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This study investigates the toxic effect of harmful materials, unfiltered by the placenta, on neonatal umbilical cord (UC) vessels, focusing on stress-induced adaptations in transcriptional and translational processes. It aims to analyze changes in pathways related to mRNA condensate formation, transcriptional regulation, and DNA damage response under maternal smoking-induced stress. UC vessels from neonates born to smoking (Sm) and nonsmoking mothers (Ctr) were examined. Immunofluorescence staining and confocal microscopy assessed the localization of key markers, including Transcription Complex Subunit 1 (CNOT1) and the largest subunit of RNA polymerase II enzyme (RPB1). Additionally, markers of DNA damage response, such as Poly(ADP-ribose) polymerase-1, were evaluated. In Sm samples, dissolution of CNOT1 granules in UC vessels was observed, potentially aiding stalled translation and enhancing transcription via RPB1 assembly and translocation. Control vessels showed predominant cytoplasmic RPB1 localization. Despite adaptive responses, Sm endothelial cells exhibited significant damage, indicated by markers like Poly(ADP-ribose) polymerase-1. Ex vivo metal treatment on control vessels mirrored Sm sample alterations, emphasizing marker roles in cell survival under toxic exposure. Maternal smoking induces specific molecular adaptations in UC vessels, affecting mRNA condensate formation, transcriptional regulation, and DNA damage response pathways. Understanding these intricate molecular mechanisms could inform interventions to improve neonatal health outcomes and mitigate adverse effects of toxic exposure during pregnancy.

The molecular chaperone Hsp90 decreases with age but whether organisms can physiologically tune expression is unclear. Here, the authors show that mammalian cells can adjust Hsp90 levels to accumulating cellular stress by translational reprogramming.

Turing proposed a reaction-diffusion (RD) process as the chemical basis of morphogenesis. Despite the elegance of this model, its relevance for the precise description of morphogenesis in real organisms is largely disputed. Here, we show that a simple RD system, predicting the cellular-automaton-like patterning of ocellated lizards’ skin into green and black labyrinthine chains of scales, additionally predicts unsuspected subtle color subclustering that correlates with the colors of the scales’ neighbors. Hyperspectral imaging indicates that color subclustering is present in real lizards, confirming the numerical model nontrivial prediction. In addition, extensive histological analyses show that melanophores’ spatial distribution correlates with scale neighborhood, confirming that color subclustering is associated to the underlying microscopic system of chromatophore interactions. We then show that the observed subclustering is efficiently captured by RD models, irrespective of their form, discretization, and spatial dimensionality. We also show that sets of values can be identified in the 12-dimensional RD parameter space to yield the correct direction of correlation (i.e., observed in real lizards) between green-scale blackness and their neighborhood configuration, hence instructing the mathematical model. More generally, our results show that subtle mesoscopic properties of biological dynamical systems, as well as some of the underlying microscopic features, are quantitatively captured by simple RD models without integrating the unmanageable profusion of variables at lower scales.

BackgroundWith the expansion of digital health, it is imperative to consider intervention techniques in order not to be the cause of even more social health inequalities in underserved populations struggling with chronic diseases. Telemedicine solutions for homeless persons might compensate for shortcomings in access to valuable health services in different settings. The main aim of our research was to examine the attitudes and openness of homeless persons regarding telecare on a Hungarian sample.MethodsQuantitative survey among homeless people (n = 98) was completed in 4 shelters providing mid- and long-term accommodation in Budapest, Hungary. Attitudes regarding healthcare service accessibility and telecare were measured by a self-developed questionnaire of the research team. Telecare attitude comparison was made with data of a Hungarian weighted reference group of non-homeless persons recruited from 2 primary care units (n = 110).ResultsA significant fraction of homeless people with mid- or long-term residency in homeless shelters did not oppose the use of telecare via live online video consultation and there was no difference compared to the national reference group (averages of 3.09 vs. 3.15, respectively). Results of the homeless group indicate that those more satisfied with healthcare services, in general, manifest more openness to telecare. It is clearly demonstrated by the multivariate analysis that those participants in the homeless group who had problems getting health care in the last year definitely preferred in-person doctor-patient consultations.ConclusionDigital health technologies offer a potentially important new pathway for the prevention and treatment of chronic conditions among homeless persons. Based on the attitudes towards telecare, initiating an on-site telecare program for mid- and long-term residents of homeless shelters might enable better care continuity. Our results draw attention to the key factors including building trust in the implementation of such programs among underserved and other vulnerable patient groups.

The relationship between smoking and human health has been investigated mostly in adults, despite the fact that the chemicals originating from sustained maternal smoking disrupt the carefully orchestrated regulatory cascades in the developing fetus. In this study, we followed molecular alterations in the umbilical cord (UC) vessels and fetal red blood cells (RBCs), which faithfully reflect the in vivo status of the fetus. We showed evidence for the decreased level of DNA-PKcs-positive nuclei in samples with smoking origin, which is associated with the impaired DNA repair system. Furthermore, we pointed out the altered ratio of MMP-9 metalloproteinase and its endogenous inhibitor TIMP-1, which might be a possible explanation for the morphological abnormalities in the UC vessels. The presented in vivo dataset emphasizes the higher vulnerability of the veins, as the primary target for the toxic materials unfiltered by the placenta. All these events become amplified by the functionally impaired fetal RBC population via a crosstalk mechanism between the vessel endothelium and the circulating RBCs. In our ex vivo approach, we looked for the molecular explanation of metal-exposure-induced alterations, where expressions of the selected genes were upregulated in the control group, while samples with smoking origin showed a lack of response, indicative of prior long-term in utero exposure.

Abstract It has been recently conjectured that the exact eigenfunctions of quantum mirror curves can be obtained by combining their WKB expansion with the open topological string wavefunction. In this paper we give further evidence for this conjecture. We present closed expressions for the wavefunctions in the so-called maximally supersymmetric case, in various geometries. In the higher genus case, our conjecture provides a solution to the quantum Baxter equation of the corresponding cluster integrable system, and we argue that the quantization conditions of the integrable system follow from imposing appropriate asymptotic conditions on the wavefunction. We also present checks of the conjecture for general values of the Planck constant.

Abstract Based on previous insights, we present an ansatz to obtain quantization conditions and eigenfunctions for a family of difference equations which arise from quantized mirror curves in the context of local mirror symmetry of toric Calabi-Yau threefolds. It is a first principles construction, which yields closed expressions for the quantization conditions and the eigenfunctions when ℏ/2π ∈ ℚ, the so-called rational case. The key ingredient is the modular duality structure of the underlying quantum integrable system. We use our ansatz to write down explicit results in some examples, which are successfully checked against purely numerical results for both the spectrum and the eigenfunctions. Concerning the quantization conditions, we also provide evidence that, in the rational case, this method yields a resummation of conjectured quantization conditions involving enumerative invariants of the underlying toric Calabi-Yau threefold.

Abstract Topological strings on toric Calabi-Yau threefolds can be defined non-perturbatively in terms of a non-interacting Fermi gas of N particles. Using this approach, we propose a definition of quantum mirror curves as quantum distributions on phase space. The quantum distribution is obtained as the Wigner transform of the reduced density matrix of the Fermi gas. We show that the classical mirror geometry emerges in the strongly coupled, large N limit in which ℏ ∼ N. In this limit, the Fermi gas has effectively zero temperature, and the Wigner distribution becomes sharply supported on the interior of the classical mirror curve. The quantum fluctuations around the classical limit turn out to be captured by an improved version of the universal scaling form of Balazs and Zipfel.

Abstract Objective We aim to provide a publicly available Hungarian version of the BPAQ; compare the BPAQ factors to other personality traits; and compare both the original BPAQ factor structure provided by Buss and Perry (J. Pers. Soc. Psychol., 63, 1992, 452), the revised BPAQ‐SF factor structure by Bryant and Smith (J. Res. Pers., 35, 2001, 138), and the BAQ by Webster et al. (Aggress. Behav., 40, 2014, 120). Methods The validation of the Hungarian version of the BPAQ was carried out on a Hungarian university sample (N = 841). There were three main focuses of data analysis: descriptive statistics, correlations, and confirmatory factor analyses. Results CFA‐related statistics showed an adequate fit for the BPAQ 4 factors; however, contrary to prior validations of BPAQ, we were not able to clearly define the verbal aggression factor. We found that the shorter form of the BPAQ has a better model fit on our sample than the original form, while the model fit of the BAQ was in‐between these. BPAQ scales showed low to moderate relationship with the Barratt Impulsivity Scale and Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale. Conclusion Both the BPAQ and the BPAQ‐SF, also the BAQ provide acceptable model fitting on a Hungarian sample of university students. While most of BPAQ items provided adequate loadings on their hypothesized factors, two items (21 and 27) did not. We argue this is the result of conceptual inaccuracy of the original items.

Abstract We propose and test exact quantization conditions for the N-particle quantum elliptic Ruijsenaars-Schneider integrable system, as well as its Calogero-Moser limit, based on the conjectural correspondence to the five-dimensional N = 1 ∗ $$ \mathcal{N}={1}^{\ast } $$ SU(N) gauge theory in the Nekrasov-Shatashvili limit. We discuss two natural sets of quantization conditions, related by the electro-magnetic duality, and the importance of non-perturbative corrections in the Planck constant. We also comment on the eigenfunction problem, by reinterpreting the Separation of Variables approach in gauge theory terms.

Introduction: The majority of patients with Marfan syndrome undergo Bentall procedure. Several periprocedural complications may arise; cardiac complications play the most dominant role.