Direct ink writing of vancomycin-loaded polycaprolactone/ polyethylene oxide/ hydroxyapatite 3D scaffolds

Novel inks were formulated by dissolving polycaprolactone (PCL), a hydrophobic polymer, in organic solvent systems; polyethylene oxide (PEO) was incorporated to extend the range of hydrophilicity of the system. Hydroxyapatite (HAp) with a weight ratio of 55–85% was added to the polymer-based solution to mimic the material composition of natural bone tissue. The direct ink writing (DIW) technique was applied to extrude the formulated inks to fabricate the predesigned tissue scaffold structures; the influence of HAp concentration was investigated. The results indicate that in comparison to other inks containing HAp (55%, 75%, and 85%w/w), the ink containing 65% w/w HAp had faster ink recovery behavior; the fabricated scaffold had a rougher surface as well as better mechanical properties and wettability. It is noted that the 65% w/w HAp concentration is similar to the inorganic composition of natural bone tissue. The elastic modulus values of PCL/PEO/HAp scaffolds were in the range of 4–12 MPa; the values were dependent on the HAp concentration. Furthermore, vancomycin as a model drug was successfully encapsulated in the PCL/PEO/HAp composite scaffold for drug release applications. This paper presents novel drug-loaded PCL/PEO/HAp inks for 3D scaffold fabrication using the DIW printing technique for potential bone scaffold applications.     

Multi-dimensional modeling of mixture preparation in a direct injection engine fueled with gaseous hydrogen

With the recent advances of direct injection (DI) technology, introducing hydrogen into the combustion chamber through DI is being considered as a viable approach to circumvent backfire and pre-ignition encountered in early generations of hydrogen engines. As part of a broader vision to develop a robust numerical model to study hydrogen spark ignition (SI) combustion in internal combustion (IC) engines, the present numerical investigation focuses on mixture preparation in a hydrogen DI SI engine. This study is carried out with a single hole injector with gaseous hydrogen injected at 100 bar injection pressure. Simulations are carried out for high and low tumble configurations and validated against optical data acquired from planar laser induced fluorescence (PLIF) measurements. Varying mesh configurations are investigated for the impact on in-cylinder mixture distribution. A particular emphasis is placed on the effect of nozzle geometry and mesh orientation near the wall. Overall, the computational model is found to predict the mixture distribution in the combustion cylinder reasonably well. The results showed that the alignment of mesh with the flow direction is important to achieve good agreement between numerical analysis and optical measurement data.     

A Role for Human Renal Tubular Epithelial Cells in Direct Allo-Recognition by CD4+ T-Cells and the Effect of Ischemia-Reperfusion

Direct allorecognition is the earliest and most potent immune response against a kidney allograft. Currently, it is thought that passenger donor professional antigen-presenting cells (APCs) are responsible. Further, many studies support that graft ischemia-reperfusion injury increases the probability of acute rejection. We evaluated the possible role of primary human proximal renal tubular epithelial cells (RPTECs) in direct allorecognition by CD4+ T-cells and the effect of anoxia-reoxygenation. In cell culture, we detected that RPTECs express all the required molecules for CD4+ T-cell activation (HLA-DR, CD80, and ICAM-1). Anoxia-reoxygenation decreased HLA-DR and CD80 but increased ICAM-1. Following this, RPTECs were co-cultured with alloreactive CD4+ T-cells. In T-cells, zeta chain phosphorylation and c-Myc increased, indicating activation of T-cell receptor and co-stimulation signal transduction pathways, respectively. T-cell proliferation assessed with bromodeoxyuridine assay and with the marker Ki-67 increased. Previous culture of RPTECs under anoxia raised all the above parameters in T-cells. FOXP3 remained unaffected in all cases, signifying that proliferating T-cells were not differentiated towards a regulatory phenotype. Our results support that direct allorecognition may be mediated by RPTECs even in the absence of donor-derived professional APCs. Also, ischemia-reperfusion injury of the graft may enhance the above capacity of RPTECs, increasing the possibility of acute rejection.     

Flexible electronic skin with high performance pressure sensing based on PVDF/rGO/BaTiO3 composite thin film

The wearable intelligent electronic product similar to electronic skin has a great application prospect. However, flexible electronic with high performance pressure sensing functions are still facing great challenges. In this paper, the highly sensitive flexible electronic skin (FES) based on the PVDF/rGO/BaTiO₃ composite thin film was fabricated using the near-field electrohydrodynamic direct-writing (NFEDW) method. The PVDF/rGO/BaTiO₃ composite solution was directly written on flexible substrate by the NFEDW method to fabricate FES with micro/nano fiber structure, which has the function of sensing pressure with high sensitivity and fast response. The surface morphology and microstructure were characterized by SEM, AFM, and optical microscope in detail. The fabricated FES has high sensitivity (59 kPa⁻¹) and faster response time (130 ms). FES has been successfully applied to the detection of human motion and subtle physiological signals. The experimental results show that FES has good stability and reliability. FES can recognize human motion, and it has a broad application prospect in the field of wearable devices.     

Cryptographic Lightweight Encryption Algorithm with Dimensionality Reduction in Edge Computing

Edge Computing is one of the radically evolving systems through generations as it is able to effectively meet the data saving standards of consumers, providers and the workers. Requisition for Edge Computing based items have been increasing tremendously. Apart from the advantages it holds, there remain lots of objections and restrictions, which hinders it from accomplishing the need of consumers all around the world. Some of the limitations are constraints on computing and hardware, functions and accessibility, remote administration and connectivity. There is also a backlog in security due to its inability to create a trust between devices involved in encryption and decryption. This is because security of data greatly depends upon faster encryption and decryption in order to transfer it. In addition, its devices are considerably exposed to side channel attacks, including Power Analysis attacks that are capable of overturning the process. Constrained space and the ability of it is one of the most challenging tasks. To prevail over from this issue we are proposing a Cryptographic Lightweight Encryption Algorithm with Dimensionality Reduction in Edge Computing. The t-Distributed Stochastic Neighbor Embedding is one of the efficient dimensionality reduction technique that greatly decreases the size of the non-linear data. The three dimensional image data obtained from the system, which are connected with it, are dimensionally reduced, and then lightweight encryption algorithm is employed. Hence, the security backlog can be solved effectively using this method.     

Imidazolium functionalized poly(vinyl alcohol) membranes for direct methanol alkaline fuel cell applications

In this study, imidazolium functionalized poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA) was synthesized by acetalization and direct quaternization reaction. Afterwards, composite anion exchange membranes based on imidazolium‐ and quaternary ammonium‐ functionalized PVA were used for direct methanol alkaline fuel cell applications. ¹H NMR and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy data indicated that imidazole functionalized PVA was successfully synthesized. Inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry data demonstrated that the imidazolium structure was efficiently obtained by direct quaternization of the imidazole group. Composite anion exchange membranes were fabricated by application of the functionalized PVA solution on the surface of porous polycarbonate (PC) membranes. Fuel cell related properties of all prepared membranes were investigated systematically. The imidazolium functionalized composite membrane (PVA‐Im/PC) exhibited higher ionic conductivity (7.8 mS cm^?1 at 30 °C) despite a lower water uptake and ion exchange capacity value compared to that of quaternary ammonium. In addition, PVA‐Im/PC showed the lowest methanol permeation rate and the highest membrane selectivity as well as high alkaline and oxidative stability. Dynamic mechanical analysis results reveal that both composite membranes were mechanically resistant up to 10⁷ Pa at 140 °C. The superior performance of imidazolium functionalized PVA composite membrane compared to quaternary ammonium functionalized membrane makes it a promising candidate for direct methanol alkaline fuel cell applications. © 2020 Society of Chemical Industry