Stem cells are specialized cells that can renew themselves through cell division and can differentiate into multi-lineage cells. Mesenchymal stem cells are adult stem cells that exist in animal and human tissues. Mesenchymal stem cells have the ability to differentiate into mesodermal lineages, such as Leydig cells, adipocytes, osteocytes, and chondrocytes. Mesenchymal stem cells express cell surface markers, such as cluster of differentiation (CD) 29, CD44, CD73, CD90, CD105, and lack the expression of CD14, CD34, CD45 and HLA (human leukocyte antigen)-DR. Stem Leydig cells are one kind of mesenchymal stem cells, which are present in the interstitial compartment of testis. Stem Leydig cells are multipotent and can differentiate into Leydig cells, adipocytes, osteocytes, and chondrocytes. Stem Leydig cells have been isolated from rodent and human testes. Stem Leydig cells may have potential therapeutic values in several clinical applications, such as the treatment of male hypogonadism and infertility. In this review, we focus on the latest research on stem Leydig cells of both rodents and human, the expression of cell surface markers, culture, differentiation potential, and their applications.Dural metastases are uncommon findings and at diagnosis normally appear in disseminated stages of malignant tumors. Usually clinically silent, these could become symptomatic due to mass effect or after developing subdural collections. We present the case of a young woman recently operated from gastric cancer who presented consciousness deterioration and hemiparesis caused by subdural collection. During examination, the patient drastically worsens his neurological status due to an acute subdural bleeding within the subdural collection, which after pathological analysis was diagnosed of dural metastasis of gastric cancer. In malignancies associated with subdural collections it is important to suspect the coexistence of dural metastases and performing a contrast enhanced CT scan or Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) may help in the diagnosis. If surgery is indicated, it is mandatory to evacuate the tumor and involved dura which causes the accumulation of fluid and to coagulate the external tumor membrane to avoid re-bleeding.The National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) Taxonomy is widely applied in biomedical and ecological studies. Typical demands include querying taxonomy identifier (TaxIds) by taxonomy names, querying complete taxonomic lineages by TaxIds, listing descendants of given TaxIds, and others. However, existed tools are either limited in functionalities or inefficient in terms of runtime. In this work, we present TaxonKit, a command-line toolkit for comprehensive and efficient manipulation of NCBI Taxonomy data. TaxonKit comprises seven core subcommands providing functions, including TaxIds querying, listing, filtering, lineage retrieving and reformatting, lowest common ancestor computation, and TaxIds change tracking.  https://www.selleckchem.com/products/mrt67307.html  The practical functions, competitive processing performance, scalability with different scales of datasets and good accessibility could facilitate taxonomy data manipulations. TaxonKit provides free access under the permissive MIT license on GitHub, Brewsci, and Bioconda. The documents are also available at https//bioinf.shenwei.me/taxonkit/.Conventional coalescent inferences of population history make the critical assumption that the population under examination is panmictic. However, most populations are structured. This complicates the prevailing coalescent analyses and sometimes leads to inaccurate estimates. To develop a coalescent method unhampered by population structure, we perform two analyses. First, we demonstrate that the coalescent probability of two randomly sampled alleles from the immediate preceding generation (one generation back) is independent of population structure. Second, motivated by this finding, we propose a new coalescent method i-coalescent analysis. The i-coalescent analysis computes the instantaneous coalescent rate by using a phylogenetic tree of sampled alleles. Using simulated data, we broadly demonstrate the capability of i-coalescent analysis to accurately reconstruct population size dynamics of highly structured populations, although we find this method often requires larger sample sizes for structured populations than for panmictic populations. Overall, our results indicate i-coalescent analysis to be a useful tool, especially for the inference of population histories with intractable structure such as the developmental history of cell populations in the organs of complex organisms.To develop a new dose evaluation index, fit index (FI), to help evaluate the fit between isodose surfaces at different percentages of the prescription dose and the target volume. Two types of FI, differential and cumulative, were defined. The differential fit index (dFI) was defined as the ratio of the integral dose of volume occupied by an isodose surface to the integral dose of the planning target volume. The cumulative fit index (cFI) was defined as the integral of dFI from the minimum dose of clinical significance to the 100% prescription dose. Performance of the cFI was evaluated with virtual dose distributions. In addition, non-coplanar and coplanar VMAT plans of 20 brain metastasis cases were evaluated using the FI, and the results were compared with results from the dose gradient index (GI) and conformity index (CI). Correlations between cFI and GI, and between cFI and CI were studied and Pearson's correlation coefficients were calculated. dFI and cFI provided comprehensive and objective results in evaluating the dose fit between isodose surfaces at different percentages of the prescription dose and the target volume. Analysis showed a positive correlation between cFI and GI with a Pearson correlation coefficient of 0.928 (p less then 0.01) and a negative correlation between cFI and CI with a Pearson correlation coefficient of -0.831 (p less then 0.01). dFI and cFI were shown to be effective and convenient tools for evaluating the dose fit of a radiotherapy plan.Persons with spinal cord injury (SCI) have increased adiposity that may predispose to cardiovascular disease compared to those who are able-bodied (AB). The purpose of this study was to determine the relationships between dual energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA)-derived visceral adipose tissue (VAT) and biomarkers of lipid metabolism and insulin resistance in persons with chronic SCI. A prospective observational study in participants with chronic SCI and age- and gender-matched AB controls. The study was conducted at a Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center and Private Rehabilitation Hospital. The quantification of DXA-derived VAT volume (VATvol) and blood-derived markers of lipid and carbohydrate metabolism were determined in 100 SCI and 51 AB men. The VATvol was acquired from a total body DXA scan and analyzed using iDXA enCore CoreScan software (GE Lunar). Blood samples were collected for the serum lipid profile and plasma and glucose concentrations, with the latter two values used to calculate a measure of insulin resistance.