Longterm overseeing indicates changing tumble migration time inside monarch butterflies Danaus plexippus

T-cell immunotherapy holds promise for the treatment of cancer, infection, and autoimmune diseases. Nevertheless, T-cell therapy is limited by low cell expansion efficiency ex vivo and functional deficits. Here we describe two 3D bioprinting systems made by different biomaterials that mimic the in vivo formation of natural lymph vessels and lymph nodes which modulate T-cell with distinct fates and functions. We observe that coaxial alginate fibers promote T-cell expansion, less exhausted and enable CD4+ T-cell differentiation into central memory-like phenotype (Tcm), CD8+ T-cells differentiation into effector memory subsets (Tem), while alginate-gelatin scaffolds bring T-cells into a relatively resting state. Both of the two bioprinting methods are strikingly different from a standard suspension system. The former bioprinting method yields a new system for T-cell therapy and the latter method can be useful for making an immune-chip to elucidate links between immune response and disease.We describe a radiation therapy treatment plan optimization method that explicitly considers the effects of interfraction organ motion through optimization on the clinical target volume (CTV), and investigate how it compares to conventional planning using a planning target volume (PTV). The method uses simulated treatment courses generated using patient images created by a deformable registration algorithm to replicate the effects of interfraction organ motion, and performs robust optimization aiming to achieve CTV coverage under all simulated treatment courses. The method was applied to photon-mediated treatments of three prostate cases and compared to conventional, PTV-based planning with margins selected to achieve similar CTV coverage as the robustly optimized plans. Clinical goals for the CTV and healthy tissue were used in comparison between the two types of plans. Out of the two clinical goals for overdosage of the CTV, the three robustly optimized plans violated respectively 2, 2, and 0 goals in the mean over the scenarios, whereas none of the PTV plans violated these goals. Of the ten clinical goals for rectum, bladder, anal canal, and bulbus, the robustly optimized plans violated respectively 0, 1, and 1 goals in the mean, whereas the PTV plans violated 5, 7, and 4 goals. Compared to PTV-based planning, the inclusion of treatment course scenarios in the optimization has the potential to reduce the dose to healthy tissues while retaining a high probability of target coverage. This may reduce the need for adaptive replanning.
Presence of a patent ductus arteriosus (PDA) in neonates is assessed by echocardiography. Echocardiographic assessment has disadvantages, primarily its discontinuous nature. We hypothesize that the continuously measured ratio of arterial blood pressures (ABP) at the borders of a window surrounding the systolic peak ratio discriminates non-PDA from PDA patients.
Preterm infants (gestational age <32 weeks) with and without PDA were included. Patients were divided into controls (n=8) and PDA patients (n=22), the latter with a subset of patients with closed PDA after three doses Ibuprofen (n=10). For each patient, a six-hour ABP segment from 12 AM to 6 AM on the day of echocardiographic assessment patency or closure of the DA was selected. The mean ratio of the ABP values a samples before and p samples after the systolic peak (R
) was calculated for each segment. If R
<1, the patient was predicted to have a PDA. The a and p with the least misclassifications were selected (-64 and +104 ms).
R
was significantly lower in PDA patients (median 0.95, IQR 0.06) compared to controls (median 1.05, IQR 0.10; p=0.0024). R
correctly predicted 19 out of 22 patients (86.4%) and six out of eight controls (75%). R
increased after closure in nine out of 10 patients (median 1.01, IQR 0.04; p=0. 0182).
R
may discriminate preterm PDA patients from non-PDA patients and can be calculated continuously from clinical data measured during standard of care.
R ABP may discriminate preterm PDA patients from non-PDA patients and can be calculated continuously from clinical data measured during standard of care.Coaxial type piezoelectric energy generator (C-PEG) nanofiber was fabricated by a self-designed continuous electrospinning deposition system. Piezoelectric PVDF-TrFE nanofiber as an electroactive material was electrospun at a discharge voltage of 9-12 kV onto a simultaneously rotating and transverse moving Cu metal wire at an angular velocity of ω g = 60-120 RPM. The piezoelectric coefficient d33 of the PVDF-TrFE nanofiber was approximately -20 pm V-1. The generated output voltage (V G) increased according to the relationship exp(-α P) (α = 0.41- 0.57) as the pressure (P) increased from 30 to 500 kpa. The V G values for ten and twenty pieces of C-PEG were V G = 3.9 V and 9.5 V at P = 100 kpa, respectively, relatively high output voltages compared to previously reported values. The high V G for the C-PEG stems from the fact that it can generate a fairly high V G due to the increased number of voltage collection points compared to a conventional two-dimensional (2-dim) capacitor type of piezoelectric film or fiber device. C-PEG yarn was also fabricated via the dip-coating of a PDMS polymer solution, followed by winding with Ag-coated nylon fiber as an outer electrode. The current and power density of ten pieces of C-PEG yarn were correspondingly 22 nA cm-2 and 8.6 μW cm-3 at V G = 1.97 V, higher than previously reported values of 5.54 and 6 μW cm-3. The C-PEG yarn, which can generate high voltage compared to the conventional film/nanofiber mat type, is expected to be very useful as a wearable energy generator system.We are exploring a scintillator-based PET detector with potential of high sensitivity, DOI capability, and timing resolution, with single-side readout. Our design combines two previous concepts 1) Multiple scintillator arrays stacked with relative offset, yielding inherent DOI information, but good timing performance has not been demonstrated with conventional light sharing readout. 2) Single crystal array with one-to-one coupling to the photodetector, showing superior timing performance compared to its light sharing counterparts, but lacks DOI. The combination, where the first layer of a staggered design is coupled one-to-one to a photodetector array, may provide both DOI and timing resolution and this concept is here evaluated through light transport simulations. Results show that 1) Unpolished crystal pixels in the staggered configuration yield better performance across all metrics compared to polished pixels, regardless of readout scheme. 2) One-to-one readout of the first layer allows for accurate DOI extraction using a single threshold. The number of MPPC pixels with signal amplitudes exceeding the threshold corresponds to the interaction layer. This approach was not possible with conventional light sharing readout. URMC-099 3) With a threshold of 2 optical photons, the layered approach with one-to-one coupled first layer improves timing close to the MPPC compared to the conventional one-to-one coupling non-DOI detector, due to effectively reduced crystal thickness. Single detector timing resolution values of 91, 127, 151 and 164 ps were observed per layer in the 4-layer design, to be compared to 148 ps for the single array with one-to-one coupling. 4) For the layered design with light sharing, timing improves with increased MPPC pixel size due to higher signal per channel. In conclusion, the combination of straightforward DOI determination, good timing performance, and relatively simple design makes the proposed concept promising for DOI-TOF PET detectors.Stem cell spheroids have been widely investigated to accelerate bone tissue regeneartion. However, the directed differentiation of stem cells into osteoblastic lineage and the prevention of cells from damage by reactive oxygen species (ROS) remain challenge. Here, we developed osteoinductive and ROS scavenging extracellular matrix (ECM)-mimicking synthetic fibers based on epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG) coating. They were then utilized to fabricate engineered spheroids with human adipose-derived stem cells (hADSCs) for bone tissue regeneation. The EGCG-mineral fibers (EMF) effectively conferred osteoinductive and ROS scavenging signals on the hADSCs within spheroids, demonstrating relative upregulation of antioxidant genes (SOD-1 (25.8±2.1) and GPX-1 (3.3±0.1) and greater level of expression of osteogenic markers, RUNX2 (5.8±0.1) and OPN (5.9±0.1), compared to hADSCs in the spheroids without EMF. The in vitro overexpression of osteogenic genes from hADSCs was achieved from absence of osteogenic supplenments. Furthermore, in vivo transplantation of hADSCs spheroids with the EMF significantly promoted calvarial bone regeneration (48.39±9.24%) compared to that from defect only (17.38±6.63%), suggesting that the stem cell spheroid biofabrication system with our novel mineralization method described here is a promising tool for bone tissue regeneration.Elastography provides significant information on staging of fibrosis in patients with liver disease and may be of some value in assessing steatosis. However, there remain questions as to the role of steatosis and fibrosis as cofactors influencing the viscoelastic measurements of liver tissues, particularly shear wave speed (SWS) and shear wave attenuation (SWA). In this study, by employing the theory of composite elastic media as well as two independent experimental measurements on oil-in-gelatin phantoms and also finite element simulations, it is consistently shown that fat and fibrosis jointly influence the SWS and SWA measurements. At a constant level of fat, fibrosis stages can influence the SWA by factors of 2-4. Moreover, the rate of increase in SWA with increasing fat is strongly influenced by the stages of fibrosis; softer background cases (low fibrosis stages) have higher rate of SWA increase with fat than those with stiffer moduli (higher fibrosis stages). Meanwhile, SWS results are influenced by the presence of fat, however the degree of variability is more subtle. The results indicate the importance of jointly considering fat and fibrosis as contributors to SWS and SWA measurements in complex liver tissues and in the design and interpretation of clinical trials.A novel three-dimensional (3D) vertically-few-layer MoS2(V-MoS2) nanosheets- zero-dimensional (0D) PbS quantum dots (QDs) hybrid structure based broadband photodetector was fabricated, and its photoelectric performance was investigated in detail. We synthesized the V-MoS2nanosheets by chemical vapor deposition (CVD), using the TiO2layer as the induced layer, and proposed a possible growth mechanism. The use of the TiO2induction layer successfully changed the growth direction of MoS2from parallel to vertical. The prepared V-MoS2nanosheets have a large specific surface area, abundantly exposed edges and excellent light absorption capacity. The V-MoS2nanosheets detector was then fabricated and investigated, which exhibits a high sensitivity for 635 nm light, a fast response time and an excellent photoelectric response. The V-MoS2 nanosheets with a height of approximately 1 μm successfully broke the light absorption limit caused by the atomic thickness. Finally, we fabricated the PbS QDs/V-MoS2nanosheets hybrid detector and demonstrated their potential for high-performance broadband photodetectors.