Development of wide-field fluorescence lifetime imaging for biomedical applications

Imperial Users onl

A mathematical model of sonoporation using a liquid-crystalline shelled microbubble

In recent years there has been a great deal of interest in using thin shelled microbubbles as a transportation mechanism for localised drug delivery, particularly for the treatment of various types of cancer. The technique used for such site-specific drug delivery is sonoporation. Despite there being numerous experimental studies on sonoporation, the mathematical modelling of this technique has still not been extensively researched. Presently there exists a very small body of work that models both hemispherical and spherical shelled microbubbles sonoporating due to acoustic microstreaming. Acoustic microstreaming is believed to be the dominant mechanism for sonoporation via shelled microbubbles. Rather than considering the shell of the microbubble to be composed of a thin protein, which is typical in the literature, in this paper we consider the shell to be a liquid-crystalline material. Up until now there have been no studies reported in the literature pertaining to sonoporation of a liquid-crystalline shelled microbubble. A mathematical expression is derived for the maximum wall shear stress, illustrating its dependency on the shell’s various material parameters. A sensitivity analysis is performed for the wall shear stress considering the shell’s thickness; its local density; the elastic constant of the liquid-crystalline material; the interfacial surface tension and; the shell’s viscoelastic properties. In some cases, our results indicate that a liquid-crystalline shelled microbubble may yield a maximum wall shear stress that is two orders of magnitude greater than the stress generated by commercial shelled microbubbles that are currently in use within the scientific community. In conclusion, our preliminary analysis suggests that using liquid-crystalline shelled microbubbles may significantly enhance the efficiency of site-specific drug delivery

Pond Culture of Tilapia.

4 p

Pond Culture of Tilapia.

4 p

Gugu Badhun: people of the Valley of Lagoons

This is a story of achievement in the face of adversity. It is the story of the Gugu Badhun people from the upper Burdekin River in North Queensland: an Aboriginal group which, like others, experienced the anguish of invasion, dispossession and discrimination but still maintained their solidarity, identity and connectedness to country. In the aftermath of colonisation, they successfully negotiated new roles for themselves and established new niches in a radically transformed social order. Theirs is a story shot through with tragedy, though with a stronger theme of triumph; a story of hardships and injustices met with resilience, courage and determination. The Gugu Badhun were among the first Aboriginal groups in inland northern Australia to encounter European intruders, specifically Ludwig Leichhardt’s exploratory party in 1845. After the pastoral invasion hit in the 1860s, the Gugu Badhun were among the Aboriginal groups that held out longest against the squatters, the rough and fissured character of their country facilitating a lengthy resistance. Following their incorporation into the pastoral economy, the Gugu Badhun continued to assert their autonomy, and members of the group were among the first Aboriginal people in the district to leave the pastoral stations to seek employment and opportunity in local towns. A Gugu Badhun man, Dick Hoolihan, became one of the most outspoken Aboriginal political leaders in North Queensland in the 1950s and 1960s. Those traditions – of autonomy and activism – are still cherished and maintained by Gugu Badhun people today, as this book explains. The story we tell is multi-faceted. It lays bare the violence and oppression experienced by Gugu Badhun people, but also acknowledges the inter-racial cooperation and friendships that were equally part of their experience. It tells of a people whose options were limited by state power and popular racism; but also of a people who remained proud and undaunted, making their own decisions for their own collective and individual benefit. It conveys new understandings of Aboriginal-European interactions, and of how Aboriginal people maintained their identities and exercised agency. This is a timely book for an Australia in which notions of Indigenous autonomy and self-determination are being re-imagined and re-configured

Characterising the effects of in vitro mechanical stimulation on morphogenesis of developing limb explants

AbstractMechanical forces due to fetal movements play an important role in joint shape morphogenesis, and abnormalities of the joints relating to abnormal fetal movements can have long-term health implications. While mechanical stimulation during development has been shown to be important for joint shape, the relationship between the quantity of mechanical stimulation and the growth and shape change of developing cartilage has not been quantified. In this study, we culture embryonic chick limb explants in vitro in order to reveal how the magnitude of applied movement affects key aspects of the developing joint shape. We hypothesise that joint shape is affected by movement magnitude in a dose-dependent manner, and that a movement regime most representative of physiological fetal movements will promote characteristics of normal shape development. Chick hindlimbs harvested at seven days of incubation were cultured for six days, under either static conditions or one of three different dynamic movement regimes, then assessed for joint shape, cell survival and proliferation. We demonstrate that a physiological magnitude of movement in vitro promotes the most normal progression of joint morphogenesis, and that either under-stimulation or over-stimulation has detrimental effects. Providing insight into the optimal level of mechanical stimulation for cartilage growth and morphogenesis is pertinent to gaining a greater understanding of the etiology of conditions such as developmental dysplasia of the hip, and is also valuable for cartilage tissue engineering

Random walks and market efficiency in Chinese and Indian equity markets

Hypothesis of Market Efficiency is an important concept for the investors across the globe holding diversified portfolios. With the world economy getting more integrated day by day, more people are investing in global emerging markets. This means that it is pertinent to understand the efficiency of these markets. This paper tests for market efficiency by studying the impact of global financial crisis of 2008 and the recent Chinese crisis of 2015 on stock market efficiency in emerging stock markets of China and India. The data for last 20 years was collected from both Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE200) and the Shanghai Stock Exchange Composite Index and divided into four sub-periods, i.e. before financial crisis period (period-I), during recession (period-II), after recession and before Chinese Crisis (periodIII) and from the start of Chinese crisis till date (period- IV). Daily returns for the SSE and BSE were examined and tested for randomness using a combination of auto correlation tests, runs tests and unit root tests (Augmented Dickey-Fuller) for the entire sample period and the four sub-periods. The evidence from all these tests supports that both the Indian and Chinese stock markets do not exhibit weak form of market efficiency. They do not follow random walk overall and in the first three periods (1996 till the 2015) implying that recession did not impact the markets to a great extent, although the efficiency in percentage terms seems to be increasing after the global financial crisis of 2008

Enabling Lightweight Video Annotation and Presentation for Cultural Heritage

Collaboration-intensive research is increasingly becoming the norm in the humanities and social science arenas. eResearch tools such as online repositories offer researchers the opportunity to access and interact with data online. For the last 20 years video has formed an important part of humanities research, although dealing with multimedia in an online setting has proven difficult with existing tools. File size limitations, lack of interoperability with existing security systems, and the inability to include rich supportive detail regarding files have hampered the use of video. This paper describes a collaborative and data management solution for video and other files using a combination of existing tools (SRB and Plone integrated with Shibboleth) and a custom application for video upload and annotation (Mattotea). Rather than creating new proprietary systems, this development has examined the reuse of existing technologies with the addition of custom extensions to provide fullfeatured access to research data

Using Herbicide Programs to Control Weeds in Corn (Zea mays L.) and Cotton (Gossypium hirsutum L.)

Field studies were conducted to evaluate control of Amaranthus species and other weeds in corn and cotton. In corn, Palmer amaranth control was at least 90% with preemergence applications of fluthiacet‐methyl plus pyroxasulfone, atrazine plus either acetochlor, alachlor, dimethenamid‐P, S‐metolachlor, or S‐metolachlor plus mesotrione, saflufenacil plus dimethenamid‐P, and S‐metolachlor plus mesotrione. When using postemergence herbicides applied to Palmer amaranth less than 5 cm tall, atrazine, prosulfuron, and topramezone alone or the combinations of atrazine plus S‐metolachlor plus glyphosate, diflufenzopyr plus dicamba, dimethenamid plus glyphosate, halosulfuron‐methyl plus dicamba, mesotrione plus S‐metolachlor plus glyphosate, pyroxasulfone plus glyphosate, and thiencarbazone‐methyl plus tembotrione provided at least 91% control. In cotton, pyrithiobac applied preemergence resulted in no greater than 63% of control of Palmer amaranth and common waterhemp at the early season rating. Pendimethalin applied preemergence provided varied levels of control of common waterhemp. Trifluralin, applied preplant incorporated, consistently provided at least 86% or greater control of both species. A decreased level of control of both Palmer amaranth and common waterhemp was observed with pendimethalin applied preemergence followed by pyrithiobac‐applied early postemergence and followed by glufosinate applied mid‐post. Systems which included an early postemergence and mid‐postemergence application of glyphosate plus 2,4‐d choline provided at least 94% season‐long Palmer amaranth control

Pond culture of tilapia

The Oklahoma Cooperative Extension Service periodically issues revisions to its publications. The most current edition is made available. For access to an earlier edition, if available for this title, please contact the Oklahoma State University Library Archives by email at [email protected] or by phone at 405-744-6311