bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Poly(amino ester)‐Based Polymers for Gene and Drug Delivery Systems and Further Application toward Cell Culture System
Authors: Hyun Jiyu , Eom Jiin , Song Jihun , Seo Inwoo , Um Soong Ho , Park Kyung Min , Bhang Suk Ho 
Published: June 2021

AbstractVarious synthetic polymers based on poly(amino ester) (PAE) are suggested as candidates for gene and drug delivery owing to their pH‐responsiveness, which contributes to efficient delivery performance. PAE‐based pH‐responsive polymers are more biodegradable and hydrophilic than other types of pH‐responsive polymers. The functionality of PAE‐based polymers can be reinforced by using different chemical modifications to improve the efficiency of gene and drug delivery. Additionally, PAE‐based polymers are used in many ways in the biomedical field, such as in transdermal delivery and stem cell culture systems. Here, the recent novel PAE‐based polymers designed for gene and drug delivery systems along with their further applications toward adult stem cell culture systems are reviewed. The synthetic tactics are contemplated and pros and cons of each type of polymer are analyzed, and detailed examples of the different types are analyzed.
Edible Materials in Tissue Regeneration
Authors: Su Xiaohan , Xian Caihong , Gao Ming , Liu Guiting , Wu Jun 
Published: June 2021

AbstractEdible materials have attracted increasing attention because of their excellent properties including availability, biocompatibility, biological activity, and biodegradability. Natural polysaccharides, phenolic compounds, and proteins are widely used in tissue regeneration. To better characterize their healing effect, this review article describes the applications of edible materials in tissue regeneration including wound healing and bone tissue regeneration. As an introduction to the topic, their sources and main bioactive properties are discussed. Then, the mechanism by which they facilitate wound healing based on their hemostasis, antibacterial, anti‐inflammatory, and antioxidant properties is systematically investigated. Moreover, a more comprehensive discussion is presented on the approaches by which edible materials can be used as scaffolds or agents for the provision of the components of natural bones for regulating the level of osteogenesis‐related cytokines to enhance bone repair. Finally, the prospects of edible materials for tissue regeneration are discussed.
Nanoparticle‐Mediated STING Agonist Delivery for Enhanced Cancer Immunotherapy
Authors: Zhou Qinghao , Zhou Yu , Li Taiyuan , Ge Zhishen 
Published: June 2021

AbstractStimulator of interferon genes (STING) are located in the endoplasmic reticulum of cells, which have been demonstrated to show considerable potentials to achieve efficient antitumor immunity by inducing various pro‐inflammatory cytokines and chemokines, such as type I interferons. A variety of STING agonists have been prepared for STING activation, and many of them have been promoted to preclinical trials or clinical applications for the immunotherapy of cancers. However, the intrinsic disadvantages of the small molecule STING agonists can limit the in vivo application and final therapeutic efficacy due to low bioavailability of targeting tissues. Moreover, a cascade of physiological barriers for in vivo STING activation also limit the accumulation of STING agonists in targeting tissues. Drug delivery systems play an important role to improve the STING activation efficiency. In recent years, a variety of nanoparticle‐mediated STING agonist delivery systems have been engineered and exploited to address the challenges related to the in vivo STING activation, including liposomes, polymeric micelles, polymersomes, and so on. In this review article, the progresses concerning STING agonists and related delivery systems in recent years will be summarized and discussed.
Compatibility between Drugs and Polymer in Nanoparticles Produced by the Miniemulsion‐Solvent Evaporation Technique
Authors: Niyom Yupaporn , Crespy Daniel , Flood Adrian E. 
Published: June 2021

AbstractEncapsulation of poorly soluble drugs in polymer nanoparticles is a common strategy to increase bioavailability of drugs. The miniemulsion‐solvent evaporation technique is widely used for encapsulating drugs in polymer nanoparticles because it is a versatile process, allowing many drug–polymer pair combinations. However, above a critical concentration of drug, which depends on the drug and polymer, nanoparticles tend to precipitate. Herein, the importance of drug solubility and miscibility in the polymer phase for selecting the optimal polymer matrix is investigated. Ibuprofen, naproxen methyl ester, and naproxen, as models for poorly soluble drugs, are encapsulated with various loadings in polycaprolactone nanoparticles by the miniemulsion‐solvent evaporation method. The miscibility between drug and polymer is estimated by calculating Flory–Huggins interaction parameters (χ) from differential scanning calorimetry measurements and calculating the difference in Hansen solubility parameter of drugs and polymer. Both values can be used for determining the feasibility of the drug encapsulation in polymer nanoparticles.
Highly Stretchable, Strain‐Sensitive, and Antifreezing Macromolecular Microsphere Composite Starch‐Based Hydrogel
Authors: Liu Shengqu , Wang Xiaoyu , Peng Yinjie , Wang Zhisen , Ran Rong 
Published: June 2021

AbstractStarch‐based hydrogel is widely used as an excellent biocompatibility and biodegradability material. However, due to the disadvantages of poor mechanical properties, brittleness, and low stretchability attribute that remains a challenge to prepare multifunctional starch hydrogel integrating high stretchability, strength, and conducting capacity. In this study, macromolecular microspheres with various wettability are successfully incorporated into the hydrogel prepared using the carboxymethyl starch and polyacrylamide cross‐linked by Fe3+ and covalent cross‐linker, respectively. The obtained double‐network (DN) hydrogel performs good mechanical properties (the fracture stress 483 ± 38 kPa and the elongation at break 1615 ± 25%). Impressively, the obtained DN hydrogels by solvent soaking still maintain excellent mechanical strength and flexibility at −40 °C. Furthermore, it can be assembled to be a resistance‐type strain sensor to detect multiscale strain. Therefore, the strategy can shed light on the preparation of multifunctional starch‐based hydrogel for broad applications.
3D Printing of Polyvinylidene Fluoride Based Piezoelectric Nanocomposites: An Overview
Authors: Koroglu Levent , Ayas Erhan , Ay Nuran 
Published: June 2021

AbstractRecently, polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) based nanocomposites have attracted much attention for next‐generation wearable applications such as promising piezoelectric energy harvesters (nanogenerators), energy storage devices, sensing devices, and biomedical devices due to their high flexibility, and high dielectric and piezoelectric properties. 3D printing technology, PVDF based piezoelectric nanocomposites, the studies based on 3D printing of PVDF based piezoelectric nanocomposites by inkjet printing and fused deposition modeling, and enhancements of energy harvesting and storage performance of nanocomposites by structural design are comprehensively overviewed here. An insight is provided into 3D printing techniques, structure and properties of PVDF based polymers, various nanofillers and production methods for nanocomposites, solutions to enhance β phase (crystallinity) of PVDF, and improvements of nanocomposites’ breakdown strength, discharged energy density, and piezoelectric power output by mentoring structural design.
Monoacylglycerol Lipase Inhibition in Tourette Syndrome: A 12‐Week, Randomized, Controlled Study
Authors: Müller‐Vahl Kirsten R. , Fremer Carolin , Beals Chan , Ivkovic Jelena , Loft Henrik , Schindler Christoph 
Published: June 2021

AbstractBackgroundModulation of the endocannabinoid system via monoacylglycerol lipase inhibition with Lu AG06466 (formerly known as ABX‐1431) has previously been shown to reduce tics in patients with Tourette syndrome.ObjectiveThe aim of this study was to evaluate the efficacy and safety of Lu AG06466 in reducing tics, premonitory urges, and comorbidities in patients with Tourette syndrome.MethodsThis was a 12‐week, multicenter, randomized, placebo‐controlled, double‐blind clinical trial of Lu AG06466 given at two dose levels in 49 adults with Tourette syndrome.ResultsBoth treatment groups showed improvement on the Total Tic Score of the Yale Global Tic Severity Scale; the mean (95% CI) treatment difference at week 8 of 3.0 (0.1, 5.9) (P = 0.043) favored placebo. No significant differences were seen for other endpoints assessing changes in tic severity, premonitory urges, quality of life, and common psychiatric comorbidities. Treatment with Lu‐AG06466 was generally safe.ConclusionsThere was no evidence that Lu AG06466 has efficacy in suppressing tics. © 2021 The Authors. Movement Disorders published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of International Parkinson and Movement Disorder Society
Compact spoof surface plasmon polariton leaky‐wave antenna with consistent gain
Authors: Zhu Ao‐qi , Liao Xin , Wang Bo , Peng Lin , Cheng Lin , Liu Yao , Jiang Xing 
Published: June 2021

AbstractIn this letter, a compact and Wide‐angle scanning spoof surface plasmon polariton (SSPP) leaky‐wave antenna (LWA) is proposed. By introducing an interdigital branch into the hole‐shaped SSPP transmission line (SSPP TL), the width of the TL is decreased, realizing the miniaturization of the antenna. Asymmetric periodic structure is introduced to convert the slow‐wave mode to the fast‐wave mode. A prototype of the proposed SSPP LWA is fabricated and characterized. The measured results indicate that the proposed SSPP LWA has a high peak gain (10–13 dBi) and stable gain fluctuation throughout a large beam‐scanning angle range from −54° to +6°, and the impedance bandwidth is 11–16 GHz (about 37%). The measured results agree well with the simulated. Due to the performances of compactness, high efficiency, and consistent gain, the proposed LWA has promising potentials for applications in the fire control radar and imaging radar.
COVID‐19 diagnosis on CT scan images using a generative adversarial network and concatenated feature pyramid network with an attention mechanism
Authors: Li Zonggui , Zhang Junhua , Li Bo , Gu Xiaoying , Luo Xudong 
Published: June 2021

AbstractObjectiveCoronavirus disease 2019 (COVID‐19) has caused hundreds of thousands of infections and deaths. Efficient diagnostic methods could help curb its global spread. The purpose of this study was to develop and evaluate a method for accurately diagnosing COVID‐19 based on computed tomography (CT) scans in real time.MethodsWe propose an architecture named “concatenated feature pyramid network” (“Concat‐FPN”) with an attention mechanism, by concatenating feature maps of multiple. The proposed architecture is then used to form two networks, which we call COVID‐CT‐GAN and COVID‐CT‐DenseNet, the former for data augmentation and the latter for data classification.ResultsThe proposed method is evaluated on 3 different numbers of magnitude of COVID‐19 CT datasets. Compared with the method without GANs for data augmentation or the original network auxiliary classifier generative adversarial network, COVID‐CT‐GAN increases the accuracy by 2% to 3%, the recall by 2% to 4%, the precision by 1% to 3%, the F1‐score by 1% to 3%, and the area under the curve by 1% to 4%. Compared with the original network DenseNet‐201, COVID‐CT‐DenseNet increases the accuracy by 1% to 3%, the recall by 4% to 9%, the precision by 1%, the F1‐score by 1% to 3%, and the area under the curve by 2%.ConclusionThe experimental results show that our method improves the efficiency of diagnosing COVID‐19 on CT images, and helps overcome the problem of limited training data when using deep learning methods to diagnose COVID‐19.SignificanceOur method can help clinicians build deep learning models using their private datasets to achieve automatic diagnosis of COVID‐19 with a high precision.
Routine pretreatment patient‐specific IMRT QA (PS‐IMRT‐QA) should be discontinued and replaced with a real‐time on‐board beam monitoring system (BMS)
Authors: Zygmanski Piotr , Halvorsen Per 
Published: June 2021

OverviewIn an era of automated measurements and analysis, the time and resource intensive process of dosimetric plan verification for intensity modulated radiation therapy treatments would seem to be ripe for improvement. In this Point‐Counterpoint contribution, the authors debate benefits of methods both hypothetical and established. I offer thanks to our contributors and note that they are writing in the classic style of a debate, the opinions that they argue may or may not reflect their personal views.”
Where to locate COVID‐19 mass vaccination facilities?
Authors: Bertsimas Dimitris , Digalakis Jr Vassilis , Jacquillat Alexander , Li Michael Lingzhi , Previero Alessandro 
Published: June 2021

AbstractThe outbreak of COVID‐19 led to a record‐breaking race to develop a vaccine. However, the limited vaccine capacity creates another massive challenge: how to distribute vaccines to mitigate the near‐end impact of the pandemic? In the United States in particular, the new Biden administration is launching mass vaccination sites across the country, raising the obvious question of where to locate these clinics to maximize the effectiveness of the vaccination campaign. This paper tackles this question with a novel data‐driven approach to optimize COVID‐19 vaccine distribution. We first augment a state‐of‐the‐art epidemiological model, called DELPHI, to capture the effects of vaccinations and the variability in mortality rates across age groups. We then integrate this predictive model into a prescriptive model to optimize the location of vaccination sites and subsequent vaccine allocation. The model is formulated as a bilinear, nonconvex optimization model. To solve it, we propose a coordinate descent algorithm that iterates between optimizing vaccine distribution and simulating the dynamics of the pandemic. As compared to benchmarks based on demographic and epidemiological information, the proposed optimization approach increases the effectiveness of the vaccination campaign by an estimated 20%, saving an extra 4000 extra lives in the United States over a 3‐month period. The proposed solution achieves critical fairness objectives—by reducing the death toll of the pandemic in several states without hurting others—and is highly robust to uncertainties and forecast errors—by achieving similar benefits under a vast range of perturbations.
The time‐consistent dial‐a‐ride problem
Authors: Tellez Oscar , Vercraene Samuel , Lehuédé Fabien , Péton Olivier , Monteiro Thibaud 
Published: June 2021

AbstractIn the context of door‐to‐door transportation of people with disabilities, service quality considerations such as maximum ride time and service time consistency are critical requirements. To identify a good trade‐off between these considerations and economic objectives, we define a new variant of the multiperiod dial‐a‐ride problem called the time‐consistent dial‐a‐ride problem. A transportation planning is supposed to be time consistent if for each passenger, the same service time is used all along the planning horizon. However, considering the numerous variations in transportation demands over a week, designing consistent plans for all passengers can be too expensive. It is therefore necessary to find a compromise solution between costs and time‐consistency objectives. The time‐consistent dial‐a‐ride problem is solved using an epsilon‐constraint approach to illustrate the trade‐off between these two objectives. It computes an approximation of the Pareto front, using a matheuristic framework that combines a large neighbourhood search with the solution of set partitioning problems. This approach is benchmarked on time‐consistent vehicle routing problem literature instances. Experiments are also conducted in the context of door‐to‐door transportation for people with disabilities, using real data. These experiments support managerial insights regarding the inter‐relatedness of costs and quality of service.
Awareness of heart disease and associated health behaviours in a developing country: A qualitative study
Authors: Bulto Lemma N. , Magarey Judy , Rasmussen Philippa , Hendriks Jeroen M. L. 
Published: June 2021

AbstractAimThe aim of this study was to explore awareness of heart disease and associated health behaviours.DesignA qualitative study was conducted using in‐depth interviews.MethodsThe study participants were patients with hypertension. Data analysis was guided by Braun and Clarke's steps of thematic analysis and using NVivo12 software.ResultsA total of 18 patients with hypertension were interviewed. The patients had poor understanding of heart disease and were not concerned about developing heart disease in the future. Barriers to fruit and vegetable consumption were poor access, cost and sociocultural factors, whereas being busy, poor physical health and lack of access to an exercise facility were barriers to physical activity.
Using lecture podcasts in the COVID‐19 transition to virtual post‐secondary education in agriculture
Authors: Barnes Jared , Carraway Candis , Jones Stephanie 
Published: June 2021

AbstractIn the spring 2020 semester, Stephen F. Austin State University (SFASU), located in Nacogdoches, TX, transitioned face‐to‐face classes to online instruction because of the COVID‐19 pandemic. The east Texas region suffers from some of the poorest internet availability in the nation. Thus, limitations exist for streaming lectures or having students download large files. Podcasts are small audio files that can be downloaded from the internet for learning. Research has shown that the use of lecture podcasts have a variety of benefits for both faculty and students. Lecture podcasts provide students small file sizes to download and access and allow them to engage with the course material asynchronously. Therefore, the decision was made to record lecture podcasts for Cultivating Plants, Plant Propagation, and Plant Breeding to deliver educational content for the class. An end of semester survey conducted by the SFASU Agriculture Department indicated that 59% of students who engaged with this type of learning felt it was extremely effective. Additional student comments and semester reflections also provided feedback. This example provides further evidence that lecture podcasts can be a useful tool for educators in an ever‐changing world.
Surface wettability, tensile mechanical performance, and tribological behavior of polyimide/polytetrafluoroethylene blends enhanced with hydroxylated multiwalled carbon nanotubes at high relative humidity
Authors: Yan Shi‐Cheng , Xue Ya‐Hong 
Published: June 2021

AbstractMultiwalled carbon nanotubes were hydroxylated (MWCNTs‐OH) by a strong acid mixture and then used as a reinforcement nanofiller in blends of polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) and polyimide (PI) to fabricate MWCNTs‐OH/PTFE/PI nanocomposites. The influences of MWCNTs‐OH additions on the surface wettability, tensile mechanical property, and tribological behaviors of MWCNTs‐OH/PTFE/PI nanocomposites under different relative humidity were investigated. Test results indicate that the introduction of MWCNTs‐OH can dramatically decrease the static water contact angles and increase the tensile strengths and elastic moduli of the PTFE/PI polymer blends. This is largely due to the existence of numerous hydrophilic functional groups on the surfaces of MWCNTs‐OH and its ultrahigh mechanical characteristics. The relative humidity has a much weaker impact on the friction coefficients of the MWCNTs‐OH/PTFE/PI nanocomposites than on the wear rates. Of all composites, the 0.8 wt% MWCNTs‐OH/PTFE/PI nanocomposite possesses the lowest friction coefficient (0.11) and wear rate (2.97 × 10−15 m3/(Nm)) at a high relative humidity of 90%. The conspicuous increase in wear resistance is attributable to the enhancement effect of MWCNTs‐OH and the generation of homogeneous polymer self‐lubricating tribofilms.
Fetal double outlet right ventricle without heterotaxy syndrome: Diagnostic spectrum, associated extracardiac pathology and clinical outcomes
Authors: Young Aisling A. , McBrien Angela , Caluseriu Oana , Haberer Kim , Wewala Gayathri , Eckersley Luke , Hornberger Lisa K. 
Published: June 2021

AbstractObjectivesTo document the clinical spectrum and outcomes of fetal double outlet right ventricle (DORV) without heterotaxy in a recent diagnostic era.MethodsPrenatal cases of DORV consecutively diagnosed from 2007 to 2018 were retrospectively identified. Clinical records, including details regarding genetic testing and pre and postnatal imaging were reviewed.ResultsDORV was diagnosed in 99 fetuses without heterotaxy. The most common anatomic subtype was subaortic ventricular septal defect (VSD) and normally related great arteries with (n = 45, 45%) or without (n = 13, 13%) pulmonary stenosis. The remainder had a subpulmonic VSD with transposed great arteries (n = 15, 15%), atrioventricular valve atresia (n = 24, 24%), or remote VSD (n = 2, 2%). A genetic diagnosis was found in 32 (34%) of 93 tested. Major extracardiac anomalies were found in 40 (40%), including 17/24 (71%) with and 22/69 (32%) without an abnormal karyotype, with VACTERL association in 9. Genetic and/or extracardiac pathology was identified in 37/58 (64%) with a subaortic VSD, 5/15 (33%) with a subpulmonic VSD, 9/24 (38%) of those with AV valve atresia and 2/2 (100%) with a remote VSD. A genetic abnormality was a significant predictor of fetal demise (9/37 vs 1/62 p < 0.01) or pregnancy termination (12/35 vs 9/64 p = 0.03).ConclusionsFetal DORV is associated with a high rate of genetic abnormalities and extracardiac pathology. The presence of genetic abnormalities impacts prenatal outcomes and parental decision‐making.
Novel phenylamine‐based oxime ester photoinitiators for LED‐induced free radical, cationic, and hybrid polymerization
Authors: Hammoud Fatima , Lee Zhong‐Han , Graff Bernadette , Hijazi Akram , Lalevée Jacques , Chen Yung‐Chung 
Published: June 2021

AbstractFour new photoinitiators (PI's) containing various phenylamine‐based groups as chromophores and oxime ester (OXE) as initiating groups are proposed for the free radical polymerization, the cationic polymerization, and interpenetrated polymer networks upon visible light exposure using a light emitting diodes at 405 nm. These compounds showed outstanding polymerization photoinitiation ability, that is, high‐polymerization rates and good final reactive function conversions were obtained. The chemical mechanisms by which these OXE's generate reactive species were investigated through different techniques including real‐time Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, UV–visible spectroscopy, fluorescence (time‐resolved or steady state) as well as cyclic voltammetry. Markedly, the proposed structures can be used as thermal initiators indicating all of them can be polymerized under suitable reaction temperature. In addition, due to their high efficiency, these optimized PI's were found to be useful @405 nm for both direct laser write and 3D printing applications.
How does the hydrophobic content of methacrylate ABA triblock copolymers affect polymersome formation?
Authors: Zhang Xinmo , Contini Claudia , Constantinou Anna P. , Doutch James J. , Georgiou Theoni K. 
Published: June 2021

AbstractPolymersomes are exciting self‐assembled structures with great potential in pharmaceutical applications. A systematic investigation of a novel series of methacrylate‐based polymersomes is reported in this study. Five well‐defined ABA triblock copolymers with A being based on tri(ethylene glycol) methyl methacrylate and B being based on 2‐(diethylamino)ethyl methacrylate (DMAEMA) were synthesized using a living polymerization method. The effect of the composition of the ABA triblock copolymers on the thickness of the hydrophobic membrane of the polymersomes and the release of a model drug is demonstrated.