Biomimetic strategies for fracture repair: engineering the cell microenvironment for directed tissue formation

Complications resulting from impaired fracture healing have major clinical implications on fracture management strategies. Novel concepts taken from developmental biology have driven research strategies towards the elaboration of regenerative approaches that can truly harness the complex cellular events involved in tissue formation and repair. Advances in polymer technology and a better understanding of naturally derived scaffolds have given rise to novel biomaterials with an increasing ability to recapitulate native tissue environments. This coupled with advances in the understanding of stem cell biology and technology has opened new avenues for regenerative strategies with true clinical translatability. These advances have provided the impetus to develop alternative approaches to enhance the fracture repair process. We provide an update on these advances, with a focus on the development of novel biomimetic approaches for bone regeneration and their translational potential

THE EFFECT OF SECURITY PROCEDURES ON EMPLOYEE MORALE

Purpose The objective of the study is to critically analyze the main issues on the scrutiny of personal belongings and the effect of it on the employee morale and to understand the due impact so as to find out a simplified work atmosphere in order to increase taskforce retention. Design/methodology/approach The study was conducted with 260 employees working in the Oil fields of Sohar industrial port, Oman. The employees were selected on a simple random sampling basis and were contacted through a well-defined questionnaire which was made available online for this purpose.  The sample included both the managers and the workers from the task force. Findings Our empirical results reveal that the employees understand the logic behind the measures, are not reluctant and hence no negative impact on the employee’s morale. However, the study demonstrates that there is a strong association between the privacy of the employees, their trust, tolerance and the morale of the employees. The main factors which might impede the security procedures are the trust and the privacy. Practical Implications The study reveals that the security practices may violate the individual privacy and leads to ethical conflict and thus the employees may become untrusted and tend to leave the organization due to daily physical inspection which is not a very good sign. Social Implications There is a need to educate all the employees on the logic behind such inspection measures and seek the opinion on the ways to improve such measures. A national campaign can be initiated. Originality/value Very few studies have examined the effect of security procedures on the employee morale in the oil fields of Oman and it is a first-hand study of its kind

Mapping human serum induced gene networks as a basis for the creation of biomimetic periosteum for bone repair

The periosteum is a highly vascularised, collagen-rich tissue that plays a crucial role in directing bone repair. This is orchestrated primarily by its resident progenitor cell population. Indeed, preservation of periosteum integrity is critical for bone healing. Cells extracted from the periosteum retain their osteochondrogenic properties and as such are a promising basis for tissue engineering strategies for the repair of bone defects. However, the culture expansion conditions, and the way in which the cells are reintroduced to the defect site are critical aspects of successful translation. Indeed, expansion in human serum and implantation on biomimetic materials has previously been shown to improve in vivo bone formation. As such, this study aimed to develop a protocol to allow for the expansion of human periosteum derived cells (hPDCs) in a biomimetic periosteal-like environment. The expansion conditions were defined through the investigation of the bioactive cues involved in augmenting hPDC proliferative and multipotency characteristics, based on transcriptomic analysis of cells cultured in human serum. Master regulators of transcriptional networks were identified and an optimised periosteal derived-growth factor cocktail (PD-GFC; containing β-Estradiol, FGF2, TNFα, TGFβ, IGF-1 and PDGF-BB) was generated. Expansion of hPDCs in PD-GFC resulted in serum mimicry with regards to the cell morphology, proliferative capacity and chondrogenic differentiation. When incorporated into a 3D collagen-type-1 matrix and cultured in PD-GFC, the hPDCs migrated to the surface that represented the matrix topography of the periosteum cambium layer. Furthermore, gene expression analysis revealed a downregulated Wnt and TGFβ signature and an upregulation of CREB, which may indicate the hPDCs are recreating their progenitor cell signature. This study highlights the first stage in the development of a biomimetic periosteum which may have applications in bone repair

Metastatic Invasive Lobular Carcinoma of the Breast Masquerading as a Primary Renal Malignancy

Breast cancer is known to metastasise to different organs in the body, but an initial presentation of breast cancer with loin pain secondary to a metastatic renal mass is extremely rare. We report a 58-year-old woman who presented with recurrent left loin pain due to a metastatic deposit of invasive lobular carcinoma of the breast. The detection of a renal mass on computed tomography led to the assumption of a renal pelvic malignancy. The diagnostic dilemma posed by the detection of a breast mass during staging and the usefulness of immunohistochemistry in the confirmation of diagnosis are discussed

Tissue-Engineering the Fibrous Pancreatic Tumour Stroma Capsule in 3D Tumouroids to Demonstrate Paclitaxel Response

Pancreatic cancer is a unique cancer in that up to 90% of its tumour mass is composed of a hypovascular and fibrotic stroma. This makes it extremely difficult for chemotherapies to be delivered into the core of the cancer mass. We tissue-engineered a biomimetic 3D pancreatic cancer ("tumouroid") model comprised of a central artificial cancer mass (ACM), containing MIA Paca-2 cells, surrounded by a fibrotic stromal compartment. This stromal compartment had a higher concentration of collagen type I, fibronectin, laminin, and hyaluronic acid (HA) than the ACM. The incorporation of HA was validated with alcian blue staining. Response to paclitaxel was determined in 2D MIA Paca-2 cell cultures, the ACMs alone, and in simple and complex tumouroids, in order to demonstrate drug sensitivity within pancreatic tumouroids of increasing complexity. The results showed that MIA Paca-2 cells grew into the complex stroma and invaded as cell clusters with a maximum distance of 363.7 µm by day 21. In terms of drug response, the IC50 for paclitaxel for MIA Paca-2 cells increased from 0.819 nM in 2D to 3.02 nM in ACMs and to 5.87 nM and 3.803 nM in simple and complex tumouroids respectively, indicating that drug penetration may be significantly reduced in the latter. The results demonstrate the need for biomimetic models during initial drug testing and evaluation

Construction of a Scale for Emotions Management of the Educational Supervisors in the Sultanate of Oman

This study aimed to construct of a scale for emotions management of the educational supervisors in the Sultanate of Oman. It aimed to find out its psychometric properties in terms of validity, reliability, and performance norms. The sample size consisted of 335 supervisors from the Omani educational governorate. The scale was applied during the first semester of the academic year 2010-2011. The validity was verified by three methods: face validity, factorialvalidity and concurrentvalidity. Since there were no significant differences in the scale averages of males and females, the norms were derived for both males and females combined. Finally, a number of recommendations and suggestions have been introduced

3D printing of limestone-calcined clay cement: A review of its potential implementation in the construction industry

Data availability: Data will be made available on request.Copyright © The Author(s) 2023. The rapid development in 3D printing applications requires exploring a sustainable printable mixture to decrease the environmental impact induced by the existing Ordinary Portland Cement (OPC) mixtures and enable 3D printing technology to reach its peak efficiency. The high-volume substitution of OPC with supplementary cementitious materials (SCMs) is of significant interest as a promising solution for developing low-carbon feedstock for 3D printing. Yet, those materials share the problem of limited availability. The combination of limestone and calcined clay could be a promising alternative, offering various benefits, including replacing OPC in high ratios. This paper reviews 3D printable limestone calcined clay cement (LC3) mixtures, compositions, and chemical behaviour. The effect of different sand-to-binder ratios, additives content, OPC replacement levels, clay grade and calcination, and admixtures on the fresh, hardened and printing properties of the 3D printed mixtures are critically discussed. The environmental impact and production cost of the LC3 system compared to OPC and other systems are also critically evaluated along with the applications, future directions and research gaps in this field. The findings of this review show that 3D printed LC3 has a similar hardened performance and better microstructure than OPC system. Moreover, cast LC3 system has 30–50% lower environmental impacts depending on the replacement level and better economic feasibility than OPC. Therefore, making it a suitable feedstock for the innovative manufacturing technology of 3D printing

2-Amino-6-(dimethyl­amino)pyridine-3,5-dicarbonitrile

The title compound, C9H9N5, is slightly twisted from planarity, with a maximum deviation of 0.0285 (13) Å from the pyridine plane for the C atom bearing the amino group. The cyano groups are on different sides of the pyridine plane, with C- and N-atom deviations of 0.072 (3)/0.124 (4) and −0.228 (4)/−0.409 (5) Å from the pyridine plane. In the crystal, N—H⋯N and C—H⋯N hydrogen bonds connect the mol­ecules into zigzag chains running along the c axis

Univariate and multivariate analyses of the asset returns using new statistical models and penalized regression techniques

The COVID-19 epidemic has had a profound effect on almost every aspect of daily life, including the financial sector, education, transportation, health care, and so on. Among these sectors, the financial and health sectors are the most affected areas by COVID-19. Modeling and predicting the impact of the COVID-19 epidemic on the financial and health care sectors is particularly important these days. Therefore, this paper has two aims, (i) to introduce a new probability distribution for modeling the financial data set (oil prices data), and (ii) to implement a machine learning approach to predict the oil prices. First, we introduce a new approach for developing new probability distributions for the univariate analysis of the oil price data. The proposed approach is called a new reduced exponential-$X$ (NRE-$X$) family. Based on this approach, two new statistical distributions are introduced for modeling the oil price data and its log returns. Based on certain statistical tools, we observe that the proposed probability distributions are the best competitors for modeling the prices' data sets. Second, we carry out a multivariate analysis while considering some covariates of oil price data. Dual well-known machine learning algorithms, namely, the least absolute shrinkage and absolute deviation (Lasso) and Elastic net (Enet) are utilized to achieve the important features for oil prices based on the best model. The best model is established through forecasting performance