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Life and health

72,234 articles

Caudate nucleus

Caudate nucleus (nucleus caudatus): C-shaped dorsal striatum component beside the lateral ventricle, with head, body, and tail; GABAergic medium spiny neurons, frontal-to-tail cortical inputs, and roles in Huntington, Parkinson, OCD, and ADHD.

Caudipteryx

Caudipteryx, named for "tail feather," is a small basal oviraptorosaur dinosaur from the Early Cretaceous Yixian Formation of Liaoning, China, described in 1998 and among the first found with vaned feathers.

Caudoviricetes

Caudoviricetes is a class of tailed, double-stranded DNA viruses with icosahedral heads that infect bacteria and archaea, established by the ICTV in 2022 to replace the former order Caudovirales and the families Myoviridae, Siphoviridae, and Podoviridae.

Caul

Caul: amniotic membrane remaining on a newborn's head or face at birth; en caul birth is delivery inside an intact amniotic sac. Rare (about 1.5% in a Swedish cohort), used deliberately in preterm cesarean delivery, and long sold as a drowning-preventing talisman.

Cauliflower

Cauliflower (Brassica oleracea var. botrytis) is a cool-season vegetable grown for its edible head, or curd; it originated on the eastern Mediterranean coast and reached Italy from Cyprus around 1490.

Cauliflower ear

Cauliflower ear, also known as wrestler's ear, is a lumpy, shriveled deformity of the external ear caused by blunt trauma that cuts off the cartilage's blood supply.

Cauliflower mosaic virus

Cauliflower mosaic virus (CaMV), a plant pararetrovirus in the family Caulimoviridae, genus Caulimovirus, species Caulimovirus tessellobrassicae; first DNA-containing plant virus, circular dsDNA genome, aphid-transmitted, and source of the 35S promoter used in over 80% of GM plants.

Caulimoviridae

Caulimoviridae, the plant pararetroviruses, are non-enveloped reverse-transcribing plant viruses with circular dsDNA genomes of 7.1–9.8 kbp in the order Ortervirales; 11 genera including Badnavirus and Caulimovirus, episomal replication, and endogenous elements widespread in plant genomes.

Caulobacter

Caulobacter, type species Caulobacter vibrioides (Caulobacter crescentus as synonym), is a genus of stalked, gram-negative aquatic alphaproteobacteria with a dimorphic swarmer-stalked life cycle and asymmetric division, the main model for the bacterial cell cycle.

Cause of death

Cause of death: the WHO-certified medical and statistical determination of why a person died. Covers immediate, underlying, and contributory causes, ICD-10/ICD-11 coding, death certificate accuracy, leading causes, and verbal autopsy.

Causes of autism

Causes of autism: ASD arises from combined genetic and environmental factors; heritability about 80-86%, rare de novo variants plus common-variant load, prenatal risks, and no vaccine link per WHO.

Causes of cancer

Causes of cancer: genetic changes from cell-division errors, carcinogens (tobacco, UV, asbestos, alcohol), infections (HPV, H. pylori, hepatitis), and inherited mutations; about 37-38% of cases are preventable.

Causes of erectile dysfunction

Erectile dysfunction is caused in over 90% of cases by physical problems, most often vascular disease and diabetes, with medications, pelvic surgery, and hormonal disorders also contributing.

Causes of schizophrenia

Causes of schizophrenia: a multifactorial disorder arising from polygenic risk (no single gene; identical-twin concordance 1 in 2), prenatal and birth complications, cannabis and drug use, stress triggers, and neurodevelopmental and dopamine-glutamate brain mechanisms.

Causus

Causus, night adders, is a genus of small African viperid snakes (300–800 mm) in Viperinae, sister to all other viperine genera, with mild cytotoxic venom, oviparous reproduction, round pupils, and seven to eight recognized species.

Cauterization

Cauterization: destroying tissue by chemical corrosion, electricity, or heat to remove tissue or seal vessels. Covers electrocautery vs electrosurgery, monopolar/bipolar settings, argon plasma coagulation, epistaxis cautery, complications, and IEC 60601-2-2 regulation.

CAV1

CAV1 (caveolin 1, VIP21) is the human chromosome 7q31.2 gene encoding caveolin-1, the 22-kDa scaffolding protein essential for caveolae formation; mutations cause lipodystrophies.

CAV3

CAV3 (caveolin 3, also LQT9, LGMD1C, RMD2, VIP21) is a human gene at 3p25.3 encoding caveolin-3, the muscle-specific caveolin forming caveolae; mutations cause LGMD-1C, rippling muscle disease, distal myopathy, hyperCKemia, and long QT syndrome 9.

Cavalier King Charles Spaniel

Cavalier King Charles Spaniel: British toy spaniel breed named for Charles II, revived in 1926 via Roswell Eldridge's Crufts prizes, UK Kennel Club recognition 1945, AKC 1995/1996; prone to mitral valve disease and syringomyelia.

Cavatappi

Cavatappi (also sold as Cellentani, Barilla's trademark) is a short, ridged, hollow corkscrew-shaped pasta from Southern Italy, made without eggs, used in mac and cheese, baked casseroles, and pasta salads.

Cave bear

Cave bear (Ursus spelaeus), extinct Pleistocene European bear, sister to the brown/polar bear clade (divergence 1.6 Ma), largely vegetarian, cave-hibernating, extinct in the Alps c. 27,800 cal yr BP with partial genomic survival in brown bears.

Cavendish banana

Cavendish banana: triploid AAA Musa acuminata dessert cultivar group dominating world trade, about 50 million tonnes yearly and 99% of exports. Replaced Gros Michel in the 1960s; now threatened by Panama disease TR4.

Caveolin

Caveolin (caveolin-1, -2, -3; CAV1/CAV2/CAV3): vertebrate hairpin membrane proteins forming the coat of caveolae, 50-100 nm plasma membrane invaginations; Cav-1 essential for caveolae, linked to lipodystrophy, muscular dystrophy, tumor suppression.

Cavernous sinus

Cavernous sinus: paired dural venous sinus beside the sella turcica containing the internal carotid artery and cranial nerves III, IV, V1, V2, VI; drains ophthalmic and cerebral veins to the petrosal sinuses.

Cavernous sinus syndromes

Cavernous sinus syndromes: cranial nerve III–VI and sympathetic involvement from lesions of the cavernous sinus; causes include tumors (30%), vascular disease, thrombosis, and Tolosa-Hunt syndrome.

Cavernous sinus thrombosis

Cavernous sinus thrombosis (CST), septic or aseptic clot in the cavernous sinus at the skull base; usually a complication of facial or sinus infection, often Staphylococcus aureus, treated with IV antibiotics, heparin, steroids, and surgery.

Cavia

Cavia is a South American rodent genus (cavies and guinea pigs, family Caviidae, Pallas 1766) with five wild species plus the domestic guinea pig C. porcellus, domesticated in the Andes from C. tschudii and dispersed worldwide.

Caviar

Caviar, also khaviar, is salt-cured sturgeon roe, historically from the Caspian and Black Seas and now produced almost entirely by aquaculture, notably China's Kaluga Queen, under CITES trade controls.

Caviidae

Caviidae (cavy family, Fischer de Waldheim 1817) are South American hystricognath rodents in three subfamilies: Caviinae (guinea pigs), Dolichotinae (maras), and Hydrochoerinae (capybaras, rock cavies), split about 13.5 mya.

CAVIN1

CAVIN1 (PTRF, cavin-1) is the human gene encoding cavin-1, the essential scaffold protein for caveolae formation and a regulator of polymerase I rRNA transcription; mutations cause congenital generalized lipodystrophy type 4 with muscular dystrophy.