miR-27a Regulates Sheep Adipocyte Differentiation by Targeting CPT1B Gene

MiRNAs are vital regulators and play a major role in cell differentiation, biological development, and disease occurrence. In recent years, many studies have found that miRNAs are involved in the proliferation and differentiation of adipocytes. The objective of this study was to evaluate the effect of miR-27a and its target gene CPT1B on ovine preadipocytes differentiation in Small-tailed Han sheep (Ovis aries). Down-regulation of miR-27a significantly promoted the production of lipid droplets, while overexpression of miR-27a led to a reduction in lipid droplet production. In addition, inhibition of miR-27a led to a significant increase in the expression of genes involved in lipid synthesis, including PPAR γ, SCD, LPL, and FABP4. Target Scan software predicted that CPT1B is a new potential target gene of miR-27a. Further experiments revealed that CPT1B gene expression and protein levels were negatively correlated with miR-27a expression. Overexpression of miR-27a led to a significant decrease in CPT1B mRNA levels and inhibited the accumulation of lipid droplets and vice versa. Moreover, overexpression of CPT1B promoted the synthesis of lipid droplets in ovine preadipocytes. Furthermore, luciferase reporter assays confirmed CPT1B to be a miR-27a direct target gene. This study confirmed that miR-27a increases the expression of genes related to lipid synthesis in ovine preadipocytes by targeting CPT1B, thereby promoting the synthesis of lipid droplets. The results of this study can be used to be exploited in devising novel approaches for improving the IMF content of sheep.

Spatiotemporal droplet dispersion measurements demonstrate face masks reduce risks from singing

COVID-19 has restricted singing in communal worship. We sought to understand variations in droplet transmission and the impact of wearing face masks. Using rapid laser planar imaging, we measured droplets while participants exhaled, said ‘hello’ or ‘snake’, sang a note or ‘Happy Birthday’, with and without surgical face masks. We measured mean velocity magnitude (MVM), time averaged droplet number (TADN) and maximum droplet number (MDN). Multilevel regression models were used. In 20 participants, sound intensity was 71 dB for speaking and 85 dB for singing (p < 0.001). MVM was similar for all tasks with no clear hierarchy between vocal tasks or people and > 85% reduction wearing face masks. Droplet transmission varied widely, particularly for singing. Masks decreased TADN by 99% (p < 0.001) and MDN by 98% (p < 0.001) for singing and 86–97% for other tasks. Masks reduced variance by up to 48%. When wearing a mask, neither singing task transmitted more droplets than exhaling. In conclusion, wide variation exists for droplet production. This significantly reduced when wearing face masks. Singing during religious worship wearing a face mask appears as safe as exhaling or talking. This has implications for UK public health guidance during the COVID-19 pandemic.

2019-Ncov - Controls and Routes of Transmission in Dental Practice

BACK GR O U ND Since the emergence of nCoV-19, till date it has affected several countries. This disease which is now called COVID-19 [(termed by World Health Organization (WHO)] is caused by a novel coronavirus, labelled as severe acute respiratoy syndrome-Coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) (termed by International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses). Belonging to the family of Coronaviridae, of the order Nidovirales, it comprises of large, solitary, plus-stranded ribo nucleic acid (RNA) in their genome. The 2019-nCoV explored in Wuhan belongs to the β-CoV according to the phylogenetic analysis based on the viral genome, and it chiefly infects the respiratory, gastrointestinal, and central nervous system of humans and mammals. Its primary means of spread is either directly or indirectly by the means of droplets via the respiratory tract and fomites respectively. The most common routinely used instruments in the field of dentistry include airotors in the form of rotatory instruments and other surgical instruments. In the meantime, these instruments produce aerosols in the form of both larger and smaller droplets which generally consist of saliva, blood, microorganisms and other debris. Therefore due to possible aerosol and droplet production in the dental profession, nCoV-19 poses a significant risk of infection transmission. To combat nCoV-19, it is essential for a dental clinician to finely tune the protective approaches by concentrating towards the patient safety, personal protective gear and maintaining the hand hygiene. In addition to its modes of diffusion in dentistry, some other important themes like management of the patient, patient instructions and guidelines that a dentist should follow in day to day practice have been raised in this review. KEY WORDS 2019-nCov; Transmission; Dental Guidelines; Epidemiology

Spatiotemporal droplet dispersion measurements demonstrate face masks reduce risks from singing: results from the COvid aNd FacEmaSkS Study (CONFESS)

Background: COVID-19 has restricted singing in communal worship. We sought to understand variations in droplet transmission and the impact of wearing face masks. Methods: Using rapid laser planar imaging, we measured droplets while participants exhaled, said "hello" or "snake", sang a note or "Happy Birthday", with and without surgical face masks. We measured mean velocity magnitude (MVM), time averaged droplet number (TADN) and maximum droplet number (MDN). Multilevel regression models were used. Results: In 20 participants, sound intensity was 71 Decibels (dB) for speaking and 85 dB for singing (p<0.001). MVM was similar for all tasks with no clear hierarchy between vocal tasks or people and >85% reduction wearing face masks. Droplet transmission varied widely, particularly for singing. Masks decreased TADN by 99% (p<0.001) and MDN by 98% (p<0.001) for singing and 86-97% for other tasks. Masks reduced variance by up to 48%. When wearing a mask, neither singing task transmitted more droplets than exhaling. Conclusions: Wide variation exists for droplet production. This significantly reduced when wearing face masks. Singing during religious worship wearing a face mask appears as safe as exhaling or talking. This has implications for UK public health guidance during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Precise detection of the size of monodisperse droplets considering the fluctuations induced by the droplet generation process

For droplet microfluidics, the electrical-detection method which can precisely detect the size of monodisperse droplets is demonstrated in this paper. In a Flow-focusing microdroplet generator, three pairs of the microelectrodes are allocated along the microchannel, and during the passing-by process of each droplet, both the length, the velocity and the production speed of the droplets can be obtained from the experimental measurements of the time-varying capacitance between each pair of the microelectrodes. Particularly, for different geometries of the Flow-focusing microchannel, the method of the electrical-detection is validated experimentally over a wide range of the typical conditions of monodisperse droplet production. In addition, the droplet size measured by the electrical-detection method is compared with that by the method of image processing, and the detection precision of the electrical-detection method is verified experimentally. Most importantly, by calculating the root-mean-square value of the droplet lengths for three pairs of the microelectrodes, the detection precision of the droplet size can be increased drastically.

Water-in-water droplets by passive microfluidic flow focusing

We present a simple microfluidic system that generates water-in-water, aqueous two phase system (ATPS) droplets, by passive flow focusing. ATPS droplet formation is achieved by applying weak hydrostatic pressures, with liquid-filled pipette tips as fluid columns at the inlets, to introduce low speed flows to the flow focusing junction. To control the size of the droplets, we systematically vary the interfacial tension and viscosity of the ATPS fluids, and adjust the fluid column height at the fluid inlets. The size of the droplets scales with a power-law of the ratio of viscous stresses in the two ATPS phases. Overall, we find a drop size coefficient of variation (CV; i.e. polydispersity) of about 10 %. We also find that when drops form very close to the flow focusing junction, the drops have CV of less than 1 %. Our droplet generation method is easily scalable: we demonstrate a parallel system that generates droplets simultaneously, and improves the droplet production rate by up to one order-of-magnitude. Finally, we show the potential application of our system for encapsulating cells in water-in-water emulsions, by encapsulating microparticles and cells. To the best of our knowledge, our microfluidic technique is the first that forms low interfacial tension ATPS droplets without applying external perturbations. We anticipate that this simple approach will find utility in drug and cell delivery applications because of the all-biocompatible nature of the water-in-water ATPS environment.

The effect of high-speed dental handpiece coolant delivery and design on aerosol and droplet production

Objectives: High-speed dental instruments produce aerosol and droplets. The objective of this study was to evaluate aerosol and droplet production from a novel electric micromotor handpiece (without compressed air coolant) in real world clinical settings. Methods: 10-minute upper incisor crown preparations were performed in triplicate in an open-plan clinic with mechanical ventilation providing 3.45 air changes per hour. A 1:5 ratio electric micromotor handpiece which allows water coolant without compressed air (Ti-Max Z95L, NSK) was used at three speeds: 60,000 (60K), 120,000 (120K), and 200,000 (200K) revolutions per minute. Coolant solutions contained fluorescein sodium as a tracer (2.65 mmol L−1). High-speed air-turbine positive control, and negative control conditions were conducted. Aerosol production was evaluated at 3 locations (0.5 m, 1.5 m and 1.7 m) using: (1) an optical particle counter (OPC; 3016-IAQ, Lighthouse) to detect all aerosol; and (2) a liquid cyclone air sampler (BioSampler, SKC Ltd.) to detect aerosolised fluorescein, which was quantified by spectrofluorometric analysis. Settled droplets were detected by spectrofluorometric analysis of filter papers placed onto a rig across the open-plan clinic.Results: Local (within treatment bay) settled droplet contamination was elevated above negative control for all conditions, with no difference between conditions. Settled droplet contamination was not detected above negative controls outside the treatment bay for any condition. Aerosol detection at 1.5 m and 1.7 m, was only increased for the air-turbine positive control condition. At 0.5 m, aerosol levels were highly elevated for the air-turbine, minimally elevated for 200K and 120K, and not elevated for 60K. Conclusions: Electric micromotor handpieces which use water-jet coolant alone without compressed air, produce localised (within treatment bay) droplet contamination but are unlikely to produce aerosol contamination beyond the immediate treatment area (1.5 m), allowing them to be used safely in most open-plan clinic settings.