CFD analysis of acoustofluidic channels and the effects on biologic delivery.

T-cell transformation is an ever-expanding treatment for several types of cancer, with a potential to be adapted to other disorders in which the immune system plays a key role in the pathophysiology. Currently, all FDA approved chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell cancer therapies rely on transformation via viral transduction. However, viral transduction is plagued by poor consistency and the potential to create adverse immune reactions when T-cells are reintroduced into a patient. Other transformation methods are being explored, with an alternative called acoustofluidic sonoporation showing promise. In these procedures, cells are passed through a channel, of the millimeter scale, while ultrasound (US) is applied. The US causes unstable cavitation of perfluorocarbon microbubbles (MBs) resulting in rupture that reversibly permeabilizes cells, allowing entry of almost any water-soluble biologic (e.g. DNA/RNA, small molecules, etc.). While current research demonstrates that acoustofluidic sonoporation may be better than other transfection methods, there is a limited understanding of the fluid dynamics within the acoustofluidic devices and the physical mechanisms of the alteration in cell permeability. In this thesis, computational fluid dynamic (CFD) modeling was utilized to simulate fluid and particle flow through various acoustofluidic channel geometries and the results were compared with biological delivery experiments to cells. It was found a 1-mm diameter Concentric Spiral channel is an optimal design as it maximizes wall shear stress (WSS) and US exposure, as compared to 1-mm and 2-mm diameter Rectilinear channels. With further refinement of the CFD simulations, optimization of channel geometry, flow rate, and US parameters could be enhanced. This optimization could enable acoustofluidic sonoporation to be translated into manufacturing of CAR T-cell therapies for clinical treatments of cancer and other disorders in the future

Sterile Neutrino Dark Matter

Neutrinos are weakly interacting, electrically neutral particles in the standard model of particle physics. These neutrinos are referred to as left-handed or active neutrinos and are classified into three flavors (electron, mu, and tau). Neutrino oscillation is the phenomenon that involves the oscillation of neutrinos between the three flavors. This phenomenon is also applied the oscillation of left-handed neutrinos into right-handed (sterile) neutrinos. The sterile neutrino is a hypothetical particle that does not interact with the weak force and only interacts through the gravitational force. This characteristic of the sterile neutrino makes it a very good dark matter candidate

Matching Entities On Multiple Platforms Using Graph Bijections

Disclosed herein is an improved mechanism for matching entities on multiple platforms using graph bijections. The mechanism can identify two trees (e.g., a first tree and a second tree) within a given directed graph, where each tree has a root node corresponding to a particular entity, such as a reporting entity for advertisement metrics (e.g., impressions, views, etc.) or any other suitable entity. The mechanism can then identify the leaves associated with each tree. For each identified leaf, the mechanism can determine if there is advertising traffic or other suitable activity that connects the leaf with a leaf of another tree. For example, for each identified leaf, the mechanism can determine if there is advertising traffic or other suitable activity that connects a leaf corresponding to a first root node of the first tree with a leaf corresponding to a second root node of the second tree. In response to determining that there is advertising traffic or other suitable activity that connects each of the identified leaves, the mechanism can determine that there is a match in the entities associated with the two root nodes of the two trees and can subsequently perform any suitable actions associated with the matched entities. Alternatively, in response to determining that there is no advertising traffic or other suitable activity that connects each of the identified leaves, the mechanism can determine that there is no match in the entities associated with the two root nodes of the two trees

A Framework For Large-Scale Fault-Tolerant Data Pipelines

A system and a method for frequent and fault-tolerant running of large-scale data pipelines across data centers are disclosed. The system includes one or more data centers, each having multiple servers, with a framework including a mutex design pattern for multi-binary data processing. The mutex design includes a minimal locking scheme where locks are acquired on the outputs of the stages on startup from a distributed locking service, and are released upon failure or successful writing of the output. A multi-homed pipeline may be utilized to make the system fault-tolerant. The method wraps each binary in the pipeline with locking on output data tables. The locking scheme guarantees that instances of the same binary will not interfere with each other. The disclosed system and method automatically coordinates pipelines in case of a failure or data delay to produce consistent and replicated output data tables on time

Tracking habitat use by boreal toads in disturbed forest on the boreal plain in Alberta

Radio-telemetry is an effective way of collecting detailed information on the behaviour of a great many species. However, the presence of the radio-transmitter may influence the behaviour of the subject, an effect for which one cannot necessarily control. I examined the relative impact of two common radio-transmitter attachment techniques (waistband harness and surgical implantation) on Wood Frogs and Boreal Toads to determine their efficacy for these species. The acute stress of surgical implantation appeared to have less impact than the chronic stress of the waistband harnesses, but logistic constraints limited their usefulness for monitoring Boreal Toad movements. Radio-telemetry provided the means of identifying Boreal Toad refuge microsites, which likely represent a critical resource for the persistence of the species. Refugia provided favourable microclimates with elevated relative humidity compared to the surrounding habitat. Boreal Toads tended to forage at night within 15 m from refugia. This distance was used to calculate activity centres across toad summer home ranges. This approach can be used to pinpoint critical habitat at the landscape scale, which may be of particular importance for conserving populations currently in decline

From One Cheesecake To The Next

M.H. Alshaya Co. is a widely unknown franchising organization that takes American brand names and replicates them into the Middle East. Their goal is to keep the original businesses as they are, to preserve all the important things that distinguish them in the first place- and in one of its more notable examples, The Cheesecake Factory, Alshaya keeps the food, atmosphere and overall restaurant culture the same. Or at least it appears that way- there are subtle, almost imperceptible changes- but overall the experience is designed to exist the same across the globe. While this process of homogeneity isn’t something that happens overnight, the degree of care Alshaya has taken ensures that every Cheesecake Factory location will offer the same experience. There are multiple components that go into making this happen. Take globalization: it ensures the entire brand is on the same page with culture and product. Communication’s equally significant- restaurants in different countries can only provide the same experience if someone compares and contrasts the locations, and communicates these qualities to the relevant employees. In addition, performance management ensures each and every employee provides consistently high-quality service. At the end of the day, though, change only happens when decisions are made. The decision making process is something Alshaya employs by making the choices it does, and by simultaneous being efficient and cautious. All these factors converge to make a highly successful franchising business, one that’s found a gold mine in an otherwise meager restaurant locale

A near-surface geophysical investigation of the effects of measured and repeated removal of overlying soil on instrument response

A geophysical survey presents many challenges. A scientist must be able to not only understand the theory and nature of the geophysics being applied but must also be able to identify features of interest in a dataset. It is also of extreme importance to be able to determine where, in the subsurface, the features identified in the data occur. This research is designed in an attempt to identify the locations of subsurface heterogeneities that affect geophysical instrument response. An experiment was conducted in which topography, magnetics, ground-penetrating radar (GPR), and electromagnetic induction (EM) data were collected over a defined survey line. An excavator with a modified flat-bladed bucket was used to remove, or skim, a 5 to 10 cm thick layer of material from the survey line. Upon removal of the material, datasets from the above mentioned instruments were again collected along the same survey line. This process was repeated for 10 skims, resulting in a total of 11 sets of data for each instrument. Having collected data with various instruments in the same location as material was progressively removed allowed for an empirical study with the goal of noting how the response of each instrument changed with respect to the removal of material. By observing how the anomalies changed in the data from one skim to the next, a better understanding of the location of the causative heterogeneities could be had. Data for each instrument was compared to the equivalent data collected from each subsequent skim to determine how similar or different the data appeared as the depth of the trench increased. The experiment also sought to determine if the topographic variations, or roughness, along the survey line had any impact of the geophysical signals. The data collected from each instrument were compared to the topographic roughness of the survey line for the corresponding skim

On Dirac Factorization, Fractional Calculus, and Polynomial Linearization

We postulate the existence of fractional order derivative operators that satisfy a semi-group property in order to further factor the Klein-Gordon equation in Dirac's fashion. The analog of Dirac's matrices are found and we study the generalization of the Dirac algebra generated by these matrices. In this way, a hierarchy of generalized Clifford algebras is formed. We then apply this procedure to Schr\"odinger's equation, and examine the resulting coefficients before moving to a more general setting in which we study the linearization of polynomials with coefficients that do not commute with the indeterminates. Partial differential equations with non-constant coefficients are the archetypal example in this setting.Comment: 15 page

Implementation of Rare Isotopologues into Machine Learning of the Chemical Inventory of the Solar-Type Protostellar Source IRAS 16293-2422

Machine learning techniques have been previously used to model and predict column densities in the TMC-1 dark molecular cloud. In interstellar sources further along the path of star formation, such as those where a protostar itself has been formed, the chemistry is known to be drastically different from that of largely quiescent dark clouds. To that end, we have tested the ability of various machine learning models to fit the column densities of the molecules detected in source B of the Class 0 protostellar binary IRAS 16293-2422. By including a simple encoding of isotopic composition in our molecular feature vectors, we also examine for the first time how well these models can replicate the isotopic ratios. Finally, we report the predicted column densities of the chemically relevant molecules that may be excellent targets for radioastronomical detection in IRAS 16293-2422B.Comment: Accepted for publication in Digital Discovery. 18 pages, 8 figures, 5 table