Design and validation of an osteochondral bioreactor for the screening of treatments for osteoarthritis

Bioreactors are systems that can be used to monitor the response of tissues and cells to candidate drugs. Building on the experience developed in the creation of an osteochondral bioreactor, we have designed a new 3D printed system, which allows optical access to the cells throughout testing for in line monitoring. Because of the use of 3D printing, the fluidics could be developed in the third dimension, thus maintaining the footprint of a single well of a typical 96 well plate. This new design was optimized to achieve the maximum fluid transport through the central chamber, which corresponds to optimal nutrient or drug exposure. This optimization was achieved by altering each dimension of the bioreactor fluid path. A physical model for optimized drug exposure was then created and tested

Long-term impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the quality of life of people with dementia and their family carers

\ua9 The Author(s) 2024. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the British Geriatrics Society. INTRODUCTION: Few studies have longitudinally mapped quality of life (QoL) trajectories of newly diagnosed people with dementia and their carers, particularly during coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19). METHODS: In a UK cohort study, 261 newly diagnosed people with dementia and 206 family carers were assessed prior to the pandemic (July 2019-March 2020), followed up after the first lockdown (July-October 2020) and then again a year and 2 years later. Latent growth curve modelling examined the level and change of QoL over the four time-points using dementia-specific QoL measures (DEMQOL and C-DEMQOL). RESULTS: Despite variations in individual change scores, our results suggest that generally people with dementia maintained their QoL during the pandemic and experienced some increase towards the end of the period. This contrasted with carers who reported a general deterioration in their QoL over the same period. \u27Confidence in future\u27 and \u27Feeling supported\u27 were the only carer QoL subscales to show some recovery post-pandemic. DISCUSSION: It is positive that even during a period of global disruption, decline in QoL is not inevitable following the onset of dementia. However, it is of concern that carer QoL declined during this same period even after COVID-19 restrictions had been lifted. Carers play an invaluable role in the lives of people with dementia and wider society, and our findings suggest that, post-pandemic, they may require greater support to maintain their QoL

Using digital technologies to facilitate social inclusion during the COVID-19 pandemic: Experiences of co-resident and non-co-resident family carers of people with dementia from DETERMIND-C19

Background The COVID-19 pandemic triggered rapid and unprecedented changes in the use of digital technologies to support people's social inclusion. We examined whether and how co-resident and non-co-resident family carers of people with dementia engaged with digital technologies during this period. Methods Throughout November 2020-February 2021, we interviewed 42 family carers of people with dementia from our DETERMIND-C19 cohort. Preliminary analysis was conducted through Framework analysis, followed by an inductive thematic analysis. Findings Digital technologies served as a Facilitator for social inclusion by enabling carers to counter the effects of the differing restrictions imposed on them so they could remain socially connected and form a sense of solidarity, access resources and information, engage in social and cultural activities and provide support and independence in their caring role. However, these experiences were not universal as carers discussed some Challenges for tech inclusion, which included preferences for face-to-face contact, lack of technological literacy and issues associated with the accessibility of the technology. Conclusion Many of the carers engaged with Information and Communication Technologies, and to a lesser extent Assistive Technologies, during the pandemic. Whilst carers experienced different challenges due to where they lived, broadly the use of these devices helped them realise important facets of social inclusion as well as facilitated the support they provided to the person with dementia. However, to reduce the ‘digital divide’ and support the social inclusion of all dementia carers, our findings suggest it is essential that services are attuned to their preferences, needs and technological abilities

Performance of silicon sensor quality control centre developed at the University of Delhi

The Silicon strip sensors in high energy physics collider experiments have excellent capabilities of vertexing and tracking of incoming particles produced as a result of collision. These sensors are placed in intense radiation environment and hence undergo severe bulk and surface radiation damage. In order to operate these detectors with good physics performance, they must be subjected to stringent tolerance limits for their design parameters. These design parameters include global, strip and inter-strip parameters. The sensors are characterized for these parameters in temperature and humidity controlled environment, which are then accepted or rejected based on the constraints imposed on these parameters offered by a specific experiment.Our group at the University of Delhi is engaged in the process of developing a silicon sensor quality control centre for testing a large number of silicon micro-strip sensors. The primary objective of this facility is the qualification of these sensors for the outer tracker of the CMS experiment in High-Luminosity LHC upgrade. The system consists of a probe station and a set of electrical characterization units. The entire system is interfaced through the Automated Characterization Suite (ACS) software which allows the automatic characterization of the whole multistrip sensor without any manual intervention. The set-up has been under testing for measurements involving global, strip and inter-strip parameters. In this work, we present the details of this characterization system and measurements performed on some silicon strip sensors. To calibrate our setup the same set of measurements are performed with the setup available at the University of Pisa, Italy. The measurements performed using these two setups are found to be consistent with each other

TCAD silicon device simulation for high level of radiation damage

Silicon detectors are expected to experience an unprecedented radiation flux in the future upgrades of the detectors at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). The challenging radiation environment of these experiments will severely affect the performance of such detectors, degrading their detection capabilities and imposing severe operational conditions. The modeling of the detectors through Monte Carlo simulation represents a necessary step for the detailed understanding of the silicon detector performance before and after radiation damage; also for setting up optimized design rules aiming to mitigate the detrimental effect of the radiation damage. In the present work, a comparison of simulation results, obtained from- Technology Computer-Aided Design (TCAD) simulation software: Silvaco and Synopsys- used to predict silicon detectors performance, is presented. The effects of radiation damage are incorporated in the TCADs, using an effective multiple traps model. A systematic study of the sensitivity of the silicon detector's macroscopic parameters to the modeling of traps is performed. The simulation results for static electrical parameters, such as the leakage current and the full depletion voltage, obtained by the TCADs are presented and compared

Emotion-focused dyadic coping styles used by family carers of people with dementia during the COVID-19 pandemic

Emotional wellbeing of family carers and people with dementia is associated with not only how each individual copes with stress and conflict, but also by how they cope together. Finding ways to positively cope together was particularly important during COVID-19 lockdown restrictions, when other avenues of emotional support were less available. We explored how carers experienced and used emotion-focused dyadic coping styles during the COVID-19 pandemic. In-depth qualitative interviews were conducted during the pandemic with 42 family carers, supplemented by quality of life scores collected both pre- and during the pandemic and household status. Abductive thematic analysis identified five styles of emotion-focused dyadic coping: common, supportive, hostile, disengaged avoidance and protective. The COVID-19 pandemic left many dyads unsupported. While many carers adapted, reporting increases in quality of life and enjoying the extra time with the person with dementia, others experienced dyadic conflict and reductions in quality of life. This variation was associated with dyadic coping styles, including challenges in using ‘positive’ styles and the protective use of ‘negative’ disengaged avoidance in the right situations. Dyadic coping styles also differed as a function of whether the dyad lived together. As many people with dementia are supported by an informal carer, considering how they cope together could help us to better support them. We make suggestions for dyadic interventions tailored by co-residency status that could help dyads identify and communicate coping needs, reconnect following avoidance coping, and replenish their coping resources through social support