The Independent Evolution of Dorsal Pallia in Multiple Vertebrate Lineages.

Comparative neurobiologists have long wondered when and how the dorsal pallium (e.g., mammalian neocortex) evolved.

Regional chemoarchitecture of the brain of lungfishes based on calbindin D-28K and calretinin immunohistochemistry.

Lungfishes are the closest living relatives of land vertebrates, and their neuroanatomical organization is particularly relevant for deducing the neural traits that have been conserved, modified, or lost with the transition from fishes to land vertebrates. The immunohistochemical localization of calbindin (CB) and calretinin (CR) provides a powerful method for discerning segregated neuronal populations, fiber tracts, and neuropils and is here applied to the brains of Neoceratodus and Protopterus, representing the two extant orders of lungfishes. The results showed abundant cells containing these proteins in pallial and subpallial telencephalic regions, with particular distinct distribution in the basal ganglia, amygdaloid complex, and septum.

Topical tissue nano-transfection mediates non-viral stroma reprogramming and rescue.

Although cellular therapies represent a promising strategy for a number of conditions, current approaches face major translational hurdles, including limited cell sources and the need for cumbersome pre-processing steps (for example, isolation, induced pluripotency). In vivo cell reprogramming has the potential to enable more-effective cell-based therapies by using readily available cell sources (for example, fibroblasts) and circumventing the need for ex vivo pre-processing. Existing reprogramming methodologies, however, are fraught with caveats, including a heavy reliance on viral transfection.

Dynamic mechanoelectrochemistry of polypyrrole membranes via shear-force tracking.

Mechanoelectrochemistry is the study of elastic and plastic deformation of materials during reversible reduction and oxidation processes. In this article, we introduce shear-force tracking as a method to dynamically measure mechanical (strain), chemical (ion transport), and electrical (applied redox potentials) responses of the conducting polymer polypyrrole (PPy) during redox reactions. This tracking technique uses a control algorithm to maintain a set distance between a ultramicroelectrode (UME) tip and a surface via shear-force regulation.

Mechanoelectrochemistry of PPy(DBS) from correlated characterization of electrochemical response and extensional strain.

This paper investigates nanostructured morphology-dependent charge storage and coupled mechanical strain of polypyrrole membranes doped with dodecylbenzenesulfonate (PPy(DBS)). Nanoscale features introduced in PPy(DBS) using phospholipid vesicles as soft-templates create a uniform and long-range order to the polymer morphology, and lead to higher specific capacitance. It is widely stated that nanostructured architecture offer reduced mechanical loading at higher charge capacities, but metrics and methods to precisely quantify coupled localized strains do not exist.