Engineered Cardiac Tissues as a Platform for CRISPR-Based Mitogen Discovery.

Improved understanding of cardiomyocyte (CM) cell cycle regulation may allow researchers to stimulate pro-regenerative effects in injured hearts or promote maturation of human stem cell-derived CMs. Gene therapies, in particular, hold promise to induce controlled proliferation of endogenous or transplanted CMs via transient activation of mitogenic processes. Methods to identify and characterize candidate cardiac mitogens in vitro can accelerate translational efforts and contribute to the understanding of the complex regulatory landscape of CM proliferation and postnatal maturation.

Skills and Hills: Factors that Influence Women's and Non-Binary College Students' Decisions to Commute Via Bicycle.

College students, who actively travel in the forms of walking and/or bicycling, have shown a wide range of physical and mental health benefits. Despite the known benefits of bicycling, participation is influenced by various demographics, including gender identity, sexual orientation, and race/ethnicity. Universities have the potential to promote active travel participation to all populations.

Occupational therapy interventions to improve the reading ability of older adults with low vision: a systematic review.

This systematic review of the literature examined available evidence regarding the effectiveness of occupational therapy interventions for improving the reading performance of older adults with low vision. We reviewed 32 studies and found strong evidence supporting low vision programs that included occupational therapy and moderately strong evidence supporting the use of electronic magnification. Moderate evidence supported the influence of illumination on reading ability.

Nondestructive evaluation of hydrogel mechanical properties using ultrasound.

The feasibility of using ultrasound technology as a noninvasive, nondestructive method for evaluating the mechanical properties of engineered weight-bearing tissues was evaluated. A fixture was designed to accurately and reproducibly position the ultrasound transducer normal to the test sample surface. Agarose hydrogels were used as phantoms for cartilage to explore the feasibility of establishing correlations between ultrasound measurements and commonly used mechanical tissue assessments.

Tunneling Dynamics in a Double-Well Model of an H Transfer Reaction.

We study the role that tunneling can play in the reaction dynamics of H atom transfer. The small mass of the H atom offers it another, nonclassical route, from reactants to products, tunneling through an activation barrier. In this work, we carefully define the portion of a reaction rate constant that is caused by tunneling in such reactions.

Pierce's Disease of Grapevines: Identification of the Primary Vectors in North Carolina.

ABSTRACT In the past 10 years, the winegrape industry in the southeastern United States has experienced rapid growth; however, further expansion may be inhibited by Pierce's disease (PD). Epidemiological studies were conducted to identify the primary vectors of Xylella fastidiosa, the cause of PD of grape, by surveying sharpshooter population dynamics in the eastern Piedmont and Coastal Plain regions of North Carolina. Sharpshooter species were assessed for the presence of X.