A Novel 3-D Mineralized Tumor Model to Study Breast Cancer Bone Metastasis

Metastatic bone disease is a frequent cause of morbidity in patients with advanced breast cancer, but the role of the bone mineral hydroxyapatite (HA) in this process remains unclear. We have developed a novel mineralized 3-D tumor model and have employed this culture system to systematically investigate the pro-metastatic role of HA under physiologically relevant conditions in vitro.MDA-MB231 breast cancer cells were cultured within non-mineralized or mineralized polymeric scaffolds fabricated by a gas foaming-particulate leaching technique. Tumor cell adhesion, proliferation, and secretion of pro-osteoclastic interleukin-8 (IL-8) was increased in mineralized tumor models as compared to non-mineralized tumor models, and IL-8 secretion was more pronounced for bone-specific MDA-MB231 subpopulations relative to lung-specific breast cancer cells. These differences were pathologically significant as conditioned media collected from mineralized tumor models promoted osteoclastogenesis in an IL-8 dependent manner. Finally, drug testing and signaling studies with transforming growth factor beta (TGFbeta) confirmed the clinical relevance of our culture system and revealed that breast cancer cell behavior is broadly affected by HA.Our results indicate that HA promotes features associated with the neoplastic and metastatic growth of breast carcinoma cells in bone and that IL-8 may play an important role in this process. The developed mineralized tumor models may help to reveal the underlying cellular and molecular mechanisms that may ultimately enable more efficacious therapy of patients with advanced breast cancer

The effectiveness and satisfaction of web-based physiotherapy in people with spinal cord injury: a pilot randomised controlled trial

Study Design: Pilot randomised controlled trial. Objectives: The aims of this study were to evaluate the effectiveness and participant satisfaction of web-based physiotherapy for people with Spinal Cord Injury (SCI). Setting: Community patients of a national spinal injury unit in a university teaching hospital, Scotland, UK. Methods: Twenty-four participants were recruited and randomised to receive eight weeks of web-based physiotherapy (intervention), twice per week, or usual care (control). Individual exercise programmes were prescribed based upon participant’s abilities. The intervention was delivered via a website (www.webbasedphysio.com) and monitored and progressed remotely by the physiotherapist. Results: Participants logged on to the website an average of 1.4±0.8 times per week. Between-group differences, although not significant were more pronounced for the 6 minute walk test. Participants were positive about using web-based physiotherapy and stated they would be happy to use it again and would recommend it to others. Overall it was rated as either good or excellent. Conclusions: Web-based physiotherapy was feasible and acceptable for people with SCI. Participants achieved good compliance with the intervention, rated the programme highly and beneficial for health and well-being at various states post injury. The results of this study warrant further work with a more homogenous sample

Grape marc as an addition to the production of homemade cider®

W artykule przedstawiono możliwość wykorzystania świeżych wytłoków winogronowych do produkcji cydrów. Spożycie cydru w Polsce wzrosło w ostatnich latach, dlatego oprócz jabłek jako głównego surowca do produkcji napoju rozważa się wykorzystanie produktów ubocznych przemysłu spożywczego, takich jak wytłoki winogronowe. Zastosowanie wytłoków winogronowych może stać się ciekawą i atrakcyjną możliwością dla produkcji niskoprocentowych napojów alkoholowych ze względu na zawarte w nich biologicznie aktywne związki o udokumentowanej w literaturze aktywności. W przeprowadzonych badaniach oceniono wpływ dodatku wytłoków na podstawowe parametry jakości cydru oraz przebieg procesu technologicznego. Ponadto oznaczono zawartość polifenoli oraz aktywność antyoksydacyjną. Stwierdzono, że zastosowanie dodatku wytłoków winogronowych do produkcji cydru pozwoliło zwiększyć zawartość polifenoli w końcowym produkcie, co w istotny sposób wpłynęło na aktywność antyoksydacyjną otrzymanego produktu i jednocześnie na wysoką akceptację wśród konsumentów.The article presents the possibility of using fresh grape marc for the production of ciders. Cider consumption in Poland increased in recent years, because in addition to apples as the main raw material for the production of beverage considered the use of food industry by-products, such as grape marc. The use of grape marc will become an interesting and attractive option for the production of low-grade alcoholic beverages due to the biologically active compounds contained in them, which have been documented in the literature. In the conducted research, the effect of the addition of marc to the basic parameters of the quality of the cider and the course of the technological process was assessed. In addition, the content of polyphenols and antioxidant activity were determined. It was found that the use of the addition of grape marc for the production of cider allowed to increase the content of polyphenols in the final product, so it significantly influenced the antioxidant activity of the obtained product with simultaneous high acceptance among consumers

Hip joint implants - survey of numerical modeling

In the paper the discussion of the modeling of hip joint implants is presented. the historical attempts to implant construction finally led to complex solutions. To date almost all experiences have learned from clinic observation and rather tests and trial methods than systematic research. Numerical simulations have been limited to simple stress analysis. All phenomena responsible for the damage in the treated joint are not fully explained. The comlexity of the problem is presented in the paper. The stress concentration in the region of rigid inclusion is pointed as one of the mechanical destructive factors. The change of the stem form and material rigidity cuuld reduce extremal stresses by 10-20%.W pracy omówiono modelowanie implantów stawu biodrowego. Historyczne próby ich konstruowania doprowadziły do bardzo złożonych rozwiązań. Dotąd niemal wszystkie doświadczenia zdobywano w obserwacjach klinicznych i próbach, a nie w wyniku systematycznych badań. Numeryczne symulacje ograniczono do prostej analizy stanu naprężenia. Większość zjawisk odpowiedzialnych za uszkodzenia badanych stawów nie jest w pełni wyjaśniona. W pracy zwrócono uwagę na złożoność zagadnienia. Za jeden z czynników niszczących uznano koncentracje naprężeń w strefach sztywnych wtrąceń. Zmiana kształtu trzpienia i sztywności materiału pozwala zmniejszyć ekstremalne naprężenia o 10-20%

Antimicrobial activity of potato juice

Doniesienia literaturowe wskazują, że sok z ziemniaków może być cennym źródłem związków bioaktywnych korzystnie oddziałujących na organizm człowieka. Jak dotąd nie scharakteryzowano jednak w pełni aktywności przeciwdrobnoustrojowej tego produktu. Dlatego też, w niniejszej pracy oceniono aktywność przeciwdrobnoustrojową suszu soku ziemniaczanego powstałego w procesie suszenia rozpyłowego oraz sublimacyjnego, jego hydrolizatu oraz frakcji odbiałczonej. W testach bioaktywności zastosowano szczepy bakterii z rodzajów: Bacteroides, Listeria, Salmonella, Clostridium, Escherichia, Enterococcus, Lactobacillus,, Staphylococcus, Yersinia oraz drożdże Candida i Saccharomyces. Aktywność przeciwdrobnoustrojową oznaczano metodą punktowo-dyfuzyjną. Dodatkowo zbadano zawartość glikoalkaloidów, mikro- i makroelementów, witamin z grupy B oraz witaminy C w soku z ziemniaków, a także podjęto pró- bę określenia ich wpływu na bioaktywność. Przeprowadzone badania wykazały, że żaden z zastosowanych preparatów niezależnie od składu chemicznego i sposobu wytworzenia nie wykazywał aktywności antagonistycznej w stosunku do mikroorganizmów patogennych, probiotycznych i komensalych.There are information in the literature that potato juice could be a valuable source of bioactive compounds revealing beneficial effect on the human health. However, the antimicrobial activity on this product has not been fully established so far. The aim of this study was to evaluate the antimicrobial activity of dried potato juice obtained by spray or sublimation drying, as well as products of its enzymatic hydrolysis and deproteinization. The bacteria of the genera Bacteroides Listeria, Salmonella, Clostridium, Escherichia, Enterococcus, Lactobacillus, Staphylococcus, Yersinia as well as yeasts: Candida and Saccharomyces were used in the study. Antimicrobial activity was determined using the spot-diffusion method. Additionally, characterization of the juice in terms the content of glycoalkaloids, vitamins C and the B group, as well as micro-and macroelements was made. The study showed that none of the investigated species had activity against all pathogenic, commensal and probiotic microflora

Evaluation of the quality and consumer acceptance of wheat bread enriched with potato juice®

Doniesienia literaturowe potwierdzają wysoką aktywność biologiczną soku ziemniaczanego. W pracy przedstawionej w artykule analizowano wpływ dodatku suszonego soku z ziemniaka (stosowanego na 3 poziomach: 2,5; 5,0 i 7,5%) na jakość pieczywa pszennego ocenianą wg Polskiej Normy PN-A-74108 oraz jego akceptowalność konsumencką. Wykazano, że możliwe jest wytworzenie akceptowalnego pieczywa z dodatkiem suszu ziemniaczanego na poziomie 2,5%. Zaobserwowano wpływ dodatku soku na wygląd, barwę oraz strukturę miękiszu pieczywa, a zmiany te pogłębiały się wraz ze wzrostem ilości stosowanego suszu.Literature reports confirm high biological activity of potato juice. Studies analyzed effect of dried potato juice addition during wheat bread production at three different concentrations: 2.5, 5.0 and 7.5 wt.%. Quality of obtained wheat bread was evaluated in accordance to Polish Norm PN-A-74108 and consumer acceptability. It has been shown that it is possible to produce an acceptable bread enriched with 2.5% of the dried potato juice. It was also observed that addition of the potato juice changes appearance, colour and structure of the bread crumb. These changes increases with amount of the potato juice used

Light trapping in thin-film solar cells with randomly rough and hybrid textures

We study light-trapping in thin-film silicon solar cells with rough interfaces. We consider solar cells made of different materials (c-Si and μc-Si) to investigate the role of size and nature (direct/indirect) of the energy band gap in light trapping. By means of rigorous calculations we demonstrate that the Lambertian Limit of absorption can be obtained in a structure with an optimized rough interface. We gain insight into the light trapping mechanisms by analysing the optical properties of rough interfaces in terms of Angular Intensity Distribution (AID) and haze. Finally, we show the benefits of merging ordered and disordered photonic structures for light trapping by studying a hybrid interface, which is a combination of a rough interface and a diffraction grating. This approach gives a significant absorption enhancement for a roughness with a modest size of spatial features, assuring good electrical properties of the interface. All the structures presented in this work are compatible with present-day technologies, giving recent progress in fabrication of thin monocrystalline silicon films and nanoimprint lithography

Engineering Disorder for Light Trapping in Thin-Film Solar Cells

Light trapping is crucial to increase efficiency in thin-film solar cells and to reduce the cost of advanced photovoltaic devices. It is especially important to enhance light absorption in the spectral region close to the electronic band gap of the semiconductor, where material absorption is low - and to approach the ultimate limit to absorption, which is usually taken to be the Lambertian limit. Light trapping at the wavelength-scale can be performed with ordered photonic lattices (photonic crystals, diffraction gratings), or with disordered structures, or with a combination of both. Here we report on a theoretical study of thin-film silicon solar cells with randomly rough surfaces described by a Gaussian disorder, which is characterized by the root mean square (RMS) deviation of the height and the lateral correlation length. We show that this model describes very well the scattering properties of actual rough substrates in terms of angular distribution function and haze, and we demonstrate that optimization of the disorder parameters by means of rigorous coupled-wave analysis, and with the short-circuit current density of the solar cell as a figure of merit, allows to reach the Lambertian Limit

Response to "comment on 'Towards high efficiency thin-film crystalline silicon solar cells: The roles of light trapping and non-radiative recombinations'" [J. Appl. Phys. 117, 026101 (2015)]

We respond to a comment about our paper published in J. Appl. Phys. 117, 026101 (2015) on the theory of light trapping and electronic transport in thin-film silicon solar cells. We show that our analytic model is correct and the discrepancies with respect to the full numerical solution are due to the choice of parameters. With the appropriate choice, agreement between analytic model and numerical results is improved and the analytic model has a wide applicability range