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Two antifibrotic medications, pirfenidone and nintedanib, have been approved as treatments for idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF)-a life-threatening interstitial lung disease. However, there are insufficient current data regarding clinical predictors of survival for patients with IPF in the era of antifibrotics.We retrospectively analyzed the medical records of patients with IPF treated between April 2017 and May 2020. Univariate and multivariate Cox proportional hazard models were used to identify independent predictors of mortality among these patients with IPF.A total of 40 patients with IPF (average age, 75.58 ± 8.34 years) were included in the study, 27 (67.5%) of whom were treated with antifibrotic drugs. In the entire cohort, 14 (35%) patients died, and the overall survival of the study population was 48.52 ± 5 months (median, not applicable [NA] [29-NA] months). The univariate and multivariate Cox proportional hazard models indicated that chest tightness, finger clubbing, acute exacerbation after medication, decreased percentage forced vital capacity (%FVC), and decreased percentage 1-second forced expiratory volume were clinical factors linked to all-cause mortality among all patients, although without statistical significance at the multivariate level. Meanwhile, only finger clubbing was a significant mortality predictor among patients who received antifibrotic medications. A mortality scoring system was built upon the aforementioned risk factors, with the exclusion of %FVC, whose individual mortality score was nearly zero.Chest tightness, finger clubbing, acute exacerbation after medication, and decreased %FVC were clinical factors associated with mortality in patients with IPF, although without statistical significance. A scoring system including these factors can be used to predict all-cause mortality in patients with IPF. The mere intake of antifibrotic medications was not a significant mortality predictor in this study. This might be owed to the retrospective nature of the study, where many patients started the medications after the deterioration of their pulmonary function rather than from the start.

The facile construction of supramolecular polymers—incorporating self-complementary hydrogen bonds—with the chemical and physical properties required to achieve selective, safe, reliable drug delivery for chemotherapy remains highly challenging. In this study, we have successfully developed a new supramolecular polymer containing difunctional adenine-containing end groups that spontaneously self-assembles into nanospherical micelles in water and aqueous buffer solutions. The resulting supramolecular micelles exhibit good biocompatibility and tunable, reversible thermo-responsive phase transitions. Moreover, the drug-loading capacity and release behavior could be finely tuned using pH and temperature, making the micelles highly attractive potential candidates for controlled drug-delivery applications. Cytotoxicity assays and flow cytometric analyses clearly demonstrated that the drug-loaded micelles exhibited excellent drug entrapment stability and minimal cytotoxic effects against normal cells under normal physiological conditions. However, significantly increased intracellular uptake of the micelles—along with potent cytotoxic effects—was observed in cancer cells, indicating that the drug-loaded micelles could be selectively and rapidly endocytosed by cancer cells to induce tumor cell death without harming normal cells. Thus, this newly developed system has great potential as a selective tumor-targeted nanovector to improve the safety and efficacy of cancer chemotherapy.

Food pantries typically operate in a partnership structure where they are primarily supported by a larger food bank. However, the ability to execute that mission through cooperative arrangements greatly depends upon accountability, a key dynamic that ensures partners are fulfilling expectations and key roles. This exploratory study utilizes qualitative interview data (n = 61) from a large food bank network to understand the extent to which a lead agency (i.e., a large food bank) meets expectations of accountability among partners. The interview results demonstrate that the extent to which expectations are met relate to different types of relationships between the lead agency and partner members. Furthermore, the ways in which partners assess the strengths or weaknesses of the food bank’s accountability reveal different types of relationships within the network, namely that of supplier–customer, supporter–customer, and supporter–collaborator.

Microfluidic paper-based analytical devices (μPADs) have recently emerged as a simple, portable, user-friendly, and affordable alternative to more instrument-intensive analytical approaches for point-of-care testing (POCT), food safety analysis, and environmental monitoring. However, most of the existing methods for the fabrication of μPADs still face a great challenge because of different trade-offs among cost, convenience, and the pattern resolution. In this work, we report a facile one-step approach to prepare a μPAD using an affordable, easy-to-build 3D printer to generate patterns of solid wax on laboratory filter paper. The presented wax printing method did not require the use of predesigned masks and an external heat source to form complete hydrophobic wax barrier through the use of a custom-made extruder. The results revealed a strong linear relationship (R2 = 0.985) between the nominal and the printed widths of the wax barriers. The achievable resolution of the wax barrier printed on filter paper was 468 ± 72 µm, which was lower than previously reported minimum barrier feature sizes achieved by wax printing and other wax patterning techniques, such as stamping and screen-printing. The analytical utility of the fabricated μPADs was evaluated for colorimetric nitrite and glucose detection in artificial solutions. It was found that the fabricated μPADs provided adequate accuracy and reproducibility for quantitative determination of nitrite and glucose within concentration ranges relevant to the disease detection in human saliva and urine. The wax printing approach reported here provides a simple, rapid, and cost-effective fabrication method for paper-based microfluidics and may bring benefits to medical diagnostics in the developing world.

BackgroundGastroretentive drug delivery system (GDDS) are novel systems that have been recently developed for treating stomach diseases. The key function of all GDDS systems is to control the retention time in the stomach. However, research into the bulk density or entanglement of polymers, especially regarding their effects on drug float and release times, is scarce. MethodsIn this research, we prepared the floating core-shell beads carrying tetracycline. The ratio of chitosan and xanthan gum in the shell layer was changed to modify polymer compactness. Tetracycline was encapsulated in the alginate core. ResultsUsing scanning electron microscopy (SEM) techniques, we observed that the shell formulation did not change the bead morphology. The cross-sectional images showed that the beads were highly porous. The interaction between anionic xanthan gum and cationic chitosan made the shell layer dense, resisting to the mass transfer in the shell layer. Due to the high mass transfer resistance to water penetration, the longer float and delivery time were caused by the dense surface of the beads. The cell culture demonstrated that floating core-shell beads were biocompatible. Importantly, the beads with tetracycline showed a significant prolonged anti-bacterial effect. ConclusionResearch results proved that the floating and releasing progress of core-shell beads can be well controlled by adjusting the shell layer formulation that could promote the function of gastroretentive drugs.

Development of stimuli-responsive supramolecular micelles that enable high levels of well-controlled drug release in cancer cells remains a grand challenge. Here, we encapsulated the antitumor drug doxorubicin (DOX) and pro-photosensitizer 5-aminolevulinic acid (5-ALA) within adenine-functionalized supramolecular micelles (A-PPG), in order to achieve effective drug delivery combined with photo-chemotherapy. The resulting DOX/5-ALA-loaded micelles exhibited excellent light and pH-responsive behavior in aqueous solution and high drug-entrapment stability in serum-rich media. A short duration (1&ndash, 2 min) of laser irradiation with visible light induced the dissociation of the DOX/5-ALA complexes within the micelles, which disrupted micellular stability and resulted in rapid, immediate release of the physically entrapped drug from the micelles. In addition, in vitro assays of cellular reactive oxygen species generation and cellular internalization confirmed the drug-loaded micelles exhibited significantly enhanced cellular uptake after visible light irradiation, and that the light-triggered disassembly of micellar structures rapidly increased the production of reactive oxygen species within the cells. Importantly, flow cytometric analysis demonstrated that laser irradiation of cancer cells incubated with DOX/5-ALA-loaded A-PPG micelles effectively induced apoptotic cell death via endocytosis. Thus, this newly developed supramolecular system may offer a potential route towards improving the efficacy of synergistic chemotherapeutic approaches for cancer.

Urinary bladder matrix (UBM) is one of the most studied extracellular matrixes (ECM) in the tissue engineering field. Although almost all of the UBM hydrogels were prepared by using peracetic acid (PAA), recent studies indicated that PAA was not a trustworthy way to decellularize UBM. A stronger detergent, such as sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS), may help tackle this issue, however, its effects on the hydrogels&rsquo, characteristics remain unknown. Therefore, the objective of this study was to develop a more reliable protocol to decellularize UBM, using SDS, and to compare the characteristics of hydrogels obtained from this method to the widely employed technique, using PAA. The results indicated that SDS was superior to PAA in decellularization efficacy. Different decellularization methods led to dissimilar gelation kinetics, however, the methods did not affect other hydrogel characteristics in terms of biochemical composition, surface morphology and rheological properties. The SDS-treated hydrogels possessed excellent cytocompatibility in vitro. These results showed that the SDS decellularization method could offer a more stable and safer way to obtain acellular UBM, due to reducing immunogenicity. The hydrogels prepared from this technique had comparable characteristics as those from PAA and could be a potential candidate as a scaffold for tissue remodeling.

Functional supramolecular micelles containing self-complementary multiple hydrogen bonding adenine groups (A-PPG) can spontaneously self-assemble into stable nanosized micelles in aqueous solution. These micelles can be used to selectively deliver anticancer drugs to cancer cells and effectively promote tumor cell death via apoptosis, without harming normal cells. The drug-loaded micelles exhibit tunable drug-loading capacity and rapid pH-triggered drug release under acidic conditions, as well as a high drug-entrapment stability in serum-rich media due to the reversible hydrogen-bonded adenine-adenine interactions within the micellar interior; these properties are critical to achieving effective chemotherapeutic drug delivery and controlled drug release. In vitro assays show that the drug-loaded micelles exert significant cytotoxic effects on cancer cells, with minimal effects on normal cells under physiological conditions. Cytotoxicity assays using A-PPG micelles loaded with different anticancer drugs confirm these effects. Importantly, cellular internalization and flow cytometric analyses demonstrate that the adenine moieties within A-PPG micelles significantly increase selective endocytic uptake of the supramolecular micelles by cancer cells, which in turn induce apoptotic cell death and substantially enhance the response to chemotherapy. Thus, A-PPG micelles can improve the safety and efficacy of cancer chemotherapy.

Diselenide containing polymeric-nanoparticles considered as stimuli-responsive due to their low bond energy of Se Se linkage with stimuli-sensitive properties Se Se bond. Recently, diselenide bond containing amphiphilic block copolymers based nanoparticles become emerging materials as drug carrier. In this work, biocompatible, redox and gamma (γ)-ray sensitive diselenide-linked polymeric-nanogel (PEGSeSe)n was developed from alpha, omega-Bis-Bromo poly(ethylene glycol) (Br-PEG-Br) for anticancer drug carrier. A stimuli-responsive anti-cancer drug, doxorubicin (Dox) releasing of the nanogel was evaluated using an ultraviolet-visible spectrophotometer. The drug loading efficiency of the nanogel was found to be 32.7%. Redox-stimuli-drug release study was conducted in the presence of 0.1% (w/w) hydrogen peroxide (H2O2), and 1 mg/mL of glutathione (GSH) in phosphate-buffered saline (PBS) pH of 7.4 at 37 °C, as well as 5 Gy γ-ray was applied for understand their radiation responsive release of Dox. The drug release profiles indicated that fast release were observed during the initial few hours and maximum release 54% were shown after 48 h and 52.5% after 24 h in the presence of GSH and H2O2 respectively, and gradually drug release were decreased as the time increases. Interestingly, γ-ray irradiation drug release also showed that maximum of 46% the drug released within 12 h after irradiation. Based on the obtained results, it can be concluded that the synthesized nanogel could be a promising redox and radiation-sensitive nanocarrier biomaterial for high loading amount of anticancer drug and could be used for anticancer drugs delivery in redox environment and a low dose of γ-ray radiation.

Three-dimensional (3D) printing technology is now widely used in biomedical developments. Especially, photo-curing systems provide high resolution and precision. The current goal of biomedical 3D printing technology is the printing of human organs, but the current commercial photo-curable materials generally have high mechanical strength that cannot meet the mechanical properties of the object to be printed. In this research, a gastric model was printed using a photo-curing 3D printing technique. To mimic the wrinkle pattern of human gastric tissue, cis-1,4 polyisoprene with different reactive diluents was mixed and identified a formulation that produced a print with human gastric softness. This research discussed the effect of the Young’s modulus of the material and elucidated the relationship between the degree of conversion rate and viscosity. After modifying the cis-1,4 polyisoprene surface from hydrophobic to hydrophilic, we then evaluated its adhesion efficiency for gastric mucin and the gastrointestinal-inhabiting bacterium Helicobacter pylori.

The present study focused on the development of electric stimuli drug release carrier based on transition metal dicgalcogenides. First, tungsten disulfide (WS2) was exfoliated and functionalized using thiol chemistry with various thiol-terminated ligands such as thioglycolic acid (TGA), mercaptosuccinic acid (MSA), and 2-ethanethiol (2ET). The exfoliated WS2 underwent non-covalent coating with an electrically conductive polypyrrole (PPy) for functionalization, of which MSA-WS2-PPy achieved the highest 5-FU (anticancer drug) loading. An electrically-stimulated drug release experiment showed that TGA-WS2-PPy achieved a higher drug release (90%) than MSA-WS2-PPy (70%) and 2ET-WS2-Ppy (35%). The TGA-WS2-PPy exhibited swelling/recombination between PPY and MSA-WS2 substrate under electrical stimulation, resulting in the highest 5-FU release. From the MTT assay result, there was no significant toxicity observed for TGA-WS2-PPy-FU on HaCaT cells, indicating the biocompatibility of TGA-WS2-PPy-FU in the absence of electrical stimulation. However, HaCaT cells died when incubated with TGA-WS2-PPy-FU under electrical stimulation. Finally, Raman mapping studies for TGA-WS2-PPy drug release in the skin of nude mice demonstrated that the carrier penetrated deeper into the skin of the mice while other systems failed to exhibit significant effects under electrical stimulation. The present study offers a novel approach in developing a non-invasive electrically-stimulated drug release system based on WS2 and an externally-controlled delivery model.

The membrane-bound serine proteases prostasin and matriptase and the Kunitz-type protease inhibitors HAI-1 and HAI-2 are all expressed in human skin and may form a tightly regulated proteolysis network, contributing to skin pathophysiology. Evidence from other systems, however, suggests that the relationship between matriptase and prostasin and between the proteases and the inhibitors can be context-dependent. In this study the in vivo zymogen activation and protease inhibition status of matriptase and prostasin were investigated in the human skin. Immunohistochemistry detected high levels of activated prostasin in the granular layer, but only low levels of activated matriptase restricted to the basal layer. Immunoblot analysis of foreskin lysates confirmed this in vivo zymogen activation status and further revealed that HAI-1 but not HAI-2 is the prominent inhibitor for prostasin and matriptase in skin. The zymogen activation status and location of the proteases does not support a close functional relation between matriptase and prostasin in the human skin. The limited role for HAI-2 in the inhibition of matriptase and prostasin is the result of its primarily intracellular localization in basal and spinous layer keratinocytes, which probably prevents the Kunitz inhibitor from interacting with active prostasin or matriptase. In contrast, the cell surface expression of HAI-1 in all viable epidermal layers renders it an effective regulator for matriptase and prostasin. Collectively, our study suggests the importance of tissue distribution and subcellular localization in the functional relationship between proteases and protease inhibitors.

Contingent knowledge workers will play an increasingly important role in organisational success as workers transition in and out of project-based innovation teams with more frequency. Our research finds that collaborators in the contingent, high-skill workforce face uncertainty challenges to their work that are unique from the independent, contingent professionals more often studied. The article proposes a theoretical framework of uncertainty to guide us in understanding collaborative contingent knowledge workers’ work experience. Interviews with postdoctoral researchers reveal four findings about the influence of these highly uncertain work environments on collaborative contingent knowledge workers – collaboration isolation, frustrated independence, performance anxiety and internalised blame. Perhaps most concerning is that the workers internalise the negative impacts as personal failings instead of recognising them as consequences of a poorly designed work environment. This study argues for the need to manage and mitigate different sources of uncertainty to avoid creating an unnecessary burden on contingent knowledge workers, and to enable a sustainable, contingent knowledge workforce.

Self-assembly of nanoparticles (NP) with suitable sizes and surface charge to satisfy the functions of an efficient drug carrier plays a vital role in cancer therapy. Hence, the present study focused to prepare polymeric nanoparticles consisting of branched polyethylenimine (PEI), alginic acid (ALG) and poly(cyclohexane-1,4-diyl acetone dimethylene ketal) (PCADK), which were used to deliver an anticancer drug 5-fluorouracil (5-FU) to cancer cells. The size of the polymeric nanoparticles, measuring ~11 nm was confirmed by DLS and TEM analysis were revealed nanoparticles formation. Positive zeta potential of nanoparticles indicated that PEI forms the outer layer and the self-assembled of PEI, ALG and PCADK nanoparticles exhibited the fluorescence property. 1H NMR and FTIR analysis confirmed the structural interactions between the PEI, ALG and PCADK during the formation of the nanoparticles. Drug release profiles across a 104-hour period comprising of both burst releases and sustained releases that resulted in 82%, 77% and 52% release of 5-FU at pH 5, 6.8 and 7.4 respectively. Cytotoxicity assay results showed that the 5-FU loaded nanoparticles exhibited greater cytotoxicity against WiDr colorectal adenocarcinoma cell lines compared to free 5-FU due to better adhesion to the cancer cells.

Magnolol has shown inhibitory effects on NO production and TNF-alpha production in lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-activated macrophages and LPS-induced acute lung injury; however, the poor solubility of magnolol has hindered its clinical success. In this study, magnolol-loaded microparticles were prepared via single emulsion method from a polyketal polymer, termed PK3. The particle sizes of magnolol-loaded PK3 microparticle is 3.73 ± 0.41 μm, and was suitable for phagocytosis by macrophages and pulmonary drug delivery. PK3 microparticles exhibited excellent biocompatibility both in vitro and in vivo. More importantly, intratracheal delivery of these magnolol-loaded microparticles significantly reduced the lung inflammatory responses at low dosage of magnolol (0.5 mg/kg), and have great clinical potential in treating acute lung injury.

In this study, we propose a facial feature replacement system, which uses the triangulation algorithm to perform facial feature replacement in each segmented triangular region associated with control points. The experimental results show that our system provides quite natural composite images. In addition, the system is flexible and has no limit in the shape, size, and plane rotation of the faces which are processed.

Iron/copper composite particles were synthesized by a chemical reduction method and then used as the anode material for a rechargeable alkaline battery. The particle size and structure of the samples were characterized by SEM and XRD. Their electrochemical performance was also studied. The results showed that the iron/copper composite prepared by this method is nanosized. Copper improves the electron transfer between particles, and the nanosized iron/copper composite not only has a high electrochemical capacity of up to 800 mAh g −1 (Fe to Fe(III)), but also has an excellent rate-capacity performance at a current density of 3200 mA g −1 . Compared with the iron nanoparticle without copper, the iron/copper composite sample maintains a smaller particle size during electrochemical cycling, and therefore improves the cycling stability of the iron electrode.

Ownership structure and the performance of banking industry have been long considered as a matter of debate. Despite of differences in perspective, both “development view” and “politics view” approve the desire of governments to control financial institutions through their ownership structure. This paper adopts the two-stage stochastic frontier analysis (SFA) to examine the relation between ownership structure and bank’s efficiency in two long historic communism countries – China and Vietnam with the consideration of some political factors. Our result consistently indicates that banks with foreign-controlled shareholders in both countries can increase their efficiency significantly. Additionally, we uncover an interesting phenomenon that is during the election years, state-owned banks in China and Vietnam outperform the others. These banks are also the most beneficiaries from the economic expansion. Finally, meta-frontier is utilized to compare the relative performance of banking industry in these two countries.

Iron/carbon-black composite nanoparticles were synthesized by chemically reducing the iron salt mixing with carbon black by adding NaBH4 in the aqueous solution. Carbon-black particles, with a mean particle size of approximately 40 nm, function as the nucleation cores for iron deposition. Additionally, core–shell iron composite particles are observed to be 30–100 nm with spherical sharp. At the first time discharge, the iron/carbon-black composite nanoparticle discharged 1200 mAh g−1(Fe) at plateau one and 400 mAh g −1 at plateau two at a high current density of 200 mA g −1 (Fe). The capacity is larger than the theoretical value, which is attributed to the formation of iron hydride (FeHx) while the iron was reduced by NaBH4, followed the hydrogen reaction as an active material while the battery discharge occurs. In further cycles, the iron/carbon-black composite iron electrode shows a good reversibility of about 600 mAh g −1 (Fe) when the nickel–iron battery operated between 1.65 and 0.8 V. XRD analysis results indicate that the carbon black in the core of the iron/carbon-black composite enhances the reduction/oxidation reactions of iron, as achieved by the carbon black forming an enhanced electronic conductive network while iron is discharged as the insulator species such as Fe(OH)2 and Fe3O4. SEM images reveal that the iron/carbon-black composite keeps particle sizes smaller than 300 nm during the electrode cycling, indicating that carbon black also acts as the nucleation cores for the dissolution–deposition of iron.

Rationale and Objectives Although soluble nonionic iodine compounds with low systemic toxic effects have been developed for use in computed tomography (CT), they have short residence times of a few minutes or mere seconds—insufficient time for blood pool imaging, even with high-speed multi–detector row spiral CT. Moreover, potential renal toxic effects preclude repeated administration of these contrast agents during imaging, as well as their use in patients with compromised renal function. The objective of this study was to develop and evaluate a CT contrast agent for blood pool imaging that remains in the blood for more than 3 hours and that is relatively nontoxic to the kidneys. Materials and Methods The authors assessed a liposomal iohexol formulation for its encapsulation efficiency in terms of milligrams of iodine per milliliter of lipid formulation and for its stability in phosphate buffer solution and in human plasma in vitro. Using a rabbit model, they also assessed the formulation's in vivo stability, residence time, and enhancement of contrast on images of various organ systems. Results The formulation, which contained 34.8 mg of iodine per milliliter of liposomal iohexol solution, remained stable in blood plasma both in vitro and in vivo, after injection into rabbit vasculature. An intravenous dose of 475 mg of iodine per kilogram of body weight produced contrast enhancement in the rabbit model of approximately 130 HU in the aorta and liver cortex and approximately 100 HU in the kidney cortex. Contrast enhancement was maintained for 3 hours after injection, and minimal clearance of the contrast agent via the kidneys was observed. Conclusion The liposomal iohexol formulation tested in this study had a sufficient residence time for blood pool imaging in a rabbit model. Future experiments with long-residence-time iohexol formulations may lead eventually to applications in cardiac imaging and in early tumor detection.

For the preparation of polymer particles by free radical, stabilizers are usually present in the reaction mixture to maintain the separation of particles from each other. Polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP) is one the hydrophilic polymers that has been extensively used as the stabilizer in the polymerization system employing a polar solvent or solvent mixture as the continuous phase. As shown in the present study, the presence of PVP in the later steps could significantly influence the hydrophobic property of partially porous poly(styrene–divinylbenzene) (PS–DVB) particles, prepared by the method of multistep swelling and polymerization involving the use of polymeric porogens. The association of PVP molecules on the particle surface reduced the hydrophobicity and consequently the capability of particles for biological applications. For the reversed-phase liquid chromatography of penicillin G and its enzymatic hydrolysis product, particles prepared without PVP led to an enhancement in both retention and resolution, compared with particles resulting from the use of PVP. Results from lipase immobilization on these particles also showed that the presence of PVP could shield the hydrophobic groups on the particle surface and then reduce the efficiency of enzyme immobilization. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 87: 1818–1824, 2003

A TiO2 film was prepared on indium tin oxide (ITO)/glass by aqueous solution deposition (ASD) with precursors of ammonium hexafluoro-titanate and boric acid at 40 °C. The photocatalysis of annealed TiO2 film increases with increasing growth time and decreases with increasing growth times longer than 60 min. A ZnO nanotip array was prepared on ZnO seed layer/TiO2 film/glass by aqueous solution deposition with precursors of zinc nitrate and ammonium hydroxide at 70 °C. The photocatalysis of ASD-ZnO/ASD-TiO2 film/ITO glass can be better than that of P25.

The main idea in this paper is using sequential pattern mining to find the information which is helpful for finding high performance solutions. By combining this information, it is defined as blocks. Using the blocks to generate artificial chromosomes (ACs) could improve the structure of solutions. Estimation of Distribution Algorithms (EDAs) is adapted to solve the combinatorial problems. Nevertheless many of these approaches are advantageous for this application, but only some of them are used to enhance the efficiency of application. Generating ACs uses patterns and EDAs could increase the diversity. According to the experimental result, the algorithm which we proposed has a better performance to solve the permutation flow-shop problems., {"references":["R.Agrawal, T.Imielinski and A.Swami, 1993. MiningAssociation Rules between Sets of Items in Large Databases.In Proc. of the 1993 ACM-SIGMOD Conf. on Management ofData, 207-216.","Agrawal, R. and Srikant, R. 1995. Mining Sequential Patterns, In Proc. of the 11th Int'l Conf. on Data Engineering, 3-14.","J. T. Tsai, W. H. Ho, T. K. Liu, and J. H. Chou, \"Improved immune algorithm for global numerical optimization and job-shop scheduling problems,\" Applied Mathematics and Computation, Vol. 194, pp. 406-424, Dec. 2007.","J. S. Chun, H. K. Jung and S. Y. Hahn, \"A Study on Comparison of Optimization Performances between Immune Algorithm and other Heuristic Algorithms,\" IEEE Transactions on Magnetics, vol. 34, No. 5, Sept. 1998.","J. H. Holland, \"Genetic Algorithms and the Optimal Allocation of Trials,\" SIAM J. Comput, vol. 2, pp. 88-105, 1973.","D. E. Goldberg, \"Genetic Algorithms in Search, Optimization and Machine Learning (Book style),\" Boston, MA: Addison-Wesley, 1989.","P. C. Chang, S. H. Chen, & Fan, C. Y. (2008). \"Mining gene structures to inject artificial chromosomes forgenetic algorithm in single machine scheduling problems,\" Applied Soft Computing Journal, 8(1), 767–777.","Fardin Ahmadizar, \"A new ant colony algorithm for makespan minimization in permutationflowshops,\"Applied Computers & Industrial Engineering, Vol. 63, pp.355-361, 2012.","W. E. Costa, M. C. Goldbarg, E. G. Goldbarg, \"New VNS heuristic for total flowtimeflowshop scheduling problem,\"Applied Expert Systems with Applications, Vol. 39, pp.8149-8161, 2012.\n[10]\tQ. K. Pen, R. Ruiz, \"Local search methods for the flowshop scheduling problem with flowtimeminimization,\"Applied European Journal of Operational Research, Vol. 222, pp.31-43, 2012.\n[11]\tX. Dong, P. Chen, H. K. Huang, &Maciek Nowak, \"A multi-restart iterated local search algorithm for the permutation flowshopproblem minimizing total flowtime,\"Applied Computers & Operations Research, Vol. 40, pp.627-632, 2013.\n[12]\tM. F.Tasgetiren, Q. K. Pan, P. N. Suganthan, A. H. Chen, \"A discrete artificial bee colony algorithm for the total flowtime minimization in permutation flow shops,\"Applied Information Sciences, Vol. 181, pp.3459-3475, 2011.\n[13]\tC. Sangkavichit,P.Chongstitvatana, \"Fragment as a Small Evidence of the Building Blocks Existence,\" Applied Evolutionary Learning and Optimization, Vol. 3, pp.25-44, 2010.\n[14]\tPei-Chann Chang, Meng-Hui Chen, Manoj K. Tiwari, AsifSikandarIquebal: A block-based evolutionary algorithm for flow-shop scheduling problem. Appl. Soft Comput. 13(12): 4536-4547 (2013).\n[15]\tChang, Pei-Chann, and Meng-Hui Chen. \"A block based estimation of distribution algorithm using bivariate model for scheduling problems.\" Soft Computing (2013): 1-12.\n[16]\tR.Agrawal, T.Imielinski and A. N.Swami,1993. Mining association rules between sets of items in large databases. In Proceedings of the 1993 ACM SIGMOD International Conference on Management of Data, P. Buneman and S. Jajodia, Eds. Washington, D.C., 207-216.\n[17]\tQ. Zhao and S. S. Bhowmick, \"Sequential pattern mining: a survey,\" Technical Report, CAIS, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, No.2003118, 2003.\n[18]\tY. M. Chen, M.C. Chen, P. C. Chang, and S. H. Chen, \"Extended artificial chromosome genetic algorithm for permutation flowshop scheduling problems,\" Computers & Industrial Engineering, Vol. 62, pp.536-545, 2012.\n[19]\tShigeyoshiTsutsui, \"Probabilistic Model-Building Genetic Algorithms in Permutation Representation Domain Using Edge Histogram,\" Lecture Notes in Computer Science Volume 2439, pp.224-233, 2002.\n[20]\tChen, S. H. & Chen, M. C., \"Addressing the advantage of using ensemble probabilistic models in Estimation of Distribution Algorithms for scheduling problems,\" Int. J. Production Economics, Vol. 141, pp. 24-33, 2013."]}

Partially porous poly(styrene-divinylbenzene) (PS-DVB) particles in the micron size range were prepared by the method of multistep swelling and polymerization involving the use of polymeric porogens. Polystyrene (PS) seeds prepared by dispersion polymerization were expanded in particle size by absorbing styrene and initiator, and then polymerized to form polymeric porogen particles. The newly synthesized PS chains served as the porogens of the PS-DVB particles, resulting from the copolymerization of styrene and divinylbenzene in the swollen polymeric porogen particles. PS-DVB particles with a specific surface area of up to 34 m 2 /g and a pore volume of up to 0.15 cm 3 /g were obtained. The average pore diameter of PS-DVB particles was in the range of 15-24 nm. An increasing amount of toluene used in the copolymerization step increased the pore volume and specific surface area. Lipase from Candida rugosa was immobilized on the prepared PS-DVB by physical adsorption. The optimum temperature for enzymatic activity was increased and the thermal deactivation of enzyme in organic solvent was slowed down by the immobilization. However, compared with soluble enzyme, the immobilized lipase on PS-DVB retained a less activity after the first stage deactivation, suggesting a possible change in the conformation of enzyme molecule by immobilization.

Poly(2-methacryloyloxyethyl phosphorylcholine) (pMPC) was grafted onto the surface of a silicon rubber (SR) membrane (pMPC-SR) by plasma induced grafted copolymerization (PIP). Argon plasma was used to activate the SR surfaces. Determination was also made of the influences of grafted copolymerization reaction time, reaction temperature, and monomer concentration on polymerization yield. The surface properties of SR were characterized by ATR-FTIR, ESCA, and SEM. In those analyses the ATR-FTIR spectra indicated that the pMPC grafted onto the SR surface at 1720 and 3300 cm(-1). The elemental composition and different carbon bindings on the surface of the SR were examined by ESCA. An increasing P1s/C1s value g was obtained in the grafted polymerization yield with a concentration of 0.05-0.5M of MPC in the isolated ethanol solution. The surface morphologies of pMPC-SR differed more than those of control and Ar plasma treated surfaces. The difference could have been caused by the homogeneous graft polymerization of pMPC onto the SR membrane. In the biological analyses, protein adsorption on pMPC-SR surfaces was reduced. The reduced level increased with an increase in the pMPC grafted amount. The epithelial cell attachment and growth onto these samples were suppressed. The blood compatibility for a series of pMPC-SR surfaces was examined by platelet adhesion. Blood platelet morphologies in contact with the high ratio of pMPC-SR surfaces were maintained, meaning that in this case the release reaction for platelets never occurred. Consequently, the high amount of pMPC-SR surface had excellent blood compatibility, further suggesting that prevention of adhesion, activation of platelets, and adsorption of blood protein could be achieved.

A method for producing various surfaces of silicone rubber membrane (SR) was developed in this study by grafting various amounts of poly(2-hydroxy ethyl methacrylate) (pHEMA) onto SR by plasma-induced grafted polymerization (PIP) as a homobifunctional membrane. The elemental composition and different carbon bindings on the surface of SR were examined by electron spectroscopy for chemical analysis with the amount of O1s/C1s being approximately 0.7 at 1 min, 60 W, 200 mTorr of Ar-plasma treatment. The peroxide group introduced on SR was measured via 1,1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) and the amount of 6.85 x 10(-8) mol cm-2 reached optimum value at 1 min of Ar-plasma treatment. After Ar-plasma treated SR, the peroxide group (33D peak) was introduced on the surface of SR by negative spectra of secondary ion mass spectroscopy analysis, whereas ester groups (72D peak) were observed for pHEMA-grafted SR. For the in vitro test, the influence of various surfaces of SR on attachment and growth of rabbit corneal epithelial cells (CEC) was studied by cell culture assay. These results indicated that 56-150 micrograms cm-2 of pHEMA grafted onto SR were suitable values for attachment and growth of CEC. On the contrary, the large grafted amounts (500-1650 micrograms cm-2) of pHEMA on SR were insufficient for attachment and growth of CEC. For the in vivo test, the migration of CEC from host cornea to implant was investigated by slit lamp microscopy. The experimental results indicated that SRs grafted with pHEMA were completely covered with CEC 3 weeks after implantation of the membranes into the host cornea. These results provide a valuable reference for developing an artificial cornea.

Polyacrylic acid (PAA) was grafted onto the surface of silicone rubber membrane (SR) by plasma-induced graft copolymerization (PIP). Ar-plasma was used to activate the surface of SR. Also, a determination was made of the influences of plasma treatment power, pressure, time, grafted copolymerization reaction time, and monomer concentration on polymerization yield. The surface properties of SR were measured by ATR-FTIR, ESCA, and SIMS. In those analyses, the elemental composition and different carbon bindings on the surface of SR were examined by ESCA with the amount of O1s/C1s being approximately 0.7 at 60 s by Ar-plasma treatment (60 W, 200 mtorr). The peroxide group introduced on SR was measured via 1,1-diphenyl-2-picryhydrazyl (DPPH). The optimum amount of peroxide groups was 6.85 × 10−8 mol/cm2 at 60 s of Ar-plasma treatment. The peroxide group (33D peak) was introduced onto the surface of SR by negative spectra of SIMS analysis after SR treatment by Ar-plasma. An increase was obtained in grafted polymerization yield with a region of 5 to 50% (v/v) of acrylic acid aqueous solution. Both sites of polyacrylic acid were detected after staining by toluidine blue O. That is, a homobifunctional membrane was developed via this surface modification method. © 1996 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Polyacrylic acid (pAA) was introduced onto Ar-plasma treatment silicone rubber (SR) membrane surfaces by plasma-induced grafted polymerization. Collagen (type III) was also linked with the carboxylic group of pAA grafted onto the SR surface via a carbodiimine agent to obtain a secondary structure of SR. The SR surface properties were characterized by ATR-FTIR, ESCA, contact angle, and SEM. The biocompatibility of the SR surface was evaluated by a culture of cornea epithelial (CE) cells. Subsequently, 75-450 micrograms cm-2 of pAA were obtained on the SR surfaces under different reactive conditions; 3-12 micrograms cm-2 of collagen were linked on modified surfaces of SR. Moreover, ATR-FTIR and ESCA were utilized to confirm the proceedings of these reactions. The hydrophility of the modified SR was measured by a contact angle meter. The values of contact angle for SR grafted with pAA were approximately 45-50 degrees; a 50-55 degrees contact angle on pAA-g-SR to be further linked with collagen was subsequently obtained. Moreover, the influence of surface properties toward migration, growth and attachment of CE cells on the modified surfaces was also examined. Here, untreated SR was used as a control. Experimental results indicated that the number of CE cells attached onto the controlled SR was negligible. The attachment of cells onto pAA-grafted surfaces was clearly observed and peusopoda occurred; however, cell growth was depressed. This depression may have been caused by the acid environment of the pAA-grafted membrane. Nevertheless, both cell attachment and growth onto collagen-linked surfaces were significant. In addition, the morphology of the cells attached onto this surface was considered normal for primary cells. Collagen introduced on the SR surface was not denatured, i.e the natural properties of collagen were maintained. The results obtained in this study will hopefully lead to the successful development of modified SR for clinical applications.

The deposition of amorphous InGaZnO4 (a-IGZO) semiconductor film, via a sputtering process, has been demonstrated in the literature. In this paper, we present a solution method as an alternative to obtain this semiconducting film. The dispersible IGZO colloids is formed first by co-precipitation of precursors, followed by hydrothermal treatment at 200°C for 1 hour and using CMC as the dispersion agent. The crystalline colloid would become amorphous when it was heated at above 250°C. The TFT structure was made by growing a dielectric silica layer using the CVD method, a metal layer using the sputtering method, and an active IGZO layer using the solution method. This device exhibits low operating voltage, the mobility is about 2cm2V−1s−1 and the Ion/Ioff ratio is 104. Further improvement in processing is needed.

Traditionally, it is believed that more information leads to better buying decisions for consumers. However, as the amount of information increases beyond a threshold, consumers' subjective states towards decisions might adversely become worse. An experiment was used to examine these effects in the Internet shopping environment. The results reveal that cognitive involvement and self-efficacy moderate the relationship between information load and subjective state toward decision. However, the direct effects of information load are not significant.

The goal of this study was to determine if an iodinated, liposomal contrast agent could be used for high-resolution, micro-CT of low-contrast, small-size vessels in a murine model.A second-generation, liposomal blood pool contrast agent encapsulating a high concentration of iodine (83-105 mg I/mL) was evaluated. A total of five mice weighing between 20 and 28 g were infused with equivalent volume doses (500 microL of contrast agent/25 g of mouse weight) and imaged with our micro-CT system for intervals of up to 240 min postinfusion. The animals were anesthetized, mechanically ventilated, and vital signs monitored allowing for simultaneous cardiac and respiratory gating of image acquisition.Initial enhancement of about 900 H in the aorta was obtained, which decreased to a plateau level of approximately 800 H after 2 hr. Excellent contrast discrimination was shown between the myocardium and cardiac blood pool (650-700 H). No significant nephrogram was identified, indicating the absence of renal clearance of the agent.The liposomal-based iodinated contrast agent shows long residence time in the blood pool, very high attenuation within submillimeter vessels, and no significant renal clearance rendering it an effective contrast agent for murine vascular imaging using a micro-CT scanner.

The primary objective of this study is to prepare a highly biocompatible polymer membrane by surface modification and to further develop an artificial cornea. Novel heterobifunctional membranes prepared by grafting different functional polymers onto silicone rubber membranes were achieved. In this work, we report preparation and surface characterization of the heterobifunctional membranes, and their biological analysis (in vitro and in vivo studies). Based on the biological analysis, the heterobifunctional membrane exhibits high potential to be used as artificial cornea.

Therapeutics based on small interfering RNA (siRNA) have a great clinical potential; however, delivery problems have limited their clinical efficacy, and new siRNA delivery vehicles are greatly needed. In this report, we demonstrate that submicron particles (800-900 nm) composed of the polyketal PK3 and chloroquine, termed as the PKCNs, can deliver tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-alpha) siRNA in vivo to Kupffer cells efficiently and inhibit gene expression in the liver at concentrations as low as 3.5 microg/kg. The high delivery efficiency of the PKCNs arises from the unique properties of PK3, which can protect siRNA from serum nucleases, stimulate cell uptake and trigger a colloid osmotic disruption of the phagosome and release encapsulated siRNA into the cell cytoplasm. We anticipate numerous applications of the PKCNs for siRNA delivery to macrophages, given their high delivery efficiency, and the central role of macrophages in causing diseases such as hepatitis, liver cirrhosis and chronic renal disease.

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It was demonstrated that continuous copper films could be grown onto printed lines of nanosized silver colloids. These silver colloids, with an average size of ∼55 nm, were printed on alumina substrates by either an ink-jet printer or a felt-tip pen and then served as a seed layer for subsequent electroless copper plating. A complete copper film could be obtained in less than 10 min when the surface density of silver particles was greater than 1.5 × 10 9 cm -2 and an appropriate plating solution to produce a mean copper growth rate of 7.2 μm h -1 . After 30 min of growth and a resulting film thickness of ∼3.6 μm, the measured electric resistivity of the lines was about 1.8 X 10 -6 Ω cm, being very close to bulk copper. In addition, the measured peel adhesion strength between the deposited copper film and the Al 2 Ο 3 substrate was larger than 6 kg/cm.