Impacts of biomedical hashtag-based Twitter campaign: #DHPSP utilization for promotion of open innovation in digital health, patient safety, and personalized medicine

The open innovation hub Digital Health and Patient Safety Platform (DHPSP) was recently established with the purpose to invigorate collaborative scientific research and the development of new digital products and personalized solutions aiming to improve human health and patient safety. In this study, we evaluated the effectiveness of a Twitter-based campaign centered on using the hashtag #DHPSP to promote the visibility of the DHPSP initiative. Thus, tweets containing #DHPSP were monitored for five weeks for the period 20.10.2020–24.11.2020 and were analyzed with Symplur Signals (social media analytics tool). In the study period, a total of 11,005 tweets containing #DHPSP were posted by 3020 Twitter users, generating 151,984,378 impressions. Analysis of the healthcare stakeholder-identity of the Twitter users who used #DHPSP revealed that the most of participating user accounts belonged to individuals or doctors, with the top three user locations being the United States (501 users), the United Kingdom (155 users), and India (121 users). Analysis of co-occurring hashtags and the full text of the posted tweets further revealed that the major themes of attention in the #DHPSP Twitter-community were related to the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), medicine and health, digital health technologies, and science communication in general. Overall, these results indicate that the #DHPSP initiative achieved high visibility and engaged a large body of Twitter users interested in the DHPSP focus area. Moreover, the conducted campaign resulted in an increase of DHPSP member enrollments and website visitors, and new scientific collaborations were formed. Thus, Twitter campaigns centered on a dedicated hashtag prove to be a highly efficient tool for visibility-promotion, which could be successfully utilized by healthcare-related open innovation platforms or initiatives

The International Natural Product Sciences Taskforce (INPST) and the power of Twitter networking exemplified through #INPST hashtag analysis

Background: The development of digital technologies and the evolution of open innovation approaches have enabled the creation of diverse virtual organizations and enterprises coordinating their activities primarily online. The open innovation platform titled "International Natural Product Sciences Taskforce" (INPST) was established in 2018, to bring together in collaborative environment individuals and organizations interested in natural product scientific research, and to empower their interactions by using digital communication tools. Methods: In this work, we present a general overview of INPST activities and showcase the specific use of Twitter as a powerful networking tool that was used to host a one-week "2021 INPST Twitter Networking Event" (spanning from 31st May 2021 to 6th June 2021) based on the application of the Twitter hashtag #INPST. Results and Conclusion: The use of this hashtag during the networking event period was analyzed with Symplur Signals (https://www.symplur.com/), revealing a total of 6,036 tweets, shared by 686 users, which generated a total of 65,004,773 impressions (views of the respective tweets). This networking event's achieved high visibility and participation rate showcases a convincing example of how this social media platform can be used as a highly effective tool to host virtual Twitter-based international biomedical research events

Investigation of Sheep Reproductive Tract as an Animal Model for Pelvic Organ Prolapse and Urogyencological Research

Pelvic organ prolapse is characterized by the failure of vaginal wall support and protrusion of the pelvic organs through the vaginal orifice. Exact etiology of pelvic organ prolapse is not completely understood. The surgical procedures for pelvic organ prolapse utilize various biomaterials for holding the organs in place. However, the biomaterials used for restoring these organs have a high rate of failure in a complicated anatomical and biomechanical environment. With the given issues at hand, animal models are the best answer for understanding the pathophysiology of prolapse, and determining the cause of failure of these surgical interventions. For this study, we are investigating sheep as an animal model for human pelvic organ prolapse. We compared the anatomy of the sheep pelvic floor with humans. We found that anatomical parameters are a good measure/biomarker for estimating structural and anatomical changes in the body of the animal. As the anatomical measurements are applied to human vaginal prolapse, we can apply the same principles in sheep and further explore the feasibility of using sheep as an animal model for prolapse. Additionally, we evaluated location dependent biomechanical properties of the sheep vaginal tract. We have characterized the structure-property relationship of sheep vaginal wall tissue in the top third and middle third regions. We found that in contrast to current published research, sheep vaginal tissues are anisotropic in nature. This anisotropic characteristic of the sheep vaginal wall tissue is a direct function of the microstructural arrangement of collagen, elastin, smooth muscle and other extracellular matrix components. We also developed decellularized scaffolds as potential biomaterials, which can be potentially utilized in prolapse surgeries. We developed three different types of vaginal tissue scaffolds using SDS, Triton X-100, and trypsin for reconstructive surgery applications. During the decellularization, all of the cellular components are removed, which leaves the acellular ECM behind. We analyzed the biomechanical properties and microstructural properties of these scaffolds and found that the SDS samples were better in all aspects of the preclinical evaluation. Future studies will aim at applying the anatomical and biomechanical techniques used in this study to prolapsed sheep vaginal wall tissues

<span style="font-size:15.0pt;mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman";mso-bidi-font-weight: bold" lang="EN-GB">Submerged fermentation and characterization of <span style="font-size:15.0pt;mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman";mso-fareast-language: EN-IN" lang="EN-GB">carboxymethyl cellulase<span style="font-size:15.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman";mso-bidi-font-weight:bold" lang="EN-GB"> from a rhizospheric isolate of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal"><span style="font-size:15.0pt;mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language:EN-IN" lang="EN-GB">Trichoderma</span></i><span style="font-size:15.0pt;mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman";mso-fareast-language: EN-IN" lang="EN-GB"> <i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal">viride </i><span style="font-size:15.0pt;mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight:bold" lang="EN-GB">associated with <i>Azadirachta indica</i> </span></span></span></span></span>

225-230<span style="font-size:9.0pt;mso-bidi-font-family: " times="" new="" roman""="" lang="EN-GB">Analysis of process parameters influencing the submerged fermentation <span style="font-size:9.0pt;mso-fareast-font-family: E-BZ;mso-bidi-font-family:" times="" new="" roman""="" lang="EN-GB">of carboxymethyl cellulase by Trichoderma viride <span style="font-size:9.0pt;mso-fareast-font-family: E-BZ;mso-bidi-font-family:" times="" new="" roman""="" lang="EN-GB">isolated from <span style="font-size:9.0pt;mso-bidi-font-family: " times="" new="" roman";mso-bidi-font-weight:bold"="" lang="EN-GB">Azadirachta indica rhizosphere<span style="font-size:9.0pt;mso-fareast-font-family:E-BZ;mso-bidi-font-family: " times="" new="" roman""="" lang="EN-GB"> <span style="font-size:9.0pt;mso-bidi-font-family: " times="" new="" roman""="" lang="EN-GB">showed that the highest enzyme yield was obtained with <span style="font-size:9.0pt;mso-fareast-font-family: E-BZ;mso-bidi-font-family:" times="" new="" roman""="" lang="EN-GB">carboxymethyl cellulose and ammonium sulphate as nutritional supplements at an optimum pH, temperature, incubation period and <span style="font-size:9.0pt;mso-fareast-font-family: " ms="" mincho";mso-bidi-font-family:"times="" new="" roman";mso-ansi-language:en-my"="" lang="EN-MY">inoculum volume <span style="font-size:9.0pt;mso-bidi-font-family: " times="" new="" roman""="" lang="EN-GB">of 5.0, 30°C, 72 h and 1% (v/v), respectively. Sodium dodecyl sulphate polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis revealed the apparent molecular weight of the purified enzyme to be 55 kDa. The enzyme exhibited a Vmax value of 83.7 µg/min and Km value of 0.53 mg/ml. Optimal activity of the enzyme at 50<span style="font-size:9.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family:" times="" new="" roman""="" lang="EN-GB">°C and pH 5.0 emphasizes its potential to be utilized in textile industry operations. </span

Experimental Evidence of Mechanical Isotropy in Porcine Lung Parenchyma

Pulmonary injuries are a major source of morbidity and mortality associated with trauma. Trauma includes injuries associated with accidents and falls as well as blast injuries caused by explosives. The prevalence and mortality of these injuries has made research of pulmonary injury a major priority. Lungs have a complex structure, with multiple types of tissues necessary to allow successful respiration. The soft, porous parenchyma is the component of the lung which contains the alveoli responsible for gas exchange. Parenchyma is also the portion which is most susceptible to traumatic injury. Finite element simulations are an important tool for studying traumatic injury to the human body. These simulations rely on material properties to accurately recreate real world mechanical behaviors. Previous studies have explored the mechanical properties of lung tissues, specifically parenchyma. These studies have assumed material isotropy but, to our knowledge, no study has thoroughly tested and quantified this assumption. This study presents a novel methodology for assessing isotropy in a tissue, and applies these methods to porcine lung parenchyma. Briefly, lung parenchyma samples were dissected so as to be aligned with one of the three anatomical planes, sagittal, frontal, and transverse, and then subjected to compressive mechanical testing. Stress-strain curves from these tests were statistically compared by a novel method for differences in stresses and strains at percentages of the curve. Histological samples aligned with the anatomical planes were also examined by qualitative and quantitative methods to determine any differences in the microstructural morphology. Our study showed significant evidence to support the hypothesis that lung parenchyma behaves isotropically

Biomechanical Restoration Potential of Pentagalloyl Glucose after Arterial Extracellular Matrix Degeneration

The objective of this study was to quantify pentagalloyl glucose (PGG) mediated biomechanical restoration of degenerated extracellular matrix (ECM). Planar biaxial tensile testing was performed for native (N), enzyme-treated (collagenase and elastase) (E), and PGG (P) treated porcine abdominal aorta specimens (n = 6 per group). An Ogden material model was fitted to the stress–strain data and finite element computational analyses of simulated native aorta and aneurysmal abdominal aorta were performed. The maximum tensile stress of the N group was higher than that in both E and P groups for both circumferential (43.78 ± 14.18 kPa vs. 10.03 ± 2.68 kPa vs. 13.85 ± 3.02 kPa; p = 0.0226) and longitudinal directions (33.89 ± 8.98 kPa vs. 9.04 ± 2.68 kPa vs. 14.69 ± 5.88 kPa; p = 0.0441). Tensile moduli in the circumferential direction was found to be in descending order as N &gt; P &gt; E (195.6 ± 58.72 kPa &gt; 81.8 ± 22.76 kPa &gt; 46.51 ± 15.04 kPa; p = 0.0314), whereas no significant differences were found in the longitudinal direction (p = 0.1607). PGG binds to the hydrophobic core of arterial tissues and the crosslinking of ECM fibers is one of the possible explanations for the recovery of biomechanical properties observed in this study. PGG is a beneficial polyphenol that can be potentially translated to clinical practice for preventing rupture of the aneurysmal arterial wall