The characterisation of adipose derived stem cells on coralline scaffolds for bone tissue engineering

University of Technology Sydney. Faculty of Science.Skeletal injuries affect millions of people worldwide, making it one of the most common causes of severe chronic pain and physical disability while also being a heavy burden on Australian healthcare, costing approximately $700 million a year. Over the past decades, biodegradable coralline biomaterials have been considered as an alternative implant material for bone regenerative therapy. This is because coralline materials have been found as being clinically advantageous due to their biocompatibility, osteoconductivity and scaffold resorbability. Additionally, coating coralline material with autologous stem cells is desirable for tissue ingrowth to occur rapidly as possible to provide the implant with structural integrity and eventual complete scaffold resorption. Adipose Derived stem cells (ADSCs) are considered promising biological tools for regenerative medicine as they are an accessible and abundant source of stem cells that have shown to be able to differentiate into bone tissue. Recent in vivo and in vitro studies of coralline materials seeded with mesenchymal stem cells have produced conflicting results that range from demonstrating complete fracture repair to ineffective tissue regeneration. This is because the underlying biological mechanism behind the clinically advantageous properties of coralline material is not well understood. This PhD project has therefore been developed in order to address the problems outlined above. This work has investigated the effect of seeding rat adipose derived stem cells (rADSCs) and human adipose derived stem cells (hADSCs) onto biomimetic coralline scaffolds. The data presented here demonstrates that ADSCs can be successfully cultured onto coralline scaffolds, which provide a suitable microenvironment for ADSCs to proliferate. Additionally, the research I have undertaken shows that ADSCs seeded on coralline scaffolds undergo a proteomic change that resembles osteogenic cells, without the addition of any external osteoinductive factors. This project also investigated the effects of different coralline scaffolds such as coralline carbonate, converted coralline hydroxyapatite (cHA), nanoporous cHA, macroporous cHA and high-density cHA on hADSCs where I showed that seeded cHA induced a stronger osteogenic response than seeded coralline calcium carbonate. Furthermore, I identified a unique immunomodulatory response from each seeded coralline scaffold that suggested a microenvironment rich in pro-inflammatory and pro- angiogenic factors which is a physiological feature commonly noted during in vivo fracture repair. Overall this PhD project has contributed significantly to a wealth of biological knowledge about the effects of coralline scaffolds on ADSCs. Future work can utilise what is described here to either fabricate a coralline implant to harness the biological responses we have recorded or apply the data towards a safe and effective animal model for future therapeutic applications

TEduChain: A Platform for Crowdsourcing Tertiary Education Fund using Blockchain Technology

Blockchain is an emerging technology framework for creating and storing transaction in distributed ledgers with a high degree of security and reliability. In this paper we present a blockchain-based platform to create and store contracts in between students and their higher education sponsors. The sponsorship might be in any form, such as scholarship, donation or loan. The fund will be arranged and managed by a group of competitive agents (Fundraisers) who will hold the distributed ledgers and act as miners in the blockchain network

Wind energy resource assessment for Cook Islands with accurate estimation of Weibull parameters using frequentist and Bayesian methods

Wind energy resource assessments at two islands in the Cook Islands are carried out in the present work. The wind data were collected for a year from sites on Mauke and Rarotonga Islands in the Cook Islands and the daily, monthly and seasonal average wind speeds, the diurnal variations of the wind shear coefficient, average temperature and turbulence intensity were estimated. Eleven frequentist methods and a Bayesian technique were used to determine the Weibull parameters and the wind power density (WPD) for each site. The best method was determined using the goodness of fit test and error measures. The average wind speeds were 4.65 m/s and 3.86 m/s at 34 m above ground level for the sites on Mauke and Rarotonga respectively. Based on the goodness of fit tests and error measures, the Least Squares Method performed best for estimating the Weibull parameters at the Mauke site, while for the Rarotonga site, the median and quartiles method performed the best. For both the sites, the Bayesian method, which is being used for the first time for wind resource assessments, ranked second of the twelve methods, indicating good potential for this method. The annual energy production (AEP) was also determined which was calculated to be 2192.34 MWh from a total of ten Vergnet 275 kW turbines at the two sites. Finally, an economic analysis carried out for the two sites, indicated a payback period of 7.72 years

Maze solving robot with automated obstacle avoidance

A quick development of innovation moves us to plan the best choice for an accurate mission. Numerous independent automated innovations are intimated in the lives of individuals making their work much easier. It has been seen that automated vehicles are presented so far, with shrewd abilities after enormous measures of cash spent yearly on the examination. Here in this paper, autonomous maze solving robot is developed with independent mapping and localization skill. Firstly, the maze solving vehicle is designed with three infrared sensors of which two is used for wall detection to avoid collision and the third is for obstacle detection for picking and placing the objects to clear its pathway with the help of robotic arm. Also, it desires to use robot where an environment unreachable for human. In addition, there are also places where use of robots is the only way to achieve a goal. For this, appropriate placement of sensory devices is very critical. We have successfully implemented a maze solving ability onto the robot so called MazeBot. It has been tested that the robot can solve the maze successfully without any interruption with the walls and the objects. In this design, the accuracy of measurements and the real-time processing allied with minimum processing power are the key components in overall embedded design

Towards low carbon hotels in the Pacific region: a study of energy consumption and efficiency in hotels using models based on energy performance indicators

Low carbon tourism is becoming an increasingly important feature in the sustainable development of the tourism industry, within the Pacific Island Countries (PICs). This growing interest is due at least in part to the desire for these nations to contribute meaningfully to the fight against climate change. One way of reducing carbon emissions is through energy efficiency in hotels. This requires the study of the energy consumption of hotels via modeling techniques involving energy audits. While such studies have been carried out extensively for European and other hotels in the Northern Hemisphere, the PICs have not received similar attention. Because of the differences in the heating/cooling requirements, hotels in temperate regions will have energy consumption characteristics that may be quite different from those of the tropics. This chapter reports an analysis of the energy consumption characteristics of Pacific Island hotels using Fijian hotels as a case study. The study employs the results of detailed energy audits and modeling based on Energy Performance Indicators (EPIs) that permit the prediction of the energy consumption of hotels within specific architectural groupings and star ratings. The models allow the investigation of energy savings possible through retrofitting and other energy-saving techniques

Wind energy resource assessment for Vanuatu with accurate estimation of Weibull parameters

Wind energy resource assessments for Pentecost Island and Epi Island in Vanuatu were carried out using one year of wind data. The wind data were used to calculate the daily average wind speed, diurnal variation of wind speed and monthly average wind speed. The diurnal variation of wind shear coefficient of the site was also studied and it correlated well with the temperature variation. Ten methods were used to determine the Weibull parameters and the wind power density of the site. The best method was determined using the goodness of fit test/error where the correlation coefficient, coefficient of efficiency, root mean square error, maximum absolute error and maximum absolute percentage error for the 10 methods were compared. It was found that the moments method was the best method for obtaining the shape parameter (k), the scale parameter (A) and the correct wind power density for the Pentecost Island site, whereas for the Epi site, the median and quartiles method performed the best. The mean wind speed for the Pentecost site was 5.60 m/s, while that for the Epi site was 5.86 m/s. The Weibull parameters were also estimated for the two seasons for both the islands. The wind resource maps showing the wind power density were also obtained. The annual energy production from 10 Vergnet 275 kW wind turbines, positioned at good locations on the digital wind map, was estimated. Finally, an economic analysis of the turbines was carried out, which indicated a payback period of 4.85 years

Evaluating antimicrobial activity and total phenolic content of commonly used herbs and spices in Fiji

Traditionally, crude extracts from various plants were used for treatment of diseases and ailments, while spices have been used for flavour, as preservatives, in rituals and as medicines for treating infectious diseases. The essential oils of 12 medicinal plants and spices were extracted and tested against Escherichia coli 0157:H7 (EHEC) to determine the antimicrobial properties. The selected plants and spices are Eugenia caryophyllata (F), Jasminium (F), Eucalyptus globulus (L), Zingiber officinale (R), Allium sativum (L), Occimum sanctum (L), Azadirachta indica (L), Psidium guajava (L), Citrus limon (L), Carica papaya (L), Morinda citrifolia (L) and Azadirachta indica (seed). These plants and spices were chosen due to their dependence by local households as a means of traditional medicine. Essential oils extracted from the plant and spices showed growth inhibition of E. coli 0157:H7, whereas the highest antimicrobial activity was recorded for clove oil. Jasmine, pawpaw and neem (seed oil) had the lowest growth respectively. All other extracts had moderate activity. Additionally, the aqueous and ethanol extracts of each plant were used to determine the total phenolic content (TPC). From the plants tested, the TPC of aqueous extract varied from 612±3.15 to 2.67±0.11 (mg GAE/100gdw), while TPC of ethanol extract varied from 434±2.87 to 1.02±0.09 (mg GAE/100gdw). The highest TPC was recorded for noni aqueous extract and the lowest was for jasmine ethanol extract. This study reports the inhibitory effects and phenolic content of 12 herbs and spices and thus its potential use for developing safe pharmaceutical agents

Wind Energy Resource Assessment for Tokelau with Accurate Weibull Parameters

Wind energy resource assessment for two sites, Fakaofo and Atafu, in Tokelau is carried out with the help of a detailed statistical analysis of one year of measured wind data. The average wind speeds recorded for the sites were 3.81 m/s and 3.92 m/s for the Fakaofo and Atafu sites respectively at 34 m above ground level (AGL). The turbulence intensities (TI) for the two sites were also estimated. The wind shear coefficient correlated well with the temperature for both the sites. The best Weibull distribution method of approximation for the Fakaoko site was the WAsP method whereas it was the Empirical Method of Justus (EMJ) for the Atafu site from the 10 different methods that were used. The payback periods for installing the wind turbines were estimated to be 7.39 years and 7.85 years respectively for Fakaofo and Atafu

TEduChain: a blockchain - based platform for crowd funding tertiary education

Blockchain is an emerging technology framework for creating and storing transaction in distributed ledgers with a high degree of security and reliability. In this paper, we present a blockchain-based platform to create and store contracts in between students and their higher education sponsors facilitated by intermediary brokers denoted as fundraisers. The sponsorship might be in any form, such as scholarship, donation, or loan. The fund will be arranged and managed by a group of competitive fundraisers who will hold the distributed ledgers and act as the miners in the blockchain network