Enhanced Eyelashes: Prescription and Over-the-Counter Options

Women have long strived to possess long, thick, and dark eyelashes. Prominent eyes and eyelashes are often considered a sign of beauty and can be associated with increased levels of attractiveness, confidence, and well-being. Numerous options may improve the appearance of eyelashes. Mascara aims to temporarily darken, lengthen, and thicken eyelashes using a combination of waxes, pigments, and resins. Artificial eyelashes can be adhered either to the dermal margin or to individual eyelashes. Individuals may even use eyelash transplantations to improve the appearance of their eyelashes. The unique properties of eyelashes (e.g., relatively long telogen and short anagen phases compared with scalp hairs, slow rate of growth, and a lack of influence by androgens) may allow for specific aesthetic interventions to improve the appearance of natural eyelashes. Some over-the-counter (OTC) products may contain prostaglandin analogs that can affect eyelash growth, but neither the safety nor efficacy of these OTC cosmetics has been fully studied. Originally indicated for the reduction of intraocular pressure, the synthetic prostaglandin analog bimatoprost was recently approved for the treatment of hypotrichosis of the eyelashes. In a double-blinded, randomized, vehicle-controlled trial, bimatoprost safely and effectively grew natural eyelashes, making them longer, thicker, and darker. Bimatoprost was generally safe and well tolerated and appears to provide an additional option for individuals looking to improve the appearance of their eyelashes

Upper atmospheres and ionospheres of planets and satellites

The upper atmospheres of the planets and their satellites are more directly exposed to sunlight and solar wind particles than the surface or the deeper atmospheric layers. At the altitudes where the associated energy is deposited, the atmospheres may become ionized and are referred to as ionospheres. The details of the photon and particle interactions with the upper atmosphere depend strongly on whether the object has anintrinsic magnetic field that may channel the precipitating particles into the atmosphere or drive the atmospheric gas out to space. Important implications of these interactions include atmospheric loss over diverse timescales, photochemistry and the formation of aerosols, which affect the evolution, composition and remote sensing of the planets (satellites). The upper atmosphere connects the planet (satellite) bulk composition to the near-planet (-satellite) environment. Understanding the relevant physics and chemistry provides insight to the past and future conditions of these objects, which is critical for understanding their evolution. This chapter introduces the basic concepts of upper atmospheres and ionospheres in our solar system, and discusses aspects of their neutral and ion composition, wind dynamics and energy budget. This knowledge is key to putting in context the observations of upper atmospheres and haze on exoplanets, and to devise a theory that explains exoplanet demographics.Comment: Invited Revie

Central defect type partial ACL injury model on goat knees: the effect of infrapatellar fat pad excision

BACKGROUND: The mid-substance central defect injury has been used to investigate the primary healing capacity of the anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) in a goat model. The sagittal plane stability on this model has not been confirmed, and possible effects of fat pad excision on healing have not been evaluated. We hypothesize that excising the fat pad tissue results in poorer ligament healing as assessed histologically and decreased tensile strength of the healing ligament. We further hypothesize that the creation of a central defect does not affect sagittal plane knee stability. METHODS: A mid-substance central defect was created with a 4-mm arthroscopic punch in the ACLs of right knees of all the subjects through a medial mini-arthrotomy. Goats were assigned to groups based on whether the fat pad was preserved (group 1, n = 5) or excised completely (group 2, n = 5). The left knees served as controls in each goat. Histopathology of the defect area along with measurement of type I collagen in one goat from each group were performed at 10th week postoperatively. The remaining knees were evaluated biomechanically at the 12th week, by measuring anterior tibial translation (ATT) of the knee joints at 90° of flexion and testing tensile properties (ultimate tensile load (UTL), ultimate elongation (UE), stiffness (S), failure mode (FM)) of the femur-ACL-tibia complex. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION: Histopathology analysis revealed that the central defect area was fully filled macroscopically and microscopically. However, myxoid degeneration and fibrosis were observed in group 2 and increased collagen type I content was noted in group 2. There were no significant differences within and between groups in terms of ATT values (p = 0.715 and p = 0.149, respectively). There were no significance between or within groups in terms of ultimate tensile load and ultimate elongation; however, group 2 demonstrated greater stiffness than group 1 that was correlated with the fibrotic changes detected microscopically (p = 0.043). CONCLUSIONS: The central defect type injury model was confirmed to be biomechanically stable in a goat model. Resection of the fat pad was noted to negatively affect defect healing and increase ligament stiffness in the central defect injury model

Roles of Molecular Layer Interneurons in Sensory Information Processing in Mouse Cerebellar Cortex Crus II In Vivo

Cerebellar cortical molecular layer interneurons (MLIs) play essential roles in sensory information processing by the cerebellar cortex. However, recent experimental and modeling results are questioning traditional roles for molecular layer inhibition in the cerebellum. receptors uncovered larger EPSCs in PCs whose time to peak, half-width and 10–90% rising time were also significantly slower than in MLIs. Biocytin labeling indicated that the MLIs (but not PCs) are dye-coupled.These findings indicate that tactile face stimulation evokes rapid excitation in MLIs and inhibition occurring at later latencies in PCs in mouse cerebellar cortex Crus II. These results support previous suggestions that the lack of parallel fiber driven PC activity is due to the effect of MLI inhibition

Systematic evaluation of immune regulation and modulation

Cancer immunotherapies are showing promising clinical results in a variety of malignancies. Monitoring the immune as well as the tumor response following these therapies has led to significant advancements in the field. Moreover, the identification and assessment of both predictive and prognostic biomarkers has become a key component to advancing these therapies. Thus, it is critical to develop systematic approaches to monitor the immune response and to interpret the data obtained from these assays. In order to address these issues and make recommendations to the field, the Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer reconvened the Immune Biomarkers Task Force. As a part of this Task Force, Working Group 3 (WG3) consisting of multidisciplinary experts from industry, academia, and government focused on the systematic assessment of immune regulation and modulation. In this review, the tumor microenvironment, microbiome, bone marrow, and adoptively transferred T cells will be used as examples to discuss the type and timing of sample collection. In addition, potential types of measurements, assays, and analyses will be discussed for each sample. Specifically, these recommendations will focus on the unique collection and assay requirements for the analysis of various samples as well as the high-throughput assays to evaluate potential biomarkers

Youth–adult partnership: exploring contributions to empowerment, agency and community connections in Malaysian youth programs

Youth–adult partnership (Y–AP) has emerged as a key practice for enacting two features of effective developmental settings: supportive adult relationships and support for efficacy and mattering. Previous studies have shown that when youth, supported by adults, actively participate in organizational and community decision-making they are likely to show greater confidence and agency, empowerment and critical consciousness, and community connections. Most of the extant research on Y–AP is limited to qualitative studies and the identification of organizational best practices. Almost all research focuses on Western sociocultural settings. To address these gaps, 299 youth, age 15 to 24, were sampled from established afterschool and community programs in Malaysia to explore the contribution of Y–AP (operationalized as having two components: youth voice in decision-making and supportive adult relationships) to empowerment, agency and community connections. As hypothesized, hierarchical regressions indicated that program quality (Y–AP, safe environment and program engagement) contributed to agency, empowerment and community connections beyond the contribution of family, school and religion. Additionally, the Y–AP measures contributed substantially more variance than the other measures of program quality on each outcome. Interaction effects indicated differences by age for empowerment and agency but not for community connections. The primary findings in this inquiry replicate those found in previous interview and observational-oriented studies. The data suggests fertile ground for future research while demonstrating that Y–AP may be an effective practice for positive youth development outside of Western settings