Recombination Monophosphoryl Lipid A-Derived Vacosome for the Development of Preventive Cancer Vaccines

Recently, there has been an increasing interest for utilizing the host immune system to fight against cancer. Moreover, cancer vaccines, which can stimulate the host immune system to respond to cancer in the long term, are being investigated as a promising approach to induce tumor-specific immunity. In this work, we prepared an effective cancer vaccine (denoted as vacosome) by reconstructing the cancer cell membrane, monophosphoryl lipid A as a toll-like receptor 4 agonist, and egg phosphatidylcholine. The vacosome triggered and enhanced bone marrow dendritic cell maturation as well as stimulated the antitumor response against breast cancer 4T1 cells in vitro. Furthermore, an immune memory was established in BALB/c mice after three-time preimmunization with the vacosome. After that, the immunized mice showed inhibited tumor growth and prolonged survival period (longer than 50 days). Overall, our results demonstrate that the vacosome can be a potential candidate for clinical translation as a cancer vaccine.Peer reviewe

The microstructure of non-polar a-plane (11 2 0) InGaN quantum wells

Atom probe tomography and quantitative scanning transmission electron microscopy are used to assess the composition of non-polar a-plane (11-20) InGaN quantum wells for applications in optoelectronics. The average quantum well composition measured by atom probe tomography and quantitative scanning transmission electron microscopy quantitatively agrees with measurements by X-ray diffraction. Atom probe tomography is further applied to study the distribution of indium atoms in non-polar a-plane (11-20) InGaN quantum wells. An inhomogeneous indium distribution is observed by frequency distribution analysis of the atom probe tomography measurements. The optical properties of non-polar (11-20) InGaN quantum wells with indium compositions varying from 7.9% to 20.6% are studied. In contrast to non-polar m-plane (1-100) InGaN quantum wells, the non-polar a-plane (11-20) InGaN quantum wells emit at longer emission wavelengths at the equivalent indium composition. The non-polar a-plane (11-20) quantum wells also show broader spectral linewidths. The longer emission wavelengths and broader spectral linewidths may be related to the observed inhomogeneous indium distribution.This work was carried out with the support of the United Kingdom Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council under Grants Nos. EP\J001627\1, EP/I012591/1, and EP\J003603\1. The European Research Council has also provided financial support under the European Community's Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007-2013)/ERC Grant Agreement No. 279361 (MACONS). J. Etheridge and S. D. Findlay acknowledge funding from the Australian Research Council (ARC) (Project Nos. DP110104734 and DP110101570, respectively). The Titan3 80-300 TEM/STEM at the Monash Centre for Electron Microscopy was supported by the ARC Grant No. LE0454166.This is the final version of the article. It first appeared from the American Institute of Physics via http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.494829

Development and evaluation of an eHealth self-management intervention for patients with chronic kidney disease in China: protocol for a mixed-method hybrid type 2 trial

Background: Chronic kidney disease (CKD) is a significant public health concern. In patients with CKD, interventions that support disease self-management have shown to improve health status and quality of life. At the moment, the use of electronic health (eHealth) technology in self-management interventions is becoming more and more popular. Evidence suggests that eHealth-based self-management interventions can improve health-related outcomes of patients with CKD. However, knowledge of the implementation and effectiveness of such interventions in general, and in China in specific, is still limited. This study protocol aims to develop and tailor the evidence-based Dutch ‘Medical Dashboard’ eHealth self-management intervention for patients suffering from CKD in China and evaluate its implementation process and effectiveness. Methods: To develop and tailor a Medical Dashboard intervention for the Chinese context, we will use an Intervention Mapping (IM) approach. A literature review and mixed-method study will first be conducted to examine the needs, beliefs, perceptions of patients with CKD and care providers towards disease (self-management) and eHealth (self-management) interventions (IM step 1). Based on the results of step 1, we will specify outcomes, performance objectives, and determinants, select theory-based methods and practical strategies. Knowledge obtained from prior results and insights from stakeholders will be combined to tailor the core interventions components of the ‘Medical Dashboard’ self-management intervention to the Chinese context (IM step 2–5). Then, an intervention and implementation plan will be developed. Finally, a 9-month hybrid type 2 trial design will be employed to investigate the effectiveness of the intervention using a cluster randomized controlled trial with two parallel arms, and the implementation integrity (fidelity) and determinants of implementation (IM step 6). Discussion: Our study will result in the delivery of a culturally tailored, standardized eHealth self-management intervention for patients with CKD in China, which has the potential to optimize patients’ self-management skills and improve health status and quality of life. Moreover, it will inform futur

US Cosmic Visions: New Ideas in Dark Matter 2017: Community Report

This white paper summarizes the workshop "U.S. Cosmic Visions: New Ideas in Dark Matter" held at University of Maryland on March 23-25, 2017.Comment: 102 pages + reference

Vision-based autonomous docking for self-reconfigurable CubeSats

To meet the performance requirements of real-time and high accuracy for autonomous docking of modular self-reconfigurable CubeSats, a vision-based method is proposed by setting a cooperative target on a CubeSat and combining with Fractional-Order Darwinian Particle Swarm Optimization algorithm. Firstly, a monocular camera is utilized to grab images of the cooperation target. Then an image intelligent segmentation method is proposed based on FO-DPSO algorithm to achieve the recognition of the feature points of the cooperative target. These feature points&#39; coordinates of the cooperative target are acquired by extracting the regional center of ellipse areas from the grabbed images. Finally, the relative position and attitude of the tracking CubeSat are calculated by the EPnP algorithm. The experiments are carried out on the established prototype. The results show that the extraction accuracy of the cooperation target feature points is within 0.932 pixel, and the positioning deviation of the tracking CubeSat is within 0.025 mm. The proposed autonomous docking method has a good real-time performance, and can meet the requirements of practical application.</p

Optofluidic microengine in a dynamic flow environment via self-induced back-action

Most existing optofluidic particle engines only operate in a static environment. Here, we present a four-energy-state optofluidic microengine that operates stably in a dynamic flow environment, a function unattainable by existing systems due to the disturbance of the fluidic drag force. This microengine is powered synergistically by both the optical force and fluidic drag force, and it exploits the intriguing behavior of the particle in an asymmetric two-dimensional light interference pattern under the self-induced back-action (SIBA) effect. The mechanism of the microengine is studied in detail, and a microengine comprising a single cell and a cell-particle complex has been demonstrated. Our optofluidic microengine is the first of its kind to operate in the dynamic flow environment, and it provides a new platform to study single cell dynamics and cell-particle or cell-cell interactions in the dynamic fluidic environment.Ministry of Education (MOE)National Research Foundation (NRF)Accepted versionThis work is supported by National Research Foundation under the Competitive Research Program (NRF-CRP13-2014-01) and Singapore Ministry of Education (MOE) Tier 3 grant (MOE2017-T3-1-001). C.T.C. acknowledges support by Hong Kong RGC through grants 16303119 and AoE/P-02/12

Manipulate the Electronic and Magnetic States in NiCo2 O4 Films through Electric-Field-Induced Protonation at Elevated Temperature.

Ionic-liquid-gating- (ILG-) induced proton evolution has emerged as a novel strategy to realize electron doping and manipulate the electronic and magnetic ground states in complex oxides. While the study of a wide range of systems (e.g., SrCoO2.5 , VO2 , WO3 , etc.) has demonstrated important opportunities to incorporate protons through ILG, protonation remains a big challenge for many others. Furthermore, the mechanism of proton intercalation from the ionic liquid/solid interface to whole film has not yet been revealed. Here, with a model system of inverse spinel NiCo2 O4 , an increase in system temperature during ILG forms a single but effective method to efficiently achieve protonation. Moreover, the ILG induces a novel phase transformation in NiCo2 O4 from ferrimagnetic metallic into antiferromagnetic insulating with protonation at elevated temperatures. This study shows that environmental temperature is an efficient tuning knob to manipulate ILG-induced ionic evolution

Manipulate the Electronic and Magnetic States in NiCo2 O4 Films through Electric-Field-Induced Protonation at Elevated Temperature.

Ionic-liquid-gating- (ILG-) induced proton evolution has emerged as a novel strategy to realize electron doping and manipulate the electronic and magnetic ground states in complex oxides. While the study of a wide range of systems (e.g., SrCoO2.5 , VO2 , WO3 , etc.) has demonstrated important opportunities to incorporate protons through ILG, protonation remains a big challenge for many others. Furthermore, the mechanism of proton intercalation from the ionic liquid/solid interface to whole film has not yet been revealed. Here, with a model system of inverse spinel NiCo2 O4 , an increase in system temperature during ILG forms a single but effective method to efficiently achieve protonation. Moreover, the ILG induces a novel phase transformation in NiCo2 O4 from ferrimagnetic metallic into antiferromagnetic insulating with protonation at elevated temperatures. This study shows that environmental temperature is an efficient tuning knob to manipulate ILG-induced ionic evolution