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Integrative analysis of publicly available scRNA-seq data facilitates deeper understanding of biological phenomena with strong statistical power and high resolution. A new study in this issue of PLOS Biology examined the fidelity of various brain organoid protocols in reference to human primary developing brain by gene co-expression relationships with million-scale collection of public scRNA-seq data sets.

Recent changes in climate and environments have promoted the range expansion of insect pests of tropical and subtropical origins into temperate regions. For more accurate and faster risk assessment of this expansion, we developed a novel indicator to link a physiologically derived parameter of chilling injury with the survival of insect populations in nature by using two insects, Spodoptera frugiperda and Cicadulina bipunctata with tropical and subtropical origins, and one cool-adapted insect, Laodelphax striatellus . The parameter derived from a proportional increment in the time to 99.9% mortality under constant low temperatures causing chilling injury evaluates the survival of target insect populations based on winter climate data. For S. frugiperda and C. bipunctata , but not for L. striatellus , the accuracy of the model in predicting the overwintering range was equivalent to, or better than, those of a conventional species distribution model. Additional field testing using S. frugiperda and comparison of the developed model with a conventional logistic model for C. bipunctata supported the validity of the indicator. These results suggest that the developed indicator will help for simple risk assessment of tropical and subtropical insect pests in temperate regions by the species distribution modelling approach.

Microglia play a role in the emergence and preservation of a healthy brain microenvironment. Dysfunction of microglia has been associated with neurodevelopmental and neurodegenerative disorders. Investigating the function of human microglia in health and disease has been challenging due to the limited models of the human brain available. Here, we develop a method to generate functional microglia in human cortical organoids (hCOs) from human embryonic stem cells (hESCs). We apply this system to study the role of microglia during inflammation induced by amyloid-β (Aβ). The overexpression of the myeloid-specific transcription factor PU.1 generates microglia-like cells in hCOs, producing mhCOs (microglia-containing hCOs), that we engraft in the mouse brain. Single-cell transcriptomics reveals that mhCOs acquire a microglia cell cluster with an intact complement and chemokine system. Functionally, microglia in mhCOs protect parenchyma from cellular and molecular damage caused by Aβ. Furthermore, in mhCOs, we observed reduced expression of Aβ-induced expression of genes associated with apoptosis, ferroptosis, and Alzheimer’s disease (AD) stage III. Finally, we assess the function of AD-associated genes highly expressed in microglia in response to Aβ using pooled CRISPRi coupled with single-cell RNA sequencing in mhCOs. In summary, we provide a protocol to generate mhCOs that can be used in fundamental and translational studies as a model to investigate the role of microglia in neurodevelopmental and neurodegenerative disorders. The study of human microglia function in health and disease is limited by the availability of sound models. Here, the authors develop a method to generate functional microglia in human cortical organoids and investigate the role of human microglia during amyloid beta1-42- induced inflammation.

While previous research has explored the connection between video gaming and medical procedures, studies on the connection between video gaming and bronchoscopy techniques are lacking. This study aimed to investigate how video gaming experience influences bronchoscopy skills, particularly among beginners. This study was conducted at Fukujuji Hospital from January 2021 to October 2023. Twenty-three participants were assigned to the inexperienced group, and eighteen participants were assigned to the experienced group. The observational time during bronchoscopy, measured using a simulator, and the playing time of SPLATOON 2 (NINTENDO Co. Ltd., Japan) were analyzed. Video gaming skills were assessed based on game completion time, with shorter times indicating faster task completion. Participants were also divided into gamer and nongamer subgroups for further comparisons. A moderate linear relationship existed between bronchoscopic observation time and game completion time in the inexperienced group (r = 0.453, p  = 0.030). However, no correlation was found in the experienced group (r = 0.268, p  = 0.283). Among the inexperienced group, the gamer subgroup (n = 12) exhibited significantly shorter bronchoscopic observation times than did the nongamer subgroup (n = 11) (median [range]: 200 [129–229] s) vs. 281 [184–342] s, p  = 0.005). This study demonstrated a relationship between bronchoscopy technique and video gaming skills among individuals with little bronchoscopy experience.

Macrophages can be divided into two subsets, M1 and M2, which have crucial differences in their function. Akira and colleagues identify the histone demethylase Jmjd3 as a key factor in M2 development. Polarization of macrophages to M1 or M2 cells is important for mounting responses against bacterial and helminth infections, respectively. Jumonji domain containing-3 (Jmjd3), a histone 3 Lys27 (H3K27) demethylase, has been implicated in the activation of macrophages. Here we show that Jmjd3 is essential for M2 macrophage polarization in response to helminth infection and chitin, though Jmjd3 is dispensable for M1 responses. Furthermore, Jmjd3 (also known as Kdm6b ) is essential for proper bone marrow macrophage differentiation, and this function depends on demethylase activity of Jmjd3. Jmjd3 deficiency affected trimethylation of H3K27 in only a limited number of genes. Among them, we identified Irf4 as encoding a key transcription factor that controls M2 macrophage polarization. Collectively, these results show that Jmjd3-mediated H3K27 demethylation is crucial for regulating M2 macrophage development leading to anti-helminth host responses.

The fall armyworm (FAW) Spodoptera frugiperda is a long-distance migratory insect pest, and the invaded range of its recent expansion includes regions colder than the tropical and subtropical regions in East Asia. In order to understand the potential distribution of S. frugiperd in temperate and colder regions, we quantified the effects of temperature and exposure duration on the degree of indirect chilling injury caused to S. frugiperd under laboratory conditions. The adults were more tolerant to moderately low temperatures (3 to 15 °C) than the larvae and pupae. Survival decreased significantly when adult S. frugiperd were exposed to temperatures of 9 °C or lower. A time–temperature model suggested that indirect chilling injury began occurring at 15 °C. Survival was improved by short-term daily exposure to higher temperatures, indicating the existence of a repair mechanism for indirect chilling injury in S. frugiperd. The degree of repair depended on the temperature, but the relationship was not a simple direct proportion. These findings on indirect chilling injury and repair will improve the estimation of the potential distribution of S. frugiperd in temperate and colder regions.

Development of a reliable method for RNA interference (RNAi) by orally-delivered double-stranded RNA (dsRNA) is potentially promising for crop protection. Considering that RNAi efficiency considerably varies among different insect species, it is important to seek for the practical conditions under which dsRNA-mediated RNAi effectively works against each pest insect. Here we investigated RNAi efficiency in the brown-winged green stinkbug Plautia stali , which is notorious for infesting various fruits and crop plants. Microinjection of dsRNA into P . stali revealed high RNAi efficiency–injection of only 30 ng dsRNA into last-instar nymphs was sufficient to knockdown target genes as manifested by their phenotypes, and injection of 300 ng dsRNA suppressed the gene expression levels by 80% to 99.9%. Knockdown experiments by dsRNA injection showed that multicopper oxidase 2 (MCO2), vacuolar ATPase (vATPase), inhibitor of apoptosis (IAP), and vacuolar-sorting protein Snf7 are essential for survival of P . stali , as has been demonstrated in other insects. By contrast, P . stali exhibited very low RNAi efficiency when dsRNA was orally administered. When 1000 ng/μL of dsRNA solution was orally provided to first-instar nymphs, no obvious phenotypes were observed. Consistent with this, RT-qPCR showed that the gene expression levels were not affected. A higher concentration of dsRNA (5000 ng/μL) induced mortality in some cohorts, and the gene expression levels were reduced to nearly 50%. Simultaneous oral administration of dsRNA against potential RNAi blocker genes did not improve the RNAi efficiency of the target genes. In conclusion, P . stali shows high sensitivity to RNAi with injected dsRNA but, unlike the allied pest stinkbugs Halyomorpha halys and Nezara viridula , very low sensitivity to RNAi with orally-delivered dsRNA, which highlights the varied sensitivity to RNAi across different species and limits the applicability of the molecular tool for controlling this specific insect pest.

Levees are critical infrastructure for mitigating flood hazards worldwide. Despite their importance, current global flood models inadequately consider levees due to the complexity of flow mechanisms involving levees and lack of levee data. This research develops a levee module for global flood modeling and proposes a reach‐level parameterization approach to estimate levee parameters globally. Specifically, we developed a simplified levee module within the CaMa‐Flood flood model, requiring only two levee parameters: levee unprotected fraction and equivalent levee height. We then identified leveed river reaches globally and estimated the levee parameters for these reaches using open‐access land use and levee standard data. Finally, we evaluated the model's performance by comparing changes in river hydrodynamics and flood hazard maps, with and without levees, against observed data or official flood maps from representative case studies. The results showed that (a) the proposed approach successfully identified protected reaches with a hit rate of 82.1% in data‐rich regions, (b) the levee unprotected fraction can be accurately estimated based on land‐use data, and equivalent levee height can be derived from flood defense data using the global flood model, and (c) the enhanced CaMa‐Flood model, incorporating the levee module, accurately simulated both river hydrodynamics and flood hazard mapping, improving the mean Nash‐Sutcliffe Efficiency of water levels from 0.68 to 0.84 and increasing the accuracy of flood hazard mapping from 0.76 to 0.87 in five US regions. Validation on flood mapping in other eight representative regions worldwide confirms robust performance and strong potential for global applications.

\"Chūnibyō\" is a term that represents a distinctive, transient mental state during puberty in Japan, but its characteristics and precise definition have not been standardized. Increased awareness of chūnibyō could lead to a better environment for those who experience it. This study aimed to identify the characteristics of and problems related to chūnibyō using an anonymous questionnaire. An anonymous online questionnaire was conducted in February 2021 in Japan. In total, 314 volunteers completed the anonymous online questionnaire. Respondents were divided into the chūnibyō group (n = 122) and the non-chūnibyō group (n = 192), and the questionnaire responses were compared between the two groups. Furthermore, the responses were compared between the chūnibyō with problems subgroup (n = 82) and the other subgroup (n = 232). The main outcome was the identification of the chūnibyō group based on the responses to the item \"I have experienced chūnibyō\" or \"I have been told that I exhibited chūnibyō\". The median age of the chūnibyō group was 31 years old; this group was predominantly male (n = 79, 64.8%) and had a relatively high proportion of respondents with any problems (n = 82, 67.2%). The chūnibyō group had higher proportions of respondents who felt that academic tests did not reflect their true worth (n = 58 (47.5%) vs. n = 66 (35.4%), p = 0.024), who felt uncomfortable in the world (n = 77 (61.1%) vs. n = 67 (34.9%), p<0.001), and who had an imaginary/fantasy friend or boyfriend/girlfriend (n = 39 (32.0%) vs. n = 10 (5.2%), p<0.001). The results were similar between the chūnibyō with problems subgroup and the other subgroup. Eighty respondents (25.4%) had negative impressions of chūnibyō, whereas twenty-one respondents (6.7%) had positive impressions. This study is the first to report the characteristics of chūnibyō by collecting the experiences and thoughts of people who experienced chūnibyō.