Inertial-Based Filtration Method for Removal of Microcarriers from Mesenchymal Stem Cell Suspensions

© 2018, The Author(s). Rapidly evolving cell-based therapies towards clinical trials demand alternative approaches for efficient expansion of adherent cell types such as human mesenchymal stem cells (hMSCs). Using microcarriers (100–300 µm) in a stirred tank bioreactor offers considerably enhanced surface to volume ratio of culture environment. However, downstream purification of the harvested cell product needs to be addressed carefully due to distinctive features and fragility of these cell products. This work demonstrates a novel alternative approach which utilizes inertial focusing to separate microcarriers (MCs) from the final cell suspension. First, we systematically investigated MC focusing dynamics inside scaled-up curved channels with trapezoidal and rectangular cross-sections. A trapezoidal spiral channel with ultra-low-slope (Tan(α) = 0.0375) was found to contribute to strong MC focusing (~300 < Re < ~400) while managing high MC volume fractions up to ~1.68%. Accordingly, the high-throughput trapezoidal spiral channel successfully separated MCs from hMSC suspension with total cell yield~94% (after two passes) at a high volumetric flow rate of ~30 mL/min (Re~326.5)

Generalized LDPC Codes with Convolutional Code Constraints

Braided convolutional codes (BCCs) are a class of spatially coupled turbo-like codes that can be described by a (2), (3)-regular compact graph. In this paper, we introduce a family of (d v , d c )-regular GLDPC codes with convolutional code constraints (CC-GLDPC codes), which form an extension of classical BCCs to arbitrary regular graphs. In order to characterize the performance in the waterfall and error floor regions, we perform an analysis of the density evolution thresholds as well as the finite-length ensemble weight enumerators and minimum distances of the ensembles. In particular, we consider various ensembles of overall rate R = 1/3 and R = 1/2 and study the trade-off between variable node degree and strength of the component codes. We also compare the results to corresponding classical LDPC codes with equal degrees and rates. It is observed that for the considered LDPC codes with variable node degree d v > 2, we can find a CC-GLDPC code with smaller d v that offers similar or better performance in terms of BP and MAP thresholds at the expense of a negligible loss in the minimum distance

Synthesis, Characterization, and Application of Stabilized-Ni/Fe Bimetallic Nanoparticles for the Selective Elimination of Chlorate Impurity in Military Grade Ammonium Perchlorate

Ammonium perchlorate (AP) is used as the most common oxidizer in composite solid propellants. Control of chlorate impurity in military grade ammonium perchlorate is important, since it has an undesirable effect on the thermal decomposition of ammonium perchlorate. In this work stabilized Ni/Fe bimetallic nanoparticles (S-Ni/Fe NPs) were synthesized using the borohydride reduction method (BRM) in the presence of starch as a stabilizing agent, and they were characterized by field emission scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and their X-ray diffraction pattern (XRD). The results showed that the synthesized S-Ni/Fe bimetallic nanoparticles were spherical in shape and had nearly uniform distribution, with particle sizes of 20-50 nm. The prepared nanoparticles were then used for the selective elimination of chlorate impurity in ammonium perchlorate. The main factors controlling the elimination of chlorate, such as the initial pH of the solution, dosage of S-Fe/Ni NPs, initial chlorate and perchlorate concentrations, reaction temperature, and reaction time, were optimized by using an experimental design based on the Taguchi method. An L9 orthogonal array (L9-OA) was used to design experiments with four 4-level factors (34). Under the optimal conditions, i.e., pH 6.5, at 30 °C and a dosage of 50 mg S-Ni/Fe NPs, chlorate was eliminated with nearly 100% efficiency in 50 mL of a solution containing 2.0 μg·mL−1 and 100 μg·mL−1 of chlorate and perchlorate, respectively, without change in perchlorate concentration

Adherence to Healthy Diet Can Delay Alzheimer's Diseases Development: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

A healthy diet has long been indicated to be protective against Alzheimer's diseases (AD). We carried out a systematic review and meta-analysis of published observational studies to explore the relationship between healthy and unhealthy diets and risk of ADs. We screened PubMed, Scopus, Web of Sciences, Google Scholar, Science Direct, and Embase, and screened manually to identify relevant articles published in English and non-English until Jun 2020. We classified the studied dietary patterns into two groups: healthy and unhealthy diets. The pooled weighted mean difference and 95 confidence interval (95 CI) was used to analyze the data using a random-effects model. The data were extracted manually and the preferred reporting items for systematic review and meta-analysis checklist was used to appraise the risk of bias and quality of data. Of the 1,813 articles identified, 21 met the inclusion criteria and were included in the quantitative analysis. A healthy diet was related to a lower risk of AD odds ratio (OR): 0.45, 95% CI: 0.23 to 0.86, I(2)=99.7%; n=17 studies. Moreover, high adherence to an unhealthy diet was not associated with increased risk of AD (OR: 0.99, 95% CI: 0.98 to 0.99, I(2)=0.0%; n=6 studies). However, the etiology of AD is uncertain and it is difficult draw conclusions about dietary healthy patterns. We concluded that adherence to a healthy diet is associated with a lower risk of AD, but were unable to find evidence that an unhealthy diet increases the risk of AD

Inertial particle focusing dynamics in a trapezoidal straight microchannel: application to particle filtration

© 2018, Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature. Inertial microfluidics has emerged recently as a promising tool for high-throughput manipulation of particles and cells for a wide range of flow cytometric tasks including cell separation/filtration, cell counting, and mechanical phenotyping. Inertial focusing is profoundly reliant on the cross-sectional shape of channel and its impacts on not only the shear field but also the wall-effect lift force near the wall region. In this study, particle focusing dynamics inside trapezoidal straight microchannels was first studied systematically for a broad range of channel Re number (20 OpenSPiltSPi Re OpenSPiltSPi 800). The altered axial velocity profile and consequently new shear force arrangement led to a cross-lateral movement of equilibration toward the longer side wall when the rectangular straight channel was changed to a trapezoid; however, the lateral focusing started to move backward toward the middle and the shorter side wall, depending on particle clogging ratio, channel aspect ratio, and slope of slanted wall, as the channel Reynolds number further increased (Re CloseSPigtSPi 50). Remarkably, an almost complete transition of major focusing from the longer side wall to the shorter side wall was found for large-sized particles of clogging ratio K ~ 0.9 (K = a/Hmin) when Re increased noticeably to ~ 650. Finally, based on our findings, a trapezoidal straight channel along with a bifurcation was designed and applied for continuous filtration of a broad range of particle size (0.3 OpenSPiltSPi K OpenSPiltSPi 1) exiting through the longer wall outlet with ~ 99% efficiency (Re OpenSPiltSPi 100)

Scaled-Up Inertial Microfluidics: Retention System for Microcarrier-Based Suspension Cultures

© 2019 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim Recently, particle concentration and filtration using inertial microfluidics have drawn attention as an alternative to membrane and centrifugal technologies for industrial applications, where the target particle size varies between 1 µm and 500 µm. Inevitably, the bigger particle size (>50 µm) mandates scaling up the channel cross-section or hydraulic diameter (DH > 0.5 mm). The Dean-coupled inertial focusing dynamics in spiral microchannels is studied broadly; however, the impacts of secondary flow on particle migration in a scaled-up spiral channel is not fully elucidated. The mechanism of particle focusing inside scaled-up rectangular and trapezoidal spiral channels (i.e., 5–10× bigger than conventional microchannels) with an aim to develop a continuous and clog-free microfiltration system for bioprocessing is studied in detail. Herein, a unique focusing based on inflection point without the aid of sheath flow is reported. This new focusing mechanism, observed in the scaled-up channels, out-performs the conventional focusing scenarios in the previously reported trapezoidal and rectangular channels. Finally, as a proof-of-concept, the utility of this device is showcased for the first time as a retention system for a cell–microcarrier (MC) suspension culture