Light-sheet imaging is rapidly gaining importance for imaging intact biological specimens. Many of the latest innovations rely on the propagation-invariant Bessel or Airy beams to form an extended light sheet to provide high resolution across a large field of view. Shaping light to realize propagation-invariant beams often relies on complex programming of spatial light modulators or specialized...

Beta-pleated-sheet crystals are among the most stable of protein secondary structures, and are responsible for the remarkable physical properties of many fibrous proteins, such as silk, or proteins forming plaques as in Alzheimer's disease. Previous thinking, and the accepted paradigm, was that beta-pleated-sheet crystals in the dry solid state were so stable they would not melt upon input of h...

Rat bone marrow mesenchymal stem cell sheets (rBMSC sheets) are attractive for cell-based tissue engineering. However, methods of culturing rBMSC sheets are critically limited. In order to obtain intact rBMSC sheets, a light-induced cell sheet method was used in this study. TiO2 nanodot films were coated with (TL) or without (TN) laminin-521. We investigated the effects of laminin-521 on rBMSCs...

Simulations of the Greenland Ice Sheet are carried out with a high-resolution version of the ice-sheet model SICOPOLIS for several global-warming scenarios for the period 1990–2350. In particular, the impact of surface-meltwater-induced acceleration of basal sliding on the stability of the ice sheet is investigated. A parameterization for the acceleration effect is developed for which modelled ...

The purpose of this paper is to present an advanced method for welding fine wire to metal sheet, namely laser indirect shock welding (LISW). This process uses silica gel as driver sheet to accelerate the metal sheet toward the wire to obtain metallurgical bonding. A series of experiments were implemented to validate the welding ability of Al sheet/Cu wire and Al sheet/Ag wire. It was found that...

Treatment of large bone defects using synthetic scaffolds remain a challenge mainly due to insufficient vascularization. This study is to engineer a vascularized bone graft by integrating a vascularized biomimetic cell-sheet-engineered periosteum (CSEP) and a biodegradable macroporous beta-tricalcium phosphate (β-TCP) scaffold. We first cultured human mesenchymal stem cells (hMSCs) to form cell...

Engineering three-dimensional (3D) vascularized constructs remains a challenge due to the inability to form rich microvessel networks. In this study we engineered a prevascularized 3D cell sheet construct for tissue regeneration using human bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cells (hMSCs) and human umbilical vein endothelial cells as cell sources. hMSCs were cultured to form a thick cell shee...

Our previous studies have confirmed the therapeutic effects of mesenchymal stem cell (MSC) monolayer sheet transplantation on allograft repair. A limiting factor in their application is the loss of MSC multi-potency as a result of high density sheet culture-induced senescence. In the study reported in this article, we tested whether Notch activation could be used to prevent or delay sheet cultu...

1.1 History Sheet metal operations have been in existence since 8000 B.C. (Fries-Knoblach, 1999). Due to its long history, sheet metalworking is, unfortunately, often seen as archaic and uninteresting. That metal sheets can be transformed with the aid of robust machines into fancy consumer products with tight tolerances is inconceivable to many. Yet, sheet metal operations are used for producin...

Testing is an important stage of teaching as it can assist teachers in auditing students' learning results. A good test is able to accurately reflect the capability of a learner. Nowadays, Computer-Assisted Testing (CAT) is greatly improving traditional testing, since computers can automatically and quickly compose a proper test sheet to meet user requirements. For example, the users can specif...