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Stem cells hold promise for treating hair loss. Here an in vitro mouse model was developed using outer root sheaths (ORSs) isolated from hair follicles for studying stem cell-mediated dermal papillary regeneration.

Sustainable management of the water–energy–food (WEF) nexus remains an urgent challenge, as interactions between WEF and human sensitivity and reservoir operation in the water system are typically neglected. This study proposes a new approach for modeling the WEF nexus by incorporating human sensitivity and reservoir operation into the system. The co-evolution behaviors of the nexus across water, energy, food, and society (WEFS) were simulated using the system dynamic model. Reservoir operation was simulated to determine the water supply for energy and food systems by the Interactive River–Aquifer Simulation water resources allocation model. Shortage rates for water, energy, and food resulting from the simulations were used to qualify their impacts on the WEFS nexus through environmental awareness in society. Human sensitivity indicated by environmental awareness can then adjust the co-evolution behaviors of the WEFS nexus through feedback loops. The proposed approach was applied to the mid–lower reaches of the Hanjiang River basin in China as a case study. Results indicate that environmental awareness shows the potential to capture human sensitivity to shortages from water, energy, and food systems. Parameters related to boundary conditions and critical values can dominate environmental awareness feedback to regulate socioeconomic expansion to maintain the integrated system from constant resource shortages. The annual average energy shortage rate thereby decreased from 17.16 % to 5.80 % by taking environmental awareness feedback, which contributes to the sustainability of the WEFS nexus. Rational water resources allocation can ensure water supply through reservoir operation. The annual average water shortage rate decreased from 15.89 % to 7.20 % as water resources allocation was considered. Threats from water shortage on the concordant development of the WEFS nexus are significantly alleviated, particularly for the area with a limited regulating capacity for the water project. Therefore, this study contributes to the understanding of interactions across the WEFS systems and helps in improving the efficiency of resource management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The water–energy–food–society (WEFS) nexus is profiled for sustainable development. The WEFS nexus exhibits strong uncertainty owing to the stochasticity of model structure, and water availability uncertainty under climate change and human activities. The WEFS nexus remains highly risky, as the uncertainty propagation in the WEFS nexus under the regulation of water resources allocation has rarely been investigated. In this study, white Gaussian noises were integrated into a system dynamic model for the WEFS nexus simulation, transforming the nexus from deterministic to stochastic. Based on a Monte Carlo simulation of the stochastic WEFS nexus with water availability uncertainty, the copula function was applied to evaluate the joint distributions between water availability and water shortage rates in the upstream and downstream zones to investigate the uncertainty propagation in the WEFS nexus. The effects of water resources allocation on the uncertainty propagation were analyzed by setting different water resources allocation schemes. The proposed approach was applied to the mid–lower reaches of Hanjiang River basin in China as a case study. The results indicate that an effective water resources allocation scheme can ensure water supply, and diminish the impacts of water availability uncertainty on water supply through reservoir operation. The annual average water supply rate increased from 84.74% to 93.45%, and the standard deviation decreased from 3.37% to 1.78%. The high-level environmental awareness evoked by water or food shortages decreased significantly with smaller uncertainty. The co-evolution of the WEFS was ensured through its nexus. Water storage capacity was the vital factor to regulate the uncertainty propagation in the WEFS nexus. The impacts of upstream water availability uncertainty were efficiently regulated via reservoir operation for the zones with sufficient water storage capacity. Water supply was ensured and there was no significant response of the WEFS through its nexus to different water resources allocation schemes. If there was few water storage capacity in a zone, the water supply was remarkably influenced by the water availability uncertainty in the upstream zone. The water supply was difficult to ensure, and was sensitive to different water resources allocation schemes. The environmental awareness evoked by water or food shortages increased. The environmental awareness feedback under the impacts of the noises increased water demand uncertainty by altering the socioeconomic expansion, further increased WEFS uncertainty through its nexus, particularly when water availability was much smaller than water demand. The proposed approach can help quantify the effects of water resources allocation on the uncertainty propagation in the WEFS nexus and contribute to the sustainable development of the WEFS nexus. • Water availability uncertainty is the primary source of WEFS nexus uncertainty. • Model structure uncertainty alters WEFS nexus through environmental awareness feedback. • Water resources allocation decreases WEFS nexus uncertainty by ensuring water supply through reservoir operation. • Large water storage capacity alleviates uncertainty propagation from upstream zone. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Syringin, a phenylpropanoid glycoside, is widely distributed in various plants, such as Acanthopanax senticosus (Rupr. et Maxim.) Harms, Syringa reticulata (BL) Hara var. mandshurica (Maxim.) Hara, and Ilex rotunda Thumb. It serves as the main ingredient in numerous listed medicines, health products, and foods with immunomodulatory, anti-tumor, antihyperglycemic, and antihyperlipidemic effects. This review aims to systematically summarize syringin, including its physicochemical properties, plant sources, extraction and separation methods, total synthesis approaches, pharmacological activities, drug safety profiles, and preparations and applications. It will also cover the pharmacokinetics of syringin, followed by suggestions for future application prospects. The information on syringin was obtained from internationally recognized scientific databases through the Internet (PubMed, CNKI, Google Scholar, Baidu Scholar, Web of Science, Medline Plus, ACS Elsevier, and Flora of China) and libraries. Syringin, extraction and separation, pharmacological activities, preparations and applications, and pharmacokinetics were chosen as the keywords. According to statistics, syringin can be found in 23 families more than 60 genera, and over 100 species of plants. As a key component in many Chinese herbal medicines, syringin holds significant research value due to its unique sinapyl alcohol structure. Its diverse pharmacological effects include immunomodulatory activity, tumor suppression, hypoglycemic action, and hypolipidemic effects. Additionally, it has been shown to provide neuroprotection, liver protection, radiation protection, cardioprotection, and bone protection. Related preparations such as Aidi injection, compound cantharidin capsule, and Tanreqing injection have been widely used in clinical settings. Other studies on syringin such as extraction and isolation, total synthesis, safety profile assessment, and pharmacokinetics have also made progress. It is crucial for medical research to deeply explore its mechanism of action, especially regarding immunity and tumor therapy. Meanwhile, more robust support is needed to improve the utilization of plant resources and to develop extraction means adapted to the needs of industrial biochemistry to further promote economic development while protecting people's health., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2024 Qian, Pan, Yang, Wang, Luo, Wu, Ma, Wang, Li and Gao.)