Effect of common foods as supplements for the mycelium growth of Ganoderma lucidum and Pleurotus ostreatus on solid substrates

The transition from a linear to a circular economy is urgently needed to mitigate environmental impacts and loss of biodiversity. Among the many potential solutions, the development of entirely natural-based materials derived from waste is promising. One such material is mycelium-bound composites obtained from the growth of fungi onto solid lignocellulosic substrates, which find applications such as insulating foams, textiles, packaging, etc. During growth, the fungus degrades and digests the substrate to create a web-like stiff network called mycelium. The development of the mycelium is influenced by several factors, including the substrate composition. As food waste accounts for nearly 44% of total municipal solid waste, incorporating food in the substrate composition could be a means to increase the nutrients absorbed by the fungus. In this paper, we study the effects of the addition of food supplements on the growth of two fungal species, Ganoderma lucidum and Pleurotus ostreatus. The substrates, the food supplements, and the mycelia are characterized using Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy, and optical microscopy. Our results show that addition of barley as a supplement significantly boosts the growth of G. lucidum and P. ostreatus. Using a common food as a nutritious enrichment for the development of mycelium is a simple and straightforward strategy to create waste-based mycelium-bound biocomposites for a large range of applications, on-site, therefore promoting a circular economy

An international landmine telehealth symposium between Hawaii and Thailand using an Internet2 and multi-protocol videoconferencing bridge.

An international telehealth symposium was conducted between healthcare institutions in Hawaii and Thailand using a combination of Asynchronous Transfer Mode, and Internet2 connectivity. Military and civilian experts exchanged information on the acute and rehabilitative care of landmine victims in Southeast Asia. Videoconferencing can promote civil-military cooperation in healthcare fields that have multiple international stakeholders

Temporal characterization of biocycles of mycelium-bound composites made from bamboo and Pleurotus ostreatus for indoor usage

Mycelium-bound composites (MBCs) are materials obtained by growing fungi on a ligno-cellulosic substrate which have various applications in packaging, furniture, and construction industries. MBCs are particularly interesting as they are sustainable materials that can integrate into a circular economy model. Indeed, they can be subsequently grown, used, degraded, and re-grown. Integrating in a meaningful biocycle for our society therefore demands that MBCs fulfil antagonistic qualities which are to be at the same time durable and biodegradable. In this study, we conduct experiments using MBCs made from the fungus species Pleurotus ostreatus grown on bamboo microfibers substrate. By measuring the variations of the mechanical properties with time, we provide an experimental demonstration of a biocycle for such composites for in-door applications. We found that the biocycle can be as short as 5 months and that the use of sustainable coatings is critical to increase the durability of the composites while maintaining biodegradability. Although there are many scenarios of biocycles possible, this study shows a tangible proof-of-concept example and paves the way for optimization of the duration of each phase in the biocycle depending on the intended application and resource availability

Risk assessment of failure during transitioning from in-centre to home haemodialysis

Background: Introducing a de-novo home haemodialysis (HHD) program often raises safety concerns as errors could potentially lead to serious adverse events. Despite the complexity of performing haemodialysis at home without the supervision of healthcare staff, HHD has a good safety record. We aim to pre-emptively identify and reduce the risks to our new HHD program by risk assessment and using failure mode and effects analysis (FMEA) to identify potential defects in the design and planning of HHD. Methods: We performed a general risk assessment of failure during transitioning from in-centre to HHD with a failure mode and effects analysis focused on the highest areas of failure. We collaborated with key team members from a well-established HHD program and one HHD patient. Risk assessment was conducted separately and then through video conference meetings for joint deliberation. We listed all key processes, sub-processes, step and then identified failure mode by scoring based on risk priority numbers. Solutions were then designed to eliminate and mitigate risk. Results: Transitioning to HHD was found to have the highest risk of failure with 3 main processes and 34 steps. We identified a total of 59 areas with potential failures. The median and mean risk priority number (RPN) scores from failure mode effect analysis were 5 and 38, with the highest RPN related to vascular access at 256. As many failure modes with high RPN scores were related to vascular access, we focussed on FMEA by identifying the risk mitigation strategies and possible solutions in all 9 areas in access-related medical emergencies in a bundled- approach. We discussed, the risk reduction areas of setting up HHD and how to address incidents that occurred and those not preventable. Conclusions: We developed a safety framework for a de-novo HHD program by performing FMEA in high-risk areas. The involvement of two teams with different clinical experience for HHD allowed us to successfully pre-emptively identify risks and develop solutions

The overview installation - an out of body experience.

The Overview Installation is an out-of-body experience, achieved through the dislocation of perception when the user sees himself or herself from a third-person perspective using a head mounted display and CCTV. This experience disorientates the user from his or her 'normal' mode of perception, presenting to the user the possibility to rethink basic and habitual activities such as the way he or she navigates space in relation to his or her vision with a new sense of self awareness.Bachelor of Fine Art

Functionalising AFM tips for pick and place manipulation of micro and nanoparticles

Nanofabrication techniques have always been at the heart of realising novel functional nanodevices. Modern nanomanufacturing relies heavily on lithography, which is the patterning of two-dimensional structures on radiation sensitive polymers in multiple steps to create nanodevices. Although suitable for mass manufacturing, lithography lacks the capability to precisely manipulate a single to few particles. The main goal of my research is to develop new technologies that are capable of manipulating single to few particles ranging from nanometer to micrometer scale. With the development of these new particle manipulation technologies, we demonstrate new applications that would have been difficult to realise with current existing nanomanufacturing methods. Here, we will look at how the atomic force microscope (AFM) can be used as a particle manipulator. The cantilever of the AFM acts as a robotic arm with nanometer precision in all three spatial dimensions. We show that by appropriately functionalising or modifying the cantilever, we can manipulate different types of particles (from nano- to micrometer sized) for various applications. We demonstrate that gold nanoparticles can be picked up by an AFM tip modified with a suitably attractive monolayer. However, picking up a single nanoparticle with this method proved challenging due to monolayers diffusing through each other over time. Hence, the picking up could not be localised, which led to the use of dielectrophoresis. We show that by coating the tip with specific coatings (i.e. GST, carbon) that are capable of forming conductive filaments, the electric field can be further localised resulting in the picking up of single 20 nm gold particles — a significant improvement compared to tips without the coating. We show that these filamentary probes also have applications in high-resolution Kelvin probe force microscopy. We achieved a spatial resolution improvement over commercial platinum probes by ∼48%. Besides suitable coatings, microchannels can be fabricated within the cantilever. Such cantilevers are commercially available and are often used to deliver small amounts of fluids with a pressure controller. We use this technology to aspirate and dispense 1 µm particles that are larger than the aperture size in a liquid medium. Moreover, we can also print nanoparticle inks with the hollow cantilever in air. We developed methods to monitor the deposition process in-situ as well as image the substrate before and during deposition. This enables us to align the deposition of nanoparticles into sub-500 nm gaps. This have direct applications in fabrication of microLEDs and hybrid photonic nanostructures. Furthermore, we demonstrate that microparticles of liquid metal can be picked up by coating the cantilever with gold, which is more adhesive to the liquid metal compared to the polystyrene substrate. We are able to pick up and place liquid metal particles at will. Moreover, the contact area can be controlled by adjusting the applied force. We demonstrate an application of such a liquid metal droplet probe system by making small area (~4 – 12 µm2) molecular junctions in the weak-coupling regime. There are various ways an AFM cantilever can be modified to facilitate the manipulation of nano- and microparticles. These are general techniques and the concepts presented here can be extended and applied to many different systems. With this understanding, experimental parameters such as coating material and voltages can be modified accordingly depending on the particle type and application. The ability to manipulate single to few particles will enable interdisciplinary researchers to study novel interactions between functional particles and nanostructures

Woodpile structural designs to increase the stiffness of mycelium-bound composites

Mycelium-bound composites are biodegradable, eco-friendly materials grown by fungi onto solid lignocellulosic substrates. Mycelium is an interconnected network made of fungal cells that bind the substrates’ particulates together. Uncompressed mycelium-bound composites have typically weak mechanical properties, similar to that of expanded polystyrene. In this paper, mycelium is grown onto porous woodpile struts structures to increase the final mechanical properties. The hypothesis is that increase in porosity can increase oxygen diffusion throughout the material and increase the development of dense mycelium network. Mycelium-bound composites grown from P. ostreatus onto bamboo microfibers substrates were studied to test this hypothesis. Constructing porous woodpile structures and monitoring the growth and the mechanical properties under compression, it was found that the porosity obtained through the design was able to increase dense fungal mycelium skin formation. As a result, the stiffness of the porous structures was multiplied by 6 after 28 days of growth. The specific modulus was in turned multiplied by 4 with the addition of 30 % macroscopic porosity. Despite the modest mechanical properties (stiffness about 0.5 MPa), the approach proposed illustrates how appropriate structural design can efficiently increase the properties of grown bio-based materials.National Research Foundation (NRF)Published versionThe authors would like to acknowledge funding from the National Research Foundation of Singapore and ETH Zurich, Switzerland with the grant Future Cities Laboratory Global, Module A4: Mycelium digitalization under its Campus for Research Excellence and Technological Enterprise (CREATE) Programme

A novel approach to tele-echocardiography across the Pacific.

Telecardiology provides remote delayed interpretation of echocardiographic images through a store and forward program between the interpreting center, Tripler Army Medical Center, Honolulu Hawaii, and the image acquisition center, Guam Naval Hospital, Guam USA. This routine store and forward system has inherent delay, limiting application for management of acute medical conditions. In this case report we describe a novel methodology for real-time echocardiograpic interpretation methodology integrated methodology with the eICU system (VISICU Inc., Baltimore MD). This case report demonstrates the feasibility of a clinically relevant remote real-time echocardiographic interpretation strategy, utilizing commonly available equipment