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Electromechanical model of hiPSC-derived ventricular cardiomyocytes cocultured with fibroblasts
(2018)
The CellDrum provides an experimental setup to study the mechanical effects of fibroblasts co-cultured with hiPSC-derived ventricular cardiomyocytes. Multi-scale computational models based on the Finite Element Method are developed. Coupled electrical cardiomyocyte-fibroblast models (cell level) are embedded into reaction-diffusion equations (tissue level) which compute the propagation of the action potential in the cardiac tissue. Electromechanical coupling is realised by an excitation-contraction model (cell level) and the active stress arising during contraction is added to the passive stress in the force balance, which determines the tissue displacement (tissue level). Tissue parameters in the model can be identified experimentally to the specific sample.
Background
Culture media containing complex compounds like yeast extract or peptone show numerous disadvantages. The chemical composition of the complex compounds is prone to significant variations from batch to batch and quality control is difficult. Therefore, the use of chemically defined media receives more and more attention in commercial fermentations. This concept results in better reproducibility, it simplifies downstream processing of secreted products and enable rapid scale-up. Culturing bacteria with unknown auxotrophies in chemically defined media is challenging and often not possible without an extensive trial-and-error approach. In this study, a respiration activity monitoring system for shake flasks and its recent version for microtiter plates were used to clarify unknown auxotrophic deficiencies in the model organism Bacillus pumilus DSM 18097.
Results
Bacillus pumilus DSM 18097 was unable to grow in a mineral medium without the addition of complex compounds. Therefore, a rich chemically defined minimal medium was tested containing basically all vitamins, amino acids and nucleobases, which are essential ingredients of complex components. The strain was successfully cultivated in this medium. By monitoring of the respiration activity, nutrients were supplemented to and omitted from the rich chemically defined medium in a rational way, thus enabling a systematic and fast determination of the auxotrophic deficiencies. Experiments have shown that the investigated strain requires amino acids, especially cysteine or histidine and the vitamin biotin for growth.
Conclusions
The introduced method allows an efficient and rapid identification of unknown auxotrophic deficiencies and can be used to develop a simple chemically defined tailor-made medium. B. pumilus DSM 18097 was chosen as a model organism to demonstrate the method. However, the method is generally suitable for a wide range of microorganisms. By combining a systematic combinatorial approach based on monitoring the respiration activity with cultivation in microtiter plates, high throughput experiments with high information content can be conducted. This approach facilitates media development, strain characterization and cultivation of fastidious microorganisms in chemically defined minimal media while simultaneously reducing the experimental effort.
New information regarding the influence of a stepped chute on the hydraulic performance of the United States Bureau of Reclamation (Reclamation) Type III hydraulic jump stilling basin is presented for design (steady) and adverse (decreasing tailwater) conditions. Using published experimental data and computational fluid dynamics (CFD) models, this paper presents a detailed comparison between smooth-chute and stepped-chute configurations for chute slopes of 0.8H:1V and 4H:1V and Froude numbers (F) ranging from 3.1 to 9.5 for a Type III basin designed for F = 8. For both stepped and smooth chutes, the relative role of each basin element was quantified, up to the most hydraulic extreme case of jump sweep-out. It was found that, relative to a smooth chute, the turbulence generated by a stepped chute causes a higher maximum velocity decay within the stilling basin, which represents an enhancement of the Type III basin’s performance but also a change in the relative role of the basin elements. Results provide insight into the ability of the CFD models [unsteady Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) equations with renormalization group (RNG) k-ϵ turbulence model and volume-of-fluid (VOF) for free surface tracking] to predict the transient basin flow structure and velocity profiles. Type III basins can perform adequately with a stepped chute despite the effects steps have on the relative role of each basin element. It is concluded that the classic Type III basin design, based upon methodology by reclamation specific to smooth chutes, can be hydraulically improved for the case of stepped chutes for design and adverse flow conditions using the information presented herein.
The energy-efficiency of technical systems can be improved by a systematic design approach. Technical Operations Research (TOR) employs methods known from Operations Research to find a global optimal layout and operation strategy of technical systems. We show the practical usage of this approach by the systematic design of a decentralized water supply system for skyscrapers. All possible network options and operation strategies are modeled by a Mixed-Integer Nonlinear Program. We present the optimal system found by our approach and highlight the energy savings compared to a conventional system design.
For fuel flexibility enhancement hydrogen represents a possible alternative gas turbine fuel within future low emission power generation, in case of hydrogen production by the use of renewable energy sources such as wind energy or biomass. Kawasaki Heavy Industries, Ltd. (KHI) has research and development projects for future hydrogen society; production of hydrogen gas, refinement and liquefaction for transportation and storage, and utilization with gas turbine / gas engine for the generation of electricity. In the development of hydrogen gas turbines, a key technology is the stable and low NOx hydrogen combustion, especially Dry Low Emission (DLE) or Dry Low NOx (DLN) hydrogen combustion. Due to the large difference in the physical properties of hydrogen compared to other fuels such as natural gas, well established gas turbine combustion systems cannot be directly applied for DLE hydrogen combustion. Thus, the development of DLE hydrogen combustion technologies is an essential and challenging task for the future of hydrogen fueled gas turbines. The DLE Micro-Mix combustion principle for hydrogen fuel has been in development for many years to significantly reduce NOx emissions. This combustion principle is based on cross-flow mixing of air and gaseous hydrogen which reacts in multiple miniaturized “diffusion-type” flames. The major advantages of this combustion principle are the inherent safety against flashback and the low NOx-emissions due to a very short residence time of the reactants in the flame region of the micro-flames.
In this work, we report on our attempt to design and implement an early introduction to basic robotics principles for children at kindergarten age. One of the main challenges of this effort is to explain complex robotics contents in a way that pre-school children could follow the basic principles and ideas using examples from their world of experience. What sets apart our effort from other work is that part of the lecturing is actually done by a robot itself and that a quiz at the end of the lesson is done using robots as well. The humanoid robot Pepper from Softbank, which is a great platform for human–robot interaction experiments, was used to present a lecture on robotics by reading out the contents to the children making use of its speech synthesis capability. A quiz in a Runaround-game-show style after the lecture activated the children to recap the contents they acquired about how mobile robots work in principle. In this quiz, two LEGO Mindstorm EV3 robots were used to implement a strongly interactive scenario. Besides the thrill of being exposed to a mobile robot that would also react to the children, they were very excited and at the same time very concentrated. We got very positive feedback from the children as well as from their educators. To the best of our knowledge, this is one of only few attempts to use a robot like Pepper not as a tele-teaching tool, but as the teacher itself in order to engage pre-school children with complex robotics contents.
Because of customer churn, strong competition, and operational inefficiencies, the telecommunications operator ME Telco (fictitious name due to confidentiality) launched a strategic transformation program that included a Business Process Management (BPM) project. Major problems were silo-oriented process management and missing cross-functional transparency. Process improvements were not consistently planned and aligned with corporate targets. Measurable inefficiencies were observed on an operational level, e.g., high lead times and reassignment rates of the incident management process.
BACKGROUND: Muscle stretch reflexes are widely considered to beneficially influence joint stability and power generation in the lower limbs. While in the upper limbs and especially in the muscles surrounding the shoulder joint such evidence is lacking. OBJECTIVE: To quantify the electromyographical response in the muscles crossing the shoulder of specifically trained overhead athletes to an anterior perturbation force. METHODS: Twenty healthy male participants performed six sets of different external shoulder rotation stretches on an isokinetic dynamometer over a range of amplitudes and muscle pre-activation moment levels. All stretches were applied with a dynamometer acceleration of 10,000∘/s2 and a velocity of 150∘/s. Electromyographical response was measured via sEMG. RESULTS: Consistent reflexes were not observed in all experimental conditions. The reflex latencies revealed a significant muscle main effect (F (2,228) = 99.31, p< 0.001; η2= 0.466; f= 0.934) and a pre-activation main effect (F (1,228) = 142.21, p< 0.001; η2= 0.384; f= 1.418). The stretch reflex amplitude yielded a significant pre-activation main effect (F (1,222) = 470.373, p< 0.001; η2= 0.679; f= 1.454). CONCLUSION: Short latency muscle reflexes showed a tendency to an anterior to posterior muscle recruitment whereby the main internal rotator muscles of the shoulder revealed the most consistent results.
Synthetic mimics of natural high-performance structural materials have shown great and partly unforeseen opportunities for the design of multifunctional materials. For nacre-mimetic nanocomposites, it has remained extraordinarily challenging to make ductile materials with high stretchability at high fractions of reinforcements, which is however of crucial importance for flexible barrier materials. Here, highly ductile and tough nacre-mimetic nanocomposites are presented, by implementing weak, but many hydrogen bonds in a ternary nacre-mimetic system consisting of two polymers (poly(vinyl amine) and poly(vinyl alcohol)) and natural nanoclay (montmorillonite) to provide efficient energy dissipation and slippage at high nanoclay content (50 wt%). Tailored interactions enable exceptional combinations of ductility (close to 50% strain) and toughness (up to 27.5 MJ m⁻³). Extensive stress whitening, a clear sign of high internal dynamics at high internal cohesion, can be observed during mechanical deformation, and the materials can be folded like paper into origami planes without fracture. Overall, the new levels of ductility and toughness are unprecedented in highly reinforced bioinspired nanocomposites and are of critical importance to future applications, e.g., as barrier materials needed for encapsulation and as a printing substrate for flexible organic electronics.
In this work, a cell-based biosensor to evaluate the sterilization efficacy of hydrogen peroxide vapor sterilization processes is characterized. The transducer of the biosensor is based on interdigitated gold electrodes fabricated on an inert glass substrate. Impedance spectroscopy is applied to evaluate the sensor behavior and the alteration of test microorganisms due to the sterilization process. These alterations are related to changes in relative permittivity and electrical conductivity of the bacterial spores. Sensor measurements are conducted with and without bacterial spores (Bacillus atrophaeus), as well as after an industrial sterilization protocol. Equivalent two-dimensional numerical models based on finite element method of the periodic finger structures of the interdigitated gold electrodes are designed and validated using COMSOL® Multiphysics software by the application of known dielectric properties. The validated models are used to compute the electrical properties at different sensor states (blank, loaded with spores, and after sterilization). As a final result, we will derive and tabulate the frequency-dependent electrical parameters of the spore layer using a novel model that combines experimental data with numerical optimization techniques.
Explorer CEOs: The effect of CEO career variety on large firms’ relative exploration orientation
(2018)
Prior studies demonstrate that firms need to make smart trade-off decisions between exploration and exploitation activities in order to increase performance. Chief executive officers (CEOs) are principal decision makers of a firm’s strategic posture. In this study, we theorize and empirically examine how relative exploration orientation of large publicly listed firms varies based on the career variety of their CEOs – that is, how diverse the professional experiences of executives were prior to them becoming CEOs. We further argue that the heterogeneity and structure of the top management team moderates the impact of CEO career variety on firms’ relative exploration orientation. Based on multisource secondary data for 318 S&P 500 firms from 2005 to 2015, we find that CEO career variety is positively associated with relative exploration orientation.
Interestingly, CEOs with high career varieties appear to be less effective in pursuing exploration, when they work with highly heterogeneous and structurally interdependent top management teams.
False spectra formation in the differential two-channel scheme of the laser Doppler flowmeter
(2018)
Noise in the differential two-channel scheme of a classic laser Doppler flowmetry (LDF) instrument was studied. Formation of false spectral components in the output signal due to beating of electrical signals in the differential amplifier was found out. The improved block-diagram of the flowmeter was developed allowing to reduce the noise.
A field-effect biosensor employing tobacco mosaic virus (TMV) particles as scaffolds for enzyme immobilization is presented. Nanotubular TMV scaffolds allow a dense immobilization of precisely positioned enzymes with retained activity. To demonstrate feasibility of this new strategy, a penicillin sensor has been developed by coupling a penicillinase with virus particles as a model system. The developed field-effect penicillin biosensor consists of an Al-p-Si-SiO₂-Ta₂O₅-TMV structure and has been electrochemically characterized in buffer solutions containing different concentrations of penicillin G. In addition, the morphology of the biosensor surface with virus particles was characterized by scanning electron microscopy and atomic force microscopy methods. The sensors possessed a high penicillin sensitivity of ~ 92 mV/dec in a nearly-linear range from 0.1 mM to 10 mM, and a low detection limit of about 50 µM. The long-term stability of the penicillin biosensor was periodically tested over a time period of about one year without any significant loss of sensitivity. The biosensor has also been successfully applied for penicillin detection in bovine milk samples.
In this study, flexible calorimetric gas sensors are developed for specificdetection of gaseous hydrogen peroxide (H₂O₂) over a wide concentrationrange, which is used in sterilization processes for aseptic packaging industry.The flexibility of these sensors is an advantage for identifying the chemical components of the sterilant on the corners of the food boxes, so-called “coldspots”, as critical locations in aseptic packaging, which are of great importance. These sensors are fabricated on flexible polyimide films by means of thin-film technique. Thin layers of titanium and platinum have been deposited on polyimide to define the conductive structures of the sensors. To detect the high-temperature evaporated H₂O₂, a differential temperature set-up is proposed. The sensors are evaluated in a laboratory-scaled sterilizationsystem to simulate the sterilization process. The concentration range of the evaporated H₂O₂ from 0 to 7.7% v/v was defined and the sensors have successfully detected high as well as low H₂O₂ concentrations with a sensitivity of 5.04 °C/% v/v. The characterizations of the sensors confirm their precise fabrication, high sensitivity and the novelty of low H₂O₂ concentration detections for future inline monitoring of food-package sterilization.