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Nov 14, 2019

Engineering biomimetic microvascular meshes for subcutaneous islet transplantation

Posted by in categories: 3D printing, bioengineering, biotech/medical

To successfully engineer cell or tissue implants, bioengineers must facilitate their metabolic requirements through vascular regeneration. However, it is challenging to develop a broad strategy for stable and functional vascularization. In a recent report on Nature Communications, Wei Song and colleagues in the interdisciplinary departments of Biological and Environmental Engineering, Medicine, Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Clinical Sciences and Bioengineering in the U.S. described highly organized, biomimetic and resilient microvascular meshes. The team engineered them using controllable, anchored self-assembly methods to form microvascular meshes that are almost defect-free and transferrable to diverse substrates, for transplantation.

The scientists promoted the formation of functional blood vessels with a density as high as ~200 vessels per mm-2 within the subcutaneous space of SCID-Beige mice. They demonstrated the possibility of engineering microvascular meshes using human induced pluripotent stem-cell (iPSCs) derived (ECs). The technique opens a way to engineer patient-specific type 1 diabetes treatment by combining microvascular meshes for subcutaneous transplantation of rat islets in SCID-beige mice to achieve correction of chemically induced diabetes for 3 months.

Vasculature is an essential component of any organ or tissue, and vascular regeneration is critical to successfully bioengineer implants. For instance, during cell replacement therapy for type 1 diabetes (T1D), transplanted insulin producing cells rely on the vasculature to function and survive. Bioengineers often use vascular endothelial cells such as human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs) to spontaneously assemble into tubular structures within the extracellular matrix (ECM). But the resulting structures can be random, uncontrollable and less efficient for microvascular regeneration. Scientists have recently developed three-dimensional (3D) printing techniques to engineer controlled cellular constructs with embedded vessels. However, it remains challenging to 3D print resilient and transferrable, high-resolution, microvasculature.

Nov 14, 2019

Recovering ‘lost dimensions’ of images and video

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, robotics/AI

MIT researchers have developed a model that recovers valuable data lost from images and video that have been “collapsed” into lower dimensions.

The model could be used to recreate video from motion-blurred images, or from new types of cameras that capture a person’s movement around corners but only as vague one-dimensional lines. While more testing is needed, the researchers think this approach could someday could be used to convert 2-D medical images into more informative—but more expensive—3D body scans, which could benefit medical imaging in poorer nations.

“In all these cases, the visual data has one dimension—in time or space—that’s completely lost,” says Guha Balakrishnan, a postdoc in the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) and first author on a paper describing the model, which is being presented at next week’s International Conference on Computer Vision. “If we recover that lost dimension, it can have a lot of important applications.”

Nov 14, 2019

Magnets sustainably separate mixtures of rare earth metals

Posted by in categories: chemistry, computing, economics, mobile phones

A new study describes a novel approach for purifying rare earth metals, crucial components of technology that require environmentally-damaging mining procedures. By relying on the metal’s magnetic fields during the crystallization process, researchers were able to efficiently and selectively separate mixtures of rare earth metals.

Seventy-five of the ’s 118 elements are carried in the pockets and purses of more than 100 million U.S. iPhone users every day. Some of these elements are abundant, like silicon in computer chips or aluminum for cases, but certain metals that are required for crisp displays and clear sounds are difficult to obtain. Seventeen elements known as are crucial components of many technologies but are not found in concentrated deposits, and, because they are more dispersed, require toxic and environmentally-damaging procedures to extract.

With the goal of developing better ways to recycle these metals, new research from the lab of Eric Schelter describes a new approach for separating mixtures of rare earth metals with the help of a . The approach, published in Angewandte Chemie International Edition, saw a doubling in separation performance and is a starting point towards a cleaner and more circular rare earth metals economy.

Nov 14, 2019

Free-space data-carrying bendable light communications

Posted by in category: futurism

Bendable light beams have significant applications in optical manipulation, optical imaging, routing, micromachining and nonlinear optics. Researchers have long explored curved light beams in place of traditional Gaussian beams for line-of-sight light communications. In a recent study now published on Scientific Reports, Long Zhu and a team of researchers in Optical and Electronic information, in China, proposed and developed free-space, data-carrying bendable light communication systems between arbitrary targets for potential multifunctionality. The researchers employed a 32-ary quadrature amplitude modulation (32-QAM) based discrete multitone (DMT) signal to demonstrate free-space bendable light intensity modulated direct detection (IM-DD) communication in the presence of three curved light paths. They characterized (tested) multiple functions of free-space bendable light communication to reveal that they allowed optical communications to be more flexible, robust and multifunctional. The work will open a new direction to explore special light beams enabled, advanced free-space light communications.

Bendable light beams are a new class of electromagnetic waves associated with a localized intensity maximum that can propagate along a curved trajectory. Researchers have previously studied and reported generic classes of bendable light beams that travel along elliptical and parabolic trajectories. Airy beams (appear to curve as they travel) are a type of non-diffracting beams that maintain its wavefront during transmission, much like Bessel beams (which only exist in theory, ideally) for optical communication free of obstructions. Airy beams possess properties of self-acceleration, non-diffraction and self-healing to propagate along a parabolic trajectory. Aside from airy beams, bendable light beams can reconstruct their wavefront to propagate continuously along the preset trajectory. To explore advantages of bendable light beams for diverse applications, researchers must bend the light along arbitrary trajectories; which can be achieved using the caustic method.

Nov 14, 2019

Unique properties of quantum material explained for first time

Posted by in categories: nanotechnology, particle physics, quantum physics

The characteristics of a new, iron-containing type of material that is thought to have future applications in nanotechnology and spintronics have been determined at Purdue University.

The native material, a topological , is an unusual type of three-dimensional (3D) system that has the interesting property of not significantly changing its when it changes electronic phases—unlike water, for example, which goes from ice to liquid to steam. More important, the material has an electrically conductive surface but a non-conducting (insulating) core.

However, once iron is introduced into the native material, during a process called doping, certain structural rearrangements and magnetic properties appear which have been found with high-performance computational methods.

Nov 14, 2019

$30 Billion of Proof That India’s Tech Scene Is Back

Posted by in category: business

Hopefully the momentum at both PhonePe and Paytm will spur more Indian entrepreneurship, feeding a rebirth in India’s tech sector not seen since the IT-outsourcing boom two decades ago. While that gave us Tata Consultancy Services Ltd., Infosys Ltd., Wipro Ltd. and dozens more, most of those businesses focused on serving foreign needs.


Digital-wallet company PhonePe is preparing to spin out of the country’s biggest startup, Flipkart. A renaissance could be afoot.

Nov 14, 2019

Breast cancer vaccine could be available in 8 years, says Mayo Clinic

Posted by in category: biotech/medical

A new immunotherapy treatment is showing positive signs in early-stage clinical trials.

Nov 14, 2019

Why Are Young People So Unhappy?

Posted by in category: futurism

All Guest Author Posts are submitted or additional content Wave Chronicle has added to the website. To be a Guest Author please visit our “Post Your Article” page.

Nov 14, 2019

New cancer-driving mutation in ‘dark matter’ of the cancer genome

Posted by in category: biotech/medical

A research group has discovered a novel cancer-driving mutation in the vast non-coding regions of the human cancer genome, also known as the ‘dark matter’ of human cancer DNA.

Nov 14, 2019

Scientists Prove Nanomagnets Can Levitate, Expect More Exotic Quantum Phenomena

Posted by in category: quantum physics

Physicists make a new discovery in quantum mechanics, showing nanomagnets can levitate despite a classic theorem that said it’s impossible.