Magnetically Guidable Proteinaceous Adhesive Microbots for Targeted Locoregional Therapeutics Delivery in the Highly Dynamic Environment of the Esophagus

The esophagus is a tubular-shaped muscular organ where swallowed fluids and muscular contractions constitute a highly dynamic environment. The turbulent, coordinated processes that occur through the oropharyngeal conduit can often compromise targeted administration of therapeutic drugs to a lesion, significantly reducing therapeutic efficacy. Here, magnetically guidable drug vehicles capable of strongly adhering to target sites using a bioengineered mussel adhesive protein (MAP) to achieve localized delivery of therapeutic drugs against the hydrodynamic physiological conditions are proposed. A suite of highly uniform microparticles embedded with iron oxide (IO) nanoparticles (MAP@IO MPs) is microfluidically fabricated using the genipin-mediated covalent cross-linking of bioengineered MAP. The MAP@IO MPs are successfully targeted to a specific region and prolongedly retained in the tubular-structured passageway. In particular, orally administered MAP@IO MPs are effectively captured in the esophagus in vivo in a magnetically guidable manner. Moreover, doxorubicin (DOX)-loaded MAP@IO MPs exhibit a sustainable DOX release profile, effective anticancer therapeutic activity, and excellent biocompatibility. Thus, the magnetically guidable locomotion and robust underwater adhesive properties of the proteinaceous soft microbots can provide an intelligent modular approach for targeted locoregional therapeutics delivery to a specific lesion site in dynamic fluid-associated tubular organs such as the esophagus.     

Towards Diastereomeric Pure Salts with Antisolvent Methods

Chiral molecules, especially enantiomers and diastereomers of purity > 99 %, present a significant market share within the chemical, pharmaceutical, and flavor industries. Antisolvent precipitations, both batch and semicontinuous operations to serve the current trends in flow chemistry were demonstrated to be environmentally benign and efficient tools in achieving high optical purities. Although salts are known to be insoluble in supercritical CO₂, instabilities of the nascent salts were detected and applied for increasing efficiency. Diastereomeric excess values of the crystalline products exceeded 99 % in maximum of three consecutive steps both by repeated resolution with half molar equivalent of the amine to the acid and by direct recrystallization of the salts.     

Mechanophysical Cues in Extracellular Matrix Regulation of Cell Behavior

The extracellular matrix (ECM) is a macromolecular network that can provide biochemical and structural support for cell adhesion and formation. It regulates cell behavior by influencing biochemical and physical cues. It is a dynamic structure whose components are modified, degraded, or deposited during connective tissue development, giving tissues strength and structural integrity. The physical properties of the natural ECM environment control the design of naturally or synthetically derived biomaterials to guide cell function in tissue engineering. Tissue engineering is an important field that explores physical cues of the ECM to produce new viable tissue for medical applications, such as in organ transplant and organ recovery. Understanding how the ECM exerts physical effects on cell behavior, when cells are seeded in synthetic ECM scaffolds, is of utmost importance. Herein we review recent findings in this area that report on cell behaviors in a variety of ECMs with different physical properties, i.e., topology, geometry, dimensionality, stiffness, and tension.     

Microscale Patterning of Mesoscopic PZN-PT Single Crystal Films by Crystal ion Slicing and Laser-Induced Etching

Advances in the fabrication of solid-solution single crystal relaxor ferroelectrics have made it possible to produce highly efficient piezoelectric crystals, and have attracted renewed interest in the use of these crystals for a new generation of piezoelectric transducers, actuators and sensors. Of particular interest is their incorporation into micro-electromechanical systems (MEMS). In this paper we report on the laser-induced wet chemical etching of lead zinc niobate-lead titanate (PZN-PT) in hydrochloric acid (HCl). Argon-ion laser radiation at power levels up to 4 W is focused to a spot diameter of about 15μm and results in the chemical etching of grooves at patterning speeds up to 5μm/sec. Crystal ion slicing, an ion-implant-based film separation technique, is used in combination with laser etching to form 5 to 10μm-thick patterned and freestanding films for incorporation into micro-electromechanical devices.     

Diseases of the intracranial meninges: MR imaging features

Although the meninges are often thought of simplistically as a connective tissue sac that contains the CSF and the contents of the CNS, they are far more complex. Anatomically, they comprise several layers. Pathologically, numerous disease processes may affect the meninges; different processes may even involve different areas of the meninges. These factors all influence the MR imaging characteristics of meningeal lesions. This review briefly discusses the anatomy of the meninges, the MR imaging technique when meningeal disease is suspected, and the appearance of the normal meninges. It then focuses on tumors, infections, cysts, and other lesions that primarily involve the meninges, excluding lesions that secondarily involve the meninges.     

An eight‐node hybrid‐stress solid‐shell element for geometric non‐linear analysis of elastic shells

This paper presents eight‐node solid‐shell elements for geometric non‐linear analysis of elastic shells. To subdue shear, trapezoidal and thickness locking, the assumed natural strain method and an ad hoc modified generalized laminate stiffness matrix are employed. A selectively reduced integrated element is formulated with its membrane and bending shear strain components taken to be constant and equal to the ones evaluated at the element centroid. With the generalized stresses arising from the modified generalized laminate stiffness matrix assumed to be independent from the ones obtained from the displacement, an extended Hellinger–Reissner functional can be derived. By choosing the assumed generalized stresses similar to the assumed stresses of a previous solid element, a hybrid‐stress solid‐shell element is formulated. Commonly employed geometric non‐linear homogeneous and laminated shell problems are attempted and our results are close to those of other state‐of‐the‐art elements. Moreover, the hybrid‐stress element converges more readily than the selectively reduced integrated element in all benchmark problems. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Variable-bit-rate speech transmission using punctured convolutionalcodes

Rate (n-1)/n punctured convolutional codes are very effective in conjunction with embedded differential pulse code modulation (EDPCM) in variable-bit-rate speech transmission. The authors investigate the performance of this variable-bit-rate EDPCM system in terms of probability of bit error and audio signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) versus channel SNR in an additive white Gaussian noise and Rayleigh fading channel using soft-decision decoding for specific sets of code generators of punctured convolutional codes. The results show that different sets of code generators affect the performance in terms of both the probability of bit error and the audio SNR. Improvements were obtained in the cases of Gaussian nonfading and Rayleigh fading channels using soft-decision decoding     

Triangular ray-tube analysis of dielectric lens antennas

A new method of analysis for the radiation characteristics of dielectric lens antennas with arbitrary inner and outer surfaces is presented. The analysis is based on representing the feed illumination by a contiguous set of ray tubes and including the effects of surface reflections and ray divergence. Radiation patterns and the antenna gain are then computed by evaluating the closed-form expressions developed for the Kirchhoff's integral of the aperture fields. The validity of the analysis method has been demonstrated by comparing the computations with measured results of two different spherical lenses and a shaped lens configurations. The analysis method presented takes into account some of the practical aspects associated with lens design such as surface zoning to reduce the mass and surface matching to minimize the reflection loss     

Value management and common accounting performance measures for corporations

Management is aware that the value of firms is the ultimate measure of company performance. However, management has been using common accounting measures as an operating guide because the linkage between operational planning and value is vague and complex and, therefore, difficult to apply. Managers need to have clear targets and performance measures to track progress. This paper examines if a set of common accounting performance measures are linked tightly to the overall value of the firm. An abductive learning network (ALN) approach, an artificial intelligence technique, is used in this research because an ALN approach is non-parametric and can capture a subtle dynamic relationship between input and output variables, which is not obvious in linear statistical analysis. Empirical results show that an ALN model is very effective in synthesizing the value of the firm using six common accounting variables. The results also provide four strategic variables that can be used for devising strategic and operating plans to maximize the value of firms.     

A reliability model for a k-out-of-N:G redundant system with multiple failure modes and common cause failures

The paper presents a reliability model of a k-out-of-N:G redundant system with M mutually exclusive failure modes and common cause failures. Failed system repair times are arbitrarily distributed. The system is in a failed state when (N−k+1) units failed or a common cause failure occurred. Laplace transforms of the state probabilities and the availability of the system are derived. Finally, the system steady-state availability is also reported.