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Continued evolution of SARS-CoV-2 generates variants to challenge antibody immunity established by infection and vaccination. A connection between population immunity and genesis of virus variants has long been suggested but its molecular basis remains poorly understood. Here, we identify a class of SARS-CoV-2 neutralizing public antibodies defined by their shared usage of VL6-57 light chains. Although heavy chains of diverse genotypes are utilized, convergent HCDR3 rearrangements have been observed among these public antibodies to cooperate with germline VL6-57 LCDRs to target a convergent epitope defined by RBD residues S371-S373-S375. Antibody repertoire analysis identifies that this class of VL6-57 antibodies is present in SARS-CoV-2-naive individuals and is clonally expanded in most COVID-19 patients. We confirm that Omicron-specific substitutions at S371, S373 and S375 mediate escape of antibodies of the VL6-57 class. These findings support that this class of public antibodies constitutes a potential immune pressure promoting the introduction of S371L/F-S373P-S375F in Omicron variants. The results provide further molecular evidence to support that antigenic evolution of SARS-CoV-2 is driven by antibody mediated population immunity. Convergence of heavy or light chains in antibodies recognising pathogens could drive mutations in these pathogens. Here the authors examine antibodies against SARS-CoV-2 and find that a conserved VL6-57 light chain recognising a conserved motif in the spike protein is associated with virus mutations and could drive changes in SARS-CoV-2 omicron variants.

Microglia are brain resident cells that function as brain phagocytic macrophages. The inflammatory responses of microglia induced by pathologic insults are key regulators in the progression of various neurological disorders. Currently, little is known about how these responses are regulated intrinsically. Here, it is observed that LPS-activated microglia exhibit distinct N6-methyladenosine (m6A) methylation patterns that are positively correlated with the expression patterns of corresponding mRNAs. High-throughput analyses and molecular studies both identified Igf2bp1 as the most significantly regulated m6A modifiers in activated microglia. Perturbation of function approaches further indicated Igf2bp1 as a key mediator for LPS-induced m6A modification and microglial activation presumably via enhancing the m6A methylation and stability of Gbp11 and Cp mRNAs. Thus, our study provides a possible mechanism for the m6A methylation-mediated microglia regulation and identifies Igf2bp1 as a potential target for modulating the inflammatory responses of microglia.

In the context of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, the global healthcare community has raced to find effective therapeutic agents against severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). To date, dexamethasone is the first and an important therapeutic to significantly reduce the risk of death in COVID-19 patients with severe disease. Due to powerful anti-inflammatory and immunosuppressive effects, dexamethasone could attenuate SARS-CoV-2-induced uncontrolled cytokine storm, severe acute respiratory distress syndrome and lung injury. Nevertheless, dexamethasone treatment is a double-edged sword, as numerous studies have revealed that it has significant adverse impacts later in life. In this article, we reviewed the literature regarding the adverse effects of dexamethasone administration on different organ systems as well as related disease pathogenesis in an attempt to clarify the potential harms that may arise in COVID-19 patients receiving dexamethasone treatment. Overall, taking the threat of COVID­19 pandemic into account, we think it is necessary to apply dexamethasone as a pharmaceutical therapy in critical patients. However, its adverse side effects cannot be ignored. Our review will help medical professionals in the prognosis and follow-up of patients treated with dexamethasone. In addition, given that a considerable amount of uncertainty, confusion and even controversy still exist, further studies and more clinical trials are urgently needed to improve our understanding of the parameters and the effects of dexamethasone on patients with SARS-CoV-2 infection.

To address the challenges of poor image quality and low detection accuracy in low-light environments during coating workshop inspections, this paper proposes a low-light image enhancement method based on zero-reference depth curve estimation, termed Zero-PTDCE. A low-light image dataset, PT-LLIE, tailored for coating workshop scenarios is constructed, encompassing various industrial inspection conditions under different lighting environments to enhance model adaptability. Furthermore, an enhancement network integrating a lightweight denoising module and depthwise separable dilated convolution is designed to reduce noise interference, expand the receptive field, and improve image detail restoration. The network training process employs a multi-constraint strategy by incorporating perceptual loss (Lp), color loss (Lc), spatial consistency loss (Ls), exposure loss (Le), and total variation smoothness loss (Ltv) to ensure balanced brightness, natural color reproduction, and structural integrity in the enhanced images. Experimental results demonstrate that, compared to existing low-light image enhancement methods, the proposed approach achieves superior performance in terms of peak signal-to-noise ratio (PSNR), structural similarity index (SSIM), and mean absolute error (MAE), while maintaining high computational efficiency. Beyond general visual enhancement, Zero-PTDCE significantly improves the visibility of fine surface features and defect patterns under low-light conditions, which is crucial for the accurate assessment of coating quality, including defect identification such as uneven thickness, delamination, and surface abrasion. This work provides a reliable image enhancement solution for intelligent inspection systems and supports both the automated operation and material quality evaluation in modern coating workshops, contributing to the broader goals of intelligent manufacturing and material characterization.

In this study, we propose a biologically inspired artificial visual system (AVS) for efficient orientation detection. The AVS begins by processing multi-channel red, green and blue (RGB) inputs using cone cells, which is followed by the preprocessing of visual signals through on–off response mechanisms in bipolar and horizontal cells. Local dendritic neurons detect orientation and generate feature maps, which are then integrated in a lateral geniculate nucleus (LGN)-like process to capture global features. Inspired by the Koch, Poggio, and Torre framework, the dendritic model employs nonlinear multiplicative operations for feature selection, while backpropagation optimizes parameters for accurate motion direction analysis. Our system significantly reduces learning time and computational costs compared to traditional convolutional neural networks (CNNs) by over 50% in duration and RAM usage, especially to the complex models like ResNet and EfficientNet. Evaluations on various noise conditions and real-world datasets demonstrate the AVS’s robustness, high accuracy, and efficiency, even when trained with limited data. The biologically plausible design, coupled with the system’s ability to process RGB images, makes the AVS a promising solution for industrial and medical applications, such as defect detection and medical image analysis.

Microwave energy utilization undergoes two stages via absorption and conversion inside ready-to-eat rice (RER) under microwave reheating. The reasonable utilization of microwave energy inside the processed material may enhance the uniformity of the temperature distribution. To analyze the uniformity changes inside RER, the effects of microwave reflection, refraction, and absorption by a metal aluminum film were studied through the thermodynamic properties. A simulation model was developed using the co-simulation method of COMSOL Multiphysics with MATLAB programming to analyze the mechanism of material properties and electromagnetic distribution on temperature distribution uniformity, as well as the formation mechanism of the temperature distribution uniformity of microwave-reheated RER. Based on models of the designed package boxes covering the metal film, the optimal structure was developed to include a metal aluminum film with a width of 5 mm and a thickness of 0.30 mm, which was sprayed on the edges and corners of a rectangular packaging box. The packaging boxes covering the metal films may reduce the average temperature of the upper and lower layers in RER by 8.03 °C and 7.42 °C, respectively, while the temperature distribution uniformity increased by 35.71% and 72.22%. The introduction of a metalized package significantly enhances the temperature uniformity inside RER under microwave reheating.

The taste quality of ready-to-eat rice is influenced by the uniformity of temperature distribution during microwave reheating. The temperature distribution uniformity of ready-to-eat rice loaded in a rectangular lunch box is investigated under microwave reheating. The results show that with a 10–80 °C temperature increase in the ready-to-eat rice, the thermal conductivity increases, dielectric constant, and specific heat increase and then decrease, while the dielectric loss factor decreases and then slightly increases. The microwave-heating process of ready-to-eat rice exhibits a clear ‘corner effect’, and the observed ‘hot spot’ results in poor temperature uniformity in ready-to-eat rice. A metalized packaging structure design is subsequently proposed to ameliorate the temperature non-uniformity. According to comparative results of four metalized packaging forms, the spray film volume and film thickness corresponding to film volume are developed as 3.5×10−4 mL/mm2, 0.30 mm, respectively, which levels off the difference in temperature to improve the temperature distribution uniformity of ready-to-eat rice by microwave reheating.

To evaluate and compare the clinical outcomes of rotationally asymmetric multifocal intraocular lenses (IOLs) in a mix-and-match approach or bilateral implantation. In this prospective study, patients were split into two groups based on the types of IOLs implanted. The mix group received mix-and-match implantation of a LENTIS Mplus LS-313 +1.50D IOL in the dominant eye and a LENTIS Mplus LS-313 +3.0D IOL in the fellow eye. The bilateral group received bilateral implantation of LENTIS Mplus LS-313 +3.00D IOLs. A three-month follow-up was performed after the surgery. Binocular visual acuity at various distances, subjective refraction and defocus curves were assessed. Subjective questionnaires included the overall satisfaction, a self-assessment of visual quality, spectacle independence, and presence of photic phenomena were completed. The study was completed by 52 patients in total (25 mix-and-match, 27 bilateral). The mean binocular uncorrected intermediate visual acuity in the mix group and the bilateral group were 0.10 ± 0.12 logMAR and 0.23 ± 0.14 logMAR, respectively, demonstrating a significant difference (P = 0.005). The mix group performed better in intermediate vision (range: -1.00 to -2.00 D) than the bilateral group (all P< 0.05), according to binocular defocus curves. About 92.0% of patients in the mix group did not need spectacles for intermediate distance vision compared to 59.26% in the bilateral group (P = 0.0001). The mix-and-match implantation of the +1.50D and +3.00D rotationally asymmetric multifocal IOLs provided good binocular visual outcomes and resulted in better intermediate vision than bilateral implantation of +3.00D IOLs.

To investigate the incidence of Nd:YAG capsulotomy after implantation of two types of multifocal intraocular lenses (MIOLs). This retrospective analysis included patients who had undergone cataract extraction and implanted diffractive MIOL (Acri. LISA tri 839M) or asymmetric refractive MIOL (SBL-3) from May 2016 to September 2018. They were followed up for at least 3 years. During the follow-up period, the relevant data of patients were kept by special person in the hospital. The rates of Nd:YAG capsulotomy and the Kaplan-Meier survival curve were used to analyze the two groups. The Asymmetric Refractive MIOL group was comprised of 98 patients (121 eyes), while the Diffractive MIOL group was comprised of 99 patients (120 eyes). There were no significant differences in age, sex, or IOL power between the two groups. The Nd:YAG rate of the asymmetric refractive MIOL group and the diffractive MIOL group was 3.3% and 7.5% respectively (P = 0.15) in the first year, 14.88% and 22.5% respectively (P = 0.129) in the second year, and 21.49% and 34.17% respectively (P = 0.028) in the third year. In the first 7 months of follow-up, the two groups showed the same performance in the Nd:YAG rate. After that, there was a difference between the two groups, and the difference gradually increased. Until the 27th month of follow-up, the difference was significant (P < 0.05). What is more, there were significant differences in survival (without Nd:YAG capsulotomy)/failure (with Nd:YAG capsulotomy) functions (P = 0.0035). The incidence of Nd:YAG laser capsulotomy in patients with diffractive MIOLs was higher than that in patients with asymmetric refractive MIOLs.

The heating mechanism of electric and magnetic loss materials under microwave irradiation is expounded. The heating rate, material composition and road performance of four kinds of microwave ice and snow roads including carbon fiber, magnetite ore, steel fiber and ferrite are reviewed. And analyze their respective characteristics and applicable conditions. The problems existing in microwave melting ice and snow technology are discussed, and the application prospects of electromagnetic wave absorbing materials in microwave melting ice and snow road are prospected.