Bennett and Joykutty test whether growth hormone directly or indirectly affected the rate at which cartilage renewed itself. Growth hormone could exert a direct effect on cartilage or chondrocytes by modifying the expression of different genes, whereas an indirect effect would come from growth hormone stimulating insulin-like growth factor. The results from this research support the hypothesis that growth hormone increases proliferation rate using the direct pathway. This research can be used in the medical sciences for people who suffer from joint damage and other cartilage-related diseases, since the results demonstrated conditions that lead to increased proliferation of chondrocytes. These combined results could be applied in a clinical setting with the goal of allowing patient cartilage to renew itself at a faster pace, therefore keeping those patients out of pain from these chondrocyte-related diseases.

The authors tested environmentally-friendly alternatives to wastewater treatment chemicals, including activated charcoal for filtration and citrus peels for preventing bacterial growth.

Plastic pollution and energy shortages are pressing issues in today’s world. The authors examined whether waste plastic pyrolysis fuels are similar to conventional diesel and, thus, a plausible alternative fuel. Results showed that waste plastic pyrolysis fuels did not match up to diesel overall, though several fuels came close in calorific value.

Stem cells are at the forefront of research in regenerative medicine and cell therapy. Two essential properties of stem cells are self-renewal and potency, having the ability to specialize into different types of cells. Here, Park and Jeong took advantage of previously identified stem cell transcription factors associated with potency to differentiate umbilical cord mesenchymal stem cells (US-MSCs) from morphologically similar fibroblasts. Western blot analysis of the transcription factors Klf4, Nanog, and Sox2 revealed their expression was unique to US-MSCs providing insight for future methods of differentiating between these cell lines.

One largely untapped source of clean energy is the use of osmotic gradients where freshwater and saltwater are mixed, for example at estuaries. To harness such energy, charge-selective membranes are needed to separate the anions and cations in saltwater, establishing an electric potential like a battery. The objective of this study was twofold: to investigate the creation of the polymer matrix and test the properties of boron nitride nanotubes, as both are essential in the creation of an ion-selective membrane. Out of three polymer samples tested in this study, the mixture known as Soltech 704 showed the best resistance to etching, as well as the highest UV cure rate.

Here, seeking to develop more efficient solar cells, the authors investigated photo-electrochemical (PEC) solar cells, specifically molybdenum diselenide (MoSe₂) based on its high resistance to corrosion. They found that the percentage efficiency of these PEC solar cells was proportional to light intensity^–0.9 and that performance was positively influenced by increasing the electrolyte volume. They suggest that studies such as these can lead to new insight into reaction-based solar cells.

In this article, Choi and Rossitto investigated the limitations of virtual learning by examining in-person dance learning compared to virtual dance learning while wearing EEG headsets. They found that in-person learners outperformed virtual learners and that virtual learners had higher mirror neuron activity as assessed by Mu rhythm power.

The energy of an atom is extremely useful in nuclear physics and reaction mechanism pathway determination but is challenging to compute. This work aimed to synthesize regression models for Pople Gaussian expansions of Slater-type Orbitals (STO-nG) atomic energy vs. atomic number scatter plots to allow for easy approximation of atomic energies without using computational chemistry methods. The data indicated that of the regressions, sinusoidal regressions most aptly modeled the scatter plots.

The authors designed a system that runs off of body heat to track body temperature that could help prevent injuries that result from elevated body temperature.

The authors test potential anti-inflammatory and pro-apoptotic effects of a polyherbal extract formulation on cultured breast cancer cells.