1,655 research outputs found
Proteomic Validation of Multifunctional Molecules in Mesenchymal Stem Cells Derived from Human Bone Marrow, Umbilical Cord Blood and Peripheral Blood
Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) are one of the most attractive therapeutic resources in clinical application owing to their multipotent capability, which means that cells can differentiate into various mesenchymal tissues such as bone, cartilage, fat, tendon, muscle and marrow stroma. Depending on the cellular source, MSCs exhibit different application potentials according to their different in vivo functions, despite similar phenotypic and cytological characteristics. To understand the different molecular conditions that govern the different application or differentiation potential of each MSC according to cellular source, we generated a proteome reference map of MSCs obtained from bone marrow (BM), umbilical cord blood (CB) and peripheral blood (PB). We identified approximately 30 differentially regulated (or expressed) proteins. Most up-regulated proteins show a cytoskeletal and antioxidant or detoxification role according to their functional involvement. Additionally, these proteins are involved in the increase of cell viability, engraftment and migration in pathological conditions in vivo. In summary, we examined differentially expressed key regulatory factors of MSCs obtained from several cellular sources, demonstrated their differentially expressed proteome profiles and discussed their functional role in specific pathological conditions. With respect to the field of cell therapy, it may be particularly crucial to determine the most suitable cell sources according to target disease
FaceCLIPNeRF: Text-driven 3D Face Manipulation using Deformable Neural Radiance Fields
As recent advances in Neural Radiance Fields (NeRF) have enabled
high-fidelity 3D face reconstruction and novel view synthesis, its manipulation
also became an essential task in 3D vision. However, existing manipulation
methods require extensive human labor, such as a user-provided semantic mask
and manual attribute search unsuitable for non-expert users. Instead, our
approach is designed to require a single text to manipulate a face
reconstructed with NeRF. To do so, we first train a scene manipulator, a latent
code-conditional deformable NeRF, over a dynamic scene to control a face
deformation using the latent code. However, representing a scene deformation
with a single latent code is unfavorable for compositing local deformations
observed in different instances. As so, our proposed Position-conditional
Anchor Compositor (PAC) learns to represent a manipulated scene with spatially
varying latent codes. Their renderings with the scene manipulator are then
optimized to yield high cosine similarity to a target text in CLIP embedding
space for text-driven manipulation. To the best of our knowledge, our approach
is the first to address the text-driven manipulation of a face reconstructed
with NeRF. Extensive results, comparisons, and ablation studies demonstrate the
effectiveness of our approach.Comment: ICCV 202
The Safety and Efficacy of Transconjunctival Sutureless 23-gauge Vitrectomy
PURPOSE: To evaluate the efficacy and safety of vitreoretinal surgery using a 23-gauge transconjunctival sutureless vitrectomy (TSV) system for various vitreoretinal diseases. METHODS: A retrospective, consecutive, interventional case series was performed for 40 eyes of 40 patients. The patients underwent vitreoretinal procedures using the 23-gauge TSV system, including idiopathic epiretinal membrane (n=7), vitreous hemorrhage (n=11), diabetic macular edema (n=10), macular hole (n=5), vitreomacular traction syndrome (n=5), diabetic tractional retinal detachment (n=1), and rhegmatogenous retinal detachment (n=1). Best corrected visual acuity (BCVA), intraocular pressure (IOP), and intra- and post-operative complications were evaluated. RESULTS: Intraoperative suture placement was necessary in 3 eyes (7.5%). The median BCVA improved from 20/400 (LogMAR, 1.21+/-0.63) to 20/140 (LogMAR, 0.83+/-0.48) at 1 week (p=0.003), 20/100 (LogMAR, 0.85+/-0.65) at 1 month (p=0.002), 20/100 (LogMAR, 0.73+/-0.6) at 3 months (p=0.001). In 1 eye, IOP was 5 mmHg at 2 hours and 4 mmHg at 5 hours, but none of the eyes showed hypotony after 1 postoperative day. No serous postoperative complications were observed during a mean follow-up of 8.4+/-3.4 months (range 3-13 months) CONCLUSIONS: The 23-gauge TSV system shows promise as an effective and safe technique for a variety of vitreoretinal procedures. It appears to be a less traumatic, more convenient alternative to 20-gauge vitrectomy in some indications
Competing edge structures of Sb and Bi bilayers by trivial and nontrivial band topologies
One-dimensional (1D) edge states formed at the boundaries of 2D normal and
topological insulators have shown intriguing quantum phases such as charge
density wave and quantum spin Hall effect. Based on first-principles
density-functional theory calculations including spin-orbit coupling (SOC), we
show that the edge states of zigzag Sb(111) and Bi(111) nanoribbons drastically
change the stability of their edge structures. For zigzag Sb(111) nanoribbon,
the Peierls-distorted or reconstructed edge structure is stabilized by a
band-gap opening. However, for zigzag Bi(111) nanoribbon, such two insulating
structures are destabilized due to the presence of topologically protected
gapless edge states, resulting in the stabilization of a metallic,
shear-distorted edge structure. We also show that the edge states of the
Bi(111) nanoribbon exhibit a larger Rashba-type spin splitting at the boundary
of Brillouin zone, compared to those of the Sb(111) nanoribbon. Interestingly,
the spin textures of edge states in the Peierls-distorted Sb edge structure and
the shear-distorted Bi edge structure have all three spin components
perpendicular and parallel to the edges, due to their broken mirror-plane
symmetry. The present findings demonstrate that the topologically trivial and
nontrivial edge states play crucial roles in determining the edge structures of
normal and topological insulators.Comment: 7 pages, 8 figure
Shock ion acceleration by an ultrashort circularly polarized laser pulse via relativistic transparency in an exploded target
We investigated ion acceleration by an electrostatic shock in an exploded target irradiated by an ultrashort, circularly polarized laser pulse by means of one- and three-dimensional particle-in-cell simulations. We discovered that the laser field penetrating via relativistic transparency (RT) rapidly heated the upstream electron plasma to enable the formation of a high-speed electrostatic shock. Owing to the RT-based rapid heating and the fast compression of the initial density spike by a circularly polarized pulse, a new regime of the shock ion acceleration driven by an ultrashort (20-40 fs), moderately intense (1-1.4 PW) laser pulse is envisaged. This regime enables more efficient shock ion acceleration under a limited total pulse energy than a linearly polarized pulse with crystal laser systems of lambda similar to 1 mu mopen
A multimodal analysis combining behavioral experiments and survey-based methods to assess the cognitive effect of video game playing:good or evil?
The limited immunomodulatory effects of escharectomy on the kinetics of endotoxin, cytokines, and adhesion molecules in major burns.
Escharectomy has been shown to improve the survival rates and the outcomes in burns. This observational study was conducted to assess the role of escharectomy on the inflammatory mediators in major burns. Seventeen ASA physical status II or status III adult surviving major burn patients were recruited. When the escharectomy was scheduled, a series of blood samples was obtained at -3 and -1 days preoperation, and +1 and +3 postoperation. The changing levels of endotoxin, cytokines, and adhesion molecules were measured with a quantitative sandwich immunoassay. Extensive escharectomy did not appear to have any significant impact on the levels of tumor necrosis factor alpha, interleukin-10, soluble intracellular adhesion molecule-1 and soluble vascular adhesion molecule-1. Meanwhile, endotoxin and E-selectin were significantly decreased after escharectomy. Escharectomy appeared to have a limited immunomodulatory effect on the inflammatory mediators in systemic inflammatory responses induced by major burns. This is probably related to the timing and extent of surgery, and the complex nature of burn-related inflammation
Application of a non-halogenated solvent, methyl ethyl ketone (MEK) for recovery of poly(3-hydroxybutyrate-co-3-hydroxyvalerate) [P(HB-co-HV)] from bacterial cells
Conventional solvent-based methods are still the most practical approaches for recovery of polyhydroxyalkanoate (PHA) polymer from cellular biomass, even though potential alternatives exist, including chemical, mechanical, and enzymatic methods. It is still necessary, however, to avoid dangerous and environmentally unfriendly solvents (e.g., chloroform and dichloromethane) in the polymer recovery process. In the work presented here, we applied various solvent systems to recover PHA from Ralstonia eutropha and recombinant Escherichia coli cells. It was demonstrated that methyl ethyl ketone (MEK) is a promising solvent for PHA recovery from bacterial cells, particularly for the copolymer poly(hydroxybutyrate-cohydroxyvalerate) [P(HB-co-HV)], exhibiting > 90% polymer recovery. Even though MEK did not solubilize PHAs to the same extent as chloroform, it can recover a comparable amount of polymer because of its processing advantages, such as the low viscosity of the MEK/PHA solution, and the lower density of MEK as compared to cellular components. MEK was found to be the best alternative, non-halogenated solvent among examined candidates for recovery of P(HB-co-HV) from cells. The MEK treatment of PHAcontaining cells further allowed us to eliminate several costly and lengthy steps in the extraction process, such as cell lysis, centrifugation, and filtration.Korea (South). Ministry of Education (Basic Science Research Program through the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF- 2013R1A1A2A10004690))Korea Polar Research Institute (PE14030
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