• Non-functional larynx (NFL) was found to affect 30.9 % of patients with locally advanced laryngeal cancer who underwent curative non-surgical laryngeal preservation treatment for stage III/IV disease • The key measures of NFL were long-term gastrostomy and tracheostomy dependence, functional laryngectomy and chronic aspiration. • Multivariate analyses identified current smoking to be associated with 6.8-fold increase in NFL • Patients with pre-treatment hemi-laryngeal fixation were 3.4 times more likely to experience locoregional recurrence.

Ecological knowledge is produced through hypothetico-deductive methods fueled by natural history observations. Nevertheless, the biologist-naturalist is becoming a rare species. The lack of incentive and financial investment to natural history related courses, as taxonomy, field biology, and organismal biology is constantly diminishing the graduation of ecologists with first-hand knowledge about nature. The interdependence between natural history and ecology science demands more student training in natural history while updating college curricula and teaching strategies to increase the number of graduates with significant field experiences.

The Ponto-Caspian Bloody-red mysid shrimp (Hemimysis anomala) was discovered in a large freshwater reservoir in the south-east of England in 2020 (Abberton reservoir, Essex, UK). The shrimp was discovered while carrying out aquatic invertebrate surveys across a range of permanent, semi-permanent and seasonal habitats between October and December 2020. The shrimp were found in semi-permanent lagoons adjacent to and connected to the main reservoir and in shallow water bays in the main reservoir. Surveys conducted in January 2021 along a reservoir wall also found the shrimp but no accurate abundance estimates were made. Surveys conducted across the same sites with increased effort in July 2021 did not find any individuals in lagoons, bays or off the reservoir wall in either shallow or deep shelves. The identity of the species was confirmed with high magnification inverted light microscopy due to the shape and setae distribution of the antennal scale and telson in addition to the characteristic bloody red colour of the shrimp pre-preservation. Previous introductions of this species to the UK have been identified before, but whether these propagules arrived from natural or anthropogenic introductions was not clear. Abberton reservoir has no public access for boating or recreational activities other than a small, restricted local angling group but is an internationally important site for migratory and overwintering waterfowl and waders. The migration routes of several waterfowl species for which Abberton is noted would mean that this new shrimp species is likely to have been introduced from either its native range or from its expanded non-native range in the UK or Netherlands by birds. It is not yet confirmed that this discovery represents a successful invasion of this species at Abberton and if it is, when it arrived or what effects it may be having on the food web of this site.

We report here a case of IMOS of the tibia shafts, diagnosed in a 53-year-old man. Medical history did not reveal a history of trauma or infection or familial bone disease and all other causes of osteosclerosis were excluded. The X-Rays showed extensive sclerotic intramedullary lesion of the tibia shafts

Severe Acute Respiratory Coronavirus Syndrome 2 (SARS-CoV-2) is a new human coronavirus family discovered during the highly communicable respiratory disease outbreak in Wuhan, China, in 2019. Various COVID-19 vaccines are up to 95% effective against symptomatic infections caused by the COVID-19. Whether people with PD or PS have an increased risk of COVID-19 and are associated with a higher risk of death is still uncertain. In this study, we report eleven cases of PD patients who died whitin 24 hours after vaccination with the Sinopharm. All patients were over 79 years old (84.64 ± 5.08). All patients were SARS-CoV2 PCR negative and took their first dose of the Sinopharm. All patients had a duration of more than 5 years with PD. All patients presented to the hospital less than 12 hours after vaccination. All patients died less than 24 hours after vaccination. In this study, All the patients were elderly and hypertension and diabetes were seen in 11 (100%) and 7 (63.6%) patients which could reinforce the hypothesis that older patients with PD should be vaccinated more cautiously and these patients should be discussed the vaccine with their physician especially in patients who have other comorbidities. Because our report was a case series study, we only identified patients, and the causality could not be assumed or proven.

How populations diverge into different lineages is a central issue in evolutionary biology. Despite the increasing evidence indicating that such divergences do not need geographic isolation, numerous phenotypic differentiations show a distributional correspondence. In addition, gene flow has been widely detected during and through such diverging processes. We used one widely distributed Aquilegia viridiflora complex as a model system to examine genomic differentiation and corresponding phenotypic variations along geographic gradients. Our phenotypic analyses of 90 individuals from 20 populations from northwest to northeast China identified two phenotypic groups along the geographic cline. All examined traits are distinct between them although a few intermediate individuals occur in their contacting regions. We further sequenced the genomes of the representative individuals of each population. However, we recovered four distinct genetic lineages based on both nuclear genomes and plastomes that were different from phenotypic differentiation. In particular, we recovered numerous genetic hybrids in the contact regions of four lineages. Gene flow is widespread and continuous between four lineages but much higher between contacting lineages than geographically isolated lineages. In addition, many genes with fast lineage-specific mutations were identified to be involved in local adaptation. Our results suggest that both geographic isolation and local selection exerted by the environment may together create geographic distributions of phenotypic variations as well as the underlying genomic divergences in numerous lineages.

Using the multipoles method, we formulate the problems of diffraction (both surge and heave) of water waves by a submerged prolate spheroidal body in deep water with an ice-cover, with the ice-cover being modelled as an elastic plate of very small thickness. It investigates the linear hydrodynamic diffraction problem by prolate spheroidal body and obtained the analytical solution for the associated boundary value problem. The structural model is a spheroidal with its polar axis greater than its equatorial diameter, subjected to the action of incident wave. The hydrodynamic forces (Surge and heave exciting forces) are obtained and depicted graphically against the wave number for various parameters and also the flexural rigidity of the ice-cover to show the effect of the presence of ice-cover on these quantities. When the flexural rigidity is taken to be zero, the numerical results for the forces for water with free surface are recovered.

Accumulating evidence for trade-offs involving metabolic traits has demonstrated their importance in evolution of organisms. Metabolic models with different level of complexity have already been considered when investigating mechanisms that explain various metabolic trade-offs. Here we provide a systematic review of modelling approaches that have been used to study and explain trade-offs between: (i) kinetic properties of individual enzymes, (ii) rates of metabolic reactions, (iii) rate and yield of metabolic pathways and networks, (iv) different metabolic objectives in single organisms and in metabolic communities, and (v) metabolic concentrations. In providing insights into mechanisms underlying these five types of metabolic trade-offs obtained from constraint-based metabolic modelling, we emphasize the relation of metabolic trade-offs to the classical black box Y-model that provides conceptual explanation for resource acquisition-allocation trade-offs. In addition, we identify several pressing concerns and offer a perspective for future research in the identification and manipulation of metabolic trade-offs by relying on the toolbox provided by constraint-based metabolic modelling for single organisms and microbial communities.

Trade-offs between traits arise and reflect constraints imposed by the environment and physicochemical laws. Trade-off situations are expected to be highly relevant for sessile plants, which have to respond to changes in the environment to ensure survival. Despite increasing interest in determining the genetic and molecular basis of plant trade-offs, there are still gaps and differences with respect to how trade-offs are defined, how they are measured, and how their genetic architecture is dissected. The first step to fill these gaps is to establish what is meant by trade-offs. In this review we provide a classification of the existing definitions of trade-offs according to: (1) the measures used for their quantification, (2) the dependence of trade-offs on environment, and (3) whether data based on which they are inferred are from a single individual across different environments or a population of individuals in single or multiple environments. We then compare the approaches for quantification of trade-offs based on phenotypic, between-individual, and genetic correlations, and stress the need for developing further quantification indices particularly for trade-offs between multiple traits. Lastly, we highlight the genetic mechanisms underpinning trade-offs and experimental designs that facilitate their discovery in plants, with focus on usage of natural variability. This review also offers a perspective for future research aimed at identification of plant trade-offs, dissection of their genetic architecture, and development of strategies to overcome trade-offs, with applications in crop breeding.

An 18-year-old man presented with the complaints of occasional headache and limb weakness associated with slurring of speech and purposeless laughing. Magnetic resonance imaging showed a diffuse altered signal intensity area involving the pons with asymmetrical expansion. The patient underwent surgical resection. Histology revealed WHO grade IV glioblastoma.

Graph theory has many applications in the chemistry and analysis of molecular structures and has grown popular. Topological descriptors are numeric numbers that contain chemical information and provide structural features of compounds relevant to the chemical approach. The most important components in topological indices are the physical-chemical properties of essential chemical substances. The molecular graph of 2D silicon-carbide structures is investigated in this paper. The scope of this paper is to determine the bond-breaking energy and the stability measure of silicon-carbides with topological indices.

A 63-year-old male patient of diabetic ketoacidosis and septic shock was started on norepinephrine infusion following which he developed bulla and subcutaneous tissue ischemia in the event of inadvertent extravasations of norepinephrine. The patient improved after management with mechanical debridement of necrosed tissue and regular dressing of the wound.

The Sombor indices, a new category of degree-based topological molecular descriptors, havebeen widely investigated due to their excellent chemical applicability. This paper aims to establishSombor indices distributions in random polygonal chain networks and to achieve expressions of theexpected values and variances. The expected values and variances of the Sombor indices for polyonino,pentachain, polyphenyl, and cyclooctane chains are obtained. Since the end connection of a randomchain network follows a binomial distribution, the Sombor indices of any chain network follow the normaldistribution when the number of polygons connected by the chain, indicated by n, approaches infinity.

In computational chemistry, numbers programming certain structural skin appearance of natural molecules and derivative from the parallel molecular graph are called the graph invariants or more frequently topological indices. Topological indices are numeric quantity that are derived from a molecular graph by mathematical calculations. In QSAR and QSPR study, topological indices are utilized to guess the bioactivity of chemical compounds. The Symmetric Division deg (SDD) is good estimate of total surface area for polychlorobiphenlys. In this paper we process the Symmetric Division deg index for Silicate, Oxide and Copper(II) Oxide network. We compare above network of Symmetric division deg index based on degree and neighbhourhood.

The multiple signal classification (MUSIC) method for direction-of-arrival (DOA) estimation is widely applied in practical scenarios. However, the MUSIC method with planar array requires two-dimensional (2D) on-grid spectrum searches, which would lead to the grid mismatch and high computational complexity. Therefore, a high precision fast DOA estimation method for planar array is proposed. In the proposed method, a two-stage grid search approach over the 2D spectrum is firstly applied to obtain a quick coarse estimation of DOA. Then the estimation of higher precision is achieved via a quadratic surface fitting method. Simulation results verified the effectiveness of the proposed method.

A document by Sara Zaidi, written on Authorea.

The CRISPR-Cas system of Prokaryotes is an adaptive immune defense mechanism to protect themselves from invading genetic elements (e.g. phages and plasmids). Studies that describe the genetic organization of these prokaryotic systems have mainly reported on the Enterobacteriaceae family (now reorganized within the order Enterobacteriales). For some genera, data on CRISPR-Cas systems remain poor, as in the case of Serratia (now part of the Yersiniaceae family) where data are limited to a few genomes of the species marcescens. This study describes the detection, in silico, of CRISPR loci in 146 Serratia complete genomes and 336 high-quality assemblies available for the species ficaria, fonticola, grimesii, inhibens, liquefaciens, marcescens, nematodiphila, odorifera, oryzae, plymuthica, proteomaculans, quinivorans, rubidaea, symbiotic, and ureilytica. Apart from subtypes I-E and I-F1, which had previously been identified in marcescens, we report that of I-C and the variants I-ES1, I-ES2 and I-F1S1. Analysis of the genomic contexts for CRISPR loci revealed mdtN-phnP as the region mostly shared (grimesii, inhibens, marcescens, nematodiphila, plymuthica, rubidaea, and Serratia sp.). Three new contexts detected in genomes of rubidaea and fonticola (puu genes-mnmA) and rubidaea (osmE-soxG and ampC-yebZ) were also found. Plasmid and/or phage origin of spacers was also established.

Purpose: Healthcare leadership within academic health centres is increasingly complex. To handle this increasing complexity, we need models to support emerging and practicing leaders within health systems. Method: Through stakeholder consultation this conceptual review sought to examine leadership constructs and how they intersect with current leadership practices in academic health centres. The goal was to develop a new model of healthcare leadership development. The authors used sequential iterative cycles of divergent and convergent thinking approaches to explore and synthesize various literature vantage points. Approaches used simulated personas and stories to test the model. Finally, the approach sought feedback from stakeholders (including healthcare leaders, medical educators, leadership developers) to offer refinements. Results: After five rounds of discussion and reformulation, the authors arrived at a new model for leadership development: theLEADS+ Development Model . During their stakeholder consultation stage, they garnered feedback from 29 out of 65 recruited individuals (44.6% response rate). More than a quarter of respondents served as a senior leader in a healthcare network or national society (27.5%, n=8). During the stakeholder consultation stage, participants were invited to indicate their endorsement for the new model using a 10-point scale (10=highest level of endorsement). There was a high level of endorsement: 7.93 (SD 1.7) out of 10. Conclusion: The LEADS+ Development Model is a new model to foster leadership development in academic health centers. In addition to describing leadership development trajectories, this model describes the various leadership and followership paradigms adopted by leaders within health systems.

Background and Purpose: Dysregulation of adult hippocampal neurogenesis is linked to major depressive disorder (MDD), with more than 300 million people diagnosed and worsened by the COVID-19 pandemic. Accumulating evidence for Neuropeptide Y (NPY) and galanin (GAL) interaction was shown in various limbic system regions at molecular-,cellular- and behavioral-specific levels. The purpose of the current work was to evaluate the proliferating role of GALR2 and Y1R agonists interaction upon intranasal infusion in the ventral hippocampus. Experimental approach: We studied their hippocampal proliferating actions using the proliferating cell nuclear antigen (PCNA) and the expression of of the brain-derived neurothrophic factor (BDNF). Moreover, we studied the formation of Y1R-GALR2 heteroreceptor complexes and analyzed morphological changes on hippocampal neuronal cells. Finally, the functional outcome of the NPY and GAL interaction on the ventral hippocampus was evaluated in the forced swimming test. Key Results: We demonstrated that the intranasal infusion of GALR2 and the Y1R agonists promotes cell proliferation in the DG of the ventral hippocampus and the induction of the neurotrophic factor BDNF. These effects were mediated by the increased formation of Y1R-GALR2 heteroreceptor complexes, which may mediate the neurites outgrowth observed on neuronal hippocampal cells. Importantly, BDNF action was found necessary for the antidepressant-like effects after GALR2 and the Y1R agonists intranasal administration. Conclusions & Implications: Our data may suggest the translational development of new heterobivalent agonist pharmacophores acting on Y1R–GALR2 heterocomplexes in the ventral hippocampus for the novel therapy of mayor depression disorder or depressive-affecting diseases.

A document by Alex Sagalovich, written on Authorea.

Carex heterostachya (CH) and Carex breviculmis (CB) are easy to develop lawns in a short period and exhibit high ornamental value in northwest China. So, what type of plant functional traits has they formed for long-term survival and adaptation to this environment, which plant is more adaptable, as well as which leaf functional traits are critical to photosynthetic characteristics. The result of this study suggests that (1) CB is a slow investment-return plant with strong environmental adaptability and plasticity in long-term shaded environments. It is characterized by its weak photosynthetic capacity, smaller specific leaf area, low CO2 compensation point, high water utilization rate, high maximum carboxylation rate, as well as dark breathing rate. Moreover, it also has a thick cuticle, and epidermal cells make CB resistant to drought and barrenness. (2) CH is a quick investment-return plant, which is characterized by its higher photosynthetic rate, transpiration rate, stomatal conductance, as well as larger specific leaf area. With the increase of the temperature and photosynthetically active radiation, CH maintains high photosynthetic capacity by decreasing the transpiration rate and increasing the utilization rate of light energy. Its conducting tissue is well developed. CH have lower light saturation points and light compensation points, and CH was more shade-tolerant than CB. (3) Carex have strong environmental adaptability, large variation in leaf structure traits, as well as strong plasticity. Leaf anatomical characters are stable, whereas there are differences in the interspecific variability and plasticity. (4) Specific leaf area (SLA) can serve as the main factor affecting the photosynthetic availability of Carex, the thickness of the stratum corneum(CUT), the thickness of the upper(UET) are secondary factors. These finding can provide a theoretical basis for the cultivation and application of Carex and the expansion of turfgrass germplasm resources.

As global warming progresses, plants may be forced to adapt to drastically changing environmental conditions. Arctic-alpine plants have been among the first to experience the effects of climate change, as regions at high latitudes and elevations are over-proportionally affected by rising temperatures. As a result, cold acclimation and freezing tolerance may become increasingly crucial for the survival of many plants as winter warming events and earlier snowmelt will cause increased exposure to occasional frost. Studying the evolution of cold adaptation allows us to make assumptions about the future responses of different species to climate change. The tribe Cochlearieae from the mustard family (Brassicaceae) offers an instructive system for studying cold adaptation in evolutionary terms, as the two sister genera Ionopsidium and Cochlearia are distributed among different ecological habitats throughout the European continent and the far north into circumarctic regions. By applying an electrolyte leakage assay to leaves, the freezing tolerance of different Ionopsidium and Cochlearia species was assessed by experimentally estimating lethal freezing temperature values (LT50 and LT100), thereby allowing for a comparison of different accessions in their responses to cold. We hypothesized that, owing to varying selection pressures, geographically distant species would differ in freezing tolerance. Despite Ionopsidium being adapted to hot and dry Mediterranean conditions and Cochlearia species preferring cold habitats, all accessions exhibited similar cold responses. Whether this phenomenon has resulted from an evolutionary adaptation of a common ancestor of the two taxa or has evolved from parallel evolution is yet to be investigated. The results presented in this study may, however, indicate that adaptations to different stressors, such as salinity and drought, may confer an additional tolerance to cold; this is because all these stressors induce osmotic challenges, as demonstrated via metabolomic analysis.

The domestic cat, Felis catus, is one of the most popular and widespread domestic animals. Because domestic cats can reach high population densities and retain at least some tendency to hunt, their overall impact on wildlife can be severe. Domestic cats have highly variable predation rates depending on the availability of prey in their environment, their owners' practices, and individual cat characteristics. Among these characteristics, cat personality has recently been hypothesized to be an important factor contributing to variations in the hunting activity of cats. In this study, we used surveys of 2,508 cat owners living in France to collect information about cat personalities using the Feline Five personality model and about the frequency with which the cats bring home prey. For both birds and rodents, cats with high levels of extraversion or low levels of neuroticism had significantly higher frequencies of prey return. Owners whose cats had low levels of agreeableness or high levels dominance reported a significantly lower frequency of bird return. Personality differences therefore seem to contribute to the high variability in predation rates between domestic cats. We also found that the owner-reported prey return frequencies were significantly higher for cats spending more time outdoors, for non-pedigree cats, and for owners living in rural or suburban areas as opposed to urban areas. By contrast, we did not detect an effect of cat sex or age on their reported prey return rates.

An 86-year-old man who had undergone two mitral valve replacements developed heart failure due to prosthetic valve infection and left ventricular pseudoaneurysm (LVPA). LVPA due to infective endocarditis is rare and caused by the abscess formation in the left ventricular myocardium. Multiple mitral valve replacements may predispose to LVPA forming.