PubMed HealthSearch

SEARCH · PubMed Health

Results for “Random forests”

Explore indexed PubMed citations for clinical trials, systematic reviews and public health research. Read source abstracts and follow each citation to its original PubMed record.

Quote a phrase for an exact phrase match. Source license links do not imply unrestricted reuse.

At least 127 records · Page 7Linked to original sources

Integrated multi-omics identification of m6A-SNP-related diagnostic biomarkers in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.

BACKGROUND: Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) lacks reliable and minimally invasive biomarkers for early diagnosis. m6A-associated single-nucleotide polymorphisms (m6A-SNPs) may influence RNA methylation and gene expression, offering opportunities to identify clinically relevant diagnostic markers. METHODS: We integrated eQTLGen cis-eQTL data, RMVar m6A-SNP annotations, and ALS transcriptomic datasets to identify m6A-SNP-related genes. Random Forest and LASSO regression were combined to screen robust diagnostic markers. A nomogram was constructed and validated using independent cohorts. Immune infiltration, predicted m6A modification sites, and potential RBP-SNP interactions were assessed. Peripheral blood samples from ALS patients were used for exploratory validation of gene expression and global m6A levels. RESULTS: We identified 109 ALS-associated m6A-SNP-related genes with cis-eQTL signals and narrowed these to seven candidate diagnostic markers (TMED5, OXR1, BRI3, FEM1C, SUZ12, EIF2AK4, and TJAP1). The seven-gene model outperformed the individual markers in the training cohort and retained moderate discrimination in the independent validation cohort. ALS samples showed differences in inferred immune-cell composition, including monocytes, neutrophils, and T-cell subsets. The selected SNP loci were located near predicted m6A sites and annotated RBP-binding regions. Exploratory clinical validation showed significant upregulation of FEM1C and SUZ12 at both mRNA and protein levels, accompanied by reduced global m6A modification. CONCLUSIONS: Through multi-omics integration and exploratory clinical validation, this study identifies m6A-SNP-related candidate markers associated with ALS. The findings support further evaluation of m6A-related signatures for ALS discrimination and molecular characterization, while larger independent cohorts and additional calibration are required before clinical application.

Humans

Metabolomic Responses to Oral Glucose Tolerance Test and Hyperinsulinemic-euglycemic Clamp in CKD.

BACKGROUND: The oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT) captures integrated physiological responses involving intestinal glucose absorption, incretin signaling, and endogenous insulin secretion, whereas the hyperinsulinemic-euglycemic clamp (clamp) isolates insulin-mediated glucose uptake. Comparing plasma metabolomic responses to these two challenges may identify processes specific to intestinal nutrient delivery and how they vary in CKD. METHODS: Targeted plasma metabolomics was performed in 59 adults without diabetes (39 with CKD [eGFR <60 mL/min/1.73 m2] and 20 controls) from the Study of Glucose and Insulin in Renal Disease (SUGAR). Each participant underwent a 75-g OGTT and clamp approximately one week apart. Eighty-eight plasma metabolites were quantified at fasting and during each challenge. Metabolite levels were log-transformed and normalized using Systematic Error Removal Using Random Forest (SERRF). Metabolites were classified using adjusted regression slopes relating OGTT and clamp responses. RESULTS: The mean (SD) age and eGFR were 64 (13) years and 54 (26) mL/min/1.73 m2, respectively, and 41% were female. In the overall cohort, OGTT and clamp induced broad plasma metabolic changes, with 63 (72%) and 76 (86%) metabolites significantly altered from fasting, respectively. Seventy-three metabolites (83%) demonstrated a significant relationship between OGTT and clamp responses. Of these, 22 (25%) exhibited true concordance and 51 (58%) demonstrated similar directional changes but differed in magnitude. A total of 15 (17%) metabolites were discordant or non-corresponding, of which only three were discordant. The non-corresponding metabolites were enriched in amino acid metabolism. Eleven metabolites (13%) demonstrated differential responses between OGTT and clamp by CKD status, involving amino acid and glucose metabolism pathways. CONCLUSIONS: Metabolomic responses to OGTT and clamp were largely directionally concordant but differed in magnitude, with attenuation during OGTT. Discordant metabolites were rare, while non-corresponding metabolites were confined to amino acid pathways. CKD modified OGTT-clamp correspondence for metabolites involved in amino acid and glycolytic metabolism.

Journal Article

SimpleMicrobiome: An integrated web-based platform for streamlined microbiome data analysis and visualization.

Microbiome studies require multiple analytical steps after initial sequence processing. These steps commonly include data harmonization, preprocessing, taxonomic profiling, diversity analysis, differential abundance testing, predictive modeling, network inference, and preparation of publication-ready outputs. Although robust packages are available for many of these tasks, routine use often depends on command-line workflows, repeated data reformatting, and method-specific scripting. These requirements can limit accessibility for experimental researchers and complicate consistent analysis across interdisciplinary teams. We developed SimpleMicrobiome, a web-based R Shiny platform that integrates established microbiome analysis methods into a single interactive downstream workflow. The application accepts standard abundance, taxonomy, and metadata tables, supports interactive preprocessing and sample filtering, and provides modules for taxa profile visualization, alpha and beta diversity analysis, ANCOM-BC2 and MaAsLin2 differential abundance testing, Random Forest modeling with SHAP-based interpretation, microbial association network inference using SparCC and SPIEC-EASI through NetCoMi, correlation heatmaps, and dbRDA/CAP-style association biplots. The platform is implemented as a modular Shiny application so that preprocessing choices are propagated across downstream analyses, results can be exported as figures and tables, and the same application can be run through the public server, source-code installation, or a Docker image. SimpleMicrobiome consolidates major downstream microbiome analysis tasks in an accessible browser-based environment while retaining links to established analytical frameworks. The platform may reduce technical barriers for non-programming users, improve consistency across exploratory and reporting-oriented analyses, and support collaborative microbiome research. The public application is available at https://simplemicrobiome.mglab.org, the source code is available at https://github.com/yjcho2252/SimpleMicrobiome, and a Docker image for local deployment is available at https://hub.docker.com/r/mglab2252/simplemicrobiome.

differential abundance

Exploration of predictive and prognostic alternative splicing signatures in lung adenocarcinoma using machine learning methods.

BACKGROUND: Alternative splicing (AS) plays critical roles in generating protein diversity and complexity. Dysregulation of AS underlies the initiation and progression of tumors. Machine learning approaches have emerged as efficient tools to identify promising biomarkers. It is meaningful to explore pivotal AS events (ASEs) to deepen understanding and improve prognostic assessments of lung adenocarcinoma (LUAD) via machine learning algorithms. METHOD: RNA sequencing data and AS data were extracted from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) database and TCGA SpliceSeq database. Using several machine learning methods, we identified 24 pairs of LUAD-related ASEs implicated in splicing switches and a random forest-based classifiers for identifying lymph node metastasis (LNM) consisting of 12 ASEs. Furthermore, we identified key prognosis-related ASEs and established a 16-ASE-based prognostic model to predict overall survival for LUAD patients using Cox regression model, random survival forest analysis, and forward selection model. Bioinformatics analyses were also applied to identify underlying mechanisms and associated upstream splicing factors (SFs). RESULTS: Each pair of ASEs was spliced from the same parent gene, and exhibited perfect inverse intrapair correlation (correlation coefficient&#x2009;=&#x2009;-&#x2009;1). The 12-ASE-based classifier showed robust ability to evaluate LNM status of LUAD patients with the area under the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve (AUC) more than 0.7 in fivefold cross-validation. The prognostic model performed well at 1, 3, 5, and 10&#xa0;years in both the training cohort and internal test cohort. Univariate and multivariate Cox regression indicated the prognostic model could be used as an independent prognostic factor for patients with LUAD. Further analysis revealed correlations between the prognostic model and American Joint Committee on Cancer stage, T stage, N stage, and living status. The splicing network constructed of survival-related SFs and ASEs depicts regulatory relationships between them. CONCLUSION: In summary, our study provides insight into LUAD researches and managements based on these AS biomarkers.

Adenocarcinoma of Lung

Development and validation of a comprehensive prognostic model for 28-day ICU mortality in non-traumatic subarachnoid hemorrhage: an analysis based on the MIMIC-IV database.

BACKGROUND: Due to the complex pathophysiology of non-traumatic subarachnoid hemorrhage (SAH), accurate risk prediction remains a challenge. Our aim is to develop and validate a comprehensive prognostic model that integrates demographic characteristics, vital signs, laboratory parameters, and more, to provide clinical decision-making support in real-world practice. METHODS: We conducted a retrospective cohort study of 785 Non-traumatic subarachnoid hemorrhage patients. The cohort was randomly divided into a training set (n&#xa0;=&#xa0;549) and a validation set (n&#xa0;=&#xa0;236). Feature selection was performed using LASSO regression, followed by backward stepwise Cox regression for optimization. A nomogram was constructed based on independent predictive factors, and model performance was assessed using discrimination, calibration, and decision curve analysis. To prevent immortal-time bias, all predictors were anchored to a fixed early (first-24-hour) measurement window, treatment variables were modelled as binary indicators rather than cumulative exposures, and a five-model sensitivity analysis with baseline-severity adjustment was performed. RESULTS: The development of our model followed a systematic approach: first, 15 potential predictive factors were selected via LASSO regression, which were then refined to 12 independent predictors using backward stepwise Cox regression. The final predictive factors included: Ventilation, AHT, Nimodipine 60&#xa0;mg, Age, SAPS.II, Input amount, Calcium total, Platelet count, White blood cells, Anion gap, pH, and Chloride. The integrated model demonstrated excellent predictive ability for 7-day, 14-day, and 21-day mortality in both the training set (AUC: 0.972, 0.934, 0.898) and the validation set (AUC: 0.968, 0.948, 0.911). Calibration curves and decision curve analysis confirmed the model's reliability and clinical utility across different time points. We constructed a nomogram for individualized risk prediction. Univariate Kaplan-Meier survival analysis demonstrated significant stratification of survival outcomes by each predictor, while restricted cubic spline analysis revealed non-linear relationships between continuous variables and mortality risk. Random survival forest analysis identified the top three predictive factors (Nimodipine 60&#xa0;mg, Ventilation, AHT) and compared them with our full 12-variable model, confirming superior performance of the integrated model at all time points. At the 28-day primary endpoint, the model achieved a time-dependent AUC of 0.898 (training) and 0.904 (validation); after restricting predictors to the early baseline window, the leakage-controlled model retained good discrimination (validation C-index 0.803). CONCLUSIONS: Our ICU 28-day mortality prognosis model demonstrated robust performance in predicting ICU 28-day mortality in non-traumatic subarachnoid hemorrhage. The model, through the nomogram, provides individualized risk assessment, aiding clinical decision-making and patient stratification.

Humans

Dynamic evolution of chaperone-mediated autophagy is associated with tumor microenvironment remodeling and prognostic stratification in lung adenocarcinoma: insights from single-cell transcriptomics, ensemble machine learning, and experimental validation.

BACKGROUND: Lung adenocarcinoma (LUAD) shows prognostic heterogeneity, and tumor-node-metastasis (TNM) staging is limited for individualized management. Chaperone-mediated autophagy (CMA) maintains proteostasis, but its role during adenocarcinoma in situ (AIS)-minimally invasive adenocarcinoma (MIA)-invasive adenocarcinoma (IAC) progression remains unclear. METHODS: Single-cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-seq) data from GSE189357 and bulk transcriptomes from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA)-LUAD and Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) cohorts were integrated. CMA activity, cell-cell communication, weighted gene co-expression network analysis (WGCNA), tumor-normal differential expression, machine-learning survival modeling, tumor microenvironment (TME) features, drug sensitivity, and EPC1 function were analyzed. RESULTS: CMA-high tumor epithelial cells increased from AIS (58.1%) to MIA (65.7%) but declined in IAC (44.4%; p < 0.001). CMA-low cells preferentially received fibroblast-derived extracellular matrix cues. A CMA-negatively correlated module identified 69 core genes. Random survival forest (RSF) performed best among 117 machine-learning combinations (mean concordance index > 0.873). High-risk patients had worse survival across cohorts, and the risk score was independently associated with overall survival (hazard ratio = 16.013, 95% confidence interval: 9.579-26.768, p < 0.001). High-risk tumors showed proliferative activation and M0 macrophage enrichment, whereas low-risk tumors showed stronger immune-related signaling. EPC1 overexpression suppressed malignant phenotypes in A549 cells. CONCLUSION: CMA dynamics are associated with stromal and immune remodeling during LUAD progression. A CMA-based model provides robust prognostic stratification and may offer a basis for future TME-guided studies.

Chaperone-mediated autophagy

HyLnc: a hybrid deep learning and feature-based approach for long non-coding RNA prediction.

Long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) play important roles in gene regulation, development and disease, yet accurate identification of lncRNAs from transcriptomic data remains a major computational challenge. Existing methods often rely either on handcrafted sequence features or deep learning approaches, each with their inherent limitations in capturing the full complexity of RNA sequences. In this study, we proposed HyLnc, a computational framework that integrates transformer-based contextual embeddings with biologically meaningful sequence features for improved lncRNA prediction. A custom BERT-based model was first pre-trained on a large corpus of metazoan RNA sequences using a masked language modelling strategy to learn contextual nucleotide dependencies. The model was subsequently fine-tuned on curated datasets of lncRNAs and protein-coding transcripts and 256-dimensional deep sequence embeddings were extracted. Parallelly, 348&#xa0;handcrafted features, including ORF characteristics, untranslated region (UTR) properties, nucleotide composition and Fickett scores, were computed. A multi-stage feature selection strategy was applied to identify the most informative features, resulting in optimized hybrid feature sets. Multiple machine learning classifiers were evaluated, with the RF model achieving the best performance. The proposed framework attained an accuracy of 91.30%, F1-score of 91.23% and MCC of 82.60 on an independent validation dataset, outperforming several existing lncRNA prediction tools. Thus, HyLnc demonstrates that integrating deep contextual representations with biologically interpretable features enhances lncRNA prediction. This approach provides a robust and scalable solution for large-scale transcriptome annotation and can be extended to other sequence-based prediction.

RNA, Long Noncoding

Integrating single-cell transcriptomics to construct an oncogene-driven prognostic model and elucidate metabolic-immune crosstalk in hepatocellular carcinoma.

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is a leading cause of cancer-related deaths, its progression and treatment heterogeneity are mainly influenced by driver gene and tumor micro-environment (TME) interactions. Nevertheless, the mechanisms of this process at the single-cell level remain unclear. This study integrated TCGA and multi-center single-cell transcriptome data to identify a 575 genes HCC-specific core set, developing a single-cell "oncogene scoring" system to quantify individual carcinogenic activity. This score is significantly elevated in malignant and proliferative T cells and is closely associated with metabolic reprogramming, aberrant cell&#x2012;cell communication, and immunosuppressive phenotypes. Based on these characteristics, we constructed a machine learning-based Random Survival Forest (RSF) prognostic model validated in multiple independent cohorts, which classifies patients into distinct risk subtypes. The high-risk group exhibits genomic instability, increased tumor stemness, and immune evasion, while the low-risk group was more sensitive to drugs such as sorafenib. This study highlights the potential pathways by which high oncogenic activity is associated with HCC progression, suggesting a profound link with single-cell metabolic&#x2012;immune crosstalk. The constructed RSF model offers a promising computational framework for risk stratification and provides hypothesis-generating insights that may inform future personalized treatment strategies for HCC patients.

Hepatocellular carcinoma

Survival prediction for clear cell renal cell carcinoma based on deep multimodal synergistic survival network.

Objective.To propose a deep multimodal synergistic survival analysis framework (Deep Multimodal Synergistic Survival Network, DMSSN) to achieve accurate prognostic analysis for clear cell renal cell carcinoma (ccRCC).Methods.This study (DMSSN) utilized matched multimodal data from the Cancer Genome Atlas-KIRC database, including CT imaging data, whole slide images, copy number variation (CNV) features, and clinical data. Deep Canonical Correlation Analysis was employed to map heterogeneous modalities into a shared latent space. Contrastive learning was introduced to enhance semantic consistency across multimodal features, and a gating network was utilized for the adaptive fusion of multimodal information to achieve precise survival risk prediction for patients.Results.Experimental results demonstrated that DMSSN achieved a Concordance Index (C-index) of 0.8153 &#xb1; 0.0994, with a Log-rank testp-value of 1.6553&#xd7;10-11. DMSSN exhibited significant performance advantages over traditional statistical methods like Log-rank-Cox (0.7055 &#xb1; 0.0670) and machine learning methods such as Random Survival Forest (RSF) (0.6836 &#xb1; 0.1048). Furthermore, in comparison with similar deep learning approaches, DMSSN outperformed late fusion strategies (0.7493 &#xb1; 0.1211) and discrete-time survival models such as DeepHit (0.7655 &#xb1; 0.1041) and Nnet-surv (0.7694 &#xb1; 0.0635). Notably, DMSSN still achieved the best predictive performance when compared to the classic deep survival model DeepSurv (0.7919 &#xb1; 0.0978) and advanced state-of-the-art multimodal fusion frameworks like Context-Aware Transformer (0.7735 &#xb1; 0.0818) and Multimodal Co-Attention Transformer (0.8102 &#xb1; 0.0972). Ablation studies showed that removing any single modality led to a decline in performance, with the largest numerical decrease occurring after removing CT imaging features (C-index decreased to 0.7327), validating the complementarity of multimodal data and the pivotal role of radiomic features in prognostic assessment. Module ablation experiments further confirmed the effectiveness of the core components.Conclusion:By effectively integrating imaging, pathology, genomic, and clinical features, the DMSSN framework demonstrates superior performance and robustness in the survival prediction of ccRCC.

Carcinoma, Renal Cell

Proteomics-enabled learning machine algorithms enhance the prediction of cardiovascular diseases in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus.

BACKGROUND AND AIMS: Estimating the risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD) complications in type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) patients is critical in the medical decision-making process. This study aimed to use a machine learning technique combined with proteomics to develop personalized models for predicting CVD in patients with T2DM. METHODS AND RESULTS: In total, 874 patients with T2DM and 2,920 Olink proteins obtained from the UK Biobank were used in this study. Proteins were screened using Cox regression and LASSO regression. A basic model containing clinical features and a full model combining proteome and clinical features were constructed using the random survival forest algorithm. The area under the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve (AUC) was used to evaluate the predictive performance of the models and compare them with other CVD predictive models. Compared with the basic model, the full model performed better in predicting CVD, with time-dependent AUCs of 0.81 (3&#x2009;years), 0.74 (5&#x2009;years) and 0.74 (10&#x2009;years) (0.77, 0.69 and 0.67). We calculated the risk scores of the Framingham, ASCVD and Score2-Diabetes models. The results revealed that the prediction performance of the full model was also better than that of the abovementioned models. In terms of differentiation accuracy, the results of the net reclassification improvement index and integrated discrimination improvement index showed that the full model can identify high-risk individuals more accurately (accuracy rate: 79% vs. 69%). CONCLUSIONS: Proteomics can be used to predict cardiovascular complications in diabetic patients. It is also necessary to consider the applicability of the model due to the limitations of the sample size and the constraints of proteomics in clinical applications.

Humans

Exploring the hypothetical role of Bacteroides species in depression progression: insights from metagenomic analysis.

Depression, a psychiatric disorder with significant morbidity and mortality, has a complex etiology. Recent advances in microbiome research have highlighted the potential role of fecal microbiota in depression pathogenesis. This study utilized shotgun metagenomic sequencing to compare the fecal microbiota of 28 depression patients and 26 healthy individuals. Significant differences in fecal microbiota composition were observed between the two groups. We generated 350 non-redundant high-quality metagenome-assembled genomes (MAGs) by binning and conducted comparisons between the depression and control groups. Notably, we found that the MAGs enriched in people with depression mostly belonged to Bacteroides, indicating a close link between Bacteroides abundance and the development of depression, suggesting that Bacteroides might be a potential culprit for depression. In the depression group, we found that the module of nitric oxide synthesis was remarkably enriched, and all Bacteroides MAGs contained genes annotated as nitric oxide synthase, suggesting that increased levels of Bacteroides may contribute to elevated nitric oxide synthesis. A distinct microbial signature consisting of Arthrobacter sp._U41, Bacillus cereus, Campylobacter rectus, and Pasteurella dagmatis accurately discriminates between depressed individuals and healthy controls, achieving an average area under the receiver operating characteristic curve of 0.950. This research sheds light on the potential role of fecal microbiota in depression and highlights specific metabolic pathways and microbial markers for further investigation.IMPORTANCEThis research highlighted significant differences in the composition and function of fecal microbiota between individuals with depression and healthy individuals, particularly the enrichment of Bacteroides metagenome-assembled genomes (MAGs) in depression patients. The upregulation of the nitric oxide synthesis pathway associated with these MAGs belonging to Bacteroides in the gut of depression patients had also been observed. The selected bacterial biomarkers reliably differentiate depression cases from healthy controls with high diagnostic accuracy (mean area under the receiver operating characteristic curve = 0.950). Our results suggest the importance of exploring microbial markers as potential diagnostic and therapeutic targets in managing depression.

Humans

Metabolic-cell-death gene trio predicts survival and cuproptosis sensitivity in colorectal cancer.

BACKGROUND: Metabolic cell death (MCD) modulates colorectal cancer (CRC) progression, yet its prognostic value remains unexplored. We aimed to build an MCD-centred gene signature for outcome prediction and precision therapy. METHODS: Transcriptomes of 1,174 CRC patients were integrated. Weighted gene co-expression network analysis, differential expressions and least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (LASSO) + random survival forest were successively applied to derive a three-gene (CDKN2A/MPC1/AHCY) risk model. Functional, immune-infiltration, drug-sensitivity and genomic analyses were performed, followed by validation in fresh clinical specimens and cell lines. RESULTS: Integrative metabolic-death transcriptomics identified CDKN2A, MPC1 and AHCY as the hub drivers of CRC. Their three-gene signature robustly stratified patients into high- and low-risk subsets [3-year area under the curve (AUC) 0.83-0.85, P<0.001]. High-risk tumors were enriched for extracellular matrix (ECM)-receptor-interaction pathways, displayed abundant myeloid-derived suppressor cell (MDSC) infiltration and were more vulnerable to AZD8186, AZ960 and JAK inhibitors. Guided by these in-silico findings, we functionally confirmed that CDKN2A silencing markedly repressed proliferation, invasion and migration of SW480/HCT116 cells and potentiated cuproptosis via up-regulation of lipoylated DLAT/DLST and CTR1. CONCLUSIONS: We report the first MCD-derived prognostic platform for CRC that simultaneously predicts survival and therapeutic response. Targeting CDKN2A-enhanced cuproptosis represents a promising metabolic-precision strategy for high-risk patients.

Colorectal cancer (CRC)

Discovery and validation of a multi-protein panel for predicting non-fatal major adverse cardiovascular events in diabetic kidney disease.

OBJECTIVE: To identify plasma protein biomarkers associated with incident non-fatal major adverse cardiovascular events (MACE) in diabetic kidney disease (DKD) patients. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS: We analyzed 317 DKD patients from the UK Biobank. Plasma proteomics and clinical data (demographics, metabolism, renal function) were integrated. In an exploratory discovery phase, three sequential Cox regression models (crude, socio-demographic-adjusted, socio-demographic-metabolic adjusted) screened non-fatal MACE-associated proteins. To prevent information leakage, the cohort was then randomly split into training (70%) and testing (30%) sets; machine-learning feature selection, hyperparameter optimization, and final model development were performed exclusively within the training set. The associated proteins were input into the four-step machine-learning pipeline (LASSO-Cox, random survival forest, Boruta, XGBoost-Cox). Predictive performance was validated using Kaplan-Meier survival analyses, longitudinal trajectory modeling, and ROC benchmarking. An interactive web application was deployed for clinical implementation. RESULTS: Of 1,463 plasma proteins, 561 were associated with non-fatal MACE across Cox models, with 14 overlapping proteins. Nine core proteins (ANG, IL1R1, CXCL14, ESAM, PTGDS, HAVCR1, FGFR2, IGSF8, CCL3) were validated: ANG showed the strongest non-fatal MACE association (HR&#xa0;=&#xa0;3.88, 95%CI 2.33-6.48, p<0.001), and all high-expression groups had elevated non-fatal MACE risk. GO/KEGG enrichment highlighted inflammatory-immune pathways like positive regulation of MAPK cascade, Cytokine-cytokine receptor interaction and PI3K-Akt signaling pathway as key mechanisms. The model integrating proteins, demographic factors, and clinical variables achieved the highest predictive performance across non-fatal MACE (AUC&#xa0;=&#xa0;0.768), myocardial infarction (MI) (0.808), and stroke (0.816) outcomes, with superior stability in cross-validation. CoxBoost + Elastic Net framework was selected as the optimal framework via benchmarking of 101 algorithms. The model demonstrated favorable calibration in high-risk patients and yielded positive net clinical benefit across decision thresholds of 5% to 45%. The web tool (https://jiangli2941.github.io/MACE-prediction-v2/) enables input of 28 variables, outputs non-fatal MACE risk status, risk probability, and highlights abnormal indicators. CONCLUSION: Plasma proteomics combined with machine learning identifies robust non-fatal MACE predictors in DKD.

Humans

A pan-cancer multi-omic SuperLearner for regulated cell death survival topologies.

INTRODUCTION: Regulated cell death (RCD) pathways influence tumor progression and immune modulation. We previously constructed a signature database mapping 25 RCD forms across seven multi-omic layers and 33 tumor types (CancerRCDShiny). Despite their ability to identify risk populations, translating these signatures into personalized clinical workflows requires a shift from cohort stratification to individualized risk mapping by modeling patient risk (survival topologies) to capture the non-linear dynamics of RCD signatures. METHODS: We engineered a pan-cancer multi-omic SuperLearner pipeline across 33 cancer types. Phase I performed zero-leakage harmonization and groupwise imputation to prevent cross-cohort amalgamation. Phase II deployed Elastic Net-regularized Cox regression as a CANARY diagnostic to map proportional hazards failures. Strata with a 35% missingness barrier entered Phase III, deploying a Quadripartite ensemble: Random Survival Forests, XGBoost, Survival-Boruta, and Multi-Task Logistic Regression, fused within an Elastic Net Multi-View Meta-Learner (MVL), with post-hoc TreeSHAP and LIME interpretability. RESULTS: The CANARY diagnostic demonstrated the structural invalidity of pan-cancer geometric proportional hazards. Across 96 admissible strata, Phase III executed algorithmic displacement: continuous multi-omic topologies suppressed static genomic mutations and copy number variations (85.7% vs. 0.0% apex retention). The MVL stabilized predictions against extreme variance; LIME surrogate validations (R 2&#x202f;<&#x202f;0.10) confirmed the systematic failure of linear interpretative proxies. N-dimensional TreeSHAP interaction mapping exposed synergistic and antagonistic rescue trajectories defining individualized Survival Topologies, which were invisible to additive models. The architecture was deployed as CancerRCDPredictor, a digital molecular tumor board with integrated LLM capabilities. The MVL SuperLearner achieved a median C-index of 0.749 (IQR: 0.722-0.836) across 96 modelable strata, with 95% bootstrap confidence intervals confirming precision (median width: 0.052) and permutation significance in 93.8% of strata (p&#x202f;<&#x202f;0.001). External CPTAC validation across ten cancer types demonstrated significant cross-cohort generalizability in clear cell renal carcinoma (KIRC; C-index 0.675, p&#x202f;=&#x202f;0.017) and modest performance across the remaining adequately powered cancers (median 0.582), underscoring the need for larger multi-institutional validation cohorts. CONCLUSION: This pan-cancer multi-omic SuperLearner bypasses linear topological failures, advancing beyond generalized stratification to establish a deterministically mapped architecture for predicting RCD-related survival topologies. Through the CancerRCDPredictor interface, multi-omic insights translate into individualized survival topology exploration, providing a foundation for future precision oncology validation.

SuperLearner

The effect of nitrogen fertilization on forest blueberries.

In a randomized prospective trial with hens it is shown that artificially fertilized forest blueberries are toxic. In a high dose (1.7 1/hens) the birds died within 72 hours (p less than 0.01). In a lower dose (0.33 1/hens) all survived but a lifelong change in the egg production occurred implying defects of the shells (p less than 0.0000001). It seems that fertilizers change the microflora in the ground, which releases soluble aluminiumnitrate which is absorbed in the berries. Aluminium poisoning has been found to have clinical significance in dialysis patients and probably also in senile dementia. In smaller doses it can be difficult to establish this relation as the symptoms can have a latency period of more than 10 years.

Aluminum

Isolation of fecal coliforms from pristine sites in a tropical rain forest.

Samples collected from water accumulated in leaf axilae of bromeliads (epiphytic flora) in a tropical rain forest were found to harbor fecal coliforms. Random identification of fecal coliform-positive isolates demonstrated the presence of Escherichia coli. This bacterium was also isolated from bromeliad leaf surfaces. These data indicate that E. coli may be part of the phyllosphere microflora and not simply a transient bacterium of this habitat. The isolation of fecal coliforms from these sites was unexpected and raises questions as to the validity of using fecal coliforms as indicators of biological water quality in the tropics.

Anti-Bacterial Agents

Tuberculosis in wildlife in the Ruwenzori National Park Uganda (part I).

The technique adopted for a survey of tuberculous infection in wild Cape buffalo (Syncerus caffer, Sparrman) living in the Ruwenzori National Park, Uganda is described and the results of gross post-mortem examinations of a random sample of 52 buffalo and a selected sample of 64 thin buffalo are tabulated. Tuberculosis was found to occur in buffalo in the area of the Park north of the Maramagambo Forest; the disease is considered to be absent from the area south of the forest. Tuberculosis was found to affect 10% of the random sample of buffalo and 38% of the selected thin sample. Laboratory procedures carried out for the isolation and typing of the mycobacteria are described. Mycobacterium bovis was shown to be responsible for 12 of 14 infections and atypical mycobacteria for the remaining two. The distribution and character of the lesions are described and an account of the epidemiology, morbidity and mortality of the disease is given. It is estimated that tuberculosis is responsible for an annual mortality of about 1% of the 18,000 buffalo inhabiting the Park.

Animals

Effect of Peer Comparison Feedback and Professional Norms on Vitamin D Testing and Generic Medication Prescribing.

BACKGROUND: Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) estimates suggest that 20% of health care spending is wasteful or even harmful. Previous interventions have had limited success in discouraging low-value care in medical practice. METHODS: We conducted a nationwide randomized controlled trial among primary care physicians (PCPs) in Switzerland (November 2020-December 2021). We randomly assigned PCPs to one of three intervention groups related to low-value care (vitamin D testing, generic prescribing, or a cost intervention) or a control group. This article reports results for the vitamin D testing and generic prescribing interventions compared with the common control group. PCPs in the intervention groups received a personalized information letter combining professional norms and peer comparison feedback about the low-value service (either vitamin D testing or prescribing of nongeneric medications). Primary endpoints were (1) the number of vitamin D tests per 100 patients and (2) the share of generic medications prescribed. We estimated average treatment effects using linear regression and assessed effect heterogeneity with a causal forest. RESULTS: A total of 618 PCPs were randomly assigned to the vitamin D intervention, 597 to the generic prescribing intervention and 601 to the common control group. The intervention reduced average vitamin D testing by 3.66 tests per 100 patients (95% confidence interval [CI], -5.42 to -1.89; P<0.001). The intervention did not increase average generic medication prescribing (mean difference, +0.57 percentage points; 95% CI, -0.68 to +1.81 percentage points; P=0.37). Heterogeneity analysis suggested that reductions in vitamin D testing among physician subgroups ranged from one to seven per 100 patients and that higher baseline generic prescribing rates were associated with increases in generic substitution following the intervention. No increases in low-value care were seen among those physicians with low baseline levels. CONCLUSIONS: Peer comparison letters emphasizing professional norms reduced vitamin D testing but did not increase generic medication prescribing. (Funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation; AEA Randomized Controlled Trials Registry no., AEARCTR-0004747.).

Humans