TY - JOUR A1 - Thiebes, Anja Lena A1 - Klein, Sarah A1 - Zingsheim, Jonas A1 - Möller, Georg H. A1 - Gürzing, Stefanie A1 - Reddemann, Manuel A. A1 - Behbahani, Mehdi A1 - Cornelissen, Christian G. T1 - Effervescent atomizer as novel cell spray technology to decrease the gas-to-liquid ratio JF - pharmaceutics N2 - Cell spraying has become a feasible application method for cell therapy and tissue engineering approaches. Different devices have been used with varying success. Often, twin-fluid atomizers are used, which require a high gas velocity for optimal aerosolization characteristics. To decrease the amount and velocity of required air, a custom-made atomizer was designed based on the effervescent principle. Different designs were evaluated regarding spray characteristics and their influence on human adipose-derived mesenchymal stromal cells. The arithmetic mean diameters of the droplets were 15.4–33.5 µm with decreasing diameters for increasing gas-to-liquid ratios. The survival rate was >90% of the control for the lowest gas-to-liquid ratio. For higher ratios, cell survival decreased to approximately 50%. Further experiments were performed with the design, which had shown the highest survival rates. After seven days, no significant differences in metabolic activity were observed. The apoptosis rates were not influenced by aerosolization, while high gas-to-liquid ratios caused increased necrosis levels. Tri-lineage differentiation potential into adipocytes, chondrocytes, and osteoblasts was not negatively influenced by aerosolization. Thus, the effervescent aerosolization principle was proven suitable for cell applications requiring reduced amounts of supplied air. This is the first time an effervescent atomizer was used for cell processing. KW - tri-lineage differentiation KW - survival KW - twin-fluid atomizer KW - adipose-derived stromal cells (ASCs) KW - cell atomization KW - cell aerosolization Y1 - 2022 U6 - https://doi.org/10.3390/pharmaceutics14112421 N1 - This article belongs to the Special Issue "Stromal, Stem, Signaling Cells: The Multiple Roles and Applications of Mesenchymal Cells" VL - 14 IS - 11 PB - MDPI CY - Basel ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Stäudle, Benjamin A1 - Seynnes, Olivier A1 - Laps, Guido A1 - Brüggemann, Gert-Peter A1 - Albracht, Kirsten T1 - Altered gastrocnemius contractile behavior in former achilles tendon rupture patients during walking JF - Frontiers in Physiology N2 - Achilles tendon rupture (ATR) remains associated with functional limitations years after injury. Architectural remodeling of the gastrocnemius medialis (GM) muscle is typically observed in the affected leg and may compensate force deficits caused by a longer tendon. Yet patients seem to retain functional limitations during—low-force—walking gait. To explore the potential limits imposed by the remodeled GM muscle-tendon unit (MTU) on walking gait, we examined the contractile behavior of muscle fascicles during the stance phase. In a cross-sectional design, we studied nine former patients (males; age: 45 ± 9 years; height: 180 ± 7 cm; weight: 83 ± 6 kg) with a history of complete unilateral ATR, approximately 4 years post-surgery. Using ultrasonography, GM tendon morphology, muscle architecture at rest, and fascicular behavior were assessed during walking at 1.5 m⋅s–1 on a treadmill. Walking patterns were recorded with a motion capture system. The unaffected leg served as control. Lower limbs kinematics were largely similar between legs during walking. Typical features of ATR-related MTU remodeling were observed during the stance sub-phases corresponding to series elastic element (SEE) lengthening (energy storage) and SEE shortening (energy release), with shorter GM fascicles (36 and 36%, respectively) and greater pennation angles (8° and 12°, respectively). However, relative to the optimal fascicle length for force production, fascicles operated at comparable length in both legs. Similarly, when expressed relative to optimal fascicle length, fascicle contraction velocity was not different between sides, except at the time-point of peak series elastic element (SEE) length, where it was 39 ± 49% lower in the affected leg. Concomitantly, fascicles rotation during contraction was greater in the affected leg during the whole stance-phase, and architectural gear ratios (AGR) was larger during SEE lengthening. Under the present testing conditions, former ATR patients had recovered a relatively symmetrical walking gait pattern. Differences in seen AGR seem to accommodate the profound changes in MTU architecture, limiting the required fascicle shortening velocity. Overall, the contractile behavior of the GM fascicles does not restrict length- or velocity-dependent force potentials during this locomotor task. KW - tendon rupture KW - muscle fascicle behavior KW - walking gait KW - force generation KW - ultrasound imaging Y1 - 2022 U6 - https://doi.org/10.3389/fphys.2022.792576 SN - 1664-042X VL - 13 PB - Frontiers Research Foundation CY - Lausanne ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Quittmann, Oliver J. A1 - Abel, Thomas A1 - Albracht, Kirsten A1 - Strüder, Heiko K. T1 - Biomechanics of all-out handcycling exercise: kinetics, kinematics and muscular activity of a 15-s sprint test in able-bodied participants JF - Sports Biomechanics N2 - This study aims to quantify the kinematics, kinetics and muscular activity of all-out handcycling exercise and examine their alterations during the course of a 15-s sprint test. Twelve able-bodied competitive triathletes performed a 15-s all-out sprint test in a recumbent racing handcycle that was attached to an ergometer. During the sprint test, tangential crank kinetics, 3D joint kinematics and muscular activity of 10 muscles of the upper extremity and trunk were examined using a power metre, motion capturing and surface electromyography (sEMG), respectively. Parameters were compared between revolution one (R1), revolution two (R2), the average of revolution 3 to 13 (R3) and the average of the remaining revolutions (R4). Shoulder abduction and internal-rotation increased, whereas maximal shoulder retroversion decreased during the sprint. Except for the wrist angles, angular velocity increased for every joint of the upper extremity. Several muscles demonstrated an increase in muscular activation, an earlier onset of muscular activation in crank cycle and an increased range of activation. During the course of a 15-s all-out sprint test in handcycling, the shoulder muscles and the muscles associated to the push phase demonstrate indications for short-duration fatigue. These findings are helpful to prevent injuries and improve performance in all-out handcycling. KW - Handbike KW - sEMG KW - Paralympic sport KW - performance testing KW - high-intensity exercise Y1 - 2022 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1080/14763141.2020.1745266 SN - 1752-6116 (Onlineausgabe) SN - 1476-3141 (Druckausgabe) VL - 21 IS - 10 SP - 1200 EP - 1223 PB - Taylor & Francis CY - London ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Kleefeld, Andreas A1 - Zimmermann, M. ED - Constanda, Christian ED - Bodmann, Bardo E.J. ED - Harris, Paul J. T1 - Computing Elastic Interior Transmission Eigenvalues JF - Integral Methods in Science and Engineering N2 - An alternative method is presented to numerically compute interior elastic transmission eigenvalues for various domains in two dimensions. This is achieved by discretizing the resulting system of boundary integral equations in combination with a nonlinear eigenvalue solver. Numerical results are given to show that this new approach can provide better results than the finite element method when dealing with general domains. Y1 - 2022 SN - 978-3-031-07171-3 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-07171-3_10 N1 - Corresponding author: Andreas Kleefeld SP - 139 EP - 155 PB - Birkhäuser CY - Cham ER - TY - CHAP A1 - Burgeth, Bernhard A1 - Kleefeld, Andreas A1 - Zhang, Eugene A1 - Zhang, Yue ED - Baudrier, Étienne ED - Naegel, Benoît ED - Krähenbühl, Adrien ED - Tajine, Mohamed T1 - Towards Topological Analysis of Non-symmetric Tensor Fields via Complexification T2 - Discrete Geometry and Mathematical Morphology N2 - Fields of asymmetric tensors play an important role in many applications such as medical imaging (diffusion tensor magnetic resonance imaging), physics, and civil engineering (for example Cauchy-Green-deformation tensor, strain tensor with local rotations, etc.). However, such asymmetric tensors are usually symmetrized and then further processed. Using this procedure results in a loss of information. A new method for the processing of asymmetric tensor fields is proposed restricting our attention to tensors of second-order given by a 2x2 array or matrix with real entries. This is achieved by a transformation resulting in Hermitian matrices that have an eigendecomposition similar to symmetric matrices. With this new idea numerical results for real-world data arising from a deformation of an object by external forces are given. It is shown that the asymmetric part indeed contains valuable information. Y1 - 2022 SN - 978-3-031-19897-7 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-19897-7_5 N1 - Second International Joint Conference, DGMM 2022, Strasbourg, France, October 24–27, 2022 N1 - Corresponding author: Andreas Kleefeld SP - 48 EP - 59 PB - Springer CY - Cham ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Harris, Isaac A1 - Kleefeld, Andreas T1 - Analysis and computation of the transmission eigenvalues with a conductive boundary condition JF - Applicable Analysis N2 - We provide a new analytical and computational study of the transmission eigenvalues with a conductive boundary condition. These eigenvalues are derived from the scalar inverse scattering problem for an inhomogeneous material with a conductive boundary condition. The goal is to study how these eigenvalues depend on the material parameters in order to estimate the refractive index. The analytical questions we study are: deriving Faber–Krahn type lower bounds, the discreteness and limiting behavior of the transmission eigenvalues as the conductivity tends to infinity for a sign changing contrast. We also provide a numerical study of a new boundary integral equation for computing the eigenvalues. Lastly, using the limiting behavior we will numerically estimate the refractive index from the eigenvalues provided the conductivity is sufficiently large but unknown. KW - Boundary integral equations KW - Inverse spectral problem KW - Conductive boundary condition KW - Transmission eigenvalues Y1 - 2020 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1080/00036811.2020.1789598 SN - 1563-504X VL - 101 IS - 6 SP - 1880 EP - 1895 PB - Taylor & Francis CY - London ER -