Research in network data management and resource sharing : final research report.

Includes bibliographic references (p. 51)

Networking research in front ending and intelligent terminals : management plan

Prepared for the Command and Control Technical Center, WWMCCS ADP Directorate, Defense Communication Agency, under contract DCA 100-76-C-0088."CCTC-WAD document no. 6509.

Research in network data management and resource sharing : preliminary research study report / CAC No. 162

Includes bibliographic references (p. 128)

Targeted Delivery of Bioactive Molecules for Vascular Intervention and Tissue Engineering

Cardiovascular diseases are the leading cause of death in the United States. Treatment often requires surgical interventions to re-open occluded vessels, bypass severe occlusions, or stabilize aneurysms. Despite the short-term success of such interventions, many ultimately fail due to thrombosis or restenosis (following stent placement), or incomplete healing (such as after aneurysm coil placement). Bioactive molecules capable of modulating host tissue responses and preventing these complications have been identified, but systemic delivery is often harmful or ineffective. This review discusses the use of localized bioactive molecule delivery methods to enhance the long-term success of vascular interventions, such as drug-eluting stents and aneurysm coils, as well as nanoparticles for targeted molecule delivery. Vascular grafts in particular have poor patency in small diameter, high flow applications, such as coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG). Grafts fabricated from a variety of approaches may benefit from bioactive molecule incorporation to improve patency. Tissue engineering is an especially promising approach for vascular graft fabrication that may be conducive to incorporation of drugs or growth factors. Overall, localized and targeted delivery of bioactive molecules has shown promise for improving the outcomes of vascular interventions, with technologies such as drug-eluting stents showing excellent clinical success. However, many targeted vascular drug delivery systems have yet to reach the clinic. There is still a need to better optimize bioactive molecule release kinetics and identify synergistic biomolecule combinations before the clinical impact of these technologies can be realized

Research in network data management resource sharing : multi-copy resiliency techniques.

Includes bibliographic references (p. 48).This paper describes strategy which allows resources to be shared in a resilient manner while minimizing user delay. The strategy described supports two-host resiliency. That is, at least two of the cooperating hosts must simultaneously malfunction while in the process of cooperation, and the malfunction must be of a very restricted form in order for undetectable or unrecoverable failure to occur. Extension to n-host resiliency is also discussed

Research in network data management and resource sharing : preliminary experimental system design report / CAC No. 170

The basic design of an experimental distributed data management system is presented. The system is based upon the relational model. (Author)

Three-Dimensional Cell and Tissue Patterning in a Strained Fibrin Gel System

Techniques developed for the in vitro reproduction of three-dimensional (3D) biomimetic tissue will be valuable for investigating changes in cell function in tissues and for fabricating cell/matrix composites for applications in tissue engineering techniques. In this study, we show that the simple application of a continuous strain to a fibrin gel facilitates the development of fibril alignment and bundle-like structures in the fibrin gel in the direction of the applied strain. Myoblasts cultured in this gel also exhibited well-aligned cell patterning in a direction parallel to the direction of the strain. Interestingly, the direction of cell proliferation was identical to that of cell alignment. Finally, the oriented cells formed linear groups that were aligned parallel to the direction of the strain and replicated the native skeletal muscle cell patterning. In addition, vein endothelial cells formed a linear, aligned vessel-like structure in this system. Thus, the system enables the in vitro reproduction of 3D aligned cell sets replicating biological tissue patterns

Networking research in front ending and intelligent terminals : Experimental network front end software functional description

"CCTC-WAD document no. 7515.""Prepared for the Command and Control Technical Center, WWMCCS ADP Directorate, Defense Communications Agency, Washington, D. C.

Networking research in front ending and intelligent terminals : H6000 software specifications

"CCTC-WAD document no. 7501.""Prepared for the Command and Control Technical Center, WWMCCS ADP Directorate, Defense Communications Agency, Washington, D. C."Bibliography: leaf 26

Characterisation of physico-mechanical properties and degradation potential of calcium alginate beads for use in embolisation

High molecular weight alginate beads with 59% mannuronic acid content or 68% guluronic acid were prepared using a droplet generator and crosslinked in calcium chloride. The alginate beads were compared to current embolisation microspheres for compressibility and monitored over 12 weeks for size and weight change at 37°C in low volumes of ringers solutions. A sheep uterine model was used to analyse bead degradation and inflammatory response over 12 weeks. Both the in vitro and in vivo data show good delivery, with a compressibility similar to current embolic beads. In vitro, swelling was noted almost immediately and after 12 weeks the first signs of degradation were noted. No difference was noted in vivo. This study has shown that high molecular weight alginate gel beads were well tolerated by the body, but beads associated with induced thrombi were susceptible to inflammatory cell infiltration. The beads were shown to be easy to handle and were still observable after 3 months in vivo. The beads were robust enough to be delivered through a 2.7 Fr microcatheter. This study has demonstrated that high molecular weight, high purity alginate bead can be considered as semi-permanent embolisation beads, with the potential to bioresorb over time