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The surface topology of biomaterial has a definite effect on the growth behavior of nerve cells for peripheral nerve regeneration. In this study, the silk fibroin (SF) film with different anisotropic microgroove/ridge was constructed by micropatterning technology. The effects of topologies width on the directional growth of dorsal root ganglion (DRG) neurons were evaluated. The results showed that the topological structure of the SF film with higher SF concentration was more clear and complete. The microtopography of the SF film with a concentration of 15% and a groove width of around 30 μm could effectively guide the directional growth of the nerve fibers of DRG. And nerve fibers could obviously form nerve fiber bundles which may have a certain pavement effect on the recovery of nerve function. The study indicated that the SF film with a specific width of the topological structure may have potential applications in the field of directional nerve regeneration.
Yushu Prefecture in Qinghai Province provides some of the largest known stretches of habitat for the Vulnerable snow leopard Panthera uncia in China. People living in these areas are dependent on agropastoralism. Support from local communities is necessary for effective long-term conservation action for snow leopards, but loss of livestock to snow leopards can create financial burdens that induce negative attitudes and encourage retaliatory killing. We assessed factors driving herders' attitudes towards snow leopards and their conservation. We found that herders had higher agreement with positive than with negative statements about snow leopards despite nearly half reporting livestock loss to snow leopards within the last 5 years. No retaliatory killing was reported. Herders with more years of formal education and fewer livestock losses were more likely to have positive attitudes whereas those with lower importance of snow leopards to their religion, fewer livestock losses, and fewer years of education were more likely to have negative attitudes. Understanding the multifaceted mechanisms responsible for positive views towards species is imperative for reaching conservation goals. Our findings ascribe to the importance of increased education and adherence to Tibetan beliefs in promoting conservation tolerance towards snow leopards in Qinghai Province, but also indicate a need for further research into the impact of livestock loss.
Intelligent control of friction and adhesion has attracted much attention for use in soft robotics, human-sensor interfaces, and bionics. Here we introduce a shape memory photonic crystal (SMPC) polymer that can be programmed and recovered by solvent to realize switchable surface friction. Micro sliding test show that the friction coefficient on this SMPC in the programmed and recovered state can vary by three times. We also show that the mechanism behind this switchable friction coefficient is the surface roughness related adhesion.
zinc is an essential micro-nutrient for growth and proper immune function. Yet there are limited data available on the prevalence of zinc deficiency among children aged 3–5 at the country level. This information will enable health planners to determine the need for zinc intervention activities and to stimulate further research into these areas.
materials and methods
The data on children aged 3–5 were extracted from the Chinese National Nutrition and Health Surveillance in 2013. By multi-stage stratified cluster randomly sampling method, 30 children aged 3–5 years old were selected from each region for this study from 55 counties in China to analyze serum zinc. Finally, 1472 children aged 3–5 years were included in the study. The concentration of serum zinc was determined by high resolution inductively coupled plasm mass spectrometry. High and low level quality control samples were used, measured value was (1.63 ± 0.04)mg/l and (2.80 ± 0.06)mg/l, respectively. CV of quality control samples were 1.69%~2.45%. The zinc deficiency was defined as serum zinc level < 70μg/dl with the standard of WHO.
Results
serum zinc means of children aged 3–5 years was (95.3 ± 18.2)μg/dl and 3.9% children with zinc deficiency. serum zinc means level in urban children was (98.9 ± 17.6)μg/dl, and (91.6 ± 18.2)μg/dl in rural area. we showed that the serum zinc deficiency rate was higher in rural children (5.5%) than urban children (2.4%), and there were significant differences between these two areas. serum zinc means level in boys aged 3–5 years was (95.3 ± 18.7)μg/dl, and (95.3 ± 17.8)μg/dl in girls aged 3–5 years old. The prevalence of zinc deficiency was 1.5%, 6.6% and 1.8% in 3~,4~,5~ years old urban boys, respectively; 6.8%, 7.7% and 4.0% in rural boys, respectively. The prevalence of zinc deficiency was 2.3%, 0.8% and 1.7% in 3~,4~,5~ years old urban girls, respectively; 4.1%, 7.0% and 4.0% in rural girls, respectively. And there were differences between urban and rural areas in girls of 4~.5 years.
Discussion
The zinc level of children aged 3–5 years in China has been improved compared with ten years ago, but the zinc deficiency of rural children is still lower than that of urban children, especially those aged 4 to 5 years in rural areas, so we should pay more attention to this group.
Passive daytime radiative cooling (PDRC) is an electricity-free method for cooling terrestrial entities. In PDRC, a surface has a solar reflectance of nearly 1 to avoid solar heating and a high emittance close to 1 in the long-wavelength infrared (LWIR) transparent window of the atmosphere (wavelength λ = 8–13 μm) for radiating heat to the cold sky. This allows the surface to passively achieve sub-ambient cooling. PDRC requires careful tuning of optical reflectance in the wide optical spectrum, and various strategies have been proposed in the last decade, some of which are under commercialization. PDRC can be used in a variety of applications, such as building envelopes, containers, and vehicles. This perspective describes the principle and applications of various PDRC strategies and analyzes the cost, and economic and environmental consequences. Potential challenges and possible future directions are also discussed.
Bipolar disorder (BD) is a severe psychiatric disorder associated with a high risk of suicide. This meta-analysis examined the prevalence of suicide attempts (SA) in patients with BD and its associated factors.
Methods
A systematic literature search was conducted in the PubMed, PsycINFO, EMBASE and Web of Science databases from their inception to 11 June 2018. The prevalence of SA in BD was synthesised using the random-effects model.
Results
The search identified 3451 articles of which 79 studies with 33 719 subjects met the study entry criteria. The lifetime prevalence of SA was 33.9% (95% CI 31.3–36.6%; I2 = 96.4%). Subgroup and meta-regression analyses revealed that the lifetime prevalence of SA was positively associated with female gender, BD-I, BD Not Otherwise Specified and rapid cycling BD subtypes, income level and geographic region.
Conclusion
This meta-analysis confirmed that SA is common in BD and identified a number of factors related to SA. Further efforts are necessary to facilitate the identification and prevention of SA in BD. Long-term use of mood stabilisers coupled with psycho-social interventions should be available to BD patients to reduce the risk of suicidal behaviour.
Annexin A2 (ANXA2) is reported to be associated with cancer development. To investigate the roles ANXA2 plays during the development of cancer, the RNAi method was used to inhibit the ANXA2 expression in caco2 (human colorectal cancer cell line) and SMMC7721 (human hepatocarcinoma cell line) cells. The results showed that when the expression of ANXA2 was efficiently inhibited, the growth and motility of both cell lines were significantly decreased, and the development of the motility relevant microstructures, such as pseudopodia, filopodia, and the polymerization of microfilaments and microtubules were obviously inhibited. The cancer cell apoptosis was enhanced without obvious significance. The possible regulating pathway in the process was also predicted and discussed. Our results suggested that ANXA2 plays important roles in maintaining the malignancy of colorectal and hepatic cancer by enhancing the cell proliferation, motility, and development of the motility associated microstructures of cancer cells based on a possible complicated signal pathway.
AlMg alloys have widespread industrial applications. Grain refinement techniques have been frequently used to achieve high strength in these alloys. Here, we report on the fabrication of epitaxial co-sputtered AlMg thin films with high-density growth twins. The microstructure evolution with varying Mg composition has been characterized. Nanoindentation and in-situ micropillar compression tests show that the strength of AlMg alloys increases with increasing Mg composition. The flow stress of epitaxial nanotwinned Al–10 at.% Mg thin film exceeds 800 MPa. The modified Hall–Petch plots incorporating the solid solution strengthening effect suggest that, compared to high angle grain boundaries, incoherent twin boundaries are equivalent barriers to the transmission of dislocations in nanotwinned AlMg alloys.
Current approaches to food volume estimation require the person to carry a fiducial marker (e.g. a checkerboard card), to be placed next to the food before taking a picture. This procedure is inconvenient and post-processing of the food picture is time-consuming and sometimes inaccurate. These problems keep people from using the smartphone for self-administered dietary assessment. The current bioengineering study presents a novel smartphone-based imaging approach to table-side estimation of food volume which overcomes current limitations.
Design
We present a new method for food volume estimation without a fiducial marker. Our mathematical model indicates that, using a special picture-taking strategy, the smartphone-based imaging system can be calibrated adequately if the physical length of the smartphone and the output of the motion sensor within the device are known. We also present and test a new virtual reality method for food volume estimation using the International Food Unit™ and a training process for error control.
Results
Our pilot study, with sixty-nine participants and fifteen foods, indicates that the fiducial-marker-free approach is valid and that the training improves estimation accuracy significantly (P<0·05) for all but one food (egg, P>0·05).
Conclusions
Elimination of a fiducial marker and application of virtual reality, the International Food Unit™ and an automated training allowed quick food volume estimation and control of the estimation error. The estimated volume could be used to search a nutrient database and determine energy and nutrients in the diet.
Specific roles of individual CDPKs vary, but in general they mediate essential biological functions necessary for parasite survival. A comparative analysis of the structure-activity relationships (SAR) of Neospora caninum, Eimeria tenella and Babesia bovis calcium-dependent protein kinases (CDPKs) together with those of Plasmodium falciparum, Cryptosporidium parvum and Toxoplasma gondii was performed by screening against 333 bumped kinase inhibitors (BKIs). Structural modelling and experimental data revealed that residues other than the gatekeeper influence compound–protein interactions resulting in distinct sensitivity profiles. We subsequently defined potential amino-acid structural influences within the ATP-binding cavity for each orthologue necessary for consideration in the development of broad-spectrum apicomplexan CDPK inhibitors. Although the BKI library was developed for specific inhibition of glycine gatekeeper CDPKs combined with low inhibition of threonine gatekeeper human SRC kinase, some library compounds exhibit activity against serine- or threonine-containing CDPKs. Divergent BKI sensitivity of CDPK homologues could be explained on the basis of differences in the size and orientation of the hydrophobic pocket and specific variation at other amino-acid positions within the ATP-binding cavity. In particular, BbCDPK4 and PfCDPK1 are sensitive to a larger fraction of compounds than EtCDPK1 despite the presence of a threonine gatekeeper in all three CDPKs.
The atomic force microscope (AFM) has been used to observe and characterize for the first time surface steps and grooves on the faces of Cr2O3 grains formed as an oxide scale on Ni−30Cr and Ni−30Cr−0.5Y alloys during high temperature oxidation. The very high spatial resolution of the AFM is required to characterize these features. We propose that these surface features, whose dimensions are in the range of nanometers and tens of nanometers, may be interpreted as evidence of highly localized plastic deformation of the oxide scale. The size and spacing of the steps and grooves are consistent with models of plastic deformation based on slip bands derived from dislocation climb or dislocation glide. Mechanical twinning and the models for stress-driven surface instability are also possibly responsible for some surface features. The addition of yttrium to the alloy seemed to enable enhanced plastic deformation of the scale. The strain corresponding to the observed features, estimated by simple models, could relax a significant part of oxide growth and thermal stresses.
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