New Guinea is the world's largest tropical island and has fascinated naturalists for centuries1,2. Home to some ofthe best-preserved ecosystems on the planet3 and to intact ecological gradients-from ...mangroves to tropical alpine grasslands-that are unmatched in the Asia-Pacific region4,5, it is a globally recognized centre of biological and cultural diversity6,7. So far, however, there has been no attempt to critically catalogue the entire vascular plant diversity of New Guinea. Here we present the first, to our knowledge, expert-verified checklist of the vascular plants of mainland New Guinea and surrounding islands. Our publicly available checklist includes 13,634 species (68% endemic), 1,742 genera and 264 families-suggesting that New Guinea is the most floristically diverse island in the world. Expert knowledge is essential for building checklists in the digital era: reliance on online taxonomic resources alone would have inflated species counts by 22%. Species discovery shows no sign of levelling off, and we discuss steps to accelerate botanical research in the 'Last Unknown'8.
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FZAB, GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, MFDPS, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, SBMB, SBNM, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK, VKSCE, ZAGLJ
During the environmental impact study for a proposed nickel mine near Weda Bay on Halmahera in North Moluccas (Maluku Utara Province), Indonesia, two unknown Euphorbiaceae were discovered. ...Morphological comparisons and molecular phylogenetic analyses using four markers (plastid trnL‐F and rbcL, and nuclear ribosomal internal transcribed spacer and external transcribed spacer) indicated that they should be recognized as constituting a new, distinct genus of two species, which are described and illustrated here as Weda fragarioides and Weda lutea. The new taxa are members of the Australasian tribe Ricinocarpeae in subfamily Crotonoideae, and they are most closely related to Alphandia. In contrast with the otherwise mostly sclerophyllous Ricinocarpeae, Weda possesses stellate to dendritic hairs, large, long‐petiolate, glandular leaves, and inflorescences with a pair of large, leafy, subopposite bracts. The two narrowly distributed species are distinguished from each other by vegetative and floral features, molecular data, and elevational preferences. Leaf elemental analysis of Weda indicated manganese, but not nickel, accumulation. Newly resolved generic relationships and potential morphological synapomorphies within Crotonoideae are discussed, and the circumscription of Ricinocarpeae is expanded from 7 to 11 genera.
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FZAB, GIS, IJS, IZUM, KILJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBMB, UL, UM, UPUK
Rotavirus genome replication and assembly take place in cytoplasmic electron dense inclusions termed viroplasms (VPs). Previous conventional optical microscopy studies observing the intracellular ...distribution of rotavirus proteins and their organization in VPs have lacked molecular-scale spatial resolution, due to inherent spatial resolution constraints. In this work we employed super-resolution microscopy to reveal the nanometric-scale organization of VPs formed during rotavirus infection, and quantitatively describe the structural organization of seven viral proteins within and around the VPs. The observed viral components are spatially organized as five concentric layers, in which NSP5 localizes at the center of the VPs, surrounded by a layer of NSP2 and NSP4 proteins, followed by an intermediate zone comprised of the VP1, VP2, VP6. In the outermost zone, we observed a ring of VP4 and finally a layer of VP7. These findings show that rotavirus VPs are highly organized organelles.
Septoglomus mexicanum is here described as a new species of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF; Glomeromycota) based on morphological and phylogenetic analyses. It was isolated from rhizospheric soil ...of two endemic Mexican legumes: Prosopis laevigata and Mimosa luisana, which grow in semiarid regions of central Mexico. Septoglomus mexicanum is characterized by forming globose spores of (154.5-)202.8(-228.9) µm diam and a spore wall consisting of four layers (SWL1-SWL4): outer wall layer (SWL1) hyaline, evanescent, (1.7-)3.2(-4.3) µm thick; SWL2 laminate and smooth, orange to reddish orange, (3.1-)4.5(-6.1) µm thick; SWL3 laminate, smooth, reddish orange to reddish brown, (4.1-)5.1(-5.7) µm thick; and SWL4 hyaline, semiflexible, (0.93-)1.2(-1.4) µm thick. None of the spore wall layers stain with Melzer's reagent. The subtending hypha has a color from yellowish to golden and presents a septum on spore base. Septoglomus mexicanum can be distinguished from all other Septoglomus species by spore size and color, by spore wall structure (four layers), and by color change of the subtending hypha. Phylogenetic analysis based on the AMF extended DNA barcode covering a 1.5-kb fragment of the small subunit (SSU), internal transcribed spacer region (ITS1-5.8S-ITS2), and the large subunit (LSU) of rRNA genes places S. mexicanum in the genus Septoglomus, separated from other described Septoglomus species, especially S. turnauae, with whom it could be confused morphologically. All available sequences in public databases suggest that this new fungal species has not yet been previously detected. Thus, there are currently 149 Glomeromycota species registered in Mexico, representing 47.4% of the known species worldwide.
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BFBNIB, GIS, IJS, KISLJ, NUK, PNG, UL, UM, UPUK
Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis is a lethal lung fibrotic disease, associated with aging with a mean survival of 2‐5 years and no curative treatment. The GSE4 peptide is able to rescue cells from ...senescence, DNA and oxidative damage, inflammation, and induces telomerase activity. Here, we investigated the protective effect of GSE4 expression in vitro in rat alveolar epithelial cells (AECs), and in vivo in a bleomycin model of lung fibrosis. Bleomycin‐injured rat AECs, expressing GSE4 or treated with GSE4‐PLGA/PEI nanoparticles showed an increase of telomerase activity, decreased DNA damage, and decreased expression of IL6 and cleaved‐caspase 3. In addition, these cells showed an inhibition in expression of fibrotic markers induced by TGF‐β such as collagen‐I and III among others. Furthermore, treatment with GSE4‐PLGA/PEI nanoparticles in a rat model of bleomycin‐induced fibrosis, increased telomerase activity and decreased DNA damage in proSP‐C cells. Both in preventive and therapeutic protocols GSE4‐PLGA/PEI nanoparticles prevented and attenuated lung damage monitored by SPECT‐CT and inhibited collagen deposition. Lungs of rats treated with bleomycin and GSE4‐PLGA/PEI nanoparticles showed reduced expression of α‐SMA and pro‐inflammatory cytokines, increased number of pro‐SPC‐multicellular structures and increased DNA synthesis in proSP‐C cells, indicating therapeutic efficacy of GSE4‐nanoparticles in experimental lung fibrosis and a possible curative treatment for lung fibrotic patients.
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BFBNIB, FZAB, GIS, IJS, KILJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, SBCE, SBMB, UL, UM, UPUK
Background
Headache is one of the most frequently reported symptoms in post-COVID patients. The clinical phenotype of COVID-19 headache combines phenotypic features of both tension-type headache ...(TTH) and migraine. We aimed to assess the effectiveness, side effects and predictors of amitriptyline (AMT) response in a real-world study setting.
Methods
We performed an observational multicentric study with a retrospective cohort. All consecutive patients with confirmed COVID-19 infection who received AMT for post-COVID headache from March 2020 to May 2021 were included. Response was evaluated by the reduction in the number of headache days per month (HDM) between weeks 8 and 12, compared with the baseline. We explored which variables were associated with a higher probability of response to AMT.
Results
Forty-eight patients were eligible for the study, 40/48 (83.3%) females, aged 46.85 (SD: 13.59) years. Patients had history of migraine 15/48 (31.3%) or TTH 5/48 (10.4%). The mean reduction of HDM was 9.6 (SD: 10.9; 95% CI 6.5, 12.7) days. Only 2/48 (5%) of patients discontinued AMT due to poor tolerability. History of TTH (10.9, 95% CI 1.3, 20.6) and nausea (− 8.5, 95% CI − 14.6, − 2.5) were associated with AMT response.
Conclusions
This study provides real-world evidence of the potential benefit of AMT in patients with post-COVID-19 headache, especially in patients with history of TTH and without concomitant nausea.
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EMUNI, FIS, FZAB, GEOZS, GIS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, MFDPS, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, SBMB, SBNM, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK, VKSCE, ZAGLJ
This study responds to the need to explore the individual characteristics that may help us to understand the levels of stress involved in the significant COVID-19-related restrictions to people’s ...daily lives. In order to understand levels of stress and stress control during the COVID-19 confinement, 1269 people from Spain (17.5% men) aged between 18 and 70 completed the Perceived Stress Scale (PSS-14). The results indicated that people aged under 40, and especially those under 25, women, and those on low incomes reported higher rates of confinement stress. The nature of where people live, and their working situation during confinement also contributed to people’s stress response, although with lower levels of impact. In this context, our study suggests that the levels of stress in those who combine remote working with in situ working were lower than those who had other working conditions. Our study contributes significant information to understanding the effects of confinement, and its results may be used to inform intervention tools and programs.
The present study aims to identify early cognitive impairment through the efficient use of therapies that can improve the quality of daily life and prevent disease progress. We propose a methodology ...based on the hypothesis that the dissociation between oral semantic expression and the physical expressions, facial gestures, or emotions transmitted in a person's tone of voice is a possible indicator of cognitive impairment. Experiments were carried out with phrases, analyzing the semantics of the message, and the tone of the voice of patients through unstructured interviews in healthy people and patients at an early Alzheimer's stage. The results show that the dissociation in cognitive impairment was an effective indicator, arising from patterns of inconsistency between the analyzed elements. Although the results of our study are encouraging, we believe that further studies are necessary to confirm that this dissociation is a probable indicator of cognitive impairment.
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