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This study has analysed the problems involved in obstacle avoidance in the presence of a vehicle in the neighbouring lane. Four cases, in which the velocity of the ego vehicle has been lesser or greater than the velocity of the vehicle in the neighbouring lane and the ego vehicle completes the lane change behind or ahead of the vehicle in the neighbouring lane, have been considered. The scenario of each case has been described and the inequality constraint for safe lane-change has been provided. A quintic polynomial has been used to generate the paths of the emergency lane change manoeuvre. A decision-making diagram has been first obtained by plotting the longitudinal distance required to avoid an obstacle in the travelling lane against the velocity of the ego vehicle at which the stopping or lane change manoeuvre is initiated. Then a second decision-making diagram has been obtained by plotting the initial longitudinal distance between the ego vehicle and the vehicle in the neighbouring lane against the velocity of the vehicle in the neighbouring lane for a given velocity of the ego vehicle. The obtained diagrams indicate regions in which collisions are unavoidable. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Little is known about how a non-Watson-Crick pair affects the RNA folding dynamics. We studied the effects of a U⋅U-to-U⋅C pair mutation on the folding of a hairpin in human telomerase RNA. The ensemble thermal melting of the hairpins shows an on-pathway intermediate with the disruption of the internal loop structure containing the U⋅U/U⋅C pairs. By using optical tweezers, we applied a stretching force on the terminal ends of the hairpins to probe directly the non-nearest-neighbour effects upon the mutations. The single U⋅U to U⋅C mutations are observed to 1) lower the mechanical unfolding force by approximately 1 picoNewton (pN) per mutation without affecting the unfolding reaction transition-state position (thus suggesting that removing a single hydrogen bond affects the structural dynamics at least two base pairs away), 2) result in more frequent misfolding into a small hairpin at approximately 10 pN and 3) shift the folding reaction transition-state position towards the native hairpin structure and slightly increase the mechanical folding kinetics (thus suggesting that untrapping from the misfolded state is not the rate-limiting step). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The cover picture shows the experimental setup for mechanical (un)folding of RNA hairpins using optical tweezers (not to scale). The contribution of a single hydrogen bond to RNA folding was directly revealed by nanomanipulation using optical tweezers. Disruption of a single hydrogen bond by the replacement of a single RNA U⋅U pair with a U⋅C pair results in an increase in the rate of mechanical unfolding and more frequent misfolding. Details are given in the Full Paper by Gang Chen et al. on page 1267. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Adipose-derived stem cells (ASCs) are considered a great alternative source of mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs). Unlike bone marrow stem cells (BMSCs), ASCs can be retrieved in high numbers from lipoaspirate, a by-product of liposuction procedures. Given that ASCs represent an easily accessible and abundant source of multipotent cells, ASCs have garnered attention and curiosity from both scientific and clinical communities for their potential in clinical applications. Furthermore, their unique immunobiology and secretome are attractive therapeutic properties. A decade since the discovery of a stem cell reservoir residing within adipose tissue, ASC-based clinical trials have grown over the years around the world along with assessments made on their safety and efficacy. With the progress of ASCs into clinical applications, the aim towards producing clinical-grade ASCs becomes increasingly important. Several countries have recognised the growing industry of cell therapies and have developed regulatory frameworks to assure their safety. With more research efforts made to understand their effects in both scientific and clinical settings, ASCs hold great promise as a future therapeutic strategy in treating a wide variety of diseases. Therefore, this review seeks to highlight the clinical applicability of ASCs as well as their progress in clinical trials across various medical disciplines. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]