BACKGROUND In our previous study, we successfully developed 3-D scaffolds prepared from silk fibroin (SF), silk fibroin/collagen (SF/C) and silk fibroin/gelatin (SF/G) using a freeze drying technique. The blended construct showed superior mechanical properties to silk fibroin construct. In addition, collagen and gelatin, contain RGD sequences that could facilitate cell attachment and proliferat...

Acetylcholine (ACh) modulates neuronal activities in extensive brain regions to play an essential role in various brain functions including attention, learning and memory, and cognition. Although ACh is known to modulate information processing in the primary visual cortex (V1) in many species including rodent, its functional role in visual ability has remained unknown. We examined whether and h...

OBJECTIVES Knee joint distraction (KJD) is a novel, but poorly understood, treatment for osteoarthritis (OA) associated with remarkable 'spontaneous' cartilage repair in which resident synovial fluid (SF) multipotential mesenchymal stromal cells (MSCs) may play a role. We hypothesised that SF hyaluronic acid (HA) inhibited the initial interaction between MSCs and cartilage, a key first step to ...

We introduce $\sf{CosmoBit}$, a module within the open-source $\sf{GAMBIT}$ software framework for exploring connections between cosmology and particle physics with joint global fits. $\sf{CosmoBit}$ provides flexible studying various scenarios beyond $\Lambda$CDM, such as models of inflation, modifications effective number relativistic degrees freedom, exotic energy injection from annihilating...

This study compared surface roughness and gloss produced by different finishing/polishing procedures for two resin composites, Clearfil AP-X (AP-X) and Estelite Sigma (ES). A total of 70 composite discs (n=35 for each resin composite) were prepared and divided at random into seven finishing/polishing groups (n=5): glass-pressed control; using a super-fine-grit diamond bur (SF); using CompoMaste...

OBJECTIVES To evaluate the responsiveness of generic and mapped preference-based measures based on the anchor of global change in health condition of colorectal cancer (CRC) patients. STUDY DESIGN AND SETTING A baseline sample of 333 Chinese CRC patients was recruited between September 2009 and July 2010 and was surveyed prospectively at 6-month follow-up. Preference-based indices were derive...