A novel 3D mammalian cell perfusion-culture system in microfluidic channels

Mammalian cells cultured on 2D surfaces in microfluidic channels are increasingly used in drug development and biological research applications. These systems would have more biological or clinical relevance if the cells exhibit 3D phenotypes similar to the cells in vivo. We have developed a microfluidic channel based system that allows cells to be perfusion-cultured in 3D by supporting them with adequate 3D cell-cell and cell-matrix interactions. The maximal cell-cell interaction was achieved by perfusion-seeding cells through an array of micropillars; and 3D cell-matrix interactions were achieved by a polyelectrolyte complex coacervation process to form a thin layer of matrix conforming to the 3D cell shapes. Carcinoma cell lines (HepG2, MCF7), primary differentiated (hepatocytes) and primary progenitor cells (bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells) were perfusion-cultured for 72 hours to 1 week in the microfluidic channel, which preserved their 3D cyto-architecture and cell-specific functions or differentiation competence. This transparent 3D microfluidic channel-based cell culture system also allows direct optical monitoring of cellular events for a wide range of applications.     

A Subgrid-Scale Stabilized Finite Element Method for Multicomponent Reactive Transport through Porous Media

Standard Galerkin finite element methods (GFEM) lack stability in solving advection-dominated solute transport in porous media. They usually require prohibitively fine grids and extremely small time steps to solve for advection-dominated problems. The algebraic subgrid-scale stabilized (ASGS) finite element method has been proved to overcome such problems for single-species reactive transport. Its potential for dealing with multicomponent reactive transport has not yet been explored. Here we present a numerical formulation of ASGS for steady and transient multicomponent reactive transport. Subgrid-scale transport equations are solved first by using an ASGS approximation and their solutions are substituted back into the grid-scale equations. A sequential iteration approach (SIA) is used to solve for coupled transport and chemical equations. Coupling of ASGS and SIA, ASGS+SIA, has been implemented in a reactive transport code, CORE^2D V4, and verified for conservative solute transport. ASGS+SIA has been tested for a wide range of 1-D transient multicomponent reactive transport problems involving different types of chemical reactions such as: (1) Kinetically controlled aqueous species degradation, (2) Kinetic mineral dissolution, (3) Serial-parallel decay networks, and (4) Cation exchange and pyrite oxidation at local equilibrium. ASGS+SIA always provides accurate solutions and therefore offers an efficient option to solve for advection-dominated multicomponent reactive transport problems.     

A Geometric Lower Bound Theorem

We resolve a conjecture of Kalai relating approximation theory of convex bodies by simplicial polytopes to the face numbers and primitive Betti numbers of these polytopes and their toric varieties. The proof uses higher notions of chordality. Further, for C ²-convex bodies, asymptotically tight lower bounds on the g-numbers of the approximating polytopes are given, in terms of their Hausdorff distance from the convex body.     

Inverse Estimation of the Effective Diffusion of the Filter in the In Situ Diffusion and Retention (DR) Experiment

Porous filters are often used in laboratory and in situ diffusion and retention experiments. The proper interpretation of these experiments requires knowing the effective diffusion, D _e, of the filter which is commonly determined from laboratory diffusion experiments or estimated from the filter porosity. The D _e of the filter in the in situ experiment may differ from the D _e of the filter measured in the laboratory due to pore clogging. Here, we present an inverse method to estimate the D _e of the filter of in situ diffusion experiments. The method has been tested for several sampling schemes, numbers of synthetic data, N, and standard deviations of the noise, ??. It has been applied to the following tracers used in the in situ diffusion and retention (DR) experiment performed in the Opalinus clay at Mont Terri underground research laboratory: HTO/HDO, Br^?,I^?, ²² Na⁺,¹³³ Ba²⁺,⁸⁵ Sr²⁺, Cs⁺/¹³⁷Cs⁺, and ⁶⁰Co²⁺. The estimation error increases with the standard deviation of the noise of the data and decreases with the number of data. It is smallest for sorbing tracers. The D _e of the filter can be properly estimated from 12 data collected within the first 3?days for conservative tracers as long as ????? 0.02 and for sorbing tracers as long as ??????0.05. The estimate of D _e for conservative tracers is poor when data are collected from a 10-day experiment with daily sampling. The convergence of the estimation algorithm for conservative tracers improves by starting with a value of the D _e smaller than the true value. The choice of the initial value of D _e does not affect the convergence of the estimation algorithm for sorbing tracers. Filter clogging and vertical flow though the filter can influence the tracer transport through the filter. The use of the D _e of the filter obtained from a laboratory test for the in situ experiment may result in large errors for strongly sorbing tracers. Such errors can be overcome by estimating the equivalent D _e of the filter with the proposed inverse method which will be useful for the design of in situ diffusion experiments.     

Studying the interactions of a platinum(II) 9-aminoacridine complex with proteins and oligonucleotides by ESI-TOF MS

The interaction of a novel Pt complex, [Pt(dmba)(N9-9AA)(PPh(3))](+)1 (dmba = N,N-dimethylbenzylamine-κN,κC; 9AA = 9-aminoacridine), which exhibits anti-tumor activity, with certain key proteins has been monitored by ESI-MS. Also, the interaction of 1 with a designed double-stranded oligonucleotide containing the GG motif has been followed by mass spectrometry as well as by fluorimetry. The results obtained show the low interaction of 1 with the considered proteins and the absence of covalent interaction with the oligonucleotides, but the fluorimetric data confirm the π-π interaction of 1 with the double-stranded DNA, which is probably the reason of the previously reported activity of 1 in several tumor cell lines.     

Numerical–experimental identification of the most effective dynamic operation mode of a vibration drilling tool for improved cutting performance

This study is concerned with application of numerical–experimental approach for characterizing dynamic behavior of the developed piezoelectrically excited vibration drilling tool with the aim to identify the most effective conditions of tool vibration mode control for improved cutting efficiency. 3D finite element model of the tool was created on the basis of an elastically fixed pre-twisted cantilever (standard twist drill). The model was experimentally verified and used together with tool vibration measurements in order to reveal rich dynamic behavior of the pre-twisted structure, representing a case of parametric vibrations with axial, torsional and transverse natural vibrations accompanied by the additional dynamic effects arising due to the coupling of axial and torsional deflections ((un)twisting). Numerical results combined with extensive data from interferometric, accelerometric, dynamometric and surface roughness measurements allowed to determine critical excitation frequencies and the corresponding vibration modes, which have the largest influence on the performance metrics of the vibration drilling process. The most favorable tool excitation conditions were established: inducing the axial mode of the vibration tool itself through tailoring of driving frequency enables to minimize magnitudes of surface roughness, cutting force and torque. Research results confirm the importance of the tool mode control in enhancing the effectiveness of vibration cutting tools from the viewpoint of structural dynamics.