Human rotavirus A (RVA) causes acute gastroenteritis in infants and young children. The LLR RVA vaccine, which licensed in 2000 and widely used in China, significantly reduced rotavirus disease burden in China. With the exchanges of RV circulating strains and the emergence of new genotypes, the LLR vaccine against RVGE needed to be upgraded. In this study, we aimed to establish an RG system for the RVA vaccine strain LLR (G10P[15]). Transfection with plasmids expressing 11 genomic RNA segments of LLR along with the pCMV/868CP helper plasmid, resulted in rescue of the infectious virus with an artificially introduced genetic marker on its genome, indicating that an RG system for the LLR strain was successfully established. Furthermore, the plasmid‐based reverse genetics system was used to generate lamb RVA reassortants with VP4 and VP7 genes derived from human RVA strains in China, which were not previously adapted to cell culture. We were able to rescue the six VP7 (G1, G2, G3, G4, G8, and G9) mono‐reassortants, but no VP4 (P[4] or P[8]) mono‐reassortant was rescued. The six VP7 reassortants covered all G-genotypes currently circulating in China and stably replicated in MA104 cells, which should be exploited as the next generation rotavirus vaccines candidates in China. Furthermore, the LLR RG system in this study will be a useful vaccine vector for intestinal pathogens such as norovirus and Vibrio cholerae.

Individual trees in natural forests often exhibit complex, inconsistent, and variable growth trajectories influenced by genetics, climate change, and uneven stand structure. These growth divergences pose a challenge in predicting the overall growth trend of trees. Here, we propose a radius-driven metabolic growth model (IGMR) to examine the radial growth of trees, thereby addressing this problem on a global scale. The IGMR suggests that tree ring growth pattern is determined by tree maximum radius and total growth time and can vary over some predictable range. Our results show that the best radial growth trajectory (BGT) at the aggregate level follows the IGMR, and its half also constrains the overall growth trend. Further analysis shows that climate change and uneven stand structure may cause the overall growth trajectory to undergo more growth drifts (changes in growth rate only) than adaptations (changes in maximum size). These results not only extend metabolic growth theory, but also imply that climate change is more likely to affect forest maximum carbon sequestration through community shifts than through changes in tree growth.

In advanced processes, Single-Inductor Multiple-Output (SIMO) DC-DC converters with battery voltage as input face serious overvoltage problems due to low MOSFET withstand voltage. To meet the needs of SIMO converter design in advanced processes, this paper first proposes a SIMO converter with an adaptive power supply buffer (APSB) and voltage-limiting techniques in 22 nm CMOS. The proposed APSB technology ensures that the driving voltage of the power stage remains unchanged under the changing power supply, solving the breakdown problem caused by low MOSFET withstand voltage and simplifying the circuit design of the power stage. The proposed voltage-limiting techniques avoid the overvoltage of the internal circuit by special voltage-limiting design for the VX2 node and output voltage during startup and steady state. The proposed SIMO is designed and validated under a 22 nm CMOS process. The input power supply range is 2.8 V-5 V, and the three output voltages are 0.8 V, 1.1 V, and 1.8 V, respectively. The maximum load for each output voltage is 250 mA. The SIMO system achieves a peak efficiency of 92.2% over the full load range.

Genetic diversity is an important factor reflecting the resistance stability and resilience of species. The prevailing view in population genetics is that species attempt to adopt various strategies to avoid the harms of inbreeding. We speculate that sometimes individuals do not reject mating requests from relatives when choosing mates. Moose (Alces alces cameloides) in the Greater Khingan Mountains (GKM) of China is a first-class key protected species. It represents the southernmost distribution of moose globally and serves as a thermosensitive species of global significance. Based on the state of moose in China, we used a non-invasive sampling method to conduct a series of studies on genetic diversity and inbreeding. The mitochondrial and nuclear genetic diversity of moose in this area are at a moderately high level worldwide, with good individual genetic quality, a high level of overall genotype heterozygosity. The Bayesian gene flow level indicates gene exchange between local populations. Molecular pedigrees revealed instances where individuals mated with their offspring or even grandchildren. The correlation coefficients between moose mating pairs were significantly higher than those of random mating. Therefore, there is no evidence that individuals in the GKM avoid inbreeding, and under these circumstances, there has not been a negative impact on genetic diversity of the moose population, as well as the genetic quality and genotype heterozygosity of offspring. In the context of future climate change and human activities, we need to closely monitor the long-term impact of this mating choice on the survival of the GKM moose population and promptly develop corresponding conservation and management strategies.

We propose highly transparent (optical transmittance 92.7 % at 550 nm) single-layer bandpass filter operating in dual frequency bands of 26 and 38 GHz for 5G communication systems. The dual-band bandpass filter achieves not only high optical transparency but good electrical performance. The transmission performance of the filter is stable to the polarization and incidence angle of electromagnetic waves. As a proof of concept, we fabricate a filter with periodic square loops patterned on 188 μm-thick substrate, and each loop is realized with metallic mesh electrodes having a pitch of 10 μm. Measurements are conducted using two different measurement systems; a free-space measurement system and a vector network analyser-based material characterization kit. After calibrating the measurement system, the scattering parameters of the filter are measured. The measured results obtained using the two systems showed good agreement and also agree with the simulated ones. The designed filter has insertion loss of less than 3 dB in the dual passband region.

Correction to “Allergy to Theobroma Cacao ”Nin Valencia A, Retes LS, Bartolomé-Zavala B, Perdomo Gutiérrez G, Bigorra T. Allergy to Theobroma Cacao. Clin Case Rep. 2024 Jun 14;12(6):e8803 In the article entitled “Allergy to Theobroma Cacao” that was previously published in Volume 12 Issue 6 of Clinical Case Reports, an author’s name was incorrectly formatted in the citation. Lorena Soto Rates’ name should be formatted as Soto Retes L.We apologize for this error.

The insertion sequence IS200 is widely distributed in Eubacteria. Despite its wide-ranging occurrence, IS200 does not appear to be mobile and as such is considered an ancestral component of bacterial genomes. Previous work in Salmonella enterica revealed that the IS200 tnpA transcript is processed to form a small highly structured RNA ( 5’tnpA) that participates in the post-transcriptional control of invF expression, encoding a key transcription factor in this enteropathogen’s invasion regulon. To further examine the scope of 5’tnpA transcript integration into Salmonella gene expression networks, we performed comparative RNA-seq revealing the differential expression of over 200 genes in a Salmonella SL1344 5’tnpA disruption strain. This includes the genes for the master regulators of both invasion and flagellar regulons (HilD and FlhDC, respectively), plus genes involved in cysteine biosynthesis (cysteine regulon) and an operon ( phsABC) encoding a thiosulfate reductase complex. These expression changes were accompanied by an 80-fold increase in Salmonella invasion of HeLa cells. Likewise, a phsABC disruption strain was associated with an increased invasion specifically under anaerobic growth conditions. Based on these findings, we propose that early induction of invasion and motility regulons in the absence of 5’tnpA causes a metabolic stress resulting in cysteine limitation and activation of CysB, which turns down expression of the phsABC operon to increase the flux of thiosulfate in the media towards cysteine production. Taken together, this study provides a powerful new example of bacterial transposon domestication that is based not on the production of a regulatory protein, but of a transposon-derived small RNA.

Patients undergoing hemodialysis (HD) are at greater risk of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus infections requiring intravenous vancomycin. Close vancomycin therapeutic drug monitoring is warranted in HD patients as renal clearance is the primary elimination pathway. Clinically, population pharmacokinetics (popPK) model‐informed dosing is commonly used. This study aimed to perform an external evaluation of published vancomycin popPK models developed for adults undergoing high-flux intermittent HD, and to create a dosing nomogram derived from the best performing model. A literature review was conducted through PubMed and EMBASE to identify relevant popPK models. External dataset was collected retrospectively from patients of two healthcare centers in Quebec, Canada. Selected models were implemented in NONMEM (v7.5; ICON Development Solutions). Predictive performance was assessed through prediction and simulation-based diagnostics. Results analyses and graphical representations were then performed with Microsoft Excel (v16.69.1; Microsoft Office), R (v4.3.1; Posit Software) and R Studio (v1.4; Posit Software). A total of 2386 vancomycin concentrations were collected from 274 patients and 476 antibiotic courses. Four vancomycin popPK models were selected for evaluation. None of the models demonstrated overall satisfactory and clinically acceptable predictive performance. Nonetheless, Bae et al.’s model was the best performing with a MDPE of 16.25% and MDAPE of 34.66%. Different predictive performance was also observed for vancomycin concentrations from samples collected during and between HD sessions. All evaluated models presented poor overall predictive performance. Further studies are required, through existing popPK model parameters re-estimation or new model development, to adequately describe vancomycin pharmacokinetics for our high-flux intermittent HD patients’ cohort.

The rhizosphere bacterial community is mainly regulated by plant species and soil type. Nematodes, the most abundant fauna in the rhizosphere, may impact rhizosphere bacteria either via top-down (bacterivores) or bottom-up (herbivores and bacterivores) regulation. However, the complex trophic control of herbivorous and bacterivorous nematodes on the rhizosphere bacterial community remains largely unexplored. Here, we investigate the separate and combined influence of bacterivorous and herbivorous nematodes ( Poikilolaimus oxycercus and Pratylenchus zeae) on the abundance, diversity and activity of the rhizosphere bacterial community of Italian ryegrass ( Lolium multiflorum), and whether root phenotypic plasticity mediates these effects. Our results show that both bacterivorous and herbivorous nematodes changed root traits, particularly root mass density and root C:N ratio, which in turn mediated their effect on rhizosphere chemistry (e.g. pH and DOC). Bacterivorous nematodes had both a direct negative effect on bacterial abundance, but they also exerted an indirect positive effect, by increasing root mass density and root C:N ratio, resulting in a negative overall effect. The presence of bacterivorous nematodes, either alone or in combination with herbivorous nematodes, led to different compositions of the rhizosphere bacterial community. Both root traits and rhizosphere chemistry contributed to explaining variations in bacterial community composition, with rhizosphere chemistry accounting for a larger portion of the variation, though the majority remained unexplained. We conclude that mass density and C:N ratio of the root system are key factors mediating the trophic control of bacterivorous and herbivorous nematodes on rhizosphere bacterial community, especially their abundance and activity. Given the high variation in bacterial community composition and the heterogenous nature of root systems, our results suggest the need for investigations at finer scales to understand the effects of root traits on rhizosphere bacterial community, and more generally how root plasticity mediates trophic interactions in the rhizosphere.

Plants are an intrinsic part of the soil community, which is comprised of a diverse range of organisms that interact in the rhizosphere through continuous molecular communications. The plant-microbe continuum forms a network of underground nutrient and information highways that benefit both plant and microbial communities, as well as ultimately serve as a significant sink for atmospheric CO 2. The molecular dialogue at the rhizosphere interface is crucial not only for plants to discriminate between harmful, benign, and beneficial microorganisms but also to actively participate in crop productivity and resilience to environmental stresses. Although many facets of the chemistry of inter-organism communication remain to be discovered, and the molecular mechanisms that underly hormone-regulated symbiosis are largely unexplored, biological fertilization is an attractive tool for the sustainable production of high-value crops. Here, we discuss our increasing knowledge of the chemical repertoire that underpins plant-microbe communication and host-range specificity, highlighting how the regulated production of reactive oxygen species (ROS) is used in inter-organism communication between plants and microbes and within the communities that shape the soil microbiome.

Objective: There are various personality assessments used in mental health. Author (2014) developed and validated the Personality Spectrum Analysis (PSA) to create a reliable, simple, and generalizable instrument. This study aimed to verify the factor structure of the SOLACE Spectrum, an instrument developed from the revisions of the PSA. Method: A study was conducted using an online test administered to 1,021 adults. A factor analysis was used to group personality traits. Results: Six components or personality types were identified and labeled Stability, Optimism, Leadership, Achievement, Compassion, and Extroversion. The results indicated that the SOLACE Spectrum provides reliable results (.91 reliability coefficient) over time (test-retest reliability from .851 to .922) and accurately identifies personality types. Conclusions: By understanding our personality traits, we can focus on our strengths and seek help in those areas that are more challenging for us. In addition, when we understand others’ personality types, we can improve interactions in our relationships with family, friends, peers, and co-workers. Clinicians can use this information to help address self-esteem issues, marriage and family concerns, and workplace and career matters.

Objective: This study aims to investigate the correlation between changes in Bone Mineral Density (BMD) in postmenopausal women and circulating inflammatory markers. Methods: This retrospective study focused on postmenopausal women admitted to the orthopedic department of Suzhou Benq Medical Center from June 2022 to December 2023, following predetermined inclusion and exclusion criteria. We retrospectively collected data on initial blood routine test results and bone density measurements for all study subjects upon admission, including parameters such as White Blood Cell count (WBC), C-reactive protein (CRP), Interleukin-6 (IL-6), and Procalcitonin (PCT). Additionally, the Systemic Immune-inflammation Index (SII) was calculated using Neutrophil Count, Lymphocyte Count, and Platelet Count. Statistical analyses using SPSS and GraphPad software were performed to assess the correlation between bone density and inflammatory markers. Results: Patients were classified into three groups based on BMD results, including 60 individuals in the Osteoporosis (OP) group, 127 individuals in the Osteopenia (ON) group, and 37 individuals in the Normal (NO) group, respectively. Principal Component Analysis (PCA) analysis suggested that WBC, SII, and PMOP held significant feature values. Correlation analysis indicated a correlation between WBC (P=0.021), IL-6 (P=0.044), SII (P=0.034), and PMOP. One-way ANOVA analysis revealed significant differences in IL-6 (P=0.0179), SII (P=0.0210), and PCT (P=0.0200) among the three groups. Finally, ROC curve analysis demonstrated that SII (area under the curve = 0.716) has predictive value for PMOP. Conclusion: This study identified a certain predictive value for PMOP through the assessment of inflammatory markers in peripheral blood using routine blood tests.

Aim: Current literature lacks clear recommendations for the clinical management of pregnancies in which fathers are exposed to methotrexate prior and during conception. This highlights the need to expand the evidence regarding the fetal safety of paternal methotrexate exposure. Objective of this meta-analysis was to explore whether there is an association between major congenital malformations and other adverse pregnancy outcomes following paternal methotrexate exposure through a systematic review and meta-analysis. Methods: PubMed, Web of Science, and Reprotox databases were searched through December 2023. Cohort and case-control studies with paternal exposure to methotrexate were included. Results: The primary outcome of interest was the major congenital malformations following paternal methotrexate exposure during preconception and at conception. Secondary outcomes were the occurrence of cardiac malformations, spontaneous abortion, live birth, elective terminations, stillbirth, and preterm birth. Among the outcomes, only major congenital malformations, stillbirth, and preterm birth were eligible for quantitative analysis. No significant increases in the risk of major congenital malformations (aOR 1.00; [%95CI 0.62, 1.61]) (I2=%0, P=0.81), stillbirth (OR 0.85; [95%CI 0.11, 6.45]) (I2=%0, P=0.65) or preterm birth(OR 0.95; [%95CI 0.59, 1.53]) (I2=%26, P=0.26) were observed following paternal methotrexate exposure. Conclusion: These findings indicate that paternal methotrexate exposure does not significantly increase the risk of major congenital malformations, stillbirth, preterm birth. In addition, it was not ssociated with consistent or repetitive pattern of malformations. These findings suggest reassurance following paternal methotrexate exposure.

Post-translational modifications (PTMs) are of significant interest in molecular biomedicine due to their crucial role in signal transduction across various cellular and organismal processes. Characterizing PTMs, distinguishing between functional and inert modifications, quantifying their occupancies, and understanding PTM crosstalk are challenging tasks in any biosystem. Studying each PTM often requires a specific, labor-intensive experimental design. Here, we present a PTM-centric proteome informatic pipeline for predicting relevant PTMs in mass spectrometry-based proteomics data without prior information. Once predicted, these in silico identified PTMs can be incorporated into a refined database search and compared to measured data. As a practical application, we demonstrate how this pipeline can be used to study glycoproteomics in oral squamous cell carcinoma based on the proteome profile of primary tumors. Subsequently, we experimentally identified cellular proteins that are differentially expressed in cells treated with multikinase inhibitors dasatinib and staurosporine using mass spectrometry-based proteomics. Computational enrichment analysis was then employed to determine the potential PTMs of differentially expressed proteins induced by both drugs. Finally, we conducted an additional round of database search with the predicted PTMs. Our pipeline successfully analyzed the enriched PTMs and detected proteins not identified in the initial search. Our findings support the effectiveness of PTM-centric searching of MS data in proteomics based on computational enrichment analysis, and we propose integrating this approach into future proteomics search engines.

The failure to regulate one’s own emotions, that is Emotional Dysregulation (ED), has become a diagnostic challenge in the last decades with a great heterogeneity of presentations, and has been recently considered a core dimension of psychopathology in youths in a transnosographic conceptualization. Peripheral indexes of functioning of the autonomic nervous system (ANS) activity emerged as reliable transdiagnostic biomarkers of psychopathology, since arousal has been frequently found to be dysregulated in individuals with ED. For these reasons, the present study aimed to identify the ANS functioning correlates of affective reactivity to emotionally salient videoclips in a stimulation protocol conducted on a clinical sample of youths. To this aim, 30 subjects (mean age: 13.93 ± 11.74) were recruited and presented with videoclips showing emotional content (joy, fear, anger, sadness, and anger). Before (Baseline), during (Task) and after (Recovery) the registration, electrocardiogram and electrodermal activity were recorded using wearable technologies. Several indices related to the activation of sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous system were extracted. These indices were compared among the different phases and emotions and correlated with clinical measures. Results showed that some emotions are more able to elicit ANS response than other and that there is a correlation between physiological activation and clinical profile. The results of the present study help to elucidate the mechanisms of ED in psychopathology and can be useful to guide behavioral as well as pharmacological treatment.

Objective Fungal infection of the external auditory canal, otomycosis, is generally a resistant mycotic infection. We designed a prospective, randomized, controlled cohort study to analyse the treatment effect of ear canal lavage on otomycosis. Methods The clinical patients were divided into two groups: an irrigation group and an irrigation + local drug treatment control group. Results From January 2022 to December 2023, a total of 102 patients treated for otomycosis were enrolled, and 98 of the patients were followed up for three months. Twenty-two of the 98 patients (22.45%) had no or minor symptoms. Other common symptoms such as pruritus, pain, hearing impairment, etc., presented solely or in combination (Table 1). Our fungal culture results revealed that, in 83 patients (84.69%) the otomycotic pathogen was Aspergillus. In the lavage group, 48 (48/52, 92.30%) patients were cured with initial treatment after three months of follow-up, two (2/52, 3.85%) patients were cured after one month but were lost to follow-up after three months, and two (2/52, 3.85%) patients failed after initial treatment, received topical miconazole ointment treatment and were eventually cured. In the irrigation + local drug control group, 48 (48/50, 96.00%) subjects responded to initial treatment without recurrent disease after three months; 2 (2/50, 4.00%) subjects were lost to follow-up. According to Fisher’s exact test, there was no significant difference between the two groups (Table 3, P = 0.258). Conclusion Both ear canal rinses and local antifungal creams are effective, and sequential treatment via both methods is reasonable.

The selection of an appropriate virtual reference schema is pivotal in determining the outcomes of Event-Related Potential (ERP) studies, particularly within the widely utilized Talk/Listen ERP paradigm, which is employed to non-invasively explore the corollary discharge (CD) phenomenon in the speech-auditory system. This research centers on examining the effects of prevalent EEG reference schemas—Linked Mastoids (LM), Common Average Reference (CAR), and Reference Electrode Standardization Technique (REST)—through statistical analysis, Statistical Parametric Scalp Mapping (SPSM), and source localization techniques. Our ANOVA findings indicate significant main effects for both the reference and the experimental condition on the amplitude of N1 ERPs. Depending on the reference used, the polarity and amplitude of the N1 ERPs demonstrate systematic variations: LM is associated with pronounced frontocentral activity, whereas both CAR and REST exhibit patterns of frontocentral and occipitotemporal activity. The significance of SPSM results is confined to regions exhibiting prominent N1 activity for each reference schema. Source analysis provides corroborative evidence more aligned with the SPSM results for CAR than for REST or LM, suggesting that results under CAR are more objective and reliable. Therefore, the CAR reference is recommended for future studies involving Talk/Listen ERP paradigms.

Chronic wounds significantly burden healthcare systems worldwide, requiring novel strategies to ease their impact. Many physiological processes underlying wound healing are well studied but the role of mast cells is controversial. Mast cells are innate immune cells and play an essential role in barrier function by inducing inflammation to defend the host against chemical irritants, infections, etc. Many mast cell-derived mediators have proposed roles in wound healing; however, in vivo evidence using mouse models has produced conflicting results. Recently, studies involving more complex wound models such as infected wounds, diabetic wounds and wounds healing under psychological stress, suggest that mast cells play critical roles in these processes. This review briefly summarizes the existing literature regarding mast cells in normal wounds and potential reasons for the contradictory results. A focus will be placed on examining more recent work emerging in the last 5 years exploring mast cells in more complex systems of wound healing including infection, psychological stress and diabetes with a discussion of how these discoveries may inspire future work in the field.

Discussions centering around “the” optimal parenting style have been occurring since researchers have had interest in parent-child interactions. Similarly, the effects of parenting stress on children’s development have been researched widely. The relationships among parenting styles, parenting stress, and parents’ perceptions of their young children’s competencies have not received significant attention, however. As such, this study sought to understand these relationships in a sample of mothers and fathers with young children. This study collected self-report data from 84 mothers and 43 fathers regarding their parenting styles, parenting stress, and ratings of competencies displayed by their young children. Correlational and mediation regression analyses suggested that, for mothers’ reports, an authoritative parenting style was correlated negatively with parenting stress and parenting stress was correlated negatively with peer acceptance. Further, the findings of this study showed that the relationship between authoritative parenting styles and peer acceptance was mediated fully by parenting stress for mothers’ reports. Such mediational findings were not replicated for fathers’ reports. These results suggested the importance of parenting styles and parenting stress for young children’s development of competencies, especially from mothers’ perspective.

The challenges that the world may face in the near future are the growing population, climate change, and water scarcity. Finding solutions to these challenges must be taken into account. Among these solutions, one is the optimization of resource use, such as energy and water, and the preservation of the soil quality. Now, one can ask how such challenges can be addressed, in which sustainable agriculture can be the answer. Agricultural activities are greatly enhanced through the use of IoT devices. The GreenPi, smart irrigation system proposed and designed in this paper will support sustainable agriculture with effective use of water. GreenPi employs real-time, distributed fog and edge computing and LoRa technology for the scheduling of irrigation based on information from the sensors and weather condition. GreenPi is a four-tier model with the following layers: 1) sensors and actuators to collect data from the field and send commands to actuator nodes like valves or water pumps; 2) the edge layer takes in sensors’ data and sends commands to actuators using ESP32 with LoRa; 3) a fog layer that exploits Docker containers for running applications to manage data processing, irrigation decisions, and communication with cloud and edge devices; and 4) a cloud layer to provide weather data and facilitate further data analysis. GreenPi is examined in real-time by continuously transmitting temperature, humidity, and soil moisture data to the fog. The proposed solution, with enhanced methodologies and reduced latency, achieves satisfactory outcomes for smart farming and automated irrigation. A small farm model is designed to showcase the GreenPi system’s effectiveness, which results in significant water savings, enhanced moisture level stability, and efficient energy saving that ensures sustainable operation of the system when compared to traditional irrigation methods, with the traditionally irrigated portion consuming 11.5 liters while the smartly irrigated portion consumed 10.6 liters. This system holds promise for sustainable water and energy management practices in agriculture.

Population genetic data is often essential to inform conservation management. Understanding the distribution of genetic variants within and between populations can reveal novel insights into genetic connectivity and evolutionary processes. However, obtaining such data using invasive approaches such as tissue sampling may negatively affect the very species we are seeking to protect. Thus, interest in using non-invasive environmental DNA (eDNA) techniques for identifying genetic variation within target species populations has grown. Along with this interest comes the desire to expand the amount of population genetic information that can be obtained from eDNA to increasingly large fragments of the genome, such as entire mitogenomes. Here, we introduce an eDNA hybridisation capture approach to sequencing complete mitochondrial genomes of New Zealand fur seals (Arctocephalus forsteri) (Māori: kekeno) from marine water samples. We show that our approach can recover up to 99% of the fur seal mitogenome. Furthermore, we present a pipeline to extract haplotype diversity from such eDNA population genetic data. Haplotypic variation identified using this approach matches previously identified patterns of intraspecific genetic variation from fur seal tissue samples, suggesting that eDNA methods can accurately identify mitochondrial variation. Our study demonstrates that whole mitogenomes can be recovered using hybridisation capture enrichment of eDNA and indicates that eDNA may be a promising tool for population genetics. Within this context, we discuss some of the key challenges that must be overcome before the promise of eDNA can be fully realized.

Ticks are known as domestic animals’ foreign parasites. They are causing economic damage and momentous in transmitting pathogens to the livestock industry in the world including Iran. This study was designed to define the livestock ticks frequency by seasonal and climate variety in Tehran province. Totally, 1623 poultry and livestock including chickens, sheep, camels, cows, pigeons, and dogs which were infected with ticks were studied in 2019, of which 121 soft ticks and 685 hard ticks were collected. In the current study, 14 species of ticks were detected including Argas persicus, Argas reflexus, Boophilus annulatus, Hyalomma asiaticum, Hyalomma marginatum, Hyalomma dromedarii, Hyalomma anatolicum, Haemaphysalis sulcata, Ornithodoros lahorensis, Haemaphysalis erinacei, Haemaphysalis inermis, Hyalomma detritum Rhipicephalus bursa, and Rhipicephalus sanguineus. The highest frequency was related to R. sanguineus (36.97%), and the lowest frequency was related to B. annulatus (0.37%). The lowest frequency of ticks was related to B. annulatus (0.37%) and the highest one was related to R. sanguineus (36.97%). Furthermore, the species of A. persicus (11.53%) and Hy. marginatum (18.85%) had the highest frequency after R. sanguineus. In mountainous and plain climates, ticks distribution indicated that among 806 ticks, 44.78% and 55.21% of them belonged to the mountainous and plain regions, respectively. This study demonstrated significant abundance of Soft and Hard ticks’ and diversity of them in poultry or livestock in various regions of Tehran province.

To understand the phylogenetic relationships of Menyanthes and address the existing gap in the evolutionary study of embryological characteristics, we investigated and compared these characteristics with those of related taxa. Our objective was to deduce the evolutionary polarity of these characteristics. We analyzed the dicotyledonous type of anther wall, the development of an endothelium, and endosperm formation of the ab initio Cellular type. Our findings revealed that vascular bundles extending into the integument are an autapomorphy. When compared with the closely related taxon Nymphoides, Menyanthes share common embryological characteristics at the family level, except for three-celled pollen at shedding time. Primitive angiosperm Amborella exhibited tetra-sporangia, glandular tapetum, and other symplesiomorphic characters, while Menyanthes showed apomorphic characteristics such as simultaneous cytokinesis and endothelium development. Although previously classified as Campanulas, embryological characteristics of Menyanthaceae support its reclassification to Asterales in APG system IV. These findings indicate that Menyanthaceae is more primitive than Calyceraceae, Goodeniaceae, and Asteraceae within Asterales. Our study strongly supports the APG system IV classification based on both embryological and DNA data, providing new insights into the evolutionary history of Menyanthaceae

Background: Thymoma is a relatively rare type of thoracic solid tumor, and all thymomas subtypes are considered to have malignant potential. Timely diagnosis and appropriate interventions can effectively prevent this catastrophic event. Case presentation: In this case, we report a 56-year-old man with progressive dyspnea and chest tightness. An integrated imaging assessment combining echocardiography, computed tomography and magnetic resonance were performed. The multimodal imaging results revealed a large anterior mediastinal mass, companying with the pericardial effusion and right pleural effusion, and the tumor had already invaded the lungs, pleura, heart, blood vessels, and liver. Subsequently, an ultrasound-guided percutaneous biopsy of chest wall metastatic nodules was performed. The histological diagnosis showed the type B3 thymoma with multiple metastases (Masaoka stage IV b). Obviously, the patient had lost opportunity for surgery, thus, the chemotherapy and adjuvant therapy can only be selected. After a period of follow-up, the condition of this patient was stable and without recurrence. Conclusions: Multimodality imaging plays an essential role in confirming the primary diagnosis of invasive thymoma and guiding treatment decisions.