Functional Neural Networks in Human Brain Organoids.

Human brain organoids are 3-dimensional brain-like tissues derived from human pluripotent stem cells and hold promising potential for modeling neurological, psychiatric, and developmental disorders. While the molecular and cellular aspects of human brain organoids have been intensively studied, their functional properties such as organoid neural networks (ONNs) are largely understudied. Here, we summarize recent research advances in understanding, characterization, and application of functional ONNs in human brain organoids.

Vascular network-inspired diffusible scaffolds for engineering functional neural organoids.

Organoids, three-dimensional in vitro organ-like tissue cultures derived from stem cells, show promising potential for developmental biology, drug discovery, and regenerative medicine. However, the function and phenotype of current organoids, especially neural organoids, are still limited by insufficient diffusion of oxygen, nutrients, metabolites, signaling molecules, and drugs. Herein, we present Vascular network-Inspired Diffusible (VID) scaffolds to fully recapture the benefits of physiological diffusion physics for generating functional organoids and phenotyping their drug response.

The construction of a maize-teosinte introgression population and quantitative trait loci analysis of their 21 agronomic traits.

Teosinte is a progenitor species of maize (Zea mays ssp. mays) that retains a significant reservoir of genetic resources unaltered via the domestication process. To harness and explore the genetic reservoirs inherent in teosinte, we used the cultivated publicly inbred line H95 and wild species PI566673 (Zea mays ssp.

Engineering human midbrain organoid microphysiological systems to model prenatal PFOS exposure.

Perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS), a class of synthetic chemicals detected in various environmental compartments, has been associated with dysfunctions of the human central nervous system (CNS). However, the underlying neurotoxicology of PFOS exposure is largely understudied due to the lack of relevant human models. Here, we report bioengineered human midbrain organoid microphysiological systems (hMO-MPSs) to recapitulate the response of a fetal human brain to multiple concurrent PFOS exposure conditions.

Low Barriers and Faster Electron/Ion Transport Rates through the GaO/MnCO Anode with a Heterojunction Structure for Lithium-Ion Batteries.

Electrode stability can be controlled to a large extent by constructing suitable composite structures, in which the heterojunction structure can affect the transport of electrons and ions through the effect of the interface state, changed band gap width, and the electric field at the interface. As a promising electrode material, the Ga-based material has a conversion between solid and liquid phases in the electrochemical reaction process, which endows it with self-healing properties with the structure and morphology. Based on these, the GaO/MnCO composite was successfully synthesized with a heterogeneous structure by introducing a Ga source in the hydrothermal process.

Exploiting Sound for Emerging Applications of Extracellular Vesicles.

Extracellular vesicles are nano- to microscale, membrane-bound particles released by cells into extracellular space, and act as carriers of biomarkers and therapeutics, holding promising potential in translational medicine. However, the challenges remain in handling and detecting extracellular vesicles for disease diagnosis as well as exploring their therapeutic capability for disease treatment. Here, we review the recent engineering and technology advances by leveraging the power of sound waves to address the challenges in diagnostic and therapeutic applications of extracellular vesicles and biomimetic nanovesicles.

Prevalence and risk factors of depression and anxiety symptoms in intensive care unit patients with cardiovascular disease: A cross-sectional study.

Aims: To investigate the prevalence of anxiety and depression symptoms in intensive care unit (ICU) patients with cardiovascular disease (CVD) and to explore which elements are risk factors for the development of anxiety and depression symptoms.

Design: A cross-sectional study.

Methods: A total of 1028 ICU patients with CVD were enrolled in this cross-sectional study.

Extracellular vesicles-based point-of-care testing for the diagnosis and monitoring of Alzheimer's disease.

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a debilitating condition that affects millions of people worldwide. One promising strategy for detecting and monitoring AD early on is using extracellular vesicles (EVs)-based point-of-care testing; however, diagnosing AD using EVs poses a challenge due to the low abundance of EV-biomarkers. Here, we present a fully integrated organic electrochemical transistor (OECT) that enables high accuracy, speed, and convenience in the detection of EVs from AD patients.

EGR-1 Contributes to Pulmonary Edema by Regulating the Epithelial Sodium Channel in Lipopolysaccharide-Induced Acute Lung Injury.

Acute lung injury (ALI) is a common lung disease with increasing morbidity and mortality rates due to the lack of specific drugs. Impaired alveolar fluid clearance (AFC) is a primary pathological feature of ALI. Epithelial sodium channel (ENaC) is a primary determinant in regulating the transport of Na and the clearance of alveolar edema fluid.

Global crop-specific nitrogen fertilization dataset in 1961-2020.

Nitrogen (N) is an important nutrient for crop growth. However, the overuse of N fertilizers has led to a series of devastating global environmental issues. Recent studies show that multiple datasets have been created for agricultural N fertilizer application with varied temporal or spatial resolutions, nevertheless, how to synchronize and use these datasets becomes problematic due to the inconsistent temporal coverages, spatial resolutions, and crop-specific allocations.

Effects of cereal bran consumption on cardiometabolic risk factors: A systematic review and meta-analysis.

Aims: Cardiovascular disease is a prevalent worldwide disease, and cardiometabolic risk factors (CMRFs) include hyperlipidemia, hypertension, diabetes, and adiposity. Healthy diets are the critical factor in controlling these CMRFs risks, especially cereal bran which contains many beneficial substances. However, there are still contradictions in the indicators of improving CMRFs by bran from different grain sources or even the same grain source.

Co-Solvent Electrolyte Design to Inhibit Phase Transition toward High Performance K/Zn Hybrid Battery.

Manganese hexacyanoferrate (MnHCF) is one of the most promising cathode materials for aqueous battery because of its non-toxicity, high energy density, and low cost. But the phase transition from MnHCF to Zinc hexacyanoferrate (ZnHCF) and the larger Stokes radius of Zn cause rapid capacity decay and poor rate performance in aqueous Zn battery. Hence, to overcome this challenge, a solvation structure of propylene carbonate (PC)-trifluoromethanesulfonate (Otf)-HO is designed and constructed.

Ion Tunnel Matrix Initiated Oriented Attachment for Highly Utilized Zn Anodes.

Metallic zinc is an ideal anode for aqueous energy storage; however, Zn anodes suffer from nonhomogeneous deposition, low reversibility, and dendrite formation; these lead to an overprovision of zinc metal in full cells. Herein, oriented-attachment-regulated Zn stacking initiated through a trapping-then-planting process with a high zinc utilization rate (ZUR) is reported. Due to the isometric topology features of cubic-type Prussian blue analog (PBA), the initial Zn plating occurs at specific sites with equal spacing of ≈5 Å in the direction perpendicular to the substrate; the trace amount of zinc ions trapped in tunnel matrix provides nuclei for the oriented attachment of Zn (002) deposits.

Associations of depression score with metabolic dysfunction-associated fatty liver disease and liver fibrosis.

Background: Growing evidence suggests a link between depression and nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). Recently, a change from NAFLD to metabolic dysfunction-associated fatty liver disease (MAFLD) has been proposed. The aim of this study was to determine whether depression scores are associated with newly defined MAFLD as well as liver fibrosis in the US general population.

Amygdalo-nigral circuit mediates stress-induced vulnerability to the parkinsonian toxin MPTP.

Aims: The aim was to investigate the effect of mood disorders on parkinsonian toxin 1-methyl-4-phenyl-1,2,3,6-tetrahydropyridine (MPTP)-induced motor disability, substantia nigra pars compacta (SNc) dopaminergic (DA) neurons loss. Also, the neural circuit mechanism was elucidated.

Methods: The depression-like (physical stress, PS) and anxiety-like (emotional stress, ES) mouse models were established by the three-chamber social defeat stress (SDS).

Brain Organoid Computing for Artificial Intelligence.

Brain-inspired hardware emulates the structure and working principles of a biological brain and may address the hardware bottleneck for fast-growing artificial intelligence (AI). Current brain-inspired silicon chips are promising but still limit their power to fully mimic brain function for AI computing. Here, we develop , living AI hardware that harnesses the computation power of 3D biological neural networks in a brain organoid.

Acoustic metamaterials-driven transdermal drug delivery for rapid and on-demand management of acute disease.

Transdermal drug delivery provides convenient and pain-free self-administration for personalized therapy. However, challenges remain in treating acute diseases mainly due to their inability to timely administrate therapeutics and precisely regulate pharmacokinetics within a short time window. Here we report the development of active acoustic metamaterials-driven transdermal drug delivery for rapid and on-demand acute disease management.

Acoustofluidic assembly of primary tumor-derived organotypic cell clusters for rapid evaluation of cancer immunotherapy.

Cancer immunotherapy shows promising potential for treating breast cancer. While patients may have heterogeneous treatment responses for adjuvant therapy, it is challenging to predict an individual patient's response to cancer immunotherapy. Here, we report primary tumor-derived organotypic cell clusters (POCCs) for rapid and reliable evaluation of cancer immunotherapy.

Process Accumulated 8% Efficient Cu ZnSnS -BiVO Tandem Cell for Solar Hydrogen Evolution with the Dynamic Balance of Solar Energy Storage and Conversion.

A process accumulated record solar to hydrogen (STH) conversion efficiency of 8% is achieved on the Cu ZnSnS -BiVO tandem cell by the synergistic coupling effect of solar thermal and photoelectrochemical (PEC) water splitting with the dynamic balance of solar energy storage and conversion of the greenhouse system. This is the first report of a Cu ZnSnS -BiVO tandem cell with a high unbiased STH efficiency of over 8% for solar water splitting due to the greenhouse device system. The greenhouse acts as a solar thermal energy storage cell, which absorbs infrared solar light and storage as thermal energy with the solar light illumination time, while thermoelectric device (TD) converts thermal energy into electric power, electric power is also recycled and added onto Cu ZnSnS -BiVO tandem cell for enhanced overall water splitting.

Microfluidics guided by deep learning for cancer immunotherapy screening.

Immunocyte infiltration and cytotoxicity play critical roles in both inflammation and immunotherapy. However, current cancer immunotherapy screening methods overlook the capacity of the T cells to penetrate the tumor stroma, thereby significantly limiting the development of effective treatments for solid tumors. Here, we present an automated high-throughput microfluidic platform for simultaneous tracking of the dynamics of T cell infiltration and cytotoxicity within the 3D tumor cultures with a tunable stromal makeup.