Hypoxia Regulates the Self-Renewal of Endometrial Mesenchymal Stromal/Stem-like Cells via Notch Signaling

Human endometrium is an incredibly dynamic tissue undergoing cyclic regeneration and shedding during a woman’s reproductive life. Endometrial mesenchymal stromal/stem-like cells (eMSC) contribute to this process. A hypoxic niche with low oxygen levels has been reported in multiple somatic stem cell types. However, the knowledge of hypoxia on eMSC remains limited. In mice, stromal stem/progenitor cells can be identified by the label-retaining technique. We examined the relationship between the label-retaining stromal cells (LRSC) and hypoxia during tissue breakdown in a mouse model of simulated menses. Our results demonstrated that LRSC resided in a hypoxic microenvironment during endometrial breakdown and early repair. Immunofluorescence staining revealed that the hypoxic-located LRSC underwent proliferation and was highly colocalized with Notch1. In vitro studies illustrated that hypoxia activated Notch signaling in eMSC, leading to enhanced self-renewal, clonogenicity and proliferation of cells. More importantly, HIF-1α played an essential role in the hypoxia-mediated maintenance of eMSC through the activation of Notch signaling. In conclusion, our findings show that some endometrial stem/progenitor cells reside in a hypoxic niche during menstruation, and hypoxia can regulate the self-renewal activity of eMSC via Notch signaling.     

Female-Headed Households and Achieving Home Ownership in Australia

This paper begins by identifying the growth in female-headed households in Australia. Despite this increase, it is argued that females still lag males in terms of home ownership rates (HORs) with women in Australia facing similar ownership challenges as those experienced in the UK and the USA. In seeking to establish any dynamic change, the study analyses female home ownership rates in Australia for two points in time, 1998 and 2008. Logit models are used to predict HORs. The results indicate that factors such as household type, income and source of income have an impact on rates of ownership. The paper concludes that female-headed households in Australia show an increasing propensity to purchase which match, or even exceed, those of male-headed households.     

Numerical study on erosion of a pipe bend with a vortex chamber

Abrasive erosion at bend is a common issue in gas–solid pneumatic system. Vortex chamber design is one of the specialized designs that offers promising prospect at reducing erosion. The performance of design is still relatively unknown in the literature. The aim of this work is to study the effect of basic erosion variables such as the flow Reynolds number, the particle Stokes number, and the vortex chamber size. The results show that the vortex chamber always reduces the erosion in comparison to the common radius bend, and it is more effective at higher Reynolds number. Increasing the chamber size reduces the erosion but the most significant reduction happens when the chamber size to the pipe diameter ratio is increased from 1 to 1.25. The chamber size influences the erosion differently at different Reynolds number. Trends describing these effects were obtained through trial-and-error approach. The particle Stokes number has nonunique effect on erosion. Increasing Stokes number through increasing Re increases the erosion while increasing Stokes number through decreasing Re_p decreases the erosion.     

Preparation and optimisation of liposome‐in‐alginate beads containing oyster hydrolysate for sustained release

Oyster (Crassostrea gigas) hydrolysate shows antihypertensive effect in our previous study. Oral administration of oyster hydrolysate can loss bioactive peptides due to enzymatic degradation in vivo. To maximise its bioavailability, liposome‐in‐alginate (LA) beads were used to encapsulate the oyster hydrolysates to protect from degradation and obtain sustained release. The preparation conditions of the LA beads were optimised by response surface method using a model peptide of tyrosylalanine (YA). Their characterisation, swelling and release properties were investigated. The optimised conditions for the concentration of calcium chloride, sodium alginate and the amount of ethanol‐dissolved lecithin (EDL) were 0.5 m , 3% and 95.4 mg, respectively. The encapsulation efficiencies of YA and the oyster hydrolysate in the optimised condition were 74.9% and 84.3%, respectively. The release time of the oyster hydrolysate in the simulated gastrointestinal fluid was up to 16 h. The LA beads can be recommended to encapsulate oyster hydrolysate for bioavailability improvement.     

Comparative study of porous anodic alumina: effects of aluminium deposition methods

This article reports on the comparative study of the fabrication of porous anodic alumina films by anodisation of the aluminium films on glass substrates which were deposited by direct current sputtering and electron beam evaporation methods. The relationship between surface morphology of the deposited aluminum films and porous anodic alumina films was investigated. A more uniform and ordered porous anodic alumina was obtained by fabricating from electron beam evaporation deposited aluminium film with smaller and compact grains. Two-step anodisation was used to further improve the quality of porous anodic alumina compared to one-step anodisation. The optical transmittance spectra within wavelength of 370–800 nm were obtained and the optical properties were studied.     

Effects of driver age and experience in abrupt-onset hazards

Novice drivers and older drivers are found to have the highest crash risk among all drivers and this has motivated many research studies into various aspects of novice and older drivers. Although age-related declines were expected, studies did not find older drivers to respond slower to hazards. This study examined the hazard detection and response latencies of 14 young novice drivers, 14 young experienced drivers, and 12 older experienced drivers, to abrupt-onset hazards. Older drivers were found to take longer times before fixating on an abrupt-onset road hazard but appeared to have insignificantly faster reaction times after the initial fixation. Hence, the overall response latency did not suggest any age effects. Older drivers also scanned the roadway less as compared to their younger counterparts. No effects of experience were found. The findings provided insight on age-related declines in hazard detection whose effects have been masked by other components of hazard response.     

Transmission-line modelling of the class E amplifier with an analytical method

The Transmission line modelling (TLM) technique was used to simulate the class E power amplifier. An analytical method is also used to fix the required component values to ensure the desired output performance of the amplifier. An experiment was carried out to verify the simulation result of the combined method.     

RB Regulates DNA Double Strand Break Repair Pathway Choice by Mediating CtIP Dependent End Resection

Inactivation of the retinoblastoma tumor suppressor gene (RB1) leads to genome instability, and can be detected in retinoblastoma and other cancers. One damaging effect is causing DNA double strand breaks (DSB), which, however, can be repaired by homologous recombination (HR), classical non-homologous end joining (C-NHEJ), and micro-homology mediated end joining (MMEJ). We aimed to study the mechanistic roles of RB in regulating multiple DSB repair pathways. Here we show that HR and C-NHEJ are decreased, but MMEJ is elevated in RB-depleted cells. After inducing DSB by camptothecin, RB co-localizes with CtIP, which regulates DSB end resection. RB depletion leads to less RPA and native BrdU foci, which implies less end resection. In RB-depleted cells, less CtIP foci, and a lack of phosphorylation on CtIP Thr847, are observed. According to the synthetic lethality principle, based on the altered DSB repair pathway choice, after inducing DSBs by camptothecin, RB depleted cells are more sensitive to co-treatment with camptothecin and MMEJ blocker poly-ADP ribose polymerase 1 (PARP1) inhibitor. We propose a model whereby RB can regulate DSB repair pathway choice by mediating the CtIP dependent DNA end resection. The use of PARP1 inhibitor could potentially improve treatment outcomes for RB-deficient cancers.     

Changes in endocrine profile and reproductive organs during puberty in the male marmoset monkey (Callithrix jacchus)

Data on pubertal maturation in male marmoset, a model for human reproduction, are scant and conflicting. We collected data on novel parameters to characterize puberty. Twenty-five marmoset monkeys were assigned to five age groups by weeks (wk): 21 (pre-pubertal), 43 (onset of puberty), 52 (fully pubertal), 70 (mature), and 116 (fully adult). Serum and intratesticular testosterone and pituitary bioactive chorionic gonadotropin (bioCG) were measured. Testicular development was assessed by ultrasonography, histology, and flow cytometry. Three consecutive blood samples revealed extreme fluctuations in testosterone concentrations, suggesting an erratic secretion. Age-related changes in serum testosterone and pituitary bioCG concentrations were observed. Intratesticular androgens (ITAs) showed high fluctuations within groups at all ages and were high in some animals by 21 wk. Unexpectedly, no correlation between pituitary bioCG and serum testosterone or ITAs was found, but these parameters significantly correlated with testicular weight and volume. These observations were consistent a dependence on the testis growth on bioCG. Unfortunately, the low serum levels of bioCG were not measurable in this study. At 43 wk, the animals reached puberty. At 52 wk of age, animals attained maximum body and epididymal weights and qualitatively normal spermatogenesis, but testes continued growing, reaching a maximum of all parameters at 70 wk of age, without further major changes at the age of 116 wk. It is concluded that (1) gonadal activation is evident at wk 21, (2) the male marmoset reaches the pubertal threshold around 43 wk of age, attains qualitative parameters at 52 wk, matures further to sexual maturity at 70 wk, and (3) serum testosterone and ITAs are highly variable without any identifiable correlation with pituitary bioCG.