Scientific Issues Research Articles

Whole-genome resequencing highlights the phycosphere microbial network in global populations of the edible kelp Undaria pinnatifida

The interplay between the host and microbiome has emerged as a central issue in biological science. This concept considers both host and microbiome sides to investigate their physiological and metabolic mechanisms, often referred to as a holobiont. Macroalgae, which can provide tremendous habitats to associated microorganisms in coastlines by constituting the marine forest, are promising targets to explore the interaction. Undaria pinnatifida is one of the edible brown macroalgae that is intensively cultured in Northeast Asia. Despite its ecological and economical importance, the microbiome of its phycosphere is largely unknown. In this study, we explored the microbial communities from 41 whole-genome resequencing data collected from South Korea (KR), New Zealand (NZ), and France (FR). We investigated the microbiome profiles and microbial ecological network to identify ecological and functional central taxa. We demonstrated that the microbiome profiles of KR cultivars are more similar to those of overseas introduced populations (i.e., NZ, and FR) than to those of the KR natural populations. We also identified two groups of central genera of the algal species' microbiome, the algal polysaccharide depolymerizing group (e.g., Lacinutrix and Winogradskiella) and the algal growth-promoting group (e.g., Sulfitobacter). This study supports the idea that the microbiome can be secured from unmapped reads of the host sequencing data. Furthermore, our data provide the first study on the U. pinnatifida microbiome, which probably will be used to develop new aquaculture strategies for this important seaweed.

Türkiye in the Kazakh socio-political thought of the early twentieth century

ABSTRACT The purpose of this study is to investigate Turkish issues in the Kazakh socio-political thought of the early twentieth century. To conduct this study, a set of scientific methods was used, such as general scientific methods of information analysis and synthesis, methods of system analysis and content analysis; specialised methods of historical science – source methods (classification of sources, analysis and comparison, synthesis of information received), historical-system method, comparative-historical method, problematic-chronological method. The main method of the study is the historical-system method, using which a structural and functional analysis of the problem was carried out. The results of this study disclose the specific features of the socio-political life of Kazakhs at the beginning of the twentieth century, provides data on their party movements and the publishing house of national mass media, substantiates the role of Türkiye in the context of Pan-Turkism aspirations of individual political movements and personalities. The materials of this study are of practical value for an in-depth study of the history of Kazakhstan in the twentieth century, history of Pan-Turkism movements, and further research of such scientific issues as the role of intellectuals, public associations, and national Kazakh printed publications in the acquisition of statehood of Kazakhstan.

Decision tree C4.5 algorithm for generative AI technology ethics--Based on the results of the questionnaire

With the development of AI technology, generative AI has gradually entered the life of the public, for example, the explosion of CHAT-GPT has allowed more people to see the huge potential and obvious advantages of generative AI. However, in the process of generative AI operation, events that violate social responsibility and ethics often occur, which makes the research on the scientific and technological ethics of generative AI more urgent. In the past literature and research, many industry experts have analysed the impact of generative AI on specific industries, but everyone is or will be a user of generative AI, so we should pay attention to the study of the people's scientific and technological ethical issues of generative AI after putting aside the industry background, so this paper collects primary data by means of questionnaire surveys to find out the public's awareness of generative AI and their perception of generative AI. and attitudes towards generative AI, and using the decision tree C4.5 algorithm with Python as the tool, it is used to respond to people's awareness of generative AI and the public's perception of the relationship between the various factors of the ethical issues of

Work-related musculoskeletal disorders among surgeons: a bibliometric analysis from 1982 to 2024

Surgeons are exposed to a high prevalence of work-related musculoskeletal disorders (WMSDs). The scientific issues surrounding this problem are generating a growing body of work. The aim of this study is to obtain quantitative and visual information from articles about WMSDs and surgeons through bibliometric analysis. The keywords “surgeon” and “work-related musculoskeletal disorders” were searched in the PubMed/Medline database until March 2024. Data extraction and visualization were performed using VOSviewer version 1.6.20. and Microsoft Excel on the overall distribution of publications by year, sources, articles, authors and keywords. A total of 173 English-language publications were extracted between 1982 and 2024. The number of publications has increased over the years. A significant increase was observed from 2016. America is the leader with 82/173 publications (47.4%) and 3,276 citations. Work [impact factor (IF): 2.3] is the first top source which has 7 articles followed by Surgical Endoscopy (IF: 3.1) with 5 publications. Journal of Occupational Rehabilitation (IF: 3.3) is the top journal with 681 citations for 2 publications. Hallbeck MS, Yu D, and Vijendern A are the most productive authors with 23 publications. The analysis showed that the United States and the UK are the two most productive countries (journals, authors, citations). The most frequently used keywords were “ergonomics”, “musculoskeletal disorders”, “work-related musculoskeletal disorders”, and “surgeons”. Bibliometric analysis has shown that the prevalence of WMSDs in surgeons is a topic showing significant growth, particularly since 2016, dominated by American researchers. A synthesis of the WMSD prevalence by body area has been made based on the most cited articles. This field has evolved considerably. From a rather subjective analysis of prevalence based on questionnaires, work has moved towards a more ergonomic assessment using objective evaluation tools.

On (Im)Patience: A New Approach to an Old Virtue.

Patience has been of great interest to religious scholars, philosophers, and psychological scientists. Their efforts have produced numerous insights but no cohesive theoretical approach to understanding the broad set of experiences people label as patience. I propose a novel view of patience, one that departs from but ties together existing approaches. Grounded in theories of emotion and emotion regulation, I propose impatience as a discrete emotion triggered by an objectionable delay of some sort, and patience (as a state or process rather than a virtue) as a form of emotion regulation that targets the subjective experience and outward expression of impatience. I propose a number of predictors and consequences of patience and impatience and provide initial evidence for many of the theory's tenets. This theoretical approach, the process model of patience, reveals coherence across varied fields and methodologies and generates novel, testable, and timely questions for future patience scholars. "Patience is a virtue" is a familiar exhortation, and patience has been of great interest to religious scholars, philosophers, and psychological scientists. Their efforts have produced numerous insights but no cohesive theoretical approach to understanding the broad set of experiences people label as patience. This paper proposes an entirely novel view of patience, one that departs from but ties together existing approaches. I propose that impatience is an emotion, triggered by a frustrating delay of some sort, and patience captures the various ways people try to deal with their experience of impatience. I also propose that various aspects of the situation and the person combine to determine the intensity of impatience and the effectiveness of patience. Finally, I discuss the implications of a theoretical model, the process model of patience, for both scientific inquiry and issues of social justice, which are often fueled by appropriate experiences of impatience.

THE EFFECT OF SOCIO SCIENTIFIC ISSUES BASED LEARNING ON ELEMENTARY SCHOOL STUDENT’ SCIENTIFIC LITERACY ABILITIES

Scientific literacy is very important since by learning scientific literacy, one can solve all the challenges that occur in life. Students have difficulty in scientific literacy because of uninteresting learning. Therefore, efforts are needed to make learning more meaningful. This research aims to determine whether there is an effect of Socio Scientific Issues (SSI) based learning on elementary school students' scientific literacy abilities. The research method used was one group of pre-test and post-test design. The sampling technique used simple random sampling with a sample size of 14 students. Data analysis used the paired sample t-test and n-gain. The research results show that there were differences before and after implementing SSI learning with the n-gain test in the practical category

SDNRoute: Proactive routing optimization in Software Defined Networks

Despite opening attractive perspectives, the concept of Software Defined Networking raises doubts about the performance and practical feasibility. To contradict these concerns, we propose a deployment-ready system aimed at proactive and periodic optimization of flow paths. The modular system consists of modules responsible for traffic prediction, static optimization, measurements, flow management, and validation of optimization results. To make the system efficient, we resolved several scientific issues and proposed novel and valuable solutions, for example methods for efficient proactive flow management and periodic re-optimization of routing policies. Simultaneously, to make the system production-ready and create a reliable research environment, we provide solutions to several technical obstacles.We validate the proposed system with three network topologies, each with three load levels, following real-life traffic models. We consider Equal-Cost Multi-Path Routing as a baseline. The results indicate that the system allows network operators to handle more traffic (packet loss reduced by up to 30%), improve quality of service (less congested links resulted in even 2.5 times lower latency), and reduce operational expenses (energy consumption lowered by up to 10%).

Trust me if you can: a survey on reliability and interpretability of machine learning approaches for drug sensitivity prediction in cancer.

With the ever-increasing number of artificial intelligence (AI) systems, mitigating risks associated with their use has become one of the most urgent scientific and societal issues. To this end, the European Union passed the EU AI Act, proposing solution strategies that can be summarized under the umbrella term trustworthiness. In anti-cancer drug sensitivity prediction, machine learning (ML) methods are developed for application in medical decision support systems, which require an extraordinary level of trustworthiness. This review offers an overview of the ML landscape of methods for anti-cancer drug sensitivity prediction, including a brief introduction to the four major ML realms (supervised, unsupervised, semi-supervised, and reinforcement learning). In particular, we address the question to what extent trustworthiness-related properties, more specifically, interpretability and reliability, have been incorporated into anti-cancer drug sensitivity prediction methods over the previous decade. In total, we analyzed 36 papers with approaches for anti-cancer drug sensitivity prediction. Our results indicate that the need for reliability has hardly been addressed so far. Interpretability, on the other hand, has often been considered for model development. However, the concept is rather used intuitively, lacking clear definitions. Thus, we propose an easily extensible taxonomy for interpretability, unifying all prevalent connotations explicitly or implicitly used within the field.

Research status and reflection of the mechanism of TCM manipulation in the treatment of cervical spondylosis under the background of multi-disciplinary intersection

The study of TCM manipulation's mechanism is the key scientific issue in the current manipulation research. It is the key and difficult point on the road of modernization and internationalization of Chinese orthopedics and traumatology. Meanwhile, it is also an important way to clarify systematically the scientific connotation of TCM manipulation. At present, our country is in an important period when multi-disciplinary intersection lead knowledge production, scientific innovation, and discipline development. The trend of cross-innovation between Chinese orthopedics and traumatology and other disciplines provides the carrier and method for the study of TCM manipulation's mechanism. Cervical spondylosis is the traditional dominant disease of Chinese orthopedics and traumatology. In recent years, many scholars have applied multi-disciplinary techniques and theories to explore the mechanism of TCM manipulation by focusing on the four dimensions of muscle, bone, blood vessel and nerve. The article takes the treatment of cervical spondylosis by TCM manipulation as the research entry point, and integrates the application status and implementation strategies of various techniques and theories under the background of multi-disciplinary intersection, which is conducive to the better combination, innovation and transformation of Chinese orthopedics and traumatology with other disciplines, and provides ideas and references for systematically clarifying the scientific connotation of TCM manipulation.

Progress and Remaining Opportunities to Increase the Use of Animal-free Antibodies in the USA.

The scientific and ethical issues associated with the use of animal-derived antibodies in research can be overcome by the use of animal-free, sequence-defined recombinant antibodies, whose benefits are well documented. Here, we describe progress made following a 2019 expert meeting focused on improving the quality and reproducibility of biomedical research by accelerating the production and use of animal-free recombinant antibodies in the USA. In the five intervening years since the meeting, participants have established multifaceted initiatives to tackle the next steps outlined during the meeting. These initiatives include: prioritising the replacement of ascites-derived and polyclonal antibodies; distributing educational materials describing recombinant antibodies; fostering public-private partnerships to increase access to recombinant antibodies; and increasing the availability of funding for recombinant antibody development. Given the widescale use of antibodies across scientific disciplines, a transition to modern antibody production methods relies on a commitment from government agencies, universities, industry and funding organisations, to initiatives such as those outlined here.

Specific features of collecting nicknames in the process of academic work and research activity

The article considers the applied aspects of onomastics and is related to the major issue of collecting modern nicknames which students (schoolchildren and students) may encounter as part of their academic work and research activity. Since it is fundamentally impossible to record all unofficial anthroponyms, the study focuses on the issue of the effectiveness of various material collection methods, namely questionnaires and survey forms as the main ones, conversations, observations, and sampling data from various sources as secondary techniques. In particular, the article specifies the structure of the questionnaires used by the author in tabular form. Moreover, the presented detailed survey forms for obtaining individual and collective nicknames developed by the author are based on the recommendations given in previous studies as well as the author’s own experience. The proposed questionnaires and survey forms can be used in academic work and research activity within the framework of scientific projects. The paper also identifies the advantages and disadvantages of each method. The article discusses the specific features of field work in rural settlements and under stationary data collection conditions. The objective of certifying the obtained materials is raised. It is concluded that involving students in onomastic data collection as part of their academic work and research activity can help in solving relevant scientific issues.

Medico-legal and bioethical controversies of the use of puberty blockers in adolescents with gender dysphoria: a comparative perspective between Italy and Spain

Background: the administration of puberty blockers to adolescents with gender dysphoria has ignited significant bioethical controversy, especially in light of recent legislative changes in the United States, Australia and several European states, especially the UK, which in March 2024 permanently banned the administration of puberty blockers to children. Italy and Spain, with their distinct legal, cultural, and medical approaches to treating gender dysphoria in minors, serve as focal points for examining these complex issues. Aims: this article aims to explore the bioethical and medico-legal implications of using puberty blockers in adolescents with gender dysphoria, focusing on the regulatory frameworks in Italy and Spain. It seeks to contribute to the international dialogue on best practices for supporting adolescents with gender dysphoria by comparing these two countries’ approaches. Discussion: in recent years in many European states there has been an important evolution in the position on hormone blockade therapy for minors with gender dysphoria, having gone from open policies on puberty blockade treatment to decidedly more restrictive positions. In Italy, the debate on the legitimacy of authorising treatment has been lively for several years, and in the last year has become even more intense due to the decisions taken by countries such as Finland, Sweden, Norway and the United Kingdom. In Spain, a landmark law on trans rights was passed in 2023, but it did not directly regulate hormone-blocking treatment in adolescents with gender dysphoria, which only made an already intense debate even more heated. Conclusion: it is essential to recognise the complexity of gender identity in adolescents and adopt an inclusive approach that considers medical, legal, ethical and social implications. The dynamic nature of the debate on the use of puberty blockers requires ongoing international dialogue. Policy analysis from Italy and Spain can inform best practice globally, promoting inclusive guidelines that prioritise adolescent welfare by addressing the complex bioethical, medico-legal and scientific issues related to the use of puberty blockers.

Carbon Dots in the Pathological Microenvironment: ROS Producers or Scavengers?

Reactive oxygen species (ROS), as metabolic byproducts, play pivotal role in physiological and pathological processes. Recently, studies on the regulation of ROS levels for disease treatments have attracted extensive attention, mainly involving the ROS-induced toxicity therapy mediated by ROS producers and antioxidant therapy by ROS scavengers. Nanotechnology advancements have led to the development of numerous nanomaterials with ROS-modulating capabilities, among which carbon dots (CDs) standing out as noteworthy ROS-modulating nanomedicines own their distinctive physicochemical properties, high stability, and excellent biocompatibility. Despite progress in treating ROS-related diseases based on CDs, critical issues such as rational design principles for their regulation remain underexplored. The primary cause of these issues may stem from the intricate amalgamation of core structure, defects, and surface states, inherent to CDs, which poses challenges in establishing a consistent generalization. This review succinctly summarizes the recently progress of ROS-modulated approaches using CDs in disease treatment. Specifically, it investigates established therapeutic strategies based on CDs-regulated ROS, emphasizing the interplay between intrinsic structure and ROS generation or scavenging ability. The conclusion raises several unresolved key scientific issues and prominent technological bottlenecks, and explores future perspectives for the comprehensive development of CDs-based ROS-modulating therapy.

Editorial policies of Cell Methods

Cell Methods is a peer-reviewed open access journal aiming at publishing original arti-cles and reviews that present new and high-quality standards methods allowing to address current issues in life science. Here are the journal aims and the editorial poli-cies.

Unveiling the fate of metal leaching in bimetal-catalyzed Fenton-like systems: pivotal role of aqueous matrices and machine learning prediction

Metal-based catalytic materials exhibit exceptional properties in degrading emerging pollutants within Fenton-like systems. However, the potential risk of metal leaching has become pressing environmental concern. This study addressed scientific issues pertaining to the leaching behavior and control strategies for metal-based catalytic materials. Innovative cobalt-aluminum hydrotalcite (CoAl-LDH) triggered peroxymonosulfate (PMS) activation system was constructed and achieved near-complete removal of Ciprofloxacin (CIP) across diverse water quality environments. Notably, it was found that the tunable ion exchange and Al3+ stabilization of CoAl-LDH occurred due to the particularity of neutral water quality, resulting in significantly lower Co2+ leaching levels (0.321 mg/L) compared to acidic conditions (5.103 mg/L). In light of this, machine learning technology was then employed for the first time to simulate the dynamic trend of Co2+ leaching and elucidated the critical regulatory roles and mechanisms of Al3+, aqueous matrix, and reaction rate. Furthermore, degradation systems based on different water quality and metal leaching levels regulated the generation levels of SO4.- and O2∙-, and the unique advantages of free radical attack paths were clarified through CIP degradation products and ecotoxicity analysis. These findings introduced novel insights and approaches for engineering application and pollution control in metal-based Fenton-like water treatment.

Wetting Behavior-Induced Interfacial transmission of Energy and Signal: Materials, Mechanisms, and Applications.

Wetting behaviors can significantly affect the transport of energy and signal (E&S) through vapor, solid, and liquid interfaces, which has prompted increased interest in interfacial science and technology. E&S transmission can be achieved using electricity, light, and heat, which often accompany and interact with each other. Over the past decade, their distinctive transport phenomena during wetting processes have made significant contributions to various domains. However, few studies have analyzed the intricate relationship between wetting behavior and E&S transport. This review summarizes and discusses the mechanisms of electrical, light, and heat transmission at wetting interfaces to elucidate their respective scientific issues, technical characteristics, challenges, commonalities, and potential for technological convergence. The materials, structures, and devices involved in E&S transportation are also analyzed. Particularly, harnessing synergistic advantages in practical applications and constructing advanced, multifunctional, and highly efficient smart systems based on wetted interfaces is the aim to provide strategies.

Multi-band enhanced nonreciprocal thermal radiation based on Weyl semimetals

Previous studies manifested that the majority of structures that exhibit nonreciprocal thermal radiation in the mid-infrared are capable of achieving either single-band strong nonreciprocity or multi-band weak nonreciprocity at a large incidence angle. However, few structures can realize multi-band strong nonreciprocity at a small incidence angle. To address such scientific issues, we propose a tunable nonreciprocal thermal emitter based on gallium arsenide (GaAs)/graphene/Weyl semimetal (WSM). This device is capable of achieving strong nonreciprocity at 7.3 μm, 10 μm and 13.6 μm wavelengths at an incidence angle of 25.5°. It is shown that the field enhancement of the GaAs/graphene composite layer can improve the nonreciprocal response of the WSM layer. In addition, by changing the Fermi energy level of graphene and the axial vector b of the Weyl semimetal, tunable nonreciprocal thermal radiation can be realized. What's more, we find that the structure breaks Kirchhoff's law without lithography and an external magnetic field, which reveals the advantages of applying our research in the field of thermal radiation.

Bridging Minds and Frontiers: An Unconventional Academic Odyssey with Francisco José Ayala

The text recounts the author’s remarkable experience in establishing contact with Francisco José Ayala, a renowned professor, researcher, author, and philanthropist. Beginning in an unusual manner, the connection transcended the conventional boundaries of academia, dispelling the notion of inaccessibility of eminent scientists. This resulted in an interview and the publication of a letter in the Science journal, exemplifying Ayala’s generosity. The narrative highlights Ayala’s extensive contribution to the understanding of evolution, his role in issues of science and religion, and his notable philanthropy. The challenges faced during a period of collaborating in California are shared, emphasizing the consolidation of a relationship of trust. Ayala’s influence is evident in the author’s shift towards contemporary issues such as scientific misinformation and climatic themes, reflecting the enduring legacy Ayala left on his academic journey and the positive transformation in the author’s career.

Prediction of thermodynamic properties oflanthanide/transition metal alloys by deep learning

The utilization of machine learning, especially deep learning, in solving materials science issues bring an opportunity to accelerate the development process of new materials and draw the attention of researchers all over the world. In this work, we present our study on applying deep neural networks to represent and predict thermodynamic quantities including formation energy, convex hull distance, and to recognize potential thermodynamical stabile materials. We employ our novel material descriptor, named orbital field matrix (OFM), to determine the feature vectors for materials. The OFM descriptors were developed based on the information of valence electron configuration and the Voronoi analysis of the atomic structures of materials. Our experiments show that deep neural networks can accurately predict formation energyand convex hull distancewith the mean absolute error around 0,124eV/atom and 0,105 eV/atom, respectively. In addition,the classification neural network can yield an accuracy of 92% in distinguishing the stable and unstable materials.

Decadal Trends in the Southern Ocean Meridional Eddy Heat Transport

Abstract Meridional heat transport induced by oceanic mesoscale eddies (EHT) plays a significant role in the heat budget of the Southern Ocean (SO) but the decadal trends in EHT and its associated mechanisms are still obscure. Here, this scientific issue is investigated by combining concurrent satellite observations and Estimating the Circulation and Climate of the Ocean, Phase II (ECCO2) reanalysis data over the 24 years between 1993 and 2016. The results reveal that the surface EHTs from both satellite and ECCO2 data consistently show decadal poleward increasing trends in the SO, particularly in the latitude band of the Antarctic Circumpolar Current (ACC). In terms of average in the ACC band, the ECCO2-derived EHT over the upper 1000 m has a linear trend of 1.1 × 10−2 PW decade−1 or 16% per decade compared with its time-mean value of 0.07 PW. Diagnostic analysis based on “mixing length” theory suggests that the decadal strengthening of eddy kinetic energy (EKE) is the dominant mechanism for the increase in EHT in the SO. By performing an energy budget analysis, we further find that the decadal increase in EKE is mainly caused by the strengthened baroclinic instability of large-scale circulation that converts more available potential energy to EKE. For the strengthened baroclinic instability in the SO, it is attributed to the increasing large-scale wind stress work on the large-scale circulation corresponding to the positive phase of the Southern Annular Mode between 1993 and 2016. The decadal trends in EHT identified here may help understand decadal variations of heat storage and sea ice extent in the SO. Significance Statement Oceanic mesoscale-eddy-induced meridional heat transport (EHT) is a key process of heat redistribution in the Southern Ocean (SO), but the decadal variations of EHT and the associated mechanisms remain obscure. Here, by analyzing satellite and reanalysis data between 1993 and 2016, we find that the poleward EHT has significant decadal increasing trends in the SO, particularly in the Antarctic Circumpolar Current latitude band. Further analysis suggests that the increasing EHT is mainly caused by enhanced eddy kinetic energy converted by the strengthened baroclinic instability of large-scale circulation, which is attributed to the strengthening winds modulated by the Southern Annular Mode. The above findings may improve our understanding of the decadal variations of heat storage and sea ice extent in the SO.