Improvement of in vitro osteogenesis and anti-infection properties by GelMA scaffold containing levofloxacin nanoparticles and strontium microspheres for osteomyelitis

Journal of Materials Science - Biomaterials that have capacities to simultaneously induce bone regeneration and kill bacteria are in high demand because bone defects face risks of severe infection...     

A three-dimensional morphometrical study of the distal human femur.

The objective of this paper is to present a method to describe the three-dimensional variations of the geometry of the three portions forming the distal part of the human femur: the medial and lateral femoral condyles and the intercondylar fossa. The contours of equally spaced sagittal slices were digitized on the distal femur to determine its surface topography. Data collection was performed using a digitizer system which utilizes low-frequency, magnetic field technology to determine the position and orientation of a magnetic field sensor in relation to a specified reference frame. The generalized reduced gradient optimization method was used to reconstruct the profile of each slice utilizing two primitives: straight-line segments and circular arcs. The profile of each slice within the medial femoral condyle was reconstructed using two circular arcs: posterior and distal. The profile of each slice within the lateral femoral condyle was reconstructed using three circular arcs: posterior, distal and anterior. Finally, the profile of each slice within the intercondylar fossa was reconstructed using two circular arcs: proximal-posterior and anterior, and a distal-posterior straight-line segment tangent to the proximal-posterior circular arc. Combining the data describing the profiles of the different slices forming the distal femur, the posterior portions of each of the medial and lateral femoral condyles were modelled using parts of spheres having an average radius of 20 mm. The anterior portion of the lateral condyle was approximated to a right cylinder having its circular base parallel to the sagittal plane with an average radius of 26 mm. The anterior portion of the intercondylar fossa was modelled using an oblique cylinder having its circular base parallel to the sagittal plane with an average radius of 22 mm. Furthermore, it is suggested that the distal portion of the lateral femoral condyle could be modelled using parts of two oblique cones while the distal portion of the medial femoral condyle could be modelled using a part of a single oblique cone, all cones having their circular bases parallel to the sagittal plane. It is also suggested that the posterior portion of the intercondylar fossa could be modelled using two oblique cones: a proximal cone having its base parallel to the sagittal plane and a distal cone having its base parallel to the frontal plane.     

Evaluation of 111In-Labeled GnRH-I Tracer for SPECT Tumor Imaging

Radiochemistry - Total synthesis, quality control, and preclinical evaluation of [111In]-DOTA-Triptorelin ([111In]-DOTA-TRP) for diagnostic SPECT imaging have been made. For 111In labeling, the...     

Optimal Allocation and Operating Point of DG Units in Radial Distribution Network Considering Load Pattern

Distributed generation (DG) is a new approach for solving some problems of older power networks. Due to the increasing power demand in recent power systems, the importance of power loss reduction and maintaining system voltages within an acceptable range has given rise to the wide use of DG units in power systems. On the other hand, unplanned and non-optimal application such as installation and operation of DG units might cause other technical problems. In addition, it is important to consider the load pattern in the network, and the best decision for DG unit's operation must be chosen accordingly. In this paper, a method is introduced in order to make the optimal placement and find an optimal operating point for the DG units, which means the power output of DG units, considering the load pattern of the network. This load pattern has an average load of 24 hr a day, four seasons a year. In the proposed method, optimization has two goals: first, is optimizing the DG unit's placement based on improvement of the voltage profile, and the second is operating DG units with optimum power factor, minimizing power loss, and improving voltage profile, with regard to the load pattern. In order to solve this problem, the gravitational search algorithm and genetic algorithm are used. The proposed method is applied on the IEEE 33-bus test system, and the result shows the effectiveness of the proposed method. In order to solve the optimization problem, MATLAB software is used.     

Influence of Haunches on Performance of Precast-Concrete, Short-Span, Skewed Bridges with Integral Abutment Walls

Precast-concrete, skewed bridges with integral abutment walls are, typically, designed as simplified plane rigid portal frames, neglecting the degrading effects of the skew angle, the influence of haunches between the abutment walls and the deck, and laterally unsymmetrical vertical loading. This practice produces underdesigned bridges for certain aspect ratios. It is well known that the higher shear and torsional moments near the obtuse corners cause cracking and local deterioration. To evaluate the limitations of this practice, an experimental and analytical study was carried out for the live load response at the linear service level. It has been observed that for certain bridge configurations, both the positive and negative moment stresses are higher than the stresses given by plane frame analysis. The presented qualitative results enable comparison of performance characteristics.     

Improving the efficiency of a mixed integer linear programming based approach for multi-class classification problem

Data classification is one of the fundamental issues in data mining and machine learning. A great deal of effort has been done for reducing the time required to learn a classification model. In this research, a new model and algorithm is proposed to improve the work of Xu and Papageorgiou (2009). Computational comparisons on real and simulated patterns with different characteristics (including dimension, high overlap or heterogeneity in the attributes) confirm that, the improved method considerably reduces the training time in comparison to the primary model, whereas it generally maintains the accuracy. Particularly, this speed-increase is significant in the case of high overlap. In addition, the rate of increase in training time of the proposed model is much less than that of the primary model, as the set-size or the number of overlapping samples is increased.