An Integrated Micro-Device System for Coral Growth and Monitoring.

Corals are fundamental organisms in marine and coastal ecosystems. With the advancement of coral protection research in recent years, precise control of the coral culture environment is highly in demand for coral conservation and study. Here, we developed a semi-closed coral culture micro-device system as a multi-functional platform, which can provide accurate and programmable temperature control, a sterile initial environment, long-term stable water quality, an adjustable dissolved oxygen concentration, and a customized light spectrum for corals. Owing to the modular design, the coral culture system can be upgraded or modified by installing desirable new modules or removing existing ones. Currently, under appropriate conditions and with proper system maintenance, the sample corals can survive for at least 30 days in a healthy state. Furthermore, due to the controllable and sterile initial environment, this coral culture system can support research into the symbiotic relationship between corals and associated microorganisms. Therefore, this micro-device system can be applied to monitor and investigate sea corals in a relatively quantitative manner.

Methodological quality of systematic reviews on treatments for Alzheimer's disease: a cross-sectional study.

BACKGROUND: Carefully conducted systematic reviews (SRs) can provide reliable evidence on the effectiveness of treatment strategies for Alzheimer's disease (AD). Nevertheless, the reliability of SR results can be limited by methodological flaws. This cross-sectional study aimed to examine the methodological quality of SRs on AD treatments, along with potentially relevant factors. METHODS: To identify eligible SRs on AD treatments, four databases including the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, MEDLINE, EMBASE, and PsycINFO were searched. The Assessing the Methodological Quality of Systematic Reviews 2 instrument was used for quality appraisal of SRs. Multivariable regression analyses were used to examine factors related to methodological quality. RESULTS: A total of 102 SRs were appraised. Four (3.90%) SRs were considered as high quality; 14 (13.7%), 48 (47.1%), and 36 (35.3%) were as moderate, low, and critically low quality, respectively. The following significant methodological limitations were identified: only 22.5% of SRs registered protocols a priori, 6.9% discussed the rationales of chosen study designs, 21.6% gave a list of excluded studies with reasons, and 23.5% documented funding sources of primary studies. Cochrane SRs (adjusted odds ratio (AOR): 31.9, 95% confidence interval (CI): 3.81-266.9) and SRs of pharmacological treatments (AOR: 3.96, 95%CI: 1.27-12.3) were related to the higher overall methodological quality of SRs. CONCLUSION: Methodological quality of SRs on AD treatments is unsatisfactory, especially among non-Cochrane SRs and SRs of non-pharmacological interventions. Improvement in the following methodological domains requires particular attention due to poor performance: registering and publishing protocols a priori, justifying study design selection, providing a list of excluded studies, and reporting funding sources of primary studies.

Miniaturized Platform for Individual Coral Polyps Culture and Monitoring.

Methodologies for coral polyps culture and real-time monitoring are important in investigating the effects of the global environmental changes on coral reefs and marine biology. However, the traditional cultivation method is limited in its ability to provide a rapid and dynamic microenvironment to effectively exchange the chemical substances and simulate the natural environment change. Here, an integrated microdevice with continuous perfusion and temperature-control in the microenvironment was fabricated for dynamic individual coral polyps culture. For a realistic mimicry of the marine ecological environment, we constructed the micro-well based microfluidics platform that created a fluid flow environment with a low shear rate and high substance transfer, and developed a sensitive temperature control system for the long-term culture of individual coral polyps. This miniaturized platform was applied to study the individual coral polyps in response to the temperature change for evaluating the coral death caused by El Nino. The experimental results demonstrated that the microfluidics platform could provide the necessary growth environment for coral polyps as expected so that in turn the biological activity of individual coral polyps can quickly be recovered. The separation between the algae and host polyp cells were observed in the high culture temperature range and the coral polyp metabolism was negatively affected. We believe that our culture platform for individual coral polyps can provide a reliable analytical approach for model and mechanism investigations of coral bleaching and reef conservation.