Since the 1990s, global academic publishing has been transformed by digitisation, consolidation and the rise of the internet. The data produced by commercially owned citation indexes increasingly ...defines legitimate academic knowledge. Publication in prestigious ‘high impact’ journals can be traded for academic promotion, tenure and job-security. African researchers and publishers labour in the shadows of a global knowledge system dominated by ‘Northern’ journals and by global publishing conglomerates. This book goes beyond the numbers. It tells the story of how the Ghanaian academy is being transformed by this bibliometric economy. It offers a rich account of the voices and perspectives of Ghanaian academics and African journal publishers. How, where and when are Ghana’s researchers disseminating their work, and what do these experiences reveal about an unequal global science system? Is there pressure to publish in ‘reputable’ international journals, what role do supervisors, collaborators and mentors play, and how do academics manage in conditions of scarcity? Putting the insights of more than 40 Ghanaian academics into dialogue with journal editors and publishers from across the continent, the book highlights creative responses, along with the emergence of new regional research ecosystems. This is an important Africa-centred analysis of Anglophone academic publishing on the continent and its relationship to global science.
Electrospinning for tissue engineering applications Rahmati, Maryam; Mills, David K.; Urbanska, Aleksandra M. ...
Progress in materials science,
April 2021, 2021-04-00, 20210401, Letnik:
117
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Tissue engineering makes use of the principles of medicine, biology and engineering and integrates them into the design of biological substitutes to restore, maintain and improve the functions of ...tissue. To fabricate a functional tissue, the engineered structures have to be able to mimic the extracellular matrix (ECM), provide the tissue with oxygen and nutrient circulation as well as remove metabolic wastes in the period of tissue regeneration. Continued efforts have been made in order to fabricate advanced functional three-dimensional scaffolds for tissue engineering. Electrospinning has been recognized and served as one of the most useful techniques based on the resemblance between electrospun fibers and the native tissues. Over the past few decades, a bewildering variety of nanofibrous scaffolds have been developed for various biomedical applications, such as tissue regeneration and therapeutic agent delivery. The present review aims to provide with researchers an in-depth understanding of the promising role and the practical region of applicability of electrospinning in tissue engineering and regenerative medicine by highlighting the outcomes of the most recent studies performed in this field. We address the current strategies used for improving the physicochemical interactions between the cells and the nanofibrous surface. We also discuss the progress and challenges associated with the use of electrospinning for tissue engineering and regenerative medicine applications.
As the sole nutrition provided to infants, bioactive molecules dissolved in milk influence the development of our gut microbiota. Accordingly, human milk oligosaccharides (HMOs) are minimally ...digested by the infant and persist to negatively and positively regulate gut microbiota. Infant-type bifidobacteria utilize these soluble carbohydrate oligomers by convergent mechanisms. Bifidobacterium longum subsp. infantis efficiently consumes several small mass HMOs and possesses a large gene cluster and other loci dedicated to HMO metabolism. In contrast, adult-associated bifidobacteria such as the closely related B. longum subsp. longum are deficient for HMO utilization, although they retain the capacity to ferment plant oligosaccharides and constituent pentose sugars. Thus, the ability to subsist on HMO could demark infant-associated ecotypes potentially adapted to colonize the nursing infant.
3D printing has the potential to deliver personalized implants and devices for obstetric and gynecologic applications. The aim of this study is to engineer customizable and biodegradable 3D printed ...implant materials that can elute estrogen and/or progesterone. All 3D constructs were printed using polycaprolactone (PCL) biodegradable polymer laden with estrogen or progesterone and were subjected to hormone-release profile studies using ELISA kits. Material thermal properties were tested using thermogravimetric analysis and differential scanning calorimetry. The 3D printed constructs showed extended hormonal release over a one week period. Cytocompatibility and bioactivity were assessed using a luciferase assay. The hormone-laden 3D printed constructs demonstrated an increase in luciferase activity and without any deleterious effects. Thermal properties of the PCL and hormones showed degradation temperatures above that of the temperature used in the additive manufacturing process-suggesting that 3D printing can be achieved below the degradation temperatures of the hormones. Sample constructs in the shape of surgical meshes, subdermal rods, intrauterine devices and pessaries were designed and printed. 3D printing of estrogen and progesterone-eluting constructs was feasible in this proof of concept study. These custom designs have the potential to act as a form of personalized medicine for drug delivery and optimized fit based on patient-specific anatomy.
Wine grapes present a unique biogeography model, wherein microbial biodiversity patterns across viticultural zones not only answer questions of dispersal and community maintenance, they are also an ...inherent component of the quality, consumer acceptance, and economic appreciation of a culturally important food product. On their journey from the vineyard to the wine bottle, grapes are transformed to wine through microbial activity, with indisputable consequences for wine quality parameters. Wine grapes harbor a wide range of microbes originating from the surrounding environment, many of which are recognized for their role in grapevine health and wine quality. However, determinants of regional wine characteristics have not been identified, but are frequently assumed to stem from viticultural or geological factors alone. This study used a high-throughput, short-amplicon sequencing approach to demonstrate that regional, site-specific, and grape-variety factors shape the fungal and bacterial consortia inhabiting wine-grape surfaces. Furthermore, these microbial assemblages are correlated to specific climatic features, suggesting a link between vineyard environmental conditions and microbial inhabitation patterns. Taken together, these factors shape the unique microbial inputs to regional wine fermentations, posing the existence of nonrandom “microbial terroir ” as a determining factor in regional variation among wine grapes.
Since the 1990s, global academic publishing has been transformed by digitisation, consolidation and the rise of the internet. The data produced by commercially-owned citation indexes increasingly ...defines legitimate academic knowledge. Publication in prestigious ,high impact, journals can be traded for academic promotion, tenure and job security. African researchers and publishers labour in the shadows of a global knowledge system dominated by ,Northern, journals and by global publishing conglomerates. This book goes beyond the numbers. It shows how the Ghanaian academy is being transformed by this bibliometric economy. It offers a rich account of the voices and perspectives of Ghanaian academics and African journal publishers. How, where and when are Ghana,s researchers disseminating their work, and what do these experiences reveal about an unequal global science system? Is there pressure to publish in ,reputable,. international journals? What role do supervisors, collaborators and mentors play? And how do academics manage in conditions of scarcity? Putting the insights of more than 40 Ghanaian academics into dialogue with journal editors and publishers from across the continent, the book highlights creative responses, along with the emergence of new regional research ecosystems. This is an important Africa-centred analysis of Anglophone academic publishing on the continent and its relationship to global science.
During the transformation of grapes to wine, wine fermentations are exposed to a large area of specialized equipment surfaces within wineries, which may serve as important reservoirs for two-way ...transfer of microbes between fermentations. However, the role of winery environments in shaping the microbiota of wine fermentations and vectoring wine spoilage organisms is poorly understood at the systems level. Microbial communities inhabiting all major equipment and surfaces in a pilot-scale winery were surveyed over the course of a single harvest to track the appearance of equipment microbiota before, during, and after grape harvest. Results demonstrate that under normal cleaning conditions winery surfaces harbor seasonally fluctuating populations of bacteria and fungi. Surface microbial communities were dependent on the production context at each site, shaped by technological practices, processing stage, and season. During harvest, grape- and fermentation-associated organisms populated most winery surfaces, acting as potential reservoirs for microbial transfer between fermentations. These surfaces harbored large populations of Saccharomyces cerevisiae and other yeasts prior to harvest, potentially serving as an important vector of these yeasts in wine fermentations. However, the majority of the surface communities before and after harvest comprised organisms with no known link to wine fermentations and a near-absence of spoilage-related organisms, suggesting that winery surfaces do not overtly vector wine spoilage microbes under normal operating conditions.
Micronutrient deficiencies account for an estimated one million premature deaths annually, and for some nations can reduce gross domestic product
by up to 11%, highlighting the need for food policies ...that focus on improving nutrition rather than simply increasing the volume of food produced
. People gain nutrients from a varied diet, although fish-which are a rich source of bioavailable micronutrients that are essential to human health
-are often overlooked. A lack of understanding of the nutrient composition of most fish
and how nutrient yields vary among fisheries has hindered the policy shifts that are needed to effectively harness the potential of fisheries for food and nutrition security
. Here, using the concentration of 7 nutrients in more than 350 species of marine fish, we estimate how environmental and ecological traits predict nutrient content of marine finfish species. We use this predictive model to quantify the global spatial patterns of the concentrations of nutrients in marine fisheries and compare nutrient yields to the prevalence of micronutrient deficiencies in human populations. We find that species from tropical thermal regimes contain higher concentrations of calcium, iron and zinc; smaller species contain higher concentrations of calcium, iron and omega-3 fatty acids; and species from cold thermal regimes or those with a pelagic feeding pathway contain higher concentrations of omega-3 fatty acids. There is no relationship between nutrient concentrations and total fishery yield, highlighting that the nutrient quality of a fishery is determined by the species composition. For a number of countries in which nutrient intakes are inadequate, nutrients available in marine finfish catches exceed the dietary requirements for populations that live within 100 km of the coast, and a fraction of current landings could be particularly impactful for children under 5 years of age. Our analyses suggest that fish-based food strategies have the potential to substantially contribute to global food and nutrition security.
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