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BackgroundAmong low-flow vascular malformations, venous malformations are relatively frequent. The pathological patterns vary in severity and are generally characterized by dilated vessels and low-flow blood that over time can organize into phleboliths. Sometimes small capillary and/or lymphatic vessels may be associated, micro- and/or macro-shunts may form alone or in different combinations, and finally adipose tissue may be interposed between the malformed vessels. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is a crucial examination for confirming venous malformations because it can accurately identify different features of the lesions.ObjectiveThe aim of our study was to compare MRI and histopathological findings of venous malformations in children to assess the possibilities and limitations of MRI.Materials and methodsIn a retrospective study, two observers independently evaluated the contrast-enhanced MRI of 26 children with venous malformations. Several radiological parameters were considered and compared with histopathological findings. The agreement between the interobserver radiological evaluation and between histopathological and radiological diagnosis was verified using Cohen’s kappa.ResultsMRI interobserver agreement was excellent for micro-shunts and good for the remaining findings. The radiological-pathological agreement was perfect for the presence/absence of phleboliths and of macro-shunts and almost perfect for the presence of intralesional adipose tissue, lymphatic component, and micro-shunts.ConclusionMRI in venous malformations can detect the presence of phleboliths, adipose tissue, and lymphatic components with excellent accuracy and good to excellent interobserver agreement. Furthermore, MR angiography can detect micro-shunts in simple and combined venous malformations with substantial agreement with histopathological findings.

Ultra-small, magic-sized metal nanoclusters represent an important new class of materials with properties between molecules and particles. However, their small size challenges the conventional methods for structure characterization. Here we present the structure of ultra-stable Au 144 (SR) 60 magic-sized nanoclusters obtained from atomic pair distribution function analysis of X-ray powder diffraction data. The study reveals structural polymorphism in these archetypal nanoclusters. In addition to confirming the theoretically predicted icosahedral-cored cluster, we also find samples with a truncated decahedral core structure, with some samples exhibiting a coexistence of both cluster structures. Although the clusters are monodisperse in size, structural diversity is apparent. The discovery of polymorphism may open up a new dimension in nanoscale engineering. Gold nanoclusters are important nanomaterials but their structural assignment can be challenging if single crystals can’t be grown. Here, the authors use pair distribution function analysis of X-ray powder diffraction data for Au 144 (SR) 60 nanoclusters, and show that they exhibit polymorphism.

The postharvest phase is an important step in the fruit production chain. Fig is an especially perishable fruit, which has encouraged researchers to study the effects of various substances on the postharvest life of this commodity. The objective of the present work was to evaluate the effects of calcium chloride (CaCl₂) and 1-methylcyclopropene (1-MCP) on the postharvest quality of the ‘Roxo-de-Valinhos’ fig cultivar. This study aimed to verify the effects of applying a 4% solution of CaCl₂ and a 1% solution of 1-MCP to figs and evaluating at four different storage times (0, 2, 4, and 6 days). The results showed that a 4% solution of CaCl₂ promoted better firmness, and when CaCl₂ at 4% solution was applied in combination with 1-MCP at 10 μg l-1, the maturation index increased. In contrast, the 1-MCP treatment alone did not improve the postharvest quality of ‘Roxo-de-Valinhos’ ripe fig. We conclude that application of 4% solution of CaCl₂ and 1-MCP at 10 μg l-1 promote firmness and increase maturation index of ‘Roxo-de-Valinhos’ figs.

In this dissertation I examine the representation of confessional performances in novels belonging to the Gothic tradition. I begin with a consideration of that familiar Gothic locus of dread and fascination, the Roman Catholic confessional. Making use of Michel Foucault's thesis that confessional procedures have been, in Post-Reformation Western culture, a pervasive means of constituting the identity of individuals and inscribing them within a system of power relationships, I show how the first Gothic novelists--in their depiction of the mysteries of the confessional--are, in fact, exploring the mysteries of personal identity and its origins in discourse. Confessional narratives, throughout the Gothic tradition, are shown to be generated, inhabited, and haunted by a conflict that can never be resolved or even definitively mapped out: the confessant's aspirations towards \"clearness of experience and expression\" are forever engaged in a struggle with the confining and mystifying powers of a frighteningly extensive and seemingly archaic \"verbal-ideological\" order. In early, classically Gothic, works (such as Ann Radcliffe's The Italian and Charles R. Maturin's Melmoth the Wanderer) that order takes the form of a tyrannical Roman Catholic Church; in later works, blending Gothic and realist traditions (such as Charlotte Bronte's Villette and Charles Dicken's Bleak House, that order is shown to be culture itself (whose relationship to the individual is pictured in essentially Freudian terms). If all of our experience is, as Bakhtin has claimed, situated within, and mediated by, a \"verbal-ideological\" environment made up of words already spoken, then we might say that novelists in the Gothic tradition are characteristically distrustful of this environment. One source of this distrust can be located in a traditional imperative of Protestant hermeneutics: the individual is obligated to question and to struggle against all forces that might impede the clarity of vision needed to articulate the story of the self. While the Gothic distrust of linguistic and narrative constructs may be rooted in a traditional religious past, it also anticipates the epistemological scepticism of modern movements in interpretive theory, such as Freudianism and deconstruction.

Purpose The aim of the present study was to estimate the 1 year prevalence and recovery rate of self-reported chemosensory dysfunction in a series of subjects with previous mild-to-moderate symptomatic COVID-19. Methods Prospective study based on the SNOT-22, item “sense of smell or taste” and additional outcomes. Results 268/315 patients (85.1%) completing the survey at baseline also completed the follow-up interview. The 12 months prevalence of self-reported COVID-19 associated chemosensory dysfunction was 21.3% (95% CI 16.5–26.7%) . Of the 187 patients who complained of COVID-19 associated chemosensory dysfunction at baseline, 130 (69.5%; 95% CI 62.4–76.0%) reported complete resolution of smell or taste impairment, 41 (21.9%) reported a decrease in the severity, and 16 (8.6%) reported the symptom was unchanged or worse 1 year after onset. The risk of persistence was higher for patients reporting a baseline SNOT-22 score ≥ 4 (OR = 3.32; 95% CI 1.32–8.36) as well as for those requiring ≥ 22 days for a negative swab (OR = 2.18; 95% CI 1.12–4.27). Conclusion A substantial proportion of patients with previous mild-to-moderate symptomatic COVID-19 characterized by new onset of chemosensory dysfunction still complained on altered sense of smell or taste 1 year after the onset.

Au144(SC8H9)60, a colloidal cluster with a 1.7 nm inorganic diameter, exhibits both metallic and molecular-like behavior, along with a distribution of unfilled superatom states. Its 1.7–2.5 eV electronic transitions were probed with variable-temperature, variable-field magnetic circular dichroism (VTV H ⇀ -MCD), revealing two energy regions with distinct responses. Below 2.0 eV, MCD transitions exhibited diverse VTV H ⇀ responses, including both paramagnetic and diamagnetic behavior, implicating multiple nondegenerate initial states originating within the open-shell superatom S, D, and H HOMO manifold. Above 2.0 eV, uniform field-dependent responses suggested spin-vibronic coupling due to metal–ligand mixing. The Au144(SC8H9)60 magneto-optical response is surprisingly complex given the system’s high electronic-state density; discrete structural domains of the cluster, including the superatomic metal core, likely contribute to this diversity. These results show the potential to investigate and tailor the magneto-optical and spin properties of these clusters through structurally precise synthesis and also identify superatomic colloids as candidates for advancing spin-based technologies.

The Malagasy have been shown to be a genetically admixed population combining parental lineages with African and South East Asian ancestry. In the present paper, we fit the Malagasy admixture history in a highly resolved phylogeographic framework by typing a large set of mitochondrial DNA and Y DNA markers in unrelated individuals from inland (Merina) and coastal (Antandroy, Antanosy, and Antaisaka) ethnic groups. This allowed performance of a multilevel analysis in which the diversity among main ethnic divisions, lineage ancestries, and modes of inheritance could be concurrently evaluated. Admixture was confirmed to result from the encounter of African and Southeast Asian people with minor recent male contributions from Europe. However, new scenarios are depicted about Malagasy admixture history. The distribution of ancestral components was ethnic and sex biased, with the Asian ancestry appearing more conserved in the female than in the male gene pool and in inland than in coastal groups. A statistic based on haplotype sharing (D[sub]HS), showing low sampling error and time linearity over the last 200 generations, was introduced here for the first time and helped to integrate our results with linguistic and archeological data. The focus about the origin of Malagasy lineages was enlarged in space and pushed back in time. Homelands could not be pinpointed but appeared to comprise two vast areas containing different populations from sub-Saharan Africa and South East Asia. The pattern of diffusion of uniparental lineages was compatible with at least two events: a primary admixture of proto-Malay people with Bantu speakers bearing a western-like pool of haplotypes, followed by a secondary flow of Southeastern Bantu speakers unpaired for gender (mainly male driven) and geography (mainly coastal). [PUBLICATION ABSTRACT]

Au (SC H ) , a colloidal cluster with a 1.7 nm inorganic diameter, exhibits both metallic and molecular-like behavior, along with a distribution of unfilled superatom states. Its 1.7-2.5 eV electronic transitions were probed with variable-temperature, variable-field magnetic circular dichroism (VTV -MCD), revealing two energy regions with distinct responses. Below 2.0 eV, MCD transitions exhibited diverse VTV responses, including both paramagnetic and diamagnetic behavior, implicating multiple nondegenerate initial states originating within the open-shell superatom S, D, and H HOMO manifold. Above 2.0 eV, uniform field-dependent responses suggested spin-vibronic coupling due to metal-ligand mixing. The Au (SC H ) magneto-optical response is surprisingly complex given the system's high electronic-state density; discrete structural domains of the cluster, including the superatomic metal core, likely contribute to this diversity. These results show the potential to investigate and tailor the magneto-optical and spin properties of these clusters through structurally precise synthesis and also identify superatomic colloids as candidates for advancing spin-based technologies.

In order to attain a finer reconstruction of the peopling of southern and central-eastern Europe from the Levant, we determined the frequencies of eight lineages internal to the Y chromosomal haplogroup J, defined by biallelic markers, in 22 population samples obtained with a fine-grained sampling scheme. Our results partially resolve a major multifurcation of lineages within the haplogroup. Analyses of molecular variance show that the area covered by haplogroup J dispersal is characterized by a significant degree of molecular radiation for unique event polymorphisms within the haplogroup, with a higher incidence of the most derived sub-haplogroups on the northern Mediterranean coast, from Turkey westward; here, J diversity is not simply a subset of that present in the area in which this haplogroup first originated. Dating estimates, based on simple tandem repeat loci (STR) diversity within each lineage, confirmed the presence of a major population structuring at the time of spread of haplogroup J in Europe and a punctuation in the peopling of this continent in the post-Neolithic, compatible with the expansion of the Greek world. We also present here, for the first time, a novel method for comparative dating of lineages, free of assumptions of STR mutation rates.

Background/Aims: Present-day Iran has long represented a natural hub for the expansion of human genes and cultures. That being so, the overlapping of prehistoric and more recent demographic events interacting at different time scales with geographical and cultural barriers has yielded a tangled patchwork of anthropological types within this narrow area. This study aims to comprehensively evaluate this ethnic mosaic by depicting a fine-grained picture of the Iranian mitochondrial landscape. Methods: mtDNA variability at both HVS-I and coding regions was surveyed in 718 unrelated individuals belonging to 14 Iranian ethnic groups characterized by different languages, religions and patterns of subsistence. Results: A discordant pattern of high ethno-linguistic and low mtDNA heterogeneity was observed for the whole examined Iranian sample. Geographical factors and cultural/linguistic differences actually represented barriers to matrilineal gene flow only for the Baloch, Lur from Yasouj, Zoroastrian and Jewish groups, for which unusual reduced levels of mtDNA variability and high inter-population distances were found. Conclusion: Deep rooting genealogies and endogamy in a few of the examined ethnic groups might have preserved ancestral lineages that can be representative of Proto-Indo-Iranian or prehistoric mitochondrial profiles which survived relatively recent external contributions to the Iranian gene pool.