Cenozoic migration of a desert plant lineage across the North Atlantic.

Previous paleobotanical work concluded that Paleogene elements of the sclerophyllous subhumid vegetation of western Eurasia and western North America were endemic to these disjunct regions, suggesting that the southern areas of the Holarctic flora were isolated at that time. Consequently, molecular studies invoked either parallel adaptation to dry climates from related ancestors, or long-distance dispersal in explaining disjunctions between the two regions, dismissing the contemporaneous migration of dry-adapted lineages via land bridges as unlikely. We report Vauquelinia (Rosaceae), currently endemic to western North America, in Cenozoic strata of western Eurasia.

The prolyl dipeptidyl peptidase cleaves the N-terminal peptide of the immunoprotein CXCL-10.

Dipeptidyl peptidases constitute a class of non-classical serine proteases that regulate an array of biological functions, making them pharmacologically attractive enzymes. With this work, we identified and characterized a dipeptidyl peptidase from (MtDPP) displaying a strong preference for proline residues at the P substrate position and an unexpectedly high thermal stability. MtDPP was also characterized with alanine replacements of residues of its active site that yielded, for the most part, loss of catalysis.

Why there is no dilemma for the birth strategy: a response to Bobier and Omelianchuk.

Bobier and Omelianchuk argue that the Birth Strategy for addressing analogies between abortion and infanticide is saddled with a dilemma. It must be accepted that non-therapeutic late-term abortions are either, impermissible, or they are not. If accepted, then the Birth Strategy is undermined.

No-Reference Video Quality Assessment Using the Temporal Statistics of Global and Local Image Features.

During acquisition, storage, and transmission, the quality of digital videos degrades significantly. Low-quality videos lead to the failure of many computer vision applications, such as object tracking or detection, intelligent surveillance, etc. Over the years, many different features have been developed to resolve the problem of no-reference video quality assessment (NR-VQA).

Variability of Steroid Prescription for COVID-19 Associated Pneumonia in Real-Life, Non-Trial Settings.

The RECOVERY study documented lower 28-day mortality with the use of dexamethasone in hospitalized patients on invasive mechanical ventilation or oxygen with COVID-19 Pneumonia. We aimed to examine the practice patterns of steroids use, and their impact on mortality and length of stay in ICU. We retrospectively examined records of all patients with confirmed Covid 19 pneumonia admitted to the ICU of Dubai hospital from January 1st, 2020 - June 30th, 2020.

The information geometry of two-field functional integrals.

Two-field functional integrals (2FFI) are an important class of solution methods for generating functions of dissipative processes, including discrete-state stochastic processes, dissipative dynamical systems, and decohering quantum densities. The stationary trajectories of these integrals describe a conserved current by Liouville's theorem, despite the absence of a conserved kinematic phase space current in the underlying stochastic process. We develop the information geometry of generating functions for discrete-state classical stochastic processes in the Doi-Peliti 2FFI form, and exhibit two quantities conserved along stationary trajectories.

Letter to the Editor: FHIR RDF - Why the world needs structured electronic health records.

This comment discusses the benefits of representing and reusing the information in Electronic Health Record databases as knowledge graphs in the RDF format based on the FHIR RDF specification. As a structured representation of clinical data, FHIR RDF-based electronic health records allow a simpler and more effective integration of biomedical information using semantic alignment, queries, interoperability, and federation to provide better support for health practice and research.

Quantitative assessment confirms deep proteome analysis by integrative top-down proteomics.

The goal of integrative top-down proteomics (i.e., two-dimensional gel electrophoresis [2DE] coupled with liquid chromatography and tandem mass spectrometry [LC/MS/MS]) is a routine analytical approach that fully addresses the breadth and depth of proteomes.

Homology Modeling and Molecular Dynamics-Driven Search for Natural Inhibitors That Universally Target Receptor-Binding Domain of Spike Glycoprotein in SARS-CoV-2 Variants.

The rapid spread of SARS-CoV-2 required immediate actions to control the transmission of the virus and minimize its impact on humanity. An extensive mutation rate of this viral genome contributes to the virus' ability to quickly adapt to environmental changes, impacts transmissibility and antigenicity, and may facilitate immune escape. Therefore, it is of great interest for researchers working in vaccine development and drug design to consider the impact of mutations on virus-drug interactions.

Non-Invasive Paleo-Metabolomics and Paleo-Proteomics Analyses Reveal the Complex Funerary Treatment of the Early 18th Dynasty Dignitary NEBIRI (QV30).

Biochemical investigations were carried out on the embalmed head of Nebiri (Museo Egizio, Turin; S-5109)-an 18th Dynasty Ancient Egyptian dignitary-and on the canopic jar containing his lungs (Museo Egizio, Turin; S. 5111/02) with the aim of characterizing the organ's (lung) specific paleo-proteins and of identifying the compounds used in his embalming "recipe". The application of a functionalized film method allowed us to perform a non-invasive sampling.

General Designs Reveal Distinct Codes in Protein-Coding and Non-Coding Human DNA.

This study seeks to investigate distinct signatures and codes within different genomic sequence locations of the human genome. The promoter and other non-coding regions contain sites for the binding of biological particles, for processes such as transcription regulation. The specific rules and sequence codes that govern this remain poorly understood.

Addressing the dichotomy of fishing and climate in fishery management with the FishClim model.

The relative influence of fishing and Climate-Induced Environmental Change (CIEC) on long-term fluctuations in exploited fish stocks has been controversial because separating their contributions is difficult for two reasons. Firstly, there is in general, no estimation of CIEC for a pre-fishing period and secondly, the assessment of the effects of fishing on stocks has taken place at the same time as CIEC. Here, we describe a new model we have called FishClim that we apply to North Sea cod from 1963 to 2019 to estimate how fishing and CIEC interact and how they both may affect stocks in the future (2020-2100) using CMIP6 scenarios.

Sometimes faster can be better: Microneedling IPG strips enables higher throughput for integrative top-down proteomics.

Passive rehydration of immobilized pH gradient (IPG) strips for two-dimensional gel electrophoresis (2DE) has, to our knowledge, never been quantitatively evaluated to determine an ideal rehydration time. Seeking to increase throughput without sacrificing analytical rigor, we report that a substantially shorter rehydration time is accomplished when surface area of IPG strips is increased via microneedling. Rehydration for 4 h, post microneedling, provides comparable results to overnight rehydration in final analyses by 2DE, while also shortening the overall protocol by 1 day.

Vulnerable consumers: marketing research needs to pay more attention to the brain health of consumers.

We propose here that marketing research should increase consideration of the brain health of consumers, and argue that it would help both extend our current knowledge of vulnerable and other marginalised groups, as well as extend generalizability and external validity of marketing research in general. We show that such a focus would help enrich methodology, especially around causal inference, as well as impact on our understanding of a number of key emerging themes in marketing research. We particularly focus on the consumer behaviour around digitalisation, as well as compulsive buying behaviour.

The relationship between chlorophyllous spores and mycorrhizal associations in ferns: evidence from an evolutionary approach.

Premise: Approximately 14% of all fern species have physiologically active chlorophyllous spores that are much more short-lived than the more common and dormant achlorophyllous spores. Most chlorophyllous-spored species (70%) are epiphytes and account for almost 37% of all epiphytic ferns. Chlorophyllous-spored ferns are also overrepresented among fern species in habitats with waterlogged soils, of which nearly 60% have chlorophyllous spores.

Pragmatic Comparison of Piperacillin/Tazobactam versus Carbapenems in Treating Patients with Nosocomial Pneumonia Caused by Extended-Spectrum β-Lactamase-Producing .

The effectiveness of piperacillin/tazobactam for managing nosocomial pneumonia caused by extended-spectrum β-lactamase (ESBL)-producing is unknown. To answer this question, we conducted a retrospective cohort study in two tertiary teaching hospitals of patients admitted between January 2018 and July 2021 with a diagnosis of nosocomial pneumonia caused by ESBL-producing receiving either piperacillin/tazobactam or carbapenems within 24 h from the onset of pneumonia for at least 72 h. Clinical outcomes, including 28-day mortality and 14-day clinical and microbiological cure, were analyzed.

Using logical constraints to validate statistical information about disease outbreaks in collaborative knowledge graphs: the case of COVID-19 epidemiology in Wikidata.

Urgent global research demands real-time dissemination of precise data. Wikidata, a collaborative and openly licensed knowledge graph available in RDF format, provides an ideal forum for exchanging structured data that can be verified and consolidated using validation schemas and bot edits. In this research article, we catalog an automatable task set necessary to assess and validate the portion of Wikidata relating to the COVID-19 epidemiology.

Trauma of bone and soft tissues in South American mummies-New cases provide further insight into violence and lethal outcome.

There exist numerous reports on violence in South American populations which shed a particular light on life and living conditions in those historic communities. Most studies have been performed on collections of isolated skulls. Whole-body investigations especially on well-preserved mummified human remains are rare.

A Human Visual System Inspired No-Reference Image Quality Assessment Method Based on Local Feature Descriptors.

Objective quality assessment of natural images plays a key role in many fields related to imaging and sensor technology. Thus, this paper intends to introduce an innovative quality-aware feature extraction method for no-reference image quality assessment (NR-IQA). To be more specific, a various sequence of HVS inspired filters were applied to the color channels of an input image to enhance those statistical regularities in the image to which the human visual system is sensitive.

Phylogenomic analysis of the genus reveals distinct major lineages with ecological specializations.

is a diverse betaproteobacterial genus with many strains having agricultural and industrial relevance, including plant-growth promotion, bioremediation of hydrocarbon-contaminated soils, and heavy metal immobilization. spp. are broadly distributed in the environment, and have been isolated from plant hosts as well as healthy and diseased animal hosts, yet the genetic basis of this ecological versatility has not been characterized.

Effectiveness of Tai Chi on older adults: A systematic review of systematic reviews with re-meta-analysis.

This overview study examined and synthesized the effect of Tai Chi (TC) on the physical conditions, psychological conditions, cognitive abilities, and quality of life (QoL) of older adults. This study was performed in accordance with the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses 2020 statement. Using Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, Cochrane Methodology Register, PubMed, Scopus, and Web of Science, English-language systematic reviews (SRs) published within the latest decade (2010-2020) were included.

Full-Reference Image Quality Assessment Based on an Optimal Linear Combination of Quality Measures Selected by Simulated Annealing.

Digital images can be distorted or contaminated by noise in various steps of image acquisition, transmission, and storage. Thus, the research of such algorithms, which can evaluate the perceptual quality of digital images consistent with human quality judgement, is a hot topic in the literature. In this study, an image quality assessment (IQA) method is introduced that predicts the perceptual quality of a digital image by optimally combining several IQA metrics.