Concussions in Soccer.

The identification, management, and prevention of concussion across all competitive sports and athletic populations has been a notable topic of research over the last decade. Soccer is no exception, with over a billion participants worldwide. In soccer, 3 distinct subsets of head injuries are often the contributors to concussion: head-to-equipment, head-to-surface, and head-to-player collisions.

Oncopig bladder cancer cells recapitulate human bladder cancer treatment responses .

Introduction: Bladder cancer is a common neoplasia of the urinary tract that holds the highest cost of lifelong treatment per patient, highlighting the need for a continuous search for new therapies for the disease. Current bladder cancer models are either imperfect in their ability to translate results to clinical practice (mouse models), or rare and not inducible (canine models). Swine models are an attractive alternative to model the disease due to their similarities with humans on several levels.

Swine global genomic resources: insights into wild and domesticated populations.

Suids, both domesticated and wild, are found on all continents except for Antarctica and provide valuable food resources for humans in addition to serving as important models for biomedical research. Continuing advances in genome sequencing have allowed researchers to compare the genomes from diverse populations of suids helping to clarify their evolution and dispersal. Further analysis of these samples may provide clues to improve disease resistance/resilience and productivity in domestic suids as well as better ways of classifying and conserving genetic diversity within wild and captive suids.

Principles for Safe Implementation of ICD Codes for Human Trafficking.

Human trafficking is associated with a variety of adverse health and mental health consequences, which should be accurately addressed and documented in electronic health records.

Nanoarrays of Individual Liposomes and Bacterial Outer Membrane Vesicles by Liftoff Nanocontact Printing.

Analytical characterization of small biological particles, such as extracellular vesicles (EVs), is complicated by their extreme heterogeneity in size, lipid, membrane protein, and cargo composition. Analysis of individual particles is essential for illuminating particle property distributions that are obscured by ensemble measurements. To enable high-throughput analysis of individual particles, liftoff nanocontact printing (LNCP) is used to define hexagonal antibody and toxin arrays that have a 425 nm dot size, on average, and 700 nm periodicity.

Perspective: Humanized Pig Models of Bladder Cancer.

Bladder cancer (BC) is the 10th most common neoplasia worldwide and holds expensive treatment costs due to its high recurrence rates, resistance to therapy and the need for lifelong surveillance. Thus, it is necessary to improve the current therapy options and identify more effective treatments for BC. Biological models capable of recapitulating the characteristics of human BC pathology are essential in evaluating the effectiveness of new therapies.

Tubulation of Supported Lipid Bilayer Membranes Induced by Photosensitized Lipid Oxidation.

We show that photosensitized phospholipid oxidation, initiated by the lipid-conjugated fluorophore TopFluor-PC, causes defects, namely, membrane tubes and vesicle-like structures, in supported lipid bilayers (SLBs). Lipid oxidation is detrimental to the integrity of the lipid molecules; when oxidized, they undergo a conformational expansion, which causes membrane tubes to protrude from the SLB. Lipid oxidation is verified by FT-IR spectroscopy, and area expansion is observed in Langmuir trough experiments.

Detection and Characterization of Vesicular Gangliosides Binding to Myelin-Associated Glycoprotein on Supported Lipid Bilayers.

In the nervous system, a myelin sheath that originates from oligodendrocytes or Schwann cells wraps around axons to facilitate electrical signal transduction. The interface between an axon and myelin is maintained by a number of biomolecular interactions. Among the interactions are those between GD1a and GT1b gangliosides on the axon and myelin-associated glycoprotein (MAG) on myelin.

Effects of segment masses and cut-off frequencies on the estimation of vertical ground reaction forces in running.

The purpose of this study is to examine the effect of the body's mass distribution to segments and the filtering of kinematic data on the estimation of vertical ground reaction forces from positional data. A public dataset of raw running biomechanics was used for the purposes of the analysis, containing recordings of twenty-eight competitive or elite athletes running on an instrumented treadmill at three different speeds. A grid-search on half of the trials was employed to seek the values of the parameters that optimise the approximation of biomechanical loads.

Influence of brain gangliosides on the formation and properties of supported lipid bilayers.

Gangliosides are glycolipids that are enriched on the outer surface of cell membranes. Gangliosides are receptors for a number of signaling molecules and toxins, and therefore are often incorporated into biosensors. Many of these biosensors incorporate gangliosides into supported lipid bilayers which are formed by the spontaneous rupture of unilamellar vesicles on glass or SiO substrates.

Surface Plasmon Resonance Sensing on Naturally Derived Membranes: A Remyelination-Promoting Human Antibody Binds Myelin with Extraordinary Affinity.

rHIgM22 is a recombinant human monoclonal IgM designed to promote remyelination, and it is currently in Phase I clinical trials in patients with multiple sclerosis (MS). In animal models of demyelination, a single low dose of rHIgM22 stimulates oligodendrocyte maturation, induces remyelination, preserves axons, and slows the decline of locomotor deficits. Natural autoantibodies like rHIgM22 typically bind to multiple antigens with weak affinity.

A plug and socket approach for tightening polyelectrolyte multilayers.

A plug and socket approach for tightening polyelectrolyte multilayers is introduced based on the use pendant β-cyclodextrin groups. Prototypical multilayers derived from poly(sodium 4-styrene sulfonate) and β-cyclodextrin-containing poly(4-vinylbenzyltrimethylammonium chloride) are described. Evidence for tightened multilayers has been obtained from gas permeation, swelling and quartz crystal microbalance with dissipation (QCM-D) measurements.

Naturally Occurring Monoclonal Antibodies and Their Therapeutic Potential for Neurologic Diseases.

Importance: Modulating the immune system does not reverse long-term disability in neurologic disorders. Better neuroregenerative and neuroprotective treatment strategies are needed for neuroinflammatory and neurodegenerative diseases.

Objective: To review the role of monoclonal, naturally occurring antibodies (NAbs) as novel therapeutic molecules for treatment of neurologic disorders.

Lipid Membrane Deformation Accompanied by Disk-to-Ring Shape Transition of Cholesterol-Rich Domains.

During vesicle budding or endocytosis, biomembranes undergo a series of lipid- and protein-mediated deformations involving cholesterol-enriched lipid rafts. If lipid rafts of high bending rigidities become confined to the incipient curved membrane topology such as a bud-neck interface, they can be expected to reform as ring-shaped rafts. Here, we report on the observation of a disk-to-ring shape morpho-chemical transition of a model membrane in the absence of geometric constraints.

A natural human IgM that binds to gangliosides is therapeutic in murine models of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a devastating, fatal neurological disease that primarily affects spinal cord anterior horn cells and their axons for which there is no treatment. Here we report the use of a recombinant natural human IgM that binds to the surface of neurons and supports neurite extension, rHIgM12, as a therapeutic strategy in murine models of human ALS. A single 200 µg intraperitoneal dose of rHIgM12 increases survival in two independent genetic-based mutant SOD1 mouse strains (SOD1G86R and SOD1G93A) by 8 and 10 days, delays the onset of neurological deficits by 16 days, delays the onset of weight loss by 5 days, and preserves spinal cord axons and anterior horn neurons.

Surface passivation of a photonic crystal band-edge laser by atomic layer deposition of SiO2 and its application for biosensing.

We report on the conformal surface passivation of photonic crystal (PC) laser devices with an ultrathin dielectric layer. Air-bridge-type Γ-point band-edge lasers (BELs) are fabricated by forming a honeycomb lattice two-dimensional PC structure into an InGaAsP multiple-quantum-well epilayer. Atomic layer deposition (ALD) is employed for conformal deposition of a few-nanometer-thick SiO2 layer over the entire device surface, not only on the top and bottom surfaces of the air-bridge membrane but also on the air-hole sidewalls.

Reconstituting ring-rafts in bud-mimicking topography of model membranes.

During vesicular trafficking and release of enveloped viruses, the budding and fission processes dynamically remodel the donor cell membrane in a protein- or a lipid-mediated manner. In all cases, in addition to the generation or relief of the curvature stress, the buds recruit specific lipids and proteins from the donor membrane through restricted diffusion for the development of a ring-type raft domain of closed topology. Here, by reconstituting the bud topography in a model membrane, we demonstrate the preferential localization of cholesterol- and sphingomyelin-enriched microdomains in the collar band of the bud-neck interfaced with the donor membrane.

Formation of biomembrane microarrays with a squeegee-based assembly method.

Lipid bilayer membranes form the plasma membranes of cells and define the boundaries of subcellular organelles. In nature, these membranes are heterogeneous mixtures of many types of lipids, contain membrane-bound proteins and are decorated with carbohydrates. In some experiments, it is desirable to decouple the biophysical or biochemical properties of the lipid bilayer from those of the natural membrane.

Applications of SPR for the characterization of molecules important in the pathogenesis and treatment of neurodegenerative diseases.

Characterization of binding kinetics and affinity between a potential drug and its receptor are key steps in the development of new drugs. Among the techniques available to determine binding affinities, surface plasmon resonance has emerged as the gold standard because it can measure binding and dissociation rates in real-time in a label-free fashion. Surface plasmon resonance is now finding applications in the characterization of molecules for treatment of neurodegenerative diseases, characterization of molecules associated with pathogenesis of neurodegenerative diseases and detection of neurodegenerative disease biomarkers.

A patterned recombinant human IgM guides neurite outgrowth of CNS neurons.

Matrix molecules convey biochemical and physical guiding signals to neurons in the central nervous system (CNS) and shape the trajectory of neuronal fibers that constitute neural networks. We have developed recombinant human IgMs that bind to epitopes on neural cells, with the aim of treating neurological diseases. Here we test the hypothesis that recombinant human IgMs (rHIgM) can guide neurite outgrowth of CNS neurons.

Real-time full-spectral imaging and affinity measurements from 50 microfluidic channels using nanohole surface plasmon resonance.

With recent advances in high-throughput proteomics and systems biology, there is a growing demand for new instruments that can precisely quantify a wide range of receptor-ligand binding kinetics in a high-throughput fashion. Here we demonstrate a surface plasmon resonance (SPR) imaging spectroscopy instrument capable of simultaneously extracting binding kinetics and affinities from 50 parallel microfluidic channels. The instrument utilizes large-area (~ cm(2)) metallic nanohole arrays as SPR sensing substrates and combines a broadband light source, a high-resolution imaging spectrometer and a low-noise CCD camera to extract spectral information from every channel in real time with a refractive index resolution of 7.

Accurate decoding of reaching movements from field potentials in the absence of spikes.

The recent explosion of interest in brain-machine interfaces (BMIs) has spurred research into choosing the optimal input signal source for a desired application. The signals with highest bandwidth--single neuron action potentials or spikes--typically are difficult to record for more than a few years after implantation of intracortical electrodes. Fortunately, field potentials recorded within the cortex (local field potentials, LFPs), at its surface (electrocorticograms, ECoG) and at the dural surface (epidural, EFPs) have also been shown to contain significant information about movement.

Decoding the rat forelimb movement direction from epidural and intracortical field potentials.

Brain-machine interfaces (BMIs) use signals from the brain to control a device such as a computer cursor. Various types of signals have been used as BMI inputs, from single-unit action potentials to scalp potentials. Recently, intermediate-level signals such as subdural field potentials have also shown promise.

A new rodent behavioral paradigm for studying forelimb movement.

The center-out task is a standard paradigm often used to study the neural control of reaching movements in human and non-human primates. However, there are several disadvantages to the use of monkeys, notably costs, infrastructural requirements, and ethical considerations. Here we describe a similar task designed to examine forelimb movements in rats.

Optimal spacing of surface electrode arrays for brain-machine interface applications.

Brain-machine interfaces (BMIs) use signals recorded directly from the brain to control an external device, such as a computer cursor or a prosthetic limb. These control signals have been recorded from different levels of the brain, from field potentials at the scalp or cortical surface to single neuron action potentials. At present, the more invasive recordings have better signal quality, but also lower stability over time.