Impacts of Thermally Conductive Coating on Super Coiled Polymers

In this research, we created supercoiled polymer with a nylon fishing line, conductive thread, silver paste, graphite, and graphene. The silver paste was used for conductive properties on crimping joints to allow electrical connections. Graphite and graphene help stimulate heat dissipation, resulting in quicker muscle motion, contraction, and elongation. Supercoiled polymer (polymer coil) actuators have many uses and are inexpensive compared to other actuators as they can be made of cheap materials such as sewing threads and fishing lines. Compared with recent actuators consist of memory shape alloys for their unique crystal structure, however they are expensive to produce, and more prone to failure . The actuator is very potent in contracting due to the polymer’s unique properties of remembering shape when exposed to heat. Though there are some restrictions, the elongation rate is limited by the lack of heat dissipation resulting in the deformation of the polymer to the loss of its original shape. To address that issue, we utilized graphite and graphene to stimulate heat dissipation and accelerate the motion of muscle, contraction, and elongation. Before testing, the polymer coils run at set voltages over a set cycle to help remember the cyclic motion, and accurate data can be collected. Our Goal for this research is to run at the set voltage and identify how the polymer behaves with weights attached until permanent deformation occurs. We used a solenoid to detect the coil\u27s elongation change to measure how changing voltage and weights can affect it accurately

Devotions for Lent 2023 Hymns of Lent

This Lent, we will continue reflecting on hymns of faith, namely, some of our most beloved Lenten hymns. 10 such hymns have been chosen to fill the 40(+) days of Lent. Therefore, this devotional, different from previous editions, does not proceed on a weekly basis, but merely flows from one hymn to the next. Also different from previous editions, the devotional reflections are specifically based on the stanzas of the selected hymns. Therefore, each day’s reflection features the text of the hymn stanza, a devotion based on that stanza, a prayer, and then a Scripture passage or passages for further meditation. I pray these reflections may be of edification for you during this Lenten season.https://scholar.csl.edu/osp/1022/thumbnail.jp

Early patient and liver allograft outcomes from donation after circulatory death donors using thoracoabdominal normothermic regional: a multi-center observational experience

BackgroundDonation after circulatory death (DCD) liver allografts are associated with higher rates of primary non-function (PNF) and ischemic cholangiopathy (IC). Advanced recovery techniques, including thoracoabdominal normothermic regional perfusion (TA-NRP), may improve organ utilization and patient and allograft outcomes. Given the increasing US experience with TA-NRP DCD recovery, we evaluated outcomes of DCD liver allografts transplanted after TA-NRP.MethodsLiver allografts transplanted from DCD donors after TA-NRP were identified from 5/1/2021 to 1/31/2022 across 8 centers. Donor data included demographics, functional warm ischemic time (fWIT), total warm ischemia time (tWIT) and total time on TA-NRP. Recipient data included demographics, model of end stage liver disease (MELD) score, etiology of liver disease, PNF, cold ischemic time (CIT), liver function tests, intensive care unit (ICU) and hospital length of stay (LOS), post-operative transplant related complications.ResultsThe donors' median age was 32 years old and median BMI was 27.4. Median fWIT was 20.5 min; fWIT exceeded 30 min in two donors. Median time to initiation of TA-NRP was 4 min and median time on bypass was 66 min. The median recipient listed MELD and MELD at transplant were 22 and 21, respectively. Median allograft CIT was 292 min. The median length of follow up was 257 days. Median ICU and hospital LOS were 2 and 7 days, respectively. Three recipients required management of anastomotic biliary strictures. No patients demonstrated IC, PNF or required re-transplantation.ConclusionLiver allografts from TA-NRP DCD donors demonstrated good early allograft and recipient outcomes

Recharging the Treasure Valley Aquifer

The topic is how to best recharge the aquifer in the Treasure Valley and make it a sustainable resource for the valley in the coming decades. After much research and discussion it was settled upon that an Aquifer Storage and Recovery System or ASR would be the best solution to our problem. The Treasure Valley Aquifer covers almost all of the Boise river basin from the area of Lucky Peak Reservoir to the Idaho Oregon state border and from the area around Emmett, ID to the area around CJ Strike Dam south of Kuna, ID. It will take an investment in equipment and possibly drilling new wells and installing storage tanks but it is easily done and would allow for the valley to get through droughts in a better way. ASR allows for simple storage and recovery of ground water that is well secured from tampering and contamination from chemicals and would allow for less urban draw upon the Boise River during the summer months. With the growth and projected growth the Valley will need some way to store water for upcoming times of drought so we do not destroy the resources that allow for the city to thrive

Susquehanna Shale Hills Critical Zone Observatory: Shale Hills in the Context of Shaver’s Creek Watershed

The Susquehanna Shale Hills Critical Zone Observatory (SSHCZO) was established to investigate the form, function, and dynamics of the critical zone developed on sedimentary rocks in the Appalachian Mountains in central Pennsylvania. When first established, the SSHCZO encompassed only the Shale Hills catchment, a 0.08-km subcatchment within Shaver’s Creek watershed. The SSHCZO has now grown to include 120 km of the Shaver’s Creek watershed. With that growth, the science team designed a strategy to measure a parsimonious set of data to characterize the critical zone in such a large watershed. This parsimonious design includes three targeted subcatchments (including the original Shale Hills), observations along the main stem of Shaver’s Creek, and broad topographic and geophysical observations. Here we describe the goals, the implementation of measurements, and the major findings of the SSHCZO by emphasizing measurements of the main stem of Shaver’s Creek as well as the original Shale Hills subcatchment

Multi-omic approaches identify metabolic and autophagy regulators important in ovarian cancer dissemination.

International audienceHigh-grade serous ovarian cancers (HGSOCs) arise from exfoliation of transformed cells from the fallopian tube, indicating that survival in suspension, and potentially escape from anoikis, is required for dissemination. We report here the results of a multi-omic study to identify drivers of anoikis escape, including transcriptomic analysis, global non-targeted metabolomics, and a genome-wide CRISPR/Cas9 knockout (GeCKO) screen of HGSOC cells cultured in adherent and suspension settings. Our combined approach identified known pathways, including NOTCH signaling, as well as novel regulators of anoikis escape. Newly identified genes include effectors of fatty acid metabolism, ACADVL and ECHDC2, and an autophagy regulator, ULK1. Knockdown of these genes significantly inhibited suspension growth of HGSOC cells, and the metabolic profile confirmed the role of fatty acid metabolism in survival in suspension. Integration of our datasets identified an anoikis-escape gene signature that predicts overall survival in many carcinomas

The Effect of Lithology and Agriculture at the Susquehanna Shale Hills Critical Zone Observatory

The footprint of the Susquehanna Shale Hills Critical Zone Observatory was expanded in 2013 from the forested Shale Hills subcatchment (0.08 km) to most of Shavers Creek watershed (163 km) in an effort to understand the interactions among water, energy, gas, solute, and sediment. The main stem of Shavers Creek is now monitored, and instrumentation has been installed in two new subcatchments: Garner Run and Cole Farm. Garner Run is a pristine forested site underlain by sandstone, whereas Cole Farm is a cultivated site on calcareous shale. We describe preliminary data and insights about how the critical zone has evolved on sites of different lithology, vegetation, and land use. A notable conceptual model that has emerged is the “two water table” concept. Despite differences in critical zone architecture, we found evidence in each catchment of a shallow and a deep water table, with the former defined by shallow interflow and the latter defined by deeper groundwater flow through weathered and fractured bedrock. We show that the shallow and deep waters have distinct chemical signatures. The proportion of contribution from each water type to stream discharge plays a key role in determining how concentrations, including nutrients, vary as a function of stream discharge. This illustrates the benefits of the critical zone observatory approach: having common sites to grapple with cross-disciplinary research questions, to integrate diverse datasets, and to support model development that ultimately enables the development of powerful conceptual and numerical frameworks for large-scale hindcasting and forecasting capabilities