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Optical strain measurement system based on three-dimension digital image correlation (3D-DIC) has been employed for postgraduate experiment teaching in the advanced experiment mechanics, and several research-oriented experiments have been designed and developed. This paper presents a typical experiment. The tensile elastic modulus of aluminum cylindrical specimens with through-hole was measured and the hole-edge strain concentration was observed directly. Furthermore, the elastic modulus of aluminum specimens performed by the proposed 3D-DIC system was carefully compared with this obtained by strain gage. The agreement between the two measurements was good. The experimental results demonstrated that the optical technique used for the measurement of elastic modulus of various material specimens was simple yet effective, hence, the high accuracy of 3D-DIC system was verified. More importantly, the optical technique provided a new study routine for the strain and displacement measurement of the specimens that cannot be measured by conventional contact methods. This high-accuracy 3D-DIC system can accomplish the three-dimension displacement and strain field contactlessly and visually. It was used in postgraduate experiment teaching. The result showed that the experiment can further enhance the capacity for scientific research and innovation and broaden the horizon of the students. And it makes postgraduates deeply understand and master the knowledge of mechanics and advanced measurement methods in the field of mechanics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cytoskeletal microtubule rearrangement and movement are crucial in the repair of spinal cord injury. Spastin plays an important role in the regulation of microtubule severing. Both spastin and collapsin response mediator proteins can regulate neurite growth and branching; however, whether spastin interacts with collapsin response mediator protein 3 (CRMP3) during this process remains unclear, as is the mechanism by which CRMP3 participates in the repair of spinal cord injury. In this study, we used a proteomics approach to identify key proteins associated with spinal cord injury repair. We then employed liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry to identify proteins that were able to interact with glutathione S-transferase-spastin. Then, co-immunoprecipitation and staining approaches were used to evaluate potential interactions between spastin and CRMP3. Finally, we co-transfected primary hippocampal neurons with CRMP3 and spastin to evaluate their role in neurite outgrowth. Mass spectrometry identified the role of CRMP3 in the spinal cord injury repair process. Liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry pulldown assays identified three CRMP3 peptides that were able to interact with spastin. CRMP3 and spastin were co-expressed in the spinal cord and were able to interact with one another in vitro and in vivo. Lastly, CRMP3 overexpression was able to enhance the ability of spastin to promote neurite growth and branching. Therefore, our results confirm that spastin and CRMP3 play roles in spinal cord injury repair by regulating neurite growth and branching. These proteins may therefore be novel targets for spinal cord injury repair. The Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee of Jinan University, China approved this study (approval No. IACUS-20181008-03) on October 8, 2018., Competing Interests: None

Background: In this study, we evaluated the performance of a point-of-care device, the CoaguChek XS Plus system, in the determination of prothrombin time and international normalized ratio (INR) based on ISO17593: 2007 criteria in Taiwanese patients. The underlying clinical and genetic factors were also investigated., Methods: Fifty patients receiving warfarin therapy were enrolled in this study. The accuracy of the CoaguChek XS Plus system was evaluated with linear regression analysis and bias plot by comparing with the data measured using Sysmex CA-1500. The clinical and genetic factors that may have caused a bias of ΃ 0.5 INR were evaluated with Fisher's exact test., Results: From the 50 patients, 93 INR values were collected by each method. Linear regression analysis indicated a high correlation with r = 0.96, a slope of 1.05, and an intercept of - 0.14. Eight patients showed an INR bias ≥0.5 between the two methods. Only aspartate aminotransferase (AST) >34 U/L (3/8, 37.5% vs. 3/42, 7.1%; p = 0.044) and alanine aminotransferase (ALT) >36 U/L (3/8, 37.5% vs. 3/42, 7.1%; p = 0.044) were significantly different from each other. No differences were observed for hypoalbuminemia, elevated creatinine, anemia, and the polymorphisms of VKORC1 and CYP2C9., Conclusions: The CoaguChek XS Plus system presented results that were comparable with those obtained using laboratory CA-1500 method. Both methods fell within INR in the range of 2-4.5 defined by ISO17593:2007 and the clinically recognized therapeutic INR range of 2-3.5. Elevated AST and ALT levels might have interfered with the INR results.