Juvenile hormone as a key regulator for asymmetric caste differentiation in ants.

Caste differentiation involves many functional traits that diverge during larval growth and metamorphosis to produce adults irreversibly adapted to reproductive division of labor. Investigating developmental differentiation is important for general biological understanding and has increasingly been explored for social phenotypes that diverge in parallel from similar genotypes. Here, we use ants to investigate the extent to which canalized worker development can be shifted toward gyne (virgin-queen) phenotypes by juvenile hormone (JH) treatment.

Effects of Preconditioning Lower-Extremity Resistance Exercises on Multidirectional Repeated Sprinting-Induced Muscle Damage.

Hsu, SM, Tseng, WC, Chiu, CH, Hsieh, TY, Weng, MC, Dai, X, and Chen, CH. Effects of preconditioning lower-extremity resistance exercises on multi directional repeated sprinting-induced muscle damage. J Strength Cond Res XX(X): 000-000, 2024-Sprint exercise-induced muscle damage is a popular area of investigation.

Cold Atmospheric Plasma: Possible Cure of Autoimmune Disorders and Cancer via Attenuating Inflammation.

Autoimmune diseases and cancers, two seemingly unrelated diseases, have been threatening human health, and many of them have no cure. By identifying pathological inflammation as the driving cause of uncontrolled cell proliferation in both classes of diseases, and differentiating autoimmune disorders and cancers by whether the cell death programs are under control, we propose the attenuation of prolonged inflammation via maintaining mitochondrial reduction-oxidation (redox) homeostasis being a possible cure of both diseases. Importantly, we propose the feasibility of applying cold atmospheric plasma (CAP) in treating autoimmune disorders and cancers given its redox-modulatory nature, which not only extends the medical utilities of CAP to autoimmune diseases and all other inflammation-driven disorders, but also positions the efficacy of CAP against cancer cells to its suppressive role on prolonged inflammation.

Chitosan/hBMSC-ECM biomimetic nerve grafts containing orienting microchannels for peripheral nerve regeneration.

Bone marrow mesenchymal stem cell extracellular matrix (BMSC-ECM) can promote peripheral nerve regeneration, and microphysical orientation is essential for peripheral nerve regeneration. In this study, human-derived BMSC-ECM (hBMSC-ECM) and microchannels were introduced into chitosan-based nerve grafts (OCS/ECM) to construct dual biomimetic nerve grafts of structure and composition. For comparison, the same procedure was applied to nerve grafts containing only orienting microchannels (OCS) and autogenous nerves.

Dual optimization in anaerobic digestion of rice straw: Effects HRT and OLR coupling on methane production in one-stage and two-stage systems.

This experiment reports an energy-saving, cost-effective and environmental-friendly method to recover energy from high-cellulose waste: anaerobic digestion (AD) by extending hydraulic residence time (HRT) from 50d to 70d with ultra-high organic loading rate (OLR) of 2.28-2.80 g TS·L d.

Photoexcitation-Assisted Molecular Doping for High-Performance Polymeric Thermoelectric Materials.

Molecular doping plays a crucial role in modulating the performance of polymeric semiconductor (PSC) materials and devices. Despite the development of numerous molecular dopants and doping methods over the past few decades, achieving highly efficient doping of PSCs remains challenging, primarily because of the inadequate matching of frontier energy levels between the host polymers and the dopants, which is critical for facilitating charge transfer. In this work, we introduce a novel doping method termed photoexcitation-assisted molecular doping (PE-MD), capable of transcending limitations imposed by energy level disparities through the mediation of efficient photoinduced electron transfer between polymers and dopants.

Tissue-engineered collagen matrix loaded with rat adipose-derived stem cells/human amniotic mesenchymal stem cells for rotator cuff tendon-bone repair.

The rotator cuff tendon-bone interface tissue exhibits high heterogeneity in its composition and structure, with collagen being its primary component. Here, we prepared tissue-engineered decellularized live hyaline cartilage grafts (dLHCG), this dLHCG scaffold's bioactive ECM mainly consists of collagen II, proteoglycans, and fibronectin, presenting a cartilage-like lacuna microstructure. The dLHCG scaffold loaded human amniotic mesenchymal stem cells (hAMSCs) and adipose stem cells (ADSCs) were implanted into the interface.

A strategy for improving the mechanical properties of silk fibers through the combination of genetic manipulation and zinc ion crosslinking.

Silk fiber is generally considered an excellent biological material due to its good biocompatibility, morphological plasticity and biodegradability. Previously, the construction of silkworm silk gland bioreactors based on the piggyBac transposon has been optimized. However, the inserted exogenous genes have problems such as position uncertainty, and expression is not strictly controlled.

Distinct Effects of SARS-CoV-2 Protein Segments on Structural Stability, Amyloidogenic Potential, and α-Synuclein Aggregation.

Amyloidosis is characterized by the abnormal accumulation of misfolded proteins, called amyloid fibrils, leading to diverse clinical manifestations. Recent studies on the amyloidogenesis of SARS-CoV-2 protein segments have raised concerns on their potential link to post-infection neurodegeneration, however, the mechanisms remain unclear. Herein, we investigated the structure, stability, and amyloidogenic propensity of a nine-residue segment (SK9) of the SARS-CoV-2 envelope protein and their impact on neuronal protein α-synuclein (αSyn) aggregation.

Methodologies for the detection and sequencing of the epigenetic-like oxidative DNA modification, 8-oxo-7,8-dihydroguanine.

The human genome is constantly threatened by endogenous and environmental DNA damaging agents that can induce a variety of chemically modified DNA lesions including 8-oxo-7,8-dihydroguanine (OG). Increasing evidence has indicated that OG is not only a biomarker for oxidative DNA damage but also a novel epigenetic-like modification involved in regulation of gene expression in mammalian cells. Here we summarize the recent progress in OG research focusing on the following points: (i) the mechanism of OG production in organisms and its biological consequences in cells, (ii) the accurate identification of OG in low-abundance genomes and complex biological backgrounds, (iii) the development of OG sequencing methods.

A StarGAN and transformer-based hybrid classification-regression model for multi-institution VMAT patient-specific quality assurance.

Background: The field of artificial intelligence (AI)-based patient-specific quality assurance (PSQA) for volumetric modulated arc therapy (VMAT) faces challenges in terms of developing general models across institutions due to the prevalence of multi-institution data collection and multivariate heterogeneity. Building a general model that is capable of handling diverse multi-institution data is critical for enabling large-scale integration and analysis.

Purpose: This study aims to develop a star generative adversarial network (StarGAN) and transformer-based hybrid classification-regression PSQA framework to address unification of heterogeneous data from different institutions.

3D-printed biomimetic scaffolds loaded with ADSCs and BMP-2 for enhanced rotator cuff repair.

Rotator cuff tear repair poses significant challenges due to the complex gradient interface structure. In the face of disease-related disruptions in the tendon-bone interface (TBI), the strategy of constructing a biomimetic scaffold is a promising avenue. A novel 3D-printed rotator cuff scaffold loaded adipose stem cells (ADSCs), bone morphogenetic protein-2 (BMP-2), and collagen type I (COL I).

Lossy Mode Resonance Optical Fiber Enhanced by Electrochemical-Molecularly Imprinted Polymers for Glucose Detection.

Noninvasive glucose sensors are emergent intelligent sensors for analyzing glucose concentration in body fluids within invasion-free conditions. Conventional glucose sensors are often limited by a number of issues such as invasive and real-time detection, creating challenges in continuously characterizing biomarkers or subtle binding dynamics. In this study, we introduce an efficient lossy mode resonance (LMR) optical fiber sensor incorporating the molecularly imprinted polymers (MIPs) to amplify glucose molecules.

Role of damaged mitochondrial transfer in alpha-particle generator Pb radiation-induced bystander effect.

Pb, a promising alphaparticle generator of Bi, has aroused much interest as a therapeutic radionuclide. For the development of targeted alpha therapy (TAT), it is important to determine the contribution of targeted effects in irradiated cells, and also of non-targeted effects in non-irradiated bystander cells. Currently, the critical roles of mitochondrial transfer in cellular crosstalk have garnered significant attention.

Identification of fibrosis-associated lncRNAs in diabetic cardiomyopathy patients.

Introduction: Our study endeavours to ascertain the plasma-derived long noncoding ribonucleic acids (lncRNA) and messenger RNA (mRNA) expression profiles through gene microarray analysis, aiming to elucidate their potential biological roles in the development and progression of diabetic cardiomyopathy (DCM), particularly with respect to myocardial fibrosis.

Material And Methods: We conducted gene chip experiments to discern differences in lncRNA and mRNA expression profiles between diabetic cardiomyopathy and type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). Differentially expressed mRNAs were subjected to functional enrichment analysis, thereby enabling the identification of key genes.

Single-Cell RNA Sequencing Uncovers Pathological Processes and Crucial Targets for Vascular Endothelial Injury in Diabetic Hearts.

Cardiovascular disease remains the leading cause of high mortality in individuals with diabetes mellitus. Endothelial injury is a major contributing factor for vascular dysfunction in diabetes. However, the precise mechanisms underlying endothelial cell injury and their heterogeneity in diabetes remains elusive.

[Diagnosis and management of work related musculoskeletal disorders as occupational diseases in Germany].

This article introduces the occupational disease diagnosis of work-related musculoskeletal disorders such as lumbar and spinal injuries in Germany, and focuses on the research and standard values of the maximum pressure tolerance of intervertebral discs. This article mainly introduces the dose model limits and their applications proposed by the Mainz Dortmund Dosis model (MDD), the judgment of the German Social Court (Bundessozialgericht, BSG), and the German Spinal Research Re evaluation (Deutsche Wirbels ulentudieⅡ, DWSⅡ) ; X-ray manifestations and measurements of intervertebral disc injury; Problems in actual cases and diagnosis. In order to provide reference and inspiration for the occupational diseases diagnosis of work related musculoskeletal disorders in China.