Fiber density of collagen grafts impacts rabbit urethral regeneration.

There is a need for efficient and "off-the-shelf" grafts in urethral reconstructive surgery. Currently available surgical techniques require harvesting of grafts from autologous sites, with increased risk of surgical complications and added patient discomfort. Therefore, a cost-effective and cell-free graft with adequate regenerative potential has a great chance to be translated into clinical practice. Tubular cell-free collagen grafts were prepared by varying the collagen density and fiber distribution, thereby creating a polarized low fiber density collagen graft (LD-graft). A uniform, high fiber density collagen graft (HD-graft) was engineered as a control. These two grafts were implanted to bridge a 2 cm long iatrogenic urethral defect in a rabbit model. Histology revealed that rabbits implanted with the LD-graft had a better smooth muscle regeneration compared to the HD-graft. The overall functional outcome assessed by contrast voiding cystourethrography showed patency of the urethra in 90% for the LD-graft and in 66.6% for the HD-graft. Functional regeneration of the rabbit implanted with the LD-graft could further be demonstrated by successful mating, resulting in healthy offspring. In conclusion, cell-free low-density polarized collagen grafts show better urethral regeneration than high-density collagen grafts

No cosmological domain wall problem for weakly coupled fields

After inflation occurs, a weakly coupled scalar field will in general not be in thermal equilibrium but have a distribution of values determined by the inflationary Hubble parameter. If such a field subsequently undergoes discrete symmetry breaking, then the different degenerate vacua may not be equally populated so the domain walls which form will be `biased' and the wall network will subsequently collapse. Thus the cosmological domain wall problem may be solved for sufficiently weakly coupled fields in a post-inflationary universe. We quantify the criteria for determining whether this does happen, using a Higgs-like potential with a spontaneously broken $Z_2$ symmetry.Comment: 17 pages, 4 figures (Revtex), clarifying Comments added in Introduction; to appear in Phys. Rev

Production of Coturnix quail immunoglobulins Y (IgYs) against Vibrio parahaemolyticus and Vibrio vulnificus

This research article published by Springer Nature Switzerland AG., 2011Production of chicken immunoglobulins Y (IgYs) and their applications in prophylactic, therapeutic, detection of microbial contaminants and as a diagnostic tool has been widely studied with limited information from other avians. This study produced Coturnix quail (Coturnix coturnix japonica) egg yolk IgYs against Vibrio parahaemolyticus and Vibrio vulnificus. Formalin inactivated (FIVP, FIVV, mixed FI-VP/VV) and heat inactivated (HIVP, HIVV, mixed HI-VP/VV) Vibrio immunogens (109 CFU/mL) were intramuscularly immunized into quail through thigh muscles. Egg yolk IgY was purified by water dilution-ammonium sulfate precipitation method and the activity was determined by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). Formalin inactivated immunogens induced high humoral immune response for both V. parahaemolyticus and V. vulnificus over heat inactivated immunogens. However, IgYs resulted from HIVP and FIVV immunogens, showed high specificity to V. parahaemolyticus and V. vulnificus respectively. Detection limits of the indirect ELISA using the produced IgYs were 105 CFU/mL for V. parahaemolyticus and 106 CFU/mL for V. vulnificus. The developed antibodies showed high binding affinity to their corresponding immunogens, very little cross reactivity to Staphylococcus aureus and not other bacteria strains (p<0.05), a phenomenon which was also observed in Western blot

Internal representations of smell in the Drosophila brain

Recent advances in sensory neuroscience using Drosophila olfaction as a model system have revealed brain maps representing the external world. Once we understand how the brain's built-in capability generates the internal olfactory maps, we can then elaborate how the brain computes and makes decision to elicit complex behaviors. Here, we review current progress in mapping Drosophila olfactory circuits and discuss their relationships with innate olfactory behaviors

Heterogeneous Multiscale Methods for modelling surface topography in Elastohydrodynamic Lubrication line contacts

A multiscale method for the Elastohydrodynamic Lubrication (EHL) of line contacts is derived based on the Heterogeneous Multiscale Methods. Periodicity applies to the topographical features and lubricant flow, data is homogenised over a range of variables at a micro-scale and coupled into a macro-scale model. This is achieved using flow factors as calculated from metamodels, which themselves evolve with the solution procedure. Results are given for an idealised topography and illustrate significant deviations from smooth surface assumptions as quantified by the flow factors. Improvements in the accuracy and efficiency with previous work and large fluctuations due to micro-EHL are also presented. Validation of the multiscale method with a deterministic topography is provided demonstrating good accuracy and efficiency

Anemia prevalence in women of reproductive age in low- and middle-income countries between 2000 and 2018

Anemia is a globally widespread condition in women and is associated with reduced economic productivity and increased mortality worldwide. Here we map annual 2000–2018 geospatial estimates of anemia prevalence in women of reproductive age (15–49 years) across 82 low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), stratify anemia by severity and aggregate results to policy-relevant administrative and national levels. Additionally, we provide subnational disparity analyses to provide a comprehensive overview of anemia prevalence inequalities within these countries and predict progress toward the World Health Organization’s Global Nutrition Target (WHO GNT) to reduce anemia by half by 2030. Our results demonstrate widespread moderate improvements in overall anemia prevalence but identify only three LMICs with a high probability of achieving the WHO GNT by 2030 at a national scale, and no LMIC is expected to achieve the target in all their subnational administrative units. Our maps show where large within-country disparities occur, as well as areas likely to fall short of the WHO GNT, offering precision public health tools so that adequate resource allocation and subsequent interventions can be targeted to the most vulnerable populations.Peer reviewe