Exosomes are nanoscale (≈30–150 nm) extracellular vesicles of endocytic origin that are shed by most types of cells and circulate in bodily fluids. Exosomes carry a specific composition of proteins, ...lipids, RNA, and DNA and can work as cargo to transfer this information to recipient cells. Recent studies on exosomes have shown that they play an important role in various biological processes, such as intercellular signaling, coagulation, inflammation, and cellular homeostasis. These functional roles are attributed to their ability to transfer RNA, proteins, enzymes, and lipids, thereby affecting the physiological and pathological conditions in various diseases, including cancer and neurodegenerative, infectious, and autoimmune diseases (e.g., cancer initiation, progression, and metastasis). Due to these unique characteristics, exosomes are considered promising biomarkers for the diagnosis and prognosis of various diseases via noninvasive or minimally invasive procedures. Over the last decade, a plethora of methodologies have been developed for analyzing disease‐specific exosomes using optical and nonoptical tools. Here, the major biological functions, significance, and potential role of exosomes as biomarkers and therapeutics are discussed. Furthermore, an overview of the most commonly used techniques for exosome analysis, highlighting the major technical challenges and limitations of existing techniques, is presented.
Exosomes are promising biomarkers in the diagnosis, prognosis, and therapeutics of many human diseases including cancer. The biogenesis and biological significance of exosomes are summarized. Recent advances in strategies for isolation and detection of exosomes, and their potential for clinical diagnostics are discussed. An overview of the key technical and biological challenges, potential solutions, and future perspectives are provided.
Micro-magnetofluidics refers to the science and technology that combines magnetism with microfluidics to gain new functionalities. Magnetism has been used for actuation, manipulation and detection in ...microfluidics. In turn, microfluidic phenomena can be used for making tunable magnetic devices. This paper presents a systematic review on the interactions between magnetism and fluid flow on the microscale. The review rather focuses on physical and engineering aspects of micro-magnetofluidics, than on the biological applications which have been addressed in a number of previous excellent reviews. The field of micro-magnetofluidics can be categorized according to the type of the working fluids and the associated microscale phenomena of established research fields such as magnetohydrodynamics, ferrohydrodynamics, magnetorheology and magnetophoresis. Furthermore, similar to microfluidics the field can also be categorized as continuous and digital micro-magnetofluidics. Starting with the analysis of possible magnetic forces in microscale and the impact of miniaturization on these forces, the paper revisits the use of magnetism for controlling fluidic functions such as pumping, mixing, magnetowetting as well as magnetic manipulation of particles. Based on the observations made with the state of the art of the field micro-magnetofluidics, the paper presents some perspectives on the possible future development of this field. While the use of magnetism in microfluidics is relatively established, possible new phenomena and applications can be explored by utilizing flow of magnetic and electrically conducting fluids.
Separation of cells is a key application area of lab-on-a-chip (LOC) devices. Among the various methods, magnetic separation of cells utilizing microfluidic devices offers the merits of ...biocompatibility, efficiency, and simplicity. This review discusses the fundamental physics involved in using magnetic force to separate particles, and identifies the optimisation parameters and corresponding methods for increasing the magnetic force. The paper then elaborates the design considerations of LOC devices for continuous-flow magnetic cell separation. Examples from the recently published literature illustrate these state-of-the-art techniques.
In this study, the objective was to develop a new and highly-accurate artificial intelligence model for slope failure prediction in open-pit mines. For this purpose, the M5Rules algorithm was ...combined with a genetic algorithm (GA) in a novel hybrid technique, named M5Rules-GA model, for slope stability estimation and analysis and 450-slope observations in an open-pit mine in Vietnam were modeled using the Geo-Studio software based on essential parameters. The factor of safety was used as the model outcome. Artificial neural networks (ANN), support vector regression (SVR), and previously introduced models (such as FFA-SVR, ANN-PSO, ANN-ICA, ANN-GA, and ANN-ABC) were also developed for evaluating the proposed M5Rules-GA model. The evaluation of the model performance involved applying and computing the determination coefficient, variance account for, and root mean square error, as well as a general ranking and color scale. The results confirmed that the proposed M5Rules-GA model is a robust tool for analyzing slope stability. The other investigated models yielded less robust performance under the evaluation metrics.
Perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS) and perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) are highly recalcitrant anthropogenic chemicals that are ubiquitously present in the environment and are harmful to humans. Typical ...water and wastewater treatment processes (coagulation, flocculation, sedimentation, and filtration) are proven to be largely ineffective, while adsorption with granular activated carbon (GAC) has been the chief option to capture them from aqueous sources followed by incineration. However, this process is time-consuming, and produces additional solid waste and air pollution. Treatment methods for PFOS and PFOA generally follow two routes: (1) removal from source and reduce the risk; (2) degradation. Emerging technologies focusing on degradation are critically reviewed in this contribution. Various processes such as bioremediation, electrocoagulation, foam fractionation, sonolysis, photocatalysis, mechanochemical, electrochemical degradation, beams of electron and plasma have been developed and studied in the past decade to address PFAS crisis. The underlying mechanisms of these PFAS degradation methods have been categorized. Two main challenges have been identified, namely complexity in large scale operation and the release of toxic byproducts. Based on the literature survey, we have provided a strength-weakness-opportunity-threat (SWOT) analysis and quantitative rating on their efficiency, environmental impact and technology readiness.
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•Emerging PFOS and PFOA degradation technologies were reviewed.•The underlying mechanisms of these PFAS degradation methods were categorized.•Identify challenges in large scale operation and the release of toxic by-products.•Strength-weakness-opportunity-threat, and quantitative analysis were provided.
Lateral flow assays (LFAs) have been introduced and developed over the last half century. This technology is widely used as a tool for diagnosis in several fields such as environment, food quality ...and healthcare. Point-of-care (POC) diagnosis using LFAs has been attracting attention of the research community, particularly aiming for the development of a platform that can evaluate of biological markers in bodily fluids such as saliva and urine. The existence of a disease or the pregnancy can be determined by a test device, before further investigation and medical treatment. LFAs make use of a disposable test strip, which can provide diagnosis result on the spot within minutes. Thus, LFAs is a promising alternative of preliminary diagnosis for laboratory instruments that are costly, time consuming and require trained personnel. This paper includes a brief overview of the conventional LFAs: material selection based on its roles and characteristics, working principles, fundamentals, applications, and design criteria. We mainly discuss the technical challenges in both engineering and biochemical aspects and recommends possible solutions. We identify current research trends and provide perspectives of advanced technologies for enhancing assay performance.
Porous scaffolds for bone regeneration Abbasi, Naghmeh; Hamlet, Stephen; Love, Robert M. ...
Journal of science. Advanced materials and devices,
March 2020, 2020-03-00, 2020-03-01, Letnik:
5, Številka:
1
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Odprti dostop
Globally, bone fractures due to osteoporosis occur every 20 s in people aged over 50 years. The significant healthcare costs required to manage this problem are further exacerbated by the long ...healing times experienced with current treatment practices. Novel treatment approaches such as tissue engineering, is using biomaterial scaffolds to stimulate and guide the regeneration of damaged tissue that cannot heal spontaneously. Scaffolds provide a three-dimensional network that mimics the extra cellular micro-environment supporting the viability, attachment, growth and migration of cells whilst maintaining the structure of the regenerated tissue in vivo.
The osteogenic capability of the scaffold is influenced by the interconnections between the scaffold pores which facilitate cell distribution, integration with the host tissue and capillary ingrowth. Hence, the preparation of bone scaffolds with applicable pore size and interconnectivity is a significant issue in bone tissue engineering. To be effective however in vivo, the scaffold must also cope with the requirements for physiological mechanical loading. This review focuses on the relationship between the porosity and pore size of scaffolds and subsequent osteogenesis, vascularisation and scaffold degradation during bone regeneration.
In the last decade, inertial microfluidics has attracted significant attention and a wide variety of channel designs that focus, concentrate and separate particles and fluids have been demonstrated. ...In contrast to conventional microfluidic technologies, where fluid inertia is negligible and flow remains almost within the Stokes flow region with very low Reynolds number (Re ≪ 1), inertial microfluidics works in the intermediate Reynolds number range (~1 < Re < ~100) between Stokes and turbulent regimes. In this intermediate range, both inertia and fluid viscosity are finite and bring about several intriguing effects that form the basis of inertial microfluidics including (i) inertial migration and (ii) secondary flow. Due to the superior features of high-throughput, simplicity, precise manipulation and low cost, inertial microfluidics is a very promising candidate for cellular sample processing, especially for samples with low abundant targets. In this review, we first discuss the fundamental kinematics of particles in microchannels to familiarise readers with the mechanisms and underlying physics in inertial microfluidic systems. We then present a comprehensive review of recent developments and key applications of inertial microfluidic systems according to their microchannel structures. Finally, we discuss the perspective of employing fluid inertia in microfluidics for particle manipulation. Due to the superior benefits of inertial microfluidics, this promising technology will still be an attractive topic in the near future, with more novel designs and further applications in biology, medicine and industry on the horizon.
Respiration signals are a vital sign of life. Monitoring human breath provides critical information for health assessment, diagnosis, and treatment for respiratory diseases such as asthma, chronic ...bronchitis, and emphysema. Stretchable and wearable respiration sensors have recently attracted considerable interest toward monitoring physiological signals in the era of real time and portable healthcare systems. This review provides a snapshot on the recent development of stretchable sensors and wearable technologies for respiration monitoring. The article offers the fundamental guideline on the sensing mechanisms and design concepts of stretchable sensors for detecting vital breath signals such as temperature, humidity, airflow, stress and strain. A highlight on the recent progress in the integration of variable sensing components outlines feasible pathways towards multifunctional and multimodal sensor platforms. Structural designs of nanomaterials and platforms for stretchable respiration sensors are reviewed.
•We review the sensing mechanisms and concepts of stretchable respiration sensors.•We provide detailed integration of multifunctional physiological platforms.•We summarize the development of advanced materials for respiration sensors.
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