11,199 research outputs found
A practical review on the measurement tools for cellular adhesion force
Cell cell and cell matrix adhesions are fundamental in all multicellular
organisms. They play a key role in cellular growth, differentiation, pattern
formation and migration. Cell-cell adhesion is substantial in the immune
response, pathogen host interactions, and tumor development. The success of
tissue engineering and stem cell implantations strongly depends on the fine
control of live cell adhesion on the surface of natural or biomimetic
scaffolds. Therefore, the quantitative and precise measurement of the adhesion
strength of living cells is critical, not only in basic research but in modern
technologies, too. Several techniques have been developed or are under
development to quantify cell adhesion. All of them have their pros and cons,
which has to be carefully considered before the experiments and interpretation
of the recorded data. Current review provides a guide to choose the appropriate
technique to answer a specific biological question or to complete a biomedical
test by measuring cell adhesion
Towards recovery of complex shapes in meshes using digital images for reverse engineering applications
When an object owns complex shapes, or when its outer surfaces are simply inaccessible, some of its parts may not be captured during its reverse engineering. These deficiencies in the point cloud result in a set of holes in the reconstructed mesh. This paper deals with the use of information extracted from digital images to recover missing areas of a physical object. The proposed algorithm fills in these holes by solving an optimization problem that combines two kinds of information: (1) the geometric information available on the surrounding of the holes, (2) the information contained in an image of the real object. The constraints come from the image irradiance equation, a first-order non-linear partial differential equation that links the position of the mesh vertices to the light intensity of the image pixels. The blending conditions are satisfied by using an objective function based on a mechanical model of bar network that simulates the curvature evolution over the mesh. The inherent shortcomings both to the current holefilling algorithms and the resolution of the image irradiance equations are overcom
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Monolithic optofluidic chips: from optical manipulation of single cells to quantum sensing of fluids
This paper was presented at the 4th Micro and Nano Flows Conference (MNF2014), which was held at University College, London, UK. The conference was organised by Brunel University and supported by the Italian Union of Thermofluiddynamics, IPEM, the Process Intensification Network, the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, the Heat Transfer Society, HEXAG - the Heat Exchange Action Group, and the Energy Institute, ASME Press, LCN London Centre for Nanotechnology, UCL University College London, UCL Engineering, the International NanoScience Community, www.nanopaprika.eu.We report on a new class of integrated optofluidic devices, fabricated by femtosecond laser
micromachining. The capability to combine optical waveguides with microfluidic channels in the same
glass chip provides a very powerful platform, introducing new tools in the field of optical sensing. Two
recent applications that greatly benefitted from this novel technology are on-chip optical manipulation of
single cells by optical forces and optical sensing of the refractive index of fluids by quantum states of light.
The specific properties of robustness, alignment free and portability of these devices pave the way to the use
of these advanced sensing technologies outside the lab, in a real application environment
Force steps during viral DNA packaging ?
Biophysicists and structural biologists increasingly acknowledge the role
played by the mechanical properties of macromolecules as a critical element in
many biological processes. This change has been brought about, in part, by the
advent of single molecule biophysics techniques that have made it possible to
exert piconewton forces on key macromolecules and observe their deformations at
nanometer length scales, as well as to observe the mechanical action of
macromolecules such as molecular motors. This has opened up immense
possibilities for a new generation of mechanical investigations that will
respond to such measurements in an attempt to develop a coherent theory for the
mechanical behavior of macromolecules under conditions where thermal and
chemical effects are on an equal footing with deterministic forces. This paper
presents an application of the principles of mechanics to the problem of DNA
packaging, one of the key events in the life cycle of bacterial viruses with
special reference to the nature of the internal forces that are built up during
the DNA packaging process.Comment: 18 pages, 7 figures, To appear in the Journal of Mechanics and
Physics of Solid
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