Cell sheet technology enables novel approaches to tissue engineering without the use of biodegradable scaffolds. Cell sheet technology consists of a temperature‐responsive culture dish, which enables ...reversible cell adhesion to and detachment from the dish surface by controllable hydrophobicity of the surface. This allows for a non‐invasive harvest of cultured cells as an intact monolayer cell sheet including deposited extra cellular matrices. The monolayer cell sheet can be transplanted to host tissues without using biodegradable scaffolds and sutures. Thick tissue constructs and patterned cell sheets using two or more kinds of cell source are also developed by means of layered cell sheets in vitro. This Progress Report summarizes temperature‐controlled cell adhesion‐detachment behavior and applications of the cell sheet technology to regeneration of cornea, periodontal ligament, bladder epithelia, oesophageal epithelia, myocardium, and liver.
Cell sheet technology utilizing of temperature‐responsive culture dishes has been applied to tissue engineering. Via this technology, cell sheets can be transplanted to host tissues without using biodegradable scaffolds. This Progress Report summarizes temperature‐controlled cell adhesion‐detachment behavior and applications of the cell sheet technology to regeneration of cornea, periodontal ligament, bladder epithelia, oesophageal epithelia, myocardium, and liver.
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Nuclear outflows driven by accreting massive black holes are one of the main feedback mechanisms invoked at high-z to reproduce the distinct separation between star-forming disk galaxies and ...quiescent spheroidal systems. Yet our knowledge of feedback at high-z remains limited by the lack of observations of the multiple gas phases in galaxy outflows. In this work, we use new deep, high spatial resolution ALMA CO(3-2) and archival Very Large Telescope/SINFONI H observations to study the molecular and ionized components of the active galactic nucleus (AGN)-driven outflow in zC400528, a massive main-sequence galaxy at z = 2.3 in the process of quenching. We detect a powerful molecular outflow that shows a positive velocity gradient before a turnover and extends for at least ∼10 kpc from the nuclear region, about three times the projected size of the ionized wind. The molecular gas in the outflow does not reach velocities high enough to escape the galaxy and is therefore expected to be reaccreted. Keeping in mind the various assumptions involved in the analysis, we find that the mass and energetics of the outflow are dominated by the molecular phase. The AGN-driven outflow in zC400528 is powerful enough to deplete the molecular gas reservoir on a timescale comparable to that needed to exhaust it by star formation. This suggests that the nuclear outflow is one of the main quenching engines at work in the observed suppression of the central star formation activity in zC400528.
Summary
Background The development of antibiotic resistance by microorganisms is an increasing problem in medicine. In chronic wounds, bacterial colonization is associated with impaired healing. ...Cold atmospheric plasma is an innovative promising tool to deal with these problems.
Objectives The 5‐min argon plasma treatment has already demonstrated efficacy in reducing bacterial numbers in chronic infected wounds in vivo. In this study we investigated a 2‐min plasma treatment with the same device and the next‐generation device, to assess safety and reduction in bacterial load, regardless of the kind of bacteria and their resistance level in chronic wounds.
Methods Twenty‐four patients with chronic infected wounds were treated in a prospective randomized controlled phase II study with 2 min of cold atmospheric argon plasma every day: 14 with MicroPlaSter alpha device, 10 with MicroPlaSter beta device (next‐generation device) in addition to standard wound care. The patient acted as his/her own control. Bacterial species were detected by standard bacterial swabs and bacterial load by semiquantitative count on nitrocellulose filters. The plasma settings were the same as in the previous phase II study in which wounds were exposed for 5 min to argon plasma.
Results Analysis of 70 treatments in 14 patients with the MicroPlaSter alpha device revealed a significant (40%, P < 0·016) reduction in bacterial load in plasma‐treated wounds, regardless of the species of bacteria. Analysis of 137 treatments in 10 patients with the MicroPlaSter beta device showed a highly significant reduction (23·5%, P < 0·008) in bacterial load. No side‐effects occurred and the treatment was well tolerated.
Conclusions A 2‐min treatment with either of two cold atmospheric argon plasma devices is a safe, painless and effective technique to decrease the bacterial load in chronic wounds.
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We previously reported that microRNA (miRNA) is present in human breast milk. Recently, other groups have reported that bovine milk also contains miRNA; however, these reports are few. We therefore ...investigated bovine milk miRNA using microarray and quantitative PCR analyses to identify the differences between colostrum and mature milk. The RNA concentration in a colostrum whey fraction was higher than that in a mature milk whey fraction. In total, 102 miRNA were detected in bovine milk by microarray analysis (100 in colostrum and 53 in mature milk; 51 were common to both). Among these miRNA, we selected several immune- and development-related miRNA, including miR-15b, miR-27b, miR-34a, miR-106b, miR-130a, miR-155, and miR-223. These miRNA were detected in bovine milk by quantitative PCR, and each of these miRNA was significantly more highly expressed in colostrum than in mature milk. We also confirmed the presence of some mRNA in bovine milk. Nevertheless, synthesized miRNA spiked in the raw milk whey were degraded, and naturally existing miRNA and mRNA in raw milk were resistant to acidic conditions and RNase treatment. The RNA molecules in milk were stable. We also detected miRNA and mRNA in infant formulas purchased from Japanese markets. It is still unknown whether milk-derived RNA molecules play biological roles in infants; however, if milk-derived RNA do show functions in infants, our data will help guide future studies.
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GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UILJ, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK, ZAGLJ, ZRSKP
The impact of active galactic nuclei (AGNs) on star formation has implications for our understanding of the relationships between supermassive black holes and their galaxies, as well as for the ...growth of galaxies over the history of the universe. We report on a high-resolution multiphase study of the nuclear environment in the nearby Seyfert galaxy NGC 2110 using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array, Hubble and Spitzer Space Telescopes, and the Very Large Telescope/SINFONI. We identify a region that is markedly weak in low-excitation CO emission from cold molecular gas, but appears to be filled with ionized and warm molecular gas, which indicates that the AGN is directly influencing the properties of the molecular material. Using multiple molecular gas tracers, we demonstrate that, despite the lack of CO line emission, the surface densities and kinematics of molecular gas vary smoothly across the region. Our results demonstrate that the influence of an AGN on star-forming gas can be quite localized. In contrast to widely held theoretical expectations, we find that molecular gas remains resilient to the glare of energetic AGN feedback.
A novel iron loss calculation method is proposed based on an iron loss map for an AC filter inductor used in a pulsewidth-modulation (PWM) inverter. The iron loss map, previously reported by the ...authors, is created by measuring the dynamic minor loop on the B-H plane, and this is used for the calculation of inductor iron loss in the dc chopper circuit. However, in the case of an AC filter inductor used in a PWM inverter, the iron loss map cannot be directory applied to the iron loss calculation. In this paper, an iron loss calculation for an ac filter inductor is presented by expanding the loss map method. We describe the principle of expansion and the practical procedure for the calculation, which utilizes the loss map and a conventional circuit simulator. Iron loss for the ac filter inductor under some typical modulation methods of the PWM inverter are calculated and discussed with regard to the relation between the modulation methods and iron loss. The calculated results are verified using experimental results from a 500-W inverter setup. The inductor loss and conversion efficiency of the PWM inverter are measured for each modulation method.
Abstract
We present a follow-up analysis examining the dynamics and structures of 41 massive, large star-forming galaxies at
z
∼ 0.67 − 2.45 using both ionized and molecular gas kinematics. We fit ...the galaxy dynamics with models consisting of a bulge, a thick, turbulent disk, and an NFW dark matter halo, using code that fully forward-models the kinematics, including all observational and instrumental effects. We explore the parameter space using Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) sampling, including priors based on stellar and gas masses and disk sizes. We fit the full sample using extracted 1D kinematic profiles. For a subset of 14 well-resolved galaxies, we also fit the 2D kinematics. The MCMC approach robustly confirms the results from least-squares fitting presented in Paper I: the sample galaxies tend to be baryon-rich on galactic scales (within one effective radius). The 1D and 2D MCMC results are also in good agreement for the subset, demonstrating that much of the galaxy dynamical information is captured along the major axis. The 2D kinematics are more affected by the presence of noncircular motions, which we illustrate by constructing a toy model with constant inflow for one galaxy that exhibits residual signatures consistent with radial motions. This analysis, together with results from Paper I and other studies, strengthens the finding that massive, star-forming galaxies at
z
∼ 1 − 2 are baryon-dominated on galactic scales, with lower dark matter fractions toward higher baryonic surface densities. Finally, we present details of the kinematic fitting code used in this analysis.
Since the formation of gaseous pollutants during solid fuel combustion in circulating fluidized bed (CFB) units, especially under oxyfuel combustion and chemical looping combustion conditions, is an ...extremely complex process, the development of a simple predictive model of gas emissions is of practical significance. This paper introduces a novel approach based on fuzzy logic (FL), one of the main artificial intelligence (AI) methods, for the prediction of CO2, CO, NOx (i.e., NO + NO2), N2O, and SOx (i.e., SO2 + SO3) concentrations in flue gases from coal and biomass combustion in various operational sceneries. The simulations are carried out for different combustion environments, i.e., air-firing, oxyfuel, iG-CLC (in-situ gasification chemical looping combustion), and CLOU (chemical looping with oxygen uncoupling), under a wide range of operating parameters. A mixture of oxygen with CO2 was used for oxyfuel combustion. Three different oxygen carriers (OC) were examined in the study for iG-CLC and CLOU, i.e., ilmenite, copper oxide (60% wt.) with the support of carbonate waste from ore flotation, and copper oxide (60% wt.) with the support of ilmenite (20% wt.) and fly ash. The validation of the model was successfully performed on a complex geometry laboratory–scale 5 kWth Dual-Fluidized-Bed Chemical-Looping-Combustion of Solid-Fuels (DFB-CLC-SF) facility. The gaseous pollutant emissions predicted using the developed model were in good agreement with experimental results. The maximum relative error between measured and predicted by the model emissions was lower than 8%. The proposed method constitutes a quick and easy-to-run technique and a complementary tool compared to the experimental procedures and the programmed computing approach. The developed fuzzy logic-based model of gaseous emissions from advanced combustion (GasAdComb) of solid fuels can be easily applied by scientists and engineers to simulate and optimize coal and biomass combustion processes.
•A comprehensive model of 5 kWth Dual-Fluidized-Bed CLC facility was developed.•Fuzzy logic approach was applied in the study.•Air-firing, oxyfuel, iG-CLC and CLOU under a wide range of operating parameters are considered.•The model was successfully validated against experimental data of gaseous pollutants emissions.•The model constitutes an easy-to-use optimization tool.
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GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UILJ, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK, ZAGLJ, ZRSKP
Summary
Background Bacterial colonization of chronic wounds slows healing. Cold atmospheric plasma has been shown in vitro to kill a wide range of pathogenic bacteria.
Objectives To examine the ...safety and efficiency of cold atmospheric argon plasma to decrease bacterial load as a new medical treatment for chronic wounds.
Patients and methods Thirty‐eight chronic infected wounds in 36 patients were treated in a prospective randomized controlled phase II study with 5 min daily cold atmospheric argon plasma in addition to standard wound care. The patient acted as his or her own control. Bacterial species were detected by standard bacterial swabs and semiquantitative changes by nitrocellulose filters. Plasma setting and safety had been determined in a preceding phase I study.
Results Analysis of 291 treatments in 38 wounds found a highly significant (34%, P < 10−6) reduction of bacterial load in treated wounds, regardless of the type of bacteria. No side‐effects occurred and the treatment was well tolerated.
Conclusions Cold atmospheric argon plasma treatment is potentially a safe and painless new technique to decrease bacterial load of chronic wounds and promote healing.
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