Nevin Manimala

PeerJ. 2026 Jul 1;14:e21454. doi: 10.7717/peerj.21454. eCollection 2026.

ABSTRACT

Our study is a retrospective multicenter observational cohort study to investigate effect of the use of antenatal corticosteroids (ACS) in preterm infants on the severity of necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC) and its associated complications. We collected clinical data from 443 preterm infants with gestational age (GA) of less than 37 weeks who were diagnosed with NEC in four hospitals across various provinces in China, covering the period from June 2020 to June 2024. According to whether they received a full course of prenatal corticosteroid treatment in the week before delivery, infants were divided into the exposed group and the unexposed group. A total of 213 preterm infants (48.08%) had received ACS therapy. When compared to the non-exposed group, the severity of NEC in the exposed group demonstrated a statistically significant difference (p = 0.005). Comparative analysis revealed that ethnicity, chorioamnionitis, antenatal steroid use, antenatal antibiotic use, premature rupture of membranes, gestational age, age at onset, respiratory support mode at onset, presence of intracranial hemorrhage before onset, postnatal occurrence of hemodynamically significant patent ductus arteriosus (hsPDA), absolute white blood cell count at onset, absolute platelet count at onset, and serum creatinine (SCr) levels during NEC (all p < 0.05) were identified as risk factors influencing NEC severity. In the univariate regression analysis, ACS therapy was identified as a significant protective factor against the occurrence of hsPDA (OR = 0.612, CI [0.385-0.974]), bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD) (OR = 0.611, CI [0.377-0.989]), and the need for surgical intervention (OR = 0.609, CI [0.384-0.967]). After adjusting for multiple confounding factors, ACS still demonstrated a protective effect against NEC severity (OR = 0.401, CI [0.257-0.672]), while chorioamnionitis (OR = 3.586, CI [1.571-8.185]), invasive respiratory support prior to onset (OR = 3.045, CI [1.464-6.330]), prenatal antibiotic use (OR = 3.752, CI [1.700-8.277]), and partially hydrolyzed formula feeding (OR = 3.500, CI [1.372-8.945]) were identified as significant risk factors for NEC severity. Therefore, ACS can reduce the severity of NEC and lower the incidence of hsPDA, BPD, and the necessity for surgical in preterm infants.

PMID:42405258 | PMC:PMC13332717 | DOI:10.7717/peerj.21454

PeerJ. 2026 Jul 2;14:e21428. doi: 10.7717/peerj.21428. eCollection 2026.

ABSTRACT

Under ongoing global warming and recent crop pest invasions, there is an urgent need to fill the gap between experimental research on pest thermal biology and applied forecasting tools that inform pest-management policies. The R package mappestRisk provides an accessible, open-source workflow that enables researchers, particularly those working in experimental pest biology, to forecast pest risk based on collected data on the thermal response of pest development rates. Built upon recent advances in open-source software development in the R environment, mappestRisk offers an accessible pipeline that spans from fitting performance curves for development rates data to generating broad-scale pest risk maps. Starting with user-provided temperature-dependent life-history dataset, the package fits nonlinear regression models and visualizes their thermal performance curves, with Akaike Information Criterion (AIC) scores and bootstrapped uncertainty ribbons. This allows users to select the most appropriate model based on biological, ecological and statistical criteria. The package then calculates thermal boundaries around the optimal region of the selected curve. These boundaries are used to extract climatic data for a user-defined spatial region or country and to map the number of months per year with optimal temperatures for pest development. The output consists of static or interactive raster maps that provide valuable insights for pest risk based on the known thermal biology of the target pest. This workflow contributes to making pest forecasts open, reproducible and accessible to the scientific community, while also providing relevant information for policy-making institutions and plant-protection organizations involved in crop-pest management.

PMID:42405255 | PMC:PMC13333130 | DOI:10.7717/peerj.21428

PeerJ. 2026 Jun 30;14:e21377. doi: 10.7717/peerj.21377. eCollection 2026.

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: In a changing environment, making predictions about probabilistic events from few observational facts has ecological relevance for many species. Recent research has shown that preverbal infants, great apes, and capuchins (Sapajus spp.) were able to use proportions to predict the nature of a single item randomly sampled from two populations. However, studies involving macaques (Macaca fascicularis and M. mulatta) brought contradictory results about whether macaques relied on proportions or other choice heuristics to make intuitive inferences. To provide additional information on the evolutionary origins of this skill and overcome methodological concerns from previous studies, we assessed the ability of Tonkean macaques (M. tonkeana) to consider proportions in intuitive statistical inferences.

METHODS: In a series of eight experimental conditions, 10 Tonkean macaques had to choose which of two jars, that differed in their relative distributions of a preferred and non-preferred food item, conferred a greater chance of obtaining one preferred item. During each test, the experimenter hid in their hands an item drawn pseudo-randomly from each of the two jars for the subject to make its choice.

RESULTS: Our results highlighted both between and within individual variations in their decisional framework. According to experimental conditions, while few individuals relied on proportions to make statistical inferences, most individuals relied on quantities of preferred items or other heuristics to predict the drawing outcome. Altogether, our results brought some evidence that the ability to perform intuitive statistical inferences may be shared amongst primates, but that the underlying high cognitive demands of this capacity may motivate the use of simpler heuristics in some animals’ everyday decisions.

PMID:42405252 | PMC:PMC13330748 | DOI:10.7717/peerj.21377

PeerJ. 2026 Jun 30;14:e21532. doi: 10.7717/peerj.21532. eCollection 2026.

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: Near-vision-related symptoms are common among students who are often engaged in prolonged near work, such as reading and using digital devices.

OBJECTIVE: To assess the occurrence of ocular symptoms and their associated visual functions among medical sciences students at Qassim University, Saudi Arabia.

METHODS: This cross-sectional study included 58 participants conducted between May and July 2025. Each participant completed a validated Convergence Insufficiency Symptom Survey (CISS) and underwent a comprehensive assessment of refraction, binocular vision and accommodative function.

RESULTS: The findings revealed that 29.3% of participants were classified as symptomatic based on CISS. The most commonly reported symptom was difficulty retaining information after reading (48%), whereas the least reported symptom was the perception of words moving or jumping on the page (7%). Furthermore, uncorrected refractive error significantly influenced symptom severity; ametropic participants reported higher CISS scores (mean ± SD: 18.6 ± 7.5) than emmetropic participants (9.2 ± 5.3, p < 0.0001). No statistically significant associations were observed between CISS scores and binocular vision or accommodative function (p > 0.05).

CONCLUSION: The findings highlight that near-vision-related symptoms are prevalent among university students and are significantly influenced by uncorrected refractive errors. Although no significant correlations were identified between symptom severity and binocular vision or accommodative function, these findings underscore the critical role of refractive correction and routine vision screening in academic populations.

PMID:42405248 | PMC:PMC13330743 | DOI:10.7717/peerj.21532

PeerJ. 2026 Jun 30;14:e21372. doi: 10.7717/peerj.21372. eCollection 2026.

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: Bronchial asthma (BA) and ulcerative colitis (UC) are chronic immune-mediated inflammatory diseases affecting the airway and intestinal mucosa, respectively. Increasing clinical evidence suggests a close association between BA and UC, with mutual aggravation of disease severity when both conditions coexist. However, the underlying mechanisms and suitable experimental models to investigate BA-UC comorbidity remain limited. This study aimed to establish a reliable murine model of comorbid BA-UC and to evaluate the bidirectional impact of airway and intestinal inflammation.

METHODS: Forty specific-pathogen-free (SPF)-grade female C57BL/6 mice were randomly assigned to four groups: control, BA, UC, and comorbid BA-UC. BA was induced by intraperitoneal sensitization with ovalbumin (OVA) followed by repeated aerosolized OVA challenges, while UC was induced by intermittent administration of dextran sulfate sodium (DSS). The comorbid model was established by synchronously combining both protocols in the same animals. Pulmonary function, airway hyperresponsiveness, Disease Activity Index (DAI), body weight, quality-of-life scores, colon length, and histopathological changes in lung and colon tissues were assessed and compared among groups.

RESULTS: Compared with the control group, mice in the BA, UC, and comorbid BA-UC groups exhibited significant abnormalities in pulmonary function parameters. Among all experimental groups, the comorbid BA-UC group showed the most pronounced decline in quality-of-life scores. Line graph analysis revealed significant differences in colon length shortening and body weight changes in the comorbid BA-UC group (P < 0.05), with colon shortening being significantly greater than that observed in the UC group alone (P < 0.05). Inflammatory cell infiltration was significantly increased in the BA and comorbid BA-UC groups compared with the UC group (P < 0.05). Although granuloma scores were higher in the BA and comorbid BA-UC groups than in the control group, these differences did not reach statistical significance. In contrast to controls, all disease groups (BA, UC, and comorbid BA-UC) exhibited significantly increased pathological injury scores.

CONCLUSION: The synchronous induction of BA and UC using OVA and DSS successfully establishes a stable and reproducible murine model of comorbid BA-UC. This model demonstrates that BA and UC mutually exacerbate airway and intestinal inflammation, supporting the existence of a bidirectional gut-lung immune interaction. The comorbid BA-UC model provides a valuable experimental platform for future mechanistic studies and the development of integrated therapeutic strategies targeting coexisting inflammatory diseases.

PMID:42405247 | PMC:PMC13330746 | DOI:10.7717/peerj.21372

PeerJ. 2026 Jul 2;14:e21498. doi: 10.7717/peerj.21498. eCollection 2026.

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: Depressive symptoms are common among first-year university students, yet the longitudinal associations between different intensities of leisure-time physical activity (LTPA) and mental health remain unclear. This study examined the relationships between moderate- and vigorous-intensity LTPA and depressive symptoms over one academic year, as well as potential gender differences.

METHODS: A four-wave longitudinal survey was conducted over one academic year among 456 freshmen (Mage = 18.18, SD = 0.67; 202 males and 254 females). Latent growth modeling was employed to analyze temporal changes in depressive symptoms and LTPA, and a parallel process latent growth model was used to assess the relationships between LTPA intensity and depressive symptom trajectories.

RESULTS: Depressive symptoms were relatively elevated at the beginning of the academic year and showed a modest decline over time, whereas LTPA increased across waves. The intercepts of vigorous-intensity LTPA and depressive symptoms were significantly and negatively associated (β = – 0.441, p = 0.002), whereas the association between moderate-intensity LTPA and depressive symptoms at baseline was not statistically significant (β = – 0.278, p = 0.071). Importantly, no significant associations were observed between changes in LTPA and changes in depressive symptoms over time (moderate: β = – 0.187, p = 0.508; vigorous: β = – 0.061, p = 0.823). Female students reported lower baseline levels of both moderate- and vigorous-intensity LTPA compared with males; however, no significant gender differences were observed in the longitudinal associations between LTPA and depressive symptoms.

CONCLUSIONS: Vigorous-intensity LTPA and depressive symptoms were negatively associated at baseline among first-year university students. However, changes in LTPA were not significantly related to changes in depressive symptoms over the study period. These findings underscore the importance of distinguishing between baseline associations and longitudinal change when interpreting relationships between physical activity and mental health.

PMID:42405244 | PMC:PMC13333126 | DOI:10.7717/peerj.21498

Iran Endod J. 2026;21(1):e21. doi: 10.22037/iej.v21i1.44573. Epub 2026 Jun 22.

ABSTRACT

INTRODUCTION: Advances in endodontic instrumentation are centered around innovation of variable metallurgy and designs of endodontic files to reduce procedural errors. However, there is a lack of consensus in the literature with regard to the shaping ability of WaveOne Gold (WOG) and ProTaper next (PTN) endodontic file systems in the curved root canals. This study aimed to measure and compare the amount of canal transportation (CT) and centering ability (CA) in the coronal, middle, and apical thirds of root canals prepared using the WOG file and PTN system using cone-beam computed tomography (CBCT).

MATERIALS AND METHODS: A total of sixty single-rooted teeth with Type I Vertucci canal and moderate 10-30^° canal curvature according to AAE guidelines were collected and divided into two groups: Group 1: WOG system, Group 2: PTN. Baseline and post-operative CBCT scans were obtained for all the specimens using the same exposure parameters. The CT and CA of each root canal at 3, 6, and 9 mm, corresponding to the coronal, middle, and apical third, were calculated. The data was analyzed using SPSS. The level of significance was kept at 0.05.

RESULTS: At the 6 mm level, The WOG system exhibited statistically less canal transportation (CT) in mesio-distal dimension compared to PTN (P=0.005). The direction of transportation was predominantly towards the distal and lingual aspects for both systems. The centering ability (CA) of WOG was statistically higher than that of PTN at 9 mm level (P=0.023). However, all measured transportation values for both systems fell within the clinically acceptable threshold of <0.15 mm.

CONCLUSION: Within the limitations of this in vitro study, both the WOG and PTN Next file systems prepared moderately curved root canals with clinically acceptable accuracy, maintaining canal transportation within a safe range. The observed statistical differences are of uncertain clinical significance given the measurement resolution of CBCT.

PMID:42405218 | PMC:PMC13332815 | DOI:10.22037/iej.v21i1.44573

Compr Psychoneuroendocrinol. 2026 Jun 25;27:100357. doi: 10.1016/j.cpnec.2026.100357. eCollection 2026 Aug.

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: Allostatic load (AL) represents the cumulative physiological burden arising from chronic stress across neuroendocrine, immune, metabolic, and cardiovascular systems. Although AL is strongly associated with cardiometabolic and inflammatory diseases, its underlying genetic architecture remains poorly characterized.

METHODS: We integrated genome-wide association summary statistics for five AL-related phenotypes-systolic blood pressure, white blood cell count, C-reactive protein, body mass index, and triglycerides-using Genomic Structural Equation Modeling (Genomic SEM) to derive a latent genetic factor indexing the shared cardiovascular, inflammatory, and metabolic components of AL. A common-factor model was fitted to derive a latent genetic representation of AL, followed by multivariate GWAS of the latent factor. Downstream analyses included functional annotation, Bayesian fine-mapping, transcriptome-wide association analysis (TWAS), pathway enrichment, cell type-specific heritability estimation, and partitioned SNP heritability analyses.

RESULTS: The common-factor model showed good fit (CFI = 0.964; SRMR = 0.037), supporting a shared genetic architecture across the five AL-related traits. Functional annotation indicated that AL-associated variants were predominantly located in non-coding regulatory regions. Pathway enrichment analyses implicated metabolic regulation, lipid processing, neuroendocrine signaling, and immune-related pathways. Integrative fine-mapping and TWAS prioritized genes involved in metabolic homeostasis and neuronal signaling, including HNF4A, MLXIPL, BDNF, and SH2B1. Cell type-specific analyses showed enrichment in neuronal populations and stress-related brain regions, while partitioned heritability analyses demonstrated significant enrichment in conserved regions, promoters, enhancers, and active chromatin marks.

CONCLUSION: This study characterizes the shared polygenic architecture of an AL-related latent factor derived from cardiovascular, inflammatory, and metabolic biomarkers. The results suggest that genetic liability captured by this AL-related latent factor converges on metabolic, immune-inflammatory, neuroendocrine and neural regulatory pathways, providing a system-level perspective on AL-related physiological burden and multisystem disease vulnerability.

PMID:42405204 | PMC:PMC13329553 | DOI:10.1016/j.cpnec.2026.100357

Adv Neural Inf Process Syst. 2025 Dec;38:159735-159768.

ABSTRACT

Binary classification with imbalanced classes is a common and fundamental task, where standard machine learning methods often struggle to provide reliable predictive performance. Although numerous approaches have been proposed to address this issue, classification in low-sample-size and high-dimensional settings still remains particularly challenging. The abundance of noisy features in high-dimensional data limits the effectiveness of classical methods due to overfitting, and the minority class is even difficult to detect because of its severe underrepresentation with low sample size. To address this challenge, we introduce Quantile-based Discriminant Analysis (QuanDA), which builds upon a novel connection with quantile regression and naturally accounts for class imbalance through appropriately chosen quantile levels. We provide comprehensive theoretical analysis to validate QuanDA in ultra-high dimensional settings. Through extensive simulation studies and high-dimensional benchmark data analysis, we demonstrate that QuanDA overall outperforms existing classification methods for imbalanced data, including cost-sensitive large-margin classifiers, random forests, and SMOTE.

PMID:42405201 | PMC:PMC13333170

RSC Adv. 2026 Jul 3. doi: 10.1039/d6ra03353a. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

The ongoing discharge of ciprofloxacin (CIP) into aquatic environments presents significant ecological and public health challenges due to its environmental persistence and role in facilitating the proliferation of antibiotic resistance, underscoring the pressing necessity for effective removal technologies. This investigation introduces a novel composite sponge, composed of a amine-functionalized zinc metal-organic framework (NH₂-Zn-MOF) and chitosan-polyethylenimine (CS/PEI), referred to as FZCP, which was successfully synthesized and assessed for its capacity to adsorb CIP from aqueous environments. The synthesis of the FZCP composite sponge yields an adsorbent that is mechanically robust, highly porous, and capable of being reused. Extensive characterization utilizing methods such as XRD, BET surface area, FT-IR and two-dimensional FT-IR correlation spectroscopy, SEM-EDX, and zero point of charge (pH_zpc) analyses affirm the successful functionalization, uniform dispersion of the MOF, and the presence of a significant number of active sites. Batch adsorption experiments revealed a remarkably high adsorption capability, reaching values of up to 487 mg g^-1. The efficiency of the adsorption was found to be significantly affected by several variables, including the solution pH, duration of contact, and the quantity of adsorbent used. Through the application of response surface methodology (RSM) utilizing the Box-Behnken design (BBD) for process optimization, it emerged that the interaction time was the most serious issue influencing adsorption competence. With an overall desirability value of 0.991, the ideal parameters were found to be a solution pH of 7, a duration of contact of 100 min, and an adsorbent dosage of 0.02 g. A pseudo-second-order model adequately explained the adsorption kinetics, and isotherm and thermodynamic investigations indicated that the adsorption process was favorable, spontaneous, and mostly controlled by chemisorption. Ciprofloxacin is adsorbed through a combination of electrostatic forces, π-π stacking, hydrogen bonding, coordination with Zn(ii) sites, and pore filling, according to mechanistic studies. All of these results point to the potential of the FZCP composite sponge as a very successful adsorbent for eliminating ciprofloxacin from wastewater.

PMID:42405151 | PMC:PMC13330777 | DOI:10.1039/d6ra03353a