Functionalization of Chitosan Based Microparticles for In Vitro 3D Culture of Human Liver Cells

Previous work involving 3D culture of human liver cells with fluorinated chitosan based microparticles has shown that their incorporation provides needed structural cues that the culture of cells alone does not provide, such as increased gas transport. However, using bare microparticles to grow large 3D cellular structures is not practical as they tend to collapse before any meaningful research can be done on them. It is proposed that this is because of the lack of extracellular matrix (ECM)components within pure cell culture in vitro, which in their absence cannot adequately facilitate biochemical communication and adhesion between cells. It is possible to utilize protein linkage techniques, namely carbodiimide chemistry, to immobilize proteins derived from the liver cellular environment to the surface of these microparticles and grow stable 3D cell aggregates known as spheroids. I hypothesized that the surface functionalization of fluorinated methacrylamide chitosan (MACF) microparticles with liver ECM adhesive ligands and their culture with liver cells will increase formation and biological function of spheroids. It was found that through the modification of MACF microparticles with native extracellular matrix proteins, particularly variations of laminin native to the in vivo liver environment, the overall functionality of cells increased over a 5 day culture time, as shown by higher levels of both albumin and urea secretion when compared to controls (p\u3c0.05)

The plunder of Ethiopia

https://stars.library.ucf.edu/prism/1659/thumbnail.jp

Proteus:Network-aware Web Browsing on Heterogeneous Mobile Systems

We present Proteus, a novel network-aware approach for optimizing web browsing on heterogeneous multi-core mobile systems. It employs machine learning techniques to predict which of the heterogeneous cores to use to render a given webpage and the operating frequencies of the processors. It achieves this by first learning offline a set of predictive models for a range of typical networking environments. A learnt model is then chosen at runtime to predict the optimal processor configuration, based on the web content, the network status and the optimization goal. We evaluate Proteus by implementing it into the open-source Chromium browser and testing it on two representative ARM big.LITTLE mobile multi-core platforms. We apply Proteus to the top 1,000 popular websites across seven typical network environments. Proteus achieves over 80% of best available performance. It obtains, on average, over 17% (up to 63%), 31% (up to 88%), and 30% (up to 91%) improvement respectively for load time, energy consumption and the energy delay product, when compared to two state-of-the-art approaches

Glass-Polymer Composite Pipes and Joints: Manufacturing, Testing, and Characterization

Over the last fifty years, Fiber Reinforced Polymer (FRP) composite materials have been employed in civil engineering applications for rehabilitation of deteriorated infrastructure and for new construction. In addition to steel and high-density polyethylene, glass-fiber reinforced polymer pipes (GFRP) are now being employed in natural gas gathering and distribution lines. As energy demands have grown, researchers have begun to investigate feasibility of GFRP pipe implementation in high- pressure, transmission lines. These investigations have sought to determine GFRP pipe properties of strength, stiffness, corrosion resistance, failure modes, and long-term behavior.;During this project, hydrostatic burst pressure testing (internal water pressure) and split ring testing were conducted on 6-inch and 10-inch diameter, pultruded and filament wound pipes, as well as 10-inch diameter filament wound, butt joints. These tests were conducted to determine elastic properties, failure progression, and failure predictions for short time loadings. In addition to testing, the Classical Lamination Theory (CLT) was employed to predict elastic behavior, including strength and stiffness of the pipes. Testing and analysis of the pipes were conducted to determine the strength of pipes under sustained pressure, which is approximately 30 percent of the short time, burst pressure failure strength.;The results from the tests indicate that filament wound pipes provide better resistance to internal pressures than pultruded pipes and that joints continue to be the limiting component in pipelines. A 6-inch diameter pultruded pipe was tested to a burst pressure of 1,000 psi. Three 10-inch diameter, pultruded pipes were tested to internal pressures of 300 psi. Three 10-inch diameter, thin-walled, filament wound pipes (0.45 inch thick) were tested to pressures of 3,000 psi, while three 10 inch diameter, thick walled, filament wound pipes (0.8 inch thick) were tested to burst pressures between 4,000 and 5,200 psi. Two GFRP filament wound butt joints were tested to pressures of 1,000 psi.;The research resulted in an excellent methodology for burst pressure testing. The hydrostatic test method was found to produce elastic results matching well with CLT predictions and split-ring test results. The hydrostatic test method results did not match well with CLT predictions or split-ring test results in terms of failure progression and failure predictions

Papiledema unilateral na síndrome do pseudotumor cerebral

São apresentadas as fotografias de fundo de olho de 6 mulheres com papiledema unilateral e a síndrome do pseudotumor cerebral. Achados associados foram: obesidade em 5 e a sindrome da sela vazia parcial em 2. São discutidas as possíveis explicações para o desenvolvimento de papiledema unilateral nesses pacientes e que favorecem um mecanismo presente na porção distal dos nervos ópticos