The development of hemostatic technologies that suit a diverse range of emergency scenarios is a critical initiative, and there is an increasing interest in the development of absorbable dressings ...that can be left in the injury site and degrade to reduce the duration of interventional procedures. In the current study, β-cyclodextrin polyester (CDPE) hydrogels serve as sacrificial macroporous carriers, capable of degradation under physiological conditions. The CDPE template enables the assembly of imprinted chitosan honeycomb-like monolithic mats, containing highly entangled nanofibers with diameters of 9.2 ± 3.7 nm, thereby achieving an increase in the surface area of chitosan to improve hemostatic efficiency. In vivo, chitosan-loaded cyclodextrin (CDPE-Cs) hydrogels yield significantly lower amounts of blood loss and shorter times to hemostasis compared with commercially available absorbable hemostatic dressings, and are highly biocompatible. The designed hydrogels demonstrate promising hemostatic efficiency, as a physiologically-benign approach to mitigating blood loss in tissue-injury scenarios.
Polyvinyl polymers bearing pendant hole transport functionalities have been extensively explored for solution-processed hole transport layer (HTL) technologies, yet there are only rare examples of ...high anisotropic packing of the HT moieties of these polymers into substrate-parallel orientations within HTL films. For small molecules, substrate-parallel alignment of HT moieties is a well-established approach to improve overall device performance. To address the longstanding challenge of extension from vapor-deposited small molecules to solution-processable polymer systems, a fundamental chemistry tactic is reported here, involving the positioning of HT side chains within macromolecular frameworks by the construction of HT polymers having bottlebrush topologies. Applying state-of-the-art polymer synthetic techniques, various functional subunits, including triphenylamine (TPA) for hole transport and adhesion to the substrate, and perfluoro alkyl-substituted benzyloxy styrene for migration to the air interface, were organized with exquisite control over the composition and placement throughout the bottlebrush topology. Upon assembling the HT bottlebrush (HTB) polymers into monolayered HTL films on various substrates through spin-casting and thermal annealing, the backbones of HTBs were vertically aligned while the grafts with pendant TPAs were extended parallel to the substrate. The overall design realized high TPA π-stacking along the out-of-plane direction of the substrate in the HTLs, which doubled the efficiency of organic light-emitting diodes compared with linear poly(vinyl triphenylamine)s.
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IJS, KILJ, NUK, PNG, UL, UM
Reduced coating diameter fibers (RCDF) are attractive for increasing fiber density in cables due to their compatibility with the standard 125 μm clad diameter. In this paper, we review recent ...progress on RCDF and present new modeling and experimental results. We developed microbending models to quantify both the intrinsic and extrinsic microbending sensitivities. Modeling results show that RCDF have lower intrinsic microbending sensitivity but higher extrinsic microbending sensitivity. We made RCDF with coating diameters from 125 to 175 μm. The fibers showed good attenuation on shipping reel, which confirms modeling results on intrinsic microbending. We performed microbending tests on RCDF to quantify their extrinsic microbending sensitivity. The extrinsic microbending results suggest that the microbending sensitivity of RCDF can be reduced by using softer primary coating materials and bend-insensitive fiber designs. We studied the mechanical properties of RCDF including fiber proof strength and puncture resistance. Fiber proof tests showed that fibers with coating diameter greater than 160 μm could pass the 100 kpsi proof test at similar break rates to 242 µm. Fiber puncture resistance could be improved by using better coating material designs. We also conducted a cable trial on a loose tube cable using RCDF with 160 and 170 μm coating diameters. It showed that the RCDF could increase the fiber density by more than 2 times without any microbending and fiber handling issues. Finally, we studied thin 125 μm coated fiber for making low-loss connectors with direct ferrule insertion without stripping the coating, which is promising to reduce fiber breaks and improve connector long term reliability.
Systemic inflammatory response remains a poorly understood cause of morbidity and mortality after traumatic injury. Recent nonhuman primate (NHP) trauma models have been used to characterize the ...systemic response to trauma, but none have incorporated a critical care phase without the use of general anesthesia. We describe the development of a prolonged critical care environment with sedation and ventilation support, and also report corresponding NHP biologic and inflammatory markers.
Eight adult male rhesus macaques underwent ventilation with sedation for 48-96 hours in a critical care setting. Three of these NHPs underwent "sham" procedures as part of trauma control model development. Blood counts, chemistries, coagulation studies, and cytokines/chemokines were collected throughout the study, and histopathologic analysis was conducted at necropsy.
Eight NHPs were intentionally survived and extubated. Three NHPs were euthanized at 72-96 hours without extubation. Transaminitis occurred over the duration of ventilation, but renal function, acid-base status, and hematologic profile remained stable. Chemokine and cytokine analysis were notable for baseline fold-change for Il-6 and Il-1ra (9.7 and 42.7, respectively) that subsequently downtrended throughout the experiment unless clinical respiratory compromise was observed.
A NHP critical care environment with ventilation support is feasible but requires robust resources. The inflammatory profile of NHPs is not profoundly altered by sedation and mechanical ventilation. NHPs are susceptible to the pulmonary effects of short-term ventilation and demonstrate a similar bioprofile response to ventilator-induced pulmonary pathology. This work has implications for further development of a prolonged care NHP model.
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DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
Low carbon fuel and waste management policies at the federal and state levels have catalyzed the construction of California’s wet anaerobic digestion (AD) facilities. Wet ADs can digest food waste ...and dairy manure to produce compressed natural gas (CNG) for natural gas vehicles or electricity for electric vehicles (EVs). Carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) of CO2 generated from AD reduces the fuel carbon intensity by carbon removal in addition to avoided methane emissions. Using a combined lifecycle and techno-economic analysis, we determine the most cost-effective design under current and forthcoming federal and state low carbon fuel policies. Under many scenarios, designs that convert biogas to electricity for EVs (Biogas to EV) are favored; however, CCS is only cost-effective in these systems with policy incentives that exceed $200/tonne of CO2 captured. Adding CCS to CNG-producing systems (Biogas to CNG) only requires a single unit operation to prepare the CO2 for sequestration, with a sequestration cost of $34/tonne. When maximizing negative emissions is the goal, incentives are needed to either (1) fund CCS with Biogas to EV designs or (2) favor CNG over electricity production from wet AD facilities.
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IJS, KILJ, NUK, PNG, UL, UM
Low carbon fuel and waste management policies at the federal and state levels have catalyzed the construction of California's wet anaerobic digestion (AD) facilities. Wet ADs can digest food waste ...and dairy manure to produce compressed natural gas (CNG) for natural gas vehicles or electricity for electric vehicles (EVs). Carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) of CO
generated from AD reduces the fuel carbon intensity by carbon removal in addition to avoided methane emissions. Using a combined lifecycle and techno-economic analysis, we determine the most cost-effective design under current and forthcoming federal and state low carbon fuel policies. Under many scenarios, designs that convert biogas to electricity for EVs (Biogas to EV) are favored; however, CCS is only cost-effective in these systems with policy incentives that exceed $200/tonne of CO
captured. Adding CCS to CNG-producing systems (
) only requires a single unit operation to prepare the CO
for sequestration, with a sequestration cost of $34/tonne. When maximizing negative emissions is the goal, incentives are needed to either (1) fund CCS with Biogas to EV designs or (2) favor CNG over electricity production from wet AD facilities.
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IJS, KILJ, NUK, PNG, UL, UM
To study disease development, an inventory of an organ's cell types and understanding of physiologic function is paramount. Here, we performed single-cell RNA-sequencing to examine heterogeneity of ...murine pancreatic duct cells, pancreatobiliary cells, and intrapancreatic bile duct cells. We describe an epithelial-mesenchymal transitory axis in our three pancreatic duct subpopulations and identify osteopontin as a regulator of this fate decision as well as human duct cell dedifferentiation. Our results further identify functional heterogeneity within pancreatic duct subpopulations by elucidating a role for geminin in accumulation of DNA damage in the setting of chronic pancreatitis. Our findings implicate diverse functional roles for subpopulations of pancreatic duct cells in maintenance of duct cell identity and disease progression and establish a comprehensive road map of murine pancreatic duct cell, pancreatobiliary cell, and intrapancreatic bile duct cell homeostasis.
There is some evidence for the efficacy of acupuncture in chronic low-back pain (LBP), but it remains unclear whether acupuncture is superior to placebo. In a randomized, blinded, placebo-controlled ...trial, we evaluated the effect of traditional acupuncture in chronic LBP. A total of 131 consecutive out-patients of the Department of Orthopaedics, University Goettingen, Germany, (age=48.1 years, 58.5% female, duration of pain: 9.6 years) with non-radiating LBP for at least 6 months and a normal neurological examination were randomized to one of three groups over 12 weeks. Each group received active physiotherapy over 12 weeks. The control group (
n=46) received no further treatment, the acupuncture group (
n=40) received 20 sessions of traditional acupuncture and the sham-acupuncture group (
n=45) 20 sessions of minimal acupuncture.
Changes from baseline to the end of treatment and to 9-month follow-up were assessed in pain intensity and in pain disability, and secondary in psychological distress and in spine flexion, compared by intervention groups.
Acupuncture was superior to the control condition (physiotherapy) regarding pain intensity (
P=0.000), pain disability (
P=0.000), and psychological distress (
P=0.020) at the end of treatment. Compared to sham-acupuncture, acupuncture reduced psychological distress (
P=0.040) only. At 9-month follow-up, the superiority of acupuncture compared to the control condition became less and acupuncture was not different to sham-acupuncture.
We found a significant improvement by traditional acupuncture in chronic LBP compared to routine care (physiotherapy) but not compared to sham-acupuncture. The trial demonstrated a placebo effect of traditional acupuncture in chronic LBP.
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GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, OILJ, SBCE, SBJE, UL, UPUK
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