Protein crystal growth in microgravity-temperature induced large scale crystallization of insulin

One of the major stumbling blocks that prevents rapid structure determination using x-ray crystallography is macromolecular crystal growth. There are many examples where crystallization takes longer than structure determination. In some cases, it is impossible to grow useful crystals on earth. Recent experiments conducted in conjunction with NASA on various Space Shuttle missions have demonstrated that protein crystals often grow larger and display better internal molecular order than their earth-grown counterparts. This paper reports results from three Shuttle flights using the Protein Crystallization Facility (PCF). The PCF hardware produced large, high-quality insulin crystals by using a temperature change as the sole means to affect protein solubility and thus, crystallization. The facility consists of cylinders/containers with volumes of 500, 200, 100, and 50 ml. Data from the three Shuttle flights demonstrated that larger, higher resolution crystals (as evidenced by x-ray diffraction data) were obtained from the microgravity experiments when compared to earth-grown crystals.     

Studies of the changes in the geometry of grain boundaries and grains during recovery/continuous recrystallization in α-Fe

Samples of -Fe (Armco) have been deformed by 50% in compression. These have then been annealed at 400 °C, considerably below the conventional recrystallization temperature, and the evolution of grain size and shape quantified. Initially the grain size is found to decrease whilst, at the same time, the grain-shape anisotropy also decreases. It is suggested that a continuous recrystallization process which favours the generation of higher angle grain boundaries is the underlying mechanism. Annealing for longer times gives rise to an increase in grain size with the development of undulations on the grain surfaces. The mechanism suggested for this behaviour involves the annihilation of segments of sub-boundaries on to a pre-existing boundary from either side of the boundary.     

A Synthetic Dynamic Polyvinyl Alcohol Photoresin for Fast Volumetric Bioprinting of Functional Ultrasoft Hydrogel Constructs

Tomographic volumetric bioprinting (VBP) enables fast photofabrication of cell-laden hydrogel constructs in one step, addressing the limitations of conventional layer-by-layer additive manufacturing. However, existing biomaterials that fulfill the physicochemical requirements of VBP are limited to gelatin-based photoresins of high polymer concentrations. The printed microenvironments are predominantly static and stiff, lacking sufficient capacity to support 3D cell growth. Here a dynamic resin based on thiol–ene photo-clickable polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) and thermo-sensitive sacrificial gelatin for fast VBP of functional ultrasoft cell-laden hydrogel constructs within 7–15 s is reported. Using gelatin allows VBP of permissive hydrogels with low PVA contents of 1.5%, providing a stress-relaxing environment for fast cell spreading, 3D osteogenic differentiation of embedded human mesenchymal stem cells and matrix mineralization. Additionally, site-specific immobilization of molecules-of-interest inside a PVA hydrogel is achieved by 3D tomographic thiol–ene photopatterning. This technique may enable spatiotemporal control of cell-material interactions and guides in vitro tissue formation using programmed cell-friendly light. Altogether, this study introduces a synthetic dynamic photoresin enabling fast VBP of functional ultrasoft hydrogel constructs with well-defined physicochemical properties and high efficiency.     

Evaluation of the tamper-resistant properties of biphasic immediate-release/extended-release oxycodone/acetaminophen tablets

Context: Abuse potential of extended-release (ER) opioid tablets increases if tampering causes rapid opioid release.

Objective: To evaluate the susceptibility to tampering of biphasic immediate-release (IR)/ER oxycodone (OC)/acetaminophen (APAP) tablets compared with IR OC/APAP tablets.

Materials and methods: IR/ER OC/APAP and IR OC/APAP tablets were tested at room temperature and after heating, freezing and microwaving. Resistance to crushing was tested using manual and powered tools (e.g. spoons, mortar and pestle, blender, coffee grinder). Tampered tablets were tested for suitability for snorting, OC extraction in solvents and ease of drawing into a syringe. Dissolution of IR/ER OC/APAP in gastric fluid with and without ethanol was tested to determine the potential for facilitating precipitous release of opioid from the tablet.

Results: IR/ER OC/APAP tablets were more crush resistant than IR OC/APAP tablets. Heating, freezing and microwaving had no effect on crush resistance of IR/ER OC/APAP tablets. Although a mortar and pestle pulverized IR/ER OC/APAP tablets, upon contact with solvent, the powder formed a thick gel judged unsuitable for absorption through the nasal mucosa and could not be drawn into a syringe. In contrast, powder from crushed IR OC/APAP tablets dissolved readily, was judged suitable for snorting, and was easily drawn into a syringe. Dissolution of IR/ER OC/APAP tablets in gastric fluid was slowed by the addition of ethanol.

Discussion: IR/ER OC/APAP tablets are resistant to crushing and dissolution compared with IR OC/APAP tablets.

Conclusion: IR/ER OC/APAP tablets may have less potential for abuse involving tampering compared with IR OC/APAP tablets.     

Microstructure and Processing of 3D Printed Tungsten Microlattices and Infiltrated W–Cu Composites

Tungsten is of industrial relevance due its outstanding intrinsic properties (e.g., highest melting‐point of all elements) and therefore difficult to 3D‐print by conventional methods. Here, tungsten micro‐lattices are produced by room‐temperature extrusion‐based 3D‐printing of an ink comprising WO₃–0.5%NiO submicron powders, followed by H₂‐reduction and Ni‐activated sintering. The green bodies underwent isotropic linear shrinkage of ≈50% during the thermal treatment resulting in micro‐lattices, with overall 35–60% open‐porosity, consisting of 95–100% dense W–0.5%Ni struts having ≈80–300 μm diameter. Ball‐milling the powders and inks reduced the sintering temperature needed to achieve full densification from 1400 to 1200 °C and enabled the ink to be extruded through finer nozzles (200 μm). Partial sintering of the struts is achieved when NiO is omitted from the ink, with submicron interconnected‐porosity of ≈34%. Several tungsten micro‐lattices are infiltrated with molten copper at 1300 °C under vacuum, resulting in dense, anisotropic W–Cu composites with 40–65% tungsten volume fraction. Partially sintered struts (containing nickel) with submicron open porosity are also infiltrated with Cu, resulting in co‐continuous W–Cu composites with wide W struts/Cu channels at the lattice scale (hundreds of micrometers), and fine W–Cu interpenetrating network at the strut scale (hundreds of nanometers) allowing for the design of anisotropic mechanical and electrical properties.

     

As-Rigid-As-Possible Surface Morphing

This paper presents a new morphing method based on the "as-rigid-as-possible" approach.Unlike the original as-rigid-as-possible method,we avoid the need to construct a consistent tetrahedral mesh,but instead require a consistent triangle surface mesh and from it create a tetrahedron for each surface triangle.Our new approach has several significant advantages.It is much easier to create a consistent triangle mesh than to create a consistent tetrahedral mesh.Secondly,the equations arising from our approach can be solved much more efficiently than the corresponding equations for a tetrahedral mesh.Finally,by incorporating the translation vector in the energy functional controlling interpolation,our new method does not need the user to arbitrarily fix any vertex to obtain a solution,allowing artists automatic control of interpolated mesh positions.     

Parametric editing of clothed 3D avatars

Easy editing of a clothed 3D human avatar is central to many practical applications. However, it is easy to produce implausible, unnatural looking results, since subtle reshaping or pose alteration of avatars requires global consistency and agreement with human anatomy. Here, we present a parametric editing system for a clothed human body, based on use of a revised SCAPE model. We show that the parameters of the model can be estimated directly from a clothed avatar, and that it can be used as a basis for realistic, real-time editing of the clothed avatar mesh via a novel 3D body-aware warping scheme. The avatar can be easily controlled by a few semantically meaningful parameters, 12 biometric attributes controlling body shape, and 17 bones controlling pose. Our experiments demonstrate that our system can interactively produce visually pleasing results.     

Using ICESat's Geoscience Laser Altimeter System (GLAS) to assess large-scale forest disturbance caused by hurricane Katrina

In 2005, hurricane Katrina resulted in a large disturbance to U.S. forests. Recent estimates of damage from hurricane Katrina have relied primarily on optical remote sensing and field data. This paper is the first large-scale study to use satellite-based lidar data to quantify changes in forest structure from that event. GLAS data for the years prior to and following hurricane Katrina were compared to wind speed, forest cover, and damage data to assess the adequacy of sensor sampling, and to estimate changes in Mean Canopy Height (MCH) over all areas that experienced tropical force winds and greater. Statistically significant decreases in MCH post-Katrina were found to increase with wind intensity: Tropical Storm ?MCH = − 0.5 m, Category 1 ?MCH = − 2 m, and Category 2 ?MCH = − 4 m. A strong relationship was also found between changes in non-photosynthetic vegetation (?NPV), a metric previously shown to be related to storm damage, and post-storm MCH. The season of data acquisition was shown to influence calculations of MCH and MCH loss, but did not preclude the detection of major large-scale patterns of damage. Results from this study show promise for using space-borne lidar for large-scale assessments of forest disturbance, and highlight the need for future data on vegetation structure from space.