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Phytolacca acinosa Roxb. and P. americana L. are recognized as the primary sources of Phytolaccae Radix, which is traditionally utilized for various medicinal purposes. However, because of their potent toxicity, it is essential to distinguish these species. This study has aimed to clarify the classification of Phytolacca species based on their morphology and genetic differences. The chloroplast genome of P. acinosa was sequenced and comparative analyses were conducted to identify the regions of variation and nucleotide diversity among the species. The results revealed that P. acinosa shares more sequence similarity with other Phytolacca species than with P. americana. Additionally, the dN/dS analysis showed that the ndhH gene of P. americana had a value of 1.0871, indicating positive selection. The phylogenetic tree, supported by strong bootstrap values and posterior probabilities, confirmed that P. acinosa and P. americana formed distinct clusters. Furthermore, the estimated divergence time between P. acinosa and P. americana was approximately 15.07 million years ago, indicating that they diverged earlier than P. insularis, P. polyandra, P. japonica, and P. latbenia. These findings indicated that P. acinosa and P. americana are phylogenetically distinct species, highlighting the need for accurate species identification and taxonomic reassessment to ensure the safe use of these toxic medicinal plants.

The genus Allium is a well-known model system for cytological research, and its cytological characteristics are considered important for species identification. In this study, we counted chromosome numbers of 21 populations from 12 taxa comprising seven sections (Butomissa, Sacculiferum, Schoenoprasum, Oreiprason, Reticulatobulbosa, Rhizirideum, Tenuissima) and five subgenera (Butomissa, Cepa, Polyprason, Reticulatobulbosa, Rhizirideum) from Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia, and South Korea. The chromosome numbers varied with 2n=16 or 2n=32. New ploidy levels were found in A. karelinii (2n=2x=16) and A. burjaticum (2n=2x=16) from Kyrgyzstan and Mongolia, respectively. Photomicrophotographs of metaphase chromosomes and karyotype analyses of all Allium taxa studied are provided.

IntroductionParkinson’s disease (PD) is a neurodegenerative disorder characterized by dopaminergic dysfunction and associated with abnormalities in the cholinergic system. However, the relationship between PD and cholinergic dysfunction, particularly in exosomes, is not fully understood.MethodsWe enrolled 37 patients with PD and 44 healthy controls (HC) to investigate acetylcholinesterase (AChE) activity in CD9-positive and L1CAM-positive exosomes. Exosomes were isolated from plasma using antibody-coupled magnetic beads, and their sizes and concentrations were assessed using transmission electron microscopy, nanoparticle tracking analysis, and western blotting. Subsequently, the AChE activity in these exosomes was analyzed in relation to various clinical parameters.ResultsA significant decrease in AChE activity was observed in CD9-positive exosomes derived from patients with PD, whereas no significant differences were found in L1CAM-positive exosomes. Further analysis with a larger sample size confirmed a substantial reduction in AChE activity in CD9-positive exosomes from the PD plasma, with moderate diagnostic accuracy. The decrease in AChE activity of CD9-positive exosomes did not show an association with cognitive impairment but displayed a trend toward correlation with PD progression.DiscussionThe reduction in AChE activity in CD9-positive exosomes suggests potential peripheral cholinergic dysfunction in PD, independent of the central cholinergic system. The observed alterations in AChE activity provide valuable insights into the association between cholinergic dysfunction and the pathogenesis of PD.

Abstract The screening of siRNAs targeting 390 human G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) was multiplexed in combination with cisplatin against lung cancer cells. While the cell viability measure hardly captured the anticancer effect of siGPCRs, the direct cell count revealed the anticancer potential of diverse GPCRs (46 hits with > twofold growth inhibition, p-value

Osteoarthritis: moving from symptom relief towards disease control Researchers are exploring several promising avenues to develop treatments for osteoarthritis that control or reverse its progress, rather than simply relieving the symptoms of inflammation and pain. These new opportunities are emerging from increased understanding of the molec_reular mechanisms underlying the onset and progression of osteoarthritis. Seung-Baik Kang, Jin-Hong Kim and colleagues at Seoul National University, South Korea, review the current status and future directions of disease-modifying strategies that are already showing promise in clinical trials. They discuss approaches aimed at restricting the damage to joint cartilage by controlling the inflammatory signaling molecules, enzyme actions and molecular pathways that cause cartilage to degenerate. They also consider treatments that could stimulate the active regeneration of damaged cartilage. They conclude that some approaches will soon be ready to move into general clinical use.

A cloud-computing company or user must create a virtual machine to build and operate a cloud environment. With the growth of cloud computing, it is necessary to build virtual machines that reflect the needs of both companies and users. In this study, we propose a bespoke virtual machine orchestrator (BVMO) as a method for constructing a virtual machine. The BVMO builds resource volumes as core assets to meet user requirements and builds virtual machines by reusing and combining these resource volumes. This can increase the reusability and flexibility of virtual-machine construction. A case study was conducted to build a virtual machine by applying the proposed BVMO to an actual OpenStack cloud platform, and it was confirmed that the construction time of the virtual machine was reduced compared with that of the existing method.

In this paper, we propose a smart contract broker to improve the reusability of smart contracts in a blockchain environment. The current blockchain platform lacks a standard approach to sharing and managing smart contracts, which makes it difficult for developers to reuse them and leads to efficiency issues. The proposed smart contract broker uses tags to identify and organize smart contracts, and it provides an environment for comparing and reusing smart contracts. This improves the reusability of smart contracts and efficiency. The proposed smart contract broker can be applied as a reference model that increases the flexibility and reusability of smart contract management in a blockchain environment.

To date, no study has reported detailed morphological characteristics of Korean sea turtles. Due to the lack of such basic information on Korean sea turtles, further related studies have been difficult in South Korea. In this report, we determined the species and the sex of the one sea turtle caught from the Yellow Sea of Korea (Taean-gun, Chungcheongnamdo) on July 17, 2013, and described its detailed morphological characteristics. The sea turtle was identified as a loggerhead sea turtle (Caretta caretta) by the presence of an interprefrontal scale on the head. The turtle had three times longer length between the edge of anal scute to the anus than that between the anus to tip of the tail, and the size of a pair of claws on the flippers were distinctively different, suggesting that the turtle was a male. Finally, the assumption that the sea turtle might be sexually mature is based on its body weight (59.95 kg), the maximum straight length of the carapace (72.5 cm), and the worn serrated parts at the edge of supracaudal scutes. The loggerhead sea turtle described in this study is the first record from the Yellow Sea of Korea.