Polymicrogyria (PMG) is the most common malformation of cortical development (MCD) and presents as an irregularly patterned cortical surface with numerous small gyri and shallow sulci leading to various neurological deficits including developmental delays, intellectual disability, epilepsy, and language and motor issues. The presentation of PMG varies and is often found in conjunction with other congenital anomalies. Histologically, PMG features an abnormal cortical structure and dyslamination, resulting in its classification as a defect of neuronal migration and organization.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFResource use and diet specialisation of Madagascan dung beetles have been little studied especially concerning the possible associations between specific dung beetle and lemur species. Pilot studies have demonstrated that amplicon sequencing is a promising tool for the lemur inventories. In the present contribution, we report the results of the gut content analysis of three endemic Madagascan dung beetles species: (Harold), (Lebis) and (Lebis).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: In open terrestrial biomes of Holarctic realm, ground squirrels are recognised as keystone species inhabiting steppes. They shape the plant species composition and diversity and support a fauna of species associated with their burrows. Ground squirrels and associated dung-beetles are important elements of the steppe food webs, yet the trophic associations between species are still poorly studied.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAmyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a fatal neuromuscular disease that affects individuals of diverse racial and ethnic backgrounds. There is currently no cure for ALS, and the number of efficient disease-modifying drugs for ALS is limited to a few, despite the large number of clinical trials conducted in recent years. The latter could be attributed to the significant heterogeneity of ALS clinical phenotypes even in their familial forms.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFDuring a routine anatomical dissection of an 81-year-old male cadaver received through the Gift Body Program of Saint Louis University School of Medicine (SLU SOM), a massive bulging in the abdominal area was observed that was consistent with numerous hernia repairs noted in the donor's self-reported medical history. Gross anatomical dissection of the cadaveric body revealed extensive herniation of portions of the small intestine and peritoneal sac along the costal margin and extending to the left aspect of the abdomen. Additionally, an uncircumcised phallus was buried within the suprapubic fat pad and demonstrated simple, grade III penoscrotal webbing (PSW), creating an impression of micropenis presence.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFDung beetles (Scarabaeidae, Scarabaeinae) are among the most cost-effective and informative biodiversity indicator groups, conveying rich information about the status of habitats and faunas of an area. Yet their use for monitoring the mammal species, that are the main providers of the food for the dung beetles, has only recently been recognized. In the present work, we studied the diet of four endemic Madagascan dung beetles ( (Fairmaire), (Harold), (Boucomont), and Fairmaire) using high-throughput sequencing and amplicon metagenomics.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFUnderstanding allosteric regulation in biomolecules is of great interest to pharmaceutical research and computational methods emerged during the last decades to characterize allosteric coupling. However, the prediction of allosteric sites in a protein structure remains a challenging task. Here, we integrate local binding site information, coevolutionary information, and information on dynamic allostery into a structure-based three-parameter model to identify potentially hidden allosteric sites in ensembles of protein structures with orthosteric ligands.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIn the Neotropics, orphnine scarab beetles are represented by the endemic tribe Aegidiini Paulian, 1984 with five genera and over 50 species. Phylogenetic analysis based on morphological characters of all supraspecific taxa of Orphninae showed that Aegidiini is comprised of two lineages. New subtribes, Aegidiina subtr.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFA new genus and three new species of Athyreacaridae (Acari: Heterostigmata) are described associated with beetles of subfamily Bolboceratinae (Coleoptera: Geotrupidae) in Neotropical and Afrotropical realms: Neoathyreacarus pygmephoroides gen., sp. nov.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe isoelectric point (pI) is a fundamental physicochemical property of peptides and proteins. It is widely used to steer design away from low solubility and aggregation and guide peptide separation and purification. Experimental measurements of pI can be replaced by calculations knowing the ionizable groups of peptides and their corresponding p values.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFLow back pain (LBP) is a globally prevalent and costly societal problem with multifactorial etiologies and incompletely understood pathophysiological mechanisms. To address such shortcomings regarding the role of neurotrophins in the underlying mechanisms of pain, an LBP model was developed in rats involving two unilateral intramuscular injections of nerve growth factor (NGF) into deep trunk muscles. To date, behavioral investigations of this NGF-LBP model have been limited, especially as it pertains to female pain behaviors.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe third instar larvae of Aphodius (Alocoderus) hydrochaeris (Fabricius, 1798) and A. (Bodilus) ictericus (Laicharting, 1781) are described based on scanning electron microscopy and COI sequences. COI barcode sequence for A.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe glucocorticoid receptor (GR) is a nuclear receptor that controls critical biological processes by regulating the transcription of specific genes. There is a known allosteric cross-talk between the ligand and coregulator binding sites within the GR ligand-binding domain that is crucial for the control of the functional response. However, the molecular mechanisms underlying such an allosteric control remain elusive.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIn the Neotropical Region, Orphninae (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae) are represented by the endemic tribe Aegidiini, which comprises five genera and 49 species (Paulian 1948; Colby 2009; Frolov Vaz-de-Mello 2015; Frolov et al. 2017a, 2017b, 2017c, 2019). Aegidium Westwood is the largest genus of the tribe and it comprises 24 valid species known from the southern Mexico in the north to Central Bolivia in the south (Frolov et al.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFA new species of the orphnine scarab beetle genus Madecorphnus Paulian, 1992, Madecorphnus grebennikovi Frolov, Akhmetova Vishnevskaya, new species, is described from the Marojejy National Park, Sava Region, northeastern Madagascar. The new species can be distinguished from the congeners by the parameres narrowly rounded in lateral view and having a small but distinct lateral teeth, and by the endophallic armature consisting of 1) a long straight sclerite with attached to its end a 2/3 shorted, somewhat curved sclerite, 2) separate smaller, elongate sclerite, and 3) a rather large area of microspinules. The 811 bp long fragment of the mitochondrial gene COI (DNA barcode) is provided as a part of the diagnosis of the new species.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMites of the family Athyreacaridae are recorded from Asia for the first time. Two new species of Athyreacarus are described, A. indicus sp.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe subgenus Bodilus Mulsant Rey, 1870 of the genus Aphodius Helwig, 1798 sensu lato comprises 30 species in the Palearctic fauna (Frolov 2001, 2002, Dellacasa et al. 2016 [treated as genus Bodilus]). Frolov (2001) reviewed the species of this subgenus from Russia and adjacent countries and suggested that the monotypic subgenus Paramelinopterus Rakovič, 1984 shares the main diagnostic characters of Bodilus.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFA new brachypterous species of the scarab beetle genus Orphnus Macleay, 1819, O. (O.) brevialatus Frolov Akhmetova, new species, is described from Kipengere Range (Livingstone Mountains), Tanzania.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFLarge and flexible ligands gain increasing interest in the development of bioactive agents. They challenge the applicability of computational ligand optimization strategies originally developed for small molecules. Free energy perturbation (FEP) is often used for predicting binding affinities of small molecule ligands, however, its use for more complex ligands remains limited.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSagittal craniosynostosis (CS) is a pathologic condition that results in premature fusion of the sagittal suture, restricting the transverse growth of the skull leading in some cases to elevated intracranial pressure and neurodevelopmental delay. There is still much to be learned about the etiology of CS. Here, we report a case of 56-year-old male cadaver that we describe as sagittal CS with torus palatinus being an additional anomaly.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMites of the genus Athyreacarus (Acari: Athyreacaridae) associated with bolboceratine beetles (Coleoptera: Geotrupidae: Bolboceratine) of New World are revised, a new generic concept provided, and the family concept modified. Nine new species are described: A. grandis sp.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe scarab beetles of the subfamily Orphninae Erichson are the most diverse in the tropics (Paulian 1948; Frolov 2012). Yet there are two genera occurring in the Palearctic Region, Hybalus Dejean, 1833 and Chaetonyx Schaum, 1862. Of them, the former is rather speciose and comprises 37 species distributed mostly in the Atlas Mountains of North Africa (Baraud 1991; López-Colón 2006; López Colón Bahillo de la Puebla 2014; Bezděk 2016).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAfrica and Madagascar have a large and diverse fauna of the chafers of the ruteline beetle tribe Adoretini (Ohaus 1912, 1918). Many nominal taxa from Madagascar are still poorly known and many new ones were described recently (Akhmetova Montreuil 2010; Montreuil 2010, 2013; Montreuil Frolov 2014; Frolov Montreuil 2018). One of the poorly known Adoretini taxa is the genus Trigonochilus Brenske, 1896.
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