Molecular Mechanisms of Fetal Tendon Regeneration Versus Adult Fibrous Repair

Tendinopathies are painful, disabling conditions that afflict 25% of the adult human population. Filling an unmet need for realistic large-animal models, we here present an ovine model of tendon injury for the comparative study of adult scarring repair and fetal regeneration. Complete regeneration of the fetal tendon within 28 days is demonstrated, while adult tendon defects remained macroscopically and histologically evident five months post-injury. In addition to a comprehensive histological assessment, proteome analyses of secretomes were performed. Confirming histological data, a specific and pronounced inflammation accompanied by activation of neutrophils in adult tendon defects was observed, corroborated by the significant up-regulation of pro-inflammatory factors, neutrophil attracting chemokines, the release of potentially tissue-damaging antimicrobial and extracellular matrix-degrading enzymes, and a response to oxidative stress. In contrast, secreted proteins of injured fetal tendons included proteins initiating the resolution of inflammation or promoting functional extracellular matrix production. These results demonstrate the power and relevance of our novel ovine fetal tendon regeneration model, which thus promises to accelerate research in the field. First insights from the model already support our molecular understanding of successful fetal tendon healing processes and may guide improved therapeutic strategies.     

Selective Complexation and Membrane Transport of Guanidinium Salts by Calix[6]arene Amides

The p-tert-butylcalix[6]arene hexamide 2 and syn-1,3,5–trimethoxy-2,4,6-triamide 4 were synthesized by reaction of α-chloro-N,N-diethylacetamide and the corresponding calix[6]arenes 1 and 3 , respectively. ¹H NMR spectroscopy shows that 2 is a mixture of different conformations whereas 4 is fixed in a cone conformation. Extraction experiments, (S-L) and (H₂O–CDCl₃) with picrate salts, indicate that 2 complexes both alkali metal (1:2 complex) and guanidinium salts (1:1 complex) but 4 complexes only guanidinium (1:1 complex). Incorporated in supported liquid membranes (Accurel^® / o-nitrophenyl n-octyl ether) the calixarenes 2 and 4 transport guanidinium salts. The hexamide 2 is a more efficient carrier of guanidinium but the syn-1,3,5-trimethoxy-2,4,6-triamide 4 is much more selective. Both 2 and 4 are sufficiently lipophilic to give membranes that are stable over longer periods (weeks).     

A low-cost real time virtual system for postural stability assessment at home

Background and objective

The degeneration of the balance control system in the elderly and in many pathologies requires measuring the equilibrium conditions very often. In clinical practice, equilibrium control is commonly evaluated by using a force platform (stabilometric platform) in a clinical environment.In this paper, we demonstrate how a simple movement analysis system, based on a 3D video camera and a 3D real time model reconstruction of the human body, can be used to collect information usually recorded by a physical stabilometric platform.

Methods

The algorithm used to reconstruct the human body model as a set of spheres is described and discussed. Moreover, experimental measurements and comparisons with data collected by a physical stabilometric platform are also reported. The measurements were collected on a set of 6 healthy subjects to whom a change in equilibrium condition was stimulated by performing an equilibrium task.

Results

The experimental results showed that more than 95% of data collected by the proposed method were not significantly different from those collected by the classic platform, thus confirming the usefulness of the proposed system.

Conclusions

The proposed virtual balance assessment system can be implemented at low cost (about 500$) and, for this reason, can be considered a home use medical device. On the contrary, astabilometric platform has a cost of about 10,000$ and requires periodical calibration. The proposed system does not require periodical calibration, as is necessary for stabilometric force platforms, and it is easy to use. In future, the proposed system with little integration can be used, besides being an emulator of a stabilometric platform, also to recognize and track, in real time, head, legs, arms and trunk, that is to collect information actually obtained by sophisticated optoelectronic systems.     

Abnormal behavior detection using dominant sets

Smart surveillance systems are increasingly being used to detect potentially dangerous situations. To do so, the common and easier way is to model normal human behaviors and consider as abnormal any new strange behavior in the scene. In this article, Dominant Sets is adapted to model most frequent behaviors and to detect any unknown event to trigger an alarm. It is proved that after an unsupervised training, Dominant Sets can robustly detect abnormal behaviors. The method is tested in several different cases and compared to other usual clusterization methods such as KNN, mixture of Gaussians or Fuzzy \(K\) -Means to confirm its robustness and performance. The overall performance of abnormal behavior detection based on Dominant Sets is better, being the error ratio at least \(1.5\) points lower than the others.     

Good Enough is Good Enough: Overcoming Disaster Response Organizations’ Slow Social Media Data Adoption

Organizations that respond to disasters hold unreasonable standards for data arising from technology-enabled citizen contributions. This has strong negative potential for the ability of these responding organizations to incorporate these data into appropriate decision points. We argue that the landscape of the use of social media data in crisis response is varied, with pockets of use and acceptance among organizations. In this paper we present findings from interviews conducted with representatives from large international disaster response organizations concerning their use of social media data in crisis response. We found that emergency responders already operate with less than reliable, or “good enough,” information in offline practice, and that social media data are useful to responders, but only in specific crisis situations. Also, responders do use social media, but only within their known community and extended network. This shows that trust first begins with people and not data. Lastly, we demonstrate the barriers used by responding organizations have gone beyond discussions of trustworthiness and data quality to that of more operational issues.     

Synthesis, fabrication and characterization of poly[3-3′(vinylcarbazole)] (PVK) Langmuir-Schaefer films

Poly[3-3′(vinylcarbazole)] (PVK) was synthetized with N-vinylcarbazole as monomer by oxidative polymerization with ferric chloride. The resulting polymer was then deposited on various solid supports by using Langmuir-Schaefer (LS) method. The pressure-area isotherm of PVK revealed the possibility of compact monolayer formation at air-water interface. Different layers of PVK were doped with iodine vapours. Both scanning probe microscopy and optical microscopy images indicated a good uniformity of the films. The morphology and the thickness of PVK films were investigated using atomic force microscopy. The voltammetric investigation of I₂ doped PVK showed a distinctive electrochemical behaviour. The photoinduced charge transfer across a donor/acceptor (D/A) hybrid interface provided an effective method to study the photoelectrochemical properties of the composite LS films.     

A local landscape mapping method for protein structure prediction in the HP model

The hydrophobic-polar (HP) model has been widely studied in the field of protein structure prediction both for theoretical purposes and as a benchmark for new optimization strategies. In this work we present results of the recently proposed Hybrid Monte Carlo Ant Colony Optimization heuristic in the HP model using a fragment assembly-like strategy. Moreover we extend that method introducing a general framework for optimization in the HP model, called Local Landscape Mapping, and we test it using the pull moves set to generate solutions. We describe the heuristic and compare results obtained on well known HP instances in the 3-dimensional cubic lattice to those obtained with standard Ant Colony optimization and Simulated Annealing. Fragment assembly-like tests were performed using a modified objective function to prevent the creation of overlapping walks. Results show that our method performs better than the other heuristics in all benchmark instances when the fragment assembly-like strategy is used while in the case of pull moves-based neighborhood its performance is comparable to that of simulated annealing.     

Alder ene functionalization of polyisobutene oligomer and styrene-butadiene-styrene triblock copolymer

The Alder ene functionalization reaction of double bonds containing macromolecules such as polyisobutene oligomer (PIB) and a styrene-butadiene-styrene triblock copolymer (SBS) samples with maleic anhydride (MAH) or diethyl maleate (DEM) as enophiles is described. The analysis of the products by means of different techniques assesses the addition of the polar molecules to the reactive vinylidene units of the polymer with functional degrees (FD) depending on the type of enophile and polymer reactivity. The role of the reaction conditions and the use as Lewis acids as catalysts are discussed in terms of their influence on the addition reaction extent and on the polymer molecular weight.     

Modelling formation and growth of H2SO4-H2O aerosols: Uncertainty analysis and experimental evaluation

An aerosol dynamics model, AERO2, is presented, which describes the formation of H₂SO₄-H₂O aerosol in a smog chamber. The model is used to analyse how the uncertainties on four input parameters are propagated through an aerosol dynamics model. The input parameters are: the rate of the reaction between SO₂ and OH (k₁), the ratio between the nucleation rate used in AERO2 and that derived from classical nucleation theory (t_n), the H₂SO₄ mass accommodation coefficient () and a measure of the turbulence intensity in the reactor (k_e). Uncertainties for these parameters are taken from the literature. One of the results of the analysis is that AERO2 and aerosol dynamics models in general can only predict upper bounds for the total number (N_tot) and total volume (V_tot) concentrations of the particles. The uncertainties on N_tot and V_tot are mainly due to the uncertainties on k₁, and t_n. An uncertainty factor of 20–100 still remains when the uncertainty on k₁, is reduced to ±5%. Aerosol measurements from three smog chamber experiments have therefore been used, in an attempt to reduce the uncertainty on k₁ and t_n. Values for k₁ are obtained in the reduced range 7.8 × 10⁻¹³ to 1.0 × 10⁻¹² cm³ s⁻¹, which is within the range found in the literature. For t_n, values in the range 10⁴–10⁷ are obtained, which is close to the upper bound of the range in literature. These values for t_n are in marked contrast with a recent set of experiments on nucleation in H₂SO₄-H₂O mixtures, which suggests a value for t_n of at most 10⁻⁵.     

Influence of dietary long-chain PUFA on premature baboon lung FA and dipalmitoyl PC composition

One of the major survival challenges of premature birth is production of lung surfactant. The lipid component of surfactant, dipalmitoyl PC (DPPC), increases in concentration in the period before normal term birth via a net shift in FA composition away from unsaturates. We investigated the influence of dietary DHA and arachidonic acid (AA) on lung FA composition and DPPC concentration in term and preterm baboons. Pregnant animals/neonates were randomized to one of four groups: breast-fed (B), term formula-fed (T⁻), preterm formulafed (P⁻), and preterm fed formula supplemented with DHA-AA (P⁺). Breast milk contained 0.68%wt DHA and the P⁺ group formula contained 0.61%wt DHA. In the preterm groups (P⁻ and P⁺), pregnant females received a course of antenatal corticosteroids. At the adjusted age of 4 wk, neonate lung tissue was harvested, and FA composition and DPPC were analyzed. Palmitate was ∼28%wt of lung total FA and no significant differences were found among the four treatment groups. In contrast, DPPC in the B group lung tissue was significantly greater than DPPC in the unsupplemented groups, but not compared with the P⁺ group. The B and P⁺ groups were not significantly different in DHA and AA, but were different compared with the unsupplemented (T, P⁻) groups. These results indicate that LCP supplementation increases lung DHA and AA, without compromising overall lung 16∶0 or DPPC. The shift in FA composition toward greater unsaturation in the groups consuming LCP supported improved surfactant lipid concentration in preterm neonate lungs.