Galectin-3/Gelatin Electrospun Scaffolds Modulate Collagen Synthesis in Skin Healing but Do Not Improve Wound Closure Kinetics.

Chronic wounds remain trapped in a pro-inflammatory state, with strategies targeted at inducing re-epithelialization and the proliferative phase of healing desirable. As a member of the lectin family, galectin-3 is implicated in the regulation of macrophage phenotype and epithelial migration. We investigated if local delivery of galectin-3 enhanced skin healing in a full-thickness excisional C57BL/6 mouse model.

Female African elephant rumbles differ between populations and sympatric social groups.

Vocalizations often vary in structure within a species, from the individual to population level. Vocal differences among social groups and populations can provide insight into biological processes such as vocal learning and evolutionary divergence, with important conservation implications. As vocal learners of conservation concern, intraspecific vocal variation is of particular interest in elephants.

African elephants address one another with individually specific name-like calls.

Personal names are a universal feature of human language, yet few analogues exist in other species. While dolphins and parrots address conspecifics by imitating the calls of the addressee, human names are not imitations of the sounds typically made by the named individual. Labelling objects or individuals without relying on imitation of the sounds made by the referent radically expands the expressive power of language.

Assessing the fate and contribution of Foxd1-expressing embryonic precursors and their progeny in palatal development, homeostasis and excisional repair.

Oral mucosal tissues heal rapidly with minimal scarring, although palatal mucosa can be associated with excessive fibrosis in response to injury. Investigations on the balance between neovascularization and tissue repair suggests regulation of angiogenesis is an important determinant of repair versus scarring. Associated with pericyte mediated fibrosis in kidney injury, FoxD1 is implicated in growth centres during cranio-facial development, although which cell lineages are derived from these embryonic populations in development and in adult animals is unknown.

Land use drives differential resource selection by African elephants in the Greater Mara Ecosystem, Kenya.

Understanding drivers of space use by African elephants is critical to their conservation and management, particularly given their large home-ranges, extensive resource requirements, ecological role as ecosystem engineers, involvement in human-elephant conflict and as a target species for ivory poaching. In this study we investigated resource selection by elephants inhabiting the Greater Mara Ecosystem in Southwestern Kenya in relation to three distinct but spatially contiguous management zones: (i) the government protected Maasai Mara National Reserve (ii) community-owned wildlife conservancies, and (iii) elephant range outside any formal wildlife protected area. We combined GPS tracking data from 49 elephants with spatial covariate information to compare elephant selection across these management zones using a hierarchical Bayesian framework, providing insight regarding how human activities structure elephant spatial behavior.

Elephants and algorithms: a review of the current and future role of AI in elephant monitoring.

Artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) present revolutionary opportunities to enhance our understanding of animal behaviour and conservation strategies. Using elephants, a crucial species in Africa and Asia's protected areas, as our focal point, we delve into the role of AI and ML in their conservation. Given the increasing amounts of data gathered from a variety of sensors like cameras, microphones, geophones, drones and satellites, the challenge lies in managing and interpreting this vast data.

Behavioral responses of terrestrial mammals to COVID-19 lockdowns.

COVID-19 lockdowns in early 2020 reduced human mobility, providing an opportunity to disentangle its effects on animals from those of landscape modifications. Using GPS data, we compared movements and road avoidance of 2300 terrestrial mammals (43 species) during the lockdowns to the same period in 2019. Individual responses were variable with no change in average movements or road avoidance behavior, likely due to variable lockdown conditions.

Contact Guidance of Connective Tissue Fibroblasts on Submicrometer Anisotropic Topographical Cues Is Dependent on Tissue of Origin, β1 Integrins, and Tensin-1 Recruitment.

The substratum topography of both natural and synthetic materials is a prominent regulator of cell behaviors including adhesion, migration, matrix fibrillogenesis, and cell phenotype. Connective tissue fibroblasts are known to respond to repeating groove topographical modifications by aligning and exhibiting directed migration, a phenomenon termed contact guidance. Although both reside in collagen rich connective tissues, dermal and gingival fibroblasts are known to exhibit differences in phenotype during wound healing, with gingival tissue showing a fetal-like scarless response.

Microcirculation surrounding end-stage human chronic skin wounds is associated with endoglin/CD146/ALK-1 expression, endothelial cell proliferation and an absence of p16.

Angiogenesis is an essential part of normal skin healing, re-establishing blood flow in developing granulation tissue. Non-healing skin wounds are associated with impaired angiogenesis and although the role of re-establishing macroscopic blood flow to limbs to prevent wound chronicity is well investigated, less is known about vascular alterations at the microcirculatory level. We hypothesised that significant phenotypic changes would be evident in blood vessels surrounding chronic skin wounds.

Pop-up COVID-19 vaccination clinics for vulnerable groups in the Midlands.

Introduction: Roma, travellers and the homeless suffer from a higher risk of both COVID-19 infection and severe disease relative to the general population. The purpose of this project was to ensure as many members as possible from vulnerable groups in the Midlands availed of COVID-19 vaccines.

Methods: Following on from successful testing of vulnerable populations in the Midlands of Ireland in March/April 2021, a collaboration of HSE Midland's Department of Public Health, Safetynet Primary Care and the HSE Midlands Traveller Health Unit (MTHU) operated pop-up vaccination clinics in June/July 2021, targeting the same populations.

Stratospheric impacts on dust transport and air pollution in West Africa and the Eastern Mediterranean.

Saharan dust intrusions strongly impact Atlantic and Mediterranean coastal regions. Today, most operational dust forecasts extend only 2-5 days. Here we show that on timescales of weeks to months, North African dust emission and transport are impacted by sudden stratospheric warmings (SSWs), which establish a negative North Atlantic Oscillation-like surface signal.

Immunohistochemical Characterization of Gingival Fibromas.

Purpose: Gingival fibromas (GFs) are fibrous lesions of the gingiva that are not well defined in the literature. They are histologically similar to peripheral ossifying fibromas (POFs), both being characterized as cellular proliferations of dense fibrous tissue, with POFs differing in that they demonstrate foci of calcification. This study aims to expand upon the immunohistochemical characterization of GFs, and to confirm their osteoblastic phenotype.

Screening of functionalized collagen membranes with a porcine periodontal regeneration model.

Objectives: Current methods for periodontal regeneration do not promote collagen fiber insertions into new bone and cementum. We used a pig wound model to screen different functionalized collagen membranes in promoting periodontal reattachment to root surfaces.

Methods: Treatment groups included (1) control with no membranes, (2) collagen-coated membranes, (3) membranes with insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF-1), (4) membranes with amelotin, or (5) membranes attached with calcium phosphate cement (CPC), or with CPC combined with IGF-1.

Initial assessment of gingival biotype as a potential source of variability in the migration, contraction and gene expression of fibroblasts.

Objective: Gingival biotype refers to the clinical classification of gingiva based on the thickness of the tissue, with thick gingival tissues more resistant to trauma and recession than the thin variant. However, to date there has never been an analysis of whether fibroblasts isolated from different biotypes possess inherent phenotypic differences. We hypothesized that gingival fibroblasts from thick and thin biotype would exhibit differences in migration, contraction and gene expression in vitro in the presence of either transforming growth factor beta one (TGF-β1) or tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNFα), two major cytokines involved in wound repair.

Adjunctive therapy with the Tie2 agonist Vasculotide reduces pulmonary permeability in Streptococcus pneumoniae infected and mechanically ventilated mice.

Community acquired pneumonia, mainly caused by Streptococcus pneumoniae (S.pn.), is a common cause of death worldwide.

Social support correlates with glucocorticoid concentrations in wild African elephant orphans.

Social relationships have physiological impacts. Here, we investigate whether loss of the mother/offspring relationship has lasting effects on fecal glucocorticoid metabolite (fGCM) concentrations in wild African elephant orphans several years following their mothers' deaths. We find no difference in fGCM concentrations between orphans and nonorphans, but find lower fGCM concentrations in elephants with more age mates in their family.

Low-flow intussusception and metastable VEGFR2 signaling launch angiogenesis in ischemic muscle.

Efforts to promote sprouting angiogenesis in skeletal muscles of individuals with peripheral artery disease have not been clinically successful. We discovered that, contrary to the prevailing view, angiogenesis following ischemic muscle injury in mice was not driven by endothelial sprouting. Instead, real-time imaging revealed the emergence of wide-caliber, primordial conduits with ultralow flow that rapidly transformed into a hierarchical neocirculation by transluminal bridging and intussusception.

Titanium Substratum Roughness as a Determinant of Human Gingival Fibroblast Fibronectin and α-Smooth Muscle Actin Expression.

The most appropriate surface treatment to enhance gingival connective tissue formation on the abutment of dental implants remains undefined, with healing associated with a scar-like response. We have previously shown that topographies with an arithmetic average of the absolute profile height deviations (R) = 4.0 induces an anti-fibrotic phenotype in human gingival fibroblasts (HGFs) by causing nascent adhesion formation.

The pig as a model system for investigating the recruitment and contribution of myofibroblasts in skin healing.

In the skin-healing field, porcine models are regarded as a useful analogue for human skin due to their numerous anatomical and physiological similarities. Despite the widespread use of porcine models in skin healing studies, the initial origin, recruitment and transition of fibroblasts to matrix-secreting contractile myofibroblasts are not well defined for this model. In this review, we discuss the merit of the pig as an animal for studying myofibroblast origin, as well as the challenges associated with assessing their contributions to skin healing.

Poaching of African elephants indirectly decreases population growth through lowered orphan survival.

Prolonged maternal care is vital to the well-being of many long-lived mammals. The premature loss of maternal care, i.e.

Lineage tracing of Foxd1-expressing embryonic progenitors to assess the role of divergent embryonic lineages on adult dermal fibroblast function.

Recent studies have highlighted the functional diversity of dermal fibroblast populations in health and disease, with part of this diversity linked to fibroblast lineage and embryonic origin. Fibroblasts derived from -expressing progenitors contribute to the myofibroblast populations present in lung and kidney fibrosis in mice but have not been investigated in the context of dermal wound repair. Using a Cre/Lox system to genetically track populations derived from -expressing progenitors, lineage-positive fibroblasts were identified as a subset of the dermal fibroblast population.

Human footprint and protected areas shape elephant range across Africa.

Over the last two millennia, and at an accelerating pace, the African elephant (Loxodonta spp. Lin.) has been threatened by human activities across its range.

Electrical Shock Hazard Severity Estimation During Extravehicular Activity for the International Space Station.

Research has shown that astronauts performing extravehicular activities may be exposed, under certain conditions, to undesired electrical hazards. This study used computer models to determine whether these undesired induced electrical currents could be responsible for involuntary neuromuscular activity caused by either large diameter peripheral nerve activation or reflex activity from cutaneous afferent stimulation. A multiresolution variant of the admittance method along with a magnetic resonance image millimeter resolution model of a male human body were used to calculate the following: 1) induced electric fields; 2) resistance between contact areas in a Extravehicular Mobility Unit spacesuit; 3) currents induced in the human body; 4) the physiological effects of these electrical exposures; and 5) the risk to the crew during extravehicular activities.

Improved representation of the global dust cycle using observational constraints on dust properties and abundance.

Even though desert dust is the most abundant aerosol by mass in Earth's atmosphere, atmospheric models struggle to accurately represent its spatial and temporal distribution. These model errors are partially caused by fundamental difficulties in simulating dust emission in coarse-resolution models and in accurately representing dust microphysical properties. Here we mitigate these problems by developing a new methodology that yields an improved representation of the global dust cycle.