Investigation of nerve injury through microfluidic devices

Traumatic injuries, both in the central nervous system (CNS) and peripheral nervous system (PNS), can potentially lead to irreversible damage resulting in permanent loss of function. Investigating the complex dynamics involved in these processes may elucidate the biological mechanisms of both nerve degeneration and regeneration, and may potentially lead to the development of new therapies for recovery. A scientific overview on the biological foundations of nerve injury is presented. Differences between nerve regeneration in the central and PNS are discussed. Advances in microtechnology over the past several years have led to the development of invaluable tools that now facilitate investigation of neurobiology at the cellular scale. Microfluidic devices are explored as a means to study nerve injury at the necessary simplification of the cellular level, including those devices aimed at both chemical and physical injury, as well as those that recreate the post-injury environment.     

EP2LBS: efficient privacy-preserving scheme for location-based services

The Journal of Supercomputing - Mobile users frequently change their location and often desire to avail of location-based services (LBS). LBS server provides services to users at the service...     

Tailoring the Angular Mismatch in MoS2 Homobilayers through Deformation Fields

Ultrathin MoS₂ has shown remarkable characteristics at the atomic scale with an immutable disorder to weak external stimuli. Ion beam modification unlocks the potential to selectively tune the size, concentration, and morphology of defects produced at the site of impact in 2D materials. Combining experiments, first-principles calculations, atomistic simulations, and transfer learning, it is shown that irradiation-induced defects can induce a rotation-dependent moiré pattern in vertically stacked homobilayers of MoS₂ by deforming the atomically thin material and exciting surface acoustic waves (SAWs). Additionally, the direct correlation between stress and lattice disorder by probing the intrinsic defects and atomic environments are demonstrated. The method introduced in this paper sheds light on how engineering defects in the lattice can be used to tailor the angular mismatch in van der Waals (vdW) solids.     

Monotonicity of approximate entropy during transition from awareness to unresponsiveness due to propofol anesthetic induction

The ability to monitor the physiological effects of sedative medication accurately is of interest in clinical practice. During the anesthetic agent driven transition to unresponsiveness, nonstationary changes such as signal amplitude variations appear in electroencephalography. In this paper, it is studied whether the application of the approximate entropy (ApEn) method to electroencephalographic (EEG) signal produces a monotonic response curve during the transition from awareness to unresponsiveness. Data from fourteen patients, undergoing propofol anesthetic induction were studied. To optimize the ApEn performance, different parameter choices were carefully evaluated. It was assumed with our protocol, that the level of anesthesia changes monotonically with the elapsed induction time. The monotonicity of the ApEn change was assessed with the prediction probability statistic (PK). The monotonicity of the ApEn time-series depends on the parameters employed in the algorithm and the varying signal amplitude. Depending on the parameter values, the median PK value ranged from 0.886 to 0.527. Thus, a good directionality and concordance was observed, but the nonstationarity of the signal affected the results. In conclusion, EEG-based ApEn measure shows a nonlinear response during propofol induction. With a judicious choice of parameters, a monotonic response is confirmed using PK statistic.     

Spatiotemporal characteristics of low-frequency functional activation measured by laser speckle imaging.

Changes in neuronal activity have been shown to be accompanied by alteration in regional cerebral blood flow . In the present study, laser speckle imaging (LSI) was employed to measure stimulus-evoked neuronal activities in rat barrel cortex. The spatiotemporal characteristics of hemodynamic response to mechanical stimuli from 1 to 3 Hz were examined. Time to peak amplitude reduced from 4.5 to 3.5 s with increasing frequencies. Spatially, the response was confined to a small circular region at the beginning and then spread out asymmetrically to the surrounding regions. The maximal area of activation ranged from 2.2 to 3.5 mm2, while the time to reach maximal area occurred between 5.5 and 6 s. Moreover, there was a high correlation between LSI and laser-Doppler flowmetry in terms of peak response magnitude and the time to reach peak. These two values were linearly dependent on stimulus frequency whereas area of activation and time to maximal area appeared to be independent of this parameter. LSI's high sensitivity, low cost of the equipment, and size and complexity make this a suitable technique for fundamental neurophysiological investigations.     

Activation of Autophagy by Low-Dose Silica Nanoparticles Enhances Testosterone Secretion in Leydig Cells

Silica nanoparticles (SNPs) can cause abnormal spermatogenesis in male reproductive toxicity. However, the toxicity and toxicological mechanisms of SNPs in testosterone synthesis and secretion in Leydig cells are not well known. Therefore, this study aimed to determine the effect and molecular mechanism of low doses of SNPs in testosterone production in Leydig cells. For this, mouse primary Leydig cells (PLCs) were exposed to 100 nm Stöber nonporous spherical SNPs. We observed significant accumulation of SNPs in the cytoplasm of PLCs via transmission electron microscopy (TEM). CCK-8 and flow cytometry assays confirmed that low doses (50 and 100 μg/mL) of SNPs had no significant effect on cell viability and apoptosis, whereas high doses (more than 200 μg/mL) decreased cell viability and increased cell apoptosis in PLCs. Monodansylcadaverine (MDC) staining showed that SNPs caused the significant accumulation of autophagosomes in the cytoplasm of PLCs. SNPs activated autophagy by upregulating microtubule-associated protein light chain 3 (LC3-II) and BCL-2-interacting protein (BECLIN-1) levels, in addition to downregulating sequestosome 1 (SQSTM1/P62) level at low doses. In addition, low doses of SNPs enhanced testosterone secretion and increased steroidogenic acute regulatory protein (StAR) expression. SNPs combined with rapamycin (RAP), an autophagy activator, enhanced testosterone production and increased StAR expression, whereas SNPs combined with 3-methyladenine (3-MA) and chloroquine (CQ), autophagy inhibitors, had an opposite effect. Furthermore, BECLIN-1 depletion inhibited testosterone production and StAR expression. Altogether, our results demonstrate that low doses of SNPs enhanced testosterone secretion via the activation of autophagy in PLCs.     

Control strategies for rodotic contact tasks: An experimental study

In this article, we study the contact instability problem encountered in robotic manipulators while trying to make contact with an environment, such as grasping or pushing against objects, and propose a unified control strategy capable of achieving a stable contact against both stiff and compliant environments. The problem has three distinct stages of the contact task. In the first stage, free-space motion, the robot is approaching the environment; in the second stage, post-contact force regulation; in the third, impact stage, the transition from the first stage to the second. We make an experimental comparison of the control schemes that may be used for the three stages. For example, during impact, the manipulator should not lose contact with the environment, nor exert high impulsive forces on the environment, and in the post-impact phase, the robot should have a fast force trajectory tracking. The best strategies for the above stages are experimentally determined and then combined into a single unified controller that can achieve stable contact as well as a fast force trajectory tracking response for surfaces of variable stiffnesses. This control scheme does not require a priori knowledge of the stiffness of the environment, and is able to estimate the environmental stiffness and tune gains accordingly so as to achieve the best response. Also experimentally compared is the use of such a scheme with impedance control, another method proposed in the literature for robotic contact task control. © 1995 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

EEG signal modeling using adaptive Markov process amplitude

In this paper, an adaptive Markov process amplitude algorithm is used to model and simulate electroencephalogram (EEG) signals. EEG signal modeling is used as a tool to identify pathophysiological EEG changes potentially useful in clinical diagnosis. The least mean square algorithm is adopted to continuously estimate the parameters of a first-order Markov process model. EEG signals recorded from rodent brains during injury and recovery following global cerebral ischemia are utilized as input signals to the model. The EEG was recorded in a controlled experimental brain injury model of hypoxic-ischemic cardiac arrest. The signals from the injured brain during various phases of injury and recovery were modeled. Results show that the adaptive model is accurate in simulating EEG signal variations following brain injury. The dynamics of the model coefficients successfully capture the presence of spiking and bursting in EEG.