The ability of new neurons to promote repair of brain circuitry depends on their capacity to re-establish afferent and efferent connections with the host. In this review article, we give an overview of past and current efforts to restore damaged connectivity in the adult mammalian brain using implants of fetal neuroblasts or stem cell-derived neuronal precursors, with a focus on strategies aimed t

Stem cell transplantation can improve behavioral recovery after stroke in animal models but whether stem cell-derived neurons become functionally integrated into stroke-injured brain circuitry is poorly understood. Here we show that intracortically grafted human induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cell-derived cortical neurons send widespread axonal projections to both hemispheres of rats with ischemic

Coxsackievirus A24 variant (CVA24v) is a major causative agent of acute hemorrhagic conjunctivitis outbreaks worldwide, yet the evolutionary and transmission dynamics of the virus remain unclear. To address this, we analyzed and compared the 3C and partial VP1 gene regions of CVA24v isolates obtained from five outbreaks in Cuba between 1986 and 2009 and strains isolated worldwide. Here we show tha

Frailty is a geriatric syndrome defined as a status of extreme vulnerability to stressors, leading to a higher risk of negative health-related outcomes. “Inflammaging”, an age-related state of low-grade chronic inflammation, is characterized by an increased concentration of pro-inflammatory cytokines and acute phase proteins. Inflammaging has been postulated as an underlying mechanism of frailty,

Soil microbiome is one of the most heterogeneous biological systems. State-of-the-art molecular approaches such as those based on single-amplified genomes (SAGs) and metagenome assembled-genomes (MAGs) are now improving our capacity for disentailing soil microbial-mediated processes. Here we analyzed publicly available datasets of soil microbial genomes and MAG's reconstructed from the Amazon's tr

Groundwater (GW) is being uncontrollably exploited in various parts of the world resulting from huge needs for water supply as an outcome of population growth and industrialization. Bearing in mind the importance of GW potential assessment in reaching sustainability, this study seeks to use remote sensing (RS)-derived driving factors as an input of the advanced machine learning algorithms (MLAs),

Objectives The aim of this study is to determine diagnostic patterns in the prehospital paediatric population, age distribution, the level of monitoring and the treatment initiated in the prehospital paediatric case. Hypothesis was that advanced prehospital interventions are rare in the paediatric patient population. Setting We performed a retrospective population-based registry cohort study of ch

Inorganic perovskites display an enticing foreground for their wide range of optoelectronic applications. Recently, supercrystals (SCs) of inorganic perovskite nanocrystals (NCs) have been reported to possess highly ordered structure as well as novel collective optical properties, opening new opportunities for efficient films. Here, we report the large-scale assembly control of spherical, cubic, a

Factor I (FI) is one of the main inhibitors of complement activity, and numerous rare coding variants have been reported in patients with age-related macular degeneration, atypical hemolytic uremic syndrome and C3 glomerulopathy. Since many of these variants are of unknown clinical significance, this study aimed to determine the effect of rare coding variants in the complement factor I (CFI) gene

Woody pastures represent keystone habitats for biodiversity in agricultural landscapes, contributing to increased resource availability, landscape heterogeneity and structural variability. High taxonomic diversity is closely linked to vegetation structure in woody pastures, but examining functional characteristics of species assemblages can shed more light on the ecological mechanisms driving dive

Agricultural landscapes have changed fast in Europe, which has led to steep declines in farmland biodiversity. While this has differentially impacted “farmland species”, some of these seem to be able to use alternative man-made open habitats in forests, such as forest clear-cuts and powerline rights-of-way. We investigated the use of clear-cuts by two historically declining farmland birds, the Yel

The Travel Time Information System (TTIS) is an Intelligent Traffic Control System installed in Poland. As is common, travel time is the only factor in the decision about rerouting traffic, while a route recommendation may consider multiple criteria, including road safety. The aim of the paper is to analyze the safety level of the entire road network when traffic is rerouted on paths with differen

Global climate change is projected to lead to an increase in both the areal extent and degree of aridity in the world’s drylands. At the same time, the majority of drylands are located in developing countries where high population densities and rapid population growth place additional pressure on the ecosystem. Thus, drylands are particularly vulnerable to environmental changes and large-scale env

Biogas production from wheat straw is one strategy of converting biomass to bioenergy, but pretreatment of the lignocellulosic material is necessary in order to render the substrate biodegradable. In this study, four different mechanical pretreatments of wheat straw were investigated: roll milling, extrusion, pelletization, and hammer milling. The effects of the pretreatments on anaerobic digestio

The Compex detector is an electrically cooled, composite germanium detector that uses four coaxial, cubic-shaped, single-encapsulated germanium crystals. This novel detector allows for new heights in photon detection efficiency in decay spectroscopy setups using box-shaped vacuum chambers. Its spectroscopic performance and detection efficiency is evaluated by means of source measurements. Motivate

Background: Microbial communities in human milk and those in feces from breastfed infants vary within and across populations. However, few researchers have conducted cross-cultural comparisons between populations, and little is known about whether certain “core” taxa occur normally within or between populations and whether variation in milk microbiome is related to variation in infant fecal microb

Relational thinking has recently gained increasing prominence across academic disciplines in an attempt to understand complex phenomena in terms of constitutive processes and relations. Interdisciplinary fields of study, such as science and technology studies (STS), the environmental humanities, and the posthumanities, for example, have started to reformulate academic understanding of nature-cultu

The use of temozolomide (TMZ) for the management of aggressive pituitary tumours (APT) has revolutionised clinical practice in this field with significantly improved clinical outcomes and long-term survival. Its use is now well established however a large number of patients do not respond to treatment and recurrence after cessation of TMZ is common. A number of challenges remain for clinicians suc