Finally, I suggest that narrative ethics can be a powerful tool for mitigating oppressive practices in medicine if we couple it with critical analysis that enables us to understand the power dynamics at play in storytelling.Ultrasound stimulation is an emerging noninvasive option in treating neuropsychiatric disorders. The present study investigates the behavioral alterations resulting from ultrasound stimulation on the nucleus accumbens (NAc) in freely moving mice. Our results show that an acute ultrasound stimulation on the NAc, rather than the visual cortex or auditory cortex, led to a pronounced avoidance behavior, while repeated NAc ultrasound stimulation resulted in an obvious conditioned place aversion with changes in synaptic protein (GluA1/2 subunit) expression. Notably, NAc ultrasound stimulation suppressed the morphine-induced conditioned place preference. The results provide evidence that NAc ultrasound stimulation can be applied as a potential noninvasive therapeutic option in treating psychiatric disorders.Alkaligrass (Puccinellia tenuiflora) is a monocotyledonous halophytic forage grass widely distributed in Northern China. It belongs to the Gramineae family and shares a close phylogenetic relationship with the cereal crops, wheat and barley. Here, we present a high-quality chromosome-level genome sequence of alkaligrass assembled from Illumina, PacBio and 10× Genomics reads combined with genome-wide chromosome conformation capture (Hi-C) data. The ∼1.50 Gb assembled alkaligrass genome encodes 38,387 protein-coding genes, and 54.9% of the assembly are transposable elements, with long terminal repeats being the most abundant. Comparative genomic analysis coupled with stress-treated transcriptome profiling uncovers a set of unique saline- and alkaline-responsive genes in alkaligrass. The high-quality genome assembly and the identified stress related genes in alkaligrass provide an important resource for evolutionary genomic studies in Gramineae and facilitate further understanding of molecular mechanisms underlying stress tolerance in monocotyledonous halophytes. The alkaligrass genome data is freely available at http//xhhuanglab.cn/data/alkaligrass.html.PURPOSE MYC-driven medulloblastomas are highly aggressive childhood tumors with dismal outcomes and a lack of new treatment paradigms. We identified that targeting replication stress through WEE1 inhibition to suppress the S-phase replication checkpoint, combined with the attenuation of nucleotide synthesis with gemcitabine, is an effective strategy to induce apoptosis in MYC-driven medulloblastoma that could be rapidly translated into early phase clinical trials in children. Attenuation of replication stress is a key component of MYC-driven oncogenesis. Previous studies revealed a vulnerability in MYC medulloblastoma through WEE1 inhibition. Here, we focused on elucidating combinations of agents to synergize with WEE1 inhibition and drive replication stress toward cell death. METHODS We first analyzed WEE1 expression in patient tissues by immunohistochemistry. Next, we used high-throughput drug screens to identify agents that would synergize with WEE1 inhibition. Synergy was confirmed by in vitro live cell imaging, ex vivo slice culture models, and in vivo studies using orthotopic and flank xenograft models. RESULTS WEE1 expression was significantly higher in Group 3 and 4 medulloblastoma patients. The WEE1 inhibitor AZD1775 synergized with inhibitors of nucleotide synthesis, including gemcitabine. AZD1775 with gemcitabine suppressed proliferation and induced apoptosis. Ex vivo modeling demonstrated efficacy in Group 3 medulloblastoma patients, and in vivo modeling confirmed that combining AZD1775 and gemcitabine effectively suppressed tumor growth. CONCLUSION Our results identified a potent new synergistic treatment combination for MYC-driven medulloblastoma that warrants exploration in early phase clinical trials.Given the importance of pork in the Bhutanese diet and to enhance food security, the Government of Bhutan has generated policies to promote development of the swine sector in the country. One of the main threats to swine farming is classical swine fever (CSF), a transboundary disease of wild and domestic swine thought to be enzootic in the country. In 2018, three outbreaks of CSF were notified in Bhutan. The type of animals, their vaccine status, and the aftermath of these outbreaks highlight the interplay of epidemiological and context-specific factors that may result in CSF undermining the emerging Bhutanese swine sector. This communication reports on the CSF outbreaks of 2018, discusses some of the challenges posed by these events, and proposes some research priorities.Aromatic prenyltransferases (PTases), including ABBA-type and dimethylallyl tryptophan synthase (DMATS)-type enzymes from bacteria and fungi, play important role for diversification of the natural products and improvement of the biological activities. For a decade, the characterization of enzymes and enzymatic synthesis of prenylated compounds by using ABBA-type and DMATS-type PTases have been demonstrated. Here, I introduce several examples of the studies on chemoenzymatic synthesis of unnatural prenylated compounds and the enzyme engineering of ABBA-type and DMATS-type PTases.Multimorbidity is frequent and represents a significant burden for patients and healthcare systems.  https://www.selleckchem.com/products/Furosemide(Lasix).html  However, there are limited data on the most common combinations of comorbidities in multimorbid patients. We aimed to describe and quantify the most common combinations of comorbidities in multimorbid medical inpatients. We used a large retrospective cohort of adults discharged from the medical department of 11 hospitals across 3 countries (USA, Switzerland, and Israel) between 2010 and 2011. Diseases were classified into acute versus chronic. Chronic diseases were grouped into clinically meaningful categories of comorbidities. We identified the most prevalent combinations of comorbidities and compared the observed and expected prevalence of the combinations. We assessed the distribution of acute and chronic diseases and the median number of body systems in relationship to the total number of diseases. Eighty-six percent (n = 126,828/147,806) of the patients were multimorbid (≥ 2 chronic diseases), with a median of five chronic diseases; 13% of the patients had ≥ 10 chronic diseases.