ABSTRACT Everyday communication is dynamic and multisensory, often involving shifting attention, overlapping speech, and visual cues. Yet, most neural attention tracking studies are still limited to highly controlled lab settings, using clean, often audio‐only stimuli and requiring sustained attention to a single talker. This work addresses that gap by introducing a novel dataset from 24 normal‐hearing participants. We used a wearable electroencephalography (EEG) system (44 scalp electrodes and 20 cEEGrid electrodes) in an audiovisual (AV) paradigm with three conditions: sustained attention to a single talker in a two‐talker environment, attention switching between two talkers, and unscripted two‐talker conversations with a competing single talker. Analysis included temporal response functions (TRFs) modeling, optimal lag analysis, selective attention classification with decision windows ranging from 1.1 to 35 s, and comparisons of TRFs for attention to AV conversations versus side audio‐only talkers. Key findings show significant differences in the attention‐related P2 peak between attended and ignored speech across conditions for scalp EEG. Interestingly, our results revealed strong cross‐condition generalization, with models trained in one condition maintaining good performance when evaluated on the other two. No significant change in performance between switching and sustained attention suggests robustness for attention switches. Optimal lag analysis revealed a narrower peak for conversation compared to single‐talker AV stimuli, reflecting the additional complexity of multi‐talker processing. Classification of selective attention was consistently above chance (55%–70% accuracy) for scalp EEG, whereas cEEGrid data yielded lower correlations, highlighting the need for further methodological improvements. These results demonstrate that wearable EEG can reliably track selective attention in dynamic, multisensory listening scenarios and provide guidance for designing future AV paradigms and real‐world attention tracking applications.

Background/Objectives: Accurate post-mortem interval (PMI) estimation becomes increasingly difficult when bodies decompose under extreme heat. Hyperthermal Mediterranean environments accelerate soft-tissue degradation, induce early mummification, and distort classical thanatological indicators, often resulting in substantial PMI overestimation. This study analyzes three forensic cases affected by climate-driven decomposition anomalies and presents a climate-adaptive, AI-assisted diagnostic framework applied uniformly across all cases to improve PMI interpretation. Methods: A retrospective case series analysis was conducted on three individuals recovered during summer heatwaves. Crime scene investigation, post-mortem computed tomography (PMCT), autopsy, and genetic identification were integrated with 5–15-year meteorological datasets. Classical PMI estimations were compared with circumstantial data. A multimodal AI model, incorporating environmental features, decomposition morphology, and microenvironmental modifiers, was operationalized for each case using a hybrid Random Forest–LSTM architecture. Engineered indices included Accumulated Degree Days (ADD), a Decomposition Index, and climate-stress metrics (Thermal Load Index, Desiccation Pressure Factor, Microenvironmental Distortion Coefficient). Quantile regression provided calibrated prediction intervals. Results: Morphological assessments overestimated PMI in every case, suggesting intervals of 1–6 months despite true PMIs of approximately 20 days (Cases 1–2) or 36–48 h (Case 3). The AI model yielded conceptual outputs more consistent with verified PMIs, ~21 days (Case 1), ~23 days (Case 2), and ~42 h (Case 3), each accompanied by 50% and 90% prediction intervals. Explainability analyses identified thermal load, desiccation pressure, and microenvironmental distortion, particularly insulation in Case 3, as dominant drivers. Conclusions: Extreme heat fundamentally alters decomposition trajectories, rendering classical PMI methods unreliable. Applying a climate-aware, AI-assisted diagnostic framework across all three cases improved interpretability, providing uncertainty-aware estimates aligned with true PMIs. The AI framework is presented as a conceptual, non-trained, proof-of-concept system, and reported outputs represent operational demonstrations rather than validated predictions, offering a promising foundation for next-generation PMI diagnostics in hyperthermal forensic settings.

This systematic review analyzed treatment strategies and outcomes for spinal low-grade gliomas, based on data from 63 studies encompassing 954 patients. Surgery was the primary treatment, with gross total or subtotal resection associated with improved survival. Subtotal resection followed by radiotherapy prolonged progression-free survival. Fractionated radiotherapy (45-50 Gy) showed disease stabilization and neurologic improvement, with some studies reporting a 5 year progression-free survival of 93% and an overall survival of 100%. Chemotherapy was mainly used in recurrent cases. Prognosis varied by histology; pilocytic astrocytomas showed excellent survival, while infiltrative gliomas were linked to poorer long-term outcomes.

Background: Osteoarthritis (OA) is a heterogeneous joint disorder traditionally considered mechanically driven; however, evidence indicates that inflammatory mechanisms contribute to symptom expression. Exploratory analyses of peripheral biomarkers may provide insights into systemic inflammation in symptomatic knee OA, but formal phenotypic validation requires dedicated clustering or longitudinal studies. Objective: To examine associations between clinical pain, functional impairment, and circulating inflammatory biomarkers in patients with knee OA compared with healthy controls. Methods: In this prospective, single-center study, patients aged 40–80 years with radiographically confirmed knee OA and chronic knee pain were compared with age- and sex-matched healthy controls. Pain intensity and functional status were assessed using the Visual Analogue Scale (VAS) and the Knee Injury and Osteoarthritis Outcome Score (KOOS). Circulating inflammatory biomarkers, including cytokines and matrix metalloproteinases, were quantified using multiplex immunoassays. Statistical analyses included adjusted linear regression models, with age and BMI as covariates, and multiple testing correction using the Benjamini–Hochberg procedure (FDR alpha error 5%). Results: OA patients exhibited higher circulating levels of TNF-α, IL-6, IL-8, MMP-1, MMP-3, TNFSF13, TNFSF13B, and pentraxin-3 compared with controls (p < 0.01). No significant sex differences were observed. KOOSs correlated with IL-6 and IL-10 levels, suggesting an association between systemic inflammatory activity and functional limitation. All findings are presented as exploratory and associative. Conclusions: Patients with knee OA display systemic inflammatory biomarker differences associated with pain and functional impairment. These results support the role of inflammation in OA symptoms within an exploratory framework. Larger, longitudinal studies are warranted to validate these observations.

Hydatidiform mole, the most common form of gestational trophoblastic disease, presents as complete or partial form. Complete hydatidiform mole (CHM) usually presents with prominent histological criteria, whereas partial hydatidiform mole (PHM) shows a wide spectrum of presentations depending on gestational age. Molecular markers enhance the understanding of the variation and heterogeneous presentation of molar pregnancies, as well as their biological potential and behavior. This retrospective study included 50 CHM and 50 PHM specimens, terminated in first trimester via suction curettage. A second histopathological review of slides stained with hematoxylin and eosin was conducted, as well as a selection of representative tissue slides for p53 immunostaining. This study aimed to determine the precise correlation between specific morphological criteria and the patterns of p53 immunoexpression. Semi-quantitative analysis of samples for both pathological criteria and p53 immunostaining was performed. p53 positivity was defined as follow: the percentage of positive cells/nuclei: + (10-40%); ++ (40-70%); +++ (>70%); and staining intensity was scored as: 1 – weak, 2 – moderate, and 3 – strong intensity. P53 expression was estimated on at least 200 nuclei of cytotrophoblasts per slide. Significant difference in p53 expression exist between CHM and PHM in staining intensity. CHM shows significant correlation of p53 positivity with hydrops, central cisterns and atypia. In PHM trophoblast pseudoinclusions demonstrate strong significant correlation with p53 positivity. The irregular pseudoinclusions demonstrate lower expression compared with round or oval, being consistent with benign behavior of PHM. Prominent morphological criteria strongly correlate with p53 immunoexpression for both CHM and PHM.

This study examines the key competencies required of teachers in contemporary education and their role in preparing future generations. These competencies are widely recognized as foundational to societal development across multiple domains. In this context, the 4Cs model in initial teacher education was developed to establish conceptual and pedagogical preconditions for integrating critical thinking, creativity, collaboration, and communication competencies into teacher education programs. The study investigated the perceptions of students enrolled in teacher education programs at the University of Sarajevo regarding instructional activities through which university teachers foster and develop 4Cs competencies in higher education teaching. The findings indicate that, from the students’ perspective, instructional activities most strongly support the development of communication competency, followed by critical thinking and collaboration, whereas creativity is the least consistently fostered. This finding suggests that the integration of 4Cs competencies in higher education remains predominantly declarative rather than transformative, revealing a gap between curricular expectations and pedagogical practice. Furthermore, the results indicate a highly significant correlation between instructional activities fostering critical thinking and creativity. Significant correlations were also observed among the other competency scales, indicating that these competencies are interrelated and mutually reinforcing rather than developed in isolation. These findings highlight practical implications for teacher education programs.

Covering: January 2005 to July 2025The interplay between Responsible Research and Innovation, the Nagoya and Cartagena Protocols and other legislative frameworks, ethical practices, and intellectual property protection plays a pivotal role in shaping the field of natural products R&D&I, and the bioeconomy. Together, these elements establish a holistic framework for the sustainable and equitable utilization of natural resources, while promoting innovation and supporting economic growth.

Abstract This paper presents two offline, on-premise NLP proof-of-concept assistants built on a shared architecture for internal knowledge access in the Central Bank of Bosnia and Herzegovina: (i) a semantic document search tool for internal Word/PDF repositories and (ii) an HR chatbot that applies retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) over indexed HR policies and procedures. Rather than proposing a novel NLP method, the paper contributes by documenting a reusable offline architecture for institutional AI assistants in a security-constrained central banking environment and by providing pilot evidence on how established semantic retrieval and RAG techniques can be adapted to strict requirements of confidentiality, data sovereignty, and governance. The semantic search assistant combines exact phrase matching with embedding-based retrieval and hybrid re-ranking, while the HR chatbot generates source-grounded answers using locally hosted language models under explicit governance constraints, including B/H/S-only output, strict fallback behaviour, and transparent display of retrieved passages. Pilot results indicate that hybrid retrieval offers the most reliable performance across representative internal queries, while the HR chatbot demonstrates the feasibility of document-grounded employee support under offline institutional constraints. The findings provide preliminary evidence that offline NLP assistants can improve access to internal institutional knowledge while remaining compatible with the security and operational risk requirements typical of central banking environments.

Countermovement jump (CMJ) performance is widely used to assess explosive lower-limb function in football players. Although knee isokinetic strength is frequently measured in elite sport environments, the extent to which it relates to CMJ performance remains unclear, particularly when CMJ is performed with free arm movement. Therefore, the aim of this study was to examine the relationship between knee isokinetic muscle strength characteristics and CMJ performance in elite male football players. Twenty-four elite male football players (age 23.83 ± 5.98 years) participated in this cross-sectional study. CMJ height was assessed using an optical measurement system (Optojump Next). Concentric knee extensor and flexor peak torque was measured using an isokinetic dynamometer at angular velocities of 60°/s and 180°/s and expressed as peak torque/body weight% (PT/BW,%). Pearson correlation and linear regression analyses were used to examine associations between isokinetic strength variables and CMJ performance. Bilateral differences, hamstring-to-quadriceps (H/Q) ratios, and inter-limb asymmetries were also analyzed. Significant positive correlations were observed between CMJ height and knee extensor peak torque expressed as PT/BW (%) at both angular velocities. Stronger relationships were found at 180°/s (r = 0.558–0.642, p ≤ 0.005) compared with 60°/s (r = 0.483–0.500, p < 0.05). Regression analyses showed that knee extensor strength at 180°/s explained up to 41.2% of the variance in CMJ height. Hamstring strength demonstrated weaker and less consistent associations with CMJ performance, while H/Q ratios and inter-limb asymmetries were not significantly related to jump height. Quadriceps isokinetic strength expressed as PT/BW (%) was significantly associated with CMJ performance in elite male football players, with stronger relationships observed at higher angular velocity. These findings suggest that knee extensor strength assessed at higher angular velocity is meaningfully associated with explosive lower-limb performance and may provide useful complementary information within routine neuromuscular monitoring in professional football.

Titanium dioxide nanoparticles (TiO₂NPs) are widely produced engineered nanomaterials with ongoing human exposure through consumer and occupational uses. Conventional in vitro assays often focus on cytotoxicity and may therefore overlook early or sublethal cellular perturbations. Here, we applied Cell Painting-based phenomics to resolve size-dependent sub-lethal phenotypic signatures of TiO2NP exposure in human HepG2 hepatocytes. Two TiO2NPs (<25 nm and <100 nm) were characterized by field emission scanning electron microscopy and evaluated following 24-hour exposure at five concentrations: 6.25, 12.5, 25, 50, and 100 µg/mL. Cell viability was assessed using the alamarBlue assay, and high-dimensional phenotypic profiles were generated using Cell Painting-based phenomics, including automated high-content imaging and CellProfiler-based feature extraction. TiO2NP exposure induced modest reductions in viability at the highest concentration, indicating limited acute cytotoxicity. In contrast, phenomic profiling revealed clear, concentration-dependent phenotypic perturbations for both size fractions, with markedly stronger and more consistent effects for the < 100 nm TiO2NPs. At 100 µg/mL, the < 100 nm TiO2NPs altered 50.9% of the measured phenotypic features, compared with 28.9% for the < 25 nm particles, with prominent contributions from endoplasmic reticulum-, actin/Golgi/plasma membrane-, mitochondria-, and RNA-associated features. Dimensionality reduction and correlation analyses confirmed reproducible, concentration-dependent phenotypic trajectories. Importantly, the TiO2NP-induced phenotypes were distinct from those induced by the reference chemical CA-074Me, which produced broad perturbations and served as a reference chemical to verify assay sensitivity and dynamic range. Overall, Cell Painting phenomics sensitively captures size-dependent, sublethal cellular phenotypes induced by TiO2NPs, supporting its value as a New Approach Methodology for nanosafety assessment beyond conventional viability endpoints.

Abstract Background Despite its viral etiology and immunogenic features, cervical cancer shows limited and often short-lived benefit from programmed cell death protein 1 blockade, currently the only approved immunotherapy for this disease. This limitation highlights the need for a deeper understanding of its immune microenvironment to uncover alternative or complementary immunotherapeutic targets that may improve outcomes. Methods We integrated spatial proteomic and bulk transcriptomic profiling of the cervical cancer immune landscape. Immune subset markers (CD8, CD4, CD68, FoxP3, NKp46) and clinically actionable immune checkpoint molecules (HLA-E, CD47, CD73, CD276, CD155, Gal-9, PD-L1, CD70, LAG-3) were assessed by immunohistochemistry in 65 resected tumors, spatially resolved across tumor stroma and tumor epithelium niches. Expression patterns and correlations with clinicopathological variables, immunotypes, and survival were systematically analyzed. Key findings were cross-validated in The Cancer Genome Atlas cohort, and tumor-killing assays were conducted to evaluate the therapeutic potential of identified checkpoint axes. Results Immune infiltration was predominantly localized to the tumor stroma, with CD8+ and CD4+ T cells as dominant subsets. Within the tumor epithelium, CD8+ T cells and CD68+ macrophages were most abundant. Among checkpoints, HLA-E and CD47 showed the highest and most widespread expression, whereas CD276 and CD155 were enriched in the tumor epithelium, and CD73 and CD70 in the tumor stroma. Squamous cell carcinoma showed a stronger immunologic profile than adenocarcinoma. Immunotype stratification revealed distinct expression profiles and prognostic patterns. Elevated niche-defined expression of CD8, CD4, CD4-FoxP3, and NKp46 associated with improved survival. CD155 emerged as the only checkpoint consistently linked with poor survival across niches and cohorts, and associated with chemotherapy resistance. Notably, CD155 was the most promising functional target and was highly and selectively enriched in the tumor epithelium across all immunotypes, including immune-desert tumors where other immune markers were scarce. Conclusion This study reveals a complex, niche-specific and immunotype-specific immunoregulatory architecture in cervical cancer that extends well beyond programmed death-ligand 1. CD155 stands out as a compelling and underused therapeutic target, supporting a paradigm shift in targeting the T cell immunoreceptor with Ig and ITIM domains (TIGIT) axis. Its functional impact and selective enrichment in the tumor epithelium positions CD155 as a promising therapeutic target for both checkpoint inhibition and epithelial-directed approaches in cervical cancer.

BACKGROUND There are conflicting guidelines on whether patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus should withhold or continue glucose-lowering drugs before surgery, especially newer agents. We tested the hypothesis that continuing glucose-lowering drugs increases days alive at home and out of hospital at 30 days (DAH-30). METHODS We performed a secondary analysis of a prospective, observational study in 21 European countries of patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus undergoing elective surgery. The primary outcome was DAH-30. The exposure of interest was the continuation or discontinuation of glucose-lowering drugs (metformin, sodium-glucose cotransporter 2 inhibitors [SGLT2i], glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonists [GLP-1 RA]). Median (interquartile [IQR]) values are shown. RESULTS Between January 2021 and December 2024, 5767 participants with type 2 diabetes mellitus (age 64 [range: 22-89] yr; 43% female) were enrolled from 89 centres, with 4988 (87%) undergoing elective surgery. For 3623/5767 (73%) participants receiving metformin, DAH-30 was higher (28 days [24-29]) in 421/3623 (12%) participants who continued metformin on the day of surgery compared with 27 days (23-29) in 3202 of 5767 (88%) participants who had not taken metformin (P=0.001). After adjusting for prespecified covariates, continuing metformin on the day of surgery remained associated with higher DAH-30 (0.47 days [95% confidence interval:0.01-0.93]; P=0.044). No association was found for either stopping/continuing SGLT2i (n=836 participants) or GLP-1 RA (n=304 participants) with DAH-30. CONCLUSIONS Continuing metformin during surgery among patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus was associated with marginally shorter DAH-30, but the sample size for participants receiving SGLT2i and GLP-1 RA therapy precluded any meaningful estimates. TRACKER ID ESA-IC_CTN_MOPED.