Uterus-Derived Decellularized Extracellular Matrix-Mediated Endometrial Regeneration and Fertility Enhancement

Tissue-specific decellularized extracellular matrix recapitulates the complexity of natural ECMs, creating an organ-specific microenvironment based on its intrinsic characteristics. Here, hydrogels containing uterus-derived decellularized extracellular matrix (UdECMs) from the endometrium-specific layer or the entire uterus are developed. UdECMs serve as effective organ-specific biomaterials, displaying that intrauterine UdECM administration induces endometrial regeneration and fertility enhancement. Moreover, UdECM administration alters the profile of natural killer cell subpopulations to exhibit more mature and less cytotoxic features, providing a favorable uterine environment for successful implantation and decidualization. Interestingly, insulin-like growth factor 1 and insulin-like growth factor-binding protein 3 as key regulatory factors that contribute to UdECM-mediated endometrial regeneration are discovered. Furthermore, ex vivo culture of human uterine tissues reveals that UdECMs of different origins exhibit distinct therapeutic effects based on the endometrial conditions of patients, suggesting their uses as a therapeutic intervention providing personalized regenerative medicine for infertile patients with a poor uterine environment.     

Asymptotic Minimax Bounds for Stochastic Deconvolution Over Groups

This paper examines stochastic deconvolution over noncommutative compact Lie groups. This involves Fourier analysis on compact Lie groups as well as convolution products over such groups. An observation process consisting of a known impulse response function convolved with an unknown signal with additive white noise is assumed. Data collected through the observation process then allow us to construct an estimator of the signal. Signal recovery is then assessed through integrated mean squared error for which the main results show that asymptotic minimaxity depends on smoothness properties of the impulse response function. Thus, if the Fourier transform of the impulse response function is bounded polynomially, then the asymptotic minimax signal recovery is polynomial, while if the Fourier transform of the impulse response function is exponentially bounded, then the asymptotic minimax signal recovery is logarithmic. Such investigations have been previously considered in both the engineering and statistics literature with applications in among others, medical imaging, robotics, and polymer science.     

A Single‐Step Dual Stabilization of Smart Window by the Formation of Liquid Crystal Physical Gels and the Construction of Liquid Crystal Chambers

Smart windows are very attractive because they not only provide comfortable indoor conditions for cars and buildings, but also protect privacy. However, current smart windows have problems such as high energy consumption, slow response time, and poor stability. To solve these problems, a single‐step dual stabilization (SSDS) is newly proposed for the fabrication of robust liquid crystal (LC) smart windows switching fast at low voltage. Upon irradiating ultraviolet light on the selected area of the nematic (N) LC optical cell with photoisomerizable macrogelators (B3AZ) and photopolymerizable monomers, NLC physical gels (LCPGs) and partition walls are simultaneously constructed. LCPGs play a role of light shutter under a low electric field (9.6 V_pp) which is ten times lower than that of the conventional polymer‐stabilized LC‐based smart windows. Partition walls constructed by the selected area photopolymerization significantly enhance the mechanical stabilities. Based on the experimental results, it is realized that the NLC layer generated near the partition walls makes the LCPGs respond to a low voltage. Robust SSDS smart windows could open new doors for the development of high‐performance smart windows.     

A delay-bounded event-monitoring and adversary-identification protocol in resource-constraint sensor networks

Event monitoring is a common application in wireless sensor networks. For event monitoring, a number of sensor nodes are deployed to monitor certain phenomenon. When an event is detected, the sensor nodes report it to a base station (BS), where a network operator can take appropriate action based on the event report. In this paper, we are interested in scenarios where the event must be reported within a time bound to the BS possibly over multiple hops. However, such event reports can be hampered by compromised nodes in the middle that drop, modify, or delay the event report.To defend against such an attack, we propose Sem, a Secure Event Monitoring protocol against arbitrary malicious attacks by Byzantine adversary nodes. Sem provides the following provable security guarantees. As long as the compromised nodes want to stay undetected, a legitimate sensor node can report an event to the BS within a bounded time. If the compromised nodes prevent the event from being reported to the BS within the bounded time, the BS can identify a pair of nodes that is guaranteSchool of Electrical and Computer Engineeringed to contain at least one compromised node. To the best of our knowledge, no prior work in the literature can provide such guarantees.Sem is designed to use the minimum level of asymmetric cryptography during normal operation when there is no attack, and use cryptographic primitives more liberally when an attack is detected. This design has the advantage that the overall Sem protocol is lightweight in terms of the computational resources and the network traffic required by the cryptographic operations. We also show an operational example of Sem using TOSSIM simulations.     

Automatic extraction of inferior alveolar nerve canal using feature-enhancing panoramic volume rendering

Dental implant surgery, which involves the surgical insertion of a dental implant into the jawbone as an artificial root, has become one of the most successful applications of computed tomography (CT) in dental implantology. For successful implant surgery, it is essential to identify vital anatomic structures such as the inferior alveolar nerve (IAN), which should be avoided during the surgical procedure. Due to the ambiguity of its structure, the IAN is very elusive to extract in dental CT images. As a result, the IAN canal is typically identified in most previous studies. This paper presents a novel method of automatically extracting the IAN canal. Mental and mandibular foramens, which are regarded as the ends of the IAN canal in the mandible, are detected automatically using 3-D panoramic volume rendering (VR) and texture analysis techniques. In the 3-D panoramic VR, novel color shading and compositing methods are proposed to emphasize the foramens and isolate them from other fine structures. Subsequently, the path of the IAN canal is computed using a line-tracking algorithm. Finally, the IAN canal is extracted by expanding the region of the path using a fast marching method with a new speed function exploiting the anatomical information about the canal radius. In experimental results using ten clinical datasets, the proposed method identified the IAN canal accurately, demonstrating that this approach assists dentists substantially during dental implant surgery.     

Light Extraction of Organic Light Emitting Diodes by Defective Hexagonal‐Close‐Packed Array

Defective silica sphere arrays having locally hexagonal‐closed‐packed structure but lack of long range ordering were incorporated into organic light emitting diodes as grating to extract the waveguided light trapped in the indium tin oxide/organic layers and the glass substrate. Using these defective hexagonal‐closed‐packed gratings for light extraction, broad band lambertian emitters are obtained due to the periodicity broadening and the random orientation in the gratings, resulting in enhancements in current and power efficiencies by a factor of 1.7 and 1.9, respectively.     

Mechanical and Electrical Properties of Cu/Sn-3.5Ag/Cu Ball Grid Array (BGA) Solder Joints after Multiple Reflows

The microstructural evolution, die shear strength, and electrical resistivity of Cu/Sn-3.5Ag (wt.%)/Cu ball grid array (BGA) solder joints were investigated after 1 to 10 reflows using scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), electron probe microanalysis (EPMA), bonding testing, and a four-point probe station. A Cu₆Sn₅ intermetallic compound (IMC) was formed at both the upper and lower interfaces after one reflow. The IMC thickness increased at the lower interface with increasing reflow number, whereas the IMC morphology and thickness remained virtually unchanged at the upper interface, irrespective of the reflow number. The amount of Cu₆Sn₅ IMC contained in the solder ball increased with increasing reflow number. These microstructural evolutions with increasing reflow number strongly affected the mechanical and electrical properties of the solder joint.     

Biomimetic soft actuator: design, modeling, control, and applications

A new biomimetic linear actuator named Antagonistically Driven Linear Actuator (ANTLA) that could be directly employed in both macro and microscale of robotic applications is introduced in the present work. The presented actuator provides cost effectiveness and simple fabrication process thanks to its plain construction. In addition to producing basic bidirectional rectilinear motions, the actuator is able to modulate its compliance that might be one of the critical elements of the actuator functionality for the biomimetic applications. For the test, the proposed actuator concept is fabricated and assembled in a microscale robot that generates annelid motion.     

Remote Switching of Elastic Movement of Decorated Ligand Nanostructures Controls the Adhesion-Regulated Polarization of Host Macrophages

Design of materials with remote switchability of the movement of decorated nanostructures presenting cell-adhesive Arg-Gly-Asp ligand can decipher dynamic cell-material interactions in decorated ligand nanostructures. In this study, the decoration of ligand-bearing gold nanoparticles (ligand-AuNPs) on the magnetic nanoparticle (MNP) with varying ligand-AuNP densities is demonstrated, which are flexibly coupled to substrate in various MNP densities to maintain constant macroscopic ligand density. Magnetic switching of upward (“Upper Mag”) or downward (“Lower Mag”) movement of varying ligand-AuNPs is shown via stretching and compression of the elastic linker, respectively. High ligand-AuNP densities promote macrophage adhesion-regulated M2 polarization that inhibits M1 polarization. Remote switching of downward movement (“Lower Mag”) of ligand-AuNPs facilitates macrophage adhesion-regulated M2 polarization, which is conversely suppressed by their upward movement (“Upper Mag”), both in vitro and in vivo. These findings are consistent with human primary macrophages. These results provide fundamental understanding into designing materials with decorated nanostructures in both high ligand-AuNP density and downward movement of the ligand-AuNPs toward the substrate to stimulate adhesion-regulated M2 polarization of macrophages while suppressing pro-inflammatory M1 polarization, thereby facilitating tissue-healing responses.