Microfluidic Engineering of Exosomes: Editing Cellular Messages for Precision Therapeutics

Studying extracellular vesicle (EV), particularly exosomes, is holding great promise, yet technically challenging in defining such small and molecularly diverse nanovesicles. With intrinsic molecular payload and biodegradability, molecular engineering of exosomes opens new avenues for mediating cellular responses and developing novel nano-delivery systems in precision therapeutics. Microfluidic lab-on-chip technology is taking pivotal roles in such emerging field. This review examines scientific advancements of microfluidic technology for engineering exosomes and assesses future applications and perspectives in developing precision therapeutics, which could serve the community by identifying potential new research areas or technologies that are urgently needed in precision therapeutics

Oxidative stress mediates hippocampal neuronal apoptosis through ROS/JNK/P53 pathway in rats with PTSD triggered by high-voltage electrical burn

Background: The pathogenesis of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) triggered by high-voltage electrical burn (HVEB) remains unclear and the oxidative stress plays a role in this process. The purpose of this study is to investigate the underlying mechanism of oxidative stress mediates hippocampal neuronal apoptosis in rats with PTSD triggered by HVEB. Materials and methods: The PTSD rat model was developed by stimulating with high voltage electricity and screened using behavioral performance including Morris water maze (MWM), elevated plus-maze (EPM) and open-field test (OFT). The reactive oxygen species (ROS) generation was measured by DHE fluorescence staining or flow cytometry. Western blotting assay was used to detect the proteins of p-JNK, JNK, P53, PUMA, Bcl-2 and Bax in hippocampal tissue or HT22 cells treated with electrical stimulation. Results: The serum MDA and 8-OHdG levels were increased (P < 0.001), while the activities of SOD and CAT were decreased (P < 0.001) significantly in patients with HVEB. Behavioral test results showed that high-voltage electric stimulation induced the PTSD-like symptoms and the ROS-JNK-P53 pathway was involved in the neuronal apoptosis in rats with PTSD induced by HVEB. In vitro experiments further confirmed the electrical stimulation induced neuronal apoptosis through ROS/JNK/P53 signaling pathway and the antioxidant NAC could rescued the ROS generation, activation of JNK/P53 proteins and improved the cell apoptosis rate in HT22 cells. Finally, the JNK inhibitor SP600125 could significantly inhibited the percentage of HT22 cell apoptosis induced by electrical stimulation (P < 0.001). Conclusions: These results indicated that oxidative stress mediates hippocampal neuronal apoptosis through ROS/JNK/P53 pathway in rats with PTSD triggered by HVEB

To Understand One-Dimensional Continuous Fitness Landscapes by Drift Analysis

Abstract. This paper shows that we could describe the characteristics of easy and hard fitness landscapes in one-dimensional continuous space by drift analysis. The work expends the existing results in the discrete space into the continue space. A fitness landscape, in this paper, is regarded as the behaviour of an evolutionary algorithm on fitness functions. Based on the drift analysis, easy fitness landscapes are thought to be a “short-distance ” landscape, which is easy for the evolutionary algorithm to find the optimal point; and hard fitness landscapes then are as a fardistance landscape, which the evolutionary algorithm had to spend a long time to find the optimal point.

AM Fungi Endow Greater Plant Biomass and Soil Nutrients under Interspecific Competition Rather Than Nutrient Releases for Litter

Plant competition affects belowground ecological processes, such as litter decomposition and nutrient release. Arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungi play an essential role in plant growth and litter decomposition potentially. However, how plant competition affects the nutrient release of litter through AM fungi remains unclear especially for juvenile plants. In this study, a competitive potting experiment was conducted using juvenile seedlings of Broussonetia papyrifera and Carpinus pubescens from a karst habitat, including the intraspecific and interspecific competition treatments. The seedlings were inoculated by AM fungus or not inoculated, and the litter mixtures of B. papyrifera and C. pubescens were added into the soil or not added. The results were as follows: Litter addition significantly increased the root mycorrhizal colonization of two species in intraspecific competition. AM fungus significantly increased the biomass of B. papyrifera seedings and nitrogen release and decreased nitrogen concentration and N/P ratio of litter and further improved the total nitrogen and N/P ratio of soil under litter. The interspecific competition interacting with AM fungus was beneficial to the biomass accumulation of B. papyrifera and improvement of soil nutrients under litter. However, intraspecific competition significantly promoted nutrient releases via AM fungus. In conclusion, we suggest that AM fungi endow greater plant biomass and soil nutrients through interspecific competition, while intraspecific competition prefers to release the nutrients of litter

AM Fungi Endow Greater Plant Biomass and Soil Nutrients under Interspecific Competition Rather Than Nutrient Releases for Litter

Plant competition affects belowground ecological processes, such as litter decomposition and nutrient release. Arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungi play an essential role in plant growth and litter decomposition potentially. However, how plant competition affects the nutrient release of litter through AM fungi remains unclear especially for juvenile plants. In this study, a competitive potting experiment was conducted using juvenile seedlings of Broussonetia papyrifera and Carpinus pubescens from a karst habitat, including the intraspecific and interspecific competition treatments. The seedlings were inoculated by AM fungus or not inoculated, and the litter mixtures of B. papyrifera and C. pubescens were added into the soil or not added. The results were as follows: Litter addition significantly increased the root mycorrhizal colonization of two species in intraspecific competition. AM fungus significantly increased the biomass of B. papyrifera seedings and nitrogen release and decreased nitrogen concentration and N/P ratio of litter and further improved the total nitrogen and N/P ratio of soil under litter. The interspecific competition interacting with AM fungus was beneficial to the biomass accumulation of B. papyrifera and improvement of soil nutrients under litter. However, intraspecific competition significantly promoted nutrient releases via AM fungus. In conclusion, we suggest that AM fungi endow greater plant biomass and soil nutrients through interspecific competition, while intraspecific competition prefers to release the nutrients of litter

A Bibliometric Analysis of Forest Gap Research during 1980–2021

(1) Background: Forest gaps play an important role in promoting forest regeneration and facilitating the forest growth cycle. Since the 1980s, forest gaps have been widely studied by forestry scientists. The purpose of this study was to review the global literature from 1980 to 2021, based on the scientific database Web of Science Core Collection, and to summarize the research hotspots and the trends of the forest gaps. (2) Method: A bibliometric analysis was performed using the visual analytic software CiteSpace to quantify the description of annual publications, collaboration analysis of authors, institutions and countries, co-citation analysis of cited journals, cited authors, and cited references. The keyword co-occurrence, burst, and time zone were also analyzed by the software. (3) Results: The results show that the volume of annual publications is increasing. Dr. Harald Bugmann is the author with the most published works. The most active institution is the American Forest Service. The United States, Canada, and China are the three most productive countries. “Ecology” is the most cited journal. The results indicate that the hotspot in the forest gap research has shifted, and the effects of forest environmental changes caused by forest gaps under climate change have received more attention from scientists. In the future, more attention may be paid to the role of forest gaps on near-natural forest management patterns, the effect of forest gaps on forest sustainable development, and the way to study forest gaps using lidar technology. (4) Conclusion: Our results can help to understand emerging trends in forest gap research to inform forest ecology and management

The correlation between ultrasonographic findings and the Lysholm scores in knee osteoarthritis

Objective: To analyze the correlation between ultrasonographic findings and Lysholm scores in knee osteoarthritis. Methods: This cross-sectional observational study included 77 cases of knee osteoarthritis examined from February to December in 2015. There were 66 females and 11 males, with an average age of 57.39 (6.41) years, single or bilateral knee pain and limitation of mobility, and an average course of disease of 13.60 (3.00) months. Multiple regression equations were applied in a linear regression analysis to assess the correlation between ultrasound findings and Lysholm scores. Results: The ultrasonographic findings of joint effusion, synovial hypertrophy, protrusion of the medial meniscus (MMP), and inflammation of subpatellar fat pad were significantly correlated with the Lysholm scores (all P  .05). Conclusion: Musculoskeletal ultrasound can better detect the pathological changes of soft tissue in the knee, mainly including synovial hypertrophy, joint effusion, and MMP in comparison with those by plain radiology. After statistical analysis, it is indicated that ultrasonographic findings of synovial hypertrophy was possibly associated with joint locking, joint effusion with supporting, MMP with squatting, and inflammation of subpatellar fat pad with squatting and locking

A comprehensive health classification model based on support vector machine for proseal laryngeal mask and tracheal catheter assessment in herniorrhaphy

Purpose: In order to classify different types of health data collected in clinical practice of hernia surgery more effectively and improve the classification performance of support vector machine (SVM). Methods: A prospective randomized study was conducted. Sixty patients undergoing hernia repair under general anesthesia were randomly divided into two groups, PLMA group (n = 30) and ETT group (n = 30), for airway management. Heart rate, systolic blood pressure, diastolic blood pressure, mean arterial pressure, respiratory parameters and the incidence of complications related to ProSeal laryngeal mask airway (PLMA) and endotracheal tube (ETT) were collected in clinical experiments in order to evaluate the operation condition. On the basis of this experiment, at first, expert credibility is introduced to process the index value; secondly, the classification weight of the index is objectively determined by the information entropy output of the index itself; finally, a comprehensive classification model of support vector machine based on key sample set is proposed and its advantages are evaluated. Result: After classifying the experimental data, we found that SVM can accurately judge the effect of surgery by data. In this experiment, PLMA method is better than ETT method in xenon repair operation. Discussion: SVM has great accuracy and practicability in judging the outcome of xenon repair operation. Conclusion: The proposed index classification weight model can deal with the uncertainties caused by uncertain information and give the confidence of the uncertain information. Compared with the traditional SVM method, the proposed method based on SVM and key sample set greatly reduces the number of samples that misjudge the effect of samples, and improves the practicability of SVM method. It is concluded that PLMA is superior to the ETT technique to hernia surgical. The idea of constructing classification model based on key sample set proposed in this paper can also be used for reference in other data mining methods