An Engineering Education of Holism: Einstein’s Imperative

In the aftermath of World War II, Einstein urged scientists to develop a substantively new thinking, lest we suffer a technology-enabled self-destruction. In this chapter, we will unfold the emerging scientific findings that serve as vectors, pointing to the same conclusion: the educational foundation that has brought about Industry 5.0 is causal to brain development that not only undermines our ability to address our emerging complex societal challenges, but biases us toward inhumane logic. We will outline a science of holism, the profoundly new thinking urged by Einstein. This science is rooted in nature’s ontology of dynamic complexity. An engineering education reflecting this new thinking will be described along with the novel developmental capacities afforded by it. The chapter will end by considering questions that need to be resolved to manifest such a radical shift in engineering education

Spatial Engineering of Osteochondral Tissue Constructs Through Microfluidically Directed Differentiation of Mesenchymal Stem Cells

The development of tissue engineered osteochondral units has been slowed by a number of technical hurdles associated with recapitulating their heterogeneous nature ex vivo. Subsequently, numerous approaches with respect to cell sourcing, scaffolding composition, and culture media formulation have been pursued, which have led to high variability in outcomes and ultimately the lack of a consensus bioprocessing strategy. As such, the objective of this study was to standardize the design process by focusing on differentially supporting formation of cartilaginous and bony matrix by a single cell source in a spatially controlled manner within a single material system. A cell-polymer solution of bovine mesenchymal stem cells and agarose was cast against micromolds of a serpentine network and stacked to produce tissue constructs containing two independent microfluidic networks. Constructs were fluidically connected to two controlled flow loops and supplied with independently tuned differentiation parameters for chondrogenic and osteogenic induction, respectively. Constructs receiving inductive media showed differential gene expression of both chondrogenic and osteogenic markers in opposite directions along the thickness of the construct that was recapitulated at the protein level with respect to collagens I, II, and X. A control group receiving noninductive media showed homogeneous expression of these biomarkers measured in lower concentrations at both the mRNA and protein level. This work represents an important step in the rational design of engineered osteochondral units through establishment of an enabling technology for further optimization of scaffolding formulations and bioprocessing conditions toward the production of commercially viable osteochondral tissue products

In Vitro Evaluation of the Influence of Substrate Mechanics on Matrix-Assisted Human Chondrocyte Transplantation

Matrix-assisted chondrocyte transplantation (MACT) is of great interest for the treatment of patients with cartilage lesions. However, the roles of the matrix properties in modulating cartilage tissue integration during MACT recovery have not been fully understood. The objective of this study was to uncover the effects of substrate mechanics on the integration of implanted chondrocyte-laden hydrogels with native cartilage tissues. To this end, agarose hydrogels with Young’s moduli ranging from 0.49 kPa (0.5%, w/v) to 23.08 kPa (10%) were prepared and incorporated into an in vitro human cartilage explant model. The hydrogel-cartilage composites were cultivated for up to 12 weeks and harvested for evaluation via scanning electron microscopy, histology, and a push-through test. Our results demonstrated that integration strength at the hydrogel-cartilage interface in the 1.0% (0.93 kPa) and 2.5% (3.30 kPa) agarose groups significantly increased over time, whereas hydrogels with higher stiffness (\u3e8.78 kPa) led to poor integration with articular cartilage. Extensive sprouting of extracellular matrix in the interfacial regions was only observed in the 0.5% to 2.5% agarose groups. Collectively, our findings suggest that while neocartilage development and its integration with native cartilage are modulated by substrate elasticity, an optimal Young’s modulus (3.30 kPa) possessed by agarose hydrogels is identified such that superior quality of tissue integration is achieved without compromising tissue properties of implanted constructs

RHEOLOGICAL STUDIES IN SICKLE CELL DISEASE (RED BLOOD, ENDOTHELIAL, ADHERENCE)

The abnormal adherence of sickle erythrocytes to endothelial cells (EC) has been hypothesized to play a role in the initiation of vaso-occlusion in sickle cell anemia. Erythrocyte/endothelial cell interactions were studied under controlled flow conditions for normal (AA), homozygous sickle cell (SS), sickle trait (AS), mechanically injured normal, and "high reticulocyte control" red blood cells (RBC). Human umbilical vein endothelial cells grown to confluence on glass slides formed the base of a parallel plate flow chamber into which RBC suspensions were perfused at a constant flow rate, producing a wall shear stress of 1 dyne/cm('2). Adhesion was monitored using video microscopy, and the number of adherent RBC was determined at ten-minute intervals during a wash-out period. Results indicate that SS RBC were more adherent than AA RBC. Mechanically injured (sheared) RBC were also more adherent than control normal cells, but less adherent than SS RBC. AS RBC did not differ significantly in their adhesive properties from normal RBC. Less dense (younger) RBC were more adherent to EC than dense (older) cells for normal, SS and "high reticulocyte control" RBC. The average velocity of individual SS RBC in the region near the EC monolayer was approximately half that of AA RBC at the same bulk volumetric flow rate, as determined using image analysis techniques. The influence of several factors on the adherence of normal and sickle cells to endothelial cells was examined: (1) increasing shear rates resulted in decreased adhesion, (2) pretreating EC with a chemotactic agent had little effect on adherence properties, (3) treating RBC with pentoxifylline diminished the adherence of sickle RBC, but had no effect on AA RBC and (4) suspending RBC in a protein free suspending medium did not affect the demonstration of adherence differences between SS and AA RBC. These findings suggest that the increased adhesion of sickle RBC is at least partially related to the increased numbers of young RBC present. Increased adherence of young cells to the EC lining vessel walls could contribute to microvascular occlusion by lengthening vascular transit times of other sickle cells. Pentoxifylline may aid in the treatment of sickle cell disease by decreasing these obstructive RBC-EC interactions that may play a role in vaso-occlusion

Immigration policies - Challenges and Changes that European Union is Facing

As long as European Union has existed, as long there has been discussion of how long will the union stay as a whole. The differences between the member states are visible and because of this common policies are hard to achieve. European Union has done a lot in trying to create a harmonized immigration policies, yet there have been challenges. The refugee crisis that started in 2015 was something that EU as well as its member states were not prepared for. Different policies were done and cooperation was created, yet many member states turned against the EU and decided not to follow its rules. There was a fear that was a lot affected by the securitization of the immigrants. Key words: securitization, European Union, immigration, refugee crisis 2015, realism

Additional file 4: Figure S2. of Hydrodynamic loading in concomitance with exogenous cytokine stimulation modulates differentiation of bovine mesenchymal stem cells towards osteochondral lineages

Following confirmation of MSC surface markers via flow cytometry, MSCs from the bone marrow of three calves were pooled, plated, cultured and assessed for tri-lineage differentiation potential. From left to right MSCs culture in inductive media (top) and growth medium (bottom row) were stained with Oil Red O, Toluidine Blue, and Alizarin Red to confirm evidence of adipogenesis, chondrogenesis, and osteogenesis respectively. (TIF 26421 kb