Genome assembly and population genomic analysis provide insights into the evolution of modern sweet corn.

Sweet corn is one of the most important vegetables in the United States and Canada. Here, we present a de novo assembly of a sweet corn inbred line Ia453 with the mutated shrunken2-reference allele (Ia453-sh2). This mutation accumulates more sugar and is present in most commercial hybrids developed for the processing and fresh markets.

Evaluating out-of-field doses during radiotherapy of paediatric brain tumours using lead shielding and flattening-filter free beams.

Paediatric radiotherapy comes at the expense of increased risk of late effects due to out-of-field dose caused not only by the treatment itself but also by image guidance. This study examined how the out-of-field dose to selected radiosensitive organs was affected by applying a 1 mm lead shielding during delivery of volumetric-modulated arc therapy (VMAT) for paediatric brain cancer. The study also investigated how the out-of-field dose to the same organs was affected by the use of flattening-filter free (FFF) beams.

Direct-to-consumer advertisements for HIV antiretroviral medications: a progress report.

Direct-to-consumer (DTC) prescription drug advertisements for HIV anti-retrovirals are controversial and have been criticized in the past for including deceptive images and underplaying HIV drug limitations. We sought to describe the state of recent DTC ads for HIV antiretrovirals in popular magazines by performing a content analysis of all complete DTC ads for antiretroviral medications appearing in eight national magazines during a one-year period. Current ads appear to have addressed previous concerns, but important problems still exist, such as failing to specify the medication's role in current treatment, to quantify drug efficacy, or to highlight life-threatening side effects.

Quality of hospital care evaluated by Danish nurses and doctors--based on experience from their own or a close family member's hospitalization.

Introduction: No studies have systematically asked larger groups of health professionals about their own experience as patients. This study estimated the level of satisfaction with hospital care among health professionals based on experience from their own hospital admission or that of a close family member.

Methodology: A cross-sectional questionnaire study of 1995 doctors (41% women) and 1472 nurses (98% women) drawn randomly from union registers.