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The first inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectroscopy (ICP-OES) instrument became commercially available more than 50 years ago, in 1974. Over recent decades, it has emerged as a key spectroscopic technique for analyzing numerous elements, offering a powerful tool for elemental analysis at milliparticle (ppm) and parts-per-billion (ppb) levels. This comprehensive review highlights the applications of ICP-OES across various scientific disciplines, with a particular focus on pharmaceutical technology, illustrated through a practical solution.

Purpose: Our aim was to apply multiple discrete wavelet transformation (DWT) types to healthy light-adapted (cone) electroretinogram (ERG) signals in order to optimize DWT analysy in ERG. Oscillatory potentials (OP) were individually extracted from the signals and used to calculate an indicator for ERG analysis.Methods: Light-adapted (LA) 3.0 cd.s/m2 ISCEV standard ERGs were recorded from both eyes of 15 healthy volunteers (mean age: 36.9 ± 13.0 years old; 13 females). LA ERG signal components, such as b-wave and OPs, were analyzed using the discrete wavelet transformation (DWT). An index (%OPi) was proposed to estimate the individual oscillatory potentials (OP1-OP5) by calculating the coefficient ratio of the OP to b-wave. Multiple mother wavelet functions (i.e., Daubechies, Symlet, and Coiflet) with five orders were applied and compared statistically using Wilcoxon tests and paired t-test comparisons with Bonferroni posthoc analyses (p < 0.005). Results: OP4 shows the most energy at both low and high-frequency bands (80Hz and 160Hz), while OP2 has lower energy at the low-frequency band (80Hz) and higher energy at the high-frequency band (160Hz). The %OP2 is the largest among the five individual OPs. %OPs obtained with different wavelet functions differ from each other. Db2 and sym2 seem to be the optimal wavelets for analyzing light-adapted ERG components.Conclusion: Individual OPs of the light-adapted ERG obtained with the DWT analysis may characterize different levels of retinal dysfunction. The %OPi may serve as an indicator in ERG analysis.

The Common Carotid Artery plays a vital role in supplying the brain, and its bifurcation is susceptible to vascular diseases. It is often analyzed using computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations, but it is challenging to prescribe boundary conditions that approach patient-specific flow conditions. We examined six boundary condition (BC) groups to determine the most accurate flow conditions aligning with available measured data. We conducted CFD simulations on a stenotic carotid bifurcation, using patient-specific Doppler ultrasound sonography velocity measurements at the inlet and both outlets. Three BC methods used defined inlet flow rate and either constant pressure (Basic), Windkessel model, or constant flow ratio (Murray) at the outlets. Three other methods were defined with flow rates at two boundaries and constant pressure at the third one. Defining two boundary flow rates shows the closest results to physiologically valid data. However, the difficult Doppler measurements on the outlet branches can inaccurately amplify velocity amplitudes and may detect a false flow direction. Therefore, cross-sectional corrections were implemented to fit the outlet and inlet flow rates, while keeping the measured velocity histories.Our results show that the Murray and Basic methods, while easily available, exclude carotid-specific flow conditions by disregarding downstream flow resistances. We conclude that a Windkessel-method can produce the most accurate results without forcing outflow conditions. However, usually unavailable measurements are necessary for its application. Simulations with outlet-defined volume flow can also produce physiologically valid solutions but require the application of cross-sectional geometry correction.

We argue that the field of extracellular vesicle (EV) biology needs more transparent reporting to facilitate interpretation and replication of experiments. To achieve this, we describe EV-TRACK, a crowdsourcing knowledgebase (http://evtrack.org) that centralizes EV biology and methodology with the goal of stimulating authors, reviewers, editors and funders to put experimental guidelines into practice.

The expansion of the neocortex, a hallmark of mammalian evolution 1 , 2 , was accompanied by an increase in cerebellar neuron numbers 3 . However, little is known about the evolution of the cellular programmes underlying the development of the cerebellum in mammals. In this study we generated single-nucleus RNA-sequencing data for around 400,000 cells to trace the development of the cerebellum from early neurogenesis to adulthood in human, mouse and the marsupial opossum. We established a consensus classification of the cellular diversity in the developing mammalian cerebellum and validated it by spatial mapping in the fetal human cerebellum. Our cross-species analyses revealed largely conserved developmental dynamics of cell-type generation, except for Purkinje cells, for which we observed an expansion of early-born subtypes in the human lineage. Global transcriptome profiles, conserved cell-state markers and gene-expression trajectories across neuronal differentiation show that cerebellar cell-type-defining programmes have been overall preserved for at least 160 million years. However, we also identified many orthologous genes that gained or lost expression in cerebellar neural cell types in one of the species or evolved new expression trajectories during neuronal differentiation, indicating widespread gene repurposing at the cell-type level. In sum, our study unveils shared and lineage-specific gene-expression programmes governing the development of cerebellar cells and expands our understanding of mammalian brain evolution. Single-nucleus RNA-sequencing data from the cerebellum of human, mouse and opossum is used to analyse the developmental dynamics of cell types and states in mammalian cerebellum and provide evolutionary insights.

Prototheca microalgae were only recognized as pathogens of both humans and animals in the 1960s; however, since then, these microbes have been drawing increasing interest in both human and veterinary medicine. The first human outbreak of protothecosis in a tertiary care chemotherapy ward in 2018 further highlighted the need to understand in more depth and detail their ecology, etiology, pathogenesis and routes of transmission between different hosts, environments and habitats from a One Health perspective. Protothecal infections have been reported in a growing number of cattle herds around the world in recent decades, and Prototheca has become an important bovine mastitis pathogen in certain countries and regions. The survival of Prototheca in the environment and its ability to spread in the herd pose a serious challenge to the management of infected dairy farms. Prevention of the disease is particularly important, as there is no effective and reliable treatment for it and the chances of self-healing are minimal. Therefore, the development of more effective drugs is needed for the treatment of human and animal protothecosis. The prudent use of antibiotics and their replacement by alternative or preventive measures, when possible, may further contribute to the control of protothecal infections.

Microvascular flow imaging (MVFI) is an advanced Doppler ultrasound technique designed to detect slow-velocity blood flow in small-caliber microvessels. This technique is capable of realtime, highly detailed visualization of tumor vessels without using a contrast agent. MVFI has been recently applied for the characterization of focal liver lesions and has revealed typical vascularity distributions in multiple types thereof. Focal nodular hyperplasia (FNH) constitutes an important differential diagnosis of malignant liver tumors. In this essay, we provide iconographic documentation of the MVFI appearance of FNH and other common solid liver lesions. Identifying the typical patterns of vascularity, including the spoke-wheel pattern with MVFI, can expedite the diagnosis, spare patients from unnecessary procedures, and save costs.

This work was supported by the Lendulet Program of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences (GS), OTKA 83533 and by the Polish POIG grant 01.01.02-10-005/08 TESTOPLEK, supported by the EU through the European Regional Development Fund. Hajnalka Andrikovics is a recipient of the Janos Bolyai Research Scholarship from the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. We thank Dr. Camilo Toro and Dr. William Gahl of the NIH Undiagnosed Diseases Program for an affected patient specimen; that work was supported by the Intramural Research Program of the National Human Genome Research Institute and the Office of the Director of the NIH. We thank Lionel Arnaud (National Institute of Blood Transfusion (INTS), Paris, France) for helpful discussions.

The primordial germ cells (PGCs) are the precursors for both the oocytes and spermatogonia. Recently, a novel culture system was established for chicken PGCs, isolated from embryonic blood. The possibility of PGC long-term cultivation issues a new advance in germ cell preservation, biotechnology, and cell biology. We investigated the consequence of gga-miR-302b-5P (5P), gga-miR-302b-3P (3P) and dual inhibition (5P/3P) in two male and two female chicken PGC lines. In treated and control cell cultures, the cell number was calculated every four hours for three days by the XLS Imaging system. Comparing the cell number of control and treated lines on the first day, we found that male lines had a higher proliferation rate independently from the treatments. Compared to the untreated ones, the proliferation rate and the number of apoptotic cells were considerably reduced at gga-miR-302b-5P inhibition in all PGC lines on the third day of the cultivation. The control PGC lines showed a significantly higher proliferation rate than 3P inhibited lines on Day 3 in all PGC lines. Dual inhibition of gga-miR-302b mature miRNAs caused a slight reduction in proliferation rate, but the number of apoptotic cells increased dramatically. The information gathered by examining the factors affecting cell proliferation of PGCs can lead to new data in stem cell biology.

Background Male infertility is an increasing problem in all domestic species including man. Localization and identification of genes involved in defects causing male infertility provide valuable information of specific events in sperm development. Correct condensation of the sperm head and development of the acrosome are required for fertile sperm. In the Finnish Yorkshire pig population a knobbed acrosome defect (KAD) has been reported which appears to be of genetic origin. In previous studies we have shown that a large number of affected spermatozoa have a cystic swelling anterior to the apical part of the acrosome. Results Characterization of the knobbed acrosome affected sperm revealed that both the acrosomal granules and chromatin are affected. This type of KAD appears to be a previously unknown and serious form of the defect. A genome wide scan with PorcineSNP60 Genotyping BeadChip defined the KAD associated region within 0.7 Mbp on porcine chromosome 15. Two genes, STK17b and HECW2 , located within this region were sequenced. The expression of these genes appeared comparable in KA-affected and control boars. The known function of HECW2 in acrosome development highlighted this gene as a good candidate responsible for the KAD. One nonsynonymous SNP was identified within the HECW2 gene. However, as this mutation was found in homozygous state in individuals with normal sperm, this is not likely to be the causal mutation. Conclusions In this study we identified two candidate genes for a severe defect affecting both the sperm acrosome and chromatin that causes infertility. One of these genes, HECW2 , plays an important role in ubiquitination, a prerequisite for chromatin remodelling and acrosome formation, highlighting the involvement of this gene in the knobbed acrosome defect and male infertility.