Modulators of Macrophage Polarization Influence Healing of the Infarcted Myocardium

To diminish heart failure development after acute myocardial infarction (AMI), several preclinical studies have focused on influencing the inflammatory processes in the healing response post-AMI. The initial purpose of this healing response is to clear cell debris of the injured cardiac tissue and to eventually resolve inflammation and support scar tissue formation. This is a well-balanced reaction. However, excess inflammation can lead to infarct expansion, adverse ventricular remodeling and thereby propagate heart failure development. Different macrophage subtypes are centrally involved in both the promotion and resolution phase of inflammation. Modulation of macrophage subset polarization has been described to greatly affect the quality and outcome of healing after AMI. Therefore, it is of great interest to reveal the process of macrophage polarization to support the development of therapeutic targets. The current review summarizes (pre)clinical studies that demonstrate essential molecules involved in macrophage polarization that can be modulated and influence cardiac healing after AMI.     

Model-based test case generation and prioritization: a systematic literature review

Software and Systems Modeling - Model-based test case generation (MB-TCG) and prioritization (MB-TCP) utilize models that represent the system under test (SUT) for test generation and...     

Flexible time reduction method for burn-in of high-quality products

Burn-in is an effective method to screen out early failures of electronic devices. Typically, this is achieved by operating the devices under accelerated stress conditions. This paper focuses on a burn-in concept where a random sample of devices is drawn out of the running production, put to burn-in, and investigated for early failures. This procedure is called burn-in study. In parallel, as long as the burn-in study is ongoing, all other produced devices are subjected to burn-in screening. In this article, new flexible sampling plans for burn-in studies are introduced. These are based on the progress of these studies and defined quality targets. Furthermore, these sampling plans enable fast burn-in time reductions and various time reduction strategies. From a statistical point of view, this requires to combine the proportion of early failures in a population with their lifetime distribution function. The new model is illustrated by case studies and simulations. It contributes to burn-in cost reductions, while controlling quality levels at the same time.     

Effect of Constant‐Rate Reduction on the Performance of a Ternary Cu/ZnO/Al2O3 Catalyst in Methanol Synthesis

A multi‐functional flow set‐up was developed for the rate‐ and temperature‐controlled reduction of copper catalysts, their application in high‐pressure methanol synthesis and the determination of the copper surface area by N₂O frontal chromatography. The influence of constant‐rate reduction on the catalytic properties of a ternary Cu/ZnO/Al₂O₃ catalyst was investigated. The temperature during the constant‐rate reduction was found to decrease, indicating autocatalytic kinetics, but no significant catalytic effect of the milder reduction conditions was observed compared with a slow linear heating ramp.     

Orientation Gradients at Boundaries in Micron‐Sized Bicrystals

In micron‐sized Ni bicrystals, after compression tests, orientation gradients are measured by electron back scattering diffraction (EBSD). The results clearly show that EBSD can be used to study dislocation pile‐ups at boundaries. Using bicrystals with single and multiple slip orientations our results show that with decreasing the size of the pillars the orientation changes due to cross‐slip decreases and the orientation changes at the boundary increases. This directly indicates a change in the hardening mechanism when the probability of dislocation–dislocation interaction decreases due to source‐limited plasticity in the bicrystals with diameters below approximately two microns.     

Electrospinning and Imaging

Polymer processing via electrospinning is a cost effective and scalable method for preparing nanofibers with industrial, electrical, and biomedical applications, particularly tissue engineering and drug delivery. Characterization methods for these fibers include microscopy techniques for vitro surface morphology information, spectroscopy methods to determine in vitro chemical composition, and medical imaging tools for in vivo assessment of morphology and efficacy of implanted material. The focus of this paper is be on recent applications for electrospun nanofibers, in vitro characterization methods, and medical imaging modalities that can be used for in vivo assessment of the fibers, as well as insights in how to adapt existing techniques toward the characterization of electrospun materials.     

Microstructure of the HMX‐Based PBX KS32 after Mechanical Loading

Non‐destructive X‐ray diffraction techniques were applied in order to monitor the influence of mechanical and shock‐loading on the microstructure of the plastic‐bonded high explosive KS32. The investigations uncovered damage to embedded coarse HMX crystals and to the binder system HTPB‐IPDI. Damage to the crystals occurred already during the kneading process in terms of deformation twinning. On higher loading between 400 MPa (static) and 480 MPa (dynamic) also crystal fracture was observed. The change in the binder structure was found after both static and dynamic loading, but not in the cured, differently kneaded samples. Moreover, the change in binder structure after dynamic loading was verified by dynamic mechanical analysis, and interpreted as a partial damage of the binder rubber shell around the explosive particles. The results are compared to literature data from imaging techniques.