Introduction: Mixed adenoneuroendocrine carcinoma (MANEC) is a tumor of the gastrointestinal tract that contains both exocrine and endocrine components, with each component representing a minimum of 30% of the total tumor mass.

Seminal fluid proteins (SFPs) play vital roles for optimizing reproductive success in diverse animals. Underlining their significance, SFP production and transfer are highly plastic, e.g., depending on the presence of rivals or mating status of partners. However, surprisingly little is known about replenishing SFPs after mating. It is especially relevant in multiple mating species, as they would continuously produce and use SPFs throughout their reproductive life. Here we examined the expression pattern of SFP genes after mating in the great pond snail, Lymnaea stagnalis. Our results show that only two of the six SFP genes investigated here were up-regulated after mating, indicating that L. stagnalis replenishes seminal fluid in a protein-specific manner. In addition, we suggest that SFP replenishment is plastic depending on the mating history of female-acting snails. Our results shed light on unexplored aspects of SFP replenishment, thereby expanding the understanding of reproductive strategies in animals.

Central nervous system (CNS) portrays appreciable complexity in developing from a neural tube to controlling major functions of the body and orchestrated co-ordination in maintaining its homeostasis. Any insult or pathology to such an organized tissue leads to a plethora of events ranging from local hypoxia, ischemia, oxidative stress to reactive gliosis and scarring. Despite unravelling the pathophysiology of spinal cord injury (SCI) and linked cellular and molecular mechanism, the over exhaustive inflammatory response at the site of injury, limited intrinsic regeneration capability of CNS, and the dual role of glial scar halts the expected accomplishment. The review discusses major current treatment approaches for traumatic SCI, addressing their limitation and scope for further development in the field under three main categories- neuroprotection, neuro-regeneration, and neuroplasticity. We further propose that a multi-disciplinary combinatorial treatment approach exploring any two or all three heads simultaneously could alleviate the inhibitory milieu and ameliorate functional recovery.

Recently, a bacterium strain of Ideonella sakaiensis was identified with the uncommon ability to degrade the poly(ethylene terephthalate) (PET). The PETase from I. sakaiensis strain 201-F6 catalyzes the hydrolysis of PET converting it to mono(2-hydroxyethyl) terephthalic acid (MHET), bis(2-hydroxyethyl)-TPA (BHET), and terephthalic acid (TPA). Despite the potential of this enzyme for mitigation or elimination of environmental contaminants, one of the limitations of the use of PETase for PET degradation is the fact that it acts only at moderate temperature due to its low thermal stability. Besides, molecular details of the main interaction of PET in the active site of PETase remains unclear. Herein, molecular docking and molecular dynamics (MD) simulations were applied to analyze structural changes of PETase induced by PET binding. Results from the essential dynamics revealed that β1-β2 connecting loop is very flexible. This Loop is located far from the active site of PETase and we suggest that it can be considered for mutagenesis in order to increase the thermal stability of PETase. The free energy landscape (FEL) demonstrates that the main change in the transition between the unbounded to the bounded state is associated with β7-α5 connecting loop, where the catalytic residue Asp206 is located. Overall, the present study provides insights into the molecular binding mechanism of PET into the PETase structure and a computational strategy for mapping flexible regions of this enzyme, which can be useful for the engineering of more efficient enzymes for recycling the plastic polymers using biological systems.

Because of the high social impact of Food allergy, it is of great importance to correctly diagnose this disease using reliable tests. Knowledge of the allergenicity properties of proteins, how they react in the body and in diagnostic tests is necessary to adequately assess the potential immunogenicity of both natural foods and those produced through biotechnological processes. Thus, our aim was to analyze the factors that influence the protein extraction of foods in terms of, immunogenicity and immunoassays sensitivity. Peanut proteins were extracted using four distinct extraction buffers (physiological saline, tris buffer, borate buffer with and without β-mercaptoethanol), the protein concentration was determined by the Lowry method and polyacrylamide electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE) was used to compare the protein profile of each extract. The immunogenicity of each extract was verified by sensitizing two mouse strains (Balb/c and C57/BL6) with solution containing 100μg of the extracted proteins and determined by ELISA. Results show that extraction with the distinct buffers resulted in protein solutions with different yields and profiles. The immunogenicity of the different extracts also demonstrated distinct patterns that varied depending on the extraction methods, mouse strain and in-vitro test. Immunoreactivity varied in accordance to the protein extract used to coat the microtitration plates. In conclusion, the protein profile in the extracts is critically influenced by the salt composition and pH of the extraction buffers, this in turn influences both in vivo immunogenicity and in vitro immunoreactivity.

Summary Myelin oligodendrocyte glycoprotein antibody associated disorders (MOGAD) are rare in both children and adults, and have been recently suggested to be an autoimmune neuroinflammatory group of disorders that are different from aquaporin-4 autoantibody associated neuromyelitis optica spectrum disorder and from classic multiple sclerosis. In vivo imaging of the MOGAD patient central nervous system has shown some distinguishing features when evaluating magnetic resonance imaging of the brain, spinal cord, optic nerves, as well as retinal imaging using optical coherence tomography. In this review, we discuss key clinical and imaging characteristics of paediatric and adult MOGAD. We describe how these imaging techniques may be used to study this group of disorders and discuss how these imaging methods have led to recent insights for consideration in future studies.

The meta-analysis by Di Tommaso et al demonstrated as elderly patients with mitral regurgitation (MR) undergoing mitral valve repair (MVr) had lower short-term mortality and higher long-term survival with respect to patients undergoing mitral valve replacement (MVR). The benefit of repair is such, that initial surgical strategy is advisable in the elderly even in case of mild symptoms if compared with conservative management. However, even if repair can be performed in presence of some specific etiologies, as degenerative MR or secondary MR, there are always cases where a replacement can be an acceptable solution compared to a repair with uncertain future, regardless of our believes and our technical ability. In this subset of patients, the literature does not show any improvement in outcome of transcatheter mitral repair. Mitral valve repair has to be always done, but look at the etiologies and to the consequences that what is done today can cause tomorrow.

In recent years, hydrological drought has become more and more frequent, which has caused serious ecological and environmental problems. This paper is taking Guizhou province of China as an example to analyze the geomorphologic distribution and temporal-spatial evolution of hydrological droughts, and to study driving mechanisms of both the rainfall in drought periods and geomorphologic factors on the hydrological droughts, based on the hydrometeorological data from the 2000 to 2010, and the TM and DEM data. The results show that (1) the rainfall and its temporal-spatial distribution have less impacts on the hydrological droughts and its temporal-spatial distribution, showing the obvious phase characteristics, and the regional hydrological droughts are more serious in the south than in the north, and the less serious in the east than in the west; and (3) in terms of the overall distribution of landform types, the mountain, hill and basin have less impacts on hydrological droughts; in terms of the distribution of single geomorphic type, hydrological droughts are significantly influenced by the high-medium mountain, deep-high hill and high basin, where the hydrological droughts are relatively lighter. While there are more serious areas in the low basin, shallow-low hill and low mountain.

Background: Globally, the incidence of allergic diseases is increasing along with cesarean delivery rates. Data regarding the association between cesarean delivery and allergic diseases are inconsistent. Here, we aimed to clarify the association between cesarean delivery and the development of asthma, atopic dermatitis, wheezing, and eczema. Methods: We used data from the Japan Environment and Children’s Study. The data included were those of 104,065 fetal records and their children. Information about the mode of delivery, asthma, atopic dermatitis, wheezing, and eczema was obtained from questionnaires and medical record transcripts. Multiple logistic regression analysis was used to assess the association between cesarean delivery and asthma, atopic dermatitis, wheezing, and eczema risk among infants at 1 year of age. Results: We included 74,639 subjects in this study, wherein 18.4% underwent cesarean deliveries. After adjusting for the perinatal, socioeconomic, and postnatal confounding factors, children born by cesarean delivery had no increased risk of developing asthma [95% confidence interval (CI) 0.84–1.08], atopic dermatitis (95% CI, 0.92–1.13), wheezing (95% CI, 0.94–1.04), or eczema (95% CI, 0.94–1.05). Conclusions: This nationwide cohort study found no association between cesarean delivery and asthma, atopic dermatitis, wheezing, and eczema among infants at 1 year of age. However, further studies are needed to evaluate whether cesarean delivery plays a role in the development of allergic diseases.

High-frequency chemical measurements in streamwater give detailed information on the different hydrochemical processes occurring in the catchment. They can provide clues about the end-members (water sources) whose mixing produces the ionic stream concentrations observed. To identify and quantify the end-members and their respective contribution to streamwater chemistry, we developed a new methodology, termed “IQEA” (Identification and Quantification of End-members and their Apportionment). It consists in the resolution by a minimization process of an objective function based on downstream high-frequency chemical data and the size of the shape of a pre-defined fixed number of three end-members. We applied the IQEA method on the high-frequency concentration dataset of nitrates and calcium from the ORACLE-Orgeval Observatory in France. The results were compared with field data obtained from various potential end-members. The IQEA methodology yielded robust and very satisfactory results, apart from an exceptional flood event that occurred during the 2 years of measurements used in this study. While the IQEA model treats concentration and discharge datasets independently, its results show a strong relationship between the dominant end-member computed and the hydrological features.

Uterus transplantation (UTx) is fast evolving from an experimental to a clinical procedure, combining solid organ transplantation with assisted reproductive technology. The commencement of the first human uterus transplant trial in the UK leads us to examine and reflect upon the legal and regulatory aspects closely intertwined with UTx from the process of donation to potential implications on fertility treatment and the birth of the resultant child. As the world’s first ephemeral transplant, the possibility of organ restitution requires consideration and is discussed herein. Public funding of fertility treatments pertaining to UTx remains variable and warrants review.

Clear-cutting means forest removing (stem only) and is the most common type of forest harvesting but undoubtedly has a negative impact on the C budget in soils. This work aimed to describe responses of soil organic matter in the forest soils to forest removing under temperate climate conditions of lowland and mountain regions in south-western Poland. Using advanced instrumental analysis, like EPR, 1H NMR and FT-IR spectroscopy it has been found that clear-cutting, alters C cycling and accelerates decomposition in the forest floor leading to loss of humic fractions in the investigated soils. In the mountain forests the more labile, low-molecular fulvic fraction decreased as the effect of harvesting practice. The transformation of organic matter after clear-cutting resulted in the loss of less humified organic matter containing humic substances of less polymerised molecules. Analysis of the semiquinone radical structures and concentrations showed a decrease in radical concentration observed for HA from mountain clear-cut areas compare to the undisturbed forest. Results presented in this paper have proved less aliphatic character of humic acid molecules from the lowlands, compared to the mountain forest as the effect of clear-cutting. Harvesting practices in mountain regions should be approached with particular care due to the risk of erosion of exposed surfaces and soils containing less humified and less stable organic matter than in the lowlands. Humic fractions of higher solubility, less stability and tendency to migrate through the soil profile may favour the leaching of nutrients and consequently cause the eutrophication of waters.

Epigenetics is an emerging field, due to its relevance in the regulation of a wide range of biological processes. The Su(Var)3-9, Enhancer-of-zeste and Trithorax (SET) and Myeloid, Nervy, and DEAF-1 (MYND) domain-containing (SMYD) proteins, named SMYD1, SMYD2, SMYD3, SMYD4 and SMYD5, are enzymes that catalyse methylation of histone and non-histone substrates, thereby playing a key role in gene expression regulation in many biological contexts, such as muscle development and physiology, haematopoiesis and many types of cancer. This review focuses on a relatively unexplored aspect of SMYD family members - their relation with immunology. Here, immunology is defined in the broadest sense of the word, including basic research on macrophage function or host immunity against pathogen infection, as well as clinical studies, most of which are centred on blood cancers.

Solving numerically a non-Born-Oppenheimer time-dependent Schrödinger equation to study the dissociative-ionization of H2 subjected to strong field six-cycle laser pulses (I = 4 × 1014 W/cm2, λ = 800 nm) leads to newly ultrafast images of electron dynamics in H2+. The electron distribution in H2+ oscillates symmetrically with laser cycle with θ + π periodicity and gets trapped between two protons for about 8 fs by a Coulomb potential well. Nonetheless, this electron symmetrical distribution breaks up for the H2+ internuclear separation larger than 9 a.u. in the field-free region at a time duration of 24 fs as a result of the distortion of Coulomb potential where the ejected electron preferentially localizes in one of the double-well potential separated by the inner Coulomb potential barrier. Moreover, controlling laser carrier-envelope phase θ enables one to generate the highest total asymmetry Aetot of 0.75 and -0.75 at 10○ and 190○, respectively, associated with the electron preferential directionality being ionized to the left or the right paths along the H2+ molecular axis. Thus the laser-controlled electron slightly reorganizes its position accordingly to track the shift in the position of the protons despite much heavier the proton’s mass.

57-year-old man presented with a 3-month history of fatigue, fever and increasing abdominal pain.He had completed treatment for follicular lymphoma and JAK2 positive myeloproliferative disorder 2 months previously. This case demonstrates therapeutic and diagnostic rationale for open splenectomy in, to our knowledge, one of the largest recorded spleens

We described a minimally invasive technique for transoral removal of deep hiloparenchymal submandibular stones by Flex Robotic System; a step-by-step description of the transoral robotic approach to submandibular gland through a discrete incision of the oral floor is narrated. This approach guaranteed the preservation of the gland, minimizing complications.

La disponibilità e qualità delle risorse costituiscono condizione essenziale per il sostentamento di tutte le forme di vita animale e vegetale, secondo un complesso sistema di equilibri tra produzione, utilizzazione e accumulo. L’uomo ha fondato il proprio sviluppo socio – economico sulla disponibilità e qualità delle risorse naturali, accrescendo in modo eccezionale la capacità di utilizzarle e modificarle in tempi molto brevi, specie se confrontati con i tempi di crescita delle risorse naturali. Da ciò consegue il rischio di provocare una significativa riduzione della disponibilità. Tale problematica, riguarda soprattutto la principale risorsa che l’uomo ha avuto per prima a disposizione, sin dalla sua nascita, ossia l’acqua. È necessario, pertanto, individuare sistemi che possano permettere il riutilizzo di tale risorsa in una forma che non possa nuocere alla salute dell’uomo. È per tale motivo che assume particolare importanza il tema della disinfezione delle acque, attraverso metodologie convenzionali, ma ancor di più, attraverso metodologie avanzate e innovative, le quali, oltre ad essere estremamente efficaci per la disinfezione delle acque, sono anche molto efficienti sotto l’aspetto dell’inquinamento, che negli ultimi tempi sta acquistando sempre più importanza.

Pacemakers are implanted through the subclavian vein to the right side of the heart. In rare cases, pacemakers may be inserted into the left ventricle via the subclavian artery, carrying a risk of thromboembolism. This is a case of a pacemaker inserted via the subclavian artery into the left ventricle.

Trans-radial approach (TRA) is nowdays a more common approach during percutaneous coronary angiography and intervention. Catheter knot is rare but still a matter of concern for a catheterizing cardiologist. Hence, we describe our case of catheter unknotting using balloon internal fixation of angiography catheter.

Parkinson’s disease (PD) is a highly common neurological disease affecting a large population worldwide. Several studies revealed that the degradation of voice is one of its initial symptoms, which is also known as dysarthria. In this work, we attempt to explore and harness the correlation between various features in the voice samples observed in PD subjects. To do so, a novel two-level ensemble-based feature selection method has been proposed, whose results were combined with an MLP based classifier using K-fold cross-validation as the re-sampling strategy. Three separate benchmark datasets of voice samples were used for the experimentation work. Results strongly suggest that the proposed feature selection framework helps in identifying an optimal set of features which further helps in highly accurate identification of PD patients using a Multi-Layer Perceptron from their voice samples. The proposed model achieves an overall accuracy of 98.3%, 95.1% and 100% on the three selected datasets respectively. These results are significantly better than those achieved by a non-feature selection based option, and even the recently proposed chi-square based feature selection option.

The studies of climatic-niche shifts over evolutionary time accompanied by key morphological innovations have attracted the interest of many researchers recently. We analyzed the realized niche dynamics across clades within Scutiger boulengeri using ecological niche models (ENMs), ordination method (environment principal component analysis; PCA-env), and correspondingly key morphological innovations combined phylogenetic comparative methods (PCMs) and phylogenetic generalized least squares (PGLS) regression methods throughout their distributions in Qinghai-Tibet Plateau (QTP) margins of China in Asia. Our analyses reveal that there is obvious niche divergence caused by niche expansion across S. boulengeri clades, especially in E. A, E. B and partial of E. C clades. Moreover, niche expansion is more popular than niche unfilling into novel environmental conditions. Annual mean temperature and Annual precipitation are the most important contributors in E. A and E. B clades, while Precipitation of driest month is most likely to be the leading limited factor in these two regions according to jackknife test of variable importance. In addition, we identified several key ecological and morphological traits that tend to be associated with niche expansion in S. boulengeri clades correspondingly. Specifically, we found that Elevation, Isothermality, Mean diurnal range and Max temperature of warmest month are significantly negative predictors of snout–vent length (SVL) under phylogenetic models, while the S. boulengeri toads from warmer and more arid environments tend to be larger. There seems to a trade-off strategy by trait covary of locomotor performance combined with enlarged SVL, which provide us a potential pattern of how a colonizing toad might seed a novel habit to begin the process of speciation and finally adaptive radiation. It is worth noting that we should not overlook that the Tibet continuously growing and moving northward over millions of years has laid the foundation for early divergence of clades within S. boulengeri.

A systematic review of case reports was conducted by searching PubMed, Scopus, and Google scholar to identify case reports in which there is an association between Myasthenia Gravis (MG) and Myeloproliferative Neoplasms (MPNs) and know whether MG can be considered a possible neurological paraneoplastic syndrome in patients with MPNs.

Comment on: Virtual Reality, e-Learning, and Global Cardiac Surgical Capacity-Building

Woman admitted for COVID-19 respiratory failure requiring intubation, renal failure and rising bilirubin, requiring CVVHD. Due to dropping hemoglobin and platelets, TTP was suspected and empiric plasma exchange initiated. Platelets normalized; she improved; ADAMTS13 level resulted 50.7%, indicating possible benefit of plasma exchange for COVID19 thrombotic microangiopathy despite normal ADAMTS13.