Electrospun Extracellular Matrix: Paving the Way to Tailor‐Made Natural Scaffolds for Cardiac Tissue Regeneration

Biomimetic scaffolds generally aim at structurally and compositionally imitating native tissue, thus providing a supportive microenvironment to the transplanted or recruited cells in the tissue. Native decellularized porcine extracellular matrix (ECM) is becoming the ultimate bioactive material for the regeneration of different organs. Particularly for cardiac regeneration, ECM is studied as a patch and injectable scaffolds, which improve cardiac function, yet lack reproducibility and are difficult to control or fine‐tune for the desired properties, like most natural materials. Seeking to harness the natural advantages of ECM in a reproducible, scalable, and controllable scaffold, for the first time, a matrix that is produced from whole decellularized porcine cardiac ECM using electrospinning technology, is developed. This unique electrospun cardiac ECM mat preserves the composition of ECM, self‐assembles into the same microstructure of cardiac ECM ,and ,above all, preserves key cardiac mechanical properties. It supports cell growth and function, and demonstrates biocompatibility in vitro and in vivo. Importantly, this work reveals the great potential of electrospun ECM‐based platforms for a wide span of biomedical applications, thus offering the possibility to produce complex natural materials as tailor‐made, well‐defined structures.     

Resurgence,operator product expansion,and remarks on renormalons in supersymmetric Yang-Mills theory

Journal of Experimental and Theoretical Physics - We discuss similarities and differences between the resurgence program in quantum mechanics and the operator product expansion in strongly coupled...     

Spin vortices in the Abelian–Higgs model with cholesteric vacuum structure

We continue the study of U(1)$U\left(1\right)$ vortices with cholesteric vacuum structure. A new class of solutions is found which represent global vortices of the internal spin field. These spin vortices are characterized by a non-vanishing angular dependence at spatial infinity, or winding. We show that despite the topological Z₂${\mathbb{Z}}_2$ behavior of SO(3)$SO\left(3\right)$ windings, the topological charge of the spin vortices is of the Z$\mathbb{Z}$ type in the cholesteric. We find these solutions numerically and discuss the properties derived from their low energy effective field theory in 1+1$1+1$ dimensions.     

The Choice Gap: The Divergent Online News Preferences of Journalists and Consumers

This study examines 4 online news sites to compare stories that journalists display most prominently with stories consumers read most frequently. We find that journalists' chosen stories are “soft” with respect to subject matter but not story format, and that these choices diverge from consumers' choices, resulting in a choice gap. The study design makes important methodological contributions by using the story as the unit of analysis, operationalizing “soft news” in terms of subject matter as well as format, and considering the influence of journalists' and consumers' choices on each other. This article discusses the implications of the findings on such issues as the dynamics of agenda setting, the prospects for consumer‐authored content, and the watchdog function of the media.     

Are the ψ′→η c γ,ψ″→η c γ decays due to the gluon admixture?

We propose a new method for estimating the radiative transitions between the excited 1^? charmonium levels and η_c. The method is based on QCD (plus the hypothesis of local duality) and makes no reference to the standard potential picture. It is argued that the decay ψ′(3.698)→η _c γ is essentially due to the gluon admixture in the Ψ′ wave function. The most naive analysis yields approximately 0.15 keV for the ψ′→η _c γ decay width, five times smaller than preliminary data. The experimental number for Γ(ψ′→η _c γ)—0.7 keV—can be reproduced only at a price of introducing a rather large ψ″(3.772)→η _c γ amplitude, Γ(ψ″→η _c γ)～1 keV. As a byproduct, we get a reliable prediction for the ρ→πγ decay rate, Γ(ρ→πγ)≈70 keV, in good agreement with a recent measurement.     

Supersymmetry transformations of instantons

Instantons in the simplest supersymmetric Yang-Mills theory are considered. We introduce bosonic and fermionic collective coordinates and study how they change under the supersymmetry transformations. The instanton measure is shown to be explicitly invariant under the transformations. We discuss the relation between quantum anomalies and the functional form of the instanton measure.     

Crystal Structures of Aripiprazole, a New Anti-psychotic Drug, and of its Inclusion Compounds with Methanol, Ethanol and Water

Aripiprazole, 7-[4-[4-(2,3-dichlorophenyl)-1-piperazinyl]butoxy]-3,4-dihydrocarbostyril, is an important new neuroleptic drug used in the treatment of schizophrenia and related psychoses. This study elucidates its detailed molecular structure and two preferred conformational forms, and relates to the solvates of this compound when crystallized from different environments. The latter is associated with the hydrogen-bonding capacity of aripiprazole through the piperazinyl and dihydrocarbostyril functions. Four unique crystal forms of this compound have been characterized using X-ray single crystal determinations, including an anhydrous structure (1), methanol (2) and hemi-ethanol (3) solvates and a hydrate (4). They were found to consist of hydrogen bonded dimers of the aripiprazole moieties that involve the cyclic (–NH–CO–)₂ di-amide interaction synthon in 1–3 (with the solvent molecules attached to them in 2 and 3), or of hydrogen bonded polymeric aggregates sustained by extended multiple bonding through water bridges in 4. These modes of supramolecular association involve two different conformers with similar energy of the drug moiety.     

Single-site catalysis by bimetallic zinc calixarene inclusion complexes

[reaction: see text] Bimetallic alkylzinc calixarene inclusion complexes were prepared and used in the ring-opening polymerization of L-lactide. Polymers with high molecular weight and a low degree of polydispersity were obtained. 1H NMR and diffusion NMR experiments suggest that a single-site mechanism is operative.     

Diffusion NMR spectroscopy in supramolecular and combinatorial chemistry: an old parameter--new insights

Intermolecular interactions in solution play an important role in molecular recognition, which lies at the heart of supramolecular and combinatorial chemistry. Diffusion NMR spectroscopy gives information over such interactions and has become the method of choice for simultaneously measuring diffusion coefficients of multicomponent systems. The diffusion coefficient reflects the effective size and shape of a molecular species. Applications of this technique include the estimation of association constants and mapping the intermolecular interactions in multicomponent systems as well as investigating aggregation, ion pairing, encapsulation, and the size and structure of labile systems. Diffusion NMR spectroscopy can also be used to virtually separate mixtures and screen for specific ligands of different receptors, and may assist in finding lead compounds.