Sickle cell disease (SCD) is a monogenic red cell disorder associated with multiple vascular complications, microvessel injury and wound-healing deficiency. Although stem cell transplantation with ...bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cells (BMSC) can promote wound healing and tissue repair in SCD patients, therapeutic efficacy is largely dependent on the paracrine activity of the implanted BM stromal cells. Since in vitro expansion and culture conditions are known to modulate the innate characteristics of BMSCs, the present study investigated the effects of normoxic and hypoxic cell-culture preconditioning on the BMSC secretome, in addition to the expression of paracrine molecules that induce angiogenesis and skin regeneration. BMSCs derived from SCD patients were submitted to culturing under normoxic (norCM) and hypoxic (hypoCM) conditions. We found that hypoxically conditioned cells presented increased expression and secretion of several well-characterized trophic growth factors (VEGF, IL8, MCP-1, ANG) directly linked to angiogenesis and tissue repair. The hypoCM secretome presented stronger angiogenic potential than norCM, both in vitro and in vivo, as evidenced by HUVEC proliferation, survival, migration, sprouting formation and in vivo angiogenesis. After local application in a murine wound-healing model, HypoCM showed significantly improved wound closure, as well as enhanced neovascularization in comparison to untreated controls. In sum, the secretome of hypoxia-preconditioned BMSC has increased expression of trophic factors involved in angiogenesis and skin regeneration. Considering that these preconditioned media are easily obtainable, this strategy represents an alternative to stem cell transplantation and could form the basis of novel therapies for vascular regeneration and wound healing in individuals with sickle cell disease.
Healthcare professionals (HCPs) play an important role in conducting brief physical activity counselling during consultations, representing one of the population's most cost-effective interventions ...for its promotion. Despite this, their clinical practice often falls short in addressing physical activity with the necessary depth and frequency. This study aimed to synthesise the literature concerning the association between the physical activity habits of HCPs and their attitudes toward physical activity promotion and counselling.
The systematic review followed PRISMA (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses) guidelines. Its protocol was registered in PROSPERO under ID: CRD42023408302. In March 2023, a comprehensive search was conducted using key terms related to physical activity levels and HCPs counselling practices across the Web of Science, Scopus, PubMed, SPORTDiscus, APA PsycInfo, and CINAHL databases. Registered HCPs classified under the International Standard Classification of Occupations (ISCO) were included. The Newcastle-Ottawa Scale was used for assessing articles quality.
The search yielded 6618 articles, with 51 meeting the inclusion criteria after filtering and cross-referencing. Predominantly cross-sectional studies were included, mainly involving HCPs responding to questionnaires regarding their physical activity habits and promotion and counselling practices. Heterogeneous results were found.
High-quality studies mainly concluded that higher physical activity levels among HCPs were associated with more physical activity promotion and counselling practices. These findings are an important contribution to the relevance of the physical activity practice by HCPs and highlighting the importance of promoting its counselling in clinical practice.
The rapid ageing of the worldwide population raises pressing concerns related to ensuring proper healthcare and quality of life for older adults. A human-like mobile domestic robot, named CHARMIE, is ...being produced to aid in these situations by performing household chores, thus increasing the autonomy of persons with mobility limitations. The present work provides a valuable contribution to the development of CHARMIE by building a simulation environment that computes the system’s main dynamics. The obtained environment is used to evaluate the quality of the robot’s control system, to perform its structural optimization and to allow a proper selection of actuators. The system is tackled as a kinematic tree that starts on the robot’s base and then splits into three branches at the torso: the left arm, the right arm, and the head. The multibody model solves the forward kinematics and inverse dynamics of the main mechanisms by employing two recursive algorithms centred around the Newton–Euler formulation. A novel, modular, and efficient seven-step methodology was created to implement these two algorithms and program a simulator from start to finish. These seven steps include studying the system’s configuration, converting its properties into software inputs, and computing the phenomena that cannot be automatically addressed by the two recursive formulations. The presented methodology was fully validated by comparing its results to those obtained from a commercial software; the two models produced identical results.
In this work, a large-scale tactile detection system is proposed, whose development is based on a soft structure using Machine Learning and Computer Vision algorithms to map the surface of a forearm ...sleeve. The current application has a cylindrical design, whose dimensions intend to be like a human forearm or bicep. The model was developed assuming that deformations occur only at one section at a time. The goal for this system is to be coupled with the CHARMIE robot, a collaborative robot for domestic and medical environments. This system allows the contact detection of the entire forearm surface enabling interaction between a Human Being and a robot. A matrix with sections can be configured to present certain functionalities, allowing CHARMIE to detect contact in a particular section, and thus perform a specific behaviour. After building the dataset, an Artificial Neural Network (ANN) was created. This network was called Section Detection Network (SDN), and through Supervised Learning, a model was created to predict the contact location. Furthermore, Stratified K-Fold Cross Validation (SKFCV) was used to divide the dataset. All these steps resulted in Neural Network with a test data accuracy higher than 80%. Regarding the real-time evaluation, a graphical interface was structured to demonstrate the predicted class and the corresponding probability. This research concluded that the method described has enormous potential to be used as a tool for service robots allowing enhanced human-robot interaction.
Climate change poses a growing threat to human health and well-being, with emerging evidence pointing to its intricate relationship with liver diseases. Indeed, climate change influences liver ...diseases through various direct and indirect mechanisms. Alcohol-related liver disease, Metabolic dysfunction-associated liver disease (MASLD), and viral hepatitis are the three most common causes of liver disease, and all are susceptible to the effects of climate change. Shifts in dietary habits driven by altered food availability, substance abuse exacerbated by social instability, extreme weather events affecting healthcare access, and the emergence of waterborne infections are among the factors exacerbating liver disease incidence and severity. On the flip side, healthcare systems, including liver units, significantly contribute to climate change through energy consumption, medical waste, and transportation emissions. The need for sustainable healthcare practices, telemedicine, and waste reduction strategies is becoming increasingly evident. Recognizing this intricate interplay and addressing the dual interaction between climate change and liver disease is imperative for safeguarding human health and reducing the environmental footprint of healthcare facilities. As climate change continues to unfold, understanding its implications for liver disease is critical for public health and environmental sustainability.
Background
Due to the social nature of esports (i.e., organized video game competitions), recognizing common values and norms can be leveraged as a positive driver in online gaming communities. ...Different game categories such as sports simulation (i.e., esports based on real-life sport events) are driving their expansion through social interactions that foster new relationships among players, known as social capital (i.e., value created from social connections, relationships, and networks within the gaming community). Despite recent studies showing the social role of esports (e.g., on satisfaction, loyalty, or well-being), little empirically derived insight exists regarding its sport values, social capital formation and positive word-of-mouth in different gamer communities on the Internet.
Aim
This study aims to achieve two objectives: (a) to examine how sports values (excellence, friendship and respect) influence the in-game social capital formation (bridging and bonding) and word-of-mouth intention by the esports players; and (b) to determine whether differences occur according to sports simulation and non-simulation games.
Method
Data were collected among esports players (n = 509), and the results were analyzed using structural equation modeling to test hypothesized relationships between the constructs and multigroup analysis to verify if the path coefficients differ among both game groups.
Results
Friendship value was the strongest predictor of bonding and bridging capital formation in both groups. The excellence value showed a positive effect on strong social ties created towards non-simulation games, while playing well or reaching high in-game performance did not contribute to creating bonding capital in sports simulation games. Both bonding and bridging capital were strong predictors of behavioral intentions.
Conclusion
Social implications focus on cultivating the sportive values and enhancing social ties on player community as a way to share good experiences or to talk positively about the game. Esports industry should consider the well-established and mediating construct of social capital, strengthening in-game bonding, and bridging relations as a broader theoretical basis.
Wildfires have significant impacts on the environment, society, and economy. Consequently, understanding its dynamics is crucial to evaluate such effects. Nonetheless, monitoring and measuring the ...burned area by traditional, non-automatic methods remains time-consuming and challenging.
For several years, automatic semantic segmentation models have been used to describe natural phenomena, but deep learning models have recently achieved very competitive results. However, this new breed of models typically needs annotated datasets of significant dimensions. Nonetheless, datasets for real-time burnt area segmentation are often scarce.
In this article, we create tools to support the benchmarking for testing and validating burned area segmentation models in a wildfire context. As such, we propose a new manually annotated dataset for segmentation of forest fire burned area based on a video captured by a UAV to train and evaluate semantic segmentation models. We suggest specific temporal consistency metrics to validate burned area polygons generated by the models in successive frames of non-annotated data. We also explore deep learning-based techniques and establish baselines, including IoU values superior to 95% on the test set.
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•TiO2-NP are global emergent contaminants, with unclear effects on crop metabolism.•TiO2-NP compromised carbohydrates synthesis, triggering starch and disaccharides ...catabolism.•Metabolism privileged amino acids, in detriment of sugars, to feed the TCA cycle.•Leaves up-regulated shikimate pathways, amino acids and glycerolipids.•Roots up-regulated the monosaccharides, proline, azelaic acid, and GABA.
TiO2-nanoparticles (TiO2-NP) have the potential to impair plant development. Nevertheless, the metabolic processes behind the physiological responses to TiO2-NP are still far from being fully understood. In this study, Triticum aestivum plants were exposed for 21 days to different concentrations (0; 5; 50; 150 mg L−1) of TiO2-NP (P25). After treatment, the metabolite profiles of roots and leaves were analysed. The content of >70 % of the identified metabolites changed in response to P25 and the impact on metabolic pathways increased with TiO2-NP dose, with leaves showing higher alterations. Roots up-regulated monosaccharides, azelaic acid, and γ-aminobutanoic acid and triggered the tyrosine metabolism, whereas leaves up-regulated the metabolisms of reserve sugars and tocopherol, and the phenylalanine and tryptophan pathways. Both organs (mainly leaves) up-regulated the aspartate family pathway together with serine, alanine and valine metabolisms and the glycerolipids’ biosynthesis. In addition, the citrate and glyoxylate metabolisms were down-regulated in both organs (highest dose). Sugar biosynthesis breakdown, due to photosynthetic disturbances, shifted the cell metabolism to use amino acids as an alternative energy source, and both ROS and sugars worked as signalling molecules activating organ dependent antioxidant responses. Concluding, these NP-pollutants severely impact multiple crop metabolic pathways and may ultimately compromise plant performance.
Collective phenomena fascinate by the emergence of order in systems composed of a myriad of small entities. They are ubiquitous in nature and can be found over a vast range of scales in physical and ...biological systems. Their key feature is the seemingly effortless emergence of adaptive collective behavior that cannot be trivially explained by the properties of the system's individual components. This perspective focuses on recent insights into the similarities of correlations for two apparently disparate phenomena: flocking in animal groups and neuronal ensemble activity in the brain. We first will summarize findings on the spontaneous organization in bird flocks and macro-scale human brain activity utilizing correlation functions and insights from critical dynamics. We then will discuss recent experimental findings that apply these approaches to the collective response of neurons to visual and motor processing, i.e., to local perturbations of neuronal networks at the meso- and microscale. We show how scale-free correlation functions capture the collective organization of neuronal avalanches in evoked neuronal populations in nonhuman primates and between neurons during visual processing in rodents. These experimental findings suggest that the coherent collective neural activity observed at scales much larger than the length of the direct neuronal interactions is demonstrative of a phase transition and we discuss the experimental support for either discontinuous or continuous phase transitions. We conclude that at or near a phase-transition neuronal information can propagate in the brain with similar efficiency as proposed to occur in the collective adaptive response observed in some animal groups.
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•PEGylation enhances the biocompatibility of the nanoparticles.•PEG corrected the thrombogenic profile of the bare nanoparticles.•PEG molecular weight did not have a significant ...biological impact.•Higher molecular weight PEG increased drug loading.
Contrast agents are heavily used in order to increase the accuracy of imaging based diagnostic techniques and since they are intravenously administrated, these agents need to be hemocompatible and cytocompatible. This work is a follow-up of a previous study where iron doped hydroxyapatite nanoparticles proved to increase contrast in MRI, however they were also highly thrombogenic when in contact with blood. To overcome this drawback, a poly(ethylene glycol) coating was added to these nanoparticles in order to increase hemocompatibility, cytocompatibility and act as a drug carrier, where two different types of PEG were tested. After PEGylation, the PEG coating around the nanoparticles was confirmed and quantified, comprising between 3 and 5% of the total mass of the particles. Furthermore, both coated and non-coated particles were non-haemolytic as already expected, however only the PEGylated ones proved to be non-thrombogenic. Regarding cytocompatibility, at the end of 48 h of exposure only the PEGylated particles were non-cytotoxic, proving the relevance of the coating. Additionally, the polymeric matrix was capable of increasing the nanoparticles drug loading capacity. From all these results, it was possible to conclude that PEGylation of iron doped hydroxyapatite nanoparticles provides a dual functionality, both increasing biocompatibility and drug loading.
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