Slingshot

Slingshots or hand catapults, historically used as a military or hunting weapon, are common toys among children and young teenagers. Their use can be dangerous as a strike to the eye or orbit can result in significant injuries including blindness. We describe a rare case of a sino-orbital foreign body caused by a slingshot injury in a young boy. The case was managed by a multidisciplinary team involving ear, nose and throat, ophthalmology and paediatrics, and the foreign body of a metal ball bearing was removed using an endoscopic transnasal approach...

Increasing evidence indicates that the accumulation misfolded proteins in Alzheimer's disease (AD) arises from clearance defects in the autophagy-lysosome pathway. Misfolded proteins such as Aβ and tau are secreted in small extracellular vesicles (i.e., exosomes) and are propagated from cell to cell in part through secreted small extracellular vesicles (sEVs). Recent studies suggest that autophagic activity and exosome secretion are coregulated events, and multiple autophagy-related proteins are found in sEVs, including the cargo receptors Sqstm1/p62 and optineurin...

No abstract text is available yet for this article.

No abstract text is available yet for this article.

BACKGROUND: Synovial fibroblasts (SFs) are specialized cells of the synovium that provide nutrients and lubricants for the proper function of diarthrodial joints. Recent evidence appreciates the contribution of SF heterogeneity in arthritic pathologies. However, the normal SF profiles and the molecular networks that govern the transition from homeostatic to arthritic SF heterogeneity remain poorly defined. METHODS: We applied a combined analysis of single-cell (sc) transcriptomes and epigenomes (scRNA-seq and scATAC-seq) to SFs derived from naïve and hTNFtg mice (mice that overexpress human TNF, a murine model for rheumatoid arthritis), by employing the Seurat and ArchR packages...

The actin cytoskeleton reorganization during sperm capacitation is essential for the occurrence of acrosomal exocytosis (AR) in several mammalian species. Here, we demonstrate that in mouse sperm, within the first minutes of exposure upon capacitating conditions, the activity of RHOA/C and RAC1 is essential for LIMK1 and COFILIN phosphorylation. However, we observed that the signaling pathway involving RAC1 and PAK4 is the main player in controlling actin polymerization in the sperm head necessary for the occurrence of AR...

OBJECTIVE: To observe the effect of electroacupuncture (EA) on modified neurological severity score (mNSS), cerebral infarction volume, expression of Lim domain kinase-1 (LIMK1) and slingshot homolog-1 (SSH1) proteins, Cofilin rod formation and neural cell apoptosis in rats with ischemic stroke (IS), so as to explore its mechanisms underlying improvement of IS. METHODS: Male SD rats were randomly divided into normal, model and EA groups, with 13 rats in each group...

The prisoner's dilemma (PD) has been widely adopted by researchers to investigate cooperation among adults and children. However, studies using the PD with children are not as extensive as experiments with adults. The main aim of this work was to introduce and show the feasibility and validity of two digital games with the structural features of a PD (Slingshot Challenge [SC] and Star Mines [SM]) to investigate children's cooperative behavior. In two experiments, 162 children aged 6 to 12 years played SC and SM in different conditions...

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the molecular mechanism of high phosphorylation levels of cofilin-1 (p-CFL-1) associated with paclitaxel resistance in epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC) cells. METHODS: Cells displaying varying levels of p-CFL-1 and CFL-1 were created by plasmid transfection and shRNA interference. Cell inhibition rate indicating paclitaxel efficacy was assessed by Cell Counting Kit-8 (CCK-8) assay. Apoptosis was assessed by flow cytometry and protein levels were detected by western blotting...

Osteosarcoma (OS), a frequent malignant tumor which mainly occurs in the bone. The roles of long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) have been revealed in cancers, including OS. LncRNA long intergenic non-protein coding RNA (LINC00174) has been validated as an oncogene in several cancers. However, the role of LINC00174 in OS has not been explored. In our research, loss-of-function assays were conducted to explore the function of LINC00174 in OS cells. Then, we explored the downstream pathway of LINC00174 in OS cells. Bioinformatics, RNA pull-down and RIP experiments investigated the downstream mechanism of LINC00174 in OS cells...

AIM: RhoA/Rho kinase pathway is essential for regulating cytoskeletal structure. Although its effect on normal neurite outgrowth has been demonstrated, the role of this pathway in seizure-induced neurite injury has not been revealed. The research examined the phosphorylation level of RhoA/Rho kinase signaling pathway and to clarify the effect of fasudil on RhoA/Rho kinase signaling pathway and neurite outgrowth in kainic acid (KA)-treated Neuro-2A cells and hippocampal neurons. METHOD: Western blotting analysis was used to investigate the expression of key proteins of RhoA/Rho kinase signaling pathway and the depolymerization of actin...

BACKGROUND: Migraine is a common neurological disease that can have a substantial impact on patients' lives and on society. Erenumab, a fully human monoclonal antibody that targets the calcitonin gene-related peptide receptor, was specifically developed for migraine prevention. The efficacy of erenumab has been established in several clinical trials; however, the real-world comparative effectiveness of erenumab has not been fully investigated. OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the real-world impact of erenumab and onabotulinumtoxinA on acute medication usage and health care resource utilization (HCRU) among patients with migraine in the United States...

Reversible phosphorylation of proteins, controlled by kinases and phosphatases, is involved in various cellular processes. Dual-specificity phosphatases (DUSPs) can dephosphorylate phosphorylated serine, threonine and tyrosine residues. This family consists of 61 members, 44 of which have been identified in human, and these 44 members are classified into six subgroups, the phosphatase and tensin homolog (PTEN) protein phosphatases (PTENs), mitogen-activated protein kinase phosphatases (MKPs), atypical DUSPs, cell division cycle 14 (CDC14) phosphatases (CDC14s), slingshot protein phosphatases (SSHs), and phosphatases of the regenerating liver (PRLs)...

We develop a mathematical model to capture the web dynamics of slingshot spiders (Araneae: Theridiosomatidae), which utilize a tension line to deform their orb webs into conical springs to hunt flying insects. Slingshot spiders are characterized by their ultrafast launch speeds and accelerations (exceeding 1300 [Formula: see text]), however a theoretical approach to characterize the underlying spatiotemporal web dynamics remains missing. To address this knowledge gap, we develop a 2D-coupled damped oscillator model of the web...

BACKGROUND AND AIMS: In angiosperms, many species disperse their seeds autonomously by the rapid movement of the pericarp. The fruits of these species often have long rod- or long plate-shaped pericarps, which are suitable for ejecting seeds during fruit dehiscence by bending or coiling. However, here we show that fruit with a completely different shape can also rely on the pericarp movement to disperse seeds explosively, as in Orixa japonica. METHODS: The fruit morphology was observed by hard tissue sectioning, scanning electron microscopy and micro-computed tomography, and the seed dispersal process was analysed using a high-speed camera...

Cathepsin D (cathD) is traditionally regarded as a lysosomal protease that degrades substrates in acidic compartments. Here we report cathD plays an unconventional role as a cofilin phosphatase orchestrating actin remodeling. In neutral pH environments, the cathD precursor directly dephosphorylates and activates the actin-severing protein cofilin independent of its proteolytic activity, whereas mature cathD degrades cofilin in acidic pH conditions. During development, cathD complements the canonical cofilin phosphatase slingshot and regulates the morphogenesis of actin-based structures...

We propose a mechanism to generate a single intense circularly polarized attosecond x-ray pulse from the interaction of a circularly polarized relativistic few-cycle laser pulse with an ultrathin foil at normal incidence. Analytical modeling and particle-in-cell simulation demonstrate that a huge charge-separation field can be produced when all the electrons are displaced from the target by the incident laser, resulting in a high-quality relativistic electron mirror that propagates against the tail of the laser pulse...

Actin-depolymerization factor (ADF)/cofilin, a family of actin-binding proteins, are critical for the regulation of actin reorganization in response to various signals. Accumulating evidence indicates that ADF/cofilin also play important roles in neuronal structure and function, including long-term potentiation and depression. These are the most extensively studied forms of long-lasting synaptic plasticity and are widely regarded as cellular mechanisms underlying learning and memory. ADF/cofilin regulate synaptic function through their effects on dendritic spines and the trafficking of glutamate receptors, the principal mediator of excitatory synaptic transmission in vertebrates...

BACKGROUND: Angiogenesis is a critical step in the growth of pancreatic neuroendocrine tumors (PNETs) and may be a selective target for PNET therapy. However, PNETs are robustly resistant to current anti-angiogenic therapies that primarily target the VEGFR pathway. Thus, the mechanism of PNET angiogenesis urgently needs to be clarified. METHODS: Dataset analysis was used to identify angiogenesis-related genes in PNETs. Immunohistochemistry was performed to determine the relationship among Neuropilin 2 (NRP2), VEGFR2 and CD31...

No abstract text is available yet for this article.