Quantum Sensing in a Physiological‐Like Cell Niche Using Fluorescent Nanodiamonds Embedded in Electrospun Polymer Nanofibers

Fluorescent nanodiamonds (fNDs) containing nitrogen vacancy (NV) centers are promising candidates for quantum sensing in biological environments. This work describes the fabrication and implementation of electrospun poly lactic‐co‐glycolic acid (PLGA) nanofibers embedded with fNDs for optical quantum sensing in an environment, which recapitulates the nanoscale architecture and topography of the cell niche. A protocol that produces uniformly dispersed fNDs within electrospun nanofibers is demonstrated and the resulting fibers are characterized using fluorescent microscopy and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Optically detected magnetic resonance (ODMR) and longitudinal spin relaxometry results for fNDs and embedded fNDs are compared. A new approach for fast detection of time varying magnetic fields external to the fND embedded nanofibers is demonstrated. ODMR spectra are successfully acquired from a culture of live differentiated neural stem cells functioning as a connected neural network grown on fND embedded nanofibers. This work advances the current state of the art in quantum sensing by providing a versatile sensing platform that can be tailored to produce physiological‐like cell niches to replicate biologically relevant growth environments and fast measurement protocols for the detection of co‐ordinated endogenous signals from clinically relevant populations of electrically active neuronal circuits.     

裂缝性油气藏采收率：100个裂缝性油气田实例的经验总结

通过对世界上100个裂缝性油气藏的综合评价，研究储集层及流体本身的性质(包括孔隙度、渗透率、黏度、可动油比例、含水饱和度、润湿性及裂缝分布特征等)和驱动机制及油藏管理战略(优化日产量和采用不同类型的提高采收率技术)对其最终采收率的影响。将裂缝性油气藏分为4类：I类的基质几乎没有孔隙度和渗透率，裂缝是储存空间和流体流动的通道；Ⅱ类的基质有较低的孔隙度和渗透率，基质提供储存空间，裂缝提供流动通道；Ⅲ类(微孔隙)的基质具有高孔隙度和低渗透率，基质提供储存空间，裂缝提供流动通道；Ⅳ类(大孔隙)的基质具有高的孔隙度和渗透率，基质提供储存空间和流动通道，裂缝仅增加渗透率。对26个Ⅱ类油气藏和20个Ⅲ类油气藏的开采历史的研究表明：Ⅱ类油气藏的采收率受水驱强度和最优日产量控制，日产量过高会很容易破坏Ⅱ类油气藏，一些Ⅱ类油气藏如果管理得当，采收率可以很高，不需要二次或三次采油；Ⅲ类油气藏的采收率主要受岩石和流体本身性质的影响，特别是基质渗透率、流体重度、润湿性以及裂缝强度等，不进行二次或三次采油不可能完全开采，往往需要采用一些提高采收率的专门技术。以往将Ⅱ类和Ⅲ类裂缝性油气藏归为一类，认识它们的区别将有助于选择更好的开发策略。     

Arterial reactivity is enhanced in genetic males taking high dose estrogens

OBJECTIVES: We sought to assess whether high dose estrogen treatment is associated with enhanced arterial reactivity in genetic males. BACKGROUND: Although estrogens have been shown to enhance arterial reactivity in women, and are thereby thought to confer cardiovascular benefit, the vascular effects of long-term estrogen therapy in genetic males is unknown. METHODS: We studied the arterial physiology of 30 genetic males--15 male to female transsexuals receiving long-term high dose estrogen therapy and 15 healthy male control subjects matched for age, smoking history and vessel size. Using external vascular ultrasound, brachial artery diameter was measured at rest, after flow increase (causing endothelium-dependent dilation [EDD]) and after nitroglycerin (GTN), an endothelium-independent dilator. Blood pressure, cholesterol and testosterone levels were also measured in each subject. RESULTS: Total testosterone and free testosterone index levels were lower in the transsexuals compared with the control subjects (p < 0.001). In contrast, EDD was significantly higher in the transsexuals than in the control males (mean [+/-SD] 7.1 +/- 3.1% vs. 3.2 +/- 2.8%, p = 0.001), as was the GTN response (21.2 +/- 6.7% vs. 14.6 +/- 3.3%, p = 0.002). Total and high density lipoprotein cholesterol, blood pressure levels and baseline vessel size were similar in the two groups. On multivariate analysis, enhanced EDD was associated independently with estrogen therapy (p = 0.02) and with low total cholesterol (p = 0.04). An enhanced GTN response was also significantly associated with estrogen therapy (p = 0.03). CONCLUSIONS: Long-term treatment with high dose estrogens is associated with enhanced arterial reactivity in genetic males, which may be due to the effects of estrogen excess or androgen deprivation, or both.     

Data management and analysis for high-throughput DNA sequencingprojects

The rapid advances in molecular biology have begun to shift many of the bottlenecks in genome research from the laboratory to the data analysis facility. The pace at which this has occurred creates a situation in which software development always has to catch up with the flow of data. Since such large-scale processes were not anticipated, the analysis infrastructure has not been fully established. Furthermore, most systems that have been built were designed by the biologists who collected the data. More recently, computer scientists, mathematicians, and engineers have taken an interest in this problem. This has had a positive effect, since it has created a tight synergy between the informatics and the biology. Several principles affected the design of the system developed at TIGR. Each of the sample preparation, sequencing, and analysis steps had to be managed, scheduled, and tracked. This information had to be made readily available to those who needed it for carrying out their tasks. Different skill levels of the users had to be taken into account. The degree of human intervention at each step had to be evaluated and built into the design. A mixed processing environment of Macintosh and Unix platforms had to be integrated. Most importantly, the system had to save time, reduce error, and ensure uniformity of the analysis and quality of the results. In the authors' experience, the tools they have built work well because of their early decisions as to which systems to use for development. The authors settled on a robust relational database management system (Sybase) and a portable development environment (C, C++)     

Comparison of laparoscopic and minilap cholecystectomy for acute cholecystitis

The charts of all patients with acute cholecystitis undergoing either laparoscopic or minilap cholecystectomy at the Chinle Comprehensive Health Care Facility between October 1, 1991, and August 15, 1993, were retrospectively reviewed. During that period, 54 patients underwent laparoscopic cholecystectomy and 45 patients had minilap procedures. The two groups had similar mean age, sex distribution, temperature, leukocyte count, gallbladder wall thickness, and duration of preoperative symptoms. While laparoscopic cholecystectomy took an average of 16 min longer to perform than minilap cholecystectomy, patients who had laparoscopic cholecystectomy had less blood loss, reduced postoperative narcotic needs, and shorter hospital stays.     

The use of Schottky barrier diodes for the detection of surface contamination and damage in the fabrication of GaAs MESFETS

The gates of GaAs MESFETS rely on the formation of a Schottky diode between the semiconductor surface and a deposited metal and so are extremely sensitive to the nature of this interface. For this reason an investigation of surface damage and contamination by the various processing stages involved in IC fabrication has been undertaken. This paper outlines the results obtained from processes involved in activation of ion implantation through annealing with a dielectric encapsulant, wet chemical etching, and metallization. Methods for removing or minimizing the effects of processing damage or contamination are also investigated.     

Neuropsychological and psychosocial effects of the FMR-1 full mutation: Case report of monozygotic twins discordant for the fragile X syndrome.

An extensive evaluation was conducted with 16-yr-old monozygotic twins concordant for the fragile X full mutation but discordant for mental retardation. The clearly affected twin had an IQ score of 47; 77% of her neuropsychological z scores were at least 2 SDs below average. Her sister had an IQ score of 105 and average neuropsychological performance. However, each girl demonstrated relative verbal strengths and visual-spatial weaknesses. Their parents rated each girl as having significant problems with attention, conduct, anxiety-withdrawal, and hyperactivity. The girls did not rate themselves as having significant anxiety. These findings are consistent with group data on females with fragile X and demonstrate the wide range of effects associated with the fragile X full mutation. This case report implicates the importance of a psychosocial phenotype of fragile X independent of cognitive ability level. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Metadata's role in a scientific archive

Computational and laboratory experiments generate masses of data that must be stored reliably, with minimal effort on each researcher's part, and must be retrievable for decades. The storage environment must also work seamlessly across scientific disciplines and capture all of a file system's features in a semantically-based catalog that provides Boolean, keyword, and tree-based data access. The authors describe a metadata-based archive for scientific data that provides flexible archive storage for very large data sets. The system uses metadata to organize and manage the data without imposing predefined metadata formats on scientists.     

Effect of nabumetone on hemostasis during arthroscopic knee surgery

The known effects of commonly used nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) on hemostatic parameters have led to concern over their use in the perioperative period. Nabumetone, unlike other NSAIDs, has little effect on collagen-induced platelet aggregation. To evaluate the effect of nabumetone 2000 mg daily on other hemostatic parameters (e.g., bleeding time, prothrombin time, and partial thromboplastin time) in the clinical setting, this double-masked study was conducted in patients with osteoarthritis undergoing arthroscopic knee surgery. After a 1-week placebo washout period, 58 patients were randomized to receive nabumetone and 53 were randomized to receive placebo. They were assessed before surgery (after 1 to 2 weeks of treatment) and again after surgery (after an additional 3 weeks of treatment). The study was designed to have 90% power to show equivalence in bleeding time to within 1.5 minutes, a difference assumed to be of no clinical importance. No meaningful differences were observed between the groups in any of the measured hemostatic parameters. Before surgery, the bleeding time increased by only 0.3 minutes with nabumetone and decreased by 0.2 minutes with placebo. The mean (+/- SD) difference between the groups in change from baseline was 0.5 +/- 0.3 minutes. After surgery, the changes were 0.1 minutes and 0.0 minutes, respectively, and the difference between groups was 0.2 +/- 0.3 minutes. These differences were neither statistically nor clinically significant, and maximum individual increases were similar in each group. Furthermore, there were no reports of abnormal bleeding in the operative knees. The results of this study show that nabumetone had little or no effect on hemostasis and suggest that this drug can be used safely in the perioperative period.