The first complete mitochondrial genome data of the Afghan pika Ochotona rufescens (Lagomorpha, Ochotonidae), near the type locality.

The Afghan pika Ochotona rufescens (Gray, 1842) is widely distributed across the mountains of Afghanistan, Iran, Pakistan, and southwestern Turkmenistan, most often at elevations between 2,000 and 3,000 m. Here we present, for the first time, the complete mitochondrial genomes of two specimens of the nominotypical subspecies Ochotona rufescens rufescens, de novo assembled from Illumina short reads of fragmented probe-enriched DNA. The lengths of the circular mitogenomes are 16,408 bp and 16,407 bp, respectively. Both mitogenomes contain 13 protein-coding genes (PCGs), two ribosomal RNAs (16S rRNA and 12S rRNA), 22 transfer RNA genes, and a control region. The gene NAD6 and the tRNA (Gln), tRNA (Ala), tRNA (Asn), tRNA (Cys), tRNA (Tyr), tRNA (Ser), tRNA (Glu), and tRNA (Pro) are encoded on the light strand while the rest are encoded on the heavy strand. The overall nucleotide composition was ∼30% for A, 25% for T, 15% for G, and 29% for C. The mitogenome data are available in the GenBank under the accession numbers ON859136 and ON859137.

Unusual localized gingival redness: a case report.

Inflammation of the gingiva is one of the most common and routine findings in dental practice. These routine appearances of inflammatory gingivae can show peculiarity when associated with an underlying systemic condition or because of reactive, benign, or malignant pathologies. This case highlights minute clinical signs of the gingiva that deviate from the routine presentation and warrant further investigations. A 63-year-old woman presented with a chief complaint of severe pain in relation to the lower front teeth region for 1 month. Intraoral examination revealed a gingival lesion on the labial aspect of 41, 42, and 43, and an intraoral periapical radiograph showed mild bone loss. The lesion persisted despite oral prophylaxis, and a biopsy was advised. The final diagnosis was stage 1 gingival squamous cell carcinoma (GSCC). It is important to note that the non-descript presentation of GSCC in early stages often mimics benign traumatic or inflammatory lesions of the gingiva. Peculiar clinical features of GSCC of note include the lack of traditionally associated risk factors and localized red or ulcerative lesions with increased bleeding tendencies that do not respond to routine periodontal treatment within 2 weeks.

Challenges and directions in analytical paleobiology.

Over the last 50 years, access to new data and analytical tools has expanded the study of analytical paleobiology, contributing to innovative analyses of biodiversity dynamics over Earth's history. Despite-or even spurred by-this growing availability of resources, analytical paleobiology faces deep-rooted obstacles that stem from the need for more equitable access to data and best practices to guide analyses of the fossil record. Recent progress has been accelerated by a collective push toward more collaborative, interdisciplinary, and open science, especially by early-career researchers. Here, we survey four challenges facing analytical paleobiology from an early-career perspective: (1) accounting for biases when interpreting the fossil record; (2) integrating fossil and modern biodiversity data; (3) building data science skills; and (4) increasing data accessibility and equity. We discuss recent efforts to address each challenge, highlight persisting barriers, and identify tools that have advanced analytical work. Given the inherent linkages between these challenges, we encourage discourse across disciplines to find common solutions. We also affirm the need for systemic changes that reevaluate how we conduct and share paleobiological research.

Environmentally Sustainable and Multifunctional Chrome-like Coatings Having No Chromium Designed with Reinforcement Learning.

Decorative chrome plating (DCP) continues to be ubiquitous in creating highly appealing metal finishings and coatings, beating out other organic dye-based finishes. However, the hazardous chrome plating process is fraught with adverse health effects for the workers involved and causes significant environmental damage. In this work, we present a multilayer thin film structure to mimic the chrome appearance. To find a design efficiently, we employ a reinforcement learning (RL) algorithm to perform an automatic inverse design. This results in structures composed of environmentally friendly materials that not only have the chrome color but can also achieve additional functions beyond decoration. As an example, one structure is designed to have high transmission in the radio frequency regime, a property that general metals cannot have, which can broaden the decorative chrome applications to include microwave operating devices. The experimental structures are fabricated by physical vapor deposition to demonstrate the indistinguishable chrome color and validate the effectiveness of the RL inverse design approach.

Biochemistry of exosomes and their theranostic potential in human diseases.

Exosomes are classified as special extracellular vesicles in the eukaryotic system having diameters ranging from 30 to 120 nm. These vesicles carry various endogenous molecules including DNA, mRNA, microRNA, circular RNA, and proteins, crucial for numerous metabolic reactions and can be proposed as therapeutic or diagnostic targets for several disorders. The donor exosomes release their content to recipient cells and further establish the significant intercellular communication showing biological effects by triggering environmental alterations. Exosomes derived from mesenchymal and dendritic cells have demonstrated their therapeutic potential against organ injury. Yet, various intricacies are involved in exosomal transport and its inclusion in cancer and other disease pathogenesis needs to be explored. The exosomes represent profound potential as diagnostic biomarkers and therapeutic carriers in various pathophysiological conditions such as neurodegenerative diseases, chronic cancers, infectious diseases, female reproductive diseases and cardiovascular diseases. In the current study, we demonstrate the advancements in the implication of exosomes as one of the irrefutable prognostic biological targets in human health and diseases.

The first complete mitochondrial genome data of the pygmy rabbit Brachylagus idahoensis, the world's smallest leporid.

The pygmy rabbit Brachylagus idahoensis (Merriam, 1891) is the smallest extant leporid, which naturally occurs in the Great Basin and adjacent areas in western parts of the United States of America. Its distribution is strongly associated with the sagebrush (Artemisia ssp.) vegetation. Here we present, for the first time, the complete mitochondrial genome of Brachylagus idahoensis, de novo assembled from Illumina short reads of fragmented probe-enriched DNA. The circular mitogenome is 17,021 bp in length and contains 13 protein-coding genes (PCGs), two ribosomal RNAs (16S rRNA and 12S rRNA), 22 transfer RNA genes, and a control region. The gene NAD6 and the tRNA(Gln), tRNA(Ala), tRNA(Asn), tRNA(Cys), tRNA(Tyr), tRNA(Ser), tRNA(Glu) and tRNA(Pro) are encoded on the light strand while the rest are encoded on the heavy strand. The overall nucleotide composition was 30.78% for A, 28.5% for T, 13.62% for G and 27.08% for C. The mitogenome data are available in the GenBank under the accession number OL436257.

Endemicity and radiation in waterfalls of the Western Ghats: The genus Cremnoconchus (Gastropoda: Littorinidae).

Snails of the genus Cremnoconchus - the only freshwater members of the gastropod family Littorinidae - are endemic to the spray zones of numerous waterfalls in the Western Ghats of India. Cremnoconchus consists of nine described and possibly numerous undescribed species as many of these appear to be restricted to specific waterfalls. This is the first attempt at resolving the relationships between the various species in this genus and establishing its monophyly in the family. Further, we also undertake species delimitation analysis to characterize cryptic diversity in this group. Phylogenetic analyses based on nuclear and mitochondrial genes support the monophyly of Cremnoconchus within the family. A fossil-calibrated Bayesian time tree suggests that this freshwater lineage diverged from its marine counterparts around 90.40 million years ago. The separation of Cremnoconchus from its marine ancestors might have been facilitated by the break-up of Gondwana or fluctuating sea levels during this period. Species delimitation analysis retrieved 12 potentially undescribed species in this group. These species formed two distinct clades in the phylogeny, one largely confined to the northern Western Ghats and the other to the central Western Ghats. Species belonging to the northern and central Western Ghats seem to have separated around 56.11 mya, i.e. after the northern Western Ghats were formed. Additionally, spatial isolation due to the patchiness of suitable habitats (waterfalls) and low mobility might have facilitated their diversification.

Spanning Network Gels from Nanoparticles and Graph Theoretical Analysis of Their Structure and Properties.

Gels self-assembled from colloidal nanoparticles (NPs) translate the size-dependent properties of nanostructures to materials with macroscale volumes. Large spanning networks of NP chains provide high interconnectivity within the material necessary for a wide range of properties from conductivity to viscoelasticity. However, a great challenge for nanoscale engineering of such gels lies in being able to accurately and quantitatively describe their complex non-crystalline structure that combines order and disorder. The quantitative relationships between the mesoscale structural and material properties of nanostructured gels are currently unknown. Here, it is shown that lead telluride NPs spontaneously self-assemble into a spanning network hydrogel. By applying graph theory (GT), a method for quantifying the complex structure of the NP gels is established using a topological descriptor of average nodal connectivity that is found to correlate with the gel's mechanical and charge transport properties. GT descriptions make possible the design of non-crystalline porous materials from a variety of nanoscale components for photonics, catalysis, adsorption, and thermoelectrics.

Impact of COVID-19 pandemic on viral hepatitis in Africa: Challenges and way forward.

With the overwhelming COVID-19 pandemic in Africa, many other severe epidemics have been given low priority, such as viral hepatitis. Patient mortality due to viral hepatitis has raised concern to COVID-19 patients due to compromise with undiagnosed hepatitis in Africa. The pandemic has worsened the control of the viral hepatitis epidemic as healthcare control facilities have moved their focus towards curbing COVID-19 infections. However, different challenges have arisen to viral hepatitis patients because of low health attention that declines the progress of already diagnosed hepatitis patients. Follow-up plans, routine testing and treatment plans for viral hepatitis are no longer as strict with the human resources transferred towards combating the pandemic. Thus, a global effort is required to abide by renewed recommendations to eradicate viral hepatitis in Africa that also fit the current picture of the COVID-19 pandemic. The article discusses the current challenges viral hepatitis patients faced during the COVID-19 pandemic and important recommendations that can see through these challenges in Africa.

Shared patterns in body size declines among crinoids during the Palaeozoic extinction events.

Crinoids were among the most abundant marine benthic animals throughout the Palaeozoic, but their body size evolution has received little attention. Here, we compiled a comprehensive database on crinoid calyx biovolumes throughout the Palaeozoic. A model comparison approach revealed contrasting and complex patterns in body size dynamics between the two major crinoid clades (Camerata and Pentacrinoidea). Interestingly, two major drops in mean body size at around two mass extinction events (during the late Ordovician and the late Devonian respectively) are observed, which is reminiscent of current patterns of shrinking body size of a wide range of organisms as a result of climate change. The context of some trends (marked declines during extinctions) suggests the cardinal role of abiotic factors (dramatic climate change associated with extinctions) on crinoid body size evolution; however, other patterns (two intervals with either relative stability or steady size increase in periods between mass extinctions) are more consistent with biotic drivers.

Comparison of DNA extraction methods for non-marine molluscs: is modified CTAB DNA extraction method more efficient than DNA extraction kits?

Isolation of high molecular weight DNA from gastropod molluscs and its subsequent PCR amplification is considered difficult due to excessive mucopolysaccharides secretion which co-precipitate with DNA and obstruct successful amplification. In an attempt to address this issue, we describe a modified CTAB DNA extraction method that proved to work significantly better with a number of freshwater and terrestrial gastropod taxa. We compared the performance of this method with Qiagen® DNeasy Blood and Tissue Kit. Reproducibility of amplification was verified using a set of taxon-specific primers, wherein modified CTAB extracted DNA could be replicated at least four out of five times but kit extracted DNA could not be replicated. In addition, sequence quality was significantly better with CTAB extracted DNA. This could be attributed to the removal of polyphenolic compounds by polyvinyl pyrrolidone which is the only difference between conventional and modified CTAB DNA extraction methods for animals. The genomic DNA isolated using modified CTAB protocol was of high quality (A260/280 ≥ 1.80) and could be used for downstream reactions even after long-term storage (more than 2 years).