Magnetic shielding accelerates the proliferation of human neuroblastoma cell by promoting G1-phase progression

Organisms have been exposed to the geomagnetic field (GMF) throughout evolutionary history. Exposure to the hypomagnetic field (HMF) by deep magnetic shielding has recently been suggested to have a negative effect on the structure and function of the central nervous system, particularly during early development. Although changes in cell growth and differentiation have been observed in the HMF, the effects of the HMF on cell cycle progression still remain unclear. Here we show that continuous HMF exposure significantly increases the proliferation of human neuroblastoma (SH-SY5Y) cells. The acceleration of proliferation results from a forward shift of the cell cycle in G1-phase. The G2/M-phase progression is not affected in the HMF. Our data is the first to demonstrate that the HMF can stimulate the proliferation of SH-SY5Y cells by promoting cell cycle progression in the G1-phase. This provides a novel way to study the mechanism of cells in response to changes of environmental magnetic field including the GMF

Genomic insights into Klebsiella pneumoniae: Virulence, resistance, and transmission in South and Southeast Asia

Background: Klebsiella pneumoniae has long posed a significant challenge in clinical settings worldwide, particularly due to its carbapenemase production and multidrug-resistant (MDR) characteristics. While extensive genomic studies of K. pneumoniae have been conducted globally, research in Asia, particularly South Asia, remains limited. Objectives: This study aims to address and compare the genomic characteristics of K. pneumoniae isolates from South Asia and Southeast Asia, including virulence, antimicrobial resistance (AMR), plasmids, and mobile genetic elements (MGE) profiles, as well as potential transmission dynamics. Methods: A total of 463 K. pneumoniae genomes were included from collected samples and public databases. All genomes underwent comprehensive analysis, including pan-genome profiling, multi-locus sequence typing (MLST), annotation of virulence factors, AMR genes, plasmids, and MGEs, as well as SNP distance–based analysis to infer transmission dynamics, using established bioinformatic tools. Results: K. pneumoniae isolates exhibited diverse virulence determinants. Hypervirulent isolates were primarily associated with ST23 and ST86, and commonly harbour aerobactin, salmochelin, and rmpA. The majority of isolates were predicted to be MDR, with those from Southeast Asia showing a higher relative abundance of AMR genes associated with the antibiotic classes examined in this study. Among all isolates, the predominant carbapenemase-associated gene was blaNDM-1. Col440I_1 was the most prevalent plasmid replicon, although it did not co-occur with any AMR genes. Association between the IncFII_1_pKP9 plasmid replicon and resistance genes sul-5, blaCTX-M, and blaTEM was found. ISSen9 was the dominant MGE, frequently co-occurring with the plasmid replicons IncFIB(K)_1_Kpn3 and IncFII_1_pKP91. Transmission analysis indicated that the highest isolate similarity occurred within MLST and country. However, clustering based on plasmid replicon profiles revealed that some clusters comprised isolates from multiple countries. Conclusion: This study provides a comprehensive analysis of the genomic characteristics and transmission patterns of K. pneumoniae in South and Southeast Asia, contributing to our understanding of its virulence and resistance mechanisms. These findings further suggest that plasmid replicons may play a critical role in shaping transmission dynamics and provide valuable insights to inform future AMR surveillance and control strategies

The Theory of Growth and Technology Transfer : Experience from the East Asian Economies

Today, the East Asian economies are viewed as the role models for most of the LDCs and the formerly planned economies. Their rapid catching up with the DCs is achieved, to a great extent, with transferred technology. We discuss below the issues in modeling theoretically their experience. Specifically, we offer a theory which predicts a unimodal time profile for the growth rate as observed in Japan and Taiwan, and we identify the causal factors which may facilitate the "imitational component" for technical progress

Direct Manipulation of User Interfaces for Migration

From a topological model of a working environment, MIGRIXML automatically generates a virtual reality environment for controlling the run-time migration of a graphical user interface from one computing platform to another one (e.g., from a desktop to a pocket computer), from one interaction surface to another (e.g., from a laptop to a wall screen) at run-time. For this purpose, any user interface subject to migration is described in USer Interface eXtensible Markup Language regarding its look & feel as well as the platforms and the surfaces involved in the migration. Each interface, in part or in whole, can be attached to a platform or a surface, detached from it, and migrated across platforms or interaction surfaces. Instead of communicating data and code during the migration, the description of the user interface of concern is wirelessly passed from one platform to another one to be regenerated on the target platform. To ensure a continuous control of the run-time migration, MIGRIXML automatically generates a world model representing the context of use where the source/target platforms/interaction surfaces are represented. Finally, migrating a user interface becomes as natural as its direct manipulation from one platform to another exactly in the same way as it is done on a single platform