Category: Nevin Manimala

Fam Process. 2025 Jun;64(2):e70033. doi: 10.1111/famp.70033.

ABSTRACT

The present research examined parents’ perspectives of co-parenting and supportive and hostile parenting as predictors of youth resilience during the COVID-19 pandemic. Participants were 47 mother/father dyads who had at least one K-12 child (M_age = 11.40, SD = 3.92). Mothers and fathers each completed an online survey that measured parenting, co-parenting, and youth resilience during the pandemic. Data were analyzed using the actor-partner interdependence model. Results revealed a positive relationship between mother supportiveness and perceived youth resilience; in contrast, increased father supportiveness was associated with lower perceived youth resilience. For both mothers and fathers, increases in their own hostility were associated with decreased perceived youth resilience and more positive co-parenting predicted greater resilience. Overall, findings showed that maternal supportiveness, parent hostility, and co-parenting were significantly related to youth resilience during the COVID-19 pandemic. This study highlights the role of maternal supportiveness in youth resilience and the importance of including mother and father perspectives when examining the effects of parenting. Findings also have implications for family interventions and policies that facilitate youth resiliency by demonstrating the need to address both parent-child and co-parenting relationships during times of adversity.

PMID:40189733 | DOI:10.1111/famp.70033

Discov Ment Health. 2025 Apr 6;5(1):47. doi: 10.1007/s44192-025-00176-8.

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: Adolescence is a critical period during which there is a concerning rise in the incidence of mental health problems, including depression and body dysmorphic concerns symptoms, as well as addictive behaviors such as problematic social media use. The objective of this research is to examine the role of depression as a mediator between problematic social media use and body dysmorphic concerns.

METHODS: This study used a cross-sectional design and recruited a total of 336 Lebanese adolescents, aged 15 to 18, with an average age of 15.69 ± 1.10 years and 63.4% of them being female, from all governorates of Lebanon between the months of December 2023 and January 2024. The statistical analysis was performed utilizing version 25 of the SPSS program. Two categorical variables were compared using the Chi-square test, and two means were examined using the Student t test. Model 4 of the PROCESS MACRO, an add-on for SPSS, was utilized to conduct the mediation analysis.

RESULTS: After adjusting for age and sex, depression was found to partially mediate the association between problematic social media use and body dysmorphic concerns (indirect effect: Beta = .48; Boot SE = .08; Boot CI .33; .65). Higher PSMU was significantly associated with more depression and directly associated with more body dysmorphic concerns.

CONCLUSION: This study has shown, for the first time that depression may act as a mediator in the relationship between problematic social media use and Body dysmorphic disorder. Recognizing this malleable factor as a mediator might provide new understanding for psychiatric therapies conducted on persons who are likely to display signs of dysmorphia when they utilize social media in an addictive pattern.

PMID:40189726 | DOI:10.1007/s44192-025-00176-8

Discov Oncol. 2025 Apr 6;16(1):475. doi: 10.1007/s12672-025-02255-2.

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: Kidney renal clear cell carcinoma (KIRC), the predominant subtype of renal cell carcinoma, poses significant health risks. The rapid progression and resistance to targeted therapies highlight the need for new tumor markers and therapeutic targets. FADS1, part of the fatty acid desaturase family, regulates fatty acid synthesis and participates in lipid metabolism. However, its role in KIRC is not well-studied.

METHODS: The study utilized bioinformatics analysis through the TCGA database and other platforms to identify FADS1 expression levels in KIRC. Twenty pairs of KIRC clinical tissue samples were used for qPCR verification. Meanwhile, eight pairs of KIRC clinical tissue samples were used for Western blot verification. Conduct statistical evaluation, including Wilcoxon rank sum test and Kaplan-Meier analysis, to explore the correlation between FADS1 expression and clinical pathological features and immune infiltration. In addition, in vitro experiments were conducted to confirm the biological function of FADS1.

RESULTS: The findings indicated that FADS1 is highly expressed in KIRC and contributes to tumor development. FADS1’s role in lipid metabolism leads to lipid accumulation within tumor cells, which may influence the occurrence and progression of KIRC. TIMER analysis revealed a correlation between FADS1 expression and the infiltration levels of various immune cells, indicating its potential role in modulating immune characteristics.

CONCLUSION: FADS1 could serve as a prognostic biomarker associated with immunity in KIRC, highlighting its potential as a diagnostic and therapeutic target. The study underscores the importance of further research into FADS1’s role in lipid metabolism and immune infiltration to develop effective therapeutic strategies.

PMID:40189725 | DOI:10.1007/s12672-025-02255-2

Doc Ophthalmol. 2025 Apr 7. doi: 10.1007/s10633-025-10005-6. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

PURPOSE: B-scan ultrasound is widely utilized for diagnosing posterior segment ocular disorders due to its non-invasive nature and ability to provide real-time imaging. This meta-analysis evaluates the diagnostic accuracy of B-scan ultrasound in detecting various posterior segment ocular disorders.

METHODS: A comprehensive search was conducted across multiple databases including Medline, EMBASE, Cochrane Library, and SCOPUS, from their inception until May 2024. The Quality Assessment of Diagnostic Accuracy Studies-2 (QUADAS-2) tool was employed to assess the risk of bias in the included studies. A bivariate meta-analysis was performed to calculate pooled estimates of sensitivity, specificity, and other diagnostic performance measures. Statistical analyses were conducted using STATA 14.2, which included generating summary receiver operating characteristic curves and diagnostic odds ratios.

RESULTS: Ten studies met the inclusion criteria, encompassing a total of 1,617 reference-tested units. The pooled sensitivity and specificity of B-scan ultrasound for diagnosing posterior segment ocular disorders were remarkably high at 96% (95% CI 91-98%) and 94% (95% CI 87-98%), respectively. The diagnostic odds ratio was 363 (95% CI 94-1406), indicating substantial diagnostic accuracy. The area under the curve (AUC) was 0.99, confirming the excellent capability of B-scan ultrasound. Notable heterogeneity was observed (I² = 86%), and no significant publication bias was detected.

CONCLUSION: B-scan ultrasound demonstrates high sensitivity and specificity in diagnosing posterior segment ocular disorders, confirming its utility as a reliable diagnostic tool in clinical practice.

PMID:40189719 | DOI:10.1007/s10633-025-10005-6

Sci Rep. 2025 Apr 6;15(1):11771. doi: 10.1038/s41598-025-96357-0.

ABSTRACT

Domain generalization (DG) addresses the challenge of out-of-distribution (OOD) data; however, the reliance on statistical correlations during model development often introduces shortcut learning problems. Current approaches to mitigating these issues commonly involve the integration of causal inference, formalizing DG problems through a general structural causal model. Nevertheless, ensuring the independence of features when incorporating causal models is often overlooked, leading to spurious causal relationships. In this work, we design three independent feature modules using GAN variants (GAN, WGAN, and WGAN-GP) and select the best-performing WGAN module to integrate into the existing causal model framework, constructing an independent causal relationship learning (ICRL) model. Extensive experiments on widely used datasets demonstrate that our model, with independent causal representations, outperforms the original model in both performance and efficiency, thereby validating the effectiveness of our proposed approach. The code for ICRL can be accessed at: https://github.com/22Shao/ICRL.git .

PMID:40189711 | DOI:10.1038/s41598-025-96357-0

Commun Biol. 2025 Apr 6;8(1):575. doi: 10.1038/s42003-025-07995-z.

ABSTRACT

Understanding disease progression is crucial for detecting critical transitions and finding trigger molecules, facilitating early diagnosis interventions. However, the high dimensionality of data and the lack of aligned samples across disease stages have posed challenges in addressing these tasks. We present a computational framework, Gaussian Graphical Optimal Transport (GGOT), for analyzing disease progressions. The proposed GGOT uses Gaussian graphical models, incorporating protein interaction networks, to characterize the data distributions at different disease stages. Then we use population-level optimal transport to calculate the Wasserstein distances and transport between stages, enabling us to detect critical transitions. By analyzing the per-molecule transport distance, we quantify the importance of each molecule and identify trigger molecules. Moreover, GGOT predicts the occurrence of critical transitions in unseen samples and visualizes the disease progression process. We apply GGOT to the simulation dataset and six disease datasets with varying disease progression rates to substantiate its effectiveness. Compared to existing methods, our proposed GGOT exhibits superior performance in detecting critical transitions.

PMID:40189710 | DOI:10.1038/s42003-025-07995-z

Prog Orthod. 2025 Apr 7;26(1):13. doi: 10.1186/s40510-025-00560-8.

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: The symbiotic relationship between the oral microbiome and the host immune system is a prerequisite of oral health. Disruptions to this system can be associated with the development of diseases like dental caries. Introducing orthodontic treatments, such as aligners and fixed appliances, might impact this microbial ecosystem. This study evaluated potential changes in salivary microbiome and the level of inflammatory marker myeloid-related protein 8/14 in patients undergoing orthodontic treatment with aligners or fixed appliances.

METHODS: Forty-eight patients were divided into two groups for treatment with fixed appliances or clear aligners. Unstimulated saliva samples were collected at baseline, three, and six months for microbiome analysis via 16 S rRNA sequencing and MRP-8/14 level measurement using ELISA.

RESULTS: Among 503 identified microbial species, no significant changes were noted in overall microbiome. A considerable increase of caries-relevant species could not be observed either. MRP-8/14 levels remained unchanged across treatments, indicating no alterations in the inflammatory level.

CONCLUSION: Orthodontic treatment with fixed or removable appliances does not significantly alter the salivary microbiome or influence inflammation, suggesting that these interventions are unlikely to affect oral health negatively.

PMID:40189709 | DOI:10.1186/s40510-025-00560-8

Mol Cell Pediatr. 2025 Apr 7;12(1):4. doi: 10.1186/s40348-025-00192-2.

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: Infections are highly relevant for neonatal mortality and long-term morbidities in survivors. Therefore, it is an urgent need to optimize and evaluate infection prevention and control (IPC) strategies. Several infection outbreaks in German neonatal intensive care units (NICUs) required rapid responses by hospitals and improved future preparedness. As a consequence, German authorities recommended weekly colonization screening on NICUs. This screening aims to detect multidrug-resistant organisms (MDRO) and bacteria with high transmissibility. According to these guidelines, infants colonized with multiresistant gram-negative (MRGN) bacteria with in-vitro resistance to piperacillin and cephalosporins (2MRGN) should be cared wearing non-sterile gloves and gowns in addition to standard hygiene precautions. Whether these extended IPC measures have an individual benefit for infants or contribute to the prevention of infection outbreaks has not yet been scientifically proven. This study aims to evaluate the effect of hand desinfection as compared to hand desinfection + gloves and gowns (barrier care) for the care of 2MRGN colonized infants in NICUs on infection and transmission rates through a multicenter, cluster randomized controlled trial (BALTIC study, Barrier protection to lower transmission and infection rates with Gram-negative 2-MRGN in preterm children).

METHODS: 12 participating NICUs were randomly allocated to two trial arms: receiving the intervention “standard precautions with a special focus on hand desinfection” or control (standard precautions “plus” barrier care) for the care of 2MRGN positive infants. Cross over was performed after 12 months for another 12 months per site. Primary outcome was the rate of healthcare-associated (HA) Gram-negative bloodstream infections. Secondary outcomes included transmission rate with screening relevant bacteria, overall rate of clinical and culture-proven infections, number of antibiotic cycles and desinfectant use. Regular trainings and hygiene audits are standardized co-interventions.

BENCHMARKING RESULTS: According to our single center data, 9.3% of NICU-treated infants are colonized with 2MRGN during their hospital stay. BALTIC randomized the first center in October 2020 and finished data collection including close-out monitoring in January 2024. Data analysis will be completed in May 2025.

CONCLUSIONS: BALTIC should contribute to better evidence on the effectiveness of hand desinfection and extended barrier precautions in critically ill newborns. Further benefits include comprehensive multi-center data collection on MDRO colonization dynamics, an improved awareness on IPC strategies and establishment of network platforms including antimicrobial stewardship programs.

PMID:40189707 | DOI:10.1186/s40348-025-00192-2

Sci Rep. 2025 Apr 6;15(1):11767. doi: 10.1038/s41598-025-96263-5.

ABSTRACT

This research presents an advancement of the Elk Herd Optimization targeting specific real-world multi-objective optimization problems, this algorithm is stated as the multi-objective Elk Herd Optimization (MOEHO). MOEHO exploits reproductive behaviour among elk herds for balancing exploration and exploitation within the optimization procedure toward diversification and convergence. The algorithm performed better over the set of small-to-medium scale structural design problems thus is widely applicable in engineering design. Further, when compared with eight benchmark truss structures against five well-established algorithms the MOEHO has outperformed them in the perspective of performance parameters like Spacing (SP), Hypervolume (HV) and Inverted Generational Distance (IGD). More concrete statistical analysis through Friedman rank test also ascertains the robustness and efficiency of the algorithm, especially at high complexities in optimization. The research attracts attention to the ability of such an algorithm which maintains a balance between the exploration and exploitation. Computational efficiency of MOEHO and qualitatively diversifying solutions along Pareto front, makes it especially applicable in complex engineering applications. Further research into extension of MOEHO with applicability on more dimensional problems, applied even in energy systems optimization.

PMID:40189688 | DOI:10.1038/s41598-025-96263-5

Clin Oral Investig. 2025 Apr 7;29(5):225. doi: 10.1007/s00784-025-06304-6.

ABSTRACT

OBJECTIVES: To investigate the effect of silver diamine fluoride (SDF) on the microtensile bond strength (µTBS) and resin-dentin interface of universal adhesive (etch-and-rinse mode) under thermocycling.

MATERIALS AND METHODS: Artificial caries lesions were induced on human dentin discs using a bacterial model and divided into four groups: C (no treatment), CT (no treatment, thermocycling), CS (SDF), and CST (SDF, thermocycling). The treated-dentin surface was bonded with universal adhesive (etch-and-rinse mode) and stored for 24 h or subjected to 10,000 thermocycles. µTBS was performed with 1 mm/min crosshead speed with a 50 N load cell (n = 16/group). The resin-dentin interface was examined using confocal laser scanning microscopy (CLSM) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) with energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX) (n = 3/group). Statistical analyses included two-way ANOVA with Bonferroni post-hoc tests for µTBS and Fisher’s Exact Test with Bonferroni correction for failure mode distribution.

RESULTS: The highest bond strength was observed in C (24.28 ± 2.27 MPa) followed by CST (18.26 ± 5.63 MPa). Significantly lower µTBS was detected in CS (14.20 ± 3.32 MPa) and CT (12.72 ± 2.12 MPa). CT exhibited a distinct failure mode from the other groups (p < 0.05). CLSM revealed less uniform resin tags in CS and CST. EDX demonstrated silver deposition at 50 μm beneath the adhesive layer in CS and at 120 μm with lower intensity in CST.

CONCLUSIONS: SDF enhances bonding durability, as evidenced by increased µTBS and modified resin-dentin interface.

CLINICAL RELEVANCE: SDF may enhance the durability of bonding with universal adhesive in etch-and-rinse mode.

PMID:40189667 | DOI:10.1007/s00784-025-06304-6