Multi-Process Print Artwork with Integrated Electronics

Multi-Process Print Artwork with Integrated Electronics explores the production of screen, block, and digital printing, and incorporates capacitive sensing to generate interactivity. The primary function of the art is to serve as promotional material for the student media group .wavzine. Moreover, the multi-print production is intended to demonstrate the inherent, tangible benefits of various printing methods. This is important to consider as the print industry continues to move towards digital homogeneity

Viticulture and Landscape in the Italian Northwestern Alpine Region

Three Northern Italian regions, Valle d\u2019Aosta, Piedmont and Liguria, have specific identities though united by deep geographical and historical common traits. They are traditional wine-growing regions, producing several renowned wines, often in difficult areas. The \u2018heroic\u2019 viticulture, vineyard sites at altitudes over 500 meters (1,600 feet), vines planted on slopes greater than 30% on terraces or embankments, is a cultural element of the wine-growing system in all the three regions, each having a share of mountain and slope areas. Liguria and Valle d\u2019Aosta are much smaller regions than Piedmont; they have a big share of mountain area of the total regional surface. The paper aims describing the diversity of wine landscapes in the three regions, all of them having a large mountain and slope area within the respective total geographical surface. Data have been collected following the Grounded theory, i.e. retrieving data from very diverse sources, including direct observations. Results are that the reality of the heroic viticulture is a fundamental part of the local wine-making in Valle d\u2019Aosta and Liguria

METRO - The role and future perspectives of Cohesion Policy in the planning of Metropolitan Areas and Cities. Policy brief: The role of metropolitan areas in the EU cohesion policy

This policy brief focuses on the role that metropolitan area plays, and may play, in the development, management and implementation of the EU cohesion policy. The information it includes is drawn from the ESPON METRO project, and in particular from the 9 in-depth case studies that have been analysed through the project: Barcelona Metropolitan Area, Brno Metropolitan Area, Brussels-Capital Region, Metropolitan City of Florence, Metropolitan Area of Gdańsk-Gdynia-Sopot, Lisbon Metropolitan Area, Métropole de Lyon, Riga Metropolitan Area, Metropolitan City of Turin. More in detail, the provided information discusses the different levels of engagement of metropolitan areas around Europe with the different stages of the EU cohesion policy development, the various programmes and instruments that have been put in place in different contexts as well as the coordination mechanisms that, in different metropolitan areas, have been put in place to ensure a stronger coherence between metropolitan governance and policy and the EU cohesion policy. The document also reflects on the engagement of the business actors and the civil society, as well as on the role that metropolitan areas are playing in the framework of the Recovery and Resilience Facility

METRO - The role and future perspectives of Cohesion Policy in the planning of Metropolitan Areas and Cities. Annex II: The role of Metropolitan areas within the EU cohesion policy

This Annex to the final Report presents and discusses in a comparative manner the evidence collected in the nine case studies that have been explored in the framework of the ESPON Targeted Analysis METRO – The role and future perspectives of cohesion policy in the planning of Metropolitan Areas and Cities (Annexes III to XI). More in detail, the document synthesizes and compares the information collected by the various research teams through the application of the project’s analytical protocol and as a consequence of their continuous interaction with the respective stakeholders. The report is organised following the three main policy questions that have been driving the analysis: PQ1 | What role do metropolitan areas and cities play in the development, management and implementation of the European Union (EU) cohesion policy? PQ2 | What is the added value of the EU cohesion policy in the planning and implementation of metropolitan policies? PQ3 | What role does the EU cohesion policy play in consolidating metropolitan governance and cooperation? These questions are answered through the comparative analysis and assessment of the territorial and institutional contexts in which the nine stakeholders involved in the projects are active: Metropolitan City of Turin (CMTo), Barcelona Metropolitan Area (AMB), Lisbon Metropolitan Area (LMA), Brno Metropolitan Area (BMA), Metropolitan Area of Gdańsk-Gdynia-Sopot (MAG), Metropolitan City of Florence (CMFi), Métropole de Lyon (MdL), Brussels-Capital Region (BCR), Riga Metropolitan Area (RMA)

Large-scale gene expression analysis of osteoblasts cultured on three different Ti-6Al-4V surface treatments

To improve implant biocompatibility, we developed a simple cost-effective thermal surface treatment allowing an increase in the oxide layer thickness of a titanium (Ti) alloy used in orthopaedic implants. The goal of this study was to test in vitro the reaction of osteoblasts to the developed surface treatment and to compare it to the osteoblast reaction to two other surface treatments currently used in the practice of implant surgery. Quantification of osteoblast gene expression on a large scale was used in this study. The kinetics of gene expression over 120 h was followed for 58 genes to quantify the effect of the developed surface treatment. Twenty eight genes were further selected to compare the effects of surface treatments on osteoblasts. Based on the genes studied, we could propose a general pathway for the cell reaction according to the surface treatments used: (1) metal ion release changes the time course of gene expression in the FAK pathway; (2) once the accumulation of metal ions released from the Ti surface exceeds a threshold value, cell growth is diminished and apoptosis may be activated; (3) PTK up-regulation is also induced by metal ion release; (4) the expression of Bcl-2 family and Bax may suggest that metal ions induce apoptosis. The developed treatment seems to increase the Ti-6Al-4V biocompatibility as highlighted by the lower impact of this treatment by the different pathways studied, on the lower inflammatory reaction that could be induced, as well as by the lower induced osteoblast apoptosis compared to the two other surface treatments

Colloquium: Mechanical formalisms for tissue dynamics

The understanding of morphogenesis in living organisms has been renewed by tremendous progressin experimental techniques that provide access to cell-scale, quantitative information both on theshapes of cells within tissues and on the genes being expressed. This information suggests that ourunderstanding of the respective contributions of gene expression and mechanics, and of their crucialentanglement, will soon leap forward. Biomechanics increasingly benefits from models, which assistthe design and interpretation of experiments, point out the main ingredients and assumptions, andultimately lead to predictions. The newly accessible local information thus calls for a reflectionon how to select suitable classes of mechanical models. We review both mechanical ingredientssuggested by the current knowledge of tissue behaviour, and modelling methods that can helpgenerate a rheological diagram or a constitutive equation. We distinguish cell scale ("intra-cell")and tissue scale ("inter-cell") contributions. We recall the mathematical framework developpedfor continuum materials and explain how to transform a constitutive equation into a set of partialdifferential equations amenable to numerical resolution. We show that when plastic behaviour isrelevant, the dissipation function formalism appears appropriate to generate constitutive equations;its variational nature facilitates numerical implementation, and we discuss adaptations needed in thecase of large deformations. The present article gathers theoretical methods that can readily enhancethe significance of the data to be extracted from recent or future high throughput biomechanicalexperiments.Comment: 33 pages, 20 figures. This version (26 Sept. 2015) contains a few corrections to the published version, all in Appendix D.2 devoted to large deformation

Repair of critical size defects in the rat cranium using ceramic-reinforced PLA scaffolds obtained by supercritical gas foaming

Bioresorbable scaffolds made Of poly(L-lactic acid) (PLA) obtained by supercritical gas foaming were recently described as suitable for tissue engineering, portraying biocompatibility with primary osteoblasts in vitro and interesting mechanical properties when reinforced with ceramics. The behavior of such constructs remained to be evaluated in vivo and therefore the present study was undertaken to compare different PLA/ceramic composite scaffolds obtained by supercritical gas foaming in a critical size defect craniotomy model in Sprague-Dawley rats. The host-tissue reaction to the implants was evaluated semiquantitatively and similar tendencies were noted for all graft substitutes: initially highly reactive but decreasing with time implanted. Complete bone-bridging was observed IS weeks after implantation with PLA/ 5 wt % beta-TCP (PLA/TCP) and PLA/5 wt % HA (PLA/HA) scaffolds as assessed by histology and radiography. We show here for the first time that this solvent-free technique provides a promising approach in tissue engineering demonstrating both the biocompatibility and osteoconcluctivity of the processed structures in vivo

Fetal bone cells for tissue engineering

We envision the use of human fetal bone cells for engineered regeneration of adult skeletal tissue. A description of their cellular function is then necessary. To our knowledge, there is no description of human primary fetal bone cells treated with differentiation factors. The characterization of fetal bone cells is particularly important as the pattern of secreted proteins from osteoblasts has been shown to change during aging. In the first part of this work, human primary fetal bone cells were compared to adult bone cells and mesenchymal stem cells for their ability to proliferate and to differentiate into osteoblasts in vitro. Cell proliferation, gene expression of bone markers, alkaline phosphatase (ALP) activity, and mineralization were analyzed during a time-course study. In the second part of this paper, bone fetal cells behavior exposed to osteogenic factors is further detailed. The doubling time of fetal bone cells was comparable to mesenchymal stem cells but significantly shorter than for adult bone cells. Gene expression of cbfa-1, ALP, alpha1 chain of type I collagen, and osteocalcin were upregulated in fetal bone cells after 12 days of treatment, with higher inductions than for adult and mesenchymal stem cells. The increase of ALP enzymatic activity was stronger for fetal than for adult bone cells reaching a maximum at day 10, but lower than for mesenchymal stem cells. Importantly, the mineralization process of bone fetal cells started earlier than adult bone and mesenchymal stem cells. Proliferation of fetal and adult bone cells was increased by dexamethasone, whereas 1alpha,25-dihydroxyvitamin D3 did not show any proliferative effect. Mineralization studies clearly demonstrated the presence of calcium deposits in the extracellular matrix of fetal bone cells. Nodule formation and calcification were strongly increased by the differentiation treatment, especially by dexamethasone. This study shows for the first time that human primary fetal bone cells could be of great interest for bone research, due to their fast growth rate and their ability to differentiate into mature osteoblasts. They represent an interesting and promising potential for therapeutic use in bone tissue engineering