This market-leading text has been fully updated and expanded in the first new edition for 12 years. Now with four-color illustrations and hundreds of new self-assessment questions, the text is a ...one-stop shop on this materials characterization technique.
This article provides an overview of research on race-related stressors that can affect the mental health of socially disadvantaged racial and ethnic populations. It begins by reviewing the research ...on self-reported discrimination and mental health. Although discrimination is the most studied aspect of racism, racism can also affect mental health through structural/institutional mechanisms and racism that is deeply embedded in the larger culture. Key priorities for research include more systematic attention to stress proliferation processes due to institutional racism, the assessment of stressful experiences linked to natural or manmade environmental crises, documenting and understanding the health effects of hostility against immigrants and people of color, cataloguing and quantifying protective resources, and enhancing our understanding of the complex association between physical and mental health.
Large, pervasive, and persistent racial inequalities exist in the onset, courses, and outcomes of illness. A comprehensive understanding of the patterning of racial disparities indicates that racism ...in both its institutional and individual forms remains an important determinant. There is an urgent need to build the science base that would identify how to trigger the conditions that would facilitate needed societal change and to identify the optimal interventions that would confront and dismantle the societal conditions that create and sustain health inequalities.
Abstract This Leading Opinion Paper discusses a very important matter concerning the use of a single word in biomaterials science. This might be considered as being solely concerned with semantics, ...but it has implications for the scientific rationale for biomaterials selection and the understanding of their performance. That word is the adjective ‘biocompatible’, which is often used to characterize a material property. It is argued here that biocompatibility is a perfectly acceptable term, but that it subsumes a variety of mechanisms of interaction between biomaterials and tissues or tissue components and can only be considered in the context of the characteristics of both the material and the biological host within which it placed. De facto it is a property of a system and not of a material. It follows that there can be no such thing as a biocompatible material. It is further argued that in those situations where it is considered important, or necessary, to use a descriptor of biocompatibility, as in a scientific paper, a regulatory submission or in a legal argument, the phrase ‘intrinsically biocompatible system’ would be the most appropriate. The rationale for this linguistic restraint is that far too often it has been assumed that some materials are ‘universally biocompatible’ on the basis of acceptable clinical performance in one situation, only for entirely unacceptable performance to ensue in quite different clinical circumstances.
Abstract Tissue engineered nerve grafts (TENGs) have emerged as a potential alternative to autologous nerve grafts, the gold standard for peripheral nerve repair. Typically, TENGs are composed of a ...biomaterial-based template that incorporates biochemical cues. A number of TENGs have been used experimentally to bridge long peripheral nerve gaps in various animal models, where the desired outcome is nerve tissue regeneration and functional recovery. So far, the translation of TENGs to the clinic for use in humans has met with a certain degree of success. In order to optimize the TENG design and further approach the matching of TENGs with autologous nerve grafts, many new cues, beyond the traditional ones, will have to be integrated into TENGs. Furthermore, there is a strong requirement for monitoring the real-time dynamic information related to the construction of TENGs. The aim of this opinion paper is to specifically and critically describe the latest advances in the field of neural tissue engineering for peripheral nerve regeneration. Here we delineate new attempts in the design of template (or scaffold) materials, especially in the context of biocompatibility, the choice and handling of support cells, and growth factor release systems. We further discuss the significance of RNAi for peripheral nerve regeneration, anticipate the potential application of RNAi reagents for TENGs, and speculate on the possible contributions of additional elements, including angiogenesis, electrical stimulation, molecular inflammatory mediators, bioactive peptides, antioxidant reagents, and cultured biological constructs, to TENGs. Finally, we consider that a diverse array of physicochemical and biological cues must be orchestrated within a TENG to create a self-consistent coordinated system with a close proximity to the regenerative microenvironment of the peripheral nervous system.
The field of tissue engineering has tantalizingly offered the possibility of regenerating new tissue in order to treat a multitude of diseases and conditions within the human body. Nevertheless, in ...spite of significant progress with
and small animal studies, progress toward realizing the clinical and commercial endpoints has been slow and many would argue that ultimate goals, especially in treating those conditions which, as yet, do not have acceptable conventional therapies, may never be reached because of flawed scientific rationale. In other words, sustainable tissue engineering may not be achievable with current approaches. One of the major factors here is the choice of biomaterial that is intended, through its use as a "scaffold," to guide the regeneration process. For many years, effective specifications for these biomaterials have not been well-articulated, and the requirements for biodegradability and prior FDA approval for use in medical devices, have dominated material selection processes. This essay argues that these considerations are not only wrong in principle but counter-productive in practice. Materials, such as many synthetic bioabsorbable polymers, which are designed to have no biological activity that could stimulate target cells to express new and appropriate tissue, will not be effective. It is argued here that a traditional 'scaffold' represents the wrong approach, and that tissue-engineering templates that are designed to replicate the niche, or microenvironment, of these target cells are much more likely to succeed.
Tens of thousands of species are threatened with extinction as a result of human activities. Here we explore how the extinction risks of terrestrial mammals and birds might change in the next 50 ...years. Future population growth and economic development are forecasted to impose unprecedented levels of extinction risk on many more species worldwide, especially the large mammals of tropical Africa, Asia and South America. Yet these threats are not inevitable. Proactive international efforts to increase crop yields, minimize land clearing and habitat fragmentation, and protect natural lands could increase food security in developing nations and preserve much of Earth's remaining biodiversity.
The suggested overlap between autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and gender dysphoria/incongruence (GD/GI) has been much disputed. This review showed a relationship between ASD traits and GD feelings in ...the general population and a high prevalence of GD/GI in ASD. Our meta-analyses revealed that the pooled estimate of the prevalence of ASD diagnoses in GD/GI people was 11% (
p
< .001) and the overall effect size of the difference in ASD traits between GD/GI and control people was significant (
g
= 0.67,
p
< .001). Heterogeneity was high in both meta-analyses. We demonstrated that the chances that there is not a link between ASD and GD/GI are negligible, yet the size of it needs further investigation.
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