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Analize človeških tkiv iz arheoloških kontekstov pomembno pripomorejo k razumevanju posameznikov in družb v preteklosti. Na primeru četvernega groba 336–339 s poznoantičnega grobišča Bled – Pristava predstavljamo potek in rezultate celostne interdisciplinarne raziskave, ki združuje nekaj pri raziskovanju skeletnih tkiv najpogosteje izvedenih analiz, rezultate teh pa povezujemo v širši arheološki in zgodovinski kontekst. Na podlagi zbranih podatkov je mogoče sklepati, da so bili štirje pokojniki, oče s hčerama in sinom, v skupni grob položeni sočasno in premišljeno, morda zaradi posebnih okoliščin ob smrti. Grobni pridatki postavijo kontekst v sredino 6. st., radiokarbonsko datiranje pa v čas 5. in prve polovice 6. st. Analize stabilnih izotopov kažejo nihanja v prehrani skozi različna življenjska obdobja, povezana s spremembo prehrane in fiziološkim stresom. Rezultati interdisciplinarne študije, izvedene na posmrtnih ostankih štirih oseb, prikazujejo, kako se različne analize dopolnjujejo in/ali med seboj potrjujejo, kako velik je njihov domet pri razumevanju življenja in smrti obravnavanih oseb ter kakšen je njihov potencial za razumevanje življenja celotnih skupnosti v določenih zgodovinskih obdobjih.

Spinach is a crop of economic importance in the Wintergarden region of Texas, where increasing soil salinity, irrigation water restrictions, and heat stress challenge its production. Improving abiotic stress tolerance and resource use efficiency are important goals for sustainable agricultural production. Although the effect of humic substances (HS) on abiotic stress tolerance in spinach has been evaluated under single stress, such as heat, drought, or salinity, their impact under combined abiotic stresses is unknown. We hypothesized that solid humic substances would be effective in alleviating multifactorial abiotic stress in spinach, which we examined in our first experiment, and further hypothesized that salinity stress in spinach would occur after a threshold intensity but that humic substance applications would ameliorate stress intensity past this threshold, which we examined in our second experiment. Three-week-old spinach seedlings (Spinacia oleracea L. cv. ‘Seaside’) were grown using an automatic gravimetric watering system in a climate-controlled high tunnel where daily maximum temperatures exceeded 32 °C. In a factorial experiment, we applied HS (control and 1 % v/v HS media amendment), drought (100 % and 50 % field capacity), and salinity (25 mL of RO water or 100 mM NaCl every other day) treatments. HS and HS×Salinity treatments more than doubled shoot and root FW and DW, leaf area, root length, and root surface area compared to other stresses, indicating HS improved growth and stress tolerance. Improved growth was matched with improved resource use efficiency, as HS and HS×Salinity treated plants exhibited the greatest WUE. Drought stress also increased WUE relative to the control but lowered transpiration rate responses to VPD in contrasts to HS and HS×Salinity treated plants, which increased their transpiration rates in response to increasing VPD. Salinity treatments increased sodium content (Na+) in both shoots and roots. No HS effect was observed in shoot Na+ accumulation, but HS reduced Na+ in roots under the Drought×Salinity treatment. Strong interactions between drought and salinity were observed for shoot and root Na+, Na+/K+, and shoot K+, showing that spinach accumulates Na+ and reduces K+ when drought and salinity stress are combined. HS had no apparent effect on leaf metabolites. Drought and salinity differentially impacted MDA, proline, and antioxidant content and activities, while HS showed no effect. Drought stress significantly increased MDA and proline while reducing TPC, TFC, ABTS, and FRAP. Salinity stress significantly decreased MDA, TPC, ABTS, FICA, and FRAP. In conclusion, HS improved overall spinach growth and WUE while decreasing root Na accumulation, and subsequently enhancing spinach stress tolerance.

Anderson-Fabryjeva bolest metabolička je bolest nakupljanja glikolipida u lizosomima. Multidisiciplinarni pristup neophodan je za rano prepoznavanje, liječenje i prevenciju komplikacija u oboljelih. Ove smjernice nadopuna su smjernica publiciranih u ime Referentnog centra za rijetke i metaboličke bolesti 2014. godine u Liječničkom vjesniku s obzirom na nove dijagnostičke postupke, biljege i terapijske opcije, suradnjom specijalista iz centara izvrsnosti te multidisciplinarnog tima Referentnog centra za rijetke i metaboličke bolesti odraslih Ministarstva zdravstva Republike Hrvatske. Smjernice su prezentirane na godišnjem sastanku Hrvatskog društva za rijetke bolesti Hrvatskoga liječničkog zbora te su jednoglasno prihvaćene.

Established in 1985, the Cross-Commodity Publication Award recognizes authors of the most outstanding paper on horticultural cross-commodity research, including broadly applicable methodology, pre- and postharvest physiology, genetics, anatomy, morphology, ecology, crop production systems, modeling, and management, published in the previous year’s issues of the Journal of the American Society for Horticultural Science (JASHS), HortScience, or HortTechnology. Through the 39-year span (1985–2023), there were 38 papers that have been awarded (Table 1). Among all papers, two of them were published in HortTechnology, nine in HortScience, and 27 in the JASHS. Most of the awarded papers were basic research, which was aiming to understand the occurrence of a phenomenon and the response of plants; and applicable methodology, which was developed to facilitate efficient phenotyping or plant propagation and production. In addition, most of the studies were conducted under controlled environment and laboratory conditions, and there were several papers studying multiple crops spanning from fruits, vegetables, and ornamentals within one experimental set.

The goal of this study was to characterize the bacterial diversity on different melon varieties grown in different regions of the US, and determine the influence that region, rind netting, and variety of melon has on the composition of the melon microbiome. Assessing the bacterial diversity of the microbiome on the melon rind can identify antagonistic and protagonistic bacteria for foodborne pathogens and spoilage organisms to improve melon safety, prolong shelf-life, and/or improve overall plant health. Bacterial community composition of melons (n = 603) grown in seven locations over a four-year period were used for 16S rRNA gene amplicon sequencing and analysis to identify bacterial diversity and constituents. Statistically significant differences in alpha diversity based on the rind netting and growing region (p < 0.01) were found among the melon samples. Principal Coordinate Analysis based on the Bray-Curtis dissimilarity distance matrix found that the melon bacterial communities clustered more by region rather than melon variety (R2 value: 0.09 & R2 value: 0.02 respectively). Taxonomic profiling among the growing regions found Enterobacteriaceae, Bacillaceae, Microbacteriaceae, and Pseudomonadaceae present on the different melon rinds at an abundance of ≥ 0.1%, but no specific core microbiome was found for netted melons. However, a core of Pseudomonadaceae, Bacillaceae, and Exiguobacteraceae were found for non-netted melons. The results of this study indicate that bacterial diversity is driven more by the region that the melons were grown in compared to rind netting or melon type. Establishing the foundation for regional differences could improve melon safety, shelf-life, and quality as well as the consumers' health.

Identifying tomato genotypes that can thrive and produce abundantly under arid climatic conditions and addressing the growing food demand caused by population growth are pressing concerns for food security. This research aimed to assess the growth, physiological, phenological, fruit yield, and postharvest quality of tomato genotypes cultivated in an organic hydroponic system in Qatar, where abiotic stress conditions prevail. Ten different tomato genotypes were carefully evaluated, and comprehensive data regarding their growth and development were collected and analyzed. The performance of these tomato genotypes across all traits related to yield and quality showed significant variations. Notably, the ‘Velocity’ and ‘Sigma’ genotypes consistently exhibited robust vegetative growth and improved phenological characteristics compared with the other tomato cultivars. Specifically, ‘Velocity’ and ‘Sigma’ displayed increased leaf assimilation rates (35% and 32%), stomatal conductance (14% and 11%), and reduced transpiration loss (50% and 44%) compared with ‘SV4129TH’. These genotypes also showed lower electrolyte leakage (32% and 28%) and maintained higher intercellular CO2 concentrations. Furthermore, ‘Velocity’ exhibited an accelerated flowering pattern, with the first flowering occurring 4 days sooner and 50% flowering occurring 5 days sooner than that of ‘SV4129TH’. ‘Velocity’ also demonstrated superior fruit set (14%), pollen viability (24%), and fewer incidences of flower drops (36%) compared with ‘SV4129TH’. Notably, ‘Velocity’ outperformed ‘SV4129TH’ in terms of marketable fruit yields, with a 32% higher yield. In addition to its impressive yield, ‘Velocity’ exhibited superior postharvest quality, including firmness, Brix level, acidity, and color. Therefore, overall, ‘Velocity’ and ‘Sigma’ emerged as promising genotypes with strong abiotic stress tolerance capabilities. The correlation analysis of these traits provided valuable insights into the selection and breeding of genotypes that can withstand abiotic stress conditions, laying the foundation for effective comparisons and selections of genotypes suitable for organic hydroponic cultivation in stressful environments.

Ancient DNA research in the past decade has revealed that European population structure changed dramatically in the prehistoric period (14,000–3000 years before present, YBP), reflecting the widespread introduction of Neolithic farmer and Bronze Age Steppe ancestries. However, little is known about how population structure changed from the historical period onward (3000 YBP - present). To address this, we collected whole genomes from 204 individuals from Europe and the Mediterranean, many of which are the first historical period genomes from their region (e.g. Armenia and France). We found that most regions show remarkable inter-individual heterogeneity. At least 7% of historical individuals carry ancestry uncommon in the region where they were sampled, some indicating cross-Mediterranean contacts. Despite this high level of mobility, overall population structure across western Eurasia is relatively stable through the historical period up to the present, mirroring geography. We show that, under standard population genetics models with local panmixia, the observed level of dispersal would lead to a collapse of population structure. Persistent population structure thus suggests a lower effective migration rate than indicated by the observed dispersal. We hypothesize that this phenomenon can be explained by extensive transient dispersal arising from drastically improved transportation networks and the Roman Empire’s mobilization of people for trade, labor, and military. This work highlights the utility of ancient DNA in elucidating finer scale human population dynamics in recent history.

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A heart transplant is the gold standard treatment for end stage heart failure. Preservation of the donor heart during its transfer from the hospital of the donor to that of the recipient has a significant impact on the outcome of the transplant procedure. Icebox storage is a conventional method utilized for this purpose that may not provide uniform cooling of the donor heart and does not allow monitoring of the temperature of the donor heart during preservation.1 Paragonix SherpaPak Cardiac Transport System (CTS), one of the leading FDA-cleared and CE-marked preservation devices for heart transportation, offers a sterile, controlled environment that is clinically proven to minimize post-transplant complications. In our region University Hospital Centre Zagreb has used it for transport of the heart eight times so far. With this CTS we suspended the donor heart in a preservation solution for even cooling in a pressure-controlled, leak-proof, single-use, rigid canister, that provides a consistent temperature range, prevents cold injury, and offers real-time monitoring and data reporting. SherpaPak was recently introduced into our human heart transplant procedure, so the experience is minimal, but so far we are very satisfied, due to uniform hypothermia, continuous monitoring, and single use transport containers. If we compare short term post-transplant outcomes, and utilized data collected by the GUARDIAN-Heart Registry (the world’s largest clinical database specifically dedicated to heart preservation), now with over 1500 enrolled patients who have undergone heart transplantation, the data generated by the researchers continues to show improved clinical outcomes when utilizing Advanced Organ Preservation with the SherpaPak in a direct comparison to traditional ice storage. We are satisfied witnessing a paradigm shift in the standard of care for donor organ preservation, and we are thrilled to be at the forefront of that movement, providing every possible advantage for our transplant patients.New case studies can be used in randomized trial, especially those with prolonged ischemia times in a few years’ time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]