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It is self-evident that our chests expand and contract during breathing but, surprisingly, exactly how individual alveoli change shape over the respiratory cycle is still a matter of debate. Some argue that all the alveoli expand and contract rhythmically. Others claim that the lung volume change is due to groups of alveoli collapsing and reopening during ventilation. Although this question might seem to be an insignificant detail for healthy individuals, it might be a matter of life and death for patients with compromised lungs. Past analyses were based on static post-mortem preparations primarily due to technological limitations, and therefore, by definition, incapable of providing dynamic information. In contrast, this study provides the first comprehensive dynamic data on how the shape of the alveoli changes, and, further, provides valuable insights into the optimal lung volume for efficient gas exchange. It is concluded that alveolar micro-dynamics is nonlinear; and at medium lung volume, alveoli expand more than the ducts., (© 2024 The Author(s). Advanced Science published by Wiley‐VCH GmbH.)

Biopolymers are essential building blocks that constitute cells and tissues with well-defined molecular structures and diverse biological functions. Their three-dimensional (3D) complex architectures are used to analyze, control, and mimic various cells and their ensembles. However, the free-form and high-resolution structuring of various biopolymers remain challenging because their structural and rheological control depend critically on their polymeric types at the submicron scale. Here, direct 3D writing of intact biopolymers is demonstrated using a systemic combination of nanoscale confinement, evaporation, and solidification of a biopolymer-containing solution. A femtoliter solution is confined in an ultra-shallow liquid interface between a fine-tuned nanopipette and a chosen substrate surface to achieve directional growth of biopolymer nanowires via solvent-exclusive evaporation and concurrent solution supply. The evaporation-dependent printing is biopolymer type-independent, therefore, the 3D motor-operated precise nanopipette positioning allows in situ printing of nucleic acids, polysaccharides, and proteins with submicron resolution. By controlling concentrations and molecular weights, several different biopolymers are reproducibly patterned with desired size and geometry, and their 3D architectures are biologically active in various solvents with no structural deformation. Notably, protein-based nanowire patterns exhibit pin-point localization of spatiotemporal biofunctions, including target recognition and catalytic peroxidation, indicating their application potential in organ-on-chips and micro-tissue engineering., (© 2023 The Authors. Advanced Science published by Wiley-VCH GmbH.)

Understanding how the alveolar mechanics work in live lungs is essential for comprehending how the lung behaves during breathing. Due to the lack of appropriate imaging tools, previous research has suggested that alveolar morphologies are polyhedral rather than spherical based on a 2D examination of alveoli in fixed lungs. Here, we directly observe high-resolution 3D alveoli in live mice lungs utilizing synchrotron x-ray microtomography to show spherical alveolar morphologies from the live lungs. Our measurements from x-ray microtomography show high sphericity, low packing density, big alveolar size, and low osmotic pressure, indicating that spherical alveolar morphologies are natural in living lungs. The alveolar packing fraction is quite low in live lungs, where the spherical alveoli would behave like free bubbles, while the confinement of alveolar clusters in fixed lungs would lead to significant morphological deformations of the alveoli appearing polyhedral. Direct observations of the spherical alveolar shapes will help understand and treat lung disease and ventilation., (© 2023. The Author(s).)

Synchrotron X-rays can be used to obtain highly detailed images of parts of the lung. However, micro-motion artifacts induced by such as cardiac motion impede quantitative visualization of the alveoli in the lungs. This paper proposes a method that applies a neural network for synchrotron X-ray Computed Tomography (CT) data to reconstruct the high-quality 3D structure of alveoli in intact mouse lungs at expiration, without needing ground-truth data. Our approach reconstructs the spatial sequence of CT images by using a deep-image prior with interpolated input latent variables, and in this way significantly enhances the images of alveolar structure compared with the prior art. The approach successfully visualizes 3D alveolar units of intact mouse lungs at expiration and enables us to measure the diameter of the alveoli. We believe that our approach helps to accurately visualize other living organs hampered by micro-motion., (© 2023. The Author(s).)

Spatiotemporal pH monitoring of single living cells across rigid cell and organelle membranes has been challenging, despite its significance in understanding cellular heterogeneity. Here, we developed a mechanically robust yet tolerably thin nanowire waveguide that enables in situ monitoring of pH dynamics at desired cellular compartments via direct optical communication. By chemically labeling fluorescein at one end of a poly(vinylbenzyl azide) nanowire, we continuously monitored pH variations of different compartments inside a living cell, successfully observing organelle-exclusive pH homeostasis and stimuli-selective pH regulations. Importantly, it was demonstrated for the first time that, during the mammalian cell cycle, the nucleus displays pH homeostasis in interphase but a tidal pH curve in the mitotic phase, implying the existence of independent pH-regulating activities by the nuclear envelope. The rapid and accurate local pH-reporting capability of our nanowire waveguide would be highly valuable for investigating cellular behaviors under diverse biological situations in living cells.

When a liquid drop impacts on a heated substrate, it can remain deposited, or violently boil in contact, or lift off with or without ever touching the surface. The latter is known as the Leidenfrost effect. The duration and area of the liquid-substrate contact are highly relevant for the heat transfer, as well as other effects such as corrosion. However, most experimental studies rely on side view imaging to determine contact times, and those are often mixed with the time until the drop lifts off from the substrate. Here, we develop and validate a reliable method of contact time determination using high-speed X-ray imaging and total internal reflection imaging. We exemplarily compare contact and lift-off times on flat silicon and sapphire substrates. We show that drops can rebound even without formation of a complete vapor layer, with a wide range of lift-off times. On sapphire, we find a local minimum of lift-off times that is much shorter than expected from capillary rebound in the comparatively low-temperature regime of transition boiling/thermal atomization. We elucidate the underlying mechanism related to spontaneous rupture of the lamella and receding of the contact area.

We elucidate the evolution of the entrained air in drop impact on a wide range of liquids, using ultrafast X-ray phase-contrast imaging. We elaborate the retraction mechanism of the entrapped air film in terms of liquid viscosity. We found the criterion for deciding if the entrapped air evolves into single or double bubbles, as determined by competition among inertia, capillarity, and viscosity. Low viscosity and low surface tension induce a small daughter droplet encapsulated by a larger air shell bubble, forming an antibubble. We demonstrate a phase diagram for air evolution regarding hydrodynamics.

Microbubbles have been used as a soft template to produce hollow structures for diverse applications in chemistry, materials science, and biomedicine. It is a challenge, however, to control their size and position at single-entity level. We report on an on-demand method to produce and place a single microbubble with programmed size and position. The method exploits scanning an electrolyte-filled micropipette to place a hydrogen (H 2 ) bubble, generated by water electrolysis, on the desired position. The bubble growth is self-limited after the bubble size fits to the pipet aperture, yielding well-controlled bubble size. The bubble growth dynamics within the pipet is successfully investigated by a methodology that combines phase-contrast X-ray imaging and electric-current measurement. We show that the microbubbles, accurately controlled in size and position, can be used for the fabrication of various polypyrrole microcontainer arrays. We expect the scanning-pipet strategy could be generalized for manipulating various soft materials at will.

The fountain pen approach, as a means for transferring materials to substrates, has shown numerous incarnations in recent years for creating 2D micro/nanopatterns and even generating 3D free-form nanostructures using a variety of material "inks". While the idea of filled reservoirs used to deliver material to a substrate via a capillary remains unchanged since antiquity, the advent of precise micromanipulation systems and functional material "inks" allows the extension of this mechanism to more high-tech applications. Herein, the recent growth in meniscus guided fountain pen approaches for benchtop micro/nanofabrication, which has occurred in the last decade, is discussed. Particular attention is given to the theory, equipment, and experimentation encompassing this unique direct writing approach. A detailed exploration of the diverse ink systems and functional device applications borne from this strategy is put forth to reveal its rapid expansion to a broad range of scientific and engineering disciplines. As such, this informative review is provided for researchers considering adoption of this recent advancement of a familiar technology., (© 2016 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.)

Quantitative probing of Cu(2+) ions naturally present in single living cells is realized by developing a quantum-dot-embedded nanowire-waveguide probe. The intracellular Cu(2+) ion concentration is quantified by direct monitoring of photoluminescence quenching during the insertion of the nanowire in a living neuron. The measured intracellular Cu(2+) ion concentration is 3.34 ± 1.04 × 10(-6) m (mean ± s.e.m.) in single hippocampal neurons., (© 2016 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.)

Quantitative probing of the Cu(2+) ions naturally present in single living cells is accomplished by a probe made from a quantum-dot-embedded-nanowire waveguide. After inserting the active nanowire-based waveguide probe into single living cells, J. H. Je and co-workers directly observe photoluminescence (PL) quenching of the embedded quantum dots by the Cu(2+) ions diffused into the probe as described on page 4071. This results in quantitative measurement of intracellular Cu(2+) ions., (© 2016 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.)

A vortex is a flow phenomenon that is very commonly observed in nature. More than a century, a vortex ring that forms during drop splashing has caught the attention of many scientists due to its importance in understanding fluid mixing and mass transport processes. However, the origin of the vortices and their dynamics remain unclear, mostly due to the lack of appropriate visualization methods. Here, with ultrafast X-ray phase-contrast imaging, we show that the formation of vortex rings originates from the energy transfer by capillary waves generated at the moment of the drop impact. Interestingly, we find a row of vortex rings along the drop wall, as demonstrated by a phase diagram established here, with different power-law dependencies of the angular velocities on the Reynolds number. These results provide important insight that allows understanding and modelling any type of vortex rings in nature, beyond just vortex rings during drop splashing.

The dendritic planarity of Purkinje cells is critical for cerebellar circuit formation. In the absence of Crk and CrkL, the Reelin pathway does not function resulting in partial Purkinje cell migration and defective dendritogenesis. However, the relationships among Purkinje cell migration, dendritic development and Reelin signaling have not been clearly delineated. Here, we use synchrotron X-ray microscopy to obtain 3-D images of Golgi-stained Purkinje cell dendrites. Purkinje cells that failed to migrate completely exhibited conical dendrites with abnormal 3-D arborization and reduced dendritic complexity. Furthermore, their spines were fewer in number with a distorted morphology. In contrast, Purkinje cells that migrated successfully displayed planar dendritic and spine morphologies similar to normal cells, despite reduced dendritic complexity. These results indicate that, during cerebellar formation, Purkinje cells migrate into an environment that supports development of dendritic planarity and spine formation. While Reelin signaling is important for the migration process, it does not make a direct major contribution to dendrite formation.

The nematode Caenorhabditis elegans is a widely used model for genetic dissection of animal behaviors. Despite extensive technical advances in imaging methods, it remains challenging to visualize and quantify C. elegans behaviors in three-dimensional (3-D) natural environments. Here we developed an innovative 3-D imaging method that enables quantification of C. elegans behavior in 3-D environments. Furthermore, for the first time, we characterized 3-D-specific behavioral phenotypes of mutant worms that have defects in head movement or mechanosensation. This approach allowed us to reveal previously unknown functions of genes in behavioral regulation. We expect that our 3-D imaging method will facilitate new investigations into genetic basis of animal behaviors in natural 3-D environments.

A single photomechanical supramolecular nanowire actuator with an azobenzene-containing 1,3,5-tricarboxamide derivative is developed by employing a direct writing method. Single nanowires display photoinduced reversible bending and the bending behavior follows first-order kinetics associated with azobenzene photoisomerization. A wireless photomechanical nanowire tweezers that remotely manipulates a single micro-particle is also demonstrated.

A simple direct-writing technique can be used to fabricate a stretchable UV-vis-NIR nanowire photodetector (NWPD) consisting of PbS quantum dot (QD)-poly(3-hexylthiopehene) (P3HT) hybrid NWs. The hybrid NWPD shows superior sensitivity and response speed in the UV-vis to NIR range. The stretchable UV-vis-NIR NWPD shows a nearly identical photoresponse under extreme (up to 100%) and repeated (up to 100 cycles) stretching conditions., (© 2015 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.)

Despite nearly a half century of studies, it has not been fully understood how pulmonary alveoli, the elementary gas exchange units in mammalian lungs, inflate and deflate during respiration. Understanding alveolar dynamics is crucial for treating patients with pulmonary diseases. In-vivo, real-time visualization of the alveoli during respiration has been hampered by active lung movement. Previous studies have been therefore limited to alveoli at lung apices or subpleural alveoli under open thorax conditions. Here we report direct and real-time visualization of alveoli of live intact mice during respiration using tracking X-ray microscopy. Our studies, for the first time, determine the alveolar size of normal mice in respiration without positive end expiratory pressure as 58 ± 14 (mean ± s.d.) μm on average, accurately measured in the lung bases as well as the apices. Individual alveoli of normal lungs clearly show heterogeneous inflation from zero to ~25% (6.7 ± 4.7% (mean ± s.d.)) in size. The degree of inflation is higher in the lung bases (8.7 ± 4.3% (mean ± s.d.)) than in the apices (5.7 ± 3.2% (mean ± s.d.)). The fraction of the total tidal volume allocated for alveolar inflation is 34 ± 3.8% (mean ± s.e.m). This study contributes to the better understanding of alveolar dynamics and helps to develop potential treatment options for pulmonary diseases.

One of the most questionable issues in wetting is the force balance that includes the vertical component of liquid surface tension. On soft solids, the vertical component leads to a microscopic protrusion of the contact line, that is, a 'wetting ridge'. The wetting principle determining the tip geometry of the ridge is at the heart of the issues over the past half century. Here we reveal a universal wetting principle from the ridge tips directly visualized with high spatio-temporal resolution of X-ray microscopy. We find that the cusp of the ridge is bent with an asymmetric tip, whose geometry is invariant during ridge growth or by surface softness. This singular asymmetry is deduced by linking the macroscopic and microscopic contact angles to Young and Neuman laws, respectively. Our finding shows that this dual-scale approach would be contributable to a general framework in elastowetting, and give hints to issues in cell-substrate interaction and elasto-capillary problems.

Light-emitting conjugated polymer nanowires are vertically grown and remotely manipulated into a freestanding straight or curved structure in three-dimension. This approach enabled us to eliminate substrate coupling, a critical issue in nanowire photonics in the past decade. We for the first time accomplished characterization of propagation and bending losses of nanowires completely decoupled from a substrate.

Four-dimensional imaging, which indicates imaging in three spatial dimensions as a function of time, provides useful evidence to investigate the interactions of rising bubbles. However, this has been largely unexplored for microbubbles, mostly due to problems associated with strong light scattering and shallow depth of field in optical imaging. Here, tracking x-ray microtomography is used to visualize rising microbubbles in four dimensions. Bubbles are tracked by moving the cell to account for their rise velocity. The sizes, shapes, time-dependent positions, and velocities of individual rising microbubbles are clearly identified, despite substantial overlaps between bubbles in the field of view. Our tracking x-ray microtomography affords opportunities for understanding bubble-bubble (or particle) interactions at microscales - important in various fields such as microfluidics, biomechanics, and floatation.

We report for the first time single nanowires (NWs) with ambipolar (positive/negative) photoresponse that changes sign depending on the illumination wavelength. The single NWs were grown by the meniscus-guided method using inorganic (ZnO nanoparticles)-organic (PEDOT:PSS) hybrid materials. The ambipolar photoresponse of the single NWs enabled us to develop an unprecedented spectrum-discriminating NW photodetector array.

Numerous cell types have shown a remarkable ability to detect and move along gradients in stiffness of an underlying substrate--a process known as durotaxis. The mechanisms underlying durotaxis are still unresolved, but generally believed to involve active sensing and locomotion. Here, we show that simple liquid droplets also undergo durotaxis. By modulating substrate stiffness, we obtain fine control of droplet position on soft, flat substrates. Unlike other control mechanisms, droplet durotaxis works without imposing chemical, thermal, electrical, or topographical gradients. We show that droplet durotaxis can be used to create large-scale droplet patterns and is potentially useful for many applications, such as microfluidics, thermal control, and microfabrication.

Colloidal particles suspended in a fluid usually inhibit complete wetting of the fluid on a solid surface and cause pinning of the contact line, known as self-pinning. We show differences in spreading and drying behaviors of pure and colloidal droplets using optical and confocal imaging methods. These differences come from spreading inhibition by colloids confined at a contact line. We propose a self-pinning mechanism based on spreading inhibition by colloids. We find a good agreement between the mechanism and the experimental result taken by directly tracking individual colloids near the contact lines of evaporating colloidal droplets.

Colloidal droplets including micro- and nanoparticles generally leave a ringlike stain, called the "coffee ring," after evaporation. We show that fingering emerges during evaporation inside the coffee ring, resulting from a bidispersed colloidal mixture of micro- and nanoparticles. Microscopic observations suggest that finger formation is driven by competition between the coffee-ring and Marangoni effects, especially when the inward Marangoni flow is overwhelmed by the outward coffee-ring flow. This finding could help to understand the variety of the final deposition patterns of colloidal droplets.

The manner in which the nervous system regulates animal behaviors in natural environments is a fundamental issue in biology. To address this question, C. elegans has been widely used as a model animal for the analysis of various animal behaviors. Previous behavioral assays have been limited to two-dimensional (2-D) environments, confining the worm motion to a planar substrate that does not reflect three-dimensional (3-D) natural environments such as rotting fruits or soil. Here, we develop a 3-D worm tracker (3DWT) for freely moving C. elegans in 3-D environments, based on a stereoscopic configuration. The 3DWT provides us with a quantitative trajectory, including the position and movement direction of the worm in 3-D. The 3DWT is also capable of recording and visualizing postures of the moving worm in 3-D, which are more complex than those in 2-D. Our 3DWT affords new opportunities for understanding the nervous system function that regulates animal behaviors in natural 3-D environments.

Here we report a tracking X-ray microscopy (TrXM) as a novel methodology by using upper right lung apices alveoli in live intact mice. By enabling tracking of individual alveolar movements during respiration, TrXM identifies alveolar dynamics: individual alveoli in the upper lung apices show a small size increment as 4.9 ± 0.4% (mean ± s.e.m.) during respiration while their shapes look almost invariant. TrXM analysis in alveolar dynamics would be significant for better understanding of alveolar-based diseases, for instance, ventilator induced lung injury (VILI) in acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS).

When a liquid drop impacts a solid surface, air is generally entrapped underneath. Using ultrafast x-ray phase-contrast imaging, we directly visualized the profile of an entrapped air film and its evolution into a bubble during drop impact. We identified a complicated evolution process that consists of three stages: inertial retraction of the air film, contraction of the top air surface into a bubble, and pinch-off of a daughter droplet inside the bubble. Energy transfer during retraction drives the contraction and pinch-off of a daughter droplet. The wettability of the solid surface affects the detachment of the bubble, suggesting a method for bubble elimination in many drop-impact applications.

During bubble or droplet coalescence, there is a puzzling tendency for the coalesced bubble or droplet to be preferentially placed closer to the larger of its two parents. We confirm that this preference is a function of parent size ratio by directly visualizing coalescing air bubbles on an oil-water interface and coalescing water droplets immersed in oil. We find that the final position of the coalesced sphere is controlled by surface energy release and is related to the parent size ratio by a power-law relationship.

Three-dimensional (3D) writing is a promising approach to realize stretchable electronics, but is so far limited to microscale features. We developed accurate 3D writing for highly stretchable organic nanowire arrays using a nanoscale polymer meniscus. Specifically, 3D nanoarches of poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene)/poly(styrenesulfonate) with unprecedented stretchability, over 270%, and no compromise on the electrical characteristics were fabricated. Then, we integrated nanoarches into photoswitches, electrochemical transistors, and electrical interconnects. The impact of these successful tests goes well beyond these specific devices and opens the way to new classes of stretchable nanodevices based on organic materials.

Acervuli are calcified concretions in the pineal gland (PG). Particularly interesting are their incidence and size, which are believed to affect neurological disorders and many physiological functions of PG such as regulating circadian rhythm. Despite long investigations for a century, detailed growth mechanism of acervuli has yet to be studied. Here we study the growth morphology of acervuli in human PGs by a direct visualization in 3-dimension (3-D) using a synchrotron X-ray imaging method. For an entire PG, non-aggregated acervuli show Gaussian distribution in size with 47±28 µm. The 3-D volume rendered images of acervuli reveal that the bumpy surfaces developed by lamination result in the mulberry-like structure. In addition, coalescence of multiple acervuli leads to large-scale lamination on the whole aggregate. We suggest a novel hypothesis on the growth patterns of acervuli by their nucleation density (N(d)): i) mulberry-like structure at low N(d), and ii) large-scale lamination on an aggregate at high N(d).

The Vaccinia-related kinase 1(VRK1), which is generally implicated in modulating cell cycle, plays important roles in mammalian gametogenesis. Female infertility in VRK1-deficient mice was reported to be caused by defective meiotic progression in oocyte at postovulatory stage. VRK1 roles in folliculogenesis, however, remain largely unknown. Here, accurate quantification of folliculogenesis is performed by a direct visualization of 'intact' ovary in 3-dimensions (3-D) using a synchrotron X-ray microtomography. In VRK1-deficient ovaries, the numbers of pre-antral and antral follicles are significantly reduced by 38% and 46%, respectively, comparing to control. The oocytes volumes in antral and Graffian follicles also decrease by 42% and 37% in the mutants, respectively, indicating defects in oocyte quality at preovulatory stage. Genetic analysis shows that gene expressions related to folliculogenesis are down-regulated in VRK1-deficient ovaries, implying defects in folliculogenesis. We suggest that VRK1 is required for both follicle development and oocyte growth in mammalian female reproduction system.

The ageing of the population is an issue in wealthy countries worldwide because of increasing costs for health care and welfare. Survival curves taken from demographic life tables may help shed light on the hypotheses that humans are living longer and that human populations are growing older. We describe a methodology that enables us to obtain separate measurements of scale and shape variances in survival curves. Specifically, 'living longer' is associated with the scale variance of survival curves, whereas 'growing older' is associated with the shape variance. We show how the scale and shape of survival curves have changed over time during recent decades, based on period and cohort female life tables for selected wealthy countries. Our methodology will be useful for performing better tracking of ageing statistics and it is possible that this methodology can help identify the causes of current trends in human ageing.

A bubble reaching an air-liquid interface usually bursts and forms a liquid jet. Jetting is relevant to climate and health as it is a source of aerosol droplets from breaking waves. Jetting has been observed for large bubbles with radii of R≫100 μm. However, few studies have been devoted to small bubbles (R<100 μm) despite the entrainment of a large number of such bubbles in sea water. Here we show that jet formation is inhibited by bubble size; a jet is not formed during bursting for bubbles smaller than a critical size. Using ultrafast X-ray and optical imaging methods, we build a phase diagram for jetting and the absence of jetting. Our results demonstrate that jetting in bubble bursting is analogous to pinching-off in liquid coalescence. The coalescence mechanism for bubble bursting may be useful in preventing jet formation in industry and improving climate models concerning aerosol production.

The X-ray synchrotron is quite different from conventional radiation sources. This technique may expand the capabilities of conventional radiology and be applied in novel manners for special cases. To evaluate the usefulness of X-ray synchrotron radiation systems for real time observations, mouse fetal skeleton development was monitored with a high resolution X-ray synchrotron. A non-monochromatized X-ray synchrotron (white beam, 5C1 beamline) was employed to observe the skeleton of mice under anesthesia at embryonic day (E)12, E14, E15, and E18. At the same time, conventional radiography and mammography were used to compare with X-ray synchrotron. After synchrotron radiation, each mouse was sacrificed and stained with Alizarin red S and Alcian blue to observe bony structures. Synchrotron radiation enabled us to view the mouse fetal skeleton beginning at gestation. Synchrotron radiation systems facilitate real time observations of the fetal skeleton with greater accuracy and magnification compared to mammography and conventional radiography. Our results show that X-ray synchrotron systems can be used to observe the fine structures of internal organs at high magnification.

Lasing action by planar-, fiber-, or ring-type waveguide has been extensively investigated with different types of microcavities such as thin films, wires, cylindrical tubes, or ribbons. However, the lasing action by sharp bending waveguide, which promises efficient interconnection of amplified light in the photonic circuits, remains unexplored. Here, we report the first observation of microcavity effects in the organic rectangular microtubes (RMTs) with sharp bends (ca. 90°) and subwavelength nanoscale wall thicknesses, based on single crystalline and themostable tetra(4-pyridyl)porphyrin (H(2)TPyP)-RMTs synthesized by the VCR process. A bright tip emission is observed from the sharp bending edges of a single RMT upon laser excitation, demonstrating a clear waveguiding behavior in RMT. The appearance of a peak from the (0-1) band at a threshold tube length and the gradual decrease of its full width at half-maximum (fwhm) suggest that amplification of spontaneous emission (ASE) is developed by stimulated emission along the walls of the RMTs. The ehancement of the ASE peak together with the narrowing of its fhwm over a threshold pump power and the tube size (width and length) dependence of the mode spacing strongly support vibronic lasing action in the RMTs. The stimulated emission by the subwavelength bending waveguide demonstrates that the organic RMTs can be applied as new building blocks for micromanipulation of optical path and amplification in the integrated circuits for efficient photonic devices.

Living systems inevitably undergo a progressive deterioration of physiological function with age and an increase of vulnerability to disease and death. To maintain health and survival, living systems should optimize survival strategies with adaptive interactions among molecules, cells, organs, individuals, and environments, which arises plasticity in survival curves of living systems. In general, survival dynamics in a population is mathematically depicted by a survival rate, which monotonically changes from 1 to 0 with age. It would be then useful to find an adequate function to describe complicated survival dynamics. Here we describe a flexible survival function, derived from the stretched exponential function by adopting an age-dependent shaping exponent. We note that the exponent is associated with the fractal-like scaling in cumulative mortality rate. The survival function well depicts general features in survival curves; healthy populations exhibit plasticity and evolve towards rectangular-like survival curves, as examples in humans or laboratory animals.

Disrupted cortical cytoarchitecture in cerebellum is a typical pathology in reeler. Particularly interesting are structural problems at the cellular level: dendritic morphology has important functional implication in signal processing. Here we describe a combinatorial imaging method of synchrotron X-ray microtomography with Golgi staining, which can deliver 3-dimensional(3-D) micro-architectures of Purkinje cell(PC) dendrites, and give access to quantitative information in 3-D geometry. In reeler, we visualized in 3-D geometry the shape alterations of planar PC dendrites (i.e., abnormal 3-D arborization). Despite these alterations, the 3-D quantitative analysis of the branching patterns showed no significant changes of the 77 ± 8° branch angle, whereas the branch segment length strongly increased with large fluctuations, comparing to control. The 3-D fractal dimension of the PCs decreased from 1.723 to 1.254, indicating a significant reduction of dendritic complexity. This study provides insights into etiologies and further potential treatment options for lissencephaly and various neurodevelopmental disorders.

Synchrotron X-ray bioimaging was successfully carried out to observe bone regeneration by a novel artificial bone substitute of bioactive MegaGen Synthetic Bone (MGSB) and hyaluronate (HA) hydrogels. A biphasic calcium phosphate of MGSB was prepared by chemical precipitation method, with a porous spherical morphology. On the basis of the fact that HA plays important roles in bone regeneration and promotes the differentiation, vascularization, and migration of stem cells, HA-cystamine (CYS) hydrogels with cleavable disulfide linkages were prepared to supply HA continuously for effective bone regeneration by their controlled degradation in vivo. Among seven different samples using Bio-OSS®, MGSB, and/or several kinds of HA hydrogels, MGSB/HA-CYS hydrogels resulted in the most significant bone regeneration in the calvarial critical bone defect of New Zealand white rabbits. Histological and histomorphometric analyses revealed that the bone regeneration by MGSB/HA-CYS hydrogels was as high as 43%, occupying 71% of the bone defect area with MGSB in the form of a calvarial bone plate in 4 weeks. After that, MGSB was bioabsorbed and replaced gradually with regenerated bones as observed in 8 weeks. Synchrotron X-ray imaging clearly confirmed the effective bone regeneration by MGSB/HA-CYS hydrogels, showing three-dimensional micron-scale morphologies of regenerated bones interconnected with MGSB. In addition, sequential nondestructive synchrotron X-ray tomographic analysis results from anterior to posterior of the samples were well matched with the histomorphometric analysis results. The clinically feasible artificial bone substitutes of MGSB/HA-CYS hydrogels will be investigated further for various bone tissue engineering applications using the synchrotron X-ray bioimaging systems.

When a coffee drop dries on a solid surface, it leaves a ringlike deposit along the edge and this is known as the "coffee-ring effect." We find a different motion of particles repelling the coffee-ring effect in drying droplets; the motion of particles that is initially toward the edge by the coffee-ring effect is reversed toward the center by a capillary force. The reversal takes place when the capillary force prevails over the outward coffee-ring flow. We discuss the geometric constraints for the capillary force and the reverse motion. Our findings of reversal phenomena would be important in many scenarios of drying colloidal fluids.

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to evaluate the feasibility of phase contrast X-ray microtomography and microradiography, using a polychromatic synchrotron X-ray, for analysis of the mouse lung microstructure., Materials and Methods: Normal mice were used for experiments. Some of the mouse lungs were prepared by the lung fixation-inflation method. The resulting sponge-like inflated lung samples were used for microtomography. The remaining mouse lungs were cut into 10 microm sections and were used for microradiography and optical microscopic correlation. The experiments on mouse lung samples were performed at the 7B2 beamline of the Pohang Light Source in Korea., Results: Phase contrast X-ray microtomography of inflated lung samples showed individual alveolar structure on 3-D reconstruction. Phase contrast microradiographs of thin lung samples showed microstructure of lung, such as alveoli and bronchioles, and were well correlated with optical microscopic images., Conclusions: The results indicate that the phase contrast X-ray microtomography and microradiography using polychromatic synchrotron X-ray is feasible for evaluation of microstructure of the lung.

We observed that hard X-ray irradiation modifies the wettability of a variety of inorganic materials. The smooth surfaces of all tested inorganic materials (ZnO, p-Si, Al2O3, SrTiO3, TiN, ZnS, CuO, Ag2O, and Cr2O3) change during irradiation to a state of superhydrophilic wettability, and such changes are explained by the accumulation of positive surface charges by photoelectron emission. The initial wettability state is re-established within several minutes of storage in deionized water.

The existence of maximum human lifespan remains a puzzle in aging research. Maximum human lifespan is believed to be around 125 years, whereas current demographic trends seem to show no limitation. To reconcile this contrast, the estimation of maximum human lifespan requires an adequate mathematical model. However, sparse data of available old-age mortality pattern make the estimation impossible. Here we suggest an extended Weibull model for the estimation using a proper mathematical method based on survival probability pattern. We find a tendency that survival probability is maximized in modern human survival curves. Based on such tendency, we develop an estimation method for maximum human lifespan and indeed obtain about 126 years from periodic life tables for Swedish female between 1950 and 2005. Despite uncertainty from available mortality data, our approach may offer quantitative biodemographic opportunities linking aging and survival kinetics.

The advanced characteristics of synchrotron light has led in recent years to the development of a series of new experimental techniques to investigate chemical and physical properties on a microscopic scale. Although originally developed for materials science and biomedical research, such techniques find increasing applications in other domains - and could be quite useful for the study and conservation of cultural heritage. Specifically, they can nondestructively provide detailed chemical composition information that can be useful for the identification of specimens, for the discovery of historical links based on the sources of chemical raw materials and on chemical processes, for the analysis of damage, their causes and remedies and for many other issues. Likewise, morphological and structural information on a microscopic scale is useful for the identification, study and preservation of many different cultural and historical specimens. We concentrate here on two classes of techniques: in the first case, photoemission spectromicroscopy. This is the result of the advanced evolution of photoemission techniques like ESCA (Electron Microscopy for Chemical Analysis). By combining high lateral resolution to spectroscopy, photoemission spectromicroscopy can deliver fine chemical information on a microscopic scale in a nondestructive fashion. The second class of techniques exploits the high lateral coherence of modern synchrotron sources, a byproduct of the quest for high brightness or brilliance. We will see that such techniques now push radiology into the submicron scale and the submillisecond time domain. Furthermore, they can be implemented in a tomographic mode, increasing the information and becoming potentially quite useful for the analysis of cultural heritage specimens.

The fabrication of devices to focus hard x-rays is one of the most difficult-and important-challenges in nanotechnology. Here we show that Fresnel zone plates combining 30 nm external zones and a high aspect ratio finally bring hard x-ray microscopy beyond the 30 nm Rayleigh spatial resolution level and measurable spatial frequencies down to 20-23 nm feature size. After presenting the overall nanofabrication process and the characterization test results, we discuss the potential research impact of these resolution levels.

Background/aims: There is a need for development of non-invasive methods to improve early diagnosis and screening of suspected malignant lesions. Phase-contrast X-ray microscopy (PCXM) has potential to reveal the structures inside soft tissues, and fine details can be observed without any staining or contrast-enhancing cell preparation. We aimed to investigate the possibility that PCXM can be used to explore the microscopic details of basal cell carcinoma (BCC)., Methods: Paraffin blocks of specimens from patients with basal cell carcinoma were cut with 30 microm thickness for PCXM imaging. Experiments were performed at the International Consortium of Phase Contrast Imaging and Radiology (ICPCIR) (7B2) beamline of the Pohang light source in Korea. The PCXM images were achieved by using coherent hard X-rays from a synchrotron source with no monochromatization., Results: We could obtain images with clear edge enhancement by PCXM. The images taken with this technique showed clear anatomic details of organelles in normal skin such as epidermis, dermis and skin appendages. Most of cancerous lesions were clearly differentiated from adjacent normal tissues and the images closely corresponded to those obtained with low-magnification optical microscopy., Conclusion: In this pilot study, we successfully demonstrated that synchrotron PCXM could be used for radiological imaging of BCC with great anatomic details.

In the present study the feasibility of applying synchrotron radiation to the morphological study of early-stage lung cancer has been investigated. Lewis lung cancer was implanted and grown in a nude mouse for different periods, and imaged using phase-contrast synchrotron X-rays. Morphological differences were clearly shown between the normal lung and cancerous tissues at this early stage. Irregular and tortuous angiogenesis were found in the periphery region of the developing lung cancer. Results from this study indicate that synchrotron X-rays can be used for imaging cancer development and progression with minimal invasion.

The formation of colloidal unmodified (naked) gold nanoparticles is investigated by irradiation of a precursor solution with X-rays from a synchrotron source. An interesting morphological evolution as a function of exposure time, from cross-linked network-like structure to individual particles, has been discovered. The particle size decreased with the exposure time and was influenced by the ionic strength of the precursor solution. Contrary to gamma-ray exposure, an OH radical scavenger was not required for cluster formation.