Transport of Live Cells under Sterile Conditions Using a Chemotactic Droplet

© 2018 The Author(s). 1-Decanol droplets, formed in an aqueous medium containing decanoate at high pH, become chemotactic when a chemical gradient is placed in the external aqueous environment. We investigated if such droplets can be used as transporters for living cells. We developed a partially hydrophobic alginate capsule as a protective unit that can be precisely placed in a droplet and transported along chemical gradients. Once the droplets with cargo reached a defined final destination, the association of the alginate capsule and decanol droplet was disrupted and cargo deposited. Both Escherichia coli and Bacillus subtilis cells survived and proliferated after transport even though transport occurred under harsh and sterile conditions

Involvement of the spinal cord in primary mitochondrial disorders : a neuroimaging mimicker of inflammation and ischemia in children

CITATION: Alves, C. A. P. F. et al. 2021 . Involvement of the spinal cord in primary mitochondrial disorders : a neuroimaging mimicker of inflammation and ischemia in children. American Journal of Neuroradiology, 42(2):389-396, doi: 10.3174/ajnr.A6910.The original publication is available at: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.govBackground and purpose: Little is known about imaging features of spinal cord lesions in mitochondrial disorders. The aim of this research was to assess the frequency, imaging features, and pathogenic variants causing primary mitochondrial disease in children with spinal cord lesions. Materials and methods: This retrospective analysis included patients seen at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia between 2000 and 2019 who had a confirmed diagnosis of a primary (genetic-based) mitochondrial disease and available MR imaging of the spine. The MR imaging included at least both sagittal and axial fast spin-echo T2-weighted images. Spine images were independently reviewed by 2 neuroradiologists. Location and imaging features of spinal cord lesions were correlated and tested using the Fisher exact test. Results: Of 119 children with primary mitochondrial disease in whom MR imaging was available, only 33 of 119 (28%) had available spine imaging for reanalysis. Nineteen of these 33 individuals (58%) had evidence of spinal cord lesions. Two main patterns of spinal cord lesions were identified: group A (12/19; 63%) had white ± gray matter involvement, and group B (7/19; 37%) had isolated gray matter involvement. Group A spinal cord lesions were similar to those seen in patients with neuromyelitis optica spectrum disorder, multiple sclerosis, anti-myelin oligodendrocyte glycoprotein-IgG antibody disease, and leukoencephalopathy with brain stem and spinal cord involvement and lactate elevation. Group B patients had spinal cord findings similar to those that occur with ischemia and viral infections. Significant associations were seen between the pattern of lesions (group A versus group B) and the location of lesions in cervical versus thoracolumbar segments, respectively (P < .01). Conclusions: Spinal cord lesions are frequently observed in children with primary mitochondrial disease and may mimic more common causes such as demyelination and ischemia.Publisher's versio

Naive Bayes ant colony optimization for designing high dimensional experiments

In a large number of experimental problems, high dimensionality of the search area and economical constraints can severely limit the number of experimental points that can be tested. Within these constraints, classical optimization techniques perform poorly, in particular, when little a priori knowledge is available. In this work we investigate the possibility of combining approaches from statistical modeling and bio-inspired algorithms to effectively explore a huge search space, sampling only a limited number of experimental points. To this purpose, we introduce a novel approach, combining ant colony optimization (ACO) and naive Bayes classifier (NBC) that is, the naive Bayes ant colony optimization (NACO) procedure. We compare NACO with other similar approaches developing a simulation study. We then derive the NACO procedure with the goal to design artificial enzymes with no sequence homology to the extant one. Our final aim is to mimic the natural fold of 200 amino acids 1AGY serine esterase from Fusarium solani

A Smart Power Quality Sensor For The Evaluation Of Flicker Effect

Abstract − The monitoring of power quality (PQ) on supply networks is today an issue of worldwide interest. In this field, one of the most important parameter is the flicker effect, a phenomenon due to luminance fluctuations of the lighting caused by voltage variations. The IEC standardized the implementation of a flickermeter, to supply information about the human reaction to the voltage amplitude modulation [1,2]. Starting from a different flicker measurement approach proposed by the authors [3], in this paper a low-cost smart flicker sensor has been designed and applied. The proposed sensor can transmit data over a TCP-IP network, in order to allow for a remote monitoring of power quality. The performance of the proposed device has been compared with a standard flickermeter and the main experiment results reported

Linear collisionless dynamics of the GAM with kinetic electrons: Comparison simulations/theory

Barely trapped and passing electrons have been recently predicted to strongly enhance the damping rate of Geodesic Acoustic Modes (GAMs) in tokamak plasmas, while keeping their real frequency almost unchanged as compared to the case with adiabatic electrons. In this paper, dedicated gyrokinetic simulations are successfully compared with these analytical predictions. Specifically, the scaling of the GAM damping rate with respect to the ion to electron mass ratio, to the electron to ion temperature ratio, to the safety factor, and to the aspect ratio is recovered in most regions of the relevant parameter space

Linear collisionless dynamics of the GAM with kinetic electrons: Comparison simulations/theory

Barely trapped and passing electrons have been recently predicted to strongly enhance the damping rate of Geodesic Acoustic Modes(GAMs) in tokamak plasmas, while keeping their real frequency almost unchanged as compared to the case with adiabatic electrons. In thispaper, dedicated gyrokinetic simulations are successfully compared with these analytical predictions. Specifically, the scaling of the GAMdamping rate with respect to the ion to electron mass ratio, to the electron to ion temperature ratio, to the safety factor, and to the aspectratio is recovered in most regions of the relevant parameter space