Diospyros kaki (D. kaki) has been cultivated throughout Eastern Asia for hundreds of years. D. kaki contains various biological active compounds, such as amino acids, carotenoids, flavonoids, tannins, catechins and vitamin A. Previous studies have shown that D. kaki has beneficial effects on homeostasis, constipation, hypertension, atherosclerosis and allergic dermatitis and is a good source of ...

The evolution of cis regulatory elements (enhancers) of developmentally regulated genes plays a large role in the evolution of animal morphology. However, the mutational path of enhancer evolution--the number, origin, effect, and order of mutations that alter enhancer function--has not been elucidated. Here, we localized a suite of substitutions in a modular enhancer of the ebony locus responsi...

Convergent evolution provides a type of natural replication that can be exploited to understand the roles of contingency and constraint in the evolution of phenotypes and the gene networks that control their development. For sex-specific traits, convergence offers the additional opportunity for testing whether the same gene networks follow different evolutionary trends in males versus females. ...

Fruit quality and productivity datasets, obtained over two seasons from 24 New Zealand persimmon orchards, were associated with a self organising map trained on the spatial coordinates and geographic region of each orchard. Using this approach, a summary representation of the geographic distribution of the orchards was obtained from the projection plane of the self organising map. By overlaying...

Diospyrobezoars are a subtype of phytobezoars caused by excessive consumption of persimmons, which contain large amounts of tannins. In contrast to phytobezoars, diospyrobezoars have a harder consistency than other bezoars, making them more difficult to break up both chemically and endoscopically. We have previously reported successful dissolution of phytobezoars with diet soda and cellulase. A...

This paper will first review the early concerns about China's entry to the WTO. Then we will evaluate the preliminary impact of the WTO membership on the Chinese economy, which turned out to be better than expected. We also discuss the current international debate on the Chinese currency renminbi revaluation and suggest that a gradual improvement of the current Chinese rigid exchange rate syste...