Dextromethorphan inhibits collagen and collagen-like cargo secretion to ameliorate lung fibrosis.

Excessive deposition of fibrillar collagen in the interstitial extracellular matrix (ECM) of human lung tissue causes fibrosis, which can ultimately lead to organ failure. Despite our understanding of the molecular mechanisms underlying the disease, no cure for pulmonary fibrosis has yet been found. We screened a drug library and found that dextromethorphan (DXM), a cough expectorant, reduced the amount of excess fibrillar collagen deposited in the ECM in cultured primary human lung fibroblasts, a bleomycin mouse model, and a cultured human precision-cut lung slice model of lung fibrosis.

Characterization of Low-Cost Capacitive Soil Moisture Sensors for IoT Networks.

The rapid development and wide application of the IoT (Internet of Things) has pushed toward the improvement of current practices in greenhouse technology and agriculture in general, through automation and informatization. The experimental and accurate determination of soil moisture is a matter of great importance in different scientific fields, such as agronomy, soil physics, geology, hydraulics, and soil mechanics. This paper focuses on the experimental characterization of a commercial low-cost "capacitive" coplanar soil moisture sensor that can be housed in distributed nodes for IoT applications.

A comparative analysis of MAIDS and ISO13232 databases for the identification of the most representative impact scenarios for powered 2-wheelers in Europe.

Objective: The ISO13232 standard provides guidelines and methodologies for research on the effectiveness of protective devices fitted to motorcycles. The accident database used to develop the standard was composed of 2 data sets from Hannover and Los Angeles, dating from 1996. This study aims to apply the methodology outlined in the standard to a more recent European accident database to determine whether the set of the 7 most relevant impact configurations identified in the ISO13232 are representative of the European context.