Amygdalin is a occurring chemical compound best known for being falsely promoted as a cancer cure. It is found in many plants, but most notably in the seeds of apricots, bitter almonds, apples and plums. Amygdalin is classified as a cyanogenic glycoside because each amygdalin molecule includes a nitrile group, which can be released as the toxic cyanide anion by the action of a beta-glucosidase. Eating amygdalin will cause it to release cyanide in the human body, may lead to cyanide poisoning. Since the early 1950s, both amygdalin and a modified form named laetrile have been promoted as alternative cancer treatments under the misnomer vitamin B17. Scientific study has found them to be clinically ineffective in treating cancer, as well as toxic or lethal when taken by mouth due to cyanide poisoning; the promotion of laetrile to treat cancer has been described in the medical literature as a canonical example of quackery, as "the slickest, most sophisticated, the most remunerative cancer quack promotion in medical history".

Amygdalin is a cyanogenic glycoside derived from the aromatic amino acid phenylalanine. Amygdalin and prunasin are common among plants of the family Rosaceae the genus Prunus, Fabaceae, in other food plants, including flaxseed and manioc. Within these plants and the enzymes necessary to hydrolyze it are stored in separate locations so that they will mix in response to tissue damage; this provides a natural defense system. Amygdalin is contained in stone fruit kernels, such as almonds, apricot and plum, in the seeds of the apple. Benzaldehyde released from amygdalin provides a bitter flavor; because of a difference in a recessive gene called Sweet kernal, less amygdalin is present in nonbitter almond than bitter almond. In one study, bitter almond amygdalin concentrations ranged from 33–54 g/kg depending on variety. For one method of isolating amygdalin, the stones are removed from the fruit and cracked to obtain the kernels, which are dried in the sun or in ovens; the kernels are boiled in ethanol.

Natural amygdalin has the -configuration at the chiral phenyl center. Under mild basic conditions, this stereogenic center isomerizes. Although the synthesized version of amygdalin is the -epimer, the stereogenic center attached to the nitrile and phenyl groups epimerizes if the manufacturer does not store the compound correctly. Amygdalin is hydrolyzed by intestinal β-glucosidase and amygdalin beta-glucosidase to give gentiobiose and L-mandelonitrile. Gentiobiose is further hydrolyzed to give glucose, whereas mandelonitrile decomposes to give benzaldehyde and hydrogen cyanide. Hydrogen cyanide in sufficient quantities causes cyanide poisoning which has a fatal oral dose range of 0.6–1.5 mg/kg of body weight. Laetrile is a simpler semisynthetic derivative of amygdalin. Laetrile is synthesized from amygdalin by hydrolysis; the usual preferred commercial source is from apricot kernels. The name is derived from the separate words "laevorotatory" and "mandelonitrile". Laevorotatory describes the stereochemistry of the molecule, while mandelonitrile refers to the portion of the molecule from which cyanide is released by decomposition.

A 500 mg laetrile tablet may contain between 2.5–25 mg of hydrogen cyanide. Like amygdalin, laetrile is hydrolyzed in the duodenum and in the intestine to D-glucuronic acid and L-mandelonitrile. Claims for laetrile were based on three different hypotheses: The first hypothesis proposed that cancerous cells contained copious beta-glucosidases, which release HCN from laetrile via hydrolysis. Normal cells were unaffected, because they contained low concentrations of beta-glucosidases and high concentrations of rhodanese, which converts HCN to the less toxic thiocyanate. However, it was shown that both cancerous and normal cells contain only trace amounts of beta-glucosidases and similar amounts of rhodanese; the second proposed that, after ingestion, amygdalin was hydrolyzed to mandelonitrile, transported intact to the liver and converted to a beta-glucuronide complex, carried to the cancerous cells, hydrolyzed by beta-glucuronidases to release mandelonitrile and HCN. Mandelonitrile, dissociates to benzaldehyde and hydrogen cyanide, cannot be stabilized by glycosylation.

The third asserted that laetrile is the discovered vitamin B-17, further suggests that cancer is a result of "B-17 deficiency". It postulated that regular dietary administration of this form of laetrile would, therefore prevent all incidence of cancer. There is no evidence supporting this conjecture in the form of a physiologic process, nutritional requirement, or identification of any deficiency syndrome; the term "vitamin B-17" is not recognized by Committee on Nomenclature of the American Institute of Nutrition Vitamins. Ernst T. Krebs branded laetrile as a vitamin in order to have it classified as a nutritional supplement rather than as a pharmaceutical. Amygdalin was first isolated in 1830 from bitter almond seeds

A brachiolaria is the second stage of larval development in many starfishes it follows the bipinnaria. Brachiolaria have bilateral symmetry, unlike the adult starfish. Starfish of the order Paxillosida have no brachiolaria stage, with the bipinnaria developing directly into an adult; the brachiolaria develops from the bipinnaria larva when the latter grows three short arms at the underside of its anterior end. These arms each bear sticky cells at the tip, they surround an adhesive sucker; the larva soon sinks to the bottom, attaching itself to the substrate, firstly with the tips of the arms, with the sucker. Once attached, it begins to metamorphose into the adult form; the adult starfish develops only from the hind-part of the larva, away from the sucker. It is from this part that the arms of the adult grow, with the larval arms degenerating and disappearing; the digestive system of the larva degenerates, is entirely rebuilt. A new mouth forming on the left side of the body, which becomes the lower, or oral, surface of the adult.

A new anus forms on the right side, which becomes the upper, or aboral, surface. The coelom, or body cavity is divided into three chambers in the larva, two of which form the water vascular system, while the other remains as the adult body cavity. Once the tube feet develop from the water vascular system, the larva frees itself from the bottom. At around the same time, the skeleton begins to develop in a ring around the anus. Barnes, Robert D.. Invertebrate Zoology. Philadelphia, PA: Holt-Saunders International. Pp. 945–947. ISBN 0-03-056747-5

Protestant Church in the Rhineland is a United Protestant church body in parts of the German states of North Rhine-Westphalia, Rhineland-Palatinate and Hesse. This is the area covered by the former Prussian Rhine Province until 1920; the seat of the church is in Düsseldorf. The church leader is not called a "bishop", but a praeses, there is no cathedral; the Protestant Church in the Rhineland is a full member of the Evangelical Church in Germany, is a Prussian Union Church. The current praeses is Manfred Rekowski; the Evangelical Church in the Rhineland is one of 22 Lutheran and Reformed churches of the EKD. As of December 2018, the church has 2,502,008 members in 809 parishes; the Protestant Church in the Rhineland is a member of the UEK and the Community of Protestant Churches in Europe and the Reformed Alliance. In Bonn the church runs, it is a member of the Conference of Churches on the Rhine. The theological teaching goes back on Martin Luther; the ordination of women is allowed. The blessing of same-sex unions has been allowed by the synod and depends on the local church administration..

The Protestant Church in the Rhineland emerged on 12 November 1948, when the Ecclesiastical Province of the Rhineland within the Evangelical Church of the old-Prussian Union gained independence as its own church body. The Protestants in Hohenzollern emerged 1950 to Württemberg; the legislative assembly of the Evangelical Church in the Rhineland is the regional synod. The election of the synod is for four years. Since 1975 the synod meets annually in January in Bad Neuenahr-Ahrweiler, its elected leader is leader of the church. The legislative body called the provincial synod, was established when the Rhenish church still formed an ecclesiastical province of the Evangelical Church of the old-Prussian Union; the praesides were only speakers of the synod but not the leaders of the ecclesiastical province. Instead this function was with the general superintendents. Since the ecclesiastical province assumed its independence each praeses is speaker of the synod and leader of the church. 1835–1846: Franz Friedrich Gräber 1847–1851: Georg August Ludwig Schmidtborn 1853–1860: Johann Heinrich Wiesmann 1862–1864: Johann Karl Friedrich Maaß 1865–1877: Friedrich Nieden 1877–1888: Stephan Friedrich Evertsbusch 1890–1893: Karl Wilhelm Ferdinand Kirschstein 1893–1898: Valentin Umbeck 1899–1905: Friedrich Wilhelm Schürmann 1908–1912: Albert Hackenberg 1914–1917: Georg Hafner 1919–1932: Friedrich Walter Paul Wolff 1932–1934: Friedrich Schäfer 1934–1935: Paul Humburg 1935–1948: Friedrich Horn, praeses of the provincial synod 1948–1957: Heinrich Karl Ewald Held, praeses of the regional synod and leader of the church 1958–1971: Joachim Wilhelm Beckmann 1971–1981: Karl Immer 1981–1989: Gerhard Brandt 1989–1996: Peter Beier 1996–1997: vacancy Hans Ulrich Stephan, superior church counsellor and praeses per pro 1997–2003: Manfred Kock 2003–2013: Nikolaus Schneider 2013–present: Manfred Rekowski Evangelisches Gesang-Buch Evangelisches Gesangbuch für Rheinland und Westfalen, Dortmund, 1883 Evangelisches Gesangbuch für Rheinland und Westfalen, Dortmund, 1929 Evangelisches Kirchengesangbuch, Edition for Churches in Rhineland and Lippe, Bielefeld, 1969 Evangelical Church in the Rhineland Evangelical Church in Germany