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.     

Multimedia content recommendation in social networks using mood tags and synonyms

Multimedia Systems - The preferences of Web information purchasers are changing. Cost-effectiveness (i.e., an emphasis on performance with respect to price) is becoming less regarded than...     

Super-Resolution Reconstruction of Images Based on Microarray Camera

In the field of images and imaging, super-resolution (SR) reconstruction of images is a technique that converts one or more low-resolution (LR) images into a highresolution (HR) image. The classical two types of SR methods are mainly based on applying a single image or multiple images captured by a single camera. Microarray camera has the characteristics of small size, multi views, and the possibility of applying to portable devices. It has become a research hotspot in image processing. In this paper, we propose a SR reconstruction of images based on a microarray camera for sharpening and registration processing of array images. The array images are interpolated to obtain a HR image initially followed by a convolution neural network (CNN) procedure for enhancement. The convolution layers of our convolution neural network are 3×3 or 1×1 layers, of which the 1×1 layers are used to improve the network performance particularly. A bottleneck structure is applied to reduce the parameter numbers of the nonlinear mapping and to improve the nonlinear capability of the whole network. Finally, we use a 3×3 deconvolution layer to significantly reduce the number of parameters compared to the deconvolution layer of FSRCNN-s. The experiments show that the proposed method can not only ameliorate effectively the texture quality of the target image based on the array images information, but also further enhance the quality of the initial high resolution image by the improved CNN.     

A knowledge construction methodology to automate case-based learning using clinical documents

The case-based learning (CBL) approach has gained attention in medical education as an alternative to traditional learning methodology. However, current CBL systems do not facilitate and provide computer-based domain knowledge to medical students for solving real-world clinical cases during CBL practice. To automate CBL, clinical documents are beneficial for constructing domain knowledge. In the literature, most systems and methodologies require a knowledge engineer to construct machine-readable knowledge. Keeping in view these facts, we present a knowledge construction methodology (KCM-CD) to construct domain knowledge ontology (i.e., structured declarative knowledge) from unstructured text in a systematic way using artificial intelligence techniques, with minimum intervention from a knowledge engineer. To utilize the strength of humans and computers, and to realize the KCM-CD methodology, an interactive case-based learning system(iCBLS) was developed. Finally, the developed ontological model was evaluated to evaluate the quality of domain knowledge in terms of coherence measure. The results showed that the overall domain model has positive coherence values, indicating that all words in each branch of the domain ontology are correlated with each other and the quality of the developed model is acceptable.     

Supramolecular Assembly of Aminoethylene‐Lipopeptide PMO Conjugates into RNA Splice‐Switching Nanomicelles

Phosphorodiamidate morpholino oligomers (PMOs) are oligonucleotide analogs that can be used for therapeutic modulation of pre‐mRNA splicing. Similar to other classes of nucleic acid‐based therapeutics, PMOs require delivery systems for efficient transport to the intracellular target sites. Here, artificial peptides based on the oligo(ethylenamino) acid succinyl‐tetraethylenpentamine (Stp), hydrophobic modifications, and an azide group are presented, which are used for strain‐promoted azide‐alkyne cycloaddition conjugation with splice‐switching PMOs. By systematically varying the lead structure and formulation, it is determined that the type of contained fatty acid and supramolecular assembly have a critical impact on the delivery efficacy. A compound containing linolenic acid with three cis double bonds exhibits the highest splice‐switching activity and significantly increases functional protein expression in pLuc/705 reporter cells in vitro and after local administration in vivo. Structural and mechanistic studies reveal that the lipopeptide PMO conjugates form nanoparticles, which accelerate cellular uptake and that the content of unsaturated fatty acids enhances endosomal escape. In an in vitro Duchenne muscular dystrophy exon skipping model using H2K‐mdx52 dystrophic skeletal myotubes, the highly potent PMO conjugates mediate significant splice‐switching at very low nanomolar concentrations. The presented aminoethylene‐lipopeptides are thus a promising platform for the generation of PMO‐therapeutics with a favorable activity/toxicity profile.     

Optimization of Pathogen Capture in Flowing Fluids with Magnetic Nanoparticles

Magnetic nanoparticles have been employed to capture pathogens for many biological applications; however, optimal particle sizes have been determined empirically in specific capturing protocols. Here, a theoretical model that simulates capture of bacteria is described and used to calculate bacterial collision frequencies and magnetophoretic properties for a range of particle sizes. The model predicts that particles with a diameter of 460 nm should produce optimal separation of bacteria in buffer flowing at 1 L h⁻¹. Validating the predictive power of the model, Staphylococcus aureus is separated from buffer and blood flowing through magnetic capture devices using six different sizes of magnetic particles. Experimental magnetic separation in buffer conditions confirms that particles with a diameter closest to the predicted optimal particle size provide the most effective capture. Modeling the capturing process in plasma and blood by introducing empirical constants (c_e), which integrate the interfering effects of biological components on the binding kinetics of magnetic beads to bacteria, smaller beads with 50 nm diameters are predicted that exhibit maximum magnetic separation of bacteria from blood and experimentally validated this trend. The predictive power of the model suggests its utility for the future design of magnetic separation for diagnostic and therapeutic applications.     

Solid phase crystallization of amorphous silicon on glass by thin film heater for thin film transistor (TFT) application

A new process for solid phase crystallization (SPC) of amorphous silicon (a-Si) using thin film heater is reported. With this localized Ti silicide thin film heater, we successfully crystallized 500 Å-thick a-Si in a few minutes without any thermal deformation of glass substrate. The size of crystallized silicon grain was abnormally big (30-40 μm). Polycrystalline thin film transistors (TFT) fabricated using this unique thin film heater showed better mobility than those of conventional ones by furnace annealing.     

Evaluating the transfer of technology between application domains: a critical evaluation of the human component in the system

Technology can take many forms from the development of sophisticated electronics to the application of basic procedural principles. Technology transfer can also take several forms, however, in this case, it is the transfer of technological principles between application domains that is of primary interest. This paper presents a framework (the Five ‘M’s framework) that can be used to consider the likely success of technology transfer. The framework is based upon a sociotechnical system approach. The framework is illustrated with an evaluation of the introduction of intelligent cruise control into motor vehicles. It is argued that this is a technological concept first developed as an aerospace application in the form of the autopilot. In this case, it is argued that the transfer of this technology in its current form may potentially compromise safety.