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1. Tissue topography steers migrating Drosophila border cells

   https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aaz4741  

   Dai, Wei; Guo, Xiaoran; Cao, Yuansheng; Mondo, James A.; Campanale, Joseph P.; Montell, Brandon J.; Burrous, Haley; Streichan, Sebastian; Gov, Nir; Rappel, Wouter-Jan; et al (November 2020, Science)

   Moving cells can sense and respond to physical features of the microenvironment; however, in vivo, the significance of tissue topography is mostly unknown. Here, we usedDrosophilaborder cells, an established model for in vivo cell migration, to study how chemical and physical information influences path selection. Although chemical cues were thought to be sufficient, live imaging, genetics, modeling, and simulations show that microtopography is also important. Chemoattractants promote predominantly posterior movement, whereas tissue architecture presents orthogonal information, a path of least resistance concentrated near the center of the egg chamber. E-cadherin supplies a permissive haptotactic cue. Our results provide insight into how cells integrate and prioritize topographical, adhesive, and chemoattractant cues to choose one path among many. 

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2. Enhanced cycling performance of bilayered vanadium oxide cathode in Li-ion batteries via dual metal-ion preintercalation

   https://doi.org/10.1039/D5TA00673B  

   Zhang, Xinle; Pomerantseva, Ekaterina (April 2025, Journal of Materials Chemistry A)

   The simultaneous chemical preintercalation of Li⁺and Mg²⁺ions into the interlayer region of bilayered vanadium oxide synergistically enhances its cycling performance in Li-ion cells by improving Li⁺diffusion and increasing structural stability. 

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3. The C. elegans uv1 Neuroendocrine Cells Provide Mechanosensory Feedback of Vulval Opening

   https://doi.org/10.1523/JNEUROSCI.0678-24.2024  

   Yan, Lijie; Claman, Alexander; Bode, Addys; Collins, Kevin_M (January 2025, The Journal of Neuroscience)

   Neuroendocrine cells react to physical, chemical, and synaptic signals originating from tissues and the nervous system, releasing hormones that regulate various body functions beyond the synapse. Neuroendocrine cells are often embedded in complex tissues making direct tests of their activation mechanisms and signaling effects difficult to study. In the nematode wormCaenorhabditis elegans, four uterine-vulval (uv1) neuroendocrine cells sit above the vulval canal next to the egg-laying circuit, releasing tyramine and neuropeptides that feedback to inhibit egg laying. We have previously shown uv1 cells are mechanically deformed during egg laying, driving uv1 Ca²⁺transients. However, whether egg-laying circuit activity, vulval opening, and/or egg release triggered uv1 Ca²⁺activity was unclear. Here, we show uv1 responds directly to mechanical activation. Optogenetic vulval muscle stimulation triggers uv1 Ca²⁺activity following muscle contraction even in sterile animals. Direct mechanical prodding with a glass probe placed against the worm cuticle triggers robust uv1 Ca²⁺activity similar to that seen during egg laying. Direct mechanical activation of uv1 cells does not require other cells in the egg-laying circuit, synaptic or peptidergic neurotransmission, or transient receptor potential vanilloid and Piezo channels. EGL-19 L-type Ca²⁺channels, but not P/Q/N-type or ryanodine receptor Ca²⁺channels, promote uv1 Ca²⁺activity following mechanical activation. L-type channels also facilitate the coordinated activation of uv1 cells across the vulva, suggesting mechanical stimulation of one uv1 cell cross-activates the other. Our findings show how neuroendocrine cells like uv1 report on the mechanics of tissue deformation and muscle contraction, facilitating feedback to local circuits to coordinate behavior. 

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4. Cold atmospheric plasma cancer treatment, direct versus indirect approaches

   https://doi.org/10.1039/D0MA00329H  

   Malyavko, Alisa; Yan, Dayun; Wang, Qihui; Klein, Andrea L.; Patel, Khyati C.; Sherman, Jonathan H.; Keidar, Michael (September 2020, Materials Advances)

   null (Ed.)

   Cold atmospheric plasma (CAP), an ionized gas with near room temperature, shows a wide application in medicine. CAP is a tunable source of complex chemical components including many reactive species, which allows CAP to exert many biological effects on bacterial, fungal, yeast, and mammalian cells particularly cancer cells. In this review, we discuss the novel state of the art CAP-based cancer treatment. We focus on the comparison between the direct CAP treatment and the indirect CAP treatment which implements the use of CAP-activated solutions. The difference between the two treatment strategies reveals two unique features of the biological response to CAP: the cell-based H 2 O 2 generation and the activation phenomenon. Short-lived reactive species and physical factors from plasma may trigger these two cellular responses. 

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5. Similarities behind the high- and low- α disc: small intrinsic abundance scatter and migrating stars

   https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stac610  

   Lu, Yuxi; Ness, Melissa K.; Buck, Tobias; Zinn, Joel C.; Johnston, Kathryn V. (March 2022, Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society)

   ABSTRACT The detailed age-chemical abundance relations of stars measure time-dependent chemical evolution. These trends offer strong empirical constraints on nucleosynthetic processes, as well as the homogeneity of star-forming gas. Characterizing chemical abundances of stars across the Milky Way over time has been made possible very recently, thanks to surveys like Gaia, APOGEE, and Kepler. Studies of the low-α disc have shown that individual elements have unique age–abundance trends and the intrinsic dispersion around these relations is small. In this study, we examine and compare the age distribution of stars across both the high and low-α disc and quantify the intrinsic dispersion of 16 elements around their age–abundance relations at [Fe/H] = 0 using APOGEE DR16. We examine the age–metallicity relation and visualize the temporal and spatial distribution of disc stars in small chemical cells. We find: (1) the high-α disc has shallower age–abundance relations compared to the low-α disc, but similar median intrinsic dispersions of ∼0.03 dex; (2) turnover points in the age-[Fe/H] relations across radius for both the high- and low-α disc. The former constrains the mechanisms that set similar intrinsic dispersions, regardless of differences in the enrichment history, for stars in both disc, and the latter indicates the presence of radial migration in both disc. Our study is accompanied by an age catalogue for 64 317 stars in APOGEE derived using the cannon with a median uncertainty of 1.5 Gyr (26 per cent; APO-CAN stars), and a red clump catalogue of 22 031 stars with a contamination rate of 2.7 per cent. 

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