Engineering contractile myocardial tissue using extracellular matrix scaffolds

There is currently an overwhelming need for functional replacement of diseased or damaged cardiac tissue. Biologic based scaffolds are an attractive tissue engineering approach to cardiac repair because they avoid sensitization associated with homograft materials and theoretically possess the potential for growth in similar patterns as surrounding native tissue. A strategy that has been investigated previously is the use of cardiomyocytes seeded onto collagen based scaffolds in order to engineer a contractile tissue. However, in order for this approach to be effective, the cardiomyocytes must be aligned and maintain contractility after seeding onto biologic scaffolds. UBM collagen fiber organization and cyclic mechanical stretch have each been shown to induce cell alignment while maintaining normal cell phenotype. In theory, a combination of these methods should yield a contractile tissue that may perform well when used to reconstruct myocardial tissue. It was previously shown that a cardiac-derived ECM patch provides beneficial effects when compared to synthetic cardiac patch materials. Acellular UBM and C-ECM patches were directly compared in the present work as scaffolds to repair a full thickness defect in the RVOT of rats. By 16 weeks, only the UBM patches had degraded and were replaced with areas of new muscle tissue, which was in direct contrast to the integration response observed with C-ECM patches. Next, UBM scaffolds were seeded with cardiomyocytes and cyclically stretched in vitro. Cells preferentially aligned in the direction of stretch, showed intracellular free calcium transients, expressed contractile cardiac markers, and were visibly contractile. Cell-seeded UBM patches possessed the ability to repair the RVOT of rats and support the infiltration of cells. Cardiomyocyte seeded patches were also able to develop an endothelial lining and integrate into the surrounding native tissue. In addition, stretched scaffolds appeared to show preliminary indications of communication with the surrounding native tissue. Future studies are necessary to investigate translation to a clinically applicable model, but the methods described herein show that contractile tissue can be generated from ECM scaffolds and may also aid in functional restoration to myocardial tissue when used as a cardiac patch material

GhostParty Video game

GhostParty is a Unity game that uses a MongoDB database to store players\u27 gameplay values. These values are used to create Ghosts that players can compete with in various mini-games. I found that this form of multiplayer using ghosts can create a good gameplay experience without live multiplayer interactions

Newfies, Cajuns, Hillbillies, and Yoopers: Gendered Media Representations of Authentic Locals

This paper investigates how popular media representations of Newfies, Cajuns,Yoopers, and Hillbillies maintain gender-based language stereotypes. The authenticity of these locals is in part due to their language use; they are also the "best" speakers of the local variety. In addition, the stereotypes include the notion that the "best speaker" and the "authentic local" are male, and that the standard speaker and non-local is female, or males who do not fit traditional notions of masculinity

"Awash perilously with song" : the poetry of John V. Hicks

This is the first scholarly study on the poetry of Saskatchewan writer John V. Hicks, and focuses on the themes of music and spirituality

Sur la disparition de la rage en France

Remlinger Paul. Sur la disparition de la rage en France. In: Bulletin de l'Académie Vétérinaire de France tome 104 n°1, 1951. pp. 41-43

A propos de l’insémination artificielle des animaux domestiques

Remlinger Paul. A propos de l'insémination artificielle des animaux domestiques. In: Bulletin de l'Académie Vétérinaire de France tome 110 n°5, 1957. p. 189

Progress toward a Soft X-ray Polarimeter

We are developing instrumentation for a telescope design capable of measuring linear X-ray polarization over a broad-band using conventional spectroscopic optics. Multilayer-coated mirrors are key to this approach, being used as Bragg reflectors at the Brewster angle. By laterally grading the multilayer mirrors and matching to the dispersion of a spectrometer, one may take advantage of high multilayer reflectivities and achieve modulation factors over 50% over the entire 0.2-0.8 keV band. We present progress on laboratory work to demonstrate the capabilities of an existing laterally graded multilayer coated mirror pair. We also present plans for a suborbital rocket experiment designed to detect a polarization level of 12-17% for an active galactic nucleus in the 0.1-1.0 keV band.Comment: 11 pages, 12 figures, to appear in the proceedings of the SPIE, volume 8861, on Optics for EUV, X-Ray, and Gamma-Ray Astronom

Expert Aggregation for Financial Forecasting

Machine learning algorithms dedicated to financial time series forecasting have gained a lot of interest over the last few years. One difficulty lies in the choice between several algorithms, as their estimation accuracy may be unstable through time. In this paper, we propose to apply an online aggregation-based forecasting model combining several machine learning techniques to build a portfolio which dynamically adapts itself to market conditions. We apply this aggregation technique to the construction of a long-short-portfolio of individual stocks ranked on their financial characteristics and we demonstrate how aggregation outperforms single algorithms both in terms of performances and of stability