[ASAP] Core–Satellite Nanomedicines for Real-Time Monitoring of Enzyme-Activatable Drug Release by Fluorescence and Photoacoustic Dual-Modal Imaging

ACS Nano

DOI: 10.1021/acsnano.8b05136

from ! Human Diseases via Alexandros G.Sfakianakis on Inoreader http://bit.ly/2Viv8wJ

[ASAP] Targeting 3D Bladder Cancer Spheroids with Urease-Powered Nanomotors

ACS Nano

DOI: 10.1021/acsnano.8b06610

from ! Human Diseases via Alexandros G.Sfakianakis on Inoreader http://bit.ly/2Qgzxwa

[ASAP] Epitaxial Growth of Two-Dimensional Metal–Semiconductor Transition-Metal Dichalcogenide Vertical Stacks (VSe2/MX2) and Their Band Alignments

ACS Nano

DOI: 10.1021/acsnano.8b08677

from ! Human Diseases via Alexandros G.Sfakianakis on Inoreader http://bit.ly/2VgcdTb

Prehistoric Shark May Have Caught a Dinner on the Wing

A fossil tooth hints at a startling interaction between an ancient shark and a flying reptile.

-- Read more on ScientificAmerican.com

from ! Human Diseases via Alexandros G.Sfakianakis on Inoreader http://bit.ly/2CGYbTp

Protein-Level Interactions as Mediators of Sexual Conflict in Ants [Research]

All social insects with obligate reproductive division of labour evolved from strictly monogamous ancestors, but multiple queen-mating (polyandry) arose de novo in several evolutionarily derived lineages. Polyandrous ant queens are inseminated soon after hatching and store sperm mixtures for a potential reproductive life of decades. However, they cannot re-mate later in life and are thus expected to control the loss of viable sperm because their life-time reproductive success is ultimately sperm-limited. In the leaf-cutting ant Atta colombica, the survival of newly inseminated sperm is known to be compromised by seminal fluid of rival males and to be protected by secretions of the queen sperm storage organ (spermatheca). Here we investigate the main protein-level interactions that appear to mediate sperm competition dynamics and sperm preservation. We conducted an artificial insemination experiment and DIGE-based proteomics to identify proteomic changes when seminal fluid is exposed to spermathecal fluid, and then a mass spectrometry analysis of both secretions that allowed us to identify the sex-specific origins of the proteins that had changed in abundance. We found that spermathecal fluid targets only seven (2%) of the identified seminal fluid proteins for degradation, including two proteolytic serine proteases, a SERPIN inhibitor, and a semen-liquefying acid phosphatase. In vitro and in vivo experiments provided further confirmation that these proteins are key molecules mediating sexual conflict over sperm competition and viability preservation during sperm storage. Exposure to spermathecal fluid reduced the capacity of seminal fluid to compromise survival of rival sperm in a matter of hours and biochemical inhibition of these seminal fluid proteins largely eliminated that adverse effect. Our findings indicate that A. colombica queens are in control of sperm competition and sperm storage, a capacity that has not been documented in other animals, but is predicted to have independently evolved in other polyandrous social insects.

from ! Human Diseases via Alexandros G.Sfakianakis on Inoreader http://bit.ly/2H1fS4j

Deep Learning for Musculoskeletal Force Prediction

Abstract

Musculoskeletal models permit the determination of internal forces acting during dynamic movement, which is clinically useful, but traditional methods may suffer from slowness and a need for extensive input data. Recently, there has been interest in the use of supervised learning to build approximate models for computationally demanding processes, with benefits in speed and flexibility. Here, we use a deep neural network to learn the mapping from movement space to muscle space. Trained on a set of kinematic, kinetic and electromyographic measurements from 156 subjects during gait, the network's predictions of internal force magnitudes show good concordance with those derived by musculoskeletal modelling. In a separate set of experiments, training on data from the most widely known benchmarks of modelling performance, the international Grand Challenge competitions, generates predictions that better those of the winning submissions in four of the six competitions. Computational speedup facilitates incorporation into a lab-based system permitting real-time estimation of forces, and interrogation of the trained neural networks provides novel insights into population-level relationships between kinematic and kinetic factors.

http://bit.ly/2RpnIIK

Extinction and the Rise of the Dinosaurs

Paleontologists are still puzzling over why dinosaurs succeeded while crocodile cousins faded away.

-- Read more on ScientificAmerican.com

from ! Human Diseases via Alexandros G.Sfakianakis on Inoreader http://bit.ly/2TfktAS