Research works

Natural thiol ergothioneine: a potential anti-glycation agent for bovine serum albumin and its mode of action

The Maillard reaction is ubiquitous in food processing, imparting desirable color and flavor. However, excessive protein glycation leads to the formation of advanced glycation end products (AGEs) and protein cross‑linking, causing nutritional loss and potential hazards. This stud...

Association between short-form video media use and inattentive, hyperactive-impulsive, and oppositional defiant symptoms in Thai preschool children

Media use has previously been bidirectionally associated with attentional problems in children. Evidence regarding short-form video, a relatively new type of media accessible through personal devices such as smartphones and tablets, remains limited, particularly in preschool popu...

Prevalence and severity of nomophobia among university students in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq

Nomophobia—short for “no mobile phone phobia”—is an emerging psychological phenomenon characterized by fear or anxiety associated with being without access to a mobile phone. Evidence regarding nomophobia among university students in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq remains limited....

Early improvement in depressive symptoms after pallidothalamic tract deep brain stimulation for drug-induced dystonia

Stimulation for lithium-induced dystoniaLong-term exposure to psychotropic agents, including lithium and dopamine D2/D3 partial agonists such as brexpiprazole, has been associated with delayed and sometimes persistent

The Civist Manifesto: A Political-Economic Framework for the Labor-Optional Era

The Civist Manifesto proposes Civism as a political-economic framework for the Labor-Optional Era: a period in which artificial intelligence, robotics, and autonomous production may progressively reduce the necessity of human labor for economic survival. Civism does not seek to a...

Research engagement profiles among Chinese undergraduate and postgraduate students

Research engagement is increasingly recognized as an important component of student development in higher education, particularly in medical and health sciences disciplines, but it is often measured through isolated activities or publication status alone. This study examined rese...

Preoperative computed tomography measurement for predicting difficulty in hand-sewn ileal pouch-anal anastomosis: a refined single-center cohort study

Restorative proctocolectomy with a hand-sewn ileal pouch-anal anastomosis (IPAA) is a standard treatment for ulcerative colitis and familial adenomatous polyposis. However, achieving sufficient mesenteric length remains a significant challenge. This study aimed to validate the po...

Insights into the relationship between menopausal timing and risk of cardiovascular disease: a systematic review and meta-analysis of Mendelian randomization analyses

Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is the leading cause of death and imposes a substantial burden on women’s health. Early onset of menopause, as a unique trait of reproductive aging, has been associated with a higher risk of adverse cardiovascular events in traditional observational s...

Digitalisation of ozone pre-oxidation control through a fuzzy inference system: Development and open-loop validation in a full-scale drinking water treatment plant

Drinking Water Treatment Plants (DWTPs) increasingly face operational challenges associated with the temporal variability of surface-water quality, particularly in Mediterranean regions affected by seasonal and climatic fluctuations. In ozone-based pre-oxidation systems, dosage a...

What my mother’s APOE result taught me about dementia risk

As genetic and biomarker-based dementia risk assessments become more widely used, the challenge is not only estimating risk, but returning it responsibly. Discussing my mother’s APOE genotype with her showed me how differently dementia risk can appear in a dataset, a family conve...

Effect of thermal ablation on persistent HPV infection in Danish women ≥ 40 years of age: a quasi-randomized clinical study

Thermal ablation is a cervical heat treatment that destroys a defined area of the cervix. We evaluated whether thermal ablation facilitates HPV clearance in women with persistent high-risk human papillomavirus (HR-HPV) infection, using HPV status and FAM19A4/miR124-2 DNA methylat...

Network Structure of a Marital Satisfaction Index Among Married Indian Women: A Secondary Psychometric Analysis

This study conducted a secondary psychometric analysis of survey data originally collected for a master's dissertation examining marital well-being among Indian women in arranged marriages (N = 55). A five-item Marital Satisfaction Index (MSI) was developed and validated (Cronbac...

Association between psychological frailty index and incident complete tooth loss among middle-aged and older adults: a prospective study based on CHARLS

Complete tooth loss is a severe oral health condition in middle-aged and older adults and is associated with impaired mastication, nutritional problems, reduced quality of life, and adverse ageing-related outcomes. Psychological frailty reflects multidimensional psychological vul...

Microplastics in pediatric asthma: Clinical associations with disease severity

Background Respiratory exposure to microplastics (MPs) is increasingly recognized as a potential contributor to chronic airway disease, but the MPs burden in children with asthma and its relationship to disease remain poorly defined. Methods In this cross-sectional study, sputum...

Spatial variation in neurological outcomes after shockable out-of-hospital cardiac arrest in central Tokyo: a single-center retrospective study

In urban areas, abundant medical resources improve outcomes for patients with out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA). However, metropolitan environments present unique pre-hospital transportation challenges rarely observed in rural areas, such as complex transportation networks an...

Level of education is associated with risk of kidney diseases in middle-aged and elderly adults: evidence from the CHARLS

Although numerous studies have indicated that various socioeconomic factors influence the risk of developing kidney disease, clinical evidence regarding the relationship between level of education (LoE) and the risk of kidney disease remains insufficient. This study aims to evalu...

LACHT syndrome with branchial cyst in a female infant; case report and review of literature

Lung agenesis is a rare congenital malformation. The combination of lung agenesis, congenital heart defects, and thumb anomalies characterizes LACHT syndrome, an extremely rare condition with an unclear genetic basis. To date, only 15 cases have been reported in the literature. W...

Shifting shorelines and hydroclimate changes in southern South Africa: Insights from sediment provenance during the Middle Stone Age (90-50 ka)

Southern South Africa houses some key archaeological sites, which document the behavioural and technological development of Homo sapiens . During Marine Isotope Stages (MIS) 5 and 4, this region experienced marked climate variability, particularly in temperature and precipitation...

Machine-learning-based model for predicting surface impedance of microslit panels in grazing flow

Accurately predicting the acoustic properties of noise-reduction materials in real-world, flow-exposed environments remains a significant challenge in engineering. Classical models of microslit panels are unsuited for grazing flow conditions due to complex, nonlinear flow-acousti...

Feynman Sprinkler: Eppur si muove

This paper reexamines five recent analyses and experimental studies of the reverse sprinkler problem and identifies conceptual limitations they share. Jenkins, Rueckner, Beals, Wang et al., and Smith et al. all focus primarily on internal flow dynamics, ignoring the pressure grad...