Homeostatic regulation of brain functions by endocannabinoid signaling

Humans have been using Cannabis and its extracts for a few thousand years as a medicinal and recreational drug. How- ever, the chemical component in Cannabis sativa, △9-tet- rahydrocannabinol （△9-THC）, an exogenous cannabinoid, remained unknown until it was isolated and identified as the main psychoactive ingredient （Gaoni and Mechoulam, 1964）.

TLR signaling that induces weak inflammatory response and SHIP1 enhances osteogenic functions

Toll-like receptor （TLR）-mediated inflammatory response could negatively affect bone metabolism. In this study, we determined how osteogenesis is regulated during inflammatory responses that are downstream of TLR signaling. Human primary osteoblasts were cultured in collagen gels. Pam3CSK4 （P3C） and Escherichia coli lipopolysaccharide （EcLPS） were used as TLR2 and TLR4 ligand respectively. Porphyromonas gingivalis LPS having TLR2 activity with either TLR4 agonism （Pg1690） or TLR4 antagonism （Pg1449） and mutant E. coli LPS （LPxE/LPxF/WSK） were used. IL-lp, SH2-containing inositol phosphatase-1 （SHIP1） that has regulatory roles in osteogenesis, alkaline phosphatase and mineralization were analyzed. 3α-Aminocholestane （3AC） was used to inhibit SHIP1. Our results suggest that osteoblasts stimulated by P3C, poorly induced IL-1β but strongly upregulated SHIP1 and enhanced osteogenic mediators. On the contrary, EcLPS significantly induced IL-1β and osteogenic mediators were not induced. While Pg1690 downmodulated osteogenic mediators, Pg1449 enhanced osteogenic responses, suggesting that TLR4 signaling annuls osteogenesis even with TLR2 activity. Interestingly, mutant E. coli LPS that induces weak inflammation upregulated osteogenesis, but SHIP1 was not induced. Moreover, inhibiting SHIP1 significantly upregulated TLR2-mediated inflammatory response and downmodulated osteogenesis. In conclusion, these results suggest that induction of weak inflammatory response through TLR2 （with SHIP1 activity） and mutant TLR4 ligands could enhance osteogenesis.

Effect of electroacupuncture on the mRNA and protein expression of Rho-A and Rho-associated kinase Ⅱ in spinal cord injury rats

Electroacupuncture is beneficial for the recovery of spinal cord injury, but the underlying mechanism is unclear. The Rho/Rho-associated kinase（ROCK） signaling pathway regulates the actin cytoskeleton by controlling the adhesive and migratory behaviors of cells that could inhibit neurite regrowth after neural injury and consequently hinder the recovery from spinal cord injury. Therefore, we hypothesized electroacupuncture could affect the Rho/ROCK signaling pathway to promote the recovery of spinal cord injury. In our experiments, the spinal cord injury in adult Sprague-Dawley rats was caused by an impact device. Those rats were subjected to electroacupuncture at Yaoyangguan（GV3）, Dazhui（GV14）, Zusanli（ST36） and Ciliao（BL32） and/or monosialoganglioside treatment. Behavioral scores revealed that the hindlimb motor functions improved with those treatments. Real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction, fluorescence in situ hybridization and western blot assay showed that electroacupuncture suppressed the m RNA and protein expression of Rho-A and Rho-associated kinase Ⅱ（ROCKⅡ） of injured spinal cord. Although monosialoganglioside promoted the recovery of hindlimb motor function, monosialoganglioside did not affect the expression of Rho-A and ROCKⅡ. However, electroacupuncture combined with monosialoganglioside did not further improve the motor function or suppress the expression of Rho-A and ROCKⅡ. Our data suggested that the electroacupuncture could specifically inhibit the activation of the Rho/ROCK signaling pathway thus partially contributing to the repair of injured spinal cord. Monosialoganglioside could promote the motor function but did not suppress expression of Rho A and ROCKⅡ. There was no synergistic effect of electroacupuncture combined with monosialoganglioside.

Axonal remodeling in the corticospinal tract after stroke： how does rehabilitative training modulate it？

Stroke causes long-term disability, and rehabilitative training is commonly used to improve the consecutive functional recovery. Following brain damage, surviving neurons undergo morphological alterations to reconstruct the remaining neural network. In the motor system, such neural network remodeling is observed as a motor map reorganization. Because of its significant correlation with functional recovery, motor map reorganization has been regarded as a key phenomenon for functional recovery after stroke. Although the mechanism underlying motor map reorganization remains unclear, increasing evidence has shown a critical role for axonal remodeling in the corticospinal tract. In this study, we review previous studies investigating axonal remodeling in the corticospinal tract after stroke and discuss which mechanisms may underlie the stimulatory effect of rehabilitative training. Axonal remodeling in the corticospinal tract can be classified into three types based on the location and the original targets of corticospinal neurons, and it seems that all the surviving corticospinal neurons in both ipsilesional and contralesional hemisphere can participate in axonal remodeling and motor map reorganization. Through axonal remodeling, corticospinal neurons alter their output selectivity from a single to multiple areas to compensate for the lost function. The remodeling of the corticospinal axon is influenced by the extent of tissue destruction and promoted by various therapeutic interventions, including rehabilitative training. Although the precise molecular mechanism underlying rehabilitation-promoted axonal remodeling remains elusive, previous data suggest that rehabilitative training promotes axonal remodeling by upregulating growth-promoting and downregulating growth-inhibiting signals.

DOA estimation method for wideband signals by block sparse reconstruction

For the direction of arrival（DOA） estimation,traditional sparse reconstruction methods for wideband signals usually need many iteration times.For this problem,a new method for two-dimensional wideband signals based on block sparse reconstruction is proposed.First,a prolate spheroidal wave function（PSWF） is used to fit the wideband signals,then the block sparse reconstruction technology is employed for DOA estimation.The proposed method uses orthogonalization to choose the matching atoms,ensuring that the residual components correspond to the minimum absolute value.Meanwhile,the vectors obtained by iteration are back-disposed according to the corresponding atomic matching rules,so the extra atoms are abandoned in the course of iteration,and the residual components of current iteration are reduced.Thus the original sparse signals are reconstructed.The proposed method reduces iteration times comparing with the traditional reconstruction methods,and the estimation precision is better than the classical two-sided correlation transformation（TCT）algorithm when the snapshot is small or the signal-to-noise ratio（SNR） is low.

Light hybrid micro/nano-robots:From propulsion to functional signals

Untethered motile micro/nanorobots(MNRs)that can operate in hard-to-reach small space and perform noninvasive tasks in cellular level hold bright future in healthcare,nanomanufacturing,biosensing,and environmental remediation.Light,as a flexible encoding method with tunable freedom of intensity,wavelength,polarization,and propagation direction,endows unique spatialtemporal precision and dexterity to the manipulation of MNRs.Meanwhile,light has been extensively investigated as functional signals in bioimaging,phototherapy,as well as photoelectrochemical reactions.The hybridization of light and other actuation method ushers in novel MNRs with broadened design space,improved controllability,and advanced functionality.In this review,the fundamental mechanisms of light-driven MNRs will be revisited.On top of it,light hybrid systems,coupling with magnetic,electric,chemical,or ultrasound field,will be reviewed,with light for propulsion or as functional signal.The rational hybridization of multiple stimulus in MNRs not only promises simple combination of two driving forces,but more importantly,motivates rethinking of light-driven MNRs for unprecedented applications.

Extracting outer function part from Hardy space function

Any analytic signal fa(e^(it)) can be written as a product of its minimum-phase signal part(the outer function part) and its all-phase signal part(the inner function part). Due to the importance of such decomposition, Kumarasan and Rao(1999), implementing the idea of the Szeg?o limit theorem(see below),proposed an algorithm to obtain approximations of the minimum-phase signal of a polynomial analytic signal fa(e^(it)) = e^(iN0t)M∑k=0a_k^(eikt),(0.1)where a_0≠ 0, a_M≠ 0. Their method involves minimizing the energy E(f_a, h_1, h_2,..., h_H) =1/(2π)∫_0^(2π)|1+H∑k=1h_k^(eikt)|~2|fa(e^(it))|~2dt(0.2) with the undetermined complex numbers hk's by the least mean square error method. In the limiting procedure H →∞, one obtains approximate solutions of the minimum-phase signal. What is achieved in the present paper is two-fold. On one hand, we rigorously prove that, if fa(e^(it)) is a polynomial analytic signal as given in(0.1),then for any integer H≥M, and with |fa(e^(it))|~2 in the integrand part of(0.2) being replaced with 1/|fa(e^(it))|~2,the exact solution of the minimum-phase signal of fa(e^(it)) can be extracted out. On the other hand, we show that the Fourier system e^(ikt) used in the above process may be replaced with the Takenaka-Malmquist(TM) system, r_k(e^(it)) :=((1-|α_k|~2e^(it))/(1-α_ke^(it))^(1/2)∏_(j=1)^(k-1)(e^(it)-α_j/(1-α_je^(it))^(1/2), k = 1, 2,..., r_0(e^(it)) = 1, i.e., the least mean square error method based on the TM system can also be used to extract out approximate solutions of minimum-phase signals for any functions f_a in the Hardy space. The advantage of the TM system method is that the parameters α_1,..., α_n,...determining the system can be adaptively selected in order to increase computational efficiency. In particular,adopting the n-best rational(Blaschke form) approximation selection for the n-tuple {α_1,..., α_n}, n≥N, where N is the degree of the given rational analytic signal, the minimum-phase part of a rational analytic signal can be accurately and efficiently extracted out.