Microfluidic devices towards personalized health and wellbeing

To make personalised medicine a reality, there is a significant need for cost-effective methods that enable the rapid selection of optimal nutrient intake and/or disease treatment with a minimum of side effects. In this perspective, we briefly discuss the potential of merging the advances of microfluidic devices, organoid structures and advanced analytical methods to progress towards a personalised in vitro platform for health and wellbeing. © 2019 Society of Chemical Industry     

Chemical Ecology of the host searching behavior in an Egg Parasitoid: are Common Chemical Cues exploited to locate hosts in Taxonomically Distant Plant Species?

Parasitoids are known to exploit volatile cues emitted by plants after herbivore attack to locate their hosts. Feeding and oviposition of a polyphagous herbivore can induce the emission of odor blends that differ among distant plant species, and parasitoids have evolved an incredible ability to discriminate them and locate their hosts relying on olfactive cues. We evaluated the host searching behavior of the egg parasitoid Cosmocomoidea annulicornis (Ogloblin) (Hymenoptera: Mymaridae) in response to odors emitted by two taxonomically distant host plants, citrus and Johnson grass, after infestation by the sharpshooter Tapajosa rubromarginata (Signoret) (Hemiptera: Cicadellidae), vector of Citrus Variegated Chlorosis. Olfactory response of female parasitoids toward plants with no herbivore damage and plants with feeding damage, oviposition damage, and parasitized eggs was tested in a Y-tube olfactometer. In addition, volatiles released by the two host plant species constitutively and under herbivore attack were characterized. Females of C. annulicornis were able to detect and significantly preferred plants with host eggs, irrespectively of plant species. However, wasps were unable to discriminate between plants with healthy eggs and those with eggs previously parasitized by conspecifics. Analysis of plant volatiles induced after sharpshooter attack showed only two common volatiles between the two plant species, indole and β-caryophyllene. Our results suggest that this parasitoid wasp uses common chemical cues released by many different plants after herbivory at long range and, once on the plant, other more specific chemical cues could trigger the final decision to oviposit.

     

iOS8：全新的十二项功能

今年秋天,当iOS 8最终到来的时候,苹果iPhone和iPad的用户们将有大把的新功能等待学习。作为最新的手机操作系统,苹果公司承诺提供一系列的新功能及对现有功能的增强,以及更好的通讯,更好的分享。这里列出苹果公司最近不断鼓吹的12项：1.通知iOs 8中的全新“交互式”通知,让你无需离开现有的应用,即可处理各种通知或警告信息。获取日历邀请,将无需你中断手头正在写的电子邮件,也无需你退出手头正在玩的游戏。你还可以通过移动设备的锁屏界面直接处理通知,     

Android手机打造Web服务器

正随着IT技术的不断进步,智能手机的更新换代也正在逐渐加快,但替换下来的"旧"手机仍旧有很强的性能,如果就此放置一旁无疑是一种极大的浪费。除了将手机作为二手产品低价出售,还有什么办法能够让手机物尽其用呢?Android手机如今已经成为人们生活、工作必备的设备。相信如果你某天找不到手机,那么你一天的生活节奏一定会被弄的混乱不堪。随着IT技术的不断进步,智能手机的更新换代也正在逐渐加快,但替换下来的"旧"手机仍旧有很强的性能,如果就此放置一旁无疑是一种极大的浪费。     

Improving the performances of earth air heat exchangers through Constructal design

Earth to air heat exchanger (EAHE) is a well‐known technique used to preheat or precool outdoor air before blowing it into a building. However, its geometry is often very simple as it consists in one or multiple straight pipes, while more complex arrangements can be found in heat exchangers design. In this paper, we explore the advantage of designing an EAHE as a network through the Constructal law point of view. A methodology is first proposed to design a single pipe EAHE when the need is defined in terms of cooling power, overall efficiency and enthalpy difference between the inlet air and the ground. Next, the single pipe EAHE is used as a reference for designing a tree‐shaped network under the constraint of identical fluid volume and cooling power. The geometrical features are allowed to change for the different branches of the network. The network coefficient of performance is found to increase significantly with the bifurcation level, illustrating the superior performances of the network. This approach was found to be robust as the improvements were not depending on the cooling demand or the environmental conditions. However, further work is needed to move from this theoretical result to practical considerations.     

Adult rat olfactory nerve ensheathing cells are effective promoters of adult central nervous system neurite outgrowth in coculture

A coculture method is described for ensheathing glial cells from adult rat olfactory nerve, serving as a substrate for the regrowth of neurites from adult rat retinal ganglion cells. Immunocytochemically identified phenotypes present in primary cultures of olfactory nerve cells are described, and their ability to promote neurite outgrowth is compared with neonatal astrocytes and Schwann cells, with other nonglial cells, and with laminin. Ensheathing cell cultures were more effective than any other substrate tested and also directed the orientation of regrowing neurites. In comparison with cultured Schwann cells, which released neurotrophic factors into the culture medium, there was no evidence of a similar activity in ensheathing cell cultures. Combinations of ensheathing cell-conditioned medium and substrates of laminin, merosin, or 3T3 cells also failed to show the release of factors enhancing either survival or neurite outgrowth from retinal ganglion cells. Evidence is presented for a partial inhibition of neurite outgrowth in the presence of calcium channel antagonists or an intracellular calcium-chelating reagent. This provides evidence for a contribution from an intracellular calcium signaling mechanism, possibly implicating ensheathing cell adhesion molecules in promoting neurite outgrowth.     

Coordinate intracellular expression of Salmonella genes induced during infection

Salmonella typhimurium in vivo-induced (ivi) genes were grouped by their coordinate behavior in response to a wide variety of environmental and genetic signals, including pH, Mg2+, Fe2+, and PhoPQ. All of the seven ivi fusions that are induced by both low pH and low Mg2+ (e.g., iviVI-A) are activated by the PhoPQ regulatory system. Iron-responsive ivi fusions include those induced under iron limitation (e.g., entF) as well as one induced by iron excess but only in the absence of PhoP (pdu). Intracellular expression studies showed that each of the pH- and Mg2+-responsive fusions is induced upon entry into and growth within three distinct mammalian cell lines: RAW 264.7 murine macrophages and two cultured human epithelial cell lines: HEp-2 and Henle-407. Each ivi fusion has a characteristic level of induction consistent within all three cell types, suggesting that this class of coordinately expressed ivi genes responds to general intracellular signals that are present both in initial and in progressive stages of infection and may reflect their responses to similar vacuolar microenvironments in these cell types. Investigation of ivi expression patterns reveals not only the inherent versatility of pathogens to express a given gene(s) at various host sites but also the ability to modify their expression within the context of different animal hosts, tissues, cell types, or subcellular compartments.     

The Advanced Glaucoma Intervention Study (AGIS): 5. Encapsulated bleb after initial trabeculectomy

PURPOSE: To compare the incidence of encapsulated bleb after trabeculectomy in eyes with and without previous argon laser trabeculoplasty and to assess other risk factors for encapsulated bleb development. METHODS: After medical treatment failure, eyes enrolled in the Advanced Glaucoma Intervention Study (AGIS) were randomly assigned to sequences of interventions starting with either argon laser trabeculoplasty or trabeculectomy. In the present study we compared the clinical course for 1 year after trabeculectomy in 119 eyes with failed argon laser trabeculoplasty with that of 379 eyes without previous argon laser trabeculoplasty. Data on bleb encapsulation were collected at the time that the encapsulation was diagnosed, and 3 and 6 months later. RESULTS: Of multiple factors examined in the AGIS data for the risk of developing encapsulated bleb, only male gender and high school graduation without further formal education were statistically significant. Encapsulation occurred in 18.5% of eyes with previous argon laser trabeculoplasty failure and 14.5% of eyes without previous argon laser trabeculoplasty (unadjusted relative risk, 1.27; 95% confidence limits = 0.81, 2.00; P = .23). After adjusting for age, gender, educational achievement, prescribed systemic beta-blockers, diabetes, visual field score, and years since glaucoma diagnosis, this difference remains statistically not significant. Four weeks after trabeculectomy, mean intraocular pressure was 7.5 mm Hg higher in eyes with (22.5 mm Hg) than without (15.0 mm Hg) encapsulated bleb; at 1 year after trabeculectomy and the resumption of medical therapy when needed, this excess was reduced to 1.4 mm Hg. CONCLUSIONS: This study, as did two previous studies, found male gender to be a risk factor for bleb encapsulation. Four studies, including the present study, have reported a higher rate of encapsulation in eyes with previous argon laser trabeculoplasty; in two of the studies, one of which was the present study, the rate was not statistically significantly higher; in the other two studies the rate was significantly higher. The 4-week postoperative mean intraocular pressure was higher in eyes with than without encapsulated bleb; with the resumption of medical treatment the two means converged after 1 year.     

Imaging of the pediatric orbit and visual pathways: computed tomography and magnetic resonance imaging

Tumors of the small bowel are uncommon and seldom suspected on a clinical basis. Together with the relative inaccessibility of the small bowel to endoscopic investigation, the rarity of these tumors undoubtedly delays the diagnosis. Small bowel tumors may be an interesting field of application for enteroscopy, which now can be readily performed with dedicated enteroscopic evaluation in patients with suspected small bowel neoplasia could improve prognosis and treatment. Enteroscopy may also play an important role in the surveillance of inherited polyposis syndromes, as in other precancerous condition of the small bowel. In Peutz-Jeghers syndrome it may reduce polyp-induced complications and improve planning for surgery; in familial adenomatous polyposis it may contribute to preventing upper gastrointestinal tract cancer.