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Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by social communication deficits and other behavioral issues. Autism, escalating as a global health concern, has yielded substantial discoveries in the past 40 years. This paper presents a comprehensive review that summarizes the progress in the etiology, diagnosis, and therapy of autism in children. We searched for potentially relevant studies in three databases (Web of Science, PubMed and CINAHL) from inception until March 2024. In addition, we manually searched the bibliographies of the included studies to find articles that might otherwise have been missed. The search strategy was defined by identifying key terms from the research question related to ‘autism', and ‘etiology', ‘diagnosis' and ‘therapy'. To reduce the number of papers cited, the most recent review papers and meta-analyses were used whenever possible. We selected papers based on our judgement of the quality of the study or review paper, its relevance to controversial or commonly misunderstood issues, and whether the findings were clinically relevant. Finally, this paper summarizes the current status of autism research, looks forward to future research directions, and calls for more research to explore the pathogenic mechanisms, diagnostic basis, and therapeutic methods of autism.

Mass mortality events (MMEs) threaten the health of fish and are also a potential threat to the health and safety of workers. This paper presents findings from a desktop risk assessment exercise focused on potential aquaculture occupational health and safety (AOHS) hazards and risks associated with MMEs in Chile. The study reviews academic and grey literature, government regulations and MME reports and statistics to assess the scale and distribution of MMEs; identifies associated documented and potential health and safety hazards; and documents and assesses policy responses to MMEs in the Chilean context through the lens of health and safety. The paper documents the size and regional distribution of salmon MME occurrences in Chile from 2016 to 2022. It discusses AOHS hazards associated with MMEs such as exposure to hydrogen sulfide, drowning and diving-related illnesses and potential issues around accessing hospitals and hyperbaric chambers for workers in remote aquaculture regions, as well as exposure to antibiotics and antibiotic residues. Recent Chilean regulatory requirements around reporting and management of MMEs that have the potential to help reduce identified MME-related risks for workers are described and addressed. Key policy highlights Risk of mass mortality events (MMEs) in marine aquaculture is increasing as the industry expands and climate change increases fluctuations in marine conditions. Policies need to be developed to counteract these risks. MMEs-related worker accidents and environmental degradation point to the urgent need to develop environmental and occupational health and safety (OHS) guidelines that prevent MMEs and protect workers and the environment. The Chilean OHS guidelines related to aquaculture MMEs may be adapted and used in other countries. Surveillance programs on harmful algal blooms and antibiotic resistance (AMR) markers may be a preventive measure towards MMEs and exposure to AMR markers.

Various phenomena of life are typically explained by the physical sciences. Although the biological structures of a living being are subject to physical laws, we suggest that life, information, and consciousness are biological phenomena that are not. In this paper, we present new concepts and viewpoints about the very nature of biology. Life, information, and consciousness are identified as a unique set of biological phenomena that are common to only and all living beings. These three distinct phenomena always occur together in a whole pattern, and matter is viewed as the carrier of these phenomena. We explore the unique characteristics of life, information, and consciousness, and their relationships to one another. The experiences and behaviors of human beings, our presentday knowledge of biology, and some organisms' simple behaviors that we can observe are used to understand these biological phenomena. A distinction between genetic information and nongenetic information is also made, and their importance to life is emphasized. The interactions of biological activities between living beings and their environments are explained in the context of improving their chance of survival. Additionally, consciousness is simplified and exemplified via five categories from a hierarchical perspective, and various types of death are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Colorectal cancer (CRC) is the third most common cancer in the world, with increasing morbidity and mortality. The current diagnosis and treatment plan rely on early detection and comprehensive treatment based on surgery. Still, most patients are in the middle and advanced stage at the time of diagnosis, and the therapeutic effect is very limited. Immunotherapy is a new cancer treatment method. The most commonly used are immune checkpoint inhibitors, specifically anti PD-1/PD-L1 interaction. However, immunotherapy has limitations, with its therapeutic effect closely related to the immune response in the tumor microenvironment. In recent years, the effect of arginine metabolism disorder on the occurrence and development of cancer and tumor immune regulation has attracted wide attention. Studies have confirmed that cancer cells cannot survive without arginine and arginine metabolites. In addition, arginine is essential for the proliferation, differentiation, and survival of tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes. High arginine levels can promote the anti-tumor immune response, thus increasing the effect of tumor immunotherapy. In this paper, the molecular mechanisms of arginine metabolism in the development and immune regulation of CRC are reviewed, with the authors hoping to provide potential evidence for the development of immunotherapy for CRC. Abbreviation CRC = Colorectal cancer, dMMR = Mismatch repair deficient, MSI-H = Microsatellite highly Instability, MSS = Microsatellite stability, TME = Tumor microenvironment, MHC = Major histocompatibility complex, pMMR = Mismatch repair proficient, NOS = Nitric Oxide synthase, NO = Nitric oxide, ASS-1 = Arginine succinate synthetase 1, ASL = Argininosuccinate lyase, ARG = arginase, CAT = Cationic amino acid transporter, AGAT = Arginine-glycine amidinotransferase, ADC = Arginine decarboxylase, ADI = Arginine deiminase, ODC = Ornithine decarboxylase, GCN2 = General control non-depressible 2, mTOR = Mammalian target of rapamycin, HIF-1 = Hypoxia-inducible factor 1, VEGF = Vascular endothelial growth factor, ICI = Immune checkpoint inhibitor, ORR = Objective response rate, DCR = Disease control rate, OS = Overall survival, PFS = Progress free survival, TIL = Tumor-infiltrating lymphocyte, TCM = Central memory T cell

The repellency of solvent extracts of Calpurnia aurea leaves was evaluated on the maize weevils and the red flour beetles. Nine-cm Whatman number 1 filter paper that is partitioned into treatment, neutral and non-treatment portions was used for the experiment. Each solvent extract treatment was applied at 2.5, 5 and 10% rates. Insects were released in the neutral portion, while the untreated part served as a control. A choice bioassay experimental method that is laid down in a completely randomized design within three replications was used. 5 and 10% rates of the polar solvent extracts of Calpurnia aurea leaves induced significantly (p

The paper reviews a range of global aquaculture health and safety literature to inform and contribute to the development of a socio-economic profile of Indian shrimp farm workers including the occupational hazards and injuries they face. In addition, 60 shrimp farm workers were interviewed from each of the states of Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Gujarat and Tamil Nadu. The study revealed that all shrimp farm workers were male, 58% were migrants, and ages ranged from 23 to 53 years with work experience of 5 to 24 years. Few workers (14%) had no formal schooling and many had secondary-level education. Reported physical hazards were high (93%) followed by biological (82%), chemical (77%), ergonomic (71%) and psycho-social (71%) hazards. The majority of physical injuries reported related to slips, falls and cuts (51%), electric shocks (44%), sunburn (41%), dehydration/headaches (40%) and fractures (27%). Approximately 30%–39% had some chemical injury with skin infections/breathing problems. Indian shrimp farm workers face similar occupational hazards and injuries to shrimp farm workers in other countries. The occupational health and safety of shrimp farm workers should be integrated into the concept of ‘One Health’ to ensure aquaculture sustainability and safe, meaningful and good quality employment to workers.

Schistosomiasis is a neglected tropical disease affecting over 250 million people worldwide. The disease is the second most prevalent neglected tropical disease after malaria. Treatment of schistosomiasis relies on the administration of praziquantel (also known as biltricide). Reliance on a single drug poses a threat to the public health system as the parasite may become resistant as shown by some laboratory findings. The possibility of the resistance rising to clinically significant levels has motivated the scientific community to search for new drug nominees. For a long time, natural products have always been a foundation for the identification of drug leads in the pharmaceutical industry. This paper reviews the progress made in the discovery of natural anti-schistosomal agents in the field of drug discovery. We focus mainly on natural products that have been tested on the schistosome parasite and exhibited potency. We also highlight applications of advanced techniques in drug discovery, with a major focus on computer-aided drug discovery methods. Specifically, we discuss structure-based drug discovery and ligand-based drug design approaches, with an emphasis on virtual screening.

Antibiotic resistance has become an increasingly common problem in treating infectious diseases caused by pathogenic micro-organisms, and this threat is heightened due to the lack of new antibiotic discoveries since the 1980s. This paper aims to summarise the currently available knowledge on the antimicrobial properties of cholesterol esters and to evaluate the use of cholesterol esters as an alternative to antibiotics. A systematic literature search was conducted in three databases namely Pubmed, Embase, and Web of Science to retrieve articles published between 2000 and 2020 where cholesterol esters were the primary or one of the primary examined molecules as part of research targeting immunity and antimicrobial operations. The findings showed antibacterial properties of cholesterol esters, their synergistic activity with antibiotics, antimicrobial role of cholesterol esters in upper respiratory tract and its diseases in humans, and correlation of cholesterol esters with infection protection in physically active individuals. Overall, there is strong evidence that cholesterol esters have antimicrobial properties. However, the currently pooled information available for cholesterol esters’ antimicrobial properties is not expansive enough to draw a conclusion on its ability to replace existing antibiotics as a treatment for infections and this warrants future investigation.

Detection of mood changes can be useful for the efficacy of drug treatment of psychiatric disorders in major depression. This paper presents an approach for detecting major time points of mood transitions under the influence of antidepressants. These time points, which are indicated by critical fluctuations in time series, can be discovered using change point detection and time-frequency analysis of fuzzy recurrence entropy of mood data. The mood transitions identified by the fuzzy recurrence entropy agree with results that were clinically validated and reported in literature. The proposed approach can detect early mood transitions in a fully objective way that does not require the manual analysis of fluctuations in the signal dynamics.

Osteosarcoma (OS), a common bone malignancy, is highly metastatic and featured by poor prognosis. SUMOylation is deeply involved in tumorigenesis and cancer progression. SUMO-activating enzyme (SAE) inhibitor has been found to play an anti-proliferative role in multiple cancers. However, their functions in osteosarcoma remain unknown. Based on this, it was hypothesized that ML792, an SAE inhibitor, might be an anti-tumor candidate against osteosarcoma in this paper. The role of ML792 in the treatment of osteosarcoma was investigated in vitro and in vivo. The results showed ML792 significantly arrested human osteosarcoma cells (HOCs) at the G2/M phase, inhibited the proliferation of HOCs, and elicited apoptosis. To better assess the inhibitory role of ML792 in human osteosarcoma, we induced HOCs with TGF-β1. Our study showed that ML792 significantly suppressed the migration, invasion, and EMT of HOCs induced by TGF-β1. Moreover, ML792 inhibited TGF-β1-induced phosphatidylinositol- 3-kinase (PI3K) and AKT activation, as well as Smad2/3 phosphorylation in HOCs. In vivo, ML792 inhibits the growth of osteosarcoma. Thus, ML792 is a promising new antitumor agent to suppress the progress of OS cells undergoing proliferation and EMT by targeting the PI3K/Akt and TGF-β1/Smad pathway and may prevent or reduce the growth and metastasis of osteosarcoma.