Shear stress-induced influx of extracellular calcium ions: a pivotal trigger amplifying the production of mesenchymal stem cell-derived extracellular vesicles.

Extracellular vesicles (EVs) have drawn attention as promising therapeutic agents whose characteristics resemble their parent cells. However, their practical utility is limited by low EV yields. Cell culture under fluidic flow to enhance EV secretion has been proposed to address this challenge.

Developing a short standard questionnaire for assessing work organization hazards: the Healthy Work Survey (HWS).

Background: At present, no short standard questionnaire exists for assessing and comparing major work organization hazards in the workplaces of the United States.

Methods: We conducted a series of psychometric tests (content validity, factor analysis, differential-item functioning analysis, reliability, and concurrent validity) to validate and identify core items and scales for major work organization hazards using the data from the 2002-2014 General Social Surveys (GSSs), including the Quality of Worklife (QWL) questionnaire. In addition, an extensive literature review was undertaken to find other major work organization hazards which were not addressed in the GSS.

A socioecological framework for research on work and obesity in diverse urban transit operators based on gender, race, and ethnicity.

Urban transit (bus and rail) operators, totaling nearly 700,000 persons, are one of the heaviest occupational groups in the United States (US). Little is known about occupational risk factors for weight gain and obesity and their interrelationship with health-related behaviors, particularly among female minority (African Americans and Hispanics) transit operators who are at greater risk for obesity. As a step towards developing successful obesity interventions among urban transit operators, this paper aims to present a new socioecological framework for studying working conditions, chronic strain, health-related behaviors, weight gain/obesity, and obesity disparity in diverse urban transit operators based on gender, race, and ethnicity.

Effect of interlayer ions on methane hydrate formation in clay sediments.

Natural methane hydrates occurring in marine clay sediments exhibit heterogeneous phase behavior with high complexity, particularly in the negatively charged interlayer region. To date, the real clay interlayer effect on natural methane hydrate formation and stability remains still much unanswered, even though a few computer simulation and model studies are reported. We first examined the chemical shift difference of 27Al, 29Si, and 23Na between dry clay and clay containing intercalated methane hydrates (MH) in the interlayer.

IDMap: facilitating the detection of potential leads with therapeutic targets.

Unlabelled: Pharmaceutical industry has been striving to reduce the costs of drug development and increase productivity. Among the many different attempts, drug repositioning (retargeting existing drugs) comes into the spotlight because of its financial efficiency. We introduce IDMap which predicts novel relationships between targets and chemicals and thus is capable of repositioning the marketed drugs by using text mining and chemical structure information.