Two birds with one stone: Goal conflict handling and its effect on well-being

A tourist’s journey is often shaped by the pursuit of diverse and sometimes conflicting goals. In this study, we investigate how tourists handle conflicting goals during their travels. Drawing upon life history theory, we have developed and tested a conceptual model that examines how life history strategies (LHS, fast vs. slow) influence goal management approaches (highlighting vs. balancing) and their subsequent impact on tourist well-being. Through a combination of surveys, field and lab experiments, and a meta-analysis, our research reveals that when confronted with goal conflicts, tourists with a fast LHS tend to prefer a highlighting approach, while those with a slow LHS gravitate towards a balancing approach, with perceived deservingness serving as a mediator in this relationship. Moreover, matching (vs. mismatching) LHS with goal management enhances overall well-being. These findings offer valuable insights for both theoretical advancement and practical management in tourism

Microtissues Enhance Smooth Muscle Differentiation and Cell Viability of hADSCs for Three Dimensional Bioprinting

Smooth muscle differentiated human adipose derived stem cells (hADSCs) provide a crucial stem cell source for urinary tissue engineering, but the induction of hADSCs for smooth muscle differentiation still has several issues to overcome, including a relatively long induction time and equipment dependence, which limits access to abundant stem cells within a short period of time for further application. Three-dimensional (3D) bioprinting holds great promise in regenerative medicine due to its controllable construction of a designed 3D structure. When evenly mixed with bioink, stem cells can be spatially distributed within a bioprinted 3D structure, thus avoiding drawbacks such as, stem cell detachment in a conventional cell-scaffold strategy. Notwithstanding the advantages mentioned above, cell viability is often compromised during 3D bioprinting, which is often due to pressure during the bioprinting process. The objective of our study was to improve the efficiency of hADSC smooth muscle differentiation and cell viability of a 3D bioprinted structure. Here, we employed the hanging-drop method to generate hADSC microtissues in a smooth muscle inductive medium containing human transforming growth factor β1 and bioprinted the induced microtissues onto a 3D structure. After 3 days of smooth muscle induction, the expression of α-smooth muscle actin and smoothelin was higher in microtissues than in their counterpart monolayer cultured hADSCs, as confirmed by immunofluorescence and western blotting analysis. The semi-quantitative assay showed that the expression of α-smooth muscle actin (α-SMA) was 0.218 ± 0.077 in MTs and 0.082 ± 0.007 in Controls; smoothelin expression was 0.319 ± 0.02 in MTs and 0.178 ± 0.06 in Controls. Induced MTs maintained their phenotype after the bioprinting process. Live/dead and cell count kit 8 assays showed that cell viability and cell proliferation in the 3D structure printed with microtissues were higher at all time points compared to the conventional single-cell bioprinting strategy (mean cell viability was 88.16 ± 3.98 vs. 61.76 ± 15% for microtissues and single-cells, respectively). These results provide a novel way to enhance the smooth muscle differentiation of hADSCs and a simple method to maintain better cell viability in 3D bioprinting

Nanoarchitectonic Engineering of Thermal-Responsive Magnetic Nanorobot Collectives for Intracranial Aneurysm Therapy

Stent-assisted coiling is a main treatment modality for intracranial aneurysms (IAs) in clinics, but critical challenges remain to be overcome, such as exogenous implant-induced stenosis and reliance on antiplatelet agents. Herein, we report an endovascular approach for IA therapy without stent grafting or microcatheter shaping, enabled by active delivery of thrombin (Th) to target aneurysms using innovative phase-change material (PCM)-coated magnetite-thrombin (Fe3O4-Th@PCM) FTP nanorobots. The nanorobots are controlled by an integrated actuation system of dynamic torque-force hybrid magnetic fields. With robust intravascular navigation guided by real-time ultrasound imaging, nanorobotic collectives can effectively accumulate and retain in model aneurysms constructed in vivo, followed by controlled release of the encapsulated Th for rapid occlusion of the aneurysm upon melting the protective PCM (thermally responsive in a tunable manner) through focused magnetic hyperthermia. Complete and stable aneurysm embolization was confirmed by postoperative examination and 2-week postembolization follow-up using digital subtraction angiography (DSA), contrast-enhanced ultrasound (CEUS) and histological analysis. The safety of the embolization therapy was assessed through biocompatibility evaluation and histopathology assays. Our strategy, seamlessly integrating secure drug packaging, agile magnetic actuation and clinical interventional imaging, avoids possible exogenous implant rejection, circumvents cumbersome microcatheter shaping, and offers a promising option for IA therapy

Propionate Protects Haloperidol-Induced Neurite Lesions Mediated by Neuropeptide Y

Haloperidol is a commonly used antipsychotic drug for treating schizophrenia. Clinical imaging studies have found that haloperidol can cause volume loss of human brain tissue, which is supported by animal studies showing that haloperidol reduces the number of synaptic spines. The mechanism remains unknown. Gut microbiota metabolites, short chain fatty acids including propionate, are reported to have neuroprotective effect and influence gene expression. This study aims to investigate the effect and mechanism of propionate in the protection of neurite lesion induced by haloperidol. This study showed that 10 μM haloperidol (clinical relevant dose) impaired neurite length in human blastoma SH-SY5Y cells, which were confirmed by using primary mouse striatal spiny neurons. We found that haloperidol impaired neurite length were accompanied by a decreased neuropeptide Y (NPY) expression, but no effect on GSK3β signaling. Importantly, this project research found that propionate was capable of protecting against haloperidol-induced neurite lesions and preventing NPY reduction. To confirm this finding, we used specific siRNAs targeting NPY which blocked the protective effect of propionate on haloperidol-induced neurite lesions. Furthermore, since NPY is regulated by the nuclear transcription factor CREB, we measured pCREB that was decreased by haloperidol and was normalized by propionate. Therefore, propionate has a protective effect against pCREB-NPY mediated haloperidol-induced neurite lesions

Commentary: GLYX-13 Ameliorates Schizophrenia-Like Phenotype Induced by MK-801 in Mice: Role of Hippocampal NR2B and DISC1

It is with great interest we have read the article GLYX-13 Ameliorates Schizophrenia-Like Phenotype Induced by MK-801 in Mice: Role of Hippocampal NR2B and DISC1 (Zhou et al., 2018). Interestingly, this study showed that GLYX-13 prevents hippocampal N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor subtype 2B-Disrupted in schizophrenia 1 (GluN2B-DISC1) signaling and behavioural changes induced by schizophrenia-mimetic drug MK801 in mice. To confirm GluN2B directly regulating DISC1, these researchers showed that the effects of GLYX-13 were vanished after GluN2B knockdown in mice

Numerical Studies of Drag Forces on Drainage Plows

The industrial drainage plow is a mechanized tool used for the installation of agricultural drainage, trenching, and installation of underground pipes. To make the plow more competitive in the industry, this research aims to modify the shape of the plow to increase the tile installation efficiency, which will reduce fuel consumption. Numerical methods will be used in this study to predict the tillage forces on the plow. Numerical simulations will be carried out for the plowing processes under different working conditions with different plow shapes. Also, the load distribution on the plow will be obtained based on the numerical results, which will allow the modification of the structural components to make the plow more efficient and more durable. First, a numerical model for the simulation of the drainage plow operation process is developed, which can predict the performance of the drainage plow in soil, such as force, pressure distribution, topsoil placement, etc. The drag force is a key factor affecting the efficiency of the drainage plow. The pressure on the plow affects the service life of the plow, and the topsoil placement affects the subsequent backfilling of the soil. Then, the modification of the shape of the drainage plow is performed to reduce the drag force and surface pressure without compromising the topsoil placement. The comparison shows that the performance of the modified drainage plow is significantly improved

Self-threat and Compensatory Consumption: The Role of Consumers’ Implicit Theory

Research shows that consumers often engage in compensatory consumption to cope with self-threats. This thesis aims to explore the role of consumers’ implicit theory in compensatory consumption. The research objectives are threefold: (1) to identify the impact of consumers’ implicit theory on their tendency to engage in compensatory consumption and its underlying mechanism; (2) to investigate how consumers’ product preferences in compensatory consumption are influenced by the implicit theory they hold; and (3) to examine the consumers’ self-repair resulting from their compensatory consumption as an individual difference influenced by their implicit theory. A product pre-test (n = 90) was conducted on MTurk, and seven main studies (n = 2,173), including two surveys and five experiments, were conducted on Prolific to examine the relationship between implicit theory and compensatory consumption. The findings of this thesis contribute to two literature streams — the compensatory consumption literature and implicit theory literature — by elucidating how self-threats interact with consumers’ implicit theory to affect compensatory consumption. This includes exploring the underlying mechanism, boundary conditions, and downstream consequence of this interaction. The results not only offer theoretical insights, but also have practical implications for marketers and policymakers concerned about consumer well-being. While considering the research limitations, the thesis also discusses potential avenues for future research