Differential Regulation of Morphology and Estrogen Receptor-Alpha Expression in the Vagina of Ovariectomized Adult Virgin Rats by Estrogen Replacement: A Histological Study

Background. To determine the exact role of estrogen in vaginal tissue morphology and estrogen receptor-alpha (ERα) distribution in the vagina, which remains controversial. Methods. Sixty rats were randomly categorized: sham-operated (sham), ovariectomy (OVX), and four estradiol treatments (estradiol valerate at 0.4, 0.8, 1.6, and 3.2 mg/kg/day) for 2 weeks. Thereafter, vaginal samples were biopsied from the distal- and proximal-half portions. The percentage of ERα-immunoreactive cells and the ERα score were quantified using immunohistochemistry to assess changes in ERα expression and distribution. Results. OVX induced significant vaginal atrophy and organic index. Estrogen-replacement therapy (ERT) reversed vaginal atrophy. The vaginal distal-half areas showed lower ERα% than the proximal-half areas. The ERα% increased sharply 4 weeks after OVX, especially in the epithelial layer (P=0.023). ERT elicited different degrees of reductions in tissues after the 2-week treatment, but the ERα% in only the epithelium recovered in parallel with that in the sham group (P=0.001). The OVX group showed higher ERα histological scores than the sham group, and the distal-half area changed more evidently than the proximal-half area. ERα expression was nearly unchanged after ERT (P>0.05). Conclusions. ERT is effective for treating obesity and vulvovaginal atrophy caused by hypoestrogenism and advancing age in menopausal women but cannot recover the distribution and expression of ERα

Robust estimation of bacterial cell count from optical density

Optical density (OD) is widely used to estimate the density of cells in liquid culture, but cannot be compared between instruments without a standardized calibration protocol and is challenging to relate to actual cell count. We address this with an interlaboratory study comparing three simple, low-cost, and highly accessible OD calibration protocols across 244 laboratories, applied to eight strains of constitutive GFP-expressing E. coli. Based on our results, we recommend calibrating OD to estimated cell count using serial dilution of silica microspheres, which produces highly precise calibration (95.5% of residuals <1.2-fold), is easily assessed for quality control, also assesses instrument effective linear range, and can be combined with fluorescence calibration to obtain units of Molecules of Equivalent Fluorescein (MEFL) per cell, allowing direct comparison and data fusion with flow cytometry measurements: in our study, fluorescence per cell measurements showed only a 1.07-fold mean difference between plate reader and flow cytometry data

Collaborating with Management Academics in a New Economy: Benefits and Challenges

As a response to intensified globalization, international research collaboration has become common in the social sciences. This paper reports a study that examined what Chinese management academics and their overseas counterparts perceived to be the benefits and challenges arising from research collaboration with each other. Data collected with two parallel questionnaires administered, respectively, to 114 Chinese and 30 overseas management academics revealed a variety of perceived benefits relating mainly to Chinese and overseas academics’ complementing strengths. Analysis of the same data also identified an array of perceived challenges stemming from a combination of cultural, epistemological, ideological, linguistic, institutional, and relational differences. Our study generated insights to be drawn upon in policy-making and in the coordination of international research collaboration

A case of repeated intracerebral hemorrhages secondary to ventriculoperitoneal shunt

Ventriculoperitoneal shunt is a routinely performed treatment in neurosurgical department. Intracerebral hemorrhage, as a complication after shunt catheterization, is really rare but with high mortality. In this study, we reported a case of a 74-year-old man who suffered from repeated intracerebral hemorrhage after ventriculoperitoneal shunt. The first hemorrhage happened 63 h after the 1st surgery, and most hematomas were located in the ipsilateral occipital lobe and intraventricles, along the ventricular catheter. Fresh blood clot casts blocked the external ventricular draining catheter, which was inserted into the right front horn during the 3rd surgery, indicating new intraventricular bleeding happened. A large hematoma in ipsilateral frontal lobe was detected on the 3rd day after the removal of external ventricular draining catheter. Different hemorrhagic locations and time points were encountered on the same case. We discussed the possible causes of repeated hemorrhage for this case, and the pre-operative preparation including risk evaluation in future clinical work

Animal models of the placenta accreta spectrum: current status and further perspectives

Placenta accreta spectrum disorder (PAS) is a kind of disease of placentation defined as abnormal trophoblast invasion of part or all of the placenta into the myometrium, even penetrating the uterus. Decidual deficiency, abnormal vascular remodeling in the maternal–fetal interface, and excessive invasion by extravillous trophoblast (EVT) cells contribute to its onset. However, the mechanisms and signaling pathways underlying such phenotypes are not fully understood, partly due to the lack of suitable experimental animal models. Appropriate animal models will facilitate the comprehensive and systematic elucidation of the pathogenesis of PAS. Due to the remarkably similar functional placental villous units and hemochorial placentation to humans, the current animal models of PAS are based on mice. There are various mouse models induced by uterine surgery to simulate different phenotypes of PAS, such as excessive invasion of EVT or immune disturbance at the maternal–fetal interface, which could define the pathological mechanism of PAS from the perspective of the “soil.” Additionally, genetically modified mouse models could be used to study PAS, which is helpful to exploring the pathogenesis of PAS from the perspectives of both “soil” and “seed,” respectively. This review details early placental development in mice, with a focus on the approaches of PAS modeling. Additionally, the strengths, limitations and the applicability of each strategy and further perspectives are summarized to provide the theoretical foundation for researchers to select appropriate animal models for various research purposes. This will help better determine the pathogenesis of PAS and even promote possible therapy

A Preventive Strategy of Voltage Stability based on Characteristic Analysis

The purpose of voltage stability prevention and control strategy is to minimize the impact of expected accidents on the whole power grid while ensuring safe power supply. In this paper, it is expected that the accident has a large impact on the system voltage and makes the voltage margin of each node low. in order to not only adjust the node voltage, but also reduce the disturbance impact, a voltage stability prevention and control strategy is proposed based on the characteristic analysis

Persuasive tech in keeping chronic patients’ willingness in health self-management

\u3cp\u3eChronic disease is a long and very harmful illness to patient. With the improvement of e-health technology, many users can monitor and manage their health condition at home. At the same time, recording health data is a time-consuming and boring work. Without the supervision of health care professionals, many patients feel very difficult to persist on it by themselves. This platform with persvasive tech is designed to test the effectiveness of peer pressure in the health self-management in the e-health.\u3c/p\u3

Interact through your data: collective immersive experience design for indoor exercises

This paper presents an explorative design for improving indoor exercising experience, through real-time data visualization and social connection in an immersive environment. A prototype was designed and implemented based on the review of related research on cognitive and mental models. Facing existing design challenges, the project aims to find potential opportunities for future indoor exercises, and explore the relationship between the immersive user experience and users’ intention of exercising

Drought Risk Assessment based on PDSI in the Daqinghe Watershed, North China

Drought is a worldwide natural disaster and has become an obstacle to the socio-economic development of the Daqinghe watershed in North China, the drought risk of which is analyzed in this study. PDSI is established and validated by the SPI, SRI, SMI, and agriculture drought-affect area in Baoding, a city in Daqinghe watershed. The result shows that PDSI performs well in describing the drought evolution, especially in the monthly scale. Then, the drought risk is assessed combining the drought hazard derived from PDSI with the exposed vulnerabilities consisting of the population, Gross Domestic Product (GDP), cropland area, and vegetation area. It indicates that the subwatersheds with high drought risk mainly concentrate in the downstream plain area