Application of thermosensitive-hydrogel combined with dental pulp stem cells on the injured fallopian tube mucosa in an animal model

Objectives: Fallopian tube (FT) injury is an important factor that can lead to tubal infertility. Stem-cell-based therapy shows great potential for the treatment of injured fallopian tube. However, little research has shown that mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) can be used to treat fallopian tube damage by in situ injection. In this study, we in situ transplanted PF127 hydrogel encapsulating dental pulp stem cells (DPSCs) into the injured sites to promote the repair and regeneration of fallopian tube injury.Materials and methods: The properties of dental pulp stem cells were evaluated by flow cytometry, immunofluorescence analysis, and multi-differentiation detection. The immunomodulatory and angiogenic characteristics of dental pulp stem cells were analyzed on the basis of the detection of inflammatory factor expression and the formation of capillary-like structures, respectively. The biocompatibility of PF127 hydrogel was evaluated by using Live/Dead and CCK-8 assays. The effects of PF127 hydrogel containing dental pulp stem cells on the repair and regeneration of fallopian tube injury were evaluated by histological analysis [e.g., hematoxylin and eosin (H&E) and Masson’s trichrome staining, TUNEL staining, immunofluorescence staining, and immunohistochemistry], Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA), and RT-PCR detections.Results: Dental pulp stem cells had MSC-like characteristics and great immunomodulatory and angiogenic properties. PF127 hydrogel had a thermosensitive feature and great cytocompatibility with dental pulp stem cells. In addition, our results indicated that PF127 hydrogel containing dental pulp stem cells could promote the repair and regeneration of fallopian tube damage by inhibiting cell apoptosis, stimulating the secretion of angiogenic factors, promoting cell proliferation, modulating the secretion of inflammatory factors, and restoring the secretion of epithelial cells.Conclusion: In this study, our results reported that in situ injection of PF127 hydrogel encapsulating dental pulp stem cells into the injured sites could provide an attractive strategy for the future treatment of fallopian tube injury in clinical settings

Co-Opetition Strategy for Remanufacturing the Closed-Loop Supply Chain Considering the Design for Remanufacturing

The co-opetition strategy between manufacturers and remanufacturers is a key problem of the closed-loop supply chain, especially for the manufacturers often facing decision-making dilemmas when undertaking the environmental responsibilities of the design for remanufacturing (DfRem). Since DfRem is thought to be advantageous for recycling and remanufacturing, it will lower the production costs for remanufacturers but raise them for manufacturers. On the other hand, manufacturers cannot abandon the DfRem because of environmental responsibilities. This work thus formulates three two-period game models of the competition model with patent protection, the competition model without patent protection, and the cooperation model, which consists of a manufacturer and a remanufacturer, to investigate the decision of the manufacturer and remanufacturer co-opetition strategies. The price, the level of DfRem, the recovery rate, the profit, and other factors are compared across the three models using reverse induction and numerical simulation. In addition, we analyzed the influence of different equilibrium solutions on customer willingness to pay for remanufactured products. We find that cooperation not only contributes to the improvement of DfRem but is also the best choice to ensure the stable development of the supply chain system. Manufacturers, in particular, prefer to work together wherever feasible and actively pursue collaboration rather than advocating for patent protection to fend against remanufacturers, even when they have patent rights

The resting cyst of dinoflagellate Scrippsiella acuminata host bacterial microbiomes with more diverse trophic strategies under conditions typically observed in marine sediments

Variation in the condition of marine sediments provides selective preservation milieus, which act as a key determinant for the abundance and distribution of dinoflagellate resting cysts in natural sediments. Microbial degradation is an understudied biological factor of potential importance in the processes. However, gaps remain in our knowledge about the fundamental information of the bacterial consortia associated with dinoflagellate resting cysts both in laboratory cultures and in the field. Here we used Scrippsiella acuminata as a representative of cyst-producing dinoflagellates to delineate the diversity and composition of bacterial microbiomes co-existing with the laboratory-cultured resting cysts, and to explore possible impacts of low temperature, darkness, and anoxia (the mock conditions commonly observed in marine sediments) on the associated bacterial consortia. Bacterial microbiome with high diversity were revealed associated with S. acuminata at resting stage. The mock conditions could significantly shift bacterial community structure and exert notably inhibitory effects on growth-promoting bacteria. Resting cysts under conditions typically observed in marine sediments fostered bacterial microbiomes with more diverse trophic strategies, characteristic of prominently enriched anaerobic chemotrophic bacteria generating energy via respiration with several different terminal electron acceptors, which yielded more acidic milieu unfavorable for the preservation of calcareous resting cysts. Our findings suggest that there is complex and dynamic interaction between dinoflagellates resting cysts and the associated bacterial consortia in natural sediments. This intrinsic interaction may influence the maintenance and/or accumulation of dinoflagellate resting cysts with potential of germination and initiation blooms in the field

Edge differentially private estimation in the β-model via jittering and method of moments

A standing challenge in data privacy is the trade-off between the level of privacy and the efficiency of statistical inference. Here we conduct an in-depth study of this trade-off for parameter estimation in the β-model (Chatterjee, Diaconis and Sly, 2011) for edge differentially private network data re-leased via jittering (Karwa, Krivitsky and Slavkovi´c, 2017). Unlike most previous approaches based on maximum likelihood estimation for this network model, we proceed via method of moments. This choice facilitates our exploration of a substantially broader range of privacy levels – corresponding to stricter privacy – than has been to date. Over this new range we discover our proposed estimator for the parameters exhibits an interesting phase transition, with both its convergence rate and asymptotic variance following one of three different regimes of behavior depending on the level of privacy. Because identification of the operable regime is difficult to impossible in practice, we devise a novel adaptive bootstrap procedure to construct uniform inference across different phases. In fact, leveraging this bootstrap we are able to provide for simultaneous inference of all parameters in the β-model (i.e., equal to the number of vertices), which would appear to be the first result of its kind. Numerical experiments confirm the competitive and reliable finite sample performance of the proposed inference methods, next to a comparable maximum likelihood method, as well as significant advantages in terms of computational speed and memory

The Implication Inferred from the Expression of Small Heat-Shock Protein Genes in Dinoflagellate Resting Cysts Buried in Marine Sediment

Dinoflagellates are unicellular eukaryotic microalgae, occupying pivotal niches in aquatic ecosystems with great ecological, biological, and economic significance. Small heat shock proteins (sHsps) are the most omnipresent, but the least conserved, family of molecular chaperones found in all domains of life. Although their common name (small Hsp) implies to exclusively stress their heat shock-responsive function, many sHsps in fact engage in a variety of physiological processes, from cell growth and proliferation to embryogenesis, development, differentiation, apoptosis, and even to human disease prevention. Recent years have greatly expanded our understanding of sHsps in higher plants; however, comprehensive study aiming to delineate the composition and expression pattern of dinoflagellate sHsp gene family has not yet been performed. In this study, we constructed dinoflagellate-specific environmental cDNA library from marine sediment and sequenced using the third-generation sequencing technique. Screening of sHsp genes from the library returned 13 entries with complete coding regions, which were considered to be transcriptionally activated in the natural community of dinoflagellate resting cysts. All the 13 dinoflagellate sHsps consisted of a solely characteristic α-crystallin domain, covering 88–123 amino acid residues with the typical A-X-X-X-N-G-V-L motif, flanked by variable N- and C-terminal extensions. Multiple alignment revealed considerable amino acid divergence (~26.7% average similarity) among them. An unexpected close relationship was revealed between dinoflagellate and green algal sHsps in the phylogenetic tree, seemingly reflecting a close evolutionary relationship of these sHsps themselves. We confirmed that sHsp mRNAs are expressed during dormancy of the resting cyst assemblages of dinoflagellates that were buried in marine sediment, which raised the possibility that the sHsp expression is part of the machinery of maintaining the dormancy or/and the adaptation to ambient conditions of dinoflagellate resting cysts. Our results, although preliminary, gained an important glance on the universal presence of sHsps in dinoflagellates and their active expressions in the assemblage of resting cysts that were buried in the marine sediment. The essentiality of sHsps functioning in resting cysts necessitate more intensive and extensive investigations on all possible functions of Hsps in dinoflagellates, a group of protists with vital ecological and biological importance

Solidified microstructure and phase equilibria of the Cu–Cr–X (X=Mg, Y) ternary systems

The Cu–Cr alloys with magnesium and yttrium exhibit appealing high-strength and high-conductivity (HSHC) characteristics. Anticipated contributions to the design of HSHC copper alloys include new insights from understanding the phase equilibria, solidified microstructure, and thermodynamics of the Cu–Cr–X (X = Mg, Y) systems. Five Cu–Cr–Y alloys and three Cu–Cr–Mg alloys were melted through arc melting and powder metallurgy, respectively. An analysis was conducted on the primary phases and solidification path of the as-cast Cu–Cr–Y alloys. Five three-phase regions in the Cu–Cr–Y system and three in the Cu–Cr–Mg system at the isothermal sections of 673 K were identified using XRD and EPMA. No ternary compound was discovered among either of these systems. The agreement between the experimental data and the calculated isothermal sections and liquidus projection derived from the thermodynamic description of the binary systems is quite good. The investigation on phase equilibria in Cu–Cr–X (X = Mg, Y) systems in this study helps in developing the thermodynamic database for multi-component copper alloys

The response speed and fatigue characteristics of a pulsed 778 nm -> 420 nm conversion in rubidium vapor

A strong 778 nm -> 420 nm conversion was realized in Rb vapor. With the help of the multi-spike structure of the 778 nm pumping laser, the response speed of the 778 nm -> 420 nm conversion was successfully measured. Experimental results showed that the conversion was a high-speed process, with a response bandwidth of 1 GHz. In addition, fatigue phenomenon of the 778 nm -> 420 nm conversion under strong pumping was observed, and the recovery time of such fatigue was measured with a dual pump method. (C) 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved

Mapping Breakpoints of Complex Chromosome Rearrangements Involving a Partial Trisomy 15q23.1-q26.2 Revealed by Next Generation Sequencing and Conventional Techniques.

Complex chromosome rearrangements (CCRs), which are rather rare in the whole population, may be associated with aberrant phenotypes. Next-generation sequencing (NGS) and conventional techniques, could be used to reveal specific CCRs for better genetic counseling. We report the CCRs of a girl and her mother, which were identified using a combination of NGS and conventional techniques including G-banding, fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) and PCR. The girl demonstrated CCRs involving chromosomes 3 and 8, while the CCRs of her mother involved chromosomes 3, 5, 8, 11 and 15. HumanCytoSNP-12 Chip analysis identified a 35.4 Mb duplication on chromosome 15q21.3-q26.2 in the proband and a 1.6 Mb microdeletion at chromosome 15q21.3 in her mother. The proband inherited the rearranged chromosomes 3 and 8 from her mother, and the duplicated region on chromosome 15 of the proband was inherited from the mother. Approximately one hundred genes were identified in the 15q21.3-q26.2 duplicated region of the proband. In particular, TPM1, SMAD6, SMAD3, and HCN4 may be associated with her heart defects, and HEXA, KIF7, and IDH2 are responsible for her developmental and mental retardation. In addition, we suggest that a microdeletion on the 15q21.3 region of the mother, which involved TCF2, TCF12, ADMA10 and AQP9, might be associated with mental retardation. We delineate the precise structures of the derivative chromosomes, chromosome duplication origin and possible molecular mechanisms for aberrant phenotypes by combining NGS data with conventional techniques

Influence of pumping power density on output intensities and stabilities of competitive multi-line frequency up-conversions in cesium vapor

Multi-line frequency up-conversions are realized in Cs vapor using 718.8 nm pumping laser resonating with the two-photon transition 6(2)S(1/2) -> 8(2)D(5/2) of Cs atom. The pumping beam is converted into a beam including wavelengths of 361.2, 387.7, 455.7 and 621.5 nm. Experiments with collimated and focused pumping configurations are carried out and compared. Spectrum peak at 361.2 nm is strongest under collimated pumping condition, while 387.7 nm is strongest under focused pumping beam. The output beam under focused pumping is more stable than that under collimated pumping. Results in this work may be useful in laser frequency standard, beacon light, laser measuring and optics communications, etc. (C) 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved