Identification of a constitutive law for trabecular bone samples under remodeling in the framework of irreversible thermodynamics

We construct in the present paper constitutive models for bone remodeling based on micromechanical analyses at the scale of a representative unit cell (RUC) including a porous trabecular microstructure. The time evolution of the microstructure is simulated as a surface remodeling process by relating the surface growth remodeling velocity to a surface driving force incorporating a (surface) Eshelby tensor. Adopting the framework of irreversible thermodynamics, a 2D constitutive model based on the setting up of the free energy density and a dissipation potential is identified from FE simulations performed over a unit cell representative of the trabecular architecture obtained from real bone microstructures. The static and evolutive effective properties of bone at the scale of the RUC are obtained by combining a methodology for the evaluation of the average kinematic and static variables over a prototype unit cell and numerical simulations with controlled imposed first gradient rates. The formulated effective growth constitutive law at the scale of the homogenized set of trabeculae within the RUC is of viscoplastic type and relates the average growth strain rate to the homogenized stress tensor. The postulated model includes a power law function of an effective stress chosen to depend on the first and second stress invariants. The model coefficients are calibrated from a set of virtual testing performed over the RUC subjected to a sequence of loadings. Numerical simulations show that overall bone growth does not show any growth kinematic hardening. The obtained results quantify the strength and importance of different types of external loads (uniaxial tension, simple shear, and biaxial loading) on the overall remodeling process and the development of elastic deformations within the RUC.     

Frequency mixing using electromagnetically induced transparency in cold atoms

We report the first experimental demonstration of four-wave mixing using electromagnetically induced transparency in cold atoms. Backward-wave, phase-matched difference-frequency conversion is achieved at optical powers of a few nanowatts and at energies of less than a picojoule.     

Equivalent mechanical properties of textile monolayers from discrete asymptotic homogenization

The determination of the effective mechanical moduli of textiles from mechanical measurements is usually difficult due to their discrete architecture, which makes micromechanical analyses a relevant alternative to access those properties. Micropolar continuum models describing the effective mechanical behavior of woven fabric monolayers are constructed from the homogenization of an identified repetitive pattern of the textile within a representative unit cell. The interwoven yarns within the textile are represented as a network of trusses connected by nodes at their crossover points. These trusses have extensional and bending rigidities to allow for yarn stretching and flexion, and a transverse shear deformation is additionally considered. Interactions between yarns at the crossover points are captured by beam segments connecting the nodes. The woven fabric is modeled after homogenization as an anisotropic planar continuum with two preferred material directions in the mean plane of the textile. Based on the developed methodology, the effective mechanical properties of plain weave and twill are evaluated, including their bending moduli and characteristic flexural lengths. A satisfactory agreement is obtained between the effective moduli obtained by homogenization and numerical values obtained by finite element simulations performed over periodic unit cells.     

Optofluidic time-stretch microscopy: recent advances

Optical Review - Flow cytometry is an indispensable method for valuable applications in numerous fields such as immunology, pathology, pharmacology, molecular biology, and marine biology....     

High-throughput sorting of nanoliter droplets enabled by a sequentially addressable dielectrophoretic array

Droplet microfluidics has emerged as a powerful tool for a diverse range of biomedical and industrial applications such as single-cell analysis, directed evolution, and metabolic engineering. In these applications, droplet sorting has been effective for isolating small droplets encapsulating molecules, cells, or crystals of interest. Recently, there is an increased interest in extending the applicability of droplet sorting to larger droplets to utilize their size advantage. However, sorting throughputs of large droplets have been limited, hampering their wide adoption. Here, we report our demonstration of high-throughput fluorescence-activated droplet sorting of 1 nL droplets using an upgraded version of the sequentially addressable dielectrophoretic array (SADA), which we reported previously. The SADA is an array of electrodes that are individually and sequentially activated/deactivated according to the speed and position of a droplet passing nearby the array. We upgraded the SADA by increasing the number of driving electrodes constituting the SADA and incorporating a slanted microchannel. By using a ten-electrode SADA with the slanted microchannel, we achieved fluorescence-activated droplet sorting of 1 nL droplets at a record high throughput of 1752 droplets/s, twice as high as the previously reported maximum sorting throughput of 1 nL droplets.     

3-anilino-L-alanine, structural determination of UV-5, a contaminant in EMS-associated L-tryptophan samples.

An aniline derivative which corresponds to UV-5 in the preceding paper was isolated from the case L-tryptophan sample associated with eosinophilia-myalgia syndrome (EMS). By spectroscopic analyses, the structure was identified as 3-anilinoalanine. The compound was optically active, and the stereochemistry of alanine moiety was determined as L, by comparing the specific rotation with a synthesized 3-anilino-L-alanine.     

Rapid,sensitive and simultaneous determination of fluorescence-labeled designated substances controlled by the Pharmaceutical Affairs Law in Japan by ultra-performance liquid chromatography coupled with electrospray-ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry

A simultaneous determination method based on ultra-performance liquid chromatography (UPLC) with fluorescence (FL) detection and electrospray-ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry (ESI-TOF-MS) was developed for 16 “designated substances” (Shitei-Yakubutsu) controlled by the Pharmaceutical Affairs Law in Japan. These substances were first labeled with 4-(N,N-dimethylaminosulfonyl)-7-fluoro-2,1,3-benzoxadiazole at 60 °C for 2 h in 0.1 M borax (pH 9.3). The resulting fluorophores were well separated by reversed-phase chromatography using an Acquity UPLC™ BEH C₁₈ column (1.7 μm, 100 mm × 2.1 mm i.d.) by isocratic elution with a mixture of water and acetonitrile–methanol (20:80) containing 0.1% formic acid. The separated derivatives were sensitively detected by both FL and TOF-MS. However, the determination of several designated substances by FL detection showed interference from endogenous substances in biological samples. Therefore, the determination in real samples was carried out by a combination of UPLC separation and ESI-TOF-MS detection. The structures of the designated substances were identified from the protonated-molecular ions [M+H]⁺ obtained from the TOF-MS measurement. The calibration curves obtained from the peak area ratios of the internal standard (I.S.), i.e., 3-phenyl-1-propylamine, and the designated substances versus the injection amounts showed good linearity. The limits of detection ( \textS/N = 3 ) \left( {{\text{S/N}} = 3} \right) and the limits of quantification ( \textS/N = 10 ) \left( {{\text{S/N}} = 10} \right) in 0.1 mL of human plasma and urine for the present method were 0.30–150 pmol and 1.0–500 pmol, respectively. Good accuracy and precision (according to intraday and interday assays) were also obtained with the present procedure. This method was applied to analyses of human plasma, urine and real products.      

Mechanistic study on mechanochemical polymerization of acrylamide

The ESR study of the radicals formed in mechanochemical polymerization of acrylamide (AAM) was undertaken. The nature of the radical formation was compared with the mechano-radical formation produced by mechanical fracture of polyacrylamide (PAAM). The structure of radicals formed were all identified to be an end-chain radical, equivalent to a polymer-chain propagating radical. The computer simulation disclosed that the observed spectra of the propagating radical can be approximated essentially by two kinds of component spectra, a large amount of triplet, and a small amount of quarter (a triplet of doublets). Thus, the existence of two major conformers in a single end-chain radical has been proposed. The ESR kinetics of the radical formation were further studied and its correlation with the nature of polymerization (the changes in molecular weight and polymer conversion) was discussed.     

Electrochemical monitoring of glutamate release at multiple positions in a rat hippocampal slice.

The continuous monitoring of the distribution of glutamate (Glu), a neurotransmitter released at synaptic terminals, is important in terms of understanding the signal transfer mechanism in the brain. In this study, we monitored the concentration of Glu released at multiple positions in a hippocampal slice continuously, and obtained an approximate Glu distribution by using our electrochemical glutamate sensor array. After confirming our sensor's high sensitivity to Glu, we placed a slice on the array, and measured the currents at selected electrodes in the array. When we stimulated a specific position in the slice electrically, the glutamate concentration increased in different areas after several tens of seconds. The presence of glutamate receptor blockers suppressed these increases. This suggests that the electrical signal was transferred along with neurons through synapses and stimulated the Glu release. Our multichannel glutamate sensor should be a powerful tool to determining the distribution of real-time glutamate non-invasively for the studies using biological samples.     

Measurement of Fourier-synthesized optical waveforms

Following the experiments of Shverdin and colleagues [Phys. Rev. Lett. 94, 033904 (2005)], we describe a technique for determining the temporal envelope of an optical beam whose spectrum consists of n discrete, equally spaced frequency components. Four-wave mixing is employed to generate n-1 higher-frequency sidebands. The relative intensities of these sidebands, together with the intensities of the incident side-bands, determine the unknown relative phases of the incident beam.