Multipotent vascular stem cells contribute to neurovascular regeneration of peripheral nerve.

BackgroundNeurovascular unit restoration is crucial for nerve regeneration, especially in critical gaps of injured peripheral nerve. Multipotent vascular stem cells (MVSCs) harvested from an adult blood vessel are involved in vascular remodeling; however, the therapeutic benefit for nerve regeneration is not clear.MethodsMVSCs were isolated from rats expressing green fluorescence protein (GFP), expanded, mixed with Matrigel matrix, and loaded into the nerve conduits. A nerve autograft or a nerve conduit (with acellular matrigel or MVSCs in matrigel) was used to bridge a transected sciatic nerve (10-mm critical gap) in rats. The functional motor recovery and cell fate in the regenerated nerve were investigated to understand the therapeutic benefit.ResultsMVSCs expressed markers such as Sox 17 and Sox10 and could differentiate into neural cells in vitro. One month following MVSC transplantation, the compound muscle action potential (CMAP) significantly increased as compared to the acellular group. MVSCs facilitated the recruitment of Schwann cell to regenerated axons. The transplanted cells, traced by GFP, differentiated into perineurial cells around the bundles of regenerated myelinated axons. In addition, MVSCs enhanced tight junction formation as a part of the blood-nerve barrier (BNB). Furthermore, MVSCs differentiated into perivascular cells and enhanced microvessel formation within regenerated neurovascular bundles.ConclusionsIn rats with peripheral nerve injuries, the transplantation of MVSCs into the nerve conduits improved the recovery of neuromuscular function; MVSCs differentiated into perineural cells and perivascular cells and enhanced the formation of tight junctions in perineural BNB. This study demonstrates the in vivo therapeutic benefit of adult MVSCs for peripheral nerve regeneration and provides insight into the role of MVSCs in BNB regeneration

Novel targeted therapeutics: inhibitors of MDM2, ALK and PARP

We reviewed preclinical data and clinical development of MDM2 (murine double minute 2), ALK (anaplastic lymphoma kinase) and PARP (poly [ADP-ribose] polymerase) inhibitors. MDM2 binds to p53, and promotes degradation of p53 through ubiquitin-proteasome degradation. JNJ-26854165 and RO5045337 are 2 small-molecule inhibitors of MDM2 in clinical development. ALK is a transmembrane protein and a member of the insulin receptor tyrosine kinases. EML4-ALK fusion gene is identified in approximately 3-13% of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Early-phase clinical studies with Crizotinib, an ALK inhibitor, in NSCLC harboring EML4-ALK have demonstrated promising activity with high response rate and prolonged progression-free survival. PARPs are a family of nuclear enzymes that regulates the repair of DNA single-strand breaks through the base excision repair pathway. Randomized phase II study has shown adding PARP-1 inhibitor BSI-201 to cytotoxic chemotherapy improves clinical outcome in patients with triple-negative breast cancer. Olaparib, another oral small-molecule PARP inhibitor, demonstrated encouraging single-agent activity in patients with advanced breast or ovarian cancer. There are 5 other PARP inhibitors currently under active clinical investigation

SWITCHING THE HORIZONTAL GRF TO THE PATH OF PROGRESSION IN THE TABLE TENNIS FOREHAND DRIVE

Knowing the kinetic strategies of the lower limbs is a crucial factor to investigate the forehand drive which comprises the changes of the foot placement. It is difficult to directly evaluate the movement of feet with the data of ground reaction force (GRF) and impulse (GRI).This study tried to analyze table tennis forehand drives via the GRF and GRI data based upon the anatomical perspective. The motion and the GRF data were collected from eight right-handed Taiwanese elite table tennis players. The horizontal GRF data were transformed to a reference frame and then integrated with time to get the GRI. During the forehand drive shot, the participants performed a greater lateral impulse to cause the trunk rotation and decelerated their body from initial to mid-phase and then accelerated the body to perform a forehand drive shot

What do they eat? A survey of eat-out habit of university students in Taiwan

[EN] Main purpose of this research is trying to understand food likeliness of Taiwan college students, and probe whether these food are healthy. Three survey steps are taken as: step 1, market survey for what kind of foods are selling around the campuses; step 2, questionnaire investigation for students food preference; step 3, analyzing whether these favorite foods are healthy or not. The result shows: major consideration for students food selection are “taste” and “price”; 63% of students are taking food or snacks late at night at least once a week. Top three most favorite foods are: Taiwanese fries (yan su ji), carbon grilled chicken and fried fish steaks. Quantities of these foods are small, prices are low, and easy access from roadside food stands. Problems of them are high calories, easy to accumulate free radical in human body, plus insanitary food processing environment. They are harmful to student health. We suggest Taiwan government take it seriouslyShih, K.; Wang, M.; Shih, H.; Lee, S.; Lin, T. (2020). What do they eat? A survey of eat-out habit of university students in Taiwan. Editorial Universitat Politècnica de València. 421-430. https://doi.org/10.4995/INN2019.2019.10562OCS42143

BIOMECHANICAL ANALYSIS OF BADMINTON FOREHAND NET SHOTS

The purpose of this study was to compare the upper extremity kinematics variables of badminton forehand dab shot, stab shot and cross court net shot. The participants were eight elite collegiate male players in Taiwan. The kinematical data were collected by Vicon system (250Hz) and the Visual 3D software was used to analyze the variables. The results indicated that the elite badminton players perfomed dab net shot with less angular velocity in racket upper limb joints. They performed the stab net shot with faster angular velocity in forearm supination and wrist ulnar flexion. The cross court net shot had greatest angular velocity in shoulder internal rotation, forearm pronation and the least distance between the contact point and the mid-line of body

Identification of SNP barcode biomarkers for genes associated with facial emotion perception using particle swarm optimization algorithm

BACKGROUND: Facial emotion perception (FEP) can affect social function. We previously reported that parts of five tested single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in the MET and AKT1 genes may individually affect FEP performance. However, the effects of SNP-SNP interactions on FEP performance remain unclear. METHODS: This study compared patients with high and low FEP performances (n = 89 and 93, respectively). A particle swarm optimization (PSO) algorithm was used to identify the best SNP barcodes (i.e., the SNP combinations and genotypes that revealed the largest differences between the high and low FEP groups). RESULTS: The analyses of individual SNPs showed no significant differences between the high and low FEP groups. However, comparisons of multiple SNP-SNP interactions involving different combinations of two to five SNPs showed that the best PSO-generated SNP barcodes were significantly associated with high FEP score. The analyses of the joint effects of the best SNP barcodes for two to five interacting SNPs also showed that the best SNP barcodes had significantly higher odds ratios (2.119 to 3.138; P < 0.05) compared to other SNP barcodes. In conclusion, the proposed PSO algorithm effectively identifies the best SNP barcodes that have the strongest associations with FEP performance. CONCLUSIONS: This study also proposes a computational methodology for analyzing complex SNP-SNP interactions in social cognition domains such as recognition of facial emotion

Mobile Edge Computing Platform Deployment in 4G LTE Networks: A Middlebox Approach

This paper has been presented at : USENIX Workshop on Hot Topics in Edge Computing (Hot Edge '18)Low-latency demands for cellular networks have at-tracted much attention. Mobile edge computing (MEC), which deploys a cloud computing platform at the edge closer to mobile users, has been introduced as an enabler of low-latency performance in 4G and 5G networks. In this paper, we propose an MEC platform deployment so-lution in 4G LTE networks using a middlebox approach. It is standard-compliant and transparent to existing cel-lular network components, so they need not be modified. The MEC middlebox sits on the S1 interface, which con-nects an LTE base station to its core network, and does traffic filtering, manipulation and forwarding. It enables the MEC service for mobile users by hosting application servers. Such middlebox approach can save deployment cost and be easy to install. It is different from other stud-ies that require modifications on base stations or/and core networks. We have confirmed its viability through a pro-totype based on the OpenAirInterface cellular platform.We thank our shepherd Weisong Shi for his help, and also thank the anonymous reviewers for their valuable comments on improving this paper. This work was partially supported by the Ministry of Science and Technology, Taiwan, under grant numbers 106-2622-8-009-017 and 106-2218-E-009-018, and by the H2020 collaborative Europe/Taiwan research project 5G-CORAL (grant number 761586)

An asymmetric upwind flow, Yellow Sea Warm Current : 1. New observations in the western Yellow Sea

Author Posting. © American Geophysical Union, 2011. This article is posted here by permission of American Geophysical Union for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Journal of Geophysical Research 116 (2011): C04026, doi:10.1029/2010JC006513.The winter water mass along the Yellow Sea Trough (YST), especially on the western side of the trough, is considerably warmer and saltier than the ambient shelf water mass. This observed tongue-shape hydrographic feature implies the existence of a winter along-trough and onshore current, often referred to as the Yellow Sea Warm Current (YSWC). However, the YSWC has not been confirmed by direct current measurements and therefore skepticism remains regarding its existence. Some studies suggest that the presence of the warm water could be due to frontal instability, eddies, or synoptic scale wind bursts. It is noted that in situ observations used in most previous studies were from the central and eastern sides of the YST even though it is known that the warm water core is more pronounced along the western side. Data from the western side have been scarce. Here we present a set of newly available Chinese observations, including some from a coordinated effort involving three Chinese vessels in the western YST during the 2006–2007 winter. The data show unambiguously the existence of the warm current on the western side of YST. Both the current and hydrography observations indicate a dominant barotropic structure of YSWC. The westward deviation of YSWC axis is particularly obvious to the south of 35°N and is clearly associated with an onshore movement of warm water. To the north of 35°N, the YSWC flows along the bathymetry with slightly downslope movement. We conclude that the barotropic current is mainly responsible for the warm water intrusion, while the Ekman and baroclinic currents play an important but secondary role. These observations help fill an observational gap and establish a more complete view of the YSWC.The authors have been supported by China’s National Basic Research Priorities Programmer (2007CB411804 and 2005CB422303), the Ministry of Education’s 111 Project (B07036), the Program for New Century Excellent Talents in University (NECT‐07‐0781), and the China National Science Fundation (40976004, 40921004. and 40930844). J.Y. is supported by the U.S. National Science Foundation and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution’s Coastal Ocean Institute