Activation of the Nrf2/HO-1 antioxidant pathway contributes to the protective effects of Lycium barbarum polysaccharides in the rodent retina after ischemia-reperfusion-induced damage

published_or_final_versio

The Embryotrophic Activity of Oviductal Cell-derived Complement C3b and iC3b, a Novel Function of Complement Protein in Reproduction

The oviduct-derived embryotrophic factor, ETF-3, enhances the development of trophectoderm and the hatching process of treated embryos. Monoclonal anti-ETF-3 antibody that abolishes the embryotrophic activity of ETF-3 recognized a 115-kDa protein from the conditioned medium of immortalized human oviductal cells. Mass spectrometry analysis showed that the protein was complement C3. Western blot analysis using an antibody against C3 confirmed the cross-reactivities between anti-C3 antibody with ETF-3 and anti-ETF-3 antibody with C3 and its derivatives, C3b and iC3b. Both derivatives, but not C3, were embryotrophic. iC3b was most efficient in enhancing the development of blastocysts with larger size and higher hatching rate, consistent with the previous reported embryotrophic activity of ETF-3. Embryos treated with iC3b contained iC3b immunoreactivity. The oviductal epithelium produced C3 as evidenced by the presence of C3 immunoreactivity and mRNA in the human oviduct and cultured oviductal cells. Cyclical changes in the expression of C3 immunoreactivity and mRNA were also found in the mouse oviduct with the highest expression at the estrus stage. Molecules involving in the conversion of C3b to iC3b and binding of iC3b were present in the human oviduct (factor I) and mouse preimplantation embryo (Crry and CR3), respectively. In conclusion, the present data showed that the oviduct produced C3/C3b, which was converted to iC3b to stimulate embryo development.postprin

Nano-Engineered Environment for Nerve Regeneration: Scaffolds, Functional Molecules and Stem Cells

One of the most complex systems in the human body is the nervous system, which is divided into the central and peripheral nervous systems. The regeneration of the CNS is a complex and challenging biological phenomenon hindered by the low regenerative capacity of neurons and the prohibition factors in response to nerve injuries. To date, no effective approach can achieve complete recovery and fully restore the functions of the nervous system once it has been damaged. Developments in neuroscience have identified properties of the local environment with a critical role in nerve regeneration. Advances in biomaterials and biomedical engineering have explored new approaches of constructing permissive environments for nerve regeneration, thereby enabling optimism with regard to nerve-injury treatment. This article reviews recent progress in nanoengineered environments for aiding nerve-injury repair and regeneration, including nanofibrous scaffolds, functional molecules, and stem cells.postprin

Nano-Engineered Environment for Nerve Regeneration: Scaffolds, Functional Molecules and Stem Cells

One of the most complex systems in the human body is the nervous system, which is divided into the central and peripheral nervous systems. The regeneration of the CNS is a complex and challenging biological phenomenon hindered by the low regenerative capacity of neurons and the prohibition factors in response to nerve injuries. To date, no effective approach can achieve complete recovery and fully restore the functions of the nervous system once it has been damaged. Developments in neuroscience have identified properties of the local environment with a critical role in nerve regeneration. Advances in biomaterials and biomedical engineering have explored new approaches of constructing permissive environments for nerve regeneration, thereby enabling optimism with regard to nerve-injury treatment. This article reviews recent progress in nanoengineered environments for aiding nerve-injury repair and regeneration, including nanofibrous scaffolds, functional molecules, and stem cells.postprin

Overexpression of ZFX confers self-renewal and chemoresistance properties in hepatocellular carcinoma

postprin

Modulating attentional load affects numerosity estimation: evidence against a pre-attentive subitizing mechanism

Traditionally, the visual enumeration of a small number of items (1 to about 4), referred to as subitizing, has been thought of as a parallel and pre-attentive process and functionally different from the serial attentive enumeration of larger numerosities. We tested this hypothesis by employing a dual task paradigm that systematically manipulated the attentional resources available to an enumeration task. Enumeration accuracy for small numerosities was severely decreased as more attentional resources were taken away from the numerical task, challenging the traditionally held notion of subitizing as a pre-attentive, capacity-independent process. Judgement of larger numerosities was also affected by dual task conditions and attentional load. These results challenge the proposal that small numerosities are enumerated by a mechanism separate from large numerosities and support the idea of a single, attention-demanding enumeration mechanism

LP-INDEX: Explore the Best Practice of LPWAN Technologies in Smart City

Internet of Things (IoT) based infrastructures and applications are essential parts in smart city establishment. The low power wide area network (LPWAN) plays a key role in IoT techniques due to the characteristics of wide coverage and low power consumption. However, it is hard to decide which one of the LPWAN techniques to be implemented in a specific application for best practice. Considering this, we discussed the main characteristics of the three popular LPWAN technologies, LoRaWAN, NB-IoT, and Sigfox, and proposed an LP-INDEX to weighting them according to application requirements. To further distinguish their difference, a comparison test based on parking detection sensors using the three different techniques was implemented as a use case

Entanglement of single-photons and chiral phonons in atomically thin WSe2_2

Quantum entanglement is a fundamental phenomenon which, on the one hand, reveals deep connections between quantum mechanics, gravity and the space-time; on the other hand, has practical applications as a key resource in quantum information processing. While it is routinely achieved in photon-atom ensembles, entanglement involving the solid-state or macroscopic objects remains challenging albeit promising for both fundamental physics and technological applications. Here, we report entanglement between collective, chiral vibrations in two-dimensional (2D) WSe$_2$ host --- chiral phonons (CPs) --- and single-photons emitted from quantum dots (QDs) present in it. CPs which carry angular momentum were recently observed in WSe$_2$ and are a distinguishing feature of the underlying honeycomb lattice. The entanglement results from a "which-way" scattering process, involving an optical excitation in a QD and doubly-degenerate CPs, which takes place via two indistinguishable paths. Our unveiling of entanglement involving a macroscopic, collective excitation together with strong interaction between CPs and QDs in 2D materials opens up ways for phonon-driven entanglement of QDs and engineering chiral or non-reciprocal interactions at the single-photon level

Bright excitons in monolayer transition metal dichalcogenides: from Dirac cones to Dirac saddle points

In monolayer transition metal dichalcogenides, tightly bound excitons have been discovered with a valley pseudospin that can be optically addressed through polarization selection rules. Here, we show that this valley pseudospin is strongly coupled to the exciton center-of-mass motion through electron-hole exchange. This coupling realizes a massless Dirac cone with chirality index I=2 for excitons inside the light cone, i.e. bright excitons. Under moderate strain, the I=2 Dirac cone splits into two degenerate I=1 Dirac cones, and saddle points with a linear Dirac spectrum emerge in the bright exciton dispersion. Interestingly, after binding an extra electron, the charged exciton becomes a massive Dirac particle associated with a large valley Hall effect protected from intervalley scattering. Our results point to unique opportunities to study Dirac physics, with exciton's optical addressability at specifiable momentum, energy and pseudospin. The strain-tunable valley-orbit coupling also implies new structures of exciton condensates, new functionalities of excitonic circuits, and possibilities for mechanical control of valley pseudospin