Bovine ephemeral fever is an arthropod-borne viral disease affecting mainly domestic cattle and water buffalo. The etiological agent of this disease is bovine ephemeral fever virus, a member of the ...genus
within the family
. Bovine ephemeral fever causes economic losses by a sudden drop in milk production in dairy cattle and loss of condition in beef cattle. Although mortality resulting from this disease is usually lower than 1%, it can reach 20% or even higher. Bovine ephemeral fever is distributed across many countries in Asia, Australia, the Middle East, and Africa. Prevention and control of the disease mainly relies on regular vaccination. The impact of bovine ephemeral fever on the cattle industry may be underestimated, and the introduction of bovine ephemeral fever into European countries is possible, similar to the spread of bluetongue virus and Schmallenberg virus. Research on bovine ephemeral fever remains limited and priority of investigation should be given to defining the biological vectors of this disease and identifying virulence determinants.
In prostate cancer (PCa), similar to many other cancers, distant organ metastasis symbolizes the beginning of the end disease, which eventually leads to cancer death. Many mechanisms have been ...identified in this process that can be rationalized into targeted therapy. Among them, epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EMT) is originally characterized as a critical step for cell trans-differentiation during embryo development and now recognized in promoting cancer cells invasiveness because of high mobility and migratory abilities of mesenchymal cells once converted from carcinoma cells. Nevertheless, the underlying pathways leading to EMT appear to be very diverse in different cancer types, which certainly represent a challenge for developing effective intervention. In this article, we have carefully reviewed the key factors involved in EMT of PCa with clinical correlation in hope to facilitate the development of new therapeutic strategy that is expected to reduce the disease mortality.
A collection of self-propelled particles with volume exclusion interactions can exhibit the phenomenology of a gas-liquid phase separation, known as motility-induced phase separation (MIPS). The ...nonequilibrium nature of the system is fundamental to the phase transition; however, it is unclear whether MIPS at criticality contributes a novel universality class to nonequilibrium physics. We demonstrate here that this is not the case by showing that a generic critical MIPS belongs to the Ising universality class with conservative dynamics.
Fibrin gel is widely used as a tissue engineering scaffold. However, it has poor mechanical properties, which often result in rapid contraction and degradation of the scaffold. An interpenetrating ...polymer network (IPN) hydrogel composed of fibrin and hyaluronic acid–tyramine (HA–Tyr) was developed to improve the mechanical properties. The fibrin network was formed by cleaving fibrinogen with thrombin, producing fibrin monomers that rapidly polymerize. The HA network was formed through the coupling of tyramine moieties using horseradish peroxidase (HRP) and hydrogen peroxide (H2O2). The degree of crosslinking of the HA–Tyr network can be tuned by varying the H2O2 concentration, producing IPN hydrogels with different storage moduli (G′). While fibrin gels were completely degraded in the presence of plasmin and contracted when embedded with cells, the shape of the IPN hydrogels was maintained due to structural support by the HA–Tyr networks. Cell proliferation and capillary formation occurred in IPN hydrogels and were found to decrease with increasing G′ of the hydrogels. The results suggest that fibrin–HA–Tyr IPN hydrogels are a potential alternative to fibrin gels as scaffolds for tissue engineering applications that require shape stability.
A long‐standing pursuit in materials science is to identify suitable magnetic semiconductors for integrated information storage, processing, and transfer. Van der Waals magnets have brought forth new ...material candidates for this purpose. Recently, sharp exciton resonances in antiferromagnet NiPS3 have been reported to correlate with magnetic order, that is, the exciton photoluminescence intensity diminishes above the Néel temperature. Here, it is found that the polarization of maximal exciton emission rotates locally, revealing three possible spin chain directions. This discovery establishes a new understanding of the antiferromagnet order hidden in previous neutron scattering and optical experiments. Furthermore, defect‐bound states are suggested as an alternative exciton formation mechanism that has yet to be explored in NiPS3. The supporting evidence includes chemical analysis, excitation power, and thickness dependent photoluminescence and first‐principles calculations. This mechanism for exciton formation is also consistent with the presence of strong phonon side bands. This study shows that anisotropic exciton photoluminescence can be used to read out local spin chain directions in antiferromagnets and realize multi‐functional devices via spin‐photon transduction.
Recently, sharp exciton resonances in antiferromagnet NiPS3 have been reported to correlate with magnetic order. It is found that the polarization of maximal exciton emission in NiPS3 rotate locally, revealing three possible spin chain directions. This discovery establishes a new understanding of the antiferromagnetic order hidden in previous neutron scattering and optical experiments.
Abstract
Electron band topology is combined with intrinsic magnetic orders in MnBi
2
Te
4
, leading to novel quantum phases. Here we investigate collective spin excitations (i.e. magnons) and spin ...fluctuations in atomically thin MnBi
2
Te
4
flakes using Raman spectroscopy. In a two-septuple layer with non-trivial topology, magnon characteristics evolve as an external magnetic field tunes the ground state through three ordered phases: antiferromagnet, canted antiferromagnet, and ferromagnet. The Raman selection rules are determined by both the crystal symmetry and magnetic order while the magnon energy is determined by different interaction terms. Using non-interacting spin-wave theory, we extract the spin-wave gap at zero magnetic field, an anisotropy energy, and interlayer exchange in bilayers. We also find magnetic fluctuations increase with reduced thickness, which may contribute to a less robust magnetic order in single layers.
I study the confinement-induced aggregation phenomenon in a minimal model of self-propelled particles inside a channel. Starting from first principles, I derive a set of equations that govern the ...density profile of such a system at the steady-state, and calculate analytically how the aggregation at the walls varies with the physical parameters of the system. I also investigate how the gradient of the particle density varies if the inside of the channel is partitioned into two regions within which the active particles exhibit distinct levels of fluctuations in their directions of travel.
To investigate the safety, feasibility, and possible adverse events of single-dose human umbilical cord-derived mesenchymal stem cells in patients with moderate-to-severe acute respiratory distress ...syndrome.
Prospective phase I clinical trial.
Medical center in Kaohsiung, Taiwan.
Moderate-to-severe acute respiratory distress syndrome with a PaO2/FIO2 ratio less than 200.
Scaling for doses was required by Taiwan Food and Drug Administration as follows: the first three patients received low-dose human umbilical cord-derived mesenchymal stem cells (1.0 × 10 cells/kg), the next three patients with intermediate dose (5.0 × 10 cells/kg), and the final three patients with high dose (1.0 × 10 cells/kg) between December 2017 and August 2019.
Nine consecutive patients were enrolled into the study. In-hospital mortality was 33.3% (3/9), including two with recurrent septic shock and one with ventilator-induced severe pneumomediastinum and subcutaneous emphysema. No serious prespecified cell infusion-associated or treatment-related adverse events was identified in any patient. Serial flow-cytometric analyses of circulating inflammatory biomarkers (CD14CD33/CD11b+CD16+/CD16+MPO+/CD11b+MPO+/CD14CD33+) and mesenchymal stem cell markers (CD26+CD45-/CD29+CD45-/CD34+CD45-/CD44+CD45-/CD73+CD45-/CD90+CD45-/CD105+CD45-/CD26+CD45-) were notably progressively reduced (p for trend < 0.001), whereas the immune cell markers (Helper-T-cell/Cytotoxity-T-cell/Regulatory-T-cell) were notably increased (p for trend < 0.001) after cell infusion.
The result of this phase I clinical trial showed that a single-dose IV infusion of human umbilical cord-derived mesenchymal stem cells was safe with favorable outcome in nine acute respiratory distress syndrome patients.
TMPRSS2 is an important membrane-anchored serine protease involved in human prostate cancer progression and metastasis. A serine protease physiologically often comes together with a cognate inhibitor ...for execution of proteolytically biologic function; however, TMPRSS2's cognate inhibitor is still elusive. To identify the cognate inhibitor of TMPRSS2, in this study, we applied co-immunoprecipitation and LC/MS/MS analysis and isolated hepatocyte growth factor activator inhibitors (HAIs) to be potential inhibitor candidates for TMPRSS2. Moreover, the recombinant HAI-2 proteins exhibited a better inhibitory effect on TMPRSS2 proteolytic activity than HAI-1, and recombinant HAI-2 proteins had a high affinity to form a complex with TMPRSS2. The immunofluorescence images further showed that TMPRSS2 was co-localized to HAI-2. Both KD1 and KD2 domain of HAI-2 showed comparable inhibitory effects on TMPRSS2 proteolytic activity. In addition, HAI-2 overexpression could suppress the induction effect of TMPRSS2 on pro-HGF activation, extracellular matrix degradation and prostate cancer cell invasion. We further determined that the expression levels of TMPRSS2 were inversely correlated with HAI-2 levels during prostate cancer progression. In orthotopic xenograft animal model, TMPRSS2 overexpression promoted prostate cancer metastasis, and HAI-2 overexpression efficiently blocked TMPRSS2-induced metastasis. In summary, the results together indicate that HAI-2 can function as a cognate inhibitor for TMPRSS2 in human prostate cancer cells and may serve as a potential factor to suppress TMPRSS2-mediated malignancy.
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