Acute-phase proteins (APPs) are used in veterinary science for diagnosing disease, identifying acute and subclinical inflammatory processes, monitoring disease progression, assessing patient response to treatment, and as a general health screening tool. In turtles, the utility of APPs, such as albumin, haptoglobin, fibrinogen, and myeloid-related protein (MRP)-126, as inflammatory markers has been investigated in a small number of studies. Serum or plasma protein electrophoresis, immunoassays, and biochemistry assays are most commonly employed to study such APPs, with mass spectrometry-based proteomics emerging as an important tool. Protein electrophoresis RIs have been established for a few turtle species. However, very few commercial assays are available for measuring specific APPs in turtles, with even fewer reported validated assays. Turtles have significant inter- and intraspecies biological variation; consequently, RIs of protein electrophoresis and specific APP assays for individual species should be established according to guidelines and referenced to determine if sex, age, reproductive status, and health status influence the results. For small populations of animals, particularly those of high conservation value, subject-based RIs are recommended if population-based RIs are not feasible. Further studies, especially biomarker identification, assay development, and validation, are required to increase the tools for disease diagnosis and monitoring of this taxon and contribute to the healthcare and conservation of many endangered turtle species.

ObjectiveTo examine associations between systemic inflammation, sex hormones, and vitamin D levels in U.S. women.MethodsA cross-sectional study was conducted using NHANES 2021-2023 data from 3179 women aged 18-80 years. Participants were grouped by high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hs-CRP) quartiles. Demographic, anthropometric, lifestyle, dietary, and clinical variables were analyzed. Serum biomarkers included hs-CRP, sex hormones, lipid parameters, and 25-hydroxyvitamin D3 (25OHD3). Multivariable linear regression assessed independent associations between hs-CRP and endocrine markers after adjustment for confounders.ResultsWomen in the highest hs-CRP quartile had higher age, body weight, waist circumference, body mass index, and prevalence of hypertension and diabetes than those in the lowest quartile. Higher hs-CRP levels were associated with lower concentrations of 17α-hydroxyprogesterone, androstenedione, anti-Müllerian hormone (AMH), dehydroepiandrosterone sulfate, follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH), sex hormone-binding globulin, and 25OHD3. After adjustment, hs-CRP remained positively associated with AMH (β = 0.212, p = 0.007), estrone (β = 0.142, p = 0.048), low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (β = 0.241, p = 0.002), and total cholesterol (β = 0.224, p = 0.001), and inversely associated with FSH (β = -0.194, p = 0.039) and luteinizing hormone (β = -0.191, p = 0.019).ConclusionSystemic inflammation was associated with reproductive hormones and lipid profiles, while many associations weakened after adjustment for adiposity. These findings highlight complex links between inflammation, endocrine function, and cardiometabolic health, influenced by obesity-related factors.

Particulate matter (PM) exposure has been increasingly linked to metabolic and reproductive disorders, yet the mechanisms through which PM-related metabolic alterations influence endometrial function remain incompletely understood. In this study, female C57BL/6 mice were fed a normocaloric diet (NCD) or high-fat diet (HFD) with or without PM exposure for 12 weeks. Body weight, fertility outcomes and molecular alterations were assessed in visceral adipose tissue (VAT) and endometrial tissue (EMT). In parallel, 3T3-L1 adipocytes were co-cultured with primary human endometrial cells to examine adipocyte-endometrial interactions in vitro. PM exposure was associated with attenuated overall weight gain but increased visceral adiposity and reduced fertility, particularly under HFD conditions. In both VAT and EMT, PM exposure was accompanied by increased expression of pro-inflammatory cytokines and elevated levels of p-NF-κB and p-c-jun. Alterations in adipokine profiles were observed, characterized by increased leptin and decreased adiponectin expression with PM exposure, particularly after the HFD. Hormone receptor expression displayed tissue-specific patterns, with higher AR and ER-α/ER-β ratios in VAT and opposite trends in EMT. Markers of cellular stress and apoptosis were also elevated in PM exposed groups. In the co-culture model, PM exposure was associated with increased levels of p-Nrf2, p-ERK and p-p38, together with altered leptin and adiponectin expression levels. Taken together, these findings suggest that PM exposure, particularly in the context of diet-induced obesity, may be associated with dysregulation of the adipose-endometrial crosstalk involving inflammation, oxidative stress-related signaling and hormonal imbalance, which could contribute to adverse reproductive outcomes.

Fibromatosis-like metaplastic carcinoma (FLMC) of breast is a rare neoplasm that exhibits distinct low-grade cytomorphology, a tendency for local recurrence and a favorable prognosis. This retrospective study aimed to evaluate the clinicopathological and immunohistochemical features of FLMC and assess its clinical behavior. Six female patients with histologically confirmed FLMC were included. Hematoxylin and eosin-stained slides were reviewed, and immunohistochemistry for keratin AE1/AE3, keratin CAM5.2, keratin 5/6, p63, EMA, ACTA1, desmin, and CD34 was performed. The mean age was 57.3 years, and all patients presented with a painless breast mass. Tumors were firm, unencapsulated, and averaged 4.9 cm in size on gross examination. Microscopically, they showed bland spindle cells in fascicular and storiform patterns with infiltrative borders. All tumors were positive for keratin AE1/AE3, keratin CAM5.2, and p63. EMA was positive in 1/3 tumors, keratin 5/6 in 3/3, ACTA1 in 2/3. All tumors were negative for desmin and CD34. No nodal metastasis was identified. On follow-up, one patient developed bone metastasis after 2 years, while the others remained disease-free 3 years post-surgery. FLMC is a rare low-grade epithelial malignancy that can mimic benign spindle cell lesions, making immunohistochemistry essential for diagnosis. Complete surgical excision with clear margins is curative in most patients.

BackgroundMidlife obesity is considered one of the top modifiable risk factors for dementia and Alzheimer's disease (AD). However, body mass index (BMI) on its own does not fully represent obesity-associated risks and it is crucial to disentangle the role of body adiposity and its localization.ObjectiveTo investigate the relationship of MRI-derived body adiposity metrics with AD-related pathology at midlife.MethodsNinety-seven cognitively normal midlife individuals underwent brain amyloid and tau PET, body MRI, and metabolic and cognitive assessments. Key measures included hepatic fat fraction, visceral (VAT) and subcutaneous adipose tissue (SAT) volumes, and thigh muscle and adiposity. The correlation between adiposity/metabolic measurements and amyloid/tau pathologies was investigated.ResultsThe average age of participants was 49.8 years, 65.3% were female and 53.6% had obesity. Amyloid PET burden in Centiloids correlated with VAT (rho = 0.36, p = 0.002), BMI (rho = 0.33, p = 0.002), SAT (rho = 0.33, p = 0.002), and insulin resistance (IR) (rho = 0.34, p = 0.003) in females and Whites, lower high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol (rho = -0.36, p = 0.002) irrespective of sex and race, and lower MMSE scores (rho = -0.57, p = 0.043) in only in African-Americans, after correction for age, sex, and education. There was no evidence that HDL nor IR mediated VAT-related amyloid. VAT/SAT ratio was significantly associated with mean cortical tau SUVR (β = 0.138, p = 0.030) after adjustment for age, sex, education, and amyloid.ConclusionsAmong fat depots in our study, visceral fat was more strongly correlated to amyloid pathology, and this association is present even independent from BMI. Also, higher visceral compared to subcutaneous fat is related to higher tau pathology.

Developing transparent materials combining superior optical and mechanical properties with robust service stability remains a significant challenge. Herein, an amorphous alicyclic poly(ether-b-amide) (PEBA) copolymer is synthesized by incorporating bis(4-aminocyclohexyl) methane (PACM) into the hard segment (HS) to suppress crystallization, combined with low-molecular-weight poly(tetramethylene ether glycol) (PTMEG) as the soft segment (SS) to enhance segmental compatibility. Such molecular design results in a weakly microphase-separated structure with diffused boundaries between the nanometer microdomains. This "interface-erasing" strategy yields a hot-pressed film with a miscible-dominated morphology with phase regions ranging from 50 to 100 nm, significantly smaller than visible-light wavelengths. Finite element analysis (FEA) simulations further demonstrate that these small phase regions, together with the miscible phase acting as a refractive index (RI) buffer, collectively reduce off-axis scattering, achieving excellent optical clarity (91.1% transmittance, 5.80% haze). The material also shows robust mechanical properties (>30 MPa, >1000% elongation), low-temperature impact resistance, service reliability, solvent resistance, and damping performance. By integrating multiscale characterization and theoretical modeling, this work provides a simple yet effective molecular design strategy and a multiscale mechanistic insight for transparent high performance elastomers, promising for applications as transparent protective layers.

Postosuchus kirkpatricki was a large pseudosuchian archosaur from the Late Triassic period in North America. It is among several pseudosuchians proposed to have had derived aspects of locomotor function such as bipedalism or digitigrady, rather than plesiomorphic quadrupedalism or plantigrady, but disputes and inconsistencies about these propositions remain. These lingering disputes need resolution in order to formulate broader inferences about the evolution of bipedalism, limb posture, athleticism, and the end-Triassic mass extinctions. Here, we use 3D musculoskeletal modelling to address the disputes via a deep critical review of available evidence via multiple methods. We conclude that it is uncertain if Postosuchus spp. was quadrupedal or bipedal, plantigrade or digitigrade, due to conflicting evidence. Our analyses also reconstruct pelvic limb musculature that was relatively three times as massive as that in a similar-sized Nile crocodile, whereas the caudofemoralis was smaller than expected due to the gracile tail of Postosuchus. Aspects of hindlimb myology and morphofunctional analyses of the hindlimb joints suggest a mix of traits that are plesiomorphic archosaurian, derived "rauisuchian" and singular for Postosuchus. Our extensive modelling procedure and synthesis of current evidence forms a foundation for future studies such as predictive simulations or ichnological evidence of locomotor function.

Following our previous work [Cattin, C. J. Phys. Chem. Lett. 2026, 17(5), 1288-1295], we propose the DMTS-NC approach, a distilled multi-time-step (DMTS) strategy using nonconservative (NC) forces, to further accelerate atomistic molecular dynamics (MD) simulations using foundation neural network models such as FeNNix-Bio1. Therein, a dual-level reversible reference system propagator algorithm (RESPA) formalism couples a target accurate conservative potential to a simplified distilled representation optimized for the production of nonconservative forces. Despite being nonconservative, the distilled architecture is designed to enforce key physical priors, such as equivariance under rotation and cancellation of atomic force components. These choices facilitate the distillation process and therefore improve drastically the robustness of simulation, significantly limiting abnormal discrepancies between the two models, thus achieving excellent agreement with the forces data. Overall, the DMTS-NC scheme is found to be more stable and efficient than its conservative counterpart with additional speedups reaching 15-30% over DMTS. Requiring no fine-tuning steps, it is easier to implement and can be pushed to the limit of the system's physical resonances to maintain accuracy while providing maximum efficiency. We obtain additional speedup by combining hydrogen mass repartitioning (HMR) and High Hydrogen Friction (HHF) to further extend the largest time step up to 10 fs of our schemes while conserving stability and accuracy. As for DMTS, DMTS-NC is applicable to any neural network potential (NNPs) and can be applied to approaches that are computationally heavier than FeNNix-Bio1. We show a proof of principle applying the approach to the distillation of MACE-OFF23 with consequent speedups ranging from 3.66 to 5.64 compared to a single time step.