 1143) for survival. Moreover, we successfully injected colorectal cancer cell lines (HCT116 and SW620) into the pericardial space, resulting in an engraftment success rate of 96.2% ( n  = 610). Our system exhibits higher success rates and reproducibility compared to manual microinjection, allowing even inexperienced researchers to perform stable injections. These results demonstrate that our system effectively enhances the efficiency and reproducibility of experiments involving zebrafish-based cancer research and xenograft model generation.

This study investigated the success rate of Phase 1 clinical trial entry and the factors influencing it in oncology projects involving academia–industry collaboration during the discovery and preclinical stages. A total of 344 oncology projects in the discovery stage and 360 in the preclinical stage, initiated through collaborations with universities or hospitals between 2015 and 2019, were analyzed. The Phase 1 clinical trial entry success rates for oncology collaborative projects were 9.9% from the discovery stage and 24.2% from the preclinical stage. For discovery stage contracts, strong statistical significance was observed for contract type (co‐development OR 16.45, p = 0.008; licensing OR 42.43, p = 0.000) and technology (cell or gene therapy OR 3.82, p = 0.008). In contrast, for preclinical stage contracts, significant changes were noted for cancer type (blood cancer OR 2.24, p = 0.004), while the year of contract signing showed a relatively weak statistical significance (OR 1.24, p = 0.021). No significant changes were observed concerning partner firm size and the partnership territory. This study sheds light on how the characteristics of partnerships influence the success rates of early‐phase research, providing valuable insights for future strategic planning in oncology drug development.

Phytoalexins are inducible secondary metabolites possessing antimicrobial activity against phytopathogens. Rice produces a wide array of phytoalexins in response to pathogen attacks and environmental stresses. With few exceptions, most phytoalexins identified in rice are diterpenoid compounds. Until very recently, flavonoid sakuranetin was the only known phenolic phytoalexin in rice. However, recent studies have shown that phenylamides are involved in defense against pathogen attacks in rice. Phenylamides are amine-conjugated phenolic acids that are induced by pathogen infections and abiotic stresses including ultra violet (UV) radiation in rice. Stress-induced phenylamides, such as N-trans-cinnamoyltryptamine, N-p-coumaroylserotonin and N-cinnamoyltyramine, have been reported to possess antimicrobial activities against rice bacterial and fungal pathogens, an indication of their direct inhibitory roles against invading pathogens. This finding suggests that phenylamides act as phytoalexins in rice and belong to phenolic phytoalexins along with sakuranetin. Phenylamides also have been implicated in cell wall reinforcement for disease resistance and allelopathy of rice. Synthesis of phenolic phytoalexins is stimulated by phytopathogen attacks and abiotic challenges including UV radiation. Accumulating evidence has demonstrated that biosynthetic pathways including the shikimate, phenylpropanoid and arylmonoamine pathways are coordinately activated for phenolic phytoalexin synthesis, and related genes are induced by biotic and abiotic stresses in rice.

Although the power conversion efficiency of perovskite solar cells has increased from 3.81% to 22.1% in just 7 years, they still suffer from stability issues, as they degrade upon exposure to moisture, UV light, heat, and bias voltage. We herein examined the degradation of perovskite solar cells in the presence of UV light alone. The cells were exposed to 365 nm UV light for over 1,000 h under inert gas at <0.5 ppm humidity without encapsulation. 1-sun illumination after UV degradation resulted in recovery of the fill factor and power conversion efficiency. Furthermore, during exposure to consecutive UV light, the diminished short circuit current density (J sc ) and EQE continuously restored. 1-sun light soaking induced recovery is considered to be caused by resolving of stacked charges and defect state neutralization. The J sc and EQE bounce-back phenomenon is attributed to the beneficial effects of PbI 2 which is generated by the decomposition of perovskite material.

[...]1 of 40 patients (2.5%) with definite IgG4-RD was not reclassified as having IgG4-RD according to the 2019 ACR/EULAR criteria. [...]patient 1 obtained only 4 points and could not be reclassified as having IgG4-RD despite the increased concentration of serum IgG4 (4 points). During this period, the serum IgG4 concentration had consistently increased, and the last two biopsy samples showed markedly increased infiltrating IgG4+ cells counts. [...]this patient was diagnosed with IgG4-related lymphadenopathy3 4 and received glucocorticoids and mycophenolate mofetil.5 We believe that this paper will be of interest to the readership of the journal because of its immediate clinical impact to patients with suspected IgG4-related disease, as well as our recommendations to physicians attempting to diagnose them.

Poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene):poly(styrene sulfonate) (PEDOT:PSS) is most commonly used as an anode buffer layer in bulk-heterojunction (BHJ) polymer solar cells (PSCs). However, its hygroscopic and acidic nature contributes to the insufficient electrical conductivity, air stability and restricted photovoltaic (PV) performance for the fabricated PSCs. In this study, a new multifunctional additive, 2,3-dihydroxypyridine (DOH), has been used in the PEDOT: PSS buffer layer to obtain modified properties for PEDOT: PSS@DOH and achieve high PV performances. The electrical conductivity of PEDOT:PSS@DOH films was markedly improved compared with that of PEDOT:PSS. The PEDOT:PSS@DOH film exhibited excellent optical characteristics, appropriate work function alignment, and good surface properties in BHJ-PSCs. When a poly(3-hexylthiohpene):[6,6]-phenyl C 61 -butyric acid methyl ester blend system was applied as the photoactive layer, the power conversion efficiency of the resulting PSCs with PEDOT:PSS@DOH(1.0%) reached 3.49%, outperforming pristine PEDOT:PSS, exhibiting a power conversion enhancement of 20%. The device fabricated using PEDOT:PSS@DOH (1.0 wt%) also exhibited improved thermal and air stability. Our results also confirm that DOH, a basic pyridine derivative, facilitates adequate hydrogen bonding interactions with the sulfonic acid groups of PSS, induces the conformational transformation of PEDOT chains and contributes to the phase separation between PEDOT and PSS chains.

Background This study investigated the clinical implications of peripheral eosinophil count at diagnosis in estimating cross-sectional antineutrophil cytoplasmic antibody-associated vasculitis (AAV) activity and predicting all-cause mortality during follow-up in patients newly diagnosed with microscopic polyangiitis (MPA) and granulomatosis with polyangiitis (GPA). Methods This study included 224 immunosuppressive drug-naïve patients with peripheral eosinophil count at diagnosis < 1,000/mm 3 . The Birmingham Vasculitis Activity Score (BVAS), the Five-Factor Score (FFS), erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR) and C-reactive protein (CRP) at diagnosis were assessed. Results The median age of the 224 patients (152 MPA and 72 GPA) was 62.0 years; 35.3% of them were men. At diagnosis, peripheral eosinophil count was significantly correlated with BVAS ( P  = 0.001), FFS ( P  = 0.046), ESR ( P  < 0.001), and CRP ( P  < 0.001). Deceased patients had a significantly higher median peripheral eosinophil count at diagnosis than surviving patients (310.0/mm 3 vs. 170.0/mm 3 , P  = 0.004). In addition, patients with MPA and those with cardiovascular and renal manifestations at diagnosis exhibited significantly higher peripheral eosinophil counts than those without. When the optimal cut-off of peripheral eosinophil count at diagnosis for all-cause mortality during follow-up was set at 175.0/mm 3 , Patients with peripheral eosinophil count at diagnosis ≥ 175.0/mm 3 exhibited a significantly lower cumulative patients’ survival rate than those with peripheral eosinophil count at diagnosis < 175.0/mm 3 ( P  = 0.008). Conclusions This study was the first to demonstrate that peripheral eosinophil count at diagnosis could estimate cross-sectional AAV activity at diagnosis and contribute to predicting all-cause mortality during follow-up in MPA and GPA patients.

The oral microbiome, which is closely associated with many diseases, and the resident pathogenic oral bacteria, which can be transferred by close physical contact, are important public health considerations. Although the dog is the most common companion animal, the composition of the canine oral microbiome, which may include human pathogenic bacteria, and its relationship with that of their owners are unclear. In this study, 16S rDNA pyrosequencing was used to compare the oral microbiomes of 10 dogs and their owners and to identify zoonotic pathogens. Pyrosequencing revealed 246 operational taxonomic units in the 10 samples, representing 57 genera from eight bacterial phyla. Firmicutes (57.6%), Proteobacteria (21.6%), Bacteroidetes (9.8%), Actinobacteria (7.1%), and Fusobacteria (3.9%) were the predominant phyla in the human oral samples, whereas Proteobacteria (25.7%), Actinobacteria (21%), Bacteroidetes (19.7%), Firmicutes (19.3%), and Fusobacteria (12.3%) were predominant in the canine oral samples. The predominant genera in the human samples were Streptococcus (43.9%), Neisseria (10.3%), Haemophilus (9.6%), Prevotella (8.4%), and Veillonella (8.1%), whereas the predominant genera in the canine samples were Actinomyces (17.2%), Unknown (16.8), Porphyromonas (14.8), Fusobacterium (11.8), and Neisseria (7.2%). The oral microbiomes of dogs and their owners were appreciably different, and similarity in the microbiomes of canines and their owners was not correlated with residing in the same household. Oral-to-oral transfer of Neisseria shayeganii, Porphyromonas canigingivalis, Tannerella forsythia, and Streptococcus minor from dogs to humans was suspected. The finding of potentially zoonotic and periodontopathic bacteria in the canine oral microbiome may be a public health concern.