Flexible hydrogels connecting adhesion and wetting

Raindrops falling on window panes spread upon contact, whereas hail can cause dents or scratches on the same glass window upon contact. While the former phenomenon resembles classical wetting, the latter is dictated by contact and adhesion theories. The classical Young-Dupre law applies to the wetting of pure liquids on rigid solids, whereas conventional contact mechanics theories account for rigid-on-soft or soft-on-rigid contacts with small deformations in the elastic limit. However, the crossover between adhesion and wetting is yet to be fully resolved. The key lies in the study of soft-on-soft interactions with material properties intermediate between liquids and solids. In this work, we translate from adhesion to wetting by experimentally probing the static signature of hydrogels in contact with soft PDMS of varying elasticity of both the components. Consequently, we probe this transition across six orders of magnitude in terms of the characteristic elasto-adhesive parameter of the system. In doing so, we reveal previously unknown phenomenology and a theoretical model which smoothly bridges adhesion of glass spheres with total wetting of pure liquids on any given substrate. Lastly, we highlight how solid like hydrogels can be treated as potential candidates for cleaning impurities from conventionally sticky PDMS substrates

The Potential Roles of Extracellular Vesicles in Cigarette Smoke-Associated Diseases

Cigarette smoke contains more than 4,500 chemicals; most of which are highly reactive free radicals, which induce proinflammatory and carcinogenic reactions. Numerous efforts have focused extensively on the role of cigarette smoking as a cause of many diseases. Extracellular vesicles and exosomes have recently received increasing interest for their diagnostic and therapeutic roles in many diseases. However, research done on the role of extracellular vesicles and exosomes on cigarette smoke-induced chronic disease is still in its infancy. In this review, we summarize the recently addressed roles of extracellular vesicles and exosomes in the pathogenesis of cigarette smoke-related diseases, such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, cardiovascular disease, lung cancer, and oral cancer. Moreover, their potential utilization and future prospects as diagnostic biomarkers for cigarette smoke-related diseases are described. © 2018 A-Reum Ryu et al.1

Forest Decline Under Progress in the Urban Forest of Seoul, Central Korea

Vegetation in the urban area showed not only a difference in species composition but also lower diversity compared with that of the natural area. Successional trend was normal in natural area, but that in urban areas showed a retrogressive pattern. Korean mountain ash (Sorbus alnifolia (Siebold & Zucc.) K.Koch), a shade intolerant species, dominated such a retrogressive succession. The vegetation decline is due to changes of mesoclimate and soil properties that imbalanced distribution of green space induced as the result of urbanization. In recent years, new environmental stress due to climate change is imposed additively to this forest decline. Drought is the very environmental stress. Drought-induced plant damage started from withering of leaves of plants introduced for landscaping in the urban area. Over time, branches died and death of the whole plant body followed. In particular, damage of Korean mountain ash, the product of retrogressive succession, was remarkable. As retrogressive succession has already progressed much, thus such phenomenon could be recognized as crisis of urban forest

Genetic evaluation of domestic walnut cultivars trading on Korean tree markets using microsatellite markers

Walnut (Juglans regia L.) is regarded as a healthy food because of its high nutritional composition and various health benefits. Although several walnut cultivars are being actively traded for domestic plantation or ornament in Korea, no particular effort has been made to evaluate genetic quality management of walnut cultivars in domestic tree markets. In this study, as an effort to evaluate the status of walnut seedling trade, we collected walnut seedlings of diverse cultivars from domestic tree markets and several locations in Korea and performed genotype analysis for the collections using microsatellite markers (76 individuals belonging to eight domestic cultivars). We used 12 markers that were previously reported to be informative and polymorphic in walnuts. The number of alleles that was detected from the collections using these markers ranged from 6 to 16, with heterozygosity values ranging from 0.03 to 0.75. Dendrogram revealed that the domestic walnut cultivars trading on tree markets could be genotypically distinguished from various foreign cultivars. However, genotyping data also showed that individual plants belonging to identical cultivars were sporadically distributed on the dendrogram, indicating that walnut cultivars trading on domestic tree markets seem to be poorly managed.Keywords: Walnut (Juglans regia L.), microsatellite markers, tree market, seedling trade, domestic cultivars, foreign cultivars, cultivar managementAfrican Journal of Biotechnology Vol. 11(29), pp. 7366-7374, 10 April, 201

A practical approach for small bowel bleeding

Gastrointestinal (GI) bleeding is one of the most common conditions among patients visiting emergency departments in Korea. GI bleeding is divided into upper and lower GI bleeding, according to the bleeding site. GI bleeding is also divided into overt and occult GI bleeding based on bleeding characteristics. In addition, obscure GI bleeding refers to recurrent or persistent GI bleeding from a source that cannot be identified after esophagogastroduodenoscopy or colonoscopy. The small intestine is the largest part of the alimentary tract. It extends from the pylorus to the cecum. The small intestine is difficult to access owing to its long length. Moreover, it is not fixed to the abdominal cavity. When hemorrhage occurs in the small intestine, the source cannot be found in many cases because of the characteristics of the small intestine. In practice, small-intestinal bleeding accounts for most of the obscure GI bleeding. Therefore, in this review, we introduce and describe systemic approaches and examination methods, including video capsule endoscopy and balloon enteroscopy, that can be performed in patients with suspected small bowel bleeding in clinical practice

Echinostoma ilocanum Infection in Oddar Meanchey Province, Cambodia

Fecal examinations using the Kato Katz technique were performed on a total of 1,287 villagers (945 students and 342 general inhabitants) of Oddar Meanchey Province, Cambodia in May 2007 and November 2009. The overall intestinal helminth egg positive rate was 23.9%, and the most prevalent helminth species was hookworms (21.6%). Other helminth eggs detected included echinostomes (1.0%), Enterobius vermicularis (0.8%), small trematode eggs (0.7%), which may include Opisthorchis viverrini and Haplorchis spp., and Hymenolepis nana (0.4%). In order to recover adult echinostomes, we treated 2 patients with 10-15 mg/kg praziquantel and purged. Total 14 adult echinostomes, 1 and 13 worms from each patient, were collected. The echinostomes characteristically had 49-51 collar spines and 2 round or slightly lobated testes. They were identified as Echinostoma ilocanum (Garrison, 1908) Odhner, 1911. So far as literature are concerned, this is the first record on the discovery of human E. ilocanum infection in Cambodia

The landscape of PBMC methylome in canine mammary tumors reveals the epigenetic regulation of immune marker genes and its potential application in predicting tumor malignancy

Background Genome-wide dysregulation of CpG methylation accompanies tumor progression and characteristic states of cancer cells, prompting a rationale for biomarker development. Understanding how the archetypic epige‑ netic modifcation determines systemic contributions of immune cell types is the key to further clinical benefts. Results In this study, we characterized the diferential DNA methylome landscapes of peripheral blood mononu‑ clear cells (PBMCs) from 76 canines using methylated CpG-binding domain sequencing (MBD-seq). Through gene set enrichment analysis, we discovered that genes involved in the growth and diferentiation of T- and B-cells are highly methylated in tumor PBMCs. We also revealed the increased methylation at single CpG resolution and reversed expression in representative marker genes regulating immune cell proliferation (BACH2, SH2D1A, TXK, UHRF1). Furthermore, we utilized the PBMC methylome to efectively diferentiate between benign and malignant tumors and the presence of mammary gland tumors through a machine-learning approach. Conclusions This research contributes to a better knowledge of the comprehensive epigenetic regulation of circulat‑ ing immune cells responding to tumors and suggests a new framework for identifying benign and malignant cancers using genome-wide methylomeThis research was supported by the Science Research Center (SRC) Program (grant #. NRF-2021R1A5A1033167) under the Directorate for Basic Research in Science & Engineering funded by the Korean Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Plannin

Complete genome sequence of Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus KOR/KNIH/002_05_2015, isolated in South Korea

The full genome sequence of a Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) was identified from cultured and isolated in Vero cells. The viral genome sequence has high similarity to 53 human MERS-CoVs, ranging from 99.5% to 99.8% at the nucleotide level. © 2015 Kim et al.

Association between the simultaneous decrease in the levels of soluble vascular cell adhesion molecule-1 and S100 protein and good neurological outcomes in cardiac arrest survivors

Objective This study aimed to determine whether simultaneous decreases in the serum levels of cell adhesion molecules (intracellular cell adhesion molecule-1 [ICAM-1], vascular cell adhesion molecule-1 [VCAM-1], and E-selectin) and S100 proteins within the first 24 hours after the return of spontaneous circulation were associated with good neurological outcomes in cardiac arrest survivors. Methods This retrospective observational study was based on prospectively collected data from a single emergency intensive care unit (ICU). Twenty-nine out-of-hospital cardiac arrest survivors who were admitted to the ICU for post-resuscitation care were enrolled. Blood samples were collected at 0 and 24 hours after ICU admission. According to the 6-month cerebral performance category (CPC) scale, the patients were divided into good (CPC 1 and 2, n=12) and poor (CPC 3 to 5, n=17) outcome groups. Results No difference was observed between the two groups in terms of the serum levels of ICAM-1, VCAM-1, E-selectin, and S100 at 0 and 24 hours. A simultaneous decrease in the serum levels of VCAM-1 and S100 as well as E-selectin and S100 was associated with good neurological outcomes. When other variables were adjusted, a simultaneous decrease in the serum levels of VCAM-1 and S100 was independently associated with good neurological outcomes (odds ratio, 9.285; 95% confidence interval, 1.073 to 80.318; P=0.043). Conclusion A simultaneous decrease in the serum levels of soluble VCAM-1 and S100 within the first 24 hours after the return of spontaneous circulation was associated with a good neurological outcome in out-of-hospital cardiac arrest survivors

Acceptor-acceptor type isoindigo-based copolymers for high-performance n-channel field-effect transistors

Two acceptor-acceptor (A-A) type copolymers (PIIG-BT and PIIGTPD) with backbones composed exclusively of electron-deficient units are designed and synthesized. Both copolymers show unipolar n-type operations. In particular, PIIG-BT shows electron mobility of up to 0.22 cm2 V1 s1. This is a record value for n-type copolymers based on lactam cores.close3