Versatile and Easily Designable Polyester-Laser Toner Interfaces for Site-Oriented Adsorption of Antibodies

Laser toners appear as attractive materials for barriers and easily laminated interphases for Lab-on-a-Foil microfluidics, due to the excellent adhesion to paper and various membranes or foils. This work shows for the first time a comprehensive study on the adsorption of antibodies on toner-covered poly(ethylene terephthalate) (PET@toner) substrates, together with assessment of such platforms in rapid prototyping of disposable microdevices and microarrays for immunodiagnostics. In the framework of presented research, the surface properties and antibody binding capacity of PET substrates with varying levels of toner coverage (0–100%) were characterized in detail. It was proven that polystyrene-acrylate copolymer-based toner offers higher antibody adsorption efficiency compared with unmodified polystyrene and PET as well as faster adsorption kinetics. Comparative studies of the influence of pH on the effectiveness of antibodies immobilization as well as measurements of surface ζ-potential of PET, toner, and polystyrene confirmed the dominant role of hydrophobic interactions in adsorption mechanism. The applicability of PET@toner substrates as removable masks for protection of foil against permanent hydrophilization was also shown. It opens up the possibility of precise tuning of wettability and antibody binding capacity. Therefore, PET@toner foils are presented as useful platforms in the construction of immunoarrays or components of microfluidic systems.     

Octacalcium Phosphate for Bone Tissue Engineering: Synthesis,Modification, and In Vitro Biocompatibility Assessment

Octacalcium phosphate (OCP, Ca₈H₂(PO₄)₆·5H₂O) is known to be a possible precursor of biological hydroxyapatite formation of organic bone tissue. OCP has higher biocompatibility and osseointegration rate compared to other calcium phosphates. In this work, the synthesis of low-temperature calcium phosphate compounds and substituted forms of those at physiological temperatures is shown. Strontium is used to improve bioactive properties of the material. Strontium was inserted into the OCP structure by ionic substitution in solutions. The processes of phase formation of low-temperature OCP with theoretical substitution of strontium for calcium up to 50 at.% in conditions close to physiological, i.e., temperature 35–37 °C and normal pressure, were described. The effect of strontium substitution range on changes in the crystal lattice of materials, the microstructural features, surface morphology and biological properties in vitro has been established. The results of the study indicate the effectiveness of using strontium in OCP for improving biocompatibility of OCP based composite materials intended for bone repair.     

Probing the Dynamics of Streptococcus pyogenes Cas9 Endonuclease Bound to the sgRNA Complex Using Hydrogen-Deuterium Exchange Mass Spectrometry

The Cas9 endonuclease is an essential component of the CRISPR–Cas-based genome editing tools. The attainment of high specificity and efficiency of Cas9 during targetted DNA cleavage is the main problem that limits the clinical application of the CRISPR–Cas9 system. A deep understanding of the Cas9 mechanism and its structural-functional relationships is required to develop strategies for precise gene editing. Here, we present the first attempt to describe the solution structure of Cas9 from S. pyogenes using hydrogen-deuterium exchange mass spectrometry (HDX-MS) coupled to molecular dynamics simulations. HDX data revealed multiple protein regions with deuterium uptake levels varying from low to high. By analysing the difference in relative deuterium uptake by apoCas9 and its complex with sgRNA, we identified peptides involved in the complex formation and possible changes in the protein conformation. The REC3 domain was shown to undergo the most prominent conformational change upon enzyme-RNA interactions. Detection of the HDX in two forms of the enzyme provided detailed information about changes in the Cas9 structure induced by sgRNA binding and quantified the extent of the changes. The study demonstrates the practical utility of HDX-MS for the elucidation of mechanistic aspects of Cas9 functioning.     

Martensitic Transformations and Mechanical and Corrosion Properties of Fe-Mn-Si Alloys for Biodegradable Medical Implants

Metallurgical and Materials Transactions A - The Fe-Mn-Si alloys are promising materials for biodegradable metallic implants for temporary healing process in the human body. In this study, three...     

Adaptive filters cascade applied to a frequency identification improvement problem

Problem of frequency identification performance improvement for a single‐tone sinusoidal signal is solved via construction of an adaptive filters cascade. The cascade consists of adaptive band‐pass filters tuned by estimates of the frequency provided by a given identification algorithm. Stability of the cascade is studied and boundedness of trajectories is proven with Lyapunov analysis under certain assumption on identification algorithm. Numerical simulations are given illustrating improved identification performance for different identification algorithms. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Branch‐and‐bound approach for optima localization in scheduling multiprocessor jobs

We consider multiprocessor task scheduling problems with dedicated processors. We determine the tight optima localization intervals for different subproblems of the basic problem. Based on the ideas of a computer‐aided technique developed by Sevastianov and Tchernykh for shop scheduling problems, we elaborate a similar method for the multiprocessor task scheduling problem. Our method allows us to find an upper bound for the length of the optimal schedule in terms of natural lower bound. As a byproduct of our results, a family of linear‐time approximation algorithms with a constant ratio performance guarantee is designed for the NP‐hard subproblems of the basic problem, and new polynomially solvable classes of problems are found.     

Effect of comonomer composition on the controlled free-radical copolymerization of styrene and maleic anhydride by reversible addition-fragmentation chain transfer (RAFT)

Controlled free-radical copolymerization of styrene and maleic anhydride was performed in 1,4-dioxane or tetrahydrofurane solution at 60 °C using the RAFT technique. The effect of monomer feed ratio on copolymerization kinetics and on control over molar mass distribution was examined. It was shown that polymerization was faster and quality of control was poorer when the proportion of maleic anhydride in the monomer feed was larger. These features were assigned to a decrease in the chain transfer constant of the polymeric RAFT agent, most probably due to an increase in the apparent rate constant of propagation with the proportion of maleic anhydride.