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Cell Physiol Biochem 2018 Dec 6;51(5):2098-2110. Epub 2018 Dec 6.

Background/aims: Bortezomib (BTZ) is largely used as a chemotherapeutic agent for the treatment of multiple myeloma. However, one of the significant limiting complications of BTZ is painful peripheral neuropathy during BTZ therapy. The purpose of this study was to examine the underlying mechanisms leading to neuropathic pain induced by BTZ. Read More

Addict Behav 2018 Nov 27;90:354-361. Epub 2018 Nov 27.

Medical University of South Carolina, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Charleston, SC, USA.

Cannabis and tobacco co-use is prevalent, but consensus regarding the reasons for co-use among adults and the degree of interrelatedness between these substances is lacking. Reasons for co-use have been explored with younger users, but little data exists for more experienced users with entrenched patterns of co-use. The goal of this study was to examine characteristics and patterns of cannabis-tobacco co-use among adults in the Southeastern United States (US), where there is a legal landscape of generally restrictive cannabis legislation coupled with more permissive tobacco control compared to other US regions. Read More

J Environ Manage 2018 Dec 3;232:660-665. Epub 2018 Dec 3.

CEA, DEN, Univ Montpellier, DE2D, SEAD, Laboratoire des Procédés Supercritiqueset de Décontamination, Marcoule, F-30207Bagnols-sur-Cèze, France. Electronic address:

Vacuumable gels have been developed in the nuclear industry to decontaminate solid surfaces with little or no mechanical operations and without producing any liquid effluents. These gels can be spread on the contaminated surface and rapidly trap the radio-contaminants by sorption after corroding the substrate down to several tens of microns if necessary. The gel then dries and eventually fractures into a non-powdery solid that is easily removable by brushing or vacuum cleaning. Read More

Water Res 2018 Nov 14;149:596-606. Epub 2018 Nov 14.

State Key Laboratory of Environmental Aquatic Chemistry, Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100085, China; National Engineering Laboratory for VOCs Pollution Control Material & Technology, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 101408, China. Electronic address:

Wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) are major sources of airborne bacteria, which could pose health risks to WWTP workers and surrounding residents. In this study, air samples were collected from various treatment facilities of a typical WWTP. Community compositions of airborne bacteria were identified by high-throughput sequencing technique. Read More

J Colloid Interface Sci 2018 Nov 27;538:277-285. Epub 2018 Nov 27.

Department of Mechanical and Mechatronics Engineering, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Ontario N2L 3G1, Canada. Electronic address:

The nonlinear electrokinetic motion of electrically induced Janus droplets (EIJDs) in a microchannel is studied in this paper. The EIJDs were fabricated by operating the positively charged aluminum oxide nanoparticles to partially cover the oil droplets with electric field. The nanoparticle coverage of the EIJDs changes with the electric field strength, which leads to the variation of the electrophoretic mobility of the EIJDs. Read More

Neurosci Lett 2018 Dec 3. Epub 2018 Dec 3.

Department of Anesthesiology, Tianjin First Central Hospital, Tianjin 300192, China. Electronic address:

Background: Iron is pivotal for life, but it is toxic if in excess. Iron overload mediated by divalent metal transporter 1 (DMT1) in the central nervous system has participated in various neuroinflammatory diseases. Chemokine-induced neuroinflammation involves the development of pathological pain. Read More

Int J Biol Macromol 2018 Dec 3. Epub 2018 Dec 3.

Middle East Technical University (METU), BIOMATEN Center of Excellence in Biomaterials and Tissue Engineering, Ankara 06800, Turkey; Middle East Technical University (METU), Graduate Department of Micro and Nanotechnology, Ankara 06800, Turkey; Middle East Technical University (METU), Department of Chemistry, Ankara 06800, Turkey. Electronic address:

Poly(ε-caprolactone) (PCL) is one of the most commonly used polymers in the production of tissue engineered scaffolds for hard tissue treatments. Incorporation of cells into these scaffolds significantly enhances the healing rate of the tissue. In this study, PCL scaffolds were prepared by wet spinning technique and modified by addition of fibrinogen in order to form a fibrin network between the PCL fibers. Read More

Int J Biol Macromol 2018 Dec 3. Epub 2018 Dec 3.

Department of Biochemistry, Institute of Science, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi 221005, UP, India.

The present article reports the development of chitosan (CS) based hydrogel series by varying the concentration of cross-linking agent i.e. N,N'-methylenebisacrylamide (MBA) (0. Read More

Int J Biol Macromol 2018 Dec 3. Epub 2018 Dec 3.

State Key Laboratory of Bio-Fibers and Eco-Textiles, Qingdao University, Qingdao 266071, PR China; College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Qingdao University, Qingdao 266071, PR China. Electronic address:

The graft copolymerization of methyl methacrylate (MMA) onto alginate was carried out in aqueous media by initiators of ammonium persulphate under a nitrogen gas atmosphere. Then, the grafting of PMMA chains onto the alginate backbone was confirmed through the study of Fourier transform infrared, X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy and H nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy. At last, a thin and transparent polymethyl methacrylate grafted alginate film with high strength was obtained by the casting method. Read More

Int J Biol Macromol 2018 Dec 3. Epub 2018 Dec 3.

College of Arts and Sciences, Shaanxi University of Science & Technology, Xi'an, 710021, China.

In this research, collagen hydrolysates with different average molecular weights (Mn¯) from leather collagen were chosen as raw materials. Five environmental-friendly sizing agents (SA) were prepared by cross-linking collagen hydrolysates with glycol diglycidyl ether (GDE) and further grafting them with butyl acrylate (BA) and styrene (St). Then the compound sizing agents (SGDESA-x, x = 1, 2, 3 and 4) were obtained by simple physical mixing of GDESA and starch. Read More

J Control Release 2018 Dec 3. Epub 2018 Dec 3.

Department of Cardiac Surgery, First Affiliated Hospital, China Medical University, Shenyang, PR China. Electronic address:

Coronary artery bypass graft surgery (CABG) is an effective therapeutic method for coronary artery disease. Great saphenous vein is the predominant graft due to the accessibility, sufficient length and suitable size matching with coronary artery. However, saphenous vein graft failure (SVGF) always restrict the long-term success of CABG. Read More

J Neurosci Methods 2018 Dec 3. Epub 2018 Dec 3.

Department of Anesthesiology, Perioperative Care and Pain Medicine, New York University School of Medicine, New York, NY, USA; Department of Neuroscience and Physiology, New York University School of Medicine, New York, NY, USA. Electronic address:

Background: Traditional methods to assess pain in rodents depend on measures of nociceptive responses, most commonly from the hind paws. While these measures can quantify nociceptive responses to allow pharmacologic testing, they typically have high inter-experimenter variability and are not time-sensitive enough to correct with neural processes that occur on millisecond scales.

New Method: We have invented a pain detection device that uses changes in skin conductance to measure nocifensive withdrawal responses. Read More

Chem Phys Lipids 2018 Dec 3. Epub 2018 Dec 3.

Department of Chemical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, Powai, Mumbai 400076, India. Electronic address:

Incorporation of low molecular weight poly-ethylene glycol (PEG) - grafted phospholipids in vesicle bilayers is known to increase the circulation time of liposomal drug delivery vehicles. Mechanical properties of giant unilamellar DPPC vesicles containing varying concentrations of DSPE-PEG (PEG MW: 550, 1000 and 2000) were measured by micropipette aspiration assay or osmotic swelling. While the area compressibility modulus did not change significantly, the bending modulus and water permeability of the bilayer was found to increase with increasing mole fraction of DSPE-PEG. Read More

Am J Respir Crit Care Med 2018 Dec 6. Epub 2018 Dec 6.

The State Key Laboratory of Respiratory Disease, Guangzhou Institute of Respiratory Disease, The First Affiliated Hospital of Guangzhou Medical University, Guangzhou, China, Critical Care Medicine, Guangzhou, Guangdong, China.

Rationale: There are controversial reports on applications of mesenchymal stromal cells (MSCs) in patients with acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS).

Objective: We hypothesized that lung microenvironment was the main determinant of beneficial versus detrimental effects of MSCs during ARDS.

Methods: Lung proteome was profiled in three models of injury induced by acid instillation and/or mechanical ventilation in mice. Read More

Acta Ortop Mex 2018 May-Jun;32(3):182-187

Hospital Centro Médico de Occidente. Instituto Mexicano del Seguro Social (IMSS). Guadalajara, Jalisco. México.

The term «vertebral destruction syndrome» comprises pathologies causing structural changes in the spine, mainly in the vertebral body, producing mechanical deformity and neurological involvement. The pathologies found in this definition may be infectious, metabolic or tumoral. Vertebral osteomyelitis is a disease that occurs mainly in adults > 50 years; we speak of spondylodiscitis when the condition affects the disc and vertebral body. Read More

PLoS One 2018 6;13(12):e0208460. Epub 2018 Dec 6.

Department of Orthopedics, Balgrist University Hospital, Zurich, Switzerland.

The surgical standard of care for lumbar discectomy leaves the annulus fibrosus (AF) defect unrepaired, despite considerable risk for a recurrent herniation. Identification of a viable defect repair strategy has until now been elusive. The scope of this ex vivo biomechanical study was to evaluate crosslinking hydrogels as potentially promising AF defect sealants, and provide a baseline for their use in combination with collagen scaffolds that restore disc volume. Read More

PLoS One 2018 6;13(12):e0208459. Epub 2018 Dec 6.

Graduate Institute of Medical Sciences, College of Medicine, Taipei Medical University, Taipei, Taiwan.

Tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes are related to positive clinical prognoses in numerous cancer types. Programmed death ligand 1 (PD-L1), a mediator of the PD-1 receptor, plays an inhibitory role in cancer immune responses. PD-L1 upregulation can impede infiltrating T-cell functions in lung adenocarcinoma (LUAD), a lung cancer subtype. Read More

PLoS One 2018 6;13(12):e0207376. Epub 2018 Dec 6.

Mechanics of Biological Membranes and Biorheology, Dpto. Química Física I, Universidad Complutense, Madrid, Spain.

We present a novel intensity-gradient based algorithm specifically designed for nanometer-segmentation of cell membrane contours obtained with high-resolution optical microscopy combined with high-velocity digital imaging. The algorithm relies on the image oversampling performance and computational power of graphical processing units (GPUs). Both, synthetic and experimental data are used to quantify the sub-pixel precision of the algorithm, whose analytic performance results comparatively higher than in previous methods. Read More

PLoS One 2018 6;13(12):e0208219. Epub 2018 Dec 6.

Brazilian Synchrotron Light Laboratory (LNLS), Brazilian Center for Research in Energy and Materials (CNPEM), Campinas, SP, Brazil.

Sugarcane bagasse is a vast lignocellulosic byproduct generated in the industry with ~50% humidity (1 kg dry matter associated with 1 kg water). Although the presence of water brings deleterious consequences for combustion, storage and sugar extraction, the location of water in fresh bagasse remains unknown. In this work, we use synchrotron X-ray microtomography for non-invasive 3D imaging of fresh bagasse particles, which allows the visualization of intraparticle water. Read More

PLoS One 2018 6;13(12):e0207200. Epub 2018 Dec 6.

GREPAQ (Groupe de recherche en pharmacologie animale du Québec), Department of biomedical sciences, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Université de Montréal, Saint-Hyacinthe, Quebec, Canada.

This study aimed to characterize bone cancer pain (quantitative sensory testing (QST), stance asymmetry index, actimetry, scores of pain and quality of life (QoL)) in dogs with appendicular osteosarcoma (OSA), and to evaluate a stepwise palliative analgesic treatment. The pain profile of thirteen client-owned dogs with OSA was compared with seven healthy dogs. Dogs with OSA were then enrolled in a prospective, open-label, clinical trial. Read More

PLoS One 2018 6;13(12):e0207809. Epub 2018 Dec 6.

Remote Sensing Division, U.S. Naval Research Laboratory, Washington D.C., United States of America.

Understanding how turbulence impacts marine floc formation and breakup is key to predicting particulate carbon transport in the ocean. While floc formation and sinking rate has been studied in the laboratory and in-situ, the breakup response to turbulence has attracted less attention. To address this problem, the breakup response of bentonite clay particles flocculated in salt water was studied experimentally. Read More

J Phys Condens Matter 2019 Jan;31(2):025401

Materials Science Program, School of Mechanical, Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering, Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR 97331, United States of America.

Nanoscale metallic glasses (MGs) are frequently used in experimental and computational studies to probe the deformation mechanisms in amorphous metals. Potential consequences of the significant surface to volume ratio in these extremely small materials, nevertheless, are not well understood. Here, using molecular dynamics simulations and novel selective 3D visualization, we show that significant irreversible atomic shear strain condenses on the 3D surface of these materials under low uniaxial stress, while the interior atoms are bearing much lower, mostly reversible shear strain. Read More

Acta Med Port 2018 Nov 30;31(11):691-693. Epub 2018 Nov 30.

Serviço de Medicina Interna. Hospital Sousa Martins. Guarda. Portugal.

Botulism is a serious illness caused by exposure to botulinum toxin. It is manifested by flaccid, paralysis, symmetric and in descending pattern affecting cranial and peripheral nerves. Given the frequent need for invasive mechanical ventilation, these patients should be approached in an intensive care setting. Read More

J Appl Physiol (1985) 2018 Dec 6. Epub 2018 Dec 6.

Institute of Physiology II, University of Muenster, Germany.

Titin has long been recognized as a mechanical protein in muscle cells that has a main function as a molecular spring in the contractile units, the sarcomeres. Recent work suggests that the titin spring contributes to muscle contraction in a more active manner than previously thought. In this review, we highlight this property, specifically the ability of the immunoglobulin-like (Ig) domains of titin to undergo unfolding-refolding transitions when isolated titin molecules or skeletal myofibrils are held at physiological force levels. Read More

J Biomed Mater Res B Appl Biomater 2018 Dec 6. Epub 2018 Dec 6.

Department of Bioengineering, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, 15261.

Tracheal stenting currently using non-degradable stents is commonplace for treatment of trauma, prolonged intubation related adult airway obstructions, and pediatric patients-associated tracheal stenosis conditions. Degradable tracheal stent placement will avoid complications of stent removal and restenosis. Widespread reports exist on degradable magnesium alloys success for orthopedic and cardiovascular applications but none to date for intra tracheal use. Read More

Clin Oral Implants Res 2018 Dec 6. Epub 2018 Dec 6.

Laboratory for Biointerfaces, Empa, Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology, St. Gallen, Switzerland.

Objective: The main objective of this study was to demonstrate that dental implants made from ultrafine-grain titanium (UFG-Ti) can be created that replicate state of the art surfaces of standard coarse-grain titanium (Ti), showing excellent cytocompatibility and osseointegration potential while also providing improved mechanical properties.

Material And Methods: UFG-Ti was prepared by continuous equal channel angular processing (ECAP) and surfaces were treated by sand-blasting and acid-etching. Mechanical properties (tensile and fatigue strength), wettability and roughness parameters were evaluated. Read More

Clin Oral Implants Res 2018 Dec 6. Epub 2018 Dec 6.

Department of Prosthodontics, Propaedeutic and Dental Materials, School of Dentistry, Christian-Albrechts University, Kiel, Germany.

Objective: The purpose of this laboratory study was to evaluate the fatigue resistance, fracture resistance and mode of failure of posterior hybrid-abutment-crown versus hybrid-abutment with separate crown, both bonded to short titanium bases.

Materials And Methods: Thirty-two titanium implants were embedded perpendicularly in auto-polymerizing resin. Implant-supported restorations simulating a maxillary first premolar were designed and milled using a CAD/CAM system and divided into 2 groups according to material (n=16): zirconia (Z) and lithium disilicate (L). Read More

JAMA Facial Plast Surg 2018 Dec 6. Epub 2018 Dec 6.

Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, University of Virginia, Charlottesville.

Importance: Osseous craniofacial defects are currently reconstructed with bone grafting, rigid fixation, free tissue transfer, and/or recombinant human bone morphogenetic protein 2. Although these treatment options often have good outcomes, they are associated with substantial morbidity, and many patients are not candidates for free tissue transfer.

Objective: To assess whether polysaccharide-based scaffold (PS) constructs that are cross-linked with smoothened agonist (SAG), vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), and bone morphogenetic protein 6 (BMP-6) would substantially increase bone regeneration. Read More

Soft Matter 2018 Dec 6. Epub 2018 Dec 6.

Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Maryland, College Park, MD-20742, USA.

In this paper, we develop a theory to account for the effect of excluded volume (EV) interactions in the strong stretching theory (SST) based description of pH-responsive polyelectrolyte (PE) brushes. The existing studies have considered the PE brushes to be present in a θ-solvent and hence have neglected the EV interactions; however, such a consideration cannot describe the situations where the pH-responsive brushes are in a "good" solvent. Secondly, we consider a more expanded form of the mass action law, governing the pH-dependent ionization of the PE molecules, in the SST description of the PE brushes. Read More

Pediatr Crit Care Med 2018 Dec 4. Epub 2018 Dec 4.

Department of Critical Care, Children's National Health System, Washington, DC.

Objectives: Describe a single center experience of hemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis in a PICU over a 10-year period, to identify clinical features that may be associated with worse outcomes, including mortality, hospital and ICU length of stay, and functional and cognitive impairments on discharge.

Design: Retrospective electronic medical record review, 2007-2017.

Setting: PICU located in a large urban academic quaternary care children's hospital. Read More

J Neurotrauma 2018 Dec 6. Epub 2018 Dec 6.

Emory University School of Medicine, 12239, Department of Physiology , 615 Michael Street , Atlanta, Georgia, United States , 30322 ;

Previously, we showed that noxious stimulation of the tail produces numerous detrimental effects after spinal cord injury (SCI), including an earlier onset and increased magnitude of mechanical hypersensitivity. Expanding on these observations, this study sought to determine whether localized peripheral inflammation similarly impacts the expression of mechanical hypersensitivity after SCI. Adult rats received a moderate contusion injury at thoracic level (Tl0) or sham surgery, and were administered complete Freund's adjuvant (CFA) or vehicle in one hind paw 24 hours later. Read More

Nano Lett 2018 Dec 6. Epub 2018 Dec 6.

Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering , National University of Singapore , 4 Engineering Drive 3 , Singapore 117583 , Singapore.

Nanostructured metasurfaces demonstrate extraordinary capabilities to control light at the subwavelength scale, emerging as key optical components to physical realization of multitasked devices. Progress in multitasked metasurfaces has been witnessed in making a single metasurface multitasked by mainly resorting to extra spatial freedom, for example, interleaved subarrays, different angles. However, it imposes a challenge of suppressing the cross-talk among multiwavelength without the help of extra spatial freedom. Read More

ACS Appl Mater Interfaces 2018 Dec 6. Epub 2018 Dec 6.

Disordered nanoparticle films have significant technological applications as coatings and membranes. Unfortunately, their use to date has been limited by poor mechanical properties, notably low fracture toughness, which often results in brittle failure and cracking. We demonstrate that the fracture toughness of TiO nanoparticle films can be increased by nearly an order of magnitude through infiltration of polystyrene into the film. Read More

ACS Appl Mater Interfaces 2018 Dec 6. Epub 2018 Dec 6.

Superhydrophobic electromagnetic interference (EMI) shielding textile (EMIST) is of great significance to the safety and long-term service of all-weather outdoor equipment. However, it is still challenging to achieve long-term durability and stability under external mechanical deformations or other harsh service conditions. Herein, by designing and implementing silver nanowire (AgNW) networks and a superhydrophobic coating onto a commercial textile, we demonstrate a highly robust superhydrophobic EMIST. Read More

Saudi Med J 2018 Dec;39(12):1249-1252

Department of Cardiovascular Surgery, Selcuk University, Konya, Turkey. E-mail.

A mechanical heart valve thrombosis during pregnancy is one of the most lethal conditions to experience due to its detrimental effects on both mother and fetus. Cardiac surgery during pregnancy is reserved for cases where medical treatment fails due to harmful maternal and fetal effects. A 24-year-old female in the 38th week of pregnancy was admitted to the emergency room with aggravated dyspnea, tachypnea, and palpitations. Read More

Soft Matter 2018 Dec 6. Epub 2018 Dec 6.

College of Chemistry, State Key Laboratory of Elemento-Organic Chemistry, Nankai University, Tianjin 300071, P. R. China. and Collaborative Innovation Center of Chemical Science and Engineering (Tianjin), Tianjin 300072, P. R. China.

Supramolecular hydrogels, which are usually used to develop excellent smart soft materials, are widely applied in miscellaneous fields due to their inherent reversible properties, unique functions and mechanical properties. Compared with covalently linked hydrogels, supramolecular hydrogels have advantages of easy preparation, stimulus responsiveness and good biocompatibility. Herein, after threading amino-modified β-cyclodextrins onto poly(propyleneglycol)bis(2-amionopropylether) (PPG-NH2) chains, the resultant pseudorotaxanes non-covalently interacted with a clay nanosheet (CNS) matrix to construct supramolecular hydrogels bearing negative charges, and the mechanical properties of these hydrogels were positively correlated with the number of amino groups on the pseudorotaxane. Read More

Analyst 2018 Dec 6. Epub 2018 Dec 6.

Department of Power Mechanical Engineering, National Tsing Hua University, Hsinchu, Taiwan. and Institute of Biomedical Engineering, National Tsing Hua University, Hsinchu, Taiwan and Institute of NanoEngineering and Microsystems, National Tsing Hua University, Hsinchu, Taiwan.

Periprosthetic joint infections (PJIs) are among the most severe complications emerging from prosthetic joint replacement surgeries. In order to possess a rapid means of diagnosing PJIs, an integrated microfluidic system was developed herein for detecting and identifying bacteria in human synovial fluid (HSF). The entire molecular diagnostic process, including (1) sample treatment, (2) bacterial isolation, (3) bacterial lysis, (4) nucleic acid amplification (via polymerase chain reaction (PCR)), and (5) optical detection, could be automated on a single chip. Read More

Acta Bioeng Biomech 2018 ;20(4):19-24

Medical University of Łódź, Unit of General Dentistry of Department of Restorative Dentistry, Łódź, Poland.

Purpose: Teeth caries is one of predominant civilization diseases. Dental fillings with antimicrobial addition might allow prevention of secondary caries. The purpose of this study was to evaluate hardness and tensile strength of cetylpyridinium chloride modified water activated glass-ionomer cement. Read More

Acta Bioeng Biomech 2018 ;20(4):59-67

Intelligent Systems for Medicine Laboratory, The University of Western Australia, Perth Australia.

Purpose: Residual stress has a great influence on the mechanical behaviour of arterial wall. Numerous research groups used the Uniform Stress Hypothesis to allow the inclusion of the effects of residual stress when computing stress distributions in the arterial wall. Nevertheless, the available methods used for this purpose are very computationally expensive, due to their iterative nature. Read More

Acta Bioeng Biomech 2018 ;20(4):153-164

Institute of Precision Mechanics, Departament of Mechanical Properties, Warsaw, Poland.

Purpose: The goal of the study was to determine the influence of the penetrator geometry on the human cancellous bone mechanical properties in indentation tests. The aim of this research was also the assessment of the material properties of bone structures, having in mind the energy aspects of the curve obtained in the cycle: inelastic loading and elastic unloading.

Methods: The samples were resected from a femoral heads of patients qualified for a hip replacement surgery. Read More

Acta Bioeng Biomech 2018 ;20(3):3-9

University of Ostrava, Faculty of Education, Department of Human Movement Studies, Ostrava, Czech Republic.

Purpose: The aim of this study was to determine how minimalist running shoes (MRS), conventional running shoes (CRS) and the dominance of lower limbs influence the running gait.

Methods: Trained recreational runners (N = 13) who have been engaged in regulary running for more than one year were participants in this study. They were experienced with using MRS and CRS for more than half year and they used both types of shoes. Read More

Acta Bioeng Biomech 2018 ;20(4):77-87

Institute of Bioengineering, Zhejiang Academy of Medical Sciences, Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province, China.

A scaffold knit with natural sericin-free silk fibroin fiber possesses desirable mechanical properties, biocompatibility, ease of fabrication, and slow degradability. However, regenerated silk fibroin degrades faster than natural silk. In this study, natural silk fibroin fiber mesh-like scaffolds were prepared by a weft-knitting method and the pores were filled with sponge-like regenerated silk fibroin-collagen I. Read More

Phys Med Biol 2018 Dec 6;63(23):235028. Epub 2018 Dec 6.

Institut Langevin, ESPCI ParisTech, CNRS UMR 7587, INSERM U979, Paris 7, 17 rue Moreau, 75012 Paris, France. Cardiawave SA, 29 rue du Faubourg Saint Jacques, 75014, Paris, France.

Pulsed cavitation ultrasound therapy (PCUT) is an effective non-invasive therapeutic approach in various medical indications that relies on the mechanical effects generated by cavitation bubbles. Even though limited by the poor contrast, conventional ultrasound B-Mode imaging has been widely used for the guidance and monitoring of the therapeutic procedure, allowing the visualization of the cavitation bubble cloud. However, the visualization of the bubble cloud is often limited in deep organs such as the liver and the heart and remains moreover completely subjective for the operator. Read More

Ther Apher Dial 2018 Dec 6. Epub 2018 Dec 6.

Department of Kidney Disease and Blood Purification, Institute of Urology & Key Laboratory of Tianjin, The Second Hospital of Tianjin Medical University, Tianjin, China.

Background: The wall shear stress (WSS) as a mechanical stimuli to venous wall has a significant role in neointimal hyperplasia of arteriovenous fistulae (AVF), which is often related to the proliferation and migration of vascular smooth muscle cells(VSMCs). Transforming growth factor beta-1 (TGF-β1) has the function of promoting VSMCs proliferation and migration. Our study is to detect that the correlation between WSS, TGF-β1, VSMCs proliferation and neointimal hyperplasia. Read More

Eur J Appl Physiol 2018 Dec 5. Epub 2018 Dec 5.

Norwegian Olympic and Paralympic Committee and Confederation of Sports, Oslo, Norway.

Purpose: This study explored the agreement between a single-run and a multiple-run method for force-velocity (Fv) profiling of sprinting athletes; we evaluated both absolute values and changes over time caused by sprint training.

Methods: Seventeen female handball players (23 ± 3 years, 177 ± 7 cm, 73 ± 6 kg) performed 30 m un-resisted and resisted sprints (50, 80 and 110 N resistance) before and after an 8-week sprint training intervention. Two approaches were used to calculate theoretical maximal velocity (v), horizontal force (F), power (P), and the force-velocity slope (S): (1) the single-run method, based on inverse dynamics applied to the centre-of-mass movement, was calculated from anthropometric and sprint split time data; and (2) the multiple-run method, where peak velocity from un-resisted and resisted sprints were plotted against the horizontal resistances. Read More

Sci China Life Sci 2018 Dec 3. Epub 2018 Dec 3.

Department of Cardiology, Changzheng Hospital, The Second Military Medical University, Shanghai, 200003, China.

Fulminant myocarditis is primarily caused by infection with any number of a variety of viruses. It arises quickly, progresses rapidly, and may lead to severe heart failure or circulatory failure presenting as rapid-onset hypotension and cardiogenic shock, with mortality rates as high as 50%-70%. Most importantly, there are no treatment options, guidelines or an expert consensus statement. Read More

Nanoscale Res Lett 2018 Dec 5;13(1):393. Epub 2018 Dec 5.

Institute for Frontier Materials, Deakin University, Locked Bag 20000, Geelong, Victoria, 3220, Australia.

Many living tissues possess excellent mechanical properties and self-healing ability. To mimic these living tissues, a series of novel composite hydrogels, poly(acrylic acid)/surface-modified boron nitride nanosheets (PAA/BNNS-NH) were fabricated simply through hierarchically physical interactions: molecular-scale metal coordination interaction between -COOH of PAA and Fe and nanoscale H-bond between -COOH of PAA and -NH of BNNS-NH. The composite hydrogels exhibit both excellent mechanical properties (including enhanced fracture stress, elongation, toughness, Young's modulus, and dissipated energy) and rapid healing ability without any external stimulus. Read More