Self-Organized Target Wave Chimeras in Reaction-Diffusion Media.

An important development in nonlinear dynamics is the discovery of chimera states that represent the coexistence of synchronized and desynchronized activity in populations of identically coupled oscillators. Identification and characterization of chimera states is currently an active area of theoretical and applied research. Here, we unveil a novel chimera state called "self-organized target wave chimera" in reaction-diffusion media where synchronized target waves spontaneously emerge from a pacemaker composed of asynchronous oscillators.

Reordering and synchronization of electrical turbulence in cardiac tissue through global and partial optogenetical illumination.

Electrical turbulence in the heart is considered the culprit of cardiac disease, including the fatal ventricular fibrillation. Optogenetics is an emerging technology that has the capability to produce action potentials of cardiomyocytes to affect the electric wave propagation in cardiac tissue, thereby possessing the potential to control the turbulence, by shining a rotating spiral pattern onto the tissue. In this paper, we present a method to reorder and synchronize electrical turbulence through optogenetics.

Global trend and future landscape of intestinal microcirculation research from 2000 to 2021: A scientometric study.

Background: The intestinal microcirculation functions in food absorption and metabolic substance exchanges. Accumulating evidence indicates that intestinal microcirculatory dysfunction is a significant source of multiple gastrointestinal diseases. To date, there has not been a scientometric analysis of intestinal microcirculatory research.

Role of insulin in pancreatic microcirculatory oxygen profile and bioenergetics.

Background: The pancreatic islet microcirculation adapts its metabolism to cope with limited oxygen availability and nutrient delivery. In diabetes, the balance between oxygen delivery and consumption is impaired. Insulin has been proven to exert complex actions promoting the maintenance of homeostasis of the pancreas under glucotoxicity.

Ovarian cancer derived PKR1 positive exosomes promote angiogenesis by promoting migration and tube formation in vitro.

Cancer cell derived exosomes play important roles in cancer progression and modulation of the tumour microenvironment. This study aims to investigate the role of prokineticin receptor 1 (PKR1) positive exosomes on angiogenesis. In the present study, PKR1 expression in tumour samples from ovarian cancer patients were examined firstly.

The circulating level of miR-122 is a potential risk factor for endothelial dysfunction in young patients with essential hypertension.

MicroRNAs are key molecules involved in the regulation of endothelial function. They are important risk factors and biomarkers for the development of hypertension related to endothelial dysfunction. However, the gene expression patterns associated with hypertension development related to endothelial dysfunction have not been fully elucidated.

Selection of spatiotemporal patterns in arrays of spatially distributed oscillators indirectly coupled via a diffusive environment.

Emergence of self-organized behaviors in diverse living systems often depends on population density. In these systems, cell-cell communications are usually mediated by the surrounding environment. Collective behaviors (e.

Spiral wave chimeras in locally coupled oscillator systems.

The recently discovered chimera state involves the coexistence of synchronized and desynchronized states for a group of identical oscillators. In this work, we show the existence of (inwardly) rotating spiral wave chimeras in the three-component reaction-diffusion systems where each element is locally coupled by diffusion. A transition from spiral waves with the smooth core to spiral wave chimeras is found as we change the local dynamics of the system or as we gradually increase the diffusion coefficient of the activator.

Phase-locked scroll waves defy turbulence induced by negative filament tension.

Scroll waves in a three-dimensional media may develop into turbulence due to negative tension of the filament. Such negative tension-induced instability of scroll waves has been observed in the Belousov-Zhabotinsky reaction systems. Here we propose a method to restabilize scroll wave turbulence caused by negative tension in three-dimensional chemical excitable media using a circularly polarized (rotating) external field.

Gelatinases promote calcification of vascular smooth muscle cells by up-regulating bone morphogenetic protein-2.

Matrix metalloproteinase-2 (MMP-2), also known as gelatinase A, is involved in vascular calcification. Another member of gelatinases is MMP-9 (gelatinase B). However, the role of gelatinases in the pathogenesis of vascular calcification is not well understood.

Biomechanical tactics of chiral growth in emergent aquatic macrophytes.

Through natural selection, many plant organs have evolved optimal morphologies at different length scales. However, the biomechanical strategies for different plant species to optimize their organ structures remain unclear. Here, we investigate several species of aquatic macrophytes living in the same natural environment but adopting distinctly different twisting chiral morphologies.

Chiral selection and frequency response of spiral waves in reaction-diffusion systems under a chiral electric field.

Chirality is one of the most fundamental properties of many physical, chemical, and biological systems. However, the mechanisms underlying the onset and control of chiral symmetry are largely understudied. We investigate possibility of chirality control in a chemical excitable system (the Belousov-Zhabotinsky reaction) by application of a chiral (rotating) electric field using the Oregonator model.

Unpinning of rotating spiral waves in cardiac tissues by circularly polarized electric fields.

Spiral waves anchored to obstacles in cardiac tissues may cause lethal arrhythmia. To unpin these anchored spirals, comparing to high-voltage side-effect traditional therapies, wave emission from heterogeneities (WEH) induced by the uniform electric field (UEF) has provided a low-voltage alternative. Here we provide a new approach using WEH induced by the circularly polarized electric field (CPEF), which has higher success rate and larger application scope than UEF, even with a lower voltage.

Reversal of spiral waves in an oscillatory system caused by an inhomogeneity.

Spatial heterogeneities are commonly found in realistic systems and play significant roles in dynamics of spiral waves. We here demonstrate a novel phenomenon that a localized inhomogeneity put around the spiral core could lead to the reversal of spiral waves in an oscillatory system, e.g.

Chiralities of spiral waves and their transitions.

The chiralities of spiral waves usually refer to their rotation directions (the turning orientations of the spiral temporal movements as time elapses) and their curl directions (the winding orientations of the spiral spatial geometrical structures themselves). Traditionally, they are the same as each other. Namely, they are both clockwise or both counterclockwise.

Chiral symmetry breaking in a reaction-diffusion system.

The emergence of order in far-from-equilibrium systems is often accompanied by the formation of spatially asymmetric patterns. About 30 years ago, a general mechanism to select a chiral solution by coupling a reaction-diffusion system to an external chiral electric field was proposed by Nicolis and Prigogine [Proc. Natl.

Synchronization and quorum sensing in an ensemble of indirectly coupled chaotic oscillators.

The fact that the elements in some realistic systems are influenced by each other indirectly through a common environment has stimulated a new surge of studies on the collective behavior of coupled oscillators. Most of the previous studies, however, consider only the case of coupled periodic oscillators, and it remains unknown whether and to what extent the findings can be applied to the case of coupled chaotic oscillators. Here, using the population density and coupling strength as the tuning parameters, we explore the synchronization and quorum sensing behaviors in an ensemble of chaotic oscillators coupled through a common medium, in which some interesting phenomena are observed, including the appearance of the phase synchronization in the process of progressive synchronization, the various periodic oscillations close to the quorum sensing transition, and the crossover of the critical population density at the transition.

Inwardly rotating spirals in nonuniform excitable media.

Inwardly rotating spirals (IRSs) have attracted great attention since their observation in an oscillatory reaction-diffusion system. However, IRSs have not yet been reported in planar excitable media. In the present work we investigate rotating waves in a nonuniform excitable medium, consisting of an inner disk part surrounded by an outer ring part with different excitabilities, by numerical simulations of a simple FitzHugh-Nagumo model.

Coherent wave patterns sustained by a localized inhomogeneity in an excitable medium.

The influence of a localized inhomogeneity (oscillatory or stationary) on spatiotemporal chaotic state in an excitable reaction-diffusion system is investigated. We find that various coherent wave patterns, such as spiral waves (including multiarmed) and target wave patterns are able to be created by the inhomogeneity from the chaotic state. Due to the growth of these coherent wave patterns, the previously existing turbulent waves in the absence of inhomogeneity are suppressed.

Sinklike spiral waves in oscillatory media with a disk-shaped inhomogeneity.

Spiral wave propagation in oscillatory media with a disk-shaped inhomogeneity is examined. Depending on the properties of the medium as well as the inhomogeneity (different frequencies in two regions), distinct spiral waves including sinklike spirals and dense-sparse spirals, are able to emerge. We find that, unlike the previously found outward group velocity for spiral waves (normal spirals or antispirals), the direction of the velocity of the sinklike spiral wave points inward.

Transition from Turing stripe patterns to hexagonal patterns induced by polarized electric fields.

The effect of a circularly polarized electric field on the Turing stripe patterns is studied. The numerical results show that stripe patterns may change to hexagonal wave patterns by choosing the intensity and the frequency of the circularly polarized electric field suitably. Our findings indicate that a pattern tends to organize itself to the pattern with the same symmetry of the applied field with the fact that compared to the stripe patterns, hexagonal wave patterns possess hexagonal symmetry which is closer to the rotation symmetry of the circularly polarized electric field.