Design concepts for bioreactors in space

Microbial food sources are becoming viable and more efficient alternatives to conventional food sources especially in the context of Closed Ecological Life Support Systems (CELSS) in space habitats. Since bioreactor designs for terrestrial operation will not readily apply to conditions of microgravity, there is an urgent need to learn about the differences. These differences cannot be easily estimated due to the complex nature of the mass transport and mixing mechanisms in fermenters. Therefore, a systematic and expeditious experimental program must be undertaken to obtain the engineering data necessary to lay down the foundations of designing bioreactors for microgravity. Two bioreactor design concepts presented represent two dissimilar approaches to grappling with the absence of gravity in space habitats and deserve to be tested for adoption as important components of the life support function aboard spacecrafts, space stations and other extra-terrestrial habitats

Effect of wavelength selection on the accuracy of blood oxygen saturation estimates obtained from photoacoustic images

In photoacoustic tomography (PAT) the image contrast is due to optical absorption, and because of this PAT images are sensitive to changes in blood oxygen saturation (sO2). However, this is not a linear relationship due to the presence of a non-uniform light fluence distribution. In this paper we systematically evaluate the conditions in which an approximate linear inversion scheme–which assumes the internal fluence distribution is unchanged when the absorption coefficient changes–can give accurate estimates of sO2. A numerical phantom of highly vascularised tissue is used to test this assumption. It is shown that using multiple wavelengths over a broad range of the near-infrared spectrum yields inaccurate estimates of oxygenation, while a careful selection of wavelengths in the 620-920nm range is likely to yield more accurate oxygenation values. We demonstrate that a 1D fluence correction obtained by fitting a linear function to the average decay rate in the image can further improve the estimates. However, opting to use these longer wavelengths involves sacrificing signal-to-noise ratio in the image, as the absorption of blood is low in this range. This results in an inherent trade-off between error in the sO2 estimates due to fluence variation and error due to noise. This study shows that the depth to which sO2 can be estimated accurately using a linear approximation is limited in vivo, even with idealised measurements, to at most 3mm. In practice, there will be even greater uncertainties affecting the estimates, e.g., due to bandlimited or partial-view acoustic detection

QCD as a Quantum Link Model

QCD is constructed as a lattice gauge theory in which the elements of the link matrices are represented by non-commuting operators acting in a Hilbert space. The resulting quantum link model for QCD is formulated with a fifth Euclidean dimension, whose extent resembles the inverse gauge coupling of the resulting four-dimensional theory after dimensional reduction. The inclusion of quarks is natural in Shamir's variant of Kaplan's fermion method, which does not require fine-tuning to approach the chiral limit. A rishon representation in terms of fermionic constituents of the gluons is derived and the quantum link Hamiltonian for QCD with a U(N) gauge symmetry is expressed in terms of glueball, meson and constituent quark operators. The new formulation of QCD is promising both from an analytic and from a computational point of view.Comment: 27 pages, including three figures. ordinary LaTeX; Submitted to Nucl. Phys.

Design concepts for bioreactors in space

Microbial food sources are becoming viable and more efficient alternatives to conventional food sources, especially in the context of closed ecological life support systems (CELSS) in space habitats. Two bioreactor design concepts presented represent two dissimilar approaches to grappling with the absence of gravity in space habitats and deserve to be tested for adoption as important components of the life support function aboard spacecraft, space stations and other extra-terrestrial habitats

Photoacoustic Imaging Using Acoustic Reflectors To Enhance Planar Arrays

Planar sensor arrays have advantages when used for photoacoustic imaging: they do not require the imaging target to be enclosed, and they are easier to manufacture than curved arrays. However, planar arrays have a limited view of the acoustic field due to their finite size; therefore, not all of the acoustic waves emitted from a photoacoustic source can be recorded. This loss of data results in artifacts in the reconstructed photoacoustic image. A detection array configuration which combines a planar Fabry–Pérot sensor with perpendicular acoustic reflectors is described and experimentally implemented. This retains the detection advantages of the planar sensor while increasing the effective detection aperture in order to improve the reconstructed photoacoustic imag

Numerical simulation of film-cooled ablative rocket nozzles

The objective of this research effort was to evaluate the impact of incorporating an additional cooling port downstream between the injector and nozzle throat in the NASA Fast Track chamber. A numerical model of the chamber was developed for the analysis. The analysis did not model ablation but instead correlated the initial ablation rate with the initial nozzle wall temperature distribution. The results of this study provide guidance in the development of a potentially lighter, second generation ablative rocket nozzle which maintains desired performance levels

Orthogonal Fabry-Perot sensor array system for minimal-artifact 3D photoacoustic tomography

Photoacoustic images of exquisite quality have previously been obtained using planar Fabry-Pérot ultrasound sensors, as they can synthesize detection arrays with small, highly sensitive, elements. However, their planarity prevents reconstruction of structures perpendicular to the sensor plane, which gives rise to limited-view artifacts. Here, a novel FP sensor array configuration is described that incorporates two orthogonal planar arrays in order to overcome this limitation. Three dimensional photoacoustic images of suitably structured phantoms, obtained using a time reversal reconstruction algorithm, are used to demonstrate the significant improvement in the reconstructed images

Bacterial symbiosis in arthropods and the control of disease transmission.

Bacterial symbionts may be used as vehicles for expressing foreign genes in arthropods. Expression of selected genes can render an arthropod incapable of transmitting a second microorganism that is pathogenic for humans and is an alternative approach to the control of arthropod-borne diseases. We discuss the rationale for this alternative approach, its potential applications and limitations, and the regulatory concerns that may arise from its use in interrupting disease transmission in humans and animals