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Cultivated spinach (Spinacia oleracea) is a dioecious species. We report high-quality genome sequences for its two closest wild relatives, Spinacia turkestanica and Spinacia tetrandra, which are also dioecious, and are used to study the genetics of spinach domestication. Using a combination of genomic approaches, we assembled genomes of both these species and analyzed them in comparison with the previously assembled S. oleracea genome. These species diverged c. 6.3 million years ago (Ma), while cultivated spinach split from S...

BACKGROUND: Ultrasound (US) is often the first method used to look for brain or cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) space pathologies. Knowledge of normal CSF width values is essential. Most of the available US normative values were established over 20 years ago, were obtained with older equipment, and cover only part of the age spectrum that can be examined by cranial US. This prospective study aimed to determine the normative values of the widths of the subarachnoid and internal CSF spaces (craniocortical, minimal and maximal interhemispheric, interventricular, and frontal horn) for high-resolution linear US probes in neurologically healthy infants and children aged 0-19 months and assess whether subdural fluid collections can be delineated...

The transition from a humid green Sahara to today's hyperarid conditions in northern Africa ~5.5 thousand years ago shows the dramatic environmental change to which human societies were exposed and had to adapt to. In this work, we show that in the 620,000-year environmental record from the Chew Bahir basin in the southern Ethiopian Rift, with its decadal resolution, this one thousand year long transition is particularly well documented, along with 20-80 year long droughts, recurring every ~160 years, as possible early warnings...

Cancer growth is dependent on angiogenesis, the formation of new blood vessels, which represents a hallmark of cancer. Since this concept was established in the Seventies, inhibition of tumor development and metastases by blocking the neoangiogenic process has been an important approach to the treatment of tumors. However, antiangiogenic therapies are often administered when cancer has already progressed. The key to reducing the cancer burden is prevention. We noticed 20 years ago that a series of possible cancer chemopreventive agents showed antiangiogenic properties when tested in experimental models...

Ergot alkaloids (EAs) are a diverse group of indole alkaloids known for their complex structures, significant pharmacological effects, and toxicity to plants. The biosynthesis of these compounds begins with chanoclavine-I aldehyde (CC aldehyde, 2), an important intermediate produced by the enzyme EasDaf or its counterpart FgaDH from chanoclavine-I (CC, 1). However, how CC aldehyde 2 is converted to chanoclavine-I acid (CC acid, 3), first isolated from Ipomoea violacea several decades ago, is still unclear. In this study, we provide in vitro biochemical evidence showing that EasDaf not only converts CC 1 to CC aldehyde 2 but also directly transforms CC 1 into CC acid 3 through two sequential oxidations...

Since the dawn of photochemistry 150 years ago, photoreactions have been conducted under polychromatic light. However, despite the pivotal role that photokinetics should naturally play for such reactive photosystems, the literature lacks a comprehensive description of that area. Indeed, one fails to identify explicit model integrated rate laws for these reactions, a characteristic type for their kinetic behavior, or their kinetic order. In addition, there is no consensus in the community on standardized investigative tools to evaluate the reactivity of these photosystems, nor are there venues for the discussion of such photokinetic issues...

BACKGROUND: Tracheopathia osteochondroplastica (TPO) is an uncommon and benign abnormality of the cartilaginous tracheal wall. It is characterized by multiple calcified nodules in the submucosa of the trachea and main bronchi. This disorder can present as a wide range of nonspecific symptoms; therefore, TPO is usually found as an incidental finding during bronchoscopy. However, it does pose a risk for complicated intubations and recurrent respiratory infection. The etiology of the disease is unknown, and treatments are often only for symptomatic relief, if necessary...

BACKGROUND: Breast cancer accounts for 5% of the population who develop central nervous system metastasis, which is only second to the lung cancer. Breast cancer metastasis to the brain including parenchymal brain metastasis (BM) and leptomeningeal metastasis (LM). Compared with BM, LM is a more rare but aggressive metastatic diagnosis with poor outcome. CASE DESCRIPTION: We reported a 38-year-old woman presented to the neurology department due to progressive headache for 1 month, accompanied with dizziness, nausea, vomiting and neck pain...

BACKGROUND: Nail-Patella syndrome (NPS) is an autosomal-dominant pleiotropic condition characterized by pelvic and skeletal abnormalities and most commonly affecting a tetrad of nails, knees, elbows, and iliac horns, the iliac horns being pathognomonic for the condition. The most well-documented extra-skeletal manifestation is renal involvement with alteration in Type III collagen. No documented cases of NPS with anomalous coronary arteries or aneurysms, acute coronary occlusion, or successfully coronary interventions exist in the medical literature...

A 62-year-old woman who had undergone mitral valve replacement 24 years ago was admitted to the hospital with congestive heart failure. She needed heart transplantation for stage D heart failure. Preoperative cardiac computed tomographic scans showed a severely calcified left atrium and a large right atrium. Given that the left atrium's calcification was too severe to suture, the calcified left atrial wall was broadly resected, and the resected left atrial wall was reconstructed with a bovine pericardial patch for anastomosis with the donor's left atrial wall...

There is an expanding body of evidence showing that synthetic peptides in combination with radioactive isotopes can be utilized for medical purposes. This area is of particular interest in oncology where applications in diagnosis and therapy are at different stages of development. We review the contributions in this area by the group originally founded by Carlo Pedone in Naples many years ago. We highlight the work of this group in the context of other developments in this area, focusing on three biologically relevant receptor systems: somatostatin, gastrin-releasing peptide, and cholecystokinin-2/gastrin receptors...

BACKGROUND: Arteriovenous fistulas involving the anterior abdominal wall can result from trauma. Such fistulas may remain asymptomatic and undetected for a prolonged duration of time. They tend to recruit multiple arterial feeders with remodelling in the feeding arteries, making them challenging to treat. CASE PRESENTATION: We discuss a rare case of a 60-year-old male who presented with complaints of a progressive painless swelling in right lower abdomen. There was a history of blunt injury to abdomen at the same site during alleged road traffic accident 3 years ago...

Tattooing has been part of the human culture for thousands of years, yet only in the past decades has it entered the mainstream of the society. With the rise in popularity, tattoos also gained attention among researchers, with the aim to better understand the health risks posed by their application. 'A medical-toxicological view of tattooing'-a work published in The Lancet almost a decade ago, resulted from the international collaboration of various experts in the field. Since then, much understanding has been achieved regarding adverse effects, treatment of complications, as well as their regulation for improving public health...

The aim of this study was to investigate the practical outcomes of traditional Chinese medicine specialty nursing clinics in the clinical setting. Outpatient services have become increasingly popular for seeking medical care. Establishing traditional Chinese medicine specialty nursing clinics can meet the medical needs of the general public, and provide patients with convenient and efficient medical services. This study employed a retrospective cross-sectional observational design to analyze the medical service status of all patients who attended the clinic since its opening...

Avascular necrosis (AVN), also called osteonecrosis, stems from blood supply interruption to the bone and is often idiopathic. It has risk factors like trauma, alcohol, and corticosteroids. AVN in the talus (AVNT) is less common than in the femoral head. Most cases of talar osteonecrosis are associated with trauma, while a smaller proportion is linked to systemic conditions such as sickle cell disease or prolonged prednisone use. Glucocorticoids are a key nontraumatic cause. We report a middle-aged woman with Cushing's syndrome symptoms, such as hypertension and moon face, since her youth...

Vasoactive intestinal peptide-producing tumor of the pancreas (VIPoma) is one of the rarer subtypes of neuroendocrine tumor (NET) of the pancreas. It usually represents intractable diarrhea, weight loss, and electrolyte abnormalities secondary to diarrhea. The most common site of metastasis of VIPoma is the liver. Furthermore, lymph node metastasis (LNM) is rare, and no metachronous LNM with a resectable situation has been reported before. A 60-year-old male patient (height: 181 cm, body weight: 74 kg) with a history of operated pancreatic VIPoma three years ago was referred to our department due to the detection of lymphadenomegaly which was suggestive of lymph node metastasis by routine follow-up computed tomography (CT)...

Trastuzumab is the first-line therapy for human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2)-positive breast cancer. However, trastuzumab is associated with cardiotoxicity. It manifests with an asymptomatic reduction of left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) and is reversible after discontinuation. Trastuzumab-induced new-onset acute decompensated heart failure is rare (0.5%). We report a case of a 54-year-old woman who received anthracycline (idarubicin, accumulated dose 400 mg/m2 doxorubicin equivalent) for her acute promyelocytic leukocyte 10 years ago, had no relevant comorbidities or other pre-existing cardiovascular diseases, had maintained normal cardiac function, presenting with new-onset dyspnea at rest and bilateral lower extremities swelling 12 weeks after receiving trastuzumab induction chemotherapy for her newly diagnosed early stage HER2-positive breast cancer...

STUDY DESIGN: Retrospective study. OBJECTIVE: The objective is to report the clinical data for patients treated with mobile spine chondrosarcoma. SUMMARY OF BACKGROUND DATA: Chondrosarcoma of the mobile spine is a rare and challenging entity. A handful of case series have been published that report the clinical results of treatment, largely influenced by chondrosarcoma of the appendicular skeleton and pelvis. The clinical results of patients treated for chondrosarcoma of the mobile spine from our institution were published over ten years ago and this represents and update since that publication...

In UniProtKB, up to date, there are more than 251 million proteins deposited. However, only 0.25% have been annotated with one of the more than 15000 possible Pfam family domains. The current annotation protocol integrates knowledge from manually curated family domains, obtained using sequence alignments and hidden Markov models. This approach has been successful for automatically growing the Pfam annotations, however at a low rate in comparison to protein discovery. Just a few years ago, deep learning models were proposed for automatic Pfam annotation...

Tuberculosis (TB) affects more than 10 million people each year. We have contested this burden with a paradoxically slow development of treatments, as compared to other infectious diseases. This review aims to update health care professionals on the last developments for the management of TB. The combination of drugs established more than 40years ago is still adequate to cure most people affected by TB. However, with the generalisation of regimens based on rifampicin and isoniazid for (only) 6months, resistance emerged...