Intestinal epithelial cell line induction of T cell differentiation from bone marrow precursors

The mechanism whereby the intestinal microenvironment promotes T cell development in the absence of the thymus is unknown. We show that the murine intestine-derived epithelial cell line, MODE-K, can induce T cell differentiation marker expression in vitro on bone marrow (BM) T cell precursors. Three-color flow cytometry analysis of T-cell-depleted C3H BM mononuclear cells (MNC) after 4 days of coculture on monolayers of MODE-K indicated that approximately 25% of MNC expressed CD3 and TCR alpha beta. Of these CD3+ cells, 36% were CD3loCD4-CD8- double negative (DN), 34% were CD3loCD4+CD8 alpha beta+ double positive (DP), and the remainder were CD3hiCD4+CD8- or CD3hiCD4-CD8 alpha beta+ single positive (SP). In addition, the T cells which developed in coculture with MODE-K expressed the early T cell differentiation marker CD24 (heat-stable antigen). These T cells subsets did not develop when BM was cocultured with the LTA fibroblast cell line or in medium alone. Interestingly, preventing cell contact between MODE-K and BM by culturing in Transwell plates did not interfere with the development of T cells expressing the DN, DP, or SP phenotypes. Double-positive T cells did not develop if splenic MNC were cocultured with MODE-K. These results suggest that the intestinal epithelial environment can induce and support the T cell development from bone marrow precursors.     

Three-dimensional observation of wound temperature in primary healing

In a group of 30 patients the temperature in the epigastric region was followed pre-operatively for four days. After upper medial laparotomy the temperature of the wound and its surroundings was followed during eight post-operative days. Thus every examinee was a control to himself. The temperature was measured on AGA 780 thermovision system. The advantages of thermovision in observing temperature in primary healing are manifold. The method is painless, non-contact, thereby decreasing the risk of contamination from outside, gives an absolutely accurate image of temperature over a larger or smaller area, and analysis of the thermogram is relatively simple. The defining of the healing process as thermal change in intensity, extensiveness and time is, in essence, three-dimensional. It gives the possibility of accurate indirect observation of biochemical and chemico-physical changes in the wound and its surroundings.     

Capacity of Interference Channels With Partial Transmitter Cooperation

Capacity regions are established for several two-sender, two-receiver channels with partial transmitter cooperation. First, the capacity regions are determined for compound multiple-access channels (MACs) with common information and compound MACs with conferencing. Next, two interference channel models are considered: an interference channel with common information (ICCI) and an interference channel with unidirectional cooperation (ICUC) in which the message sent by one of the encoders is known to the other encoder. The capacity regions of both of these channels are determined when there is strong interference, i.e., the interference is such that both receivers can decode all messages with no rate penalty. The resulting capacity regions coincide with the capacity region of the compound MAC with common information.     

Suspension HVOF Spraying of Reduced Temperature Solid Oxide Fuel Cell Electrolytes

Metal-supported solid oxide fuel cells (SOFCs) composed of a Ce_0.8Sm_0.2O_2?δ (SDC) electrolyte layer and Ni-Ce_0.8Sm_0.2O_2?δ (Ni-SDC) cermet anode were fabricated by suspension thermal spraying on Hastelloy × substrates. The cathode, a Sm_0.5Sr_0.5CoO₃ (SSCo)-SDC composite, was screen-printed and fired in situ. The anode was produced by suspension plasma spraying (SPS) using an axial injection plasma torch. The SDC electrolyte was produced by high-velocity oxy-fuel (HVOF) spraying of liquid suspension feedstock, using propylene fuel (DJ-2700). The emerging technology of HVOF suspension spraying was explored here to produce thin and low-porosity electrolytes in an effort to develop a cost-effective and scalable fabrication technique for high-performance, metal-supported SOFCs. In-flight particle temperature and velocity were measured for a number of different gun operating conditions and standoff distances and related to the resulting microstructures. At optimized conditions, this approach was found to limit material decomposition, enhance deposition efficiency, and reduce defect density in the resulting coating, as compared to previous results reported with SPS. Produced button cells showed highly promising performance with a maximum power density (MPD) of 0.5 W cm^?2 at 600 °C and above 0.9 W cm^?2 at 700 °C, with humidified hydrogen as fuel and air as oxidant. The potential of this deposition technique to scale-up the substrate size to 50 × 50 mm was demonstrated.     

Fundamentals of dynamic frequency hopping in cellular systems

We examine techniques for increasing spectral efficiency of cellular systems by using slow frequency hopping (FH) with dynamic frequency-hop (DFH) pattern adaptation. We first present analytical results illustrating the improvements in frequency outage probabilities obtained by DFH in comparison with random frequency hopping (RFH). Next, we show simulation results comparing the performance of various DFH and RFH techniques. System performance is expressed by cumulative distribution functions of codeword error rates. Systems that we study incorporate channel coding, interleaving, antenna diversity, and power control. Analysis and simulations consider the effects of path loss, shadowing, Rayleigh fading, cochannel interference, coherence bandwidth, voice activity, and occupancy. The results indicate that systems using DFH can support substantially more users than systems using RFH     

Stem Cell Homing in Intrathecal Applications and Inspirations for Improvement Paths

A transplanted stem cell homing is a directed migration from the application site to the targeted tissue. Intrathecal application of stem cells is their direct delivery to cerebrospinal fluid, which defines the homing path from the point of injection to the brain. In the case of neurodegenerative diseases, this application method has the advantage of no blood–brain barrier restriction. However, the homing efficiency still needs improvement and homing mechanisms elucidation. Analysis of current research results on homing mechanisms in the light of intrathecal administration revealed a discrepancy between in vivo and in vitro results and a gap between preclinical and clinical research. Combining the existing research with novel insights from cutting-edge biochips, nano, and other technologies and computational models may bridge this gap faster.     

Functional 2D Germanene Fluorescent Coating of Microrobots for Micromachines Multiplexing

Micromachines are at the forefront of materials research as they are self‐propelled, smart autonomous systems capable of acting as an intelligent matter. One of the obstacles the field faces is tracking individual micromachines carrying molecular cargo from the rest of the micromachines. Highly stable fluorescent markers based on chemically modified 2D germanene compounds are developed. Two different 2D germanene derivatives, 4‐fluorophenylgermanane (2D‐Ph‐Ge) and methylgermanane (2D‐Me‐Ge), exhibit different fluorescence under UV light irradiation (excitation at 365 nm), which allows one particular micromotor to be easily distinguished in a mixture of micromotors. This offers a paradigm shift toward a new approach of multiplex detection of self‐propelled micromachines. The utility is demonstrated on a drug delivery system, where micromachines carrying a drug are labeled with 2D‐Ph‐Ge with blue emission while bare micromachines are labeled by 2D‐Me‐Ge with red emission. This approach of functional fluorescent labeling will pave the way to multiple simultaneous functionalized micromachines identification in complex environments.