Multidetector Computed Tomography Used in Evaluation of Olfactory Fossa Depth in a Tertiary Hospital in Eastern Region of Nepal: A Descriptive Cross-sectional Study.

Introduction: Olfactory fossa (OF) is a depression in most infero-medial portion of anterior cranial fossa formed by cribriform plate, crista galli and lateral lamella of cribriform plate (LLCP). LLCP being thinnest and extremely variable parts, more prone for iatrogenic injury during sinus surgery in case of asymmetric and deep OF. Multidetector computed tomography (MDCT) is frequently used imaging modality in the evaluation of paranasal sinus.

Unique and exclusive peptide signatures directly identify intrinsically disordered proteins from sequences without structural information.

Intrinsically disordered proteins are now widely accepted to play crucial roles in biological functions. Identification of signatures of intrinsic disorder is one of the key steps towards building a proper repertoire for their occurrence in proteomes. In this work, systematic computational synthesis of a library of all possible (3368400) dipeptides, tripeptides, tetrapeptides and pentapeptides using the natural 20 amino acids allowed us to identify 36 unique tetrapeptides present exclusively in intrinsically disordered proteins and absent in the complete primary sequence space of naturally occurring structured proteins.

Structural disorder originates beyond narrow stoichiometric margins of amino acids in naturally occurring folded proteins.

Rigorous analyses of Euclidean distances between non-peptide bonded residues in structures of several thousand naturally occurring folded proteins yielded a surprising "margin of life" for percentage occurrence of individual amino acids in naturally occurring folded proteins. On one hand, the concept of "margin of life", referring to lower than expected variances in average stoichiometric occurrences of individual amino acids in folded proteins, remains unchallenged since its discovery a decade ago. On the other hand, within this past decade there has been a strong emergence of a gradual paradigm shift in biology, from sequence-structure-function in proteins to sequence-disorder-function, fuelled by discoveries on functional implications of intrinsically disordered proteins (primary sequences that do not form stable structures).

What limits the primary sequence space of natural proteins?

Number of naturally occurring primary sequences of proteins is an infinitesimally small subset of the possible number of primary sequences that can be synthesized using 20 amino acids. Prevailing views ascribe this to slow and incremental mutational/selection evolutionary mechanisms. However, considering the large number of avenues available in form of diversity of emerging/evolving and/or disappearing living systems for exploring the primary sequence space over the evolutionary time scale of ∼3.

Procyanidin-rich extract of natural cocoa powder causes ROS-mediated caspase-3 dependent apoptosis and reduction of pro-MMP-2 in epithelial ovarian carcinoma cell lines.

Over the last four centuries, cocoa and chocolate have been described as having potential medicinal value. As of today, Theobroma cacao L. (Sterculiaceae) and its products are consumed worldwide.