Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences

Instrumental music may have evolved from earlier vocal expressions, gradually expanding into rhythmic sound production using tools. We report a novel case in which a captive male chimpanzee spontaneously produced a structured instrumental display using a self-fabricated tool. The display consisted of combinatorial sequences of rhythmic actions resembling the structure of pant-hoot vocalizations. …

Thiamine (vitamin B1) deficiency due to degradation, inadequate intake, impaired absorption, or increased metabolic demand remains prevalent in both human and animal populations. In its diphosphate form (thiamine diphosphate, TDP), thiamine serves as an essential cofactor for metabolic enzymes, including transketolase (TKT), a rate-limiting enzyme of the pentose-phosphate pathway. Measurement of …

This study explored how meridian, eccentricity, contrast, and age influence the development of central and peripheral visual acuity (VA) in 37 children (aged 4-12)-divided into three groups-and eight adults. Psychophysical methods were used to measure VA using Lea symbols at contrast levels of 40% and 80%, measured at the fovea and at eccentricities of 2°, 4°, 6°, and 8° along the superior, infer…

The biological origins of meditation in humans remain underexplored, despite extensive scholarship on its cultural history and health effects. We present a theoretical account that traces the origins of meditation to the evolutionarily conserved repertoire of defensive freezing. We propose that this ancient survival response-characterized by motoric immobility, heightened vigilance with narrowed …

Bacteroides fragilis is a key component of the human gut microbiota, although enterotoxigenic strains (ETBF), which produce B. fragilis toxin (BFT), can act as opportunistic pathogens. BFT disrupts intestinal epithelial integrity and contributes to conditions such as inflammatory bowel disease and colorectal cancer. This study aimed to characterize three allosteric inhibitors of BFT-3 (isoform 3 …

To evaluate an individuals' moral character the intentions behind their actions must be discriminated from the actual outcome. How this is achieved remains unclear. We developed a novel paradigm that dissociates the perception of intentions from outcome. Participants separately predicted and received feedback on agents' intentions and outcomes. They then made moral evaluations of the agent. Four …

Accurate kidney tumor segmentation is critical for surgical planning but is challenged by indistinct boundaries and high morphological variability in computed tomography (CT) images. We propose the adaptive boundary-aware network (MABS-Net). The architecture integrates three core innovations: (1) a boundary-aware multiscale feature extraction module using learnable boundary-enhancing convolutions…

Cultural engagement (e.g., going to live music events and theater performances, museums, galleries and exhibitions, and the cinema) is longitudinally associated in repeated epidemiological studies with age-related mental and physical health outcomes. However, it is unclear whether it also influences how fast older adults age physiologically-so-called age acceleration. This study aimed to ascertai…

Sepsis-associated intestinal dysfunction (SAID) drives multiorgan failure through dysregulated autophagy-inflammation crosstalk, for which effective therapies remain limited. This review systematically delineates SAID pathophysiology, evaluates preclinical and clinical evidence for autophagy-targeted interventions, and explores emerging intestinal-specific therapeutic targets. Autophagy preserves…

Deep learning models for Kellgren-Lawrence (KL) grading often report optimistic performance due to data leakage and fail to generalize across institutions because of domain shift. To address this reproducibility crisis, we introduce KL-FuseNet, a multitask architecture fusing global (ConvNeXt-Base) and local (ResNet-50) features to predict ordinal grades, label distributions, and binary severity …

Mental health symptoms are common among caregivers of young children in low-resource settings, yet access to psychological care remains limited due to shortages of specialists, low awareness, and stigma. This qualitative study explored the acceptability and appropriateness of delivering a postnatal mental health intervention for mothers through community and township health centers (CTHCs) in Sha…

Primary dysmenorrhea (PDM) is a prevalent gynecological disorder in young females, with limited treatment options despite its high prevalence and detrimental effects. Transcutaneous auricular vagus nerve stimulation (taVNS) has shown promise in alleviating PDM symptoms, but its long-term efficacy and individual variability remain uncertain. In this study, we utilized a single-blind, sham-controll…

Mining pipeline transportation systems often operate under partially filled conditions. Filling level variations induce circumferential asymmetry, modifying the pipe mass distribution and dynamic characteristics and invalidating conventional axisymmetric vibration models. In particular, the mechanism of circumferential modal wavenumber coupling under partially filled conditions remains unclear. T…

Deep neural networks are driving the iterative advancement of magnetoencephalography (MEG) decoding models. While explainable artificial intelligence, particularly traditional post-hoc feature attribution approaches, has made significant progress in interpreting the prediction mechanisms of individual models, a critical gap remains in understanding the differences in decision logic between variou…

Recent advances in the diagnosis and management of reflux disease were the central focus of the inaugural Gatherings in Esophagology (GiE), which convened experts across gastroenterology, surgery, otolaryngology, pulmonology, and basic research. The sessions highlighted innovations in reflux monitoring-including high-resolution manometry, wireless pH monitoring, and novel salivary biomarkers-whil…

Self-supervised learning (SSL) can capture intrinsic features from extensive unlabeled data, significantly reducing dependence on labels and performing well in human activity recognition (HAR). However, existing SSL frameworks depend excessively on data augmentation paradigms, and often mistakenly treat noise as learning objectives during mask reconstruction. Moreover, the data set scale often co…

Courtship is often viewed as a linear process where males display and female assessment of this display shapes her mating decisions. However, communication can be far more dynamic and interactive, particularly in species that develop long-term relationships. Interactional complexity is not well captured by traditional models of animal communication. Here, we tested whether interactional elements …

In buildings, steel-concrete composite beams with web openings save service space but weaken structural performance. To address this issue, this study proposes the use of a perfobond strip (PBL) connector in the opening area to compensate for the loss of connection performance and composite action caused by the web openings. A total of 25 specimens were subjected to experimental testing and finit…

This study investigated what value health professional students and staff place on employability and global mobility training. It investigated the most important employability and global mobility characteristics, and how perceptions vary between students and academics. The study used an anonymous, online questionnaire distributed to health professional students and academic staff at the Universit…

DLX3 is a homeobox transcription factor essential for multiple organogenesis processes. Mutations in DLX3 cause trichodentoosseous syndrome (TDO), characterized by curly hair, sclerotic bone, enamel, and dentin defects as well as taurodontism. Phenotypic variability in TDO has been well documented, but its pathogenesis remains poorly understood. Here, we characterized three TDO families with dist…