College Enrolment Expansion policies have been implemented in China since 1999. Unfortunately, numbers of qualified teachers and the amount of educational funds input have not caught up with the pace of student intake. Even the curricula taught in colleges are outdated and work practice programmes are inefficient. As a result, new college graduates cannot meet the requirements of firms they wish to work for. Many graduates work in unskilled job positions with low pay. They are called the 'Ant tribe'. We estimate that the accumulative number of persons in 'Ant tribes' had exceeded 3 million by 2010, and the corresponding cost to China's annual GDP was over 0.22% in respect of effective labour input. Improvement in quality should take priority during the expansion of higher education.
As an important component of wearable and stretchable strain sensors, dual-mode strain sensors can respond to deformation via optical/electrical dual-signal changes, which have important applications in human motion monitoring. However, realizing a fiber-shaped dual-mode strain sensor that can work stably in real life remains a challenge. Here, we design an interactive dual-mode fiber strain sensor with both mechanochromic and mechanoelectrical functions that can be applied to a variety of different environments. The dual-mode fiber is produced by coating a transparent elastic conductive layer onto photonic fiber composed of silica particles and elastic rubber. The sensor has visualized dynamic color change, a large strain range (0−80%), and a high sensitivity (1.90). Compared to other dual-mode strain sensors based on the photonic elastomer, our sensor exhibits a significant advantage in strain range. Most importantly, it can achieve reversible and stable optical/electrical dual-signal outputs in response to strain under various environmental conditions. As a wearable portable device, the dual-mode fiber strain sensor can be used for real-time monitoring of human motion, realizing the direct interaction between users and devices, and is expected to be used in fields such as smart wearable, human−machine interactions, and health monitoring.
The aim of this study was to investigate whether HUCMSCs
Wnt10b
could promote long bone fracture healing. Commercially-available HUCMSCs
Emp
(human umbilical cord mesenchymal stem cells transfected with empty vector) in hydrogel, HUCMSCs
Wnt10b
in hydrogel and HUCMSCs
Wnt10b
with the Wnt signaling pathway inhibitor IWR-1 were transplanted into the fracture site in a rat model of femoral fracture. We found that transplantation of HUCMSCs
Wnt10b
significantly accelerated bone healing in a rat model of femoral fracture. Meanwhile, three-point bending test proved that the mechanical properties of the bone at the fracture site in the HUCMSC
Wnt10b
treatment group were significantly better than those of the other treatment groups. To understand the cellular mechanism, we explored the viability of periosteal stem cells (PSCs), as they contribute the greatest number of osteoblast lineage cells to the callus. In line with
in vivo
data, we found that conditioned medium from HUCMSCs
Wnt10b
enhanced the migration and osteogenic differentiation of PSCs. Furthermore, conditioned medium from HUCMSCs
Wnt10b
also induced endothelial cells to form capillary-like structures in a tube formation assay, which was blocked by
SU5416
, an angiogenesis inhibitor, suggesting that enhanced vessel formation and growth also contribute to accelerated hard callus formation. In summary, our study demonstrates that HUCMSCs
Wnt10b
promote fracture healing via accelerated hard callus formation, possibly due to enhanced osteogenic differentiation of PSCs and vessel growth. Therefore, HUCMSCs
Wnt10b
may be a promising treatment for long bone fractures.
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