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About 132 different glucosinolates are known to occur naturally in plants. They are biosynthesized from amino acids: so-called aliphatic glucosinolates derived from mainly methionine, but also alanine, leucine, isoleucine, or valine. (Most glucosinolates are actually derived from chain-elongated homologues of these amino acids, e.g. glucoraphanin is derived from dihomomethionine, which is methionine chain-elongated twice.) Aromatic glucosinolates include indolic glucosinolates, such as glucobrassicin, derived from tryptophan and others from phenylalanine, its chain-elongated homologue homophenylalanine, and sinalbin derived from tyrosine. | 6 | Carbohydrates |
Deutsche Bundespost started issuing stamps on fluorescent Lumogen paper in 1960 in connection with trials for automated mail processing in the Darmstadt area. Fluorescent paper was generally used for stamps of Deutsche Bundespost and Deutsche Bundespost Berlin from 1961 on. Deutsche Post AG continues to use this technology. Deutsche Post of the GDR did not use luminescent tagging on stamps. | 0 | Luminescence |
A germicidal lamp (also known as disinfection lamp or sterilizer lamp) is an electric light that produces ultraviolet C (UVC) light. This short-wave ultraviolet light disrupts DNA base pairing, causing formation of pyrimidine dimers, and leads to the inactivation of bacteria, viruses, and protozoans. It can also be used to produce ozone for water disinfection. They are used in ultraviolet germicidal irradiation (UVGI).
There are four common types available:
* Low-pressure mercury lamps
* High-pressure mercury lamps
* Excimer lamps
* LEDs | 8 | Ultraviolet Radiation |
Superparamagnetism is a form of magnetism which appears in small ferromagnetic or ferrimagnetic nanoparticles. In sufficiently small nanoparticles, magnetization can randomly flip direction under the influence of temperature. The typical time between two flips is called the Néel relaxation time. In the absence of an external magnetic field, when the time used to measure the magnetization of the nanoparticles is much longer than the Néel relaxation time, their magnetization appears to be in average zero; they are said to be in the superparamagnetic state. In this state, an external magnetic field is able to magnetize the nanoparticles, similarly to a paramagnet. However, their magnetic susceptibility is much larger than that of paramagnets. | 7 | Magnetic Ordering |
Vitriolage is the deliberate splashing of a person or object with acid, also known as vitriol, in order to deface or kill. A female who engages in such an act is known as a vitrioleuse. There are instances of this act throughout history and in modern times, often in places where honor killings are also common. | 4 | Acids + Bases |
Zinc sulfide is usually produced from waste materials from other applications. Typical sources include smelter, slag, and pickle liquors. As an example, the synthesis of ammonia from methane requires a priori removal of hydrogen sulfide impurities in the natural gas, for which zinc oxide is used. This scavenging produces zinc sulfide:
:ZnO + HS → ZnS + HO | 0 | Luminescence |
Undark was a trade name for luminous paint made with a mixture of radioactive radium and zinc sulfide, as produced by the U.S. Radium Corporation between 1917 and 1938. It was used primarily in watch and clock dials. The people working in the industry who applied the radioactive paint became known as the Radium Girls because many of them became ill and some died from exposure to the radiation emitted by the radium contained within the product. The product was the direct cause of radium jaw in the dial painters. Undark was also available as a kit for general consumer use and marketed as glow-in-the-dark paint. | 0 | Luminescence |
In naphtha cracking process, C4R3 refers to C4 residual obtained after separation of 1,3-butadiene, isobutylene, and 1-butene from C4 raffinate stream which mainly consists of cis- or trans-2-butene, n-butane, and unseparated 1-butene. Normally C4R3 is being process through a selective hydrogenation unit (SHU) and CDHydro deisobutenizer unit to produce isobutylene as a feed to tert-butyl alcohol plant. | 5 | Separation Processes |
According to Gordon Pusch, a physicist at Argonne National Laboratory, various breakeven calculations on muon-catalyzed fusion omit the heat energy the muon beam itself deposits in the target. By taking this factor into account, muon-catalyzed fusion can already exceed breakeven; however, the recirculated power is usually very large compared to power out to the electrical grid (about 3–5 times as large, according to estimates). Despite this rather high recirculated power, the overall cycle efficiency is comparable to conventional fission reactors; however the need for 4–6 MW electrical generating capacity for each megawatt out to the grid probably represents an unacceptably large capital investment. Pusch suggested using Bogdan Maglich's "migma" self-colliding beam concept to significantly increase the muon production efficiency, by eliminating target losses, and using tritium nuclei as the driver beam, to optimize the number of negative muons.
In 2021, Kelly, Hart and Rose produced a μCF model whereby the ratio, Q, of thermal energy produced to the kinetic energy of the accelerated deuterons used to create negative pions (and thus negative muons through pion decay) was optimized. In this model, the heat energy of the incoming deuterons as well as that of the particles produced due to the deuteron beam impacting a tungsten target was recaptured to the extent possible, as suggested by Gordon Pusch in the previous paragraph. Additionally, heat energy due to tritium breeding in a lithium-lead shell was recaptured, as suggested by Jändel, Danos and Rafelski in 1988. The best Q value was found to be about 130% assuming that 50% of the muons produced were actually utilized for fusion catalysis. Furthermore, assuming that the accelerator was 18% efficient at transforming electrical energy into deuteron kinetic energy and conversion efficiency of heat energy into electrical energy of 60%, they estimate that, currently, the amount of electrical energy that could be produced by a μCF reactor would be 14% of the electrical energy consumed. In order for this to improve, they suggest that some combination of a) increasing accelerator efficiency and b) increasing the number of fusion reactions per negative muon above the assumed level of 150 would be needed. | 3 | Nuclear Fusion |
Wayne Campbell at Massey University, New Zealand, has experimented with a wide variety of organic dyes based on porphyrin. In nature, porphyrin is the basic building block of the hemoproteins, which include chlorophyll in plants and hemoglobin in animals. He reports efficiency on the order of 5.6% using these low-cost dyes. | 8 | Ultraviolet Radiation |
The Coulomb barrier, named after Coulomb's law, which is in turn named after physicist Charles-Augustin de Coulomb, is the energy barrier due to electrostatic interaction that two nuclei need to overcome so they can get close enough to undergo a nuclear reaction. | 3 | Nuclear Fusion |
At the intracellular level, hECTs exhibit several essential structural features of cardiomyocytes, including organized sarcomeres, gap-junctions, and sarcoplasmic reticulum structures; however, the distribution and organization of many of these structures is characteristic of neonatal heart tissue rather than adult human heart muscle. hECTs also express key cardiac genes (α-MHC, SERCA2a and ACTC1) nearing the levels seen in the adult heart. Analogous to the characteristics of ECTs from animal models, hECTs beat spontaneously and reconstitute many fundamental physiological responses of normal heart muscle, such as the Frank-Starling mechanism and sensitivity to calcium. hECTs show dose-dependent responses to certain drugs, such as morphological changes in action potentials due to ion channel blockers and modulation of contractile properties by inotropic and lusitropic agents. | 2 | Tissue Engineering |
Spinning band distillation is a technique used to separate liquid mixtures which are similar in boiling points. When liquids with similar boiling points are distilled, the vapors are mixtures, and not pure compounds. Fractionating columns help separate the mixture by allowing the mixed vapors to cool, condense, and vaporize again in accordance with Raoult's law. With each condensation-vaporization cycles, the vapors are enriched in a certain component. A larger surface area allows more cycles, improving separation.
Spinning band distillation takes this concept one step further by using a spinning helical band made of an inert material such as metal or Teflon to push the rising vapors and descending condensate to the sides of the column, coming into close contact with each other. This speeds up equilibration and provides for a greater number of condensation-vaporization cycles. | 5 | Separation Processes |
In condensed matter physics, magnetic anisotropy describes how an objects magnetic properties can be different depending on direction. In the simplest case, there is no preferential direction for an objects magnetic moment. It will respond to an applied magnetic field in the same way, regardless of which direction the field is applied. This is known as magnetic isotropy. In contrast, magnetically anisotropic materials will be easier or harder to magnetize depending on which way the object is rotated.
For most magnetically anisotropic materials, there are two easiest directions to magnetize the material, which are a 180° rotation apart. The line parallel to these directions is called the easy axis. In other words, the easy axis is an energetically favorable direction of spontaneous magnetization. Because the two opposite directions along an easy axis are usually equivalently easy to magnetize along, the actual direction of magnetization can just as easily settle into either direction, which is an example of spontaneous symmetry breaking.
Magnetic anisotropy is a prerequisite for hysteresis in ferromagnets: without it, a ferromagnet is superparamagnetic. | 7 | Magnetic Ordering |
Directed differentiation provides a potentially unlimited and manipulable source of cell and tissues.
Some applications are impaired by the immature phenotype of the pluripotent stem cells (PSCs)-derived cell type, which limits the physiological and functional studies possible.
Several application domains emerged: | 2 | Tissue Engineering |
Microscope-based diagnostics are widely performed and served as a gold standard in histological analysis. However this procedure generally requires a series time-consuming lab-based procedures including fixation, paraffin embedment, sectioning, and staining to produce microscope slides with optically thin tissue slides (4–6 µm). While in developed regions histology is commonly used, people who live in areas with limited resources can hardly access it and consequently are in need for a low-cost, more efficient way to access pathological diagnosis. The main significance of MUSE system comes from its capacity to produce high-resolution microscopic image with subcellular features in a time-efficient manner with less costs and less lab-expertises requirements.
With 280 nm deep UV excitation and simple but robust hardware design, MUSE system can collect fluorescence signals without the need for fluorescence filtering techniques or complex mathematical image reconstruction. It has potential for generate high quality images containing more information than microscope slides in terms of its 2.5 dimensional features. MUSE images have been validated with diagnostic values. The system is capable to produce images from various tissue type in different sizes, either fresh or fixed. | 8 | Ultraviolet Radiation |
Fluorescent black light tubes are typically made in the same fashion as normal fluorescent tubes except that a phosphor that emits UVA light instead of visible white light is used on the inside of the tube. The type most commonly used for black lights, designated blacklight blue or "BLB" by the industry, has a dark blue filter coating on the tube, which filters out most visible light, so that fluorescence effects can be observed. These tubes have a dim violet glow when operating. They should not be confused with "blacklight" or "BL" tubes, which have no filter coating, and have a brighter blue color. These are made for use in "bug zapper" insect traps where the emission of visible light does not interfere with the performance of the product. The phosphor typically used for a near 368 to 371 nanometer emission peak is either europium-doped strontium fluoroborate (:) or europium-doped strontium borate (:) while the phosphor used to produce a peak around 350 to 353 nanometres is lead-doped barium silicate (:). "Blacklight blue" lamps peak at 365 nm.
Manufacturers use different numbering systems for black light tubes. Philips uses one system which is becoming outdated (2010), while the (German) Osram system is becoming dominant outside North America. The following table lists the tubes generating blue, UVA and UVB, in order of decreasing wavelength of the most intense peak. Approximate phosphor compositions, major manufacturer's type numbers and some uses are given as an overview of the types available. "Peak" position is approximated to the nearest 10 nm. "Width" is the measure between points on the shoulders of the peak that represent 50% intensity. | 8 | Ultraviolet Radiation |
Alternative organophosphorus compounds include trioctylphosphine oxide and bis(2,4,4-trimethyl pentyl)phosphinic acid. Secondary, tertiary, and quaternary amines have also been used for some uranium extractions. Compared to phosphate extractants, amines are more selective for uranium, extract the uranium faster, and are easily stripped with a wider variety of reagents. However, the phosphates are more tolerant of solids in the feed solution and show faster phase separation. | 5 | Separation Processes |
A multitude of organ structures have been recapitulated using organoids. This section aims to outline the state of the field as of now through providing an abridged list of the organoids that have been successfully created, along with a brief outline based on the most recent literature for each organoid, and examples of how it has been utilized in research. | 2 | Tissue Engineering |
Glycations occur mainly in the bloodstream to a small proportion of the absorbed simple sugars: glucose, fructose, and galactose. It appears that fructose has approximately ten times the glycation activity of glucose, the primary body fuel. Glycation can occur through Amadori reactions, Schiff base reactions, and Maillard reactions; which lead to advanced glycation end products (AGEs). | 6 | Carbohydrates |
Energy recovery can reduce energy consumption by 50% or more. Much of the input energy can be recovered from the concentrate flow, and the increasing efficiency of energy recovery devices greatly reduces energy requirements. Devices used, in order of invention, are:
* Turbine or Pelton wheel: a water turbine driven by the concentrate flow, connected to the pump drive shaft provides part of the input power. Positive displacement axial piston motors have been used in place of turbines on smaller systems.
* Turbocharger: a water turbine driven by concentrate flow, directly connected to a centrifugal pump that boosts the output pressure, reducing the pressure needed from the pump and thereby its energy input, similar in construction principle to car engine turbochargers.
* Pressure exchanger: using the pressurized concentrate flow, via direct contact or a piston, to pressurize part of the membrane feed flow to near concentrate flow pressure. A boost pump then raises this pressure by typically 3 bar / 50 psi to the membrane feed pressure. This reduces flow needed from the high-pressure pump by an amount equal to the concentrate flow, typically 60%, and thereby its energy input. These are widely used on larger low-energy systems. They are capable of 3 kWh/m or less energy consumption.
* Energy-recovery pump: a reciprocating piston pump. The pressurized concentrate flow is applied to one side of each piston to help drive the membrane feed flow from the opposite side. These are the simplest energy recovery devices to apply, combining the high pressure pump and energy recovery in a single self-regulating unit. These are widely used on smaller low-energy systems. They are capable of 3 kWh/m or less energy consumption.
* Batch operation: RO systems run with a fixed volume of fluid (thermodynamically a closed system) do not suffer from wasted energy in the brine stream, as the energy to pressurize a virtually incompressible fluid (water) is negligible. Such systems have the potential to reach second-law efficiencies of 60%. | 5 | Separation Processes |
Magnetostrictive materials can convert magnetic energy into kinetic energy, or the reverse, and are used to build actuators and sensors. The property can be quantified by the magnetostrictive coefficient, λ, which may be positive or negative and is defined as the fractional change in length as the magnetization of the material increases from zero to the saturation value. The effect is responsible for the familiar "electric hum" () which can be heard near transformers and high power electrical devices.
Cobalt exhibits the largest room-temperature magnetostriction of a pure element at 60 microstrains. Among alloys, the highest known magnetostriction is exhibited by Terfenol-D, (Ter for terbium, Fe for iron, NOL for Naval Ordnance Laboratory, and D for dysprosium). Terfenol-D, , exhibits about 2,000 microstrains in a field of 160 kA/m (2 kOe) at room temperature and is the most commonly used engineering magnetostrictive material. Galfenol, , and Alfer, , are newer alloys that exhibit 200-400 microstrains at lower applied fields (~200 Oe) and have enhanced mechanical properties from the brittle Terfenol-D. Both of these alloys have <100> easy axes for magnetostriction and demonstrate sufficient ductility for sensor and actuator applications.
Another very common magnetostrictive composite is the amorphous alloy with its trade name Metglas 2605SC. Favourable properties of this material are its high saturation-magnetostriction constant, λ, of about 20 microstrains and more, coupled with a low magnetic-anisotropy field strength, H, of less than 1 kA/m (to reach magnetic saturation). Metglas 2605SC also exhibits a very strong ΔE-effect with reductions in the effective Young's modulus up to about 80% in bulk. This helps build energy-efficient magnetic MEMS.
Cobalt ferrite, (CoO·FeO), is also mainly used for its magnetostrictive applications like sensors and actuators, thanks to its high saturation magnetostriction (~200 parts per million). In the absence of rare-earth elements, it is a good substitute for Terfenol-D. Moreover, its magnetostrictive properties can be tuned by inducing a magnetic uniaxial anisotropy. This can be done by magnetic annealing, magnetic field assisted compaction, or reaction under uniaxial pressure. This last solution has the advantage of being ultrafast (20 min), thanks to the use of spark plasma sintering.
In early sonar transducers during World War II, nickel was used as a magnetostrictive material. To alleviate the shortage of nickel, the Japanese navy used an iron-aluminium alloy from the Alperm family. | 7 | Magnetic Ordering |
According to the Acid Survivors Foundation in Bangladesh, the country has reported 3000 acid attack victims since 1999, peaking at 262 victims for the year of 2002. Rates have been steadily decreasing by 15% to 20% since 2002, with the amount of acid attack victims reported at 91 in Bangladesh as recently as 2011. Bangladesh acid attacks shows the most gendered discrimination, with one study citing a male to female victim ratio of 0.15:1 and another reporting that 82% of acid attack survivors in Bangladesh are women. Younger women were especially prone to attack, with a recent study reporting that 60% of acid assault survivors are between the ages of 10 and 19. According to Mridula Bandyopadhyay and Mahmuda Rahman Khan, it is a form of violence primarily targeted at women. They describe it as a relatively recent form of violence, with the earliest record in Bangladesh from 1983.
In societies like Bangladesh’s, where women are typically treated as property and lacking agency, acid attacks are often perpetrated by men who become enraged after women rebuff their requests for relationship or marriage. One study showed that refusal of marriage proposals accounted for 55% of acid assaults, with abuse from a husband or other family member (18%), property disputes (11%) and refusal of sexual advances (2%) as other leading causes. Additionally, the use of acid attacks in dowry arguments has been reported in Bangladesh, with 15% of cases studied by the Acid Survivors Foundation citing dowry disputes as the motive. The chemical agents most commonly used to commit these attacks are hydrochloric acid and sulfuric acid. | 4 | Acids + Bases |
Acid has been used in metallurgy and for etching since ancient times. The rhetorical and theatrical term "La Vitrioleuse" was coined in France after a "wave of vitriolage" occurred according to the popular press where, in 1879, 16 cases of vitriol attacks were widely reported as crimes of passion perpetrated predominantly by women against other women. Much was made of the idea that women, no matter how few, had employed such violent means to an end. On 17 October 1915, acid was fatally thrown on Prince Leopold Clement of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, heir to the House of Koháry, by his distraught mistress, Camilla Rybicka, who then killed herself. Sensationalizing such incidents made for lucrative newspaper sales. Similarly, multiple acid attacks were reported in the UK in the nineteenth century and the first half of the twentieth century. Again, these were seen as a crime carried out by women, although in practice perpetrators were as likely to be male as female.
The use of acid as a weapon began to rise in many developing nations, specifically those in South Asia. The first recorded acid attacks in South Asia occurred in Bangladesh in 1967, India in 1982, and Cambodia in 1993. Since then, research has witnessed an increase in the quantity and severity of acid attacks in the region. However, this can be traced to significant underreporting in the 1980s and 1990s, along with a general lack of research on this phenomenon during that period.
Research shows acid attacks increasing in many developing nations, with the exception of Bangladesh which has observed a decrease in incidence in the past few years. | 4 | Acids + Bases |
The most promising results come from recellularized rat hearts. After only 8 days of maturation, the heart models were stimulated with an electrical signal to provide pacing. The heart models showed a unified contraction with a force equivalent to ~2% of a normal rat heart or ~25% of that of a 16-week-old human heart.
Although far from use in a clinical setting, there have been great advances in the field of bioartificial heart generation. The use of decellularization and recellularization processes, has led to the production of a three dimensional matrix that promotes cellular growth; the repopulation of the matrix containing appropriate cell composition; and the bioengineering of organs demonstrating functionality (limited) and responsiveness to stimuli. This area shows immense promise and with future research may redefine treatment of end stage heart failure. | 2 | Tissue Engineering |
The first step in the metabolism of fructose is the phosphorylation of fructose to fructose 1-phosphate by fructokinase (Km = 0.5 mM, ≈ 9 mg/100 ml), thus trapping fructose for metabolism in the liver. Hexokinase IV (Glucokinase), also occurs in the liver and would be capable of phosphorylating fructose to fructose 6-phosphate (an intermediate in the gluconeogenic pathway); however, it has a relatively high Km (12 mM) for fructose and, therefore, essentially all of the fructose is converted to fructose-1-phosphate in the human liver. Much of the glucose, on the other hand, is not phosphorylated (Km of hepatic glucokinase (hexokinase IV) = 10 mM), passes through the liver directed toward peripheral tissues, and is taken up by the insulin-dependent glucose transporter, GLUT 4, present on adipose tissue and skeletal muscle.
Fructose-1-phosphate then undergoes hydrolysis by fructose-1-phosphate aldolase (aldolase B) to form dihydroxyacetone phosphate (DHAP) and glyceraldehyde; DHAP can either be isomerized to glyceraldehyde 3-phosphate by triosephosphate isomerase or undergo reduction to glycerol 3-phosphate by glycerol 3-phosphate dehydrogenase. The glyceraldehyde produced may also be converted to glyceraldehyde 3-phosphate by glyceraldehyde kinase or converted to glycerol 3-phosphate by glyceraldehyde 3-phosphate dehydrogenase. The metabolism of fructose at this point yields intermediates in gluconeogenic pathway leading to glycogen synthesis, or can be oxidized to pyruvate and reduced to lactate, or be decarboxylated to acetyl CoA in the mitochondria and directed toward the synthesis of free fatty acid, resulting finally in triglyceride synthesis. | 6 | Carbohydrates |
Recent advances in technology have allowed for the use of argon gas to drive ice formation using a principle known as the Joule-Thomson effect. This gives physicians excellent control of the ice and minimizes complications using ultra-thin 17 gauge cryoneedles. | 1 | Cryobiology |
Depending upon the desired product, either the solvent or solute stream of RO will be waste. For food concentration applications, the concentrated solute stream is the product and the solvent stream is waste. For water treatment applications, the solvent stream is purified water and the solute stream is concentrated waste. The solvent waste stream from food processing may be used as reclaimed water, but there may be fewer options for disposal of a concentrated waste solute stream. Ships may use marine dumping and coastal desalination plants typically use marine outfalls. Landlocked RO plants may require evaporation ponds or injection wells to avoid polluting groundwater or surface runoff. | 5 | Separation Processes |
In altermagnetic materials, atoms form a regular pattern with alternating spin and spatial orientation at adjacent magnetic sites in the crystal.
Atoms with opposite magnetic moment are in altermagnets coupled by crystal rotation or mirror symmetry. The spatial orientation of magnetic atoms may originate from the surrounding cages of non-magnetic atoms. The opposite spin sublattices in altermagnetic manganese telluride (MnTe) are related by spin rotation combined with six-fold crystal rotation and half-unit cell translation. In altermagnetic ruthenium dioxide (RuO), the opposite spin sublattices are related by four-fold crystal rotation. | 7 | Magnetic Ordering |
The storage of seeds in a temperature and moisture controlled environment. This technique is used for taxa with orthodox seeds that tolerate desiccation. Seed bank facilities vary from sealed boxes to climate controlled walk-in freezers or vaults. Taxa with recalcitrant seeds that do not tolerate desiccation are typically not held in seed banks for extended periods of time. | 1 | Cryobiology |
Between 2000 and 2010, the effects of volumetric muscle loss (VML) were assessed as it pertains to muscle tissue engineering. VML can be caused by a variety of injuries or diseases, including general trauma, postoperative damage, cancer ablation, congenital defects, and degenerative myopathy. Although muscle contains a stem cell population called satellite cells that are capable of regenerating small muscle injuries, muscle damage in VML is so extensive that it overwhelms muscles natural regenerative capabilities. Currently VML is treated through an autologous muscle flap or graft but there are various problems associated with this procedure. Donor site morbidity, lack of donor tissue, and inadequate vascularization all limit the ability of doctors to adequately treat VML. The field of muscle tissue engineering attempts to address this problem through the design of a functional muscle construct that can be used to treat the damaged muscle instead of harvesting an autologous muscle flap from elsewhere on the patients body.
Research conducted between 2000 and 2010 informed the conclusion that functional analysis of a tissue engineered muscle construct is important to illustrate its potential to help regenerate muscle. A variety of assays are generally used to evaluate a tissue engineered muscle construct including immunohistochemistry, RT-PCR, electrical stimulation and resulting peak-to-peak voltage, scanning electron microscope imaging, and in vivo response.
The most recent advances in the field include cultured meat, biorobotic systems, and biohybrid impants in regenerative medicine or disease modeling. | 2 | Tissue Engineering |
There is some evidence that T cells exhibit hysteresis in that it takes a lower signal threshold to activate T cells that have been previously activated. Ras GTPase activation is required for downstream effector functions of activated T cells. Triggering of the T cell receptor induces high levels of Ras activation, which results in higher levels of GTP-bound (active) Ras at the cell surface. Since higher levels of active Ras have accumulated at the cell surface in T cells that have been previously stimulated by strong engagement of the T cell receptor, weaker subsequent T cell receptor signals received shortly afterwards will deliver the same level of activation due to the presence of higher levels of already activated Ras as compared to a naïve cell. | 7 | Magnetic Ordering |
The classic example of an IEC device is a fusor. A typical Fusor has two spherical metal cages, one inside another, in a vacuum. A high voltage is placed between the two cages. Fuel gas injected. The fuel ionizes and is accelerated toward the inner cage. Ions that miss the inner cage can fuse together.
Fusors are not considered part of the CBFR family, because they do not traditionally use beams.
There are many problems with the fusor as a fusion power reactor. One is that the electrical grids are charged to the point where there is a strong mechanical force pulling them together, which limits how small the grid materials can be. This results in a minimum rate of collisions between the ions and the grids, removing energy from the system. Additionally, these collisions spall off metal into the fuel, which causes it to rapidly lose energy through radiation. It may be that the smallest possible grid material is still large enough that collisions with the ions will remove energy from the system faster than the fusion rate. Beyond that, there are several loss mechanisms that suggest X-ray radiation from such a system will likewise remove energy faster than fusion can supply it. | 3 | Nuclear Fusion |
An accurate estimate of the gender ratio of victims and perpetrators is difficult to establish because many acid attacks are not reported or recorded by authorities. For example, a 2010 study in The Lancet described that there are "no reliable statistics" on the prevalence of acid attacks in Pakistan.
A 2007 literature review analyzed 24 studies in 13 countries over the past 40 years, covering 771 cases. According to the London-based charity Acid Survivors Trust International, 80% of acid attacks are on women, and acid assaults are grossly under-estimated. In some regions, assaults perpetrated on female victims by males are often driven by the mentality "If I can't have you, no one shall."
In Bangladesh, throwing acid has been labeled as a "gender crime", as there is a dominance of female victims who are assaulted by males, for the reason of refusing to marry, or refusing sexual advances. In Jamaica, women throwing acid on other women in relation to fights over male partners is a common cause. In the UK, the majority of victims are men, and many of these attacks are related to gang violence.
In India, a female victim was attacked with a knife twice, but no criminal charges were filed against the suspect. The victim was only given police aid after being hospitalized following an acid attack, raising questions of police apathy in dealing with cases of harassment.
Another factor that puts victims at increased risk for an acid assault is their socioeconomic status, as those living in poverty are more likely to be attacked. , the three nations with the most noted incidence of acid attacks – Bangladesh, India, and Cambodia – were ranked 75th, 101st, and 104th, respectively, out of 136 countries on the Global Gender Gap Index, a scale that measures equality in opportunities between men and women in nations. | 4 | Acids + Bases |
Reis was born and has always lived in Porto, being one of three children of a chemical engineering professor and a domestic. Reis spent a small part of his childhood in Metangula, Mozambique, a small town near Lake Niassa, while his father was engaged in military service during the Portuguese Colonial War. He is married with Olga Paiva and has one son, Bernardo Reis (born in 2001). He is a strong supporter of FC Porto.
Reis graduated in Metallurgical Engineering, University of Porto, Portugal, in 1990. He then completed a master's degree at the University of Porto, Portugal, in 1994. Reis did his PhD on Polymer Engineering – Biomaterials, Regenerative Medicine & Tissue Engineering, in the University of Minho, Portugal and Brunel University London, in 1999. He also completed a Doctor of Science (D.Sc.) degree on Biomedical Engineering - Biomaterials & Tissue Engineering, by University of Minho, Portugal, in 2007.
Reis has also received two Honoris Causa degrees: A first in Medicine from University of Granada, Spain, in 2010 and a second in Engineering from University Polytechnica of Bucharest, Romania, in 2018. | 2 | Tissue Engineering |
Since radioactivity was discovered around the beginning of the 20th century, the main application of radioluminescence has been in radioluminescent paint, used on watch and compass dials, gunsights, aircraft flight instrument faces, and other instruments, allowing them to be seen in darkness. Radioluminescent paint consists of a mixture of a chemical containing a radioisotope with a radioluminescent chemical (phosphor). The continuous radioactive decay of the isotope's atoms releases radiation particles which strike the molecules of the phosphor, causing them to emit light. The constant bombardment by radioactive particles causes the chemical breakdown of many types of phosphor, so radioluminescent paints lose some of their luminosity during their working life.
Radioluminescent materials may also be used in the construction of an optoelectric nuclear battery, a type of radioisotope generator in which nuclear energy is converted into light. | 0 | Luminescence |
Various cellular stress stimuli have been associated with changes in O-GlcNAc. Treatment with hydrogen peroxide, cobalt(II) chloride, UVB light, ethanol, sodium chloride, heat shock, and sodium arsenite, all result in elevated O-GlcNAc. Knockout of OGT sensitizes cells to thermal stress. Elevated O-GlcNAc has been associated with expression of Hsp40 and Hsp70. | 6 | Carbohydrates |
A substantial energy barrier of electrostatic forces must be overcome before fusion can occur. At large distances, two naked nuclei repel one another because of the repulsive electrostatic force between their positively charged protons. If two nuclei can be brought close enough together, however, the electrostatic repulsion can be overcome by the quantum effect in which nuclei can tunnel through coulomb forces.
When a nucleon such as a proton or neutron is added to a nucleus, the nuclear force attracts it to all the other nucleons of the nucleus (if the atom is small enough), but primarily to its immediate neighbors due to the short range of the force. The nucleons in the interior of a nucleus have more neighboring nucleons than those on the surface. Since smaller nuclei have a larger surface-area-to-volume ratio, the binding energy per nucleon due to the nuclear force generally increases with the size of the nucleus but approaches a limiting value corresponding to that of a nucleus with a diameter of about four nucleons. It is important to keep in mind that nucleons are quantum objects. So, for example, since two neutrons in a nucleus are identical to each other, the goal of distinguishing one from the other, such as which one is in the interior and which is on the surface, is in fact meaningless, and the inclusion of quantum mechanics is therefore necessary for proper calculations.
The electrostatic force, on the other hand, is an inverse-square force, so a proton added to a nucleus will feel an electrostatic repulsion from all the other protons in the nucleus. The electrostatic energy per nucleon due to the electrostatic force thus increases without limit as nuclei atomic number grows.
The net result of the opposing electrostatic and strong nuclear forces is that the binding energy per nucleon generally increases with increasing size, up to the elements iron and nickel, and then decreases for heavier nuclei. Eventually, the binding energy becomes negative and very heavy nuclei (all with more than 208 nucleons, corresponding to a diameter of about 6 nucleons) are not stable. The four most tightly bound nuclei, in decreasing order of binding energy per nucleon, are , , , and . Even though the nickel isotope, , is more stable, the iron isotope is an order of magnitude more common. This is due to the fact that there is no easy way for stars to create through the alpha process.
An exception to this general trend is the helium-4 nucleus, whose binding energy is higher than that of lithium, the next heavier element. This is because protons and neutrons are fermions, which according to the Pauli exclusion principle cannot exist in the same nucleus in exactly the same state. Each proton or neutron's energy state in a nucleus can accommodate both a spin up particle and a spin down particle. Helium-4 has an anomalously large binding energy because its nucleus consists of two protons and two neutrons (it is a doubly magic nucleus), so all four of its nucleons can be in the ground state. Any additional nucleons would have to go into higher energy states. Indeed, the helium-4 nucleus is so tightly bound that it is commonly treated as a single quantum mechanical particle in nuclear physics, namely, the alpha particle.
The situation is similar if two nuclei are brought together. As they approach each other, all the protons in one nucleus repel all the protons in the other. Not until the two nuclei actually come close enough for long enough so the strong attractive nuclear force can take over and overcome the repulsive electrostatic force. This can also be described as the nuclei overcoming the so-called Coulomb barrier. The kinetic energy to achieve this can be lower than the barrier itself because of quantum tunneling.
The Coulomb barrier is smallest for isotopes of hydrogen, as their nuclei contain only a single positive charge. A diproton is not stable, so neutrons must also be involved, ideally in such a way that a helium nucleus, with its extremely tight binding, is one of the products.
Using deuterium–tritium fuel, the resulting energy barrier is about 0.1 MeV. In comparison, the energy needed to remove an electron from hydrogen is 13.6 eV. The (intermediate) result of the fusion is an unstable He nucleus, which immediately ejects a neutron with 14.1 MeV. The recoil energy of the remaining He nucleus is 3.5 MeV, so the total energy liberated is 17.6 MeV. This is many times more than what was needed to overcome the energy barrier.
The reaction cross section (σ) is a measure of the probability of a fusion reaction as a function of the relative velocity of the two reactant nuclei. If the reactants have a distribution of velocities, e.g. a thermal distribution, then it is useful to perform an average over the distributions of the product of cross-section and velocity. This average is called the reactivity, denoted . The reaction rate (fusions per volume per time) is times the product of the reactant number densities:
If a species of nuclei is reacting with a nucleus like itself, such as the DD reaction, then the product must be replaced by .
increases from virtually zero at room temperatures up to meaningful magnitudes at temperatures of 10–100 keV. At these temperatures, well above typical ionization energies (13.6 eV in the hydrogen case), the fusion reactants exist in a plasma state.
The significance of as a function of temperature in a device with a particular energy confinement time is found by considering the Lawson criterion. This is an extremely challenging barrier to overcome on Earth, which explains why fusion research has taken many years to reach the current advanced technical state. | 3 | Nuclear Fusion |
Magnetoresistance is the tendency of a material (often ferromagnetic) to change the value of its electrical resistance in an externally-applied magnetic field. There are a variety of effects that can be called magnetoresistance. Some occur in bulk non-magnetic metals and semiconductors, such as geometrical magnetoresistance, Shubnikov–de Haas oscillations, or the common positive magnetoresistance in metals. Other effects occur in magnetic metals, such as negative magnetoresistance in ferromagnets or anisotropic magnetoresistance (AMR). Finally, in multicomponent or multilayer systems (e.g. magnetic tunnel junctions), giant magnetoresistance (GMR), tunnel magnetoresistance (TMR), colossal magnetoresistance (CMR), and extraordinary magnetoresistance (EMR) can be observed.
The first magnetoresistive effect was discovered in 1856 by William Thomson, better known as Lord Kelvin, but he was unable to lower the electrical resistance of anything by more than 5%. Today, systems including semimetals and concentric ring EMR structures are known. In these, a magnetic field can adjust the resistance by orders of magnitude. Since different mechanisms can alter the resistance, it is useful to separately consider situations where it depends on a magnetic field directly (e.g. geometric magnetoresistance and multiband magnetoresistance) and those where it does so indirectly through magnetization (e.g. AMR and TMR). | 7 | Magnetic Ordering |
A significant amount of the energy released by fusion reactions is composed of electromagnetic radiation, essentially X-rays due to Bremsstrahlung. Those X-rays can not be converted into electric power with the various electrostatic and magnetic direct energy converters listed above, and their energy is lost.
Whereas more classical thermal conversion has been considered with the use of a radiation/boiler/energy exchanger where the X-ray energy is absorbed by a working fluid at temperatures of several thousand degrees, more recent research done by companies developing nuclear aneutronic fusion reactors, like Lawrenceville Plasma Physics (LPP) with the Dense Plasma Focus, and Tri Alpha Energy, Inc. with the Colliding Beam Fusion Reactor (CBFR), plan to harness the photoelectric and Auger effects to recover energy carried by X-rays and other high-energy photons. Those photoelectric converters are composed of X-ray absorber and electron collector sheets nested concentrically in an onion-like array. Indeed, since X-rays can go through far greater thickness of material than electrons can, many layers are needed to absorb most of the X-rays. LPP announces an overall efficiency of 81% for the photoelectric conversion scheme. | 3 | Nuclear Fusion |
The targets used in neutron generators are thin films of metal such as titanium, scandium, or zirconium which are deposited onto a silver, copper or molybdenum substrate. Titanium, scandium, and zirconium form stable chemical compounds called metal hydrides when combined with hydrogen or its isotopes. These metal hydrides are made up of two hydrogen (deuterium or tritium) atoms per metal atom and allow the target to have extremely high densities of hydrogen. This is important to maximize the neutron yield of the neutron tube. The gas reservoir element also uses metal hydrides, e.g. uranium hydride, as the active material.
Titanium is preferred to zirconium as it can withstand higher temperatures (200 °C), and gives higher neutron yield as it captures deuterons better than zirconium. The maximum temperature allowed for the target, above which hydrogen isotopes undergo desorption and escape the material, limits the ion current per surface unit of the target; slightly divergent beams are therefore used. A 1 microampere ion beam accelerated at 200 kV to a titanium-tritium target can generate up to 10 neutrons per second. The neutron yield is mostly determined by the accelerating voltage and the ion current level.
An example of a tritium target in use is a 0.2 mm thick silver disc with a 1 micrometer layer of titanium deposited on its surface; the titanium is then saturated with tritium.
Metals with sufficiently low hydrogen diffusion can be turned into deuterium targets by bombardment of deuterons until the metal is saturated. Gold targets under such condition show four times higher efficiency than titanium. Even better results can be achieved with targets made of a thin film of a high-absorption high-diffusivity metal (e.g. titanium) on a substrate with low hydrogen diffusivity (e.g. silver), as the hydrogen is then concentrated on the top layer and can not diffuse away into the bulk of the material. Using a deuterium-tritium gas mixture, self-replenishing D-T targets can be made. The neutron yield of such targets is lower than of tritium-saturated targets in deuteron beams, but their advantage is much longer lifetime and constant level of neutron production. Self-replenishing targets are also tolerant to high-temperature bake-out of the tubes, as their saturation with hydrogen isotopes is performed after the bakeout and tube sealing. | 3 | Nuclear Fusion |
The reaction is fueled with deuterium, a widely available non-radioactive hydrogen isotope composed of one proton, one neutron, and one electron. The deuterium is confined in the space between the atoms of a metal solid such as erbium or titanium. Erbium can indefinitely maintain 10 cm deuterium atoms (deuterons) at room temperature. The deuteron-saturated metal forms an overall neutral plasma. The electron density of the metal reduces the likelihood that two deuterium nuclei will repel each other as they get closer together.
A dynamitron electron-beam accelerator generates an electron beam that hits a tantalum target and produces gamma rays, irradiating titanium deuteride or erbium deuteride. A gamma ray of about 2.2 megaelectron volts (MeV) strikes a deuteron and splits it into proton and neutron. The neutron collides with another deuteron. This second, energetic deuteron can experience screened fusion or a stripping reaction.
Although the lattice is notionally at room temperature, LCF creates an energetic environment inside the lattice where individual atoms achieve fusion-level energies. Heated regions are created at the micrometer scale. | 3 | Nuclear Fusion |
The most known empirical models in hysteresis are Preisach and Jiles-Atherton models. These models allow an accurate modeling of the hysteresis loop and are widely used in the industry. However, these models lose the connection with thermodynamics and the energy consistency is not ensured. A more recent model, with a more consistent thermodynamical foundation, is the vectorial incremental nonconservative consistent hysteresis (VINCH) model of Lavet et al. (2011) | 7 | Magnetic Ordering |
Glycan arrays have been used to characterize previously unknown biochemical interactions. For example, photo-generated glycan arrays have been used to characterize the immunogenic properties of a tetrasaccharide found on the surface of anthrax spores. Hence, glycan array technology can be used to study the specificity of host-pathogen interactions.
Early on, glycan arrays were proven useful in determining the specificity of the Hemagglutinin (influenza) of the Influenza A virus binding to the host and distinguishing across different strains of flu (including avian from mammalian). This was shown with CFG arrays as well as customised arrays.
Cross-platform benchmarks led to highlight the effect of glycan presentation and spacing on binding.
Glycan arrays are possibly combined with other techniques such as Surface Plasmon Resonance (SPR) to refine the characterisation of glycan-binding. For example, this combination led to demonstrate the calcium-dependent heparin binding of Annexin A1 that is involved in several biological processes including inflammation, apoptosis and membrane trafficking. | 6 | Carbohydrates |
A heated probe tip version of Dip Pen Lithography has also been demonstrated, thermal Dip Pen Lithography (tDPL), to deposit nanoparticles. Semiconductor, magnetic, metallic, or optically active nanoparticles can be written to a substrate via this method. The particles are suspended in a Poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) or equivalent polymer matrix, and heated by the probe tip until they begin to flow. The probe tip acts as a nano-pen, and can pattern nanoparticles into a programmed structure. Depending on the size of the nanoparticles, resolutions of 78–400 nm were attained. An O plasma etch can be used to remove the PMMA matrix, and in the case of Iron Oxide nanoparticles, further reduce the resolution of lines to 10 nm. Advantages unique to tDPL are that it is a maskless additive process that can achieve very narrow resolutions, it can also easily write many types of nanoparticles without requiring special solution preparation techniques. However there are limitations to this method. The nanoparticles must be smaller than the radius of gyration of the polymer, in the case of PMMA this is about 6 nm. Additionally, as nanoparticles increase in size viscosity increases, slowing the process. For a pure polymer deposition speeds of 200 μm/s are achievable. Adding nanoparticles reduces speeds to 2 μm/s, but is still faster than regular Dip Pen Lithography. | 2 | Tissue Engineering |
In chemistry, hydronium (hydroxonium in traditional British English) is the common name for the cation , also written as , the type of oxonium ion produced by protonation of water. It is often viewed as the positive ion present when an Arrhenius acid is dissolved in water, as Arrhenius acid molecules in solution give up a proton (a positive hydrogen ion, ) to the surrounding water molecules (). In fact, acids must be surrounded by more than a single water molecule in order to ionize, yielding aqueous and conjugate base. Three main structures for the aqueous proton have garnered experimental support: the Eigen cation, which is a tetrahydrate, HO(HO), the Zundel cation, which is a symmetric dihydrate, H(HO), and the Stoyanov cation, an expanded Zundel cation, which is a hexahydrate: H(HO)(HO). Spectroscopic evidence from well-defined IR spectra overwhelmingly supports the Stoyanov cation as the predominant form. For this reason, it has been suggested that wherever possible, the symbol H(aq) should be used instead of the hydronium ion. | 4 | Acids + Bases |
Microscopy with UV Surface Excitation (MUSE) is a novel microscopy method that utilizes the shallow penetration of UV photons (230–300 nm) excitation. Compared to conventional microscopes, which usually require sectioning to exclude blurred signals from outside of the focal plane, MUSE's low penetration depth limits the excitation volume to a thin layer, and removes the tissue sectioning requirement. The entire signal collected is the desired light, and all photons collected contribute to the image formation. | 8 | Ultraviolet Radiation |
* [http://www.adigosstemcells.com/regenerative-medicines.php Regenerative Medicine], gives more details about Regenerative Stem Cells.
* Kevin Strange and Viravuth Yin, "A Shot at Regeneration: A once abandoned drug compound shows an ability to rebuild organs damaged by illness and injury", Scientific American, vol. 320, no. 4 (April 2019), pp. 56–61. | 2 | Tissue Engineering |
A nanofountain probe (NFP) is a device for drawing micropatterns of liquid chemicals at extremely small resolution. An NFP contains a cantilevered micro-fluidic device terminated in a nanofountain. The embedded microfluidics facilitates rapid and continuous delivery of molecules from the on-chip reservoirs to the fountain tip. When the tip is brought into contact with the substrate, a liquid meniscus forms, providing a path for molecular transport to the substrate. By controlling the geometry of the meniscus through hold time and deposition speed, various inks and biomolecules could be patterned on a surface, with sub 100 nm resolution. | 2 | Tissue Engineering |
While the definition of sublimation is simple, there is often confusion as to what counts as a sublimation. | 5 | Separation Processes |
The ozone layer can be depleted by free radical catalysts, including nitric oxide (NO), nitrous oxide (NO), hydroxyl (OH), atomic chlorine (Cl), and atomic bromine (Br). While there are natural sources for all of these species, the concentrations of chlorine and bromine increased markedly in recent decades because of the release of large quantities of man-made organohalogen compounds, especially chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) and bromofluorocarbons. These highly stable compounds are capable of surviving the rise to the stratosphere, where Cl and Br radicals are liberated by the action of ultraviolet light. Each radical is then free to initiate and catalyze a chain reaction capable of breaking down over 100,000 ozone molecules. By 2009, nitrous oxide was the largest ozone-depleting substance (ODS) emitted through human activities.
The breakdown of ozone in the stratosphere results in reduced absorption of ultraviolet radiation. Consequently, unabsorbed and dangerous ultraviolet radiation is able to reach the Earths surface at a higher intensity. Ozone levels have dropped by a worldwide average of about 4 percent since the late 1970s. For approximately 5 percent of the Earths surface, around the north and south poles, much larger seasonal declines have been seen, and are described as "ozone holes". "Ozone holes" are actually patches in the ozone layer in which the ozone is thinner. The thinnest parts of the ozone are at the polar points of Earths axis. The discovery of the annual depletion of ozone above the Antarctic was first announced by Joe Farman, Brian Gardiner and Jonathan Shanklin, in a paper which appeared in Nature' on May 16, 1985.
Regulation attempts have included but not have been limited to the Clean Air Act implemented by the United States Environmental Protection Agency. The Clean Air Act introduced the requirement of [https://www.epa.gov/criteria-air-pollutants/naaqs-table National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS)] with ozone pollutions being one of six criteria pollutants. This regulation has proven to be effective since counties, cities and tribal regions must abide by these standards and the EPA also provides assistance for each region to regulate contaminants. Effective presentation of information has also proven to be important in order to educate the general population of the existence and regulation of ozone depletion and contaminants. A scientific paper was written by Sheldon Ungar in which the author explores and studies how information about the depletion of the ozone, climate change and various related topics. The ozone case was communicated to lay persons "with easy-to-understand bridging metaphors derived from the popular culture" and related to "immediate risks with everyday relevance". The specific metaphors used in the discussion (ozone shield, ozone hole) proved quite useful and, compared to global climate change, the ozone case was much more seen as a "hot issue" and imminent risk. Lay people were cautious about a depletion of the ozone layer and the risks of skin cancer.
"Bad" ozone can cause adverse health risks respiratory effects (difficulty breathing) and is proven to be an aggravator of respiratory illnesses such as asthma, COPD and emphysema. That is why many countries have set in place regulations to improve "good" ozone and prevent the increase of "bad" ozone in urban or residential areas. In terms of ozone protection (the preservation of "good" ozone) the European Union has strict guidelines on what products are allowed to be bought, distributed or used in specific areas. With effective regulation, the ozone is expected to heal over time.
In 1978, the United States, Canada and Norway enacted bans on CFC-containing aerosol sprays that damage the ozone layer. The European Community rejected an analogous proposal to do the same. In the U.S., chlorofluorocarbons continued to be used in other applications, such as refrigeration and industrial cleaning, until after the discovery of the Antarctic ozone hole in 1985. After negotiation of an international treaty (the Montreal Protocol), CFC production was capped at 1986 levels with commitments to long-term reductions. This allowed for a ten-year phase-in for developing countries (identified in Article 5 of the protocol). Since that time, the treaty was amended to ban CFC production after 1995 in the developed countries, and later in developing countries. Today, all of the world's 197 countries have signed the treaty. Beginning January 1, 1996, only recycled and stockpiled CFCs were available for use in developed countries like the US. This production phaseout was possible because of efforts to ensure that there would be substitute chemicals and technologies for all ODS uses.
On August 2, 2003, scientists announced that the global depletion of the ozone layer may be slowing down because of the international regulation of ozone-depleting substances. In a study organized by the American Geophysical Union, three satellites and three ground stations confirmed that the upper-atmosphere ozone-depletion rate slowed significantly during the previous decade. Some breakdown can be expected to continue because of ODSs used by nations which have not banned them, and because of gases which are already in the stratosphere. Some ODSs, including CFCs, have very long atmospheric lifetimes, ranging from 50 to over 100 years. It has been estimated that the ozone layer will recover to 1980 levels near the middle of the 21st century. A gradual trend toward "healing" was reported in 2016.
Compounds containing C–H bonds (such as hydrochlorofluorocarbons, or HCFCs) have been designed to replace CFCs in certain applications. These replacement compounds are more reactive and less likely to survive long enough in the atmosphere to reach the stratosphere where they could affect the ozone layer. While being less damaging than CFCs, HCFCs can have a negative impact on the ozone layer, so they are also being phased out. These in turn are being replaced by hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) and other compounds that do not destroy stratospheric ozone at all.
The residual effects of CFCs accumulating within the atmosphere lead to a concentration gradient between the atmosphere and the ocean. This organohalogen compound is able to dissolve into the ocean's surface waters and is able to act as a time-dependent tracer. This tracer helps scientists study ocean circulation by tracing biological, physical and chemical pathways. | 8 | Ultraviolet Radiation |
Small molecules that are able to inhibit TGF-β induced EMT are under development. Silmitasertib (CX-4945) is a small molecule inhibitor of protein kinase CK2, which has been supported to be linked with TGF-β induced EMT, and is currently in clinical trials for cholangiocarcinoma (bile duct cancer), as well as in preclinical development for hematological and lymphoid malignancies. In January 2017, Silmitasertib was granted orphan drug status by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for cholangiocarcinoma and is currently in phase II study. Silmitasertib is being developed by Senhwa Biosciences. Another small molecule inhibitor Galunisertib (LY2157299) is a potent TGF-β type I receptor kinase inhibitor that was demonstrated to reduce the size, the growth rate of tumors, and the tumor forming potential in triple negative breast cancer cell lines using mouse xenografts. Galunisertib is currently being developed by Lilly Oncology and is in phase I/II clinical trials for hepatocellular carcinoma, unresectable pancreatic cancer, and malignant glioma. Small molecule inhibitors of EMT are suggested to not act as a replacement for traditional chemotherapeutic agents but are likely to display the greatest efficacy in treating cancers when used in conjunction with them.
Antagomirs and microRNA mimics have gained interest as a potential source of therapeutics to target EMT induced metastasis in cancer as well as treating many other diseases. Antagomirs were first developed to target miR-122, a microRNA that was abundant and specific to the liver, and this discovery has led to the development of other antagomirs that can pair with specific microRNAs present in the tumor microenvironment or in the cancer cells. A microRNA mimic to miR-655 was found to suppress EMT through the targeting of EMT inducing transcription factor ZEB1 and TGF-β receptor 2 in a pancreatic cancer cell line. Overexpression of the miR-655 mimic in the Panc1 cancer cell line upregulated the expression of E-cadherin and suppressed the migration and invasion of mesenchymal-like cancer cells. The use of microRNA mimics to suppress EMT has expanded to other cancer cell lines and holds potential for clinical drug development. However, microRNA mimics and antagomirs suffer from a lack of stability in vivo and lack an accurate delivery system to target these molecules to the tumor cells or tissue for treatment. Improvements to antagomir and microRNA mimic stability through chemical modifications such as locked nucleic acid (LNA) oligonucleotides or peptide nucleic acids (PNA) can prevent the fast clearing of these small molecules by RNases. Delivery of antagomirs and microRNA mimics into cells by enclosing these molecules in liposome-nanoparticles has generated interest however liposome structures suffer from their own drawbacks that will need to be overcome for their effective use as a drug delivery mechanism. These drawbacks of liposome-nanoparticles include nonspecific uptake by cells and induction of immune responses. The role that microRNAs play in cancer development and metastasis is under much scientific investigation and it is yet to be demonstrated whether microRNA mimics or antagomirs may serve as standard clinical treatments to suppress EMT or oncogenic microRNAs in cancers. | 2 | Tissue Engineering |
Many stilbene derivatives (stilbenoids) are present naturally in plants. An example is resveratrol and its cousin, pterostilbene. | 0 | Luminescence |
During the separation, the cell only needs to be suspended in a buffer solution and enter a centrifuge, the whole processes does not involve any chemical (e.g. staining) and physical (e.g. attachment of antibody, lyses of cell membrane) effect on the cells, so the cell will remain unchanged before and after the separation. Because of this, the collected cells can be used for further experiment or further separation by other techniques. Finally the CCE rely on centrifugal force and the counter flow drag force to separate the cells, so the speed of separation is fast. In summary:
*Minimum effect on the cells
*High recovery viability
*Separated cells can be used further
*Rapid | 5 | Separation Processes |
Past efforts to replicate in vivo cardiac tissue environments have proven to be challenging due to difficulties when mimicking contractility and electrophysiological responses. Such features would greatly increase the accuracy of in vitro experiments.
Microfluidics has already contributed to in vitro experiments on cardiomyocytes, which generate the electrical impulses that control the heart rate. For instance, researchers have built an array of PDMS microchambers, aligned with sensors and stimulating electrodes as a tool that will electrochemically and optically monitor the cardiomyocytes' metabolism. Another lab-on-a-chip similarly combined a microfluidic network in PDMS with planar microelectrodes, this time to measure extracellular potentials from single adult murine cardiomyocytes.
A reported design of a heart-on-a-chip claims to have built "an efficient means of measuring structure-function relationships in constructs that replicate the hierarchical tissue architectures of laminar cardiac muscle." This chip determines that the alignment of the myocytes in the contractile apparatus made of cardiac tissue and the gene expression profile (affected by shape and cell structure deformation) contributes to the force produced in cardiac contractility. This heart-on-a-chip is a biohybrid construct: an engineered anisotropic ventricular myocardium is an elastomeric thin film.
The design and fabrication process of this particular microfluidic device entails first covering the edges of a glass surface with tape (or any protective film) such as to contour the substrate's desired shape. A spin coat layer of PNIPA is then applied. After its dissolution, the protective film is peeled away, resulting in a self-standing body of PNIPA. The final steps involve the spin coating of protective surface of PDMS over the cover slip and curing. Muscular thin films (MTF) enable cardiac muscle monolayers to be engineered on a thin flexible substrate of PDMS. In order to properly seed the 2D cell culture, a microcontact printing technique was used to lay out a fibronectin "brick wall" pattern on the PDMS surface. Once the ventricular myocytes were seeded on the functionalized substrate, the fibronectin pattern oriented them to generate an anisotropic monolayer.
After the cutting of the thin films into two rows with rectangular teeth, and subsequent placement of the whole device in a bath, electrodes stimulate the contraction of the myocytes via a field-stimulation – thus curving the strips/teeth in the MTF. Researchers have developed a correlation between tissue stress and the radius of curvature of the MTF strips during the contractile cycle, validating the demonstrated chip as a "platform for quantification of stress, electrophysiology and cellular architecture."
While researchers have focused on 2D cell cultures, 3D cell constructs mimic the in vivo environment and the interactions (e.g., cell to cell) occurring in the human body better. Hence, they are considered promising models for studies such as toxicology and response to drugs. Based on the study of Chen et al., the interactions of valvular endothelial/interstitial cells (VECs/VICs) are studied via a 3D PDMS-glass microfluidic device with a top channel flowed with VECs under shear stress, a membrane with uniform pores, and a bottom channel containing VIC-hydrogel. VECs are verified to restrain the differentiation of morbid VIC myofibroblast, with reinforced suppression by shear stress.
Another PDMS 3D microfluidic heart-on-a-chip design is measured to generate 10% to 15% of uniaxial cyclic mechanical strains. The device consists of a cell culture with hanging posts for caging and an actuation compartment with scaffolding posts to avoid buckling of PDMS, along with the cardiac cycle pressure signal imitation. The neonatal rat micro-engineered cardiac tissues (μECTs) stimulated by this design show improved synchronous beating, proliferation, maturation, and viability compared to the unstimulated control. The contraction rate of human induced pluripotent stem cell-derived cardiomyocytes (hiPSC-CM) is observed to accelerate with 100-fold less isoprenaline, a heart block treatment, when having electrical pacing signal (+ES) compared to that without ES.
3D microfluidic heart-on-a-chips have also facilitated the research of heart diseases. For instance, cardiac hypertrophy and fibrosis are studied via the respective biomarker level of the mechanically stimulated μECTs, such as atrial natriuretic peptide (ANP) for the former and transforming growth factor-β (TGF-β) for the latter. Also, the knowledge of ischaemia is gained by action potential observations.
The microfluidic approaches utilized for teasing apart specific mechanisms at the single-cell level and at the tissue-level are becoming increasingly sophisticated and so are the fabrication methods. Rapid dissemination and availability of low cost, high resolution 3D printing technology is revolutionizing this space and opening new possibilities for building patient specific heart and cardiovascular systems. The confluence of high resolution 3D printing, patient derived iPSCs with artificial intelligence is posed to make significant strides towards truly personalized heart modelling and ultimately, patient care. | 2 | Tissue Engineering |
Ultraviolet light can be generated by some light-emitting diodes, but wavelengths shorter than 380 nm are uncommon, and the emission peaks are broad, so only the very lowest energy UV photons are emitted, within predominant not visible light. | 8 | Ultraviolet Radiation |
Letters and postcards fed into an automated mail processing plant are illuminated with ultraviolet light. The reaction of the luminescent features of the stamps on this illumination is used to position the mail items such that the stamps can be cancelled, and that the significant parts of the address such as postcodes may be read and the mail be sorted accordingly.
The luminescent features of the stamps are generally invisible or barely visible to the human eye in normal illumination. They can, however, be identified under ultraviolet light similar to the way it is done in the postal machinery. In general, fluorescent features can be identified with UV light of a longer wavelength than needed for phosphorescent features (see below).
The luminescent substance ("taggant") can be printed over the whole surface of the stamp, the main design, the margins only, single bands or bars or other patterns, or can be added the paper itself.
The tagging pattern can also be varied to enable sorting of mail according to the service class. | 0 | Luminescence |
A still is an apparatus used to distill liquid mixtures by heating to selectively boil and then cooling to condense the vapor. A still uses the same concepts as a basic distillation apparatus, but on a much larger scale. Stills have been used to produce perfume and medicine, water for injection (WFI) for pharmaceutical use, generally to separate and purify different chemicals, and to produce distilled beverages containing ethanol. | 5 | Separation Processes |
The magnetic space groups can be placed into three categories. First, the 230 colorless groups contain only spatial symmetry, and correspond to the crystallographic space groups. Then there are 230 grey groups, which are invariant under antisymmetry. Finally are the 1191 black-white groups, which contain the more complex symmetries. There are two common conventions for giving names to the magnetic space groups. They are Opechowski-Guiccione and Belov-Neronova-Smirnova. For colorless and grey groups, the conventions use the same names, but they treat the black-white groups differently. A full list of the magnetic space groups (in both conventions) can be found both in the original papers, and in several places online.
The types can be distinguished by their different construction. Type I magnetic space groups, are identical to the ordinary space groups,.
Type II magnetic space groups, , are made up of all the symmetry operations of the crystallographic space group, , plus the product of those operations with time reversal operation, . Equivalently, this can be seen as the direct product of an ordinary space group with the point group .
Type III magnetic space groups, , are constructed using a group , which is a subgroup of with index 2.
Type IV magnetic space groups, , are constructed with the use of a pure translation, , which is Seitz notation for null rotation and a translation, . Here the is a vector (usually given in fractional coordinates) pointing from a black colored point to a white colored point, or vice versa. | 7 | Magnetic Ordering |
Persistent luminescence materials are mainly used in safety signs, watch dials, decorative objects and toys. They have also been used as nanoprobes in small animal optical imaging. | 0 | Luminescence |
According to the Bohr–van Leeuwen theorem, when statistical mechanics and classical mechanics are applied consistently, the thermal average of the magnetization is always zero. Magnetism cannot be explained without quantum mechanics. That means that it can not be explained without taking into account that matter consists of atoms. Next are listed some semi-classical approaches to it, using a simple atom model, as they are easy to understand and relate to even though they are not perfectly correct.
The magnetic moment of a free atom is due to the orbital angular momentum and spin of its electrons and nucleus. When the atoms are such that their shells are completely filled, they do not have any net magnetic dipole moment in the absence of an external magnetic field. When present, such a field distorts the trajectories (classical concept) of the electrons so that the applied field could be opposed as predicted by the Lenz's law. In other words, the net magnetic dipole induced by the external field is in the opposite direction, and such materials are repelled by it. These are called diamagnetic materials.
Sometimes an atom has a net magnetic dipole moment even in the absence of an external magnetic field. The contributions of the individual electrons and nucleus to the total angular momentum do not cancel each other. This happens when the shells of the atoms are not fully filled up (Hund's Rule). A collection of such atoms however, may not have any net magnetic moment as these dipoles are not aligned. An external magnetic field may serve to align them to some extent and develop a net magnetic moment per volume. Such alignment is temperature dependent as thermal agitation acts to disorient the dipoles. Such materials are called paramagnetic.
In some materials, the atoms (with net magnetic dipole moments) can interact with each other to align themselves even in the absence of any external magnetic field when the thermal agitation is low enough. Alignment could be parallel (ferromagnetism) or anti-parallel. In the case of anti-parallel, the dipole moments may or may not cancel each other (antiferromagnetism, ferrimagnetism). | 7 | Magnetic Ordering |
UV light can be used to harden particular glues, resins and inks by causing a photochemical reaction inside those substances. This process of hardening is called ‘curing’. UV curing is adaptable to printing, coating, decorating, stereolithography, and in the assembly of a variety of products and materials. In comparison to other technologies, curing with UV energy may be considered a low-temperature process, a high-speed process, and is a solventless process, as cure occurs via direct polymerization rather than by evaporation. Originally introduced in the 1960s, this technology has streamlined and increased automation in many industries in the manufacturing sector. A primary advantage of curing with ultraviolet light is the speed at which a material can be processed. Speeding up the curing or drying step in a process can reduce flaws and errors by decreasing time that an ink or coating spends wet. This can increase the quality of a finished item, and potentially allow for greater consistency. Another benefit to decreasing manufacturing time is that less space needs to be devoted to storing items which can not be used until the drying step is finished.
Because UV energy has unique interactions with many different materials, UV curing allows for the creation of products with characteristics not achievable via other means. This has led to UV curing becoming fundamental in many fields of manufacturing and technology, where changes in strength, hardness, durability, chemical resistance, and many other properties are required. | 8 | Ultraviolet Radiation |
Magnetostriction is a property of magnetic materials that causes them to change their shape or dimensions during the process of magnetization. The variation of materials' magnetization due to the applied magnetic field changes the magnetostrictive strain until reaching its saturation value, λ. The effect was first identified in 1842 by James Joule when observing a sample of iron.
Magnetostriction applies to magnetic fields, while electrostriction applies to electric fields.
Magnetostriction causes energy loss due to frictional heating in susceptible ferromagnetic cores, and is also responsible for the low-pitched humming sound that can be heard coming from transformers, where alternating currents produce a changing magnetic field. | 7 | Magnetic Ordering |
In a stripping reaction, the metal strips a neutron from accelerated deuteron and fuses it with the metal, yielding a different isotope of the metal. If the produced metal isotope is radioactive, it may decay into another element, releasing energy in the form of ionizing radiation in the process. | 3 | Nuclear Fusion |
This is the standard drum filter discharge. A scraper blade, which serves to redirect the filter cake into the discharge chute, removes the cake from the filter cloth just before re-entering the vat. Scraper discharge is used if the desired separation requires high filtration rate or if heavy solid slurry is used or if the slurry is easy to filter to produce cake formation or if a longer wear resistance is desired for the separation of the mentioned slurry. | 5 | Separation Processes |
Fahy is the world's foremost expert in organ cryopreservation by vitrification. Fahy introduced the modern successful approach to vitrification for cryopreservation in cryobiology and he is widely credited, along with William F. Rall, for introducing vitrification into the field of reproductive biology.
In 2005, where he was a keynote speaker at the annual Society for Cryobiology meeting, Fahy announced that Twenty-First Century Medicine had successfully cryopreserved a rabbit kidney at −130 °C by vitrification and transplanted it into a rabbit after rewarming, with subsequent long-term life support by the vitrified-rewarmed kidney as the sole kidney. This research breakthrough was later published in the peer-reviewed journal Organogenesis.
Fahy is also a biogerontologist and is the originator and Editor-in-Chief of The Future of Aging: Pathways to Human Life Extension, a multi-authored book on the future of biogerontology. He currently serves on the editorial boards of Rejuvenation Research and the Open Geriatric Medicine Journal and served for 16 years as a Director of the American Aging Association and for 6 years as the editor of AGE News, the organization's newsletter. | 1 | Cryobiology |
O-GlcNAcylation of a protein can alter its interactome. As O-GlcNAc is highly hydrophilic, its presence may disrupt hydrophobic protein-protein interactions. For example, O-GlcNAc disrupts Sp1 interaction with TAF110, and O-GlcNAc disrupts CREB interaction with TAF130 and CRTC.
Some studies have also identified instances where protein-protein interactions are induced by O-GlcNAc. Metabolic labeling with the diazirine-containing O-GlcNDAz has been applied to identify protein-protein interactions induced by O-GlcNAc. Using a bait glycopeptide based roughly on a consensus sequence for O-GlcNAc, α-enolase, EBP1, and 14-3-3 were identified as potential O-GlcNAc readers. X-ray crystallography showed that 14-3-3 recognized O-GlcNAc through an amphipathic groove that also binds phosphorylated ligands. Hsp70 has also been proposed to act as a lectin to recognize O-GlcNAc. It has been suggested that O-GlcNAc plays a role in the interaction of α-catenin and β-catenin. | 6 | Carbohydrates |
The pH of gastric acid in humans is 1.5-2.0. This is a much lower pH level than that of most animals and very close to scavengers, which eat carrion. This suggests that carrion feeding could have been more important in human evolution than previously thought. | 4 | Acids + Bases |
Polyketones, thermoplastic polymers, are formed by the copolymerisation of carbon monoxide and one or more alkenes (typically ethylene with propylene). The process utilises a palladium(II) catalyst with a bidentate ligand like 2,2′-bipyridine or 1,10-phenanthroline (phen) with a non-coordinating BARF counterion, such as [(phen)Pd(CH)(CO)]BAr. The preparation of the catalyst involves the reaction of a dimethyl palladium complex with Brookhart's acid in acetonitrile with loss of methane and the catalytic species is formed by uptake of carbon monoxide to displace acetonitrile.
:[(EtO)H]BAr + [(phen)Pd(CH)] + MeCN → [(phen)Pd(CH)(MeCN)]BAr + 2 EtO + CH
:[(phen)Pd(CH)(MeCN)]BAr + CO → [(phen)Pd(CH)(CO)]BAr + MeCN
The mechanism involves migratory insertion whereby the polymer chain is bound to the catalytic centre and grows by the sequential insertion of carbon monoxide and the alkene between the palladium atom and the existing chain. Defects occur when insertions do not alternate – that is, a carbon monoxide insertion follows a carbon monoxide insertion or an alkene insertion follows an alkene insertion – these are highlighted in red in the figure below. This catalyst produces a very low rate of defects due to the difference in Gibbs energy of activation of each insertion – the energy barrier to inserting an alkene immediately following an alkene insertion is ~12 kJ mol higher than barrier to carbon monoxide insertion. Use of monodentate phosphine ligands also leads to undesirable side-products but bidentate phosphine ligands like 1,3-bis(diphenylphosphino)propane have been used industrially. | 4 | Acids + Bases |
In 1984, the Hart lab was probing for terminal GlcNAc residues on the surfaces of thymocytes and lymphocytes. Bovine milk β-1,4-galactosyltransferase, which reacts with terminal GlcNAc residues, was used to perform radiolabeling with UDP-[H]galactose. β-elimination of serine and threonine residues demonstrated that most of the [H]galactose was attached to proteins O-glycosidically; chromatography revealed that the major β-elimination product was Galβ1-4GlcNAcitol. Insensitivity to peptide N-glycosidase treatment provided additional evidence for O-linked GlcNAc. Permeabilizing cells with detergent prior to radiolabeling greatly increased the amount of [H]galactose incorporated into Galβ1-4GlcNAcitol, leading the authors to conclude that most of the O-linked GlcNAc monosaccharide residues were intracellular. | 6 | Carbohydrates |
The dynamics of the motion of the bubble is characterized to a first approximation by the Rayleigh–Plesset equation (named after Lord Rayleigh and Milton Plesset):
This is an approximate equation that is derived from the Navier–Stokes equations (written in spherical coordinate system) and describes the motion of the radius of the bubble R as a function of time t. Here, μ is the viscosity, is the external pressure infinitely far from the bubble, is the internal pressure of the bubble, is the liquid density, and γ is the surface tension. The over-dots represent time derivatives. This equation, though approximate, has been shown to give good estimates on the motion of the bubble under the acoustically driven field except during the final stages of collapse. Both simulation and experimental measurement show that during the critical final stages of collapse, the bubble wall velocity exceeds the speed of sound of the gas inside the bubble. Thus a more detailed analysis of the bubble's motion is needed beyond Rayleigh–Plesset to explore the additional energy focusing that an internally formed shock wave might produce. In the static case, the Rayleigh-Plesset equation simplifies, yielding the Young–Laplace equation. | 0 | Luminescence |
Preimplantation genetic screening (PGS) or preimplantation genetic diagnosis (PGD) has been suggested to be able to be used in IVF to select an embryo that appears to have the greatest chances for successful pregnancy. However, a systematic review and meta-analysis of existing randomised controlled trials came to the result that there is no evidence of a beneficial effect of PGS with cleavage-stage biopsy as measured by live birth rate. On the contrary, for those of advanced maternal age, PGS with cleavage-stage biopsy significantly lowers the live birth rate. Technical drawbacks, such as the invasiveness of the biopsy, and non-representative samples because of mosaicism are the major underlying factors for inefficacy of PGS.
Still, as an expansion of IVF, patients who can benefit from PGS/PGD include:
* Those who have a family history of inherited disease
* Those who want prenatal sex discernment. This can be used to diagnose monogenic disorders with sex linkage. It can potentially be used for sex selection, wherein a fetus is aborted if having an undesired sex.
* Those who already have a child with an incurable disease and need compatible cells from a second healthy child to cure the first, resulting in a "saviour sibling" that matches the sick child in HLA type.
PGS screens for numeral chromosomal abnormalities while PGD diagnosis the specific molecular defect of the inherited disease. In both PGS and PGD, individual cells from a pre-embryo, or preferably trophectoderm cells biopsied from a blastocyst, are analysed during the IVF process. Before the transfer of a pre-embryo back to a person's uterus, one or two cells are removed from the pre-embryos (8-cell stage), or preferably from a blastocyst. These cells are then evaluated for normality. Typically within one to two days, following completion of the evaluation, only the normal pre-embryos are transferred back to the uterus. Alternatively, a blastocyst can be cryopreserved via vitrification and transferred at a later date to the uterus. In addition, PGS can significantly reduce the risk of multiple pregnancies because fewer embryos, ideally just one, are needed for implantation. | 1 | Cryobiology |
He obtained his undergraduate and graduate degrees from the University of Manitoba in Winnipeg, Canada. Dr. Wowk obtained his PhD in physics in 1997. His graduate studies included work in online portal imaging for radiotherapy at the Manitoba Cancer Treatment and Research Foundation (now Cancer Care Manitoba), and work on artifact reduction for functional magnetic resonance imaging at the National Research Council of Canada. His work in the latter field is cited by several text books, including
Functional MRI which includes an image he obtained of magnetic field changes inside the human body caused by respiration. | 1 | Cryobiology |
As previously mentioned, Hox genes encode transcription factors that regulate embryonic and post-embryonic developmental processes. The expression of Hox genes is regulated in part by the tight, spatial arrangement of conserved coding and non-coding DNA regions. The potential for evolutionary alterations in Hox cluster composition is viewed to be small among vertebrates. On the other hand, recent studies of a small number of non-mammalian taxa propose greater dissimilarity than initially considered. Next, generation sequencing of considerable genomic fragments greater than 100 kilobases from the eastern newt (Notophthalmus viridescens) was analyzed. Subsequently, it was found that the composition of Hox cluster genes were conserved relative to orthologous regions from other vertebrates. Furthermore, it was found that the length of introns and intergenic regions varied. In particular, the distance between HoxD13 and HoxD11 is longer in newt than orthologous regions from vertebrate species with expanded Hox clusters and is predicted to exceed the length of the entire HoxD clusters (HoxD13–HoxD4) of humans, mice, and frogs. Many recurring DNA sequences were recognized for newt Hox clusters, counting an enrichment of DNA transposon-like sequences similar to non-coding genomic fragments. Researchers found the results to suggest that Hox cluster expansion and transposon accumulation are common features of non-mammalian tetrapod vertebrates.
After the loss of a limb, cells draw together to form a clump known as a blastema. This superficially appears undifferentiated, but cells that originated in the skin later develop into new skin, muscle cells into new muscle and cartilage cells into new cartilage. It is only the cells from just beneath the surface of the skin that are pluripotent and able to develop into any type of cell. Salamander Hox genomic regions show elements of conservation and variety in comparison to other vertebrate species. Whereas the structure and organization of Hox coding genes is conserved, newt Hox clusters show variation in the lengths of introns and intergenic regions, and the HoxD13–11 region exceeds the lengths of orthologous segments even among vertebrate species with expanded Hox clusters. Researchers have suggested that the HoxD13–11 expansion predated a basal salamander genome size amplification that occurred approximately 191 million years ago, because it preserved in all three extant amphibian groups. Supplementary verification supports the proposal that Hox clusters are acquiescent to structural evolution and variation is present in the lengths of introns and intergenic regions, relatively high numbers of repetitive sequences, and non-random accumulations of DNA transposons in newts and lizards. Researchers found that the non-random accretion of DNA-like transposons could possibly change developmental encoding by generating sequence motifs for transcriptional control.
In conclusion, the available data from several non-mammalian tetrapods suggest that Hox structural flexibility is the rule, not the exception. It is thought that this elasticity may allow for developmental variation across non-mammalian taxa. This is of course true for both embryogenesis and during the redeployment of Hox genes during post-embryonic developmental processes, such as metamorphosis and regeneration. | 2 | Tissue Engineering |
There are currently very few ova banks in existence.
Generally, the main purpose of storing ova, at present, is to overcome infertility which may arise at a later age, or due to a disease. The ova are generally collected between 31 and 35 years of age.
The procedure of collecting ova may or may not include ovarian hyperstimulation.
It can be expected however that ova collection will become more important in the future, i.e. for third party reproduction, and/or for producing stem cells, i.e. from unfertilized eggs (oocytes). | 1 | Cryobiology |
The European Fusion Development Agreement (EFDA) was created in 1999.
Until 2008 EFDA was responsible for the exploitation of the Joint European Torus, the coordination and support of fusion-related research & development activities carried out by the Associations and by European Industry and coordination of the European contribution to large scale international collaborations, such as the ITER-project.
2008 has brought a significant change to the structure of the European Fusion Programme. The change was triggered by the signature of the ITER agreement at the end of 2006. The ITER parties had agreed to provide contributions to ITER through legal entities referred to as "Domestic Agencies". Europe has fulfilled its obligation by launching the European Domestic Agency called "[http://fusionforenergy.europa.eu/ Fusion for Energy]", also called F4E, in March 2007.
With the appearance of F4E EFDA´s role has changed and it has been reorganised. A revised European Fusion Development Agreement entered into force on 1 January 2008 focuses on research coordination with two main objectives: to prepare for the operation and exploitation of ITER and to further develop and consolidate the knowledge base needed for overall fusion development and in particular for DEMO, the first electricity producing experimental fusion power plant being built after ITER. | 3 | Nuclear Fusion |
Phosphorescent paint is commonly called "glow-in-the-dark" paint. It is made from phosphors such as silver-activated zinc sulfide or doped strontium aluminate, and typically glows a pale green to greenish-blue color. The mechanism for producing light is similar to that of fluorescent paint, but the emission of visible light persists long after it has been exposed to light. Phosphorescent paints have a sustained glow which lasts for up to 12 hours after exposure to light, fading over time.
This type of paint has been used to mark escape paths in aircraft and for decorative use such as "stars" applied to walls and ceilings. It is an alternative to radioluminescent paint. Kenners Lightning Bug Glo-Juice was a popular non-toxic paint product in 1968, marketed at children, alongside other glow-in-the-dark toys and novelties. Phosphorescent paint is typically used as body paint, on childrens walls and outdoors.
When applied as a paint or a more sophisticated coating (e.g. a thermal barrier coating), phosphorescence can be used for temperature detection or degradation measurements known as phosphor thermometry. | 0 | Luminescence |
Current muscle tissue engineering trends lead towards the development of skeletal muscle regeneration techniques over smooth muscle or cardiac muscle regeneration. A current trend found throughout literature is the treatment of Volumetric Muscle Loss (VML) using muscle tissue engineering techniques. VML is the result of abrupt loss of skeletal muscle due to surgical resection, trauma, or combat injuries. It has been observed that tissue grafts, the current treatment plan, do not restore full functionality or aesthetic integrity to the site of injury. Muscle tissue engineering offers an optimistic possibility for patients, as in situ, in vivo, and in vitro techniques have been proven to restore functionality to muscle tissue in the wound site. Methods being explored include acellular scaffold implantation, cell-seeded scaffold implantation, and in vitro fabrication of muscle grafts. Preliminary data from each of these methods promises a solution for patients suffering from VML.
Beyond specific technological advances in the field of muscle tissue engineering, researchers are working to establish a connection with the larger umbrella that is tissue engineering. | 2 | Tissue Engineering |
The principle of Solvent Impregnated Resins was first shown in 1971 by Abraham Warshawsky. This first venture was aimed at the extraction of metals. Ever since then, SIRs have been mainly used for metal extraction, be it heavy metals or specifically radioactive metals. Much research on SIRs has been done by J.L Cortina and e.g. N. Kabay, K. Jerabek or J. Serarols. However, lately investigations also go towards using SIRs for the separation of natural compounds, and even for separation of biotechnological products. | 5 | Separation Processes |
Given the extremely low interaction cross-sections, the number of particles required in the reaction area is enormous, well beyond any existing technology. But this assumes that the particles in question only get one pass through the system. If the particles that missed collisions can be recycled in a way that their energy can be retained and the particles have multiple chances to collide, the energy imbalance can be reduced.
One such solution would be to place the reaction area of a two-beam system between the poles of a powerful magnet. The field will cause the electrically charged particles to bend around into circular paths and come back into the reaction area again. However, such systems naturally defocus the particles, so this will not lead them back to their original trajectories accurately enough to produce the densities desired.
A better solution is to use a dedicated storage ring which includes focusing systems to maintain the beam accuracy. However, these only accept particles in a relatively narrow selection of original trajectories. If two particles approach closely and scatter off at an angle, they will no longer recycle into the storage area. It is easy to show that the loss rate from such scatterings is far greater than the fusion rate.
Many attempts have been made to address this scattering problem. | 3 | Nuclear Fusion |
The funding for Project Sherwood began with the closure of another program called Project Lincoln at the Hood Laboratory. As the number of people working on the projects grew, so did the budget. Under Strauss the program was reorganized, and its funding and staffing increased dramatically. From early 1954 to 1955, the number of people working on Project Sherwood grew from 45 to 110. By the next year, that number had doubled. The original budget from the shut down of Project Lincoln was $1 million. The breakdown of the year budget from 1951 to 1957 can be seen in the table below. At its peak, Project Sherwood had a budget of $23 million per year and retained more than 500 scientists. | 3 | Nuclear Fusion |
Tissue clearing has been applied to the nervous system, bones (including teeth), skeletal muscles, hearts and vasculature, gastrointestinal organs, urogenital organs, skin, lymph nodes, mammary glands, lungs, eyes, tumors, and adipose tissues. Whole-body clearing is less common, but has been done in smaller animals, including rodents. Tissue clearing has also been applied to human cancer tissues | 2 | Tissue Engineering |
Electroluminescent Displays (ELDs) are a type of flat panel display created by sandwiching a layer of electroluminescent material such as Gallium arsenide between two layers of conductors. When current flows, the layer of material emits radiation in the form of visible light. Electroluminescence (EL) is an optical and electrical phenomenon where a material emits light in response to an electric current passed through it, or to a strong electric field. The term "electroluminescent display" describes displays that use neither LED nor OLED devices, that instead use traditional electroluminescent materials. Beneq is the only manufacturer of TFEL (Thin Film Electroluminescent Display) and TAESL displays, which are branded as LUMINEQ Displays. The structure of a TFEL is similar to that of a passive matrix LCD or OLED display, and TAESL displays are essentially transparent TEFL displays with transparent electrodes. TAESL displays can have a transparency of 80%. Both TEFL and TAESL displays use chip-on-glass technology, which mounts the display driver IC directly on one of the edges of the display. TAESL displays can be embedded onto glass sheets. Unlike LCDs, TFELs are much more rugged and can operate at temperatures from −60 to 105°C and unlike OLEDs, TFELs can operate for 100,000 hours without considerable burn-in, retaining about 85% of their initial brightness. The electroluminescent material is deposited using atomic layer deposition, which is a process that deposits one 1-atom thick layer at a time. | 0 | Luminescence |
Tissue clearing methods have varying compatibility with different methods of fluorescent labeling. Some are better suited to pre-clearing tagging approaches, such as genetic labeling. while others require post-clearing tagging, such as immunolabeling and chemical dye labeling. | 2 | Tissue Engineering |
Until the twentieth century, all naturally occurring magnetic substances were called ferromagnets. In 1936, Louis Néel published a paper proposing the existence of a new form of cooperative magnetism he called antiferromagnetism. While working with MnSb, French physicist Charles Guillaud discovered that the current theories on magnetism were not adequate to explain the behavior of the material, and made a model to explain the behavior. In 1948, Néel published a paper about a third type of cooperative magnetism, based on the assumptions in Guillaud's model. He called it ferrimagnetism. In 1970, Néel was awarded for his work in magnetism with the Nobel Prize in Physics. | 7 | Magnetic Ordering |
As different proteins have different compositions of amino acids, different protein molecules precipitate at different concentrations of salt solution.
Unwanted proteins can be removed from a protein solution mixture by salting out as long as the solubility of the protein in various concentrations of salt solution is known.
After removing the precipitate by filtration or centrifugation, the desired protein can be precipitated by altering the salt concentration to the level at which the desired protein becomes insoluble.
One demerit of salting out in purification of proteins is that, in addition to precipitating a specific protein of interest, contaminants are also precipitated as well. Thus to obtain a purer protein of interest, additional purification methods such as ion exchange chromatography may be required. | 5 | Separation Processes |
Muon-catalyzed fusion (abbreviated as μCF or MCF) is a process allowing nuclear fusion to take place at temperatures significantly lower than the temperatures required for thermonuclear fusion, even at room temperature or lower. It is one of the few known ways of catalyzing nuclear fusion reactions.
Muons are unstable subatomic particles which are similar to electrons but 207 times more massive. If a muon replaces one of the electrons in a hydrogen molecule, the nuclei are consequently drawn 186 times closer than in a normal molecule, due to the reduced mass being 186 times the mass of an electron. When the nuclei move closer together, the fusion probability increases, to the point where a significant number of fusion events can happen at room temperature.
Methods for obtaining muons, however, require far more energy than can be produced by the resulting fusion reactions. Muons have a mean lifetime of , much longer than many other subatomic particles but nevertheless far too brief to allow their useful storage.
To create useful room-temperature muon-catalyzed fusion, reactors would need a cheap, efficient muon source and/or a way for each individual muon to catalyze many more fusion reactions. | 3 | Nuclear Fusion |
One type of hysteresis is a lag between input and output. An example is a sinusoidal input that results in a sinusoidal output , but with a phase lag :
Such behavior can occur in linear systems, and a more general form of response is
where is the instantaneous response and is the impulse response to an impulse that occurred time units in the past. In the frequency domain, input and output are related by a complex generalized susceptibility that can be computed from ; it is mathematically equivalent to a transfer function in linear filter theory and analogue signal processing.
This kind of hysteresis is often referred to as rate-dependent hysteresis. If the input is reduced to zero, the output continues to respond for a finite time. This constitutes a memory of the past, but a limited one because it disappears as the output decays to zero. The phase lag depends on the frequency of the input, and goes to zero as the frequency decreases.
When rate-dependent hysteresis is due to dissipative effects like friction, it is associated with power loss. | 7 | Magnetic Ordering |
Since and N have the same number of electrons, is isoelectronic with ammonia. As shown in the images above, has a trigonal pyramidal molecular geometry with the oxygen atom at its apex. The bond angle is approximately 113°, and the center of mass is very close to the oxygen atom. Because the base of the pyramid is made up of three identical hydrogen atoms, the molecules symmetric top configuration is such that it belongs to the point group. Because of this symmetry and the fact that it has a dipole moment, the rotational selection rules are ΔJ = ±1 and ΔK = 0. The transition dipole lies along the c'-axis and, because the negative charge is localized near the oxygen atom, the dipole moment points to the apex, perpendicular to the base plane. | 4 | Acids + Bases |
Oocyte selection is a procedure that is performed prior to in vitro fertilization, in order to use oocytes with maximal chances of resulting in pregnancy. In contrast, embryo selection takes place after fertilization.
Not all women can conceive naturally, leaving them with a need for technologies and research that can help them have children. Women who might not be able to have their kids naturally may have the option of in vitro fertilization. In vitro fertilization can be a series of treatments that involves the fertilization of a mature egg with a sperm in a laboratory. Oocyte selection is a part the process for in vitro fertilization. An Oocyte is an egg/ovum that is not fully mature or developed and has not been fertilized; Therefore an oocyte is an undeveloped ovum.
__TOC__ | 1 | Cryobiology |
Areas that have limited surface water or groundwater may choose to desalinate. RO is an increasingly common method, because of its relatively low energy consumption.
Energy consumption is around , with the development of more efficient energy recovery devices and improved membrane materials. According to the International Desalination Association, for 2011, RO was used in 66% of installed desalination capacity (0.0445 of 0.0674 km/day), and nearly all new plants. Other plants use thermal distillation methods: multiple-effect distillation, and multi-stage flash.
Sea-water RO (SWRO) desalination requires around 3 kWh/m, much higher than those required for other forms of water supply, including RO treatment of wastewater, at 0.1 to 1 kWh/m. Up to 50% of the seawater input can be recovered as fresh water, though lower recovery rates may reduce membrane fouling and energy consumption.
Brackish water reverse osmosis (BWRO) is the desalination of water with less salt than seawater, usually from river estuaries or saline wells. The process is substantially the same as SWRO, but requires lower pressures and less energy. Up to 80% of the feed water input can be recovered as fresh water, depending on feed salinity.
The Ashkelon desalination plant in Israel is the world's largest.
The typical single-pass SWRO system consists of:
* Intake
* Pretreatment
* High-pressure pump (if not combined with energy recovery)
* Membrane assembly
* Energy recovery (if used)
* Remineralisation and pH adjustment
* Disinfection
* Alarm/control panel | 5 | Separation Processes |
Tanning booths (also known as stand-up sunbeds) are vertical enclosures; the tanner stands during exposure, hanging onto straps or handrails, and is surrounded by tanning bulbs. In most models, the tanner closes a door, but there are open designs too. Some booths use the same electronics and lamps as tanning beds, but most have more lamps and are likely to use 100–160 watt lamps. They often have a maximum session of 7–15 minutes. There are other technical differences, or degrees of intensity, but for all practical intents, their function and safety are the same as a horizontal bed. Booths have a smaller footprint, which some commercial operators find useful. Some tanners prefer booths out of concern for hygiene, since the only shared surface is the floor. | 8 | Ultraviolet Radiation |
Tissue engineering done in vivo is capable of recruiting local cellular populations into a bioreactor space. Indeed a range of neotissue growth has been shown: bone, cartilage, fat, and muscle. In theory, any tissue type could be grown in this manner if all necessary components (growth factors, environmental and physical ques) are met. Recruitment of stem cells require a complex process of mobilization from their niche, though research suggests that mature cells transplanted upon the bioreactor scaffold can improve stem cell recruitment. These cells secrete growth factors that promote repair and can be co-cultured with stem cells to improve tissue formation. | 2 | Tissue Engineering |
The guiding principles for the development of UW Solution were:
# osmotic concentration maintained by the use of metabolically inert substances like lactobionate and raffinose rather than with glucose
# Hydroxyethyl starch (HES) is used to prevent edema
# Substances are added to scavenge free radicals, along with steroids and insulin. | 1 | Cryobiology |
(E)-Stilbene itself is of little value, but it is a precursor to other derivatives used as dyes, optical brighteners, phosphors, and scintillators. Stilbene is one of the gain mediums used in dye lasers.
Disodium 4,4-dinitrostilbene-2,2-disulfonate is prepared by the sulfonation of 4-nitrotoluene to form 4-nitrotoluene-2-sulfonic acid, which can then be oxidatively coupled using sodium hypochlorite to form the (E)-stilbene derivative in a process originally developed by Arthur George Green and André Wahl in the late nineteenth century. Improvements to the process with higher yields have been developed, using air oxidation in liquid ammonia. The product is useful as its reaction with aniline derivatives results in the formation of azo dyes. Commercially important dyes derived from this compound include Direct Red 76, Direct Brown 78, and Direct Orange 40. | 0 | Luminescence |
Hysteresis in cell biology often follows bistable systems where the same input state can lead to two different, stable outputs. Where bistability can lead to digital, switch-like outputs from the continuous inputs of chemical concentrations and activities, hysteresis makes these systems more resistant to noise. These systems are often characterized by higher values of the input required to switch into a particular state as compared to the input required to stay in the state, allowing for a transition that is not continuously reversible, and thus less susceptible to noise.
Cells undergoing cell division exhibit hysteresis in that it takes a higher concentration of cyclins to switch them from G2 phase into mitosis than to stay in mitosis once begun.
Biochemical systems can also show hysteresis-like output when slowly varying states that are not directly monitored are involved, as in the case of the cell cycle arrest in yeast exposed to mating pheromone. Here, the duration of cell cycle arrest depends not only on the final level of input Fus3, but also on the previously achieved Fus3 levels. This effect is achieved due to the slower time scales involved in the transcription of intermediate Far1, such that the total Far1 activity reaches its equilibrium value slowly, and for transient changes in Fus3 concentration, the response of the system depends on the Far1 concentration achieved with the transient value. Experiments in this type of hysteresis benefit from the ability to change the concentration of the inputs with time. The mechanisms are often elucidated by allowing independent control of the concentration of the key intermediate, for instance, by using an inducible promoter.
Darlington in his classic works on genetics discussed hysteresis of the chromosomes, by which he meant "failure of the external form of the chromosomes to respond immediately to the internal stresses due to changes in their molecular spiral", as they lie in a somewhat rigid medium in the limited space of the cell nucleus.
In developmental biology, cell type diversity is regulated by long range-acting signaling molecules called morphogens that pattern uniform pools of cells in a concentration- and time-dependent manner. The morphogen sonic hedgehog (Shh), for example, acts on limb bud and neural progenitors to induce expression of a set of homeodomain-containing transcription factors to subdivide these tissues into distinct domains. It has been shown that these tissues have a memory of previous exposure to Shh.
In neural tissue, this hysteresis is regulated by a homeodomain (HD) feedback circuit that amplifies Shh signaling. In this circuit, expression of Gli transcription factors, the executors of the Shh pathway, is suppressed. Glis are processed to repressor forms (GliR) in the absence of Shh, but in the presence of Shh, a proportion of Glis are maintained as full-length proteins allowed to translocate to the nucleus, where they act as activators (GliA) of transcription. By reducing Gli expression then, the HD transcription factors reduce the total amount of Gli (GliT), so a higher proportion of GliT can be stabilized as GliA for the same concentration of Shh. | 7 | Magnetic Ordering |
Studies have indicated that IVF mothers show greater emotional involvement with their child, and they enjoy motherhood more than mothers by natural conception. Similarly, studies have indicated that IVF fathers express more warmth and emotional involvement than fathers by adoption and natural conception and enjoy fatherhood more. Some IVF parents become overly involved with their children. | 1 | Cryobiology |
;Cryosurgical systems
A number of medical supply companies have developed cryogen delivery systems for cryosurgery. Most are based on the use of liquid nitrogen, although some employ the use of proprietary mixtures of gases that combine to form the cryogen. | 1 | Cryobiology |
Biomedical Materials is a peer-reviewed medical journal that covers research on tissue engineering and regenerative medicine. The editors-in-chief are Myron Spector (Harvard Medical School and VA Boston Healthcare System) and Joyce Wong (Boston University). | 2 | Tissue Engineering |
Tagging of postage stamps means that the stamps are printed on luminescent paper or with luminescent ink to facilitate automated mail processing. Both fluorescence and phosphorescence are used. The same stamp may have been printed with and without these luminescent features, the two varieties are referred to as tagged and untagged, respectively. | 0 | Luminescence |
Subsets and Splits