Fabrication and Characterization of Collagen/PVA Dual-Layer Membranes for Periodontal Bone Regeneration

Guided tissue regeneration (GTR) is a promising treatment for periodontal tissue defects, which generally uses a membrane to build a mechanical barrier from the gingival epithelium and hold space for the periodontal regeneration especially the tooth-supporting bone. However, existing membranes possess insufficient mechanical properties and limited bioactivity for periodontal bone regenerate. Herein, fish collagen and polyvinyl alcohol (Col/PVA) dual-layer membrane were developed via a combined freezing/thawing and layer coating method. This dual-layer membrane had a clear but contact boundary line between collagen and PVA layers, which were both hydrophilic. The dual membrane had an elongation at break of 193 ± 27% and would undergo an in vitro degradation duration of more than 17 days. Further cell experiments showed that compared with the PVA layer, the collagen layer not only presented good cytocompatibility with rat bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cells (BMSCs), but also promoted the osteogenic genes (RUNX2, ALP, OCN, and COL1) and protein (ALP) expression of BMSCs. Hence, the currently developed dual-layer membranes could be used as a stable barrier with a stable degradation rate and selectively favor the bone tissue to repopulate the periodontal defect. The membranes could meet the challenges encountered by GTR for superior defect repair, demonstrating great potential in clinical applications

Limits on active to sterile neutrino oscillations from disappearance searches in the MINOS, Daya Bay, and bugey-3 experiments

Searches for a light sterile neutrino have been performed independently by the MINOS and the Daya Bay experiments using the muon (anti)neutrino and electron antineutrino disappearance channels, respectively. In this Letter, results from both experiments are combined with those from the Bugey-3 reactor neutrino experiment to constrain oscillations into light sterile neutrinos. The three experiments are sensitive to complementary regions of parameter space, enabling the combined analysis to probe regions allowed by the Liquid Scintillator Neutrino Detector (LSND) and MiniBooNE experiments in a minimally extended four-neutrino flavor framework. Stringent limits on sin^2 2θμe are set over 6 orders of magnitude in the sterile mass-squared splitting Δm^2 41. The sterile-neutrino mixing phase space allowed by the LSND and MiniBooNE experiments is excluded for Δm^2 41 < 0.8 eV^2 at 95% CLs

Status and Prospects of ZnO-Based Resistive Switching Memory Devices

In the advancement of the semiconductor device technology, ZnO could be a prospective alternative than the other metal oxides for its versatility and huge applications in different aspects. In this review, a thorough overview on ZnO for the application of resistive switching memory (RRAM) devices has been conducted. Various efforts that have been made to investigate and modulate the switching characteristics of ZnO-based switching memory devices are discussed. The use of ZnO layer in different structure, the different types of filament formation, and the different types of switching including complementary switching are reported. By considering the huge interest of transparent devices, this review gives the concrete overview of the present status and prospects of transparent RRAM devices based on ZnO. ZnO-based RRAM can be used for flexible memory devices, which is also covered here. Another challenge in ZnO-based RRAM is that the realization of ultra-thin and low power devices. Nevertheless, ZnO not only offers decent memory properties but also has a unique potential to be used as multifunctional nonvolatile memory devices. The impact of electrode materials, metal doping, stack structures, transparency, and flexibility on resistive switching properties and switching parameters of ZnO-based resistive switching memory devices are briefly compared. This review also covers the different nanostructured-based emerging resistive switching memory devices for low power scalable devices. It may give a valuable insight on developing ZnO-based RRAM and also should encourage researchers to overcome the challenges

Toll-like receptor 3 modulates the behavioral effects of cocaine in mice

Abstract Background The nucleus accumbens in the midbrain dopamine limbic system plays a key role in cocaine addiction. Toll-like receptors (TLRs) are important pattern-recognition receptors (PPRs) in the innate immune system that are also involved in drug dependence; however, the detailed mechanism is largely unknown. Methods The present study was designed to investigate the potential role of TLR3 in cocaine addiction. Cocaine-induced conditioned place preference (CPP), locomotor activity, and self-administration were used to determine the effects of TLR3 in the rewarding properties of cocaine. Lentivirus-mediated re-expression of Tlr3 (LV-TLR3) was applied to determine if restoration of TLR3 expression in the NAc is sufficient to restore the cocaine effect in TLR3−/− mice. The protein levels of phospho-NF-κB p65, IKKβ, and p-IκBα both in the cytoplasm and nucleus of cocaine-induced CPP mice were detected by Western blot. Results We showed that both TLR3 deficiency and intra-NAc injection of TLR3 inhibitors significantly attenuated cocaine-induced CPP, locomotor activity, and self-administration in mice. Importantly, the TLR3−/− mice that received intra-NAc injection of LV-TLR3 displayed significant increases in cocaine-induced CPP and locomotor activity. Finally, we found that TLR3 inhibitor reverted cocaine-induced upregulation of phospho-NF-κB p65, IKKβ, and p-IκBα. Conclusions Taken together, our results describe that TLR3 modulates cocaine-induced behaviors and provide further evidence supporting a role for central pro-inflammatory immune signaling in drug reward. We propose that TLR3 blockade could be a novel approach to treat cocaine addiction