Engineering with Computers - To increase the efficiency and accuracy in slope stability analysis, a reliability analysis method based on machine learning and the advanced first-order second-moment... 相似文献
The esophagus is a tubular-shaped muscular organ where swallowed fluids and muscular contractions constitute a highly dynamic environment. The turbulent, coordinated processes that occur through the oropharyngeal conduit can often compromise targeted administration of therapeutic drugs to a lesion, significantly reducing therapeutic efficacy. Here, magnetically guidable drug vehicles capable of strongly adhering to target sites using a bioengineered mussel adhesive protein (MAP) to achieve localized delivery of therapeutic drugs against the hydrodynamic physiological conditions are proposed. A suite of highly uniform microparticles embedded with iron oxide (IO) nanoparticles (MAP@IO MPs) is microfluidically fabricated using the genipin-mediated covalent cross-linking of bioengineered MAP. The MAP@IO MPs are successfully targeted to a specific region and prolongedly retained in the tubular-structured passageway. In particular, orally administered MAP@IO MPs are effectively captured in the esophagus in vivo in a magnetically guidable manner. Moreover, doxorubicin (DOX)-loaded MAP@IO MPs exhibit a sustainable DOX release profile, effective anticancer therapeutic activity, and excellent biocompatibility. Thus, the magnetically guidable locomotion and robust underwater adhesive properties of the proteinaceous soft microbots can provide an intelligent modular approach for targeted locoregional therapeutics delivery to a specific lesion site in dynamic fluid-associated tubular organs such as the esophagus. 相似文献
Topics in Catalysis - Fischer–Tropsch synthesis (FTS) is a promising way to produce clean liquid fuels and high value-added chemicals from low-value carbon-containing resources such as coal,... 相似文献
The number of infertile couples considering using assisted reproductive technologies (ARTs) is growing. Several key indices, such as sperm concentration and motility, are considered when determining an appropriate technique among the existing ARTs. While microscopy is the only way to observe sperms, this method tends to overlook the actual swimming ability of sperms because sperms can be observed only within a very narrow field of view (FOV). In this paper, we propose a microfluidic chip capable of measuring the motility of sperms by inducing the actual swimming ability of sperms in microchannels. To determine whether sperms swim by themselves and reach the target point, 5–10 min is required in an incubator at 37 °C, which inevitably causes the evaporation of the fluid at the microfluidic chip inlet or outlet. A unique structure has been added to the microfluidic chip to prevent unwanted fluid flow due to evaporation, and counting and sorting capabilities of the fabricated device have been experimentally demonstrated. The microfluidic chip is shown to have a good agreement with commercial chips in total sperm counting. Another feature of sorting motile and progressive sperm to 95% on one chip is also verified. This feature differentiates our solution from the existing commercial chips and can help increase the success rate of ARTs. The developed MFC can provide a way to determine the actual swimming motility of sperms using a microscope in small clinics or a portable kit which is publicly available without the expensive sperm analysis equipment.
The generation of ammonia, hydrogen production, and nitrogen purification are considered as energy intensive processes accompanied with large amounts of CO2 emission. An electrochemical method assisted by photoenergy is widely utilized for the chemical energy conversion. In this work, earth‐abundant iron pyrite (FeS2) nanocrystals grown on carbon fiber paper (FeS2/CFP) are found to be an electrochemical and photoactive catalyst for nitrogen reduction reaction under ambient temperature and pressure. The electrochemical results reveal that FeS2/CFP achieves a high Faradaic efficiency (FE) of ≈14.14% and NH3 yield rate of ≈0.096 µg min?1 at ?0.6 V versus RHE electrode in 0.25 m LiClO4. During the electrochemical catalytic reaction, the crystal structure of FeS2/CFP remains in the cubic pyrite phase, as analyzed by in situ X‐ray diffraction measurements. With near‐infrared laser irradiation (808 nm), the NH3 yield rate of the FeS2/CFP catalyst can be slightly improved to 0.1 µg min?1 with high FE of 14.57%. Furthermore, density functional theory calculations demonstrate that the N2 molecule has strong chemical adsorption energy on the iron atom of FeS2. Overall, iron pyrite‐based materials have proven to be a potential electrocatalyst with photoactive behavior for ammonia production in practical applications. 相似文献