Search results for "Spheres"
showing 10 items of 329 documents
Prostaglandin E(2)-loaded microspheres as strategy to inhibit phagocytosis and modulate inflammatory mediators release.
2008
PGE(2), an arachidonic acid metabolite produced by various type of cells regulates a broad range of physiological activities in the endocrine, cardiovascular, gastrointestinal, and immune systems, and is involved in maintaining the local homeostasis. In the immune system, PGE(2) is mainly produced by APCs and it can suppress the Th1-mediated immune responses. The aim of this study was to develop PGE(2)-loaded biodegradable MS that prolong and sustain the in vivo release of this mediator. An o/w emulsion solvent extraction-evaporation method was chosen to prepare the MS. We determined their diameters, evaluated the in vitro release of PGE(2), using enzyme immunoassay and MS uptake by periton…
Multilayer capsules: a promising microencapsulation system for transplantation of pancreatic islets
2001
In 1980, Lim and Sun introduced a microcapsule coated with an alginate/polylysine complex for encapsulation of pancreatic islets. Characteristic to this type of capsule is, that it consists of a plain membrane which is formed during a single procedural step. With such a simple process it is difficult to obtain instantly a membrane optimized with respect to all the properties requested for islet transplantation. To overcome these difficulties, it is recommended to build up the membrane in several consecutive steps, each optimized for a certain property. In this study, we have analysed such a multilayer microcapsule for the encapsulation of pancreatic islets. Therefore, empty and islet contai…
Weak chord-arc curves and double-dome quasisymmetric spheres
2014
Let $\Omega$ be a planar Jordan domain and $\alpha>0$. We consider double-dome-like surfaces $\Sigma(\Omega,t^{\alpha})$ over $\overline{\Omega}$ where the height of the surface over any point $x\in\overline{\Omega}$ equals $\text{dist}(x,\partial\Omega)^{\alpha}$. We identify the necessary and sufficient conditions in terms of $\Omega$ and $\alpha$ so that these surfaces are quasisymmetric to $\mathbb{S}^2$ and we show that $\Sigma(\Omega,t^{\alpha})$ is quasisymmetric to the unit sphere $\mathbb{S}^2$ if and only if it is linearly locally connected and Ahlfors $2$-regular.
Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor-Releasing Microspheres Based on Poly(ε-Caprolactone-PEG-ε-Caprolactone)-b-Poly(L-Lactide) Multiblock Copolymers In…
2020
Pancreatic islet transplantation is a promising advanced therapy that has been used to treat patients suffering from diabetes type 1. Traditionally, pancreatic islets are infused via the portal vein, which is subsequently intended to engraft in the liver. Severe immunosuppressive treatments are necessary, however, to prevent rejection of the transplanted islets. Novel approaches therefore have focused on encapsulation of the islets in biomaterial implants which can protect the islets and offer an organ-like environment. Vascularization of the device’s surface is a prerequisite for the survival and proper func- tioning of transplanted pancreatic islets. We are pursuing a prevascularization s…
Controlled assembly of single colloidal crystals using electro-osmotic micro-pumps.
2017
We assemble charged colloidal spheres at deliberately chosen locations on a charged unstructured glass substrate utilizing ion exchange based electro-osmotic micro-pumps. Using microscopy, a simple scaling theory and Brownian Dynamics simulations, we systematically explore the control parameters of crystal assembly and the mechanisms through which they depend on the experimental boundary conditions. We demonstrate that crystal quality depends crucially on the assembly distance of the colloids. This is understood as resulting from the competition between inward transport by the electro-osmotic pump flow and the electro-phoretic outward motion of the colloids. Optimized conditions include sub…
Crystallization of hard spheres revisited. II. Thermodynamic modeling, nucleation work, and the surface of tension
2018
Combining three numerical methods (forward flux sampling, seeding of droplets, and finite-size droplets), we probe the crystallization of hard spheres over the full range from close to coexistence to the spinodal regime. We show that all three methods allow us to sample different regimes and agree perfectly in the ranges where they overlap. By combining the nucleation work calculated from forward flux sampling of small droplets and the nucleation theorem, we show how to compute the nucleation work spanning three orders of magnitude. Using a variation of the nucleation theorem, we show how to extract the pressure difference between the solid droplet and ambient liquid. Moreover, combining th…
Polystyrene nanoparticle-templated hollow titania nanosphere monolayers as ordered scaffolds
2018
We report a novel multi-step method for the preparation of ordered mesoporous titania scaffolds and show an illustrative example of their application to solar cells. The method is based on (monolayer) colloidal nanosphere lithography that makes use of polystyrene nanoparticles organised at a water–air interface and subsequently transferred onto a solid substrate. A titania precursor solution (titanium(IV) isopropoxide in ethanol) is then drop-cast onto the monolayer and left to “incubate” overnight. Surprisingly, instead of the expected inverse monolayer-structure, a subsequent calcination step of the precursor yields an ordered monolayer of hollow titania nanospheres with a wall thickness …
Methods to Compute Pressure and Wall Tension in Fluids containing Hard Particles
2011
Colloidal systems are often modelled as fluids of hard particles (possibly with an additional soft attraction, e.g. caused by polymers also contained in the suspension). in simulations of such systems, the virial theorem cannot be straightforwardly applied to obtain the components of the pressure tensor. In systems confined by walls, it is hence also not straightforward to extract the excess energy due to the wall (the "wall tension") from the pressure tensor anisotropy. A comparative evaluation of several methods to circumvent this problem is presented, using as examples fluids of hard spheres and the Asakura-Oosawa model of colloid-polymer mixtures with a size ratio $q=0.15$ (for which th…
Darboux curves on surfaces I
2017
International audience; In 1872, G. Darboux defined a family of curves on surfaces of $\mathbb{R}^3$ which are preserved by the action of the Mobius group and share many properties with geodesics. Here, we characterize these curves under the view point of Lorentz geometry and prove that they are geodesics in a 3-dimensional sub-variety of a quadric $\Lambda^4$ contained in the 5-dimensional Lorentz space $\mathbb{R}^5_1$ naturally associated to the surface. We construct a new conformal object: the Darboux plane-field $\mathcal{D}$ and give a condition depending on the conformal principal curvatures of the surface which guarantees its integrability. We show that $\mathcal{D}$ is integrable w…
The non-degenerate Dupin cyclides in the space of spheres using Geometric Algebra
2012
International audience; Dupin cyclides are algebraic surfaces of degree 4 discovered by the French mathematician Pierre-Charles Dupin early in the 19th century and \textcolor{black}{were} introduced in CAD by R. Martin in 1982. A Dupin cyclide can be defined, in two different ways, as the envelope of a one-parameter family of oriented spheres. So, it is very interesting to model the Dupin cyclides in the space of spheres, space wherein each family of spheres can be seen as a conic curve. In this paper, we model the non-degenerate Dupin cyclides and the space of spheres using Conformal Geometric Algebra. This new approach permits us to benefit from the advantages of the use of Geometric Alge…