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Three-dimensional (3D) full-field measurements provide a comprehensive and accurate validation of finite element (FE) models. For the validation, the result of the model and measurements are compared based on two respective point-sets and this requires the point-sets to be registered in one coordinate system. Point-set registration is a non-convex optimization problem that has widely been solved by the ordinary iterative closest point algorithm. However, this approach necessitates a good initialization without which it easily returns a local optimum, i.e. an erroneous registration. The globally optimal iterative closest point (Go-ICP) algorithm has overcome this drawback and forms the basis for the presented open-source tool that can be used for the validation of FE models using 3D full-field measurements. The capability of the tool is demonstrated using an application example from the field of biomechanics. Methodological problems that arise in real-world data and the respective implemented solution approaches are discussed.
We present new numerical results for shape optimization problems of interior Neumann eigenvalues. This field is not well understood from a theoretical standpoint. The existence of shape maximizers is not proven beyond the first two eigenvalues, so we study the problem numerically. We describe a method to compute the eigenvalues for a given shape that combines the boundary element method with an algorithm for nonlinear eigenvalues. As numerical optimization requires many such evaluations, we put a focus on the efficiency of the method and the implemented routine. The method is well suited for parallelization. Using the resulting fast routines and a specialized parametrization of the shapes, we found improved maxima for several eigenvalues.
Die qualitative und quantitative Detektion von Zielsubstanzen innerhalb einer wässrigen Probe ist für viele Fragestellungen von Interesse, etwa bei der Detektion von Kontaminationen in Trinkwasser in Krisensituationen. Hierbei ist es nicht nur wichtig, dass Pathogene möglichst sensitiv detektiert werden können, sondern auch, dass die Analyse schnell erfolgt, um Betroffenen im Katastrophenfall zügig sicheres Trinkwasser zu Verfügung stellen zu können. Da bei einem solchen Szenario nicht von einer in der Nähe befindlichen funktionierenden Laborinfrastruktur ausgegangen werden kann, ist es wichtig, dass die Messung direkt vor Ort erfolgen kann. Im Rahmen dieser Arbeit wurde untersucht, ob eine derartige Schnellanalytik mithilfe von superparamagnetischen Beads (MBs) und der magnetischen Frequenzmischtechnik möglich ist. Dabei werden die MBs mit Hilfe von primären Antikörpern an die Zielsubstanz gebunden und mit sekundären Antikörpern an die Poren-Oberfläche eines Polyethylen-Filters fixiert (Sandwich-Immunoassay). So kann die Quantifizierung der Zielsubstanz auf eine magnetische Messung der immobilisierten MB-Marker zurückgeführt werden. Die magnetische Frequenzmischtechnik basiert auf der Anregung der Probe mit Magnetfeldern zweier verschiedener Frequenzen. Die durch die nichtlineare Magnetisierungsform der superparamagnetischen MBs entstehenden Mischfrequenzen werden typischerweise mithilfe einer zweistufigen Lock-in-Detektion analysiert (analoge Demodulation), die in einem Magnetreader als Handheldgerät realisiert wurde. Zusätzlich zu dieser Technik wurde das Prinzip der direkten Digitalisierung des gesamten Antwortsignals mit anschließender Fourier-Analyse der erzeugten Mischfrequenzen experimentell umgesetzt, um die Amplituden und Phasen mehrerer Mischfrequenzen simultan zu erfassen. Eine Möglichkeit zur Sensitivitätssteigerung ist die magnetische Aufkonzentration, indem vor der magnetischen Analyse eine Separation der MBs aus einem größeren Probenvolumen mittels magnetischem Feldgradienten durchgeführt wird. Zur Charakterisierung verschiedener kommerzieller MBs hinsichtlich ihrer magnetischen Separierbarkeit wurde ein Aufbau zur Messung ihrer magnetophoretischen Beweglichkeiten realisiert und ihre Geschwindigkeiten im Gradientenfeld mikroskopisch gemessen.Da eine Probe oftmals nicht nur auf eine einzige Zielsubstanz, sondern simultan auf mehrere verschiedene Pathogene hin untersucht werden soll, wurden verschiedene Ansätze entwickelt und getestet, die einen solchen multiparametrischen magnetischen Immunoassay ermöglichen. Einerseits wurde eine räumliche Separation der Bindungsbereiche für verschiedene Zielsubstanzen realisiert, die sequentiell ausgewertet werden können. Andererseits wurde die Unterscheidung von verschiedenen Zielsubstanzen anhand der Charakteristika der an sie gebundenen, verschieden funktionalisierten MB-Typen untersucht. Für eine solche Unterscheidung wurde zum einen die Anregefrequenz der magnetischen Frequenzmischtechnik während einer Messung variiert. Damit konnte gezeigt werden, dass sich verschiedene MB-Sorten anhand der Phase ihrer Frequenzmischsignale voneinander unterscheiden lassen. Weiterhin wurde gezeigt, dass sich der Signalverlauf einer binären Mischung zweier verschiedener MB-Typen als gradueller Übergang der Verläufe der beiden reinen MB-Lösungen ergibt. Eine weitere Analysemethode für einen multiparametrischen Immunoassay besteht darin, ein zusätzliches einstellbares statisches magnetisches Offsetfeld zu verwenden. Hierfür wurden mehrere Aufbauten auf Basis von Permanent- und Elektromagneten simuliert, konstruiert und charakterisiert. Mithilfe von Simulationen konnte gezeigt werden, dass eine auf diesem Verfahren beruhende Unterscheidung für MBs mit unterschiedlichen magnetischen Partikelmomenten möglich ist. Als direkte Anwendung des hier entwickelten Magnetreaders in Zusammenspiel mit der digitalen Demodulation wurde ein magnetischer Assay gegen die B-Untereinheit des Choleratoxins in Trinkwasser mit einem niedrigen Detektionslimit von 0,2 ng/ml demonstriert.
There is a growing body of evidence for the effects of vitamin D on intestinal host-microbiome interactions related to gut dysbiosis and bowel inflammation. This brief review highlights the potential links between vitamin D and gut health, emphasizing the role of vitamin D in microbiological and immunological mechanisms of inflammatory bowel diseases. A comprehensive literature search was carried out in PubMed and Google Scholar using combinations of keywords “vitamin D,” “intestines,” “gut microflora,” “bowel inflammation”. Only articles published in English and related to the study topic are included in the review. We discuss how vitamin D (a) modulates intestinal microbiome function, (b) controls antimicrobial peptide expression, and (c) has a protective effect on epithelial barriers in the gut mucosa. Vitamin D and its nuclear receptor (VDR) regulate intestinal barrier integrity, and control innate and adaptive immunity in the gut. Metabolites from the gut microbiota may also regulate expression of VDR, while vitamin D may influence the gut microbiota and exert anti-inflammatory and immune-modulating effects. The underlying mechanism of vitamin D in the pathogenesis of bowel diseases is not fully understood, but maintaining an optimal vitamin D status appears to be beneficial for gut health. Future studies will shed light on the molecular mechanisms through which vitamin D and VDR interactions affect intestinal mucosal immunity, pathogen invasion, symbiont colonization, and antimicrobial peptide expression.
Humic substances originating from various organic matters can ameliorate soil properties, stimulate plant growth, and improve nutrient uptake. Due to the low calorific heating value, leonardite is rather unsuitable as fuel. However, it may serve as a potential source of humic substances. This study was aimed at characterizing the leonardite-based soil amendments and examining the effect of their application on the soil microbial community, as well as on potato growth and tuber yield. A high yield (71.1%) of humic acid (LHA) from leonardite has been demonstrated. Parental leonardite (PL) and LHA were applied to soil prior to potato cultivation. The 16S rRNA sequencing of soil samples revealed distinct relationships between microbial community composition and the application of leonardite-based soil amendments. Potato tubers were planted in pots in greenhouse conditions. The tubers were harvested at the mature stage for the determination of growth and yield parameters. The results demonstrated that the LHA treatments had a significant effect on increasing potato growth (54.9%) and tuber yield (66.4%) when compared to the control. The findings highlight the importance of amending leonardite-based humic products for maintaining the biogeochemical stability of soils, for keeping their healthy microbial community structure, and for increasing the agronomic productivity of potato plants.
The treatment of septic wounds with curative dressings based on biocomposites containing sage and marigold phytoextracts was effective in in vitro and in vivo experiments. These dressings caused the purification of the wound surface from purulent-necrotic masses three days earlier than in the other experimental groups. The consequence of an increase in incidents of severe course of the wound and the observed tendency to increase the number of adverse effects is the development of long-term recurrent wound processes. To treat purulent wounds, the following tactics were used: The purulent wounds of animals were covered with the examined wound dressing, and then the next day samples were taken, the procedure was performed once in 2 days. To obtain the active nanostructured sorbents such as carbonized rice husks, they are functionalized with biologically active components possessing antimicrobial, anti-inflammatory, antitoxic, immunomodulating, antiallergic and other types of properties.
A second-order L-stable exponential time-differencing (ETD) method is developed by combining an ETD scheme with approximating the matrix exponentials by rational functions having real distinct poles (RDP), together with a dimensional splitting integrating factor technique. A variety of non-linear reaction-diffusion equations in two and three dimensions with either Dirichlet, Neumann, or periodic boundary conditions are solved with this scheme and shown to outperform a variety of other second-order implicit-explicit schemes. An additional performance boost is gained through further use of basic parallelization techniques.
Mechano-pharmacological testing of L-Type Ca²⁺ channel modulators via human vascular celldrum model
(2020)
Background/Aims: This study aimed to establish a precise and well-defined working model, assessing pharmaceutical effects on vascular smooth muscle cell monolayer in-vitro. It describes various analysis techniques to determine the most suitable to measure the biomechanical impact of vasoactive agents by using CellDrum technology. Methods: The so-called CellDrum technology was applied to analyse the biomechanical properties of confluent human aorta muscle cells (haSMC) in monolayer. The cell generated tensions deviations in the range of a few N/m² are evaluated by the CellDrum technology. This study focuses on the dilative and contractive effects of L-type Ca²⁺ channel agonists and antagonists, respectively. We analyzed the effects of Bay K8644, nifedipine and verapamil. Three different measurement modes were developed and applied to determine the most appropriate analysis technique for the study purpose. These three operation modes are called, particular time mode" (PTM), "long term mode" (LTM) and "real-time mode" (RTM). Results: It was possible to quantify the biomechanical response of haSMCs to the addition of vasoactive agents using CellDrum technology. Due to the supplementation of 100nM Bay K8644, the tension increased approximately 10.6% from initial tension maximum, whereas, the treatment with nifedipine and verapamil caused a significant decrease in cellular tension: 10nM nifedipine decreased the biomechanical stress around 6,5% and 50nM verapamil by 2,8%, compared to the initial tension maximum. Additionally, all tested measurement modes provide similar results while focusing on different analysis parameters. Conclusion: The CellDrum technology allows highly sensitive biomechanical stress measurements of cultured haSMC monolayers. The mechanical stress responses evoked by the application of vasoactive calcium channel modulators were quantified functionally (N/m²). All tested operation modes resulted in equal findings, whereas each mode features operation-related data analysis.
In this article, a concept of implicit methods for scalar conservation laws in one or more spatial dimensions allowing also for source terms of various types is presented. This material is a significant extension of previous work of the first author (Breuß SIAM J. Numer. Anal. 43(3), 970–986 2005). Implicit notions are developed that are centered around a monotonicity criterion. We demonstrate a connection between a numerical scheme and a discrete entropy inequality, which is based on a classical approach by Crandall and Majda. Additionally, three implicit methods are investigated using the developed notions. Next, we conduct a convergence proof which is not based on a classical compactness argument. Finally, the theoretical results are confirmed by various numerical tests.
Design, evaluation and comparison of endorectal coils for hybrid MR-PET imaging of the prostate
(2020)
Prostate cancer is one of the most common cancers among men and its early detection is critical for its successful treatment. The use of multimodal imaging, such as MR-PET, is most advantageous as it is able to provide detailed information about the prostate. However, as the human prostate is flexible and can move into different positions under external conditions, it is important to localise the focused region-of-interest using both MRI and PET under identical circumstances. In this work, we designed five commonly used linear and quadrature radiofrequency surface coils suitable for hybrid MR-PET use in endorectal applications. Due to the endorectal design and the shielded PET insert, the outer face of the coils investigated was curved and the region to be imaged was outside the volume of the coil. The tilting angles of the coils were varied with respect to the main magnetic field direction. This was done to approximate the various positions from which the prostate could be imaged. The transmit efficiencies and safety excitation efficiencies from simulations, together with the signal-to-noise ratios from the MR images were calculated and analysed. Overall, it was found that the overlapped loops driven in quadrature were superior to the other types of coils we tested. In order to determine the effect of the different coil designs on PET, transmission scans were carried out, and it was observed that the differences between attenuation maps with and without the coils were negligible. The findings of this work can provide useful guidance for the integration of such coil designs into MR-PET hybrid systems in the future.
Superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles (SPION) are extensively used for magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and magnetic particle imaging (MPI), as well as for magnetic fluid hyperthermia (MFH). We here describe a sequential centrifugation protocol to obtain SPION with well-defined sizes from a polydisperse SPION starting formulation, synthesized using the routinely employed co-precipitation technique. Transmission electron microscopy, dynamic light scattering and nanoparticle tracking analyses show that the SPION fractions obtained upon size-isolation are well-defined and almost monodisperse. MRI, MPI and MFH analyses demonstrate improved imaging and hyperthermia performance for size-isolated SPION as compared to the polydisperse starting mixture, as well as to commercial and clinically used iron oxide nanoparticle formulations, such as Resovist® and Sinerem®. The size-isolation protocol presented here may help to identify SPION with optimal properties for diagnostic, therapeutic and theranostic applications.
LAPS-based monitoring of metabolic responses of bacterial cultures in a paper fermentation broth
(2020)
As an alternative renewable energy source, methane production in biogas plants is gaining more and more attention. Biomass in a bioreactor contains different types of microorganisms, which should be considered in terms of process-stability control. Metabolically inactive microorganisms within the fermentation process can lead to undesirable, time-consuming and cost-intensive interventions. Hence, monitoring of the cellular metabolism of bacterial populations in a fermentation broth is crucial to improve the biogas production, operation efficiency, and sustainability. In this work, the extracellular acidification of bacteria in a paper-fermentation broth is monitored after glucose uptake, utilizing a differential light-addressable potentiometric sensor (LAPS) system. The LAPS system is loaded with three different model microorganisms (Escherichia coli, Corynebacterium glutamicum, and Lactobacillus brevis) and the effect of the fermentation broth at different process stages on the metabolism of these bacteria is studied. In this way, different signal patterns related to the metabolic response of microorganisms can be identified. By means of calibration curves after glucose uptake, the overall extracellular acidification of bacterial populations within the fermentation process can be evaluated.
With the variety of toothbrushes on the market, the question arises, which toothbrush is best suited to maintain oral health? This thematic review focuses first on plaque formation mechanisms and then on the plaque removal effectiveness of ultrasonic toothbrushes and their potential in preventing oral diseases like periodontitis, gingivitis, and caries. We overviewed the physical effects that occurred during brushing and tried to address the question of whether ultrasonic toothbrushes effectively reduced the microbial burden by increasing the hydrodynamic forces. The results of published studies show that electric toothbrushes, which combine ultrasonic and sonic (or acoustic and mechanic) actions, may have the most promising effect on good oral health. Existing ultrasonic/sonic toothbrush models do not significantly differ regarding the removal of dental biofilm and the reduction of gingival inflammation compared with other electrically powered toothbrushes, whereas the manual toothbrushes show a lower effectiveness.
The Rothman–Woodroofe symmetry test statistic is revisited on the basis of independent but not necessarily identically distributed random variables. The distribution-freeness if the underlying distributions are all symmetric and continuous is obtained. The results are applied for testing symmetry in a meta-analysis random effects model. The consistency of the procedure is discussed in this situation as well. A comparison with an alternative proposal from the literature is conducted via simulations. Real data are analyzed to demonstrate how the new approach works in practice.
We discuss the testing problem of homogeneity of the marginal distributions of a continuous bivariate distribution based on a paired sample with possibly missing components (missing completely at random). Applying the well-known two-sample Crámer–von-Mises distance to the remaining data, we determine the limiting null distribution of our test statistic in this situation. It is seen that a new resampling approach is appropriate for the approximation of the unknown null distribution. We prove that the resulting test asymptotically reaches the significance level and is consistent. Properties of the test under local alternatives are pointed out as well. Simulations investigate the quality of the approximation and the power of the new approach in the finite sample case. As an illustration we apply the test to real data sets.
The established Hoeffding-Blum-Kiefer-Rosenblatt independence test statistic is investigated for partly not identically distributed data. Surprisingly, it turns out that the statistic has the well-known distribution-free limiting null distribution of the classical criterion under standard regularity conditions. An application is testing goodness-of-fit for the regression function in a non parametric random effects meta-regression model, where the consistency is obtained as well. Simulations investigate size and power of the approach for small and moderate sample sizes. A real data example based on clinical trials illustrates how the test can be used in applications.
Experience has shown that a priori created static resource allocation plans are vulnerable to runtime deviations and hence often become uneconomic or highly exceed a predefined soft deadline. The assumption of constant task execution times during allocation planning is even more unlikely in a cloud environment where virtualized resources vary in performance. Revising the initially created resource allocation plan at runtime allows the scheduler to react on deviations between planning and execution. Such an adaptive rescheduling of a many-task application workflow is only feasible, when the planning time can be handled efficiently at runtime. In this paper, we present the static low-complexity resource allocation planning algorithm (LCP) applicable to efficiently schedule many-task scientific application workflows on cloud resources of different capabilities. The benefits of the presented algorithm are benchmarked against alternative approaches. The benchmark results show that LCP is not only able to compete against higher complexity algorithms in terms of planned costs and planned makespan but also outperforms them significantly by magnitudes of 2 to 160 in terms of required planning time. Hence, LCP is superior in terms of practical usability where low planning time is essential such as in our targeted online rescheduling scenario.