In the cartilage matrix, complex interactions occur between angiogenic and anti-angiogenic components, growth factors, and environmental stressors to maintain a proper cartilage phenotype that allows ...for effective load bearing and force distribution. However, as seen in both degenerative disease and tissue engineering, cartilage can lose its vascular resistance. This vascularization then leads to matrix breakdown, chondrocyte apoptosis, and ossification. Research has shown that articular cartilage inflammation leads to compromised joint function and decreased clinical potential for regeneration. Unfortunately, few articles comprehensively summarize what we have learned from previous investigations. In this review, we summarize our current understanding of the factors that stabilize chondrocytes to prevent terminal differentiation and applications of these factors to rescue the cartilage phenotype during cartilage engineering and osteoarthritis treatment. Inhibiting vascularization will allow for enhanced phenotypic stability so that we are able to develop more stable implants for cartilage repair and regeneration.
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EMUNI, FZAB, GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, MFDPS, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, SBMB, SBNM, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK, VKSCE, ZAGLJ
Arginine vasopressin (AVP) neurons in the hypothalamic supraoptic nucleus (SON) and paraventricular nucleus (PVN) are involved in important physiological behaviors, such as controling osmotic ...stability and thermoregulation. However, the presynaptic input patterns governing AVP neurons have remained poorly understood due to their heterogeneity, as well as intermingling of AVP neurons with other neurons both in the SON and PVN. In the present study, we employed a retrograde modified rabies-virus system to reveal the brain areas that provide specific inputs to AVP neurons in the SON and PVN. We found that AVP neurons of the SON and PVN received similar input patterns from multiple areas of the brain, particularly massive afferent inputs from the diencephalon and other brain regions of the limbic system; however, PVNAVP neurons received relatively broader and denser inputs compared to SONAVP neurons. Additionally, SONAVP neurons received more projections from the median preoptic nucleus and organum vasculosum of the lamina terminalis (a circumventricular organ), compared to PVNAVP neurons, while PVNAVP neurons received more afferent inputs from the bed nucleus of stria terminalis and dorsomedial nucleus of the hypothalamus, both of which are thermoregulatory nuclei, compared to those of SONAVP neurons. In addition, both SONAVP and PVNAVP neurons received direct afferent projections from the bilateral suprachiasmatic nucleus, which is the master regulator of circadian rhythms and is concomitantly responsible for fluctuations in AVP levels. Taken together, our present results provide a comprehensive understanding of the specific afferent framework of AVP neurons both in the SON and PVN, and lay the foundation for further dissecting the diverse roles of SONAVP and PVNAVP neurons.
•SONAVP and PVNAVP neurons received similar direct input patterns from the whole-brain, especially from the diencephalon as the main afferent region.•Strong reciprocal connections were found between the bilateral SON and bilateral PVN.•SONAVP and PVNAVP neurons were directly innervated by the SCN.•SONAVP neurons received large inputs from circumventricular organs, such as OVLT and MnPO.•PVNAVP neurons received more thermoregulatory nuclei inputs, such as BNST and DMH.
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GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UILJ, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK, ZAGLJ, ZRSKP
•Two novel zinc complexes were synthesized with the same dicarboxylate and different bis-imidazole as co-ligand.•SNUT-7 exhibits 2D→2D twofold interpenetrating framework.•SNUT-8 exhibits a ...2D + 2D → 3D framework structure.•Their photoluminescence properties and photocatalytic performance were also investigated.
Two novel Zn(II) coordination polymers, { Zn(µ-HBCPT)(µ-1,3-BIP)·2H2O·DMF}n (SNUT-7) and { Zn2(µ3-BCPT)(HCOO)(µ-1,3-BMIP)2n (SNUT-8), where 1,3-BIP is a 1,3-bis(1H-imidazol-1-yl)propane, 1,3-BMIP is 1,3-bis(2-methyl-1H-imidazol-1-yl)propane, H3BCPT is 3,5-bis(4′-carboxy-phenyl)-1,2,4-triazole and formate (HCOO−) ligands, were prepared under solvothermal conditions and characterized by single-crystal and powder X-ray diffraction, IR spectra, thermogravimetric analysis and elemental analysis. SNUT-7 exhibits a 2D → 2D interspersed with each other, which can be further expanded into 3D supramolecule through hydrogen bonds. SNUT-8 exhibits a rare 2D + 2D → 3D framework structure. SNUT-7 and SNUT-8 are efficient and universal photocatalysts for the degradation of organic dye rhodamine B (Rh B) under visible light irradiation. The degradation of SNUT-7 and SNUT-8 are near ∼82.79% and ∼68%. SNUT-7 and SNUT-8 also show stronger blue light emission than the H3BCPT ligand. At room temperature, SNUT-7 and SNUT-8 have the highest emission peaks at 371 and 363 nm upon excitation at 360 and 290 nm.
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GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UILJ, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK, ZAGLJ, ZRSKP
The most fundamental concepts in chemistry are structure, energetics, reactivity and their inter-relationships, which are indispensable for promoting chemistry into a rational science. In this ...regard, bond energy, the intrinsic determinant directly related to structure and reactivity, should be most essential in serving as a quantitative basis for the design and understanding of organic transformations. Although C–H activation/functionalization have drawn tremendous research attention and flourished during the past decades, understanding the governing rules of bond energetics in these processes is still fragmentary and seems applicable only to limited cases, such as metal–oxo-mediated hydrogen atom abstraction. Despite the complexity of C–H activation/functionalization and the difficulties in measuring bond energies both for the substrates and intermediates, this is definitely a very important issue that should be more generally contemplated. To this end, this review is rooted in the energetic aspects of C–H activation/functionalization, which were previously rarely discussed in detail. Starting with a concise but necessary introduction of various classical methods for measuring heterolytic and homolytic energies for C–H bonds, the present review provides examples that applied the concept and values of C–H bond energy in rationalizing the observations associated with reactivity and/or selectivity in C–H activation/functionalization.
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IJS, KILJ, NUK, PNG, UL, UM
Through the development of ligands and reaction conditions, the Rh(III)-catalyzed selective annulation of benzamides with internal alkynes has been achieved to the formation of O-cyclized ...isochromen-imines. Various substituents are well-tolerated under mild reaction conditions. Density functional theory calculations indicate that silver carbonate could act as a Lewis acid to assist the ligand to improve the chemical selectivity of the reaction in a catalytic system.
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IJS, KILJ, NUK, PNG, UL, UM
Progresses in mass spectrometric instrumentation and bioinformatics identification algorithms made over the past decades allow quantitative measurements of relative or absolute protein/metabolite ...amounts in cells in a high-throughput manner, which has significantly expedited the exploration into functions and dynamics of complex biological systems. However, interpretation of high-throughput data is often restricted by the limited availability of suitable computational methods and enough statistical power. While many computational methodologies have been developed in the past decades to address the issue, it becomes clear that network-focused rather than individual gene/protein-focused strategies would be more appropriate to obtain a complete picture of cellular responses. Recently, an R analytical package named as weighted gene coexpression network analysis (WGCNA) was developed and applied to high-throughput microarray or RNA-seq datasets since it provides a systems-level insights, high sensitivity to low abundance, or small fold changes genes without any information loss. The approach was also recently applied to proteomic and metabolomic data analysis. However, due to the fact that low coverage of the current proteomic and metabolomic analytical technologies, causing the format of datasets are often incomplete, the method needs to be modified so that it can be properly utilized for meaningful biologically interpretation. In this chapter, we provide a detailed introduction of the modified protocol and its tutorials for applying the WGCNA approach in analyzing proteomic and metabolomic datasets.
To investigate the antibacterial mechanism of carvacrol and thymol against Escherichia coli. The time-kill curve results showed that carvacrol and thymol at 200 mg l⁻¹ could inhibit the growth of E. ...coli. Flow cytometry and fluorescent dyes were used to explore the effect of two components on membrane permeability and membrane potential. In membrane permeability experiment, the mean fluorescence intensity of cells treated with 200 mg l⁻¹ carvacrol or thymol were lower than nonexposed cells. The ratio of red to green fluorescence intensity of DiOC₂(3) reflected the change of membrane potential. Carvacrol and thymol at 200 mg l⁻¹ caused the ratio of red/green decreasing from 0·42 of control to 0·08 and 0·07, respectively. Carvacrol and thymol had desired antimicrobial effect on E. coli. The antibacterial effects were attributed to their ability to permeabilize and depolarize the cytoplasmic membrane. This study showed the potential use of flow cytometry as a suitable method to investigate the mode of antibacterial action of essential oil components.
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BFBNIB, FZAB, GIS, IJS, KILJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, SAZU, SBCE, SBMB, UL, UM, UPUK
A patient player privately observes a persistent state and interacts with an infinite sequence of myopic uninformed players. The patient player is either a strategic type who maximizes his payoff or ...one of several commitment types who mechanically play the same action in every period. I focus on situations in which the uninformed player’s best reply to a commitment action depends on the state and where the total probability of commitment types is sufficiently small. I show that the patient player’s equilibrium payoff is bounded below his commitment payoff in some equilibria under some of his payoff functions. This is because he faces a trade-off between building his reputation for commitment and signaling favorable information about the state. When players’ stage-game payoff functions are monotone-supermodular, the patient player receives high payoffs in all states and in all equilibria. Under an additional condition on the state distribution, my reputation model yields a unique prediction on the patient player’s equilibrium payoff and on-path behavior.
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BFBNIB, FZAB, GIS, IJS, INZLJ, KILJ, NLZOH, NMLJ, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBMB, UL, UM, UPUK, ZRSKP
Abstract
We present a measurement of the Hubble constant
H
0
from surface brightness fluctuation (SBF) distances for 63 bright, mainly early-type galaxies out to 100 Mpc observed with the WFC3/IR on ...the Hubble Space Telescope (HST). The sample is drawn from several independent HST imaging programs using the F110W bandpass, with the majority of the galaxies being selected from the MASSIVE survey. The distances reach the Hubble flow with a median statistical uncertainty per measurement of 4%. We construct the Hubble diagram with these IR SBF distances and constrain
H
0
using four different treatments of the galaxy velocities. For the SBF zero-point calibration, we use both the existing tie to Cepheid variables, updated for consistency with the latest determination of the distance to the Large Magellanic Cloud from detached eclipsing binaries, and a new tie to the tip of the red giant branch (TRGB) calibrated from the maser distance to NGC 4258. These two SBF calibrations are consistent with each other and with theoretical predictions from stellar population models. From a weighted average of the Cepheid and TRGB calibrations, we derive
H
0
= 73.3 ± 0.7 ± 2.4 km s
−1
Mpc
−1
, where the error bars reflect the statistical and systematic uncertainties. This result accords well with recent measurements of
H
0
from Type Ia supernovae, time delays in multiply lensed quasars, and water masers. The systematic uncertainty could be reduced to below 2% by calibrating the SBF method with precision TRGB distances for a statistical sample of massive early-type galaxies out to the Virgo cluster measured with the James Webb Space Telescope.
The repeating fast radio burst (FRB) 121102 was recently localized in a dwarf galaxy at a cosmological distance. The dispersion measure (DM) derived for each burst from FRB 121102 so far has not ...shown significant evolution, even though an apparent increase was recently seen with newly detected VLA bursts. It is expected that more repeating FRB sources may be detected in the future. In this work, we investigate a list of possible astrophysical processes that might cause DM variation of a particular FRB source. The processes include (1) cosmological scale effects such as Hubble expansion and large-scale structure fluctuations; (2) FRB local effects such as gas density fluctuation, expansion of a supernova remnant (SNR), a pulsar wind nebula, and an H ii region; and (3) the propagation effect due to plasma lensing. We find that the DM variations contributed by the large-scale structure are extremely small, and any observable DM variation is likely caused by the plasma local to the FRB source. In addition to mechanisms that decrease DM over time, we suggest that an FRB source in an expanding SNR around a nearly neutral ambient medium during the deceleration (Sedov-Taylor and snowplow) phases or in a growing H ii region can increase DM. Some effects (e.g., an FRB source moving in an H ii region or plasma lensing) can produce either positive or negative DM variations. Future observations of DM variations of FRB 121102 and other repeating FRB sources can provide important clues regarding the physical origin of these sources.
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