Human perinatal tissue is an abundant source of mesenchymal stromal cells(MSCs) and lacks the ethical concerns. Perinatal MSCs can be obtained from various tissues as like amnion, chorion, and ...umbilical cord. Still, little is known of the distinct nature of each MSC type. In this study, we successfully isolated and cultured MSCs from amnion(AMSCs), chorion(CMSCs), and umbilical cord(UC-MSCs). Proliferation potential was different among them, that AMSCs revealed the lowest proliferation rate due to increased Annexin V and senescence-associated β-galactosidase positive cells. We demonstrated distinct characteristic gene expression according to the source of the original tissue using microarray. In particular, genes associated with apoptosis and senescence including CDKN2A were up-regulated in AMSCs. In CMSCs, genes associated with heart morphogenesis and blood circulation including HTR2B were up-regulated. Genes associated with neurological system processes including NPY were up-regulated in UC-MSCs. Quantitative RT-PCR confirmed the gene expression data. And in vitro differentiation of MSCs demonstrated that CMSCs and UC-MSCs had a more pronounced ability to differentiate into cardiomyocyte and neural cells, respectively. This study firstly demonstrated the innate tissue-specific differentiation potency of perinatal MSCs which can be helpful in choosing more adequate cell sources for better outcome in a specific disease.
Crack-based strain sensor systems have been known for its high sensitivity, but suffer from the small fracture strain of the thin metal films employed in the sensor which results in its negligible ...stretchability. Herein, we fabricated a transparent (>90% at 550 nm wavelength), stretchable (up to 100%), and sensitive (gauge factor (GF) of 30 at 100% strain) strain gauge by depositing an encapsulated crack-induced Ag nanowire (AgNW) network on a hydroxylated poly(dimethylsiloxane) (PDMS) film. Stretching the encapsulated AgNWs/PDMS resulted in the formation of a percolation network of nanowire ligaments with abundant percolation paths. The encapsulating polymer was designed to adhere strongly to both the AgNW and PDMS. The improved adhesion ensured the resistance of the crack-induced network of AgNWs varied reversibly, stably, and sensitively when stretched and released, at strains of up to 100%. The developed sensor successfully detected human motions when applied to the skin.
In light of the recent observation of the Fermi-LAT 130 GeV gamma-ray line, we suggest a model of scalar dark matter in a hidden sector, which can decay into two (hidden) photons. The process is ...radiatively induced by a GUT scale fermion in the loop, which is charged under a hidden sector U(1), and the kinetic mixing (∼ϵFμνFμν′) enables us to fit the required decay width for the Fermi-LAT peak. The model does not allow any dangerous decay channels into light standard model particles.
3-D refractive index (RI) distribution is an intrinsic bio-marker for the chemical and structural information about biological cells. Here we develop an optical diffraction tomography technique for ...the real-time reconstruction of 3-D RI distribution, employing sparse angle illumination and a graphic processing unit (GPU) implementation. The execution time for the tomographic reconstruction is 0.21 s for 96(3) voxels, which is 17 times faster than that of a conventional approach. We demonstrated the real-time visualization capability with imaging the dynamics of Brownian motion of an anisotropic colloidal dimer and the dynamic shape change in a red blood cell upon shear flow.
Medial tibial stress syndrome (MTSS) is one of the most common exercise-induced leg pain. The navicular drop (ND) was identified as a risk factor for MTSS. This study aimed to evaluate the short-term ...effects of sports taping applied to the supporting lower leg during sitting, standing, walking, and jogging to restrict the ND in healthy elite athletes.Twenty-four healthy elite athletes without a history of exercise-induced pain or injuries in the lower limbs participated in this study (median age: 21.00 years; 1st--3rd quartiles; 19.25-22.00). The 4 taping conditions were used: rigid taping (RT), kinesiology taping (KT), placebo taping (PT), and non-taping (NT). The order of taping techniques was randomly assigned. Normalized navicular height (NH), ND, and normalized ND evaluated using 3-dimensional motion analysis, and normalized peak plantar pressure (PP) were compared in 4 taping conditions during sitting, standing, walking, and jogging.During sitting, the normalized NH of RT is higher than that of NT, KT, and PT (χ = 17.30, P = .001), while during jogging, the normalized NH of RT is higher than that of NT and PT (χ = 10.55, P = .014). The normalized peak PP of NT is higher than that of PT (χ = 8.871, P = .031) in the lateral midfoot region.This study showed the RT technique maintained NH during sitting and jogging, and the RT technique could be an effective preventive and treatment strategy for MTSS.
We suggest a real right-handed sneutrino,
Ñ
1
, as a good dark matter candidate in a supersymmetric
Z
′ model realizing the seesaw mechanism. When the extra gaugino,
, is lighter than
Z
′, the ...thermal freeze-out of the dark matter annihilation to right-handed neutrinos,
Ñ
1
Ñ
1
→
NN
, through the
t
-channel
exchange is shown to produce the right dark matter density. It is essential to include the decay and inverse decay of
N
in this process, otherwise
N
decouples too early and thus dark matter is overproduced. At the LHC, the search for the seesaw mechanism can be made by observing the signatures of
+
as
can be copiously produced from the cascade decays of gluinos/squarks,which is complementary tothesearch of
pp
→
Z
′ →
NN
. This may also open up a promising new channel of finding the Higgs boson from the displaced
N
decay.
Background
Malarplasty is widely performed for zygoma reduction. The effects of body segmentation, plate bending, and postoperative arch location on zygomatic movement have not been analyzed using ...computed tomography (CT).
Results
We quantitatively analyzed the effects of surgical factors on zygomatic movements via superimposition of preoperative and postoperative CT images using three-dimensional software. Our results showed that segmentation had the most significant effect on the horizontal reduction of malar eminence (
β
= 0.593,
r
= 0.696, adjusted
r
2
= 0.479,
F
= 79.595;
p
< 0.001). In addition, upward and posterior arch movements had significant effects on the anterior and posterior movements of the eminence (
β
= − 0.379 for vertical arch movement,
β
= 0.324 for arch setback,
r
= 0.603, adjusted
r
2
= 0.352,
F
= 31.943;
p
< 0.001). The major factors that influenced inward arch movement at the coronoid process included segmentation and inward movement at the arch osteotomy site. To prevent interference of the coronoid process and arch, surgeons should pay attention to the degree of segmentation (
β
= 0.349) and inward movement at the arch osteotomy site (
β
= 0.494;
r
= 0.688, adjusted
r
2
= 0.464,
F
= 50.412;
p
< 0.001).
Conclusions
Surgical factors related to malarplasty affect the movement of specific parts of the zygoma. In addition, accurate application is possible by considering the anatomical structure of the application area when using the bending plate.
A highly flexible and transparent conductive electrode based on consecutively stacked layers of conductive polymer (CP) and silver nanowires (AgNWs) fully embedded in a colorless polyimide (cPI) is ...achieved by utilizing an inverted layer‐by‐layer processing method. This CP‐AgNW composite electrode exhibits a high transparency of >92% at wavelengths of 450–700 nm and a low resistivity of 7.7 Ω ◻−1, while its ultrasmooth surface provides a large contact area for conductive pathways. Furthermore, it demonstrates an unprecedentedly high flexibility and good mechanical durability during both outward and inward bending to a radius of 40 μm. Subsequent application of this composite electrode in organic solar cells achieves power conversion efficiencies as high as 7.42%, which represents a significant improvement over simply embedding AgNWs in cPI. This is attributed to a reduction in bimolecular recombination and an increased charge collection efficiency, resulting in performance comparable to that of indium tin oxide‐based devices. More importantly, the high mechanical stability means that only a very slight reduction in efficiency is observed with bending (<5%) to a radius of 40 μm. This newly developed composite electrode is therefore expected to be directly applicable to a wide range of high‐performance, low‐cost flexible electronic devices.
An extremely flexible Ag nanowire based composite electrode is developed through a solution‐based inverted layer‐by‐layer process. A polymer solar cell based on this composite electrode offers a very stable performance, with a PCE loss of no more than 5% when folded at a radius of 40 μm, with a maximum PCE of 7.42% being achievable.
Abstract
We emphasize the distinctive cosmological dynamics in multi-component dark-matter
scenarios and their impact on probing a sub-dominant component of dark matter. The dynamics
originate from ...the conversion among different dark-matter components. We find that the
temperature of the self-interacting sub-component dark matter is significantly enhanced by the
dark-matter annihilation into the sub-component. The same annihilation sharply increases the
required annihilation cross section for the sub-component as we consider a smaller relative
abundance fraction among the dark-matter species. Because of the enhanced temperature and
couplings of the sub-component, contrary to a naive expectation, the sub-component with smaller
abundance fractions tends to be disfavored by dark-matter direct/indirect-detection experiments
and cosmological observations. We demonstrate this by taking a dark photon portal scenario for
the sub-component at the sub-GeV mass scale. For the abundance fraction ≳ 10 %,
the enhanced temperature of the sub-component is subject to warm dark matter constraints which are
complementary to the parameter space probed by accelerator-based experiments. Smaller abundance
fractions tend to be disfavored by accelerator-based experiments due to the enhanced coupling to
Standard Model particles.
Human mesenchymal stem cells (hMSCs) have great potential as cell sources for bone tissue engineering and regeneration, but the control and induction of their specific differentiation into bone cells ...remain challenging. Graphene-based nanomaterials are considered attractive candidates for biomedical applications such as scaffolds in tissue engineering, substrates for SC differentiation and components of implantable devices, due to their biocompatible and bioactive properties. Despite the potential biomedical applications of graphene and its derivatives, only limited information is available regarding their osteogenic activity. This study concentrates upon the effects of reduced graphene oxide (rGO)-coated hydroxyapatite (HAp) composites on osteogenic differentiation of hMSCs. The average particle sizes of HAp and rGO were 1270 ± 476 nm and 438 ± 180 nm, respectively. When coated on HAp particulates, rGO synergistically enhanced spontaneous osteogenic differentiation of hMSCs, without hampering their proliferation. This result was confirmed by determining alkaline phosphatase activity and mineralization of calcium and phosphate as early and late stage markers of osteogenic differentiation. It is suggested that rGO-coated HAp composites can be effectively utilized as dental and orthopedic bone fillers since these graphene-based particulate materials have potent effects on stimulating the spontaneous differentiation of MSCs and show superior bioactivity and osteoinductive potential.
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