Erythrocyte morphological symmetry analysis to detect sublethal trauma in shear flow

The viscoelastic properties of red blood cells (RBC) facilitate flexible shape change in response to extrinsic forces. Their viscoelasticity is intrinsically linked to physical properties of the cytosol, cytoskeleton, and membrane—all of which are highly sensitive to supraphysiological shear exposure. Given the need to minimise blood trauma within artificial organs, we observed RBC in supraphysiological shear through direct visualisation to gain understanding of processes leading to blood damage. Using a custom-built counter-rotating shear generator fit to a microscope, healthy red blood cells (RBC) were directly visualised during exposure to different levels of shear (10–60 Pa). To investigate RBC morphology in shear flow, we developed an image analysis method to quantify (a)symmetry of deforming ellipsoidal cells—following RBC identification and centroid detection, cell radius was determined for each angle around the circumference of the cell, and the resultant bimodal distribution (and thus RBC) was symmetrically compared. While traditional indices of RBC deformability (elongation index) remained unaltered in all shear conditions, following ~100 s of exposure to 60 Pa, the frequency of asymmetrical ellipses and RBC fragments/extracellular vesicles significantly increased. These findings indicate RBC structure is sensitive to shear history, where asymmetrical morphology may indicate sublethal blood damage in real-time shear flow.

Bio-Mechanical and Bio-Rheological Aspects of Sickle Red Cells in Microcirculation: A Mathematical Modelling Approach

Sickle cell disease (SCD) is an inherited monogenic disease characterized by distorted red blood cells that causes vaso-occlusion and vasculopathy. Presently, electrophoresis of haemoglobin and genotyping are used as routine tests for diagnosis of the SCD. These techniques require specialized laboratories and are expensive. The low-cost microfluidics-based diagnostic tool holds a great attention for screening of red blood cell (RBC) deformability. In the present study, lubrication theory has been applied in order to develop a biomechanical model of microcirculation with altered rheological properties of sickle blood in the capillary, which is smaller in size compared to the cell diameter, to explain the multifactorial nature and pathogenesis of vaso-occlusion in SCD. The governing equations have been solved analytically for realistic boundary conditions and simulated using MATLAB. We found that the axial velocity of the cell decreases with a decrease in deformability and compliance. The height of the lubricating film predicts deformation of the cell with respect to local pressure in the microcirculation. Leak back and drag force depend non-linearly on the deformed cell radius with varying viscosity of the plasma and Reynolds number. The modelling predictions of this study is in coherence with experimental results. The analyzed parameters provide unique insights with novel possibilities to design a microfluidics-based effective therapeutic intervention for SCD.

Assessing the Mechanical Properties of 3D Printed Bio-Inspired Structures and Integrating Them Into a Product

The Honeycomb structure is one of the most common natural structures used in sandwich panel cores. The Enamel structure’s mechanical properties were compared to the Honeycomb structure’s mechanical properties to investigate if the Enamel structure can improve the compressive strength, stiffness and energy absorption capabilities of sandwich panel cores and potentially replace the common Honeycomb structure. Also, the optimal cellular configurations for the Honeycomb and Enamel structures were explored. Indeed, it was found the Enamel structure can potentially replace the Honeycomb structure and a wall thickness of 1.2 mm and a wall length/cell radius of 8.14 mm will maximize the natural structures mechanical properties. Furthermore, it was found that both the natural structures have good compressive strength. Therefore, the natural structures with their optimal cellular configurations were integrated into a novel automobile floor mat to ensure the mat possesses good compressive strength to resist failure or permanent deformation. Moreover, the novel automobile floor mat has a design feature that offers an efficient debris capturing and removal system that adds value to the automobile floor mat.

Perencanaan Coverage Jaringan 5G Berdasarkan Propagasi Rugi Rugi Lintasan dan Shadowing

<p>Permintaan dan kebutuhan terhadap layanan jaringan yang lebih cendrung ke arah layanan data yang cepat dan bergerak, maka mendorong diperlukannya penerapan teknologi 5G. Teknologi 5G belum diimplementasikan di Indonesia. Sehingga pada penelitian ini dilakukan perencanaan jaringan 5G menggunakan sistem 5G dengan frekuensi 869 MHz di Kota Denpasar memanfaatkan menara <em>rooftop</em>. Menara <em>rooftop</em> digunakan untuk menghemat ruang, lahan yang sifatnya terbatas, dan nilai estetika. Untuk itu lokasi menara ditempatkan pada bangunan yang bernama balai banjar. Ketinggian menara menyesuaikan dengan jumlah lantai dari balai banjar. Apabila balai banjar memiliki 1, 2, dan 3 lantai maka ketinggian menara juga menyesuaikan. Ketinggian menara secara berturut-turut adalah 13, 18 dan 22 meter. Pada perencanaan <em>coverage</em> menggunakan model propagasi rugi-rugi lintasan dengan pengaruh <em>shadowing</em>. Model propagasi ini digunakan dengan pertimbangan penggunaan frekuensi yang fleksibel dan kota Denpasar merupakan daerah urban. Tujuan dari penelitian ini adalah untuk mengetahui pemetaan lokasi menara <em>rooftop</em> dan <em>coverage</em> jaringan 5G di Kota Denpasar. Sehingga hasilnya dapat dijadikan pertimbangan dalam perencanaan jaringan 5G yang menggunakan menara <em>rooftop</em>. Perencanaan jaringan 5G dilakukan melalui menghitung jari-jari sel dengan model propagasi rugi-rugi lintasan dengan pengaruh <em>shadowing</em>, menghitung <em>coverage</em>, menghitung jumlah lokasi menara <em>rooftop</em>, dan pemetaan pada <em>google</em> <em>earth</em>. Hasil analisis adalah jari-jari yang dihasilkan adalah 70,4479 m dengan luas <em>coverage</em> 0,0129 km². Jumlah menara <em>rooftop</em> yang diperlukan adalah 366 ditempatkan di balai banjar dan 11.550 ditempatkan di luar balai banjar. Sehingga pemanfaatan lokasi balai banjar sebagai lahan lokasi menara <em>rooftop</em> adalah sebesar 3,07% dan di luar balai banjar sebesar 96,93%.</p><p> </p><p><em><strong>Abstract</strong></em></p><p><em>The demand for and the need for network services that are more inclined towards fast and mobile data services, encourages the need for the application of 5G technology. 5G technology has not been implemented in Indonesia. So that in this study, a 5G network planning was carried out using a 5G system with a frequency of 869 MHz in Denpasar City using a rooftop tower. Rooftop towers are used to save space, limited land, and aesthetic value. For this reason, the location of the tower is placed in a building called the balai banjar.</em> <em>The height of the tower adjusts to the number of floors of the balai banjar. If the balai banjar has 1, 2, and 3 floors, the tower height will also adjust. The tower heights are 13, 18 and 22 meters, respectively. In coverage planning using the path loss propagation model with shadowing effect. This propagation model is used considering the use of flexible frequencies and the city of Denpasar is an urban area. The purpose of this study is to determine the mapping of the rooftop tower location and 5G network coverage in Denpasar City. So that the results can be taken into consideration in planning a 5G network that uses a rooftop tower. Planning for the 5G network is done by calculating the cell radius with the path loss propagation model with the shadowing effect, calculating coverage, calculating the number of rooftop tower locations, and mapping on Google Earth. The result of the analysis is that the resulting radius is 70.4479 m with a coverage area of 0.0129 km². The required number of rooftop towers is 366 placed in the balai banjar and 11,550 placed outside the balai banjar. So that the use of the balai banjar location as a rooftop tower location is 3.07% and outside the balai banjar is 96.93%.</em></p><p><em><strong><br /></strong></em></p>

Deploying an NFV-Based Experimentation Scenario for 5G Solutions in Underserved Areas

Presently, a significant part of the world population does not have Internet access. The fifth-generation cellular network technology evolution (5G) is focused on reducing latency, increasing the available bandwidth, and enhancing network performance. However, researchers and companies have not invested enough effort into the deployment of the Internet in remote/rural/undeveloped areas for different techno-economic reasons. This article presents the result of a collaboration between Brazil and the European Union, introducing the steps designed to create a fully operational experimentation scenario with the main purpose of integrating the different achievements of the H2020 5G-RANGE project so that they can be trialed together into a 5G networking use case. The scenario encompasses (i) a novel radio access network that targets a bandwidth of 100 Mb/s in a cell radius of 50 km, and (ii) a network of Small Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (SUAV). This set of SUAVs is NFV-enabled, on top of which Virtual Network Functions (VNF) can be automatically deployed to support occasional network communications beyond the boundaries of the 5G-RANGE radio cells. The whole deployment implies the use of a virtual private overlay network enabling the preliminary validation of the scenario components from their respective remote locations, and simplifying their subsequent integration into a single local demonstrator, the configuration of the required GRE/IPSec tunnels, the integration of the new 5G-RANGE physical, MAC and network layer components and the overall validation with voice and data services.

Subfield-specific Effects of Chronic Mild Unpredictable Stress on Hippocampal Astrocytes

Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) is a debilitating neuropsychiatric illness affecting over 20% of the population worldwide. Despite its prevalence, our understanding of its pathophysiology is severely limited, thus hampering the development of novel therapeutic strategies. Recent advances have clearly established astrocytes as major players in the pathophysiology, and plausibly pathogenesis, of major depression. In particular, astrocyte density in the hippocampus is severely diminished in MDD patients and correlates strongly with the disease outcome. Moreover, astrocyte densities from different subfields of the hippocampus show varying trends in terms of their correlation to the disease outcome. Given the central role that hippocampus plays in the pathophysiology of depression and in the action of antidepressant drugs, changes in hippocampal astrocyte density and physiology may have a significant effect on behavioral symptoms of MDD. In this study, we used Chronic Mild Unpredictable Stress (CMUS) in mice, which induces a depressive-like state, and examined its effects on astrocytes from different subfields of the hippocampus. We used S100β immunostaining to estimate the number of astrocytes per mm2 from various hippocampal subfields. Furthermore, using confocal images of fluorescently labeled GFAP-immunopositive hippocampal astrocytes, we quantified various morphology-related parameters and performed Sholl analysis. We found that CMUS exerts differential effects on astrocyte cell density, ramification, cell radius, surface area, and process width of hippocampal astrocytes from different hippocampal subfields. Taken together, our study reveals that chronic stress doesn’t uniformly affect all hippocampal astrocytes; but exerts its effects differentially on different astrocytic subpopulations within the hippocampus.

Radio Resource Allocation For Device to Device Network Using Auction Algorithm

One application of communication from the 5G network in the future is to implement Device to Device (D2D) into heterogeneous multi-tiered communication networks consisting of small cell communications between eNB, cellular and D2D. The application of D2D is useful for the future even though it has several problems with one of them being interference with the frequency of other devices in the same cell. This can affect Quality of Service (QoS) in D2D communication so that it requires the application of a resource allocation distribution that can increase data rate and reduce interference. One of the algorithms used for the distribution of resource allocation in communication network systems is the Auction allocation algorithm. The auction allocation algorithm introduced in this journal provides a solution to divide resources fairly for all D2D pairs. The data rate increases by increasing the number of resource blocks and decreasing the cell radius.

Quality of Service of VoIP over WiMAX

In this paper, the Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) was analyzed, and the performance of the quality of service (QoS) parameters obtained through the OPNET simulation software was evaluated. The case study started with the analysis of the network structure .It examined the optimal planning parameters and considered to optimize the performance of the Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access network to increase the VoIP service performance. The simulation covered three scenarios with different configurations; each scenario was elevated in term of QoS. The simulations studied various cases including variation in cell radius, different number of users, and different number of cells. Results showed that increasing the cell radius does not increase the quality of the network, and increasing the number of users inside one cell also degrades the quality of the network. By contrast, distributing users into different cells increasesthe network performance but enhances the delay time and increases the throughput.

Collective cell migration without proliferation: density determines cell velocity and wave velocity

Collective cell migration contributes to morphogenesis, wound healing or tumor metastasis. Culturing epithelial monolayers on a substrate enables to quantify such tissue migration. By using narrow strips, we stabilise the front shape; by inhibiting cell division, we limit density increase and favor steady migration; by using long strips, we observe a confined cell monolayer migrating over days. A coherent collective movement propagates over millimeters; cells spread and density decreases from the monolayer bulk toward the front. Cell velocity (∼micrometer per minute) increases linearly with cell radius, and does not depend explicitly on the distance to the front. Over ten periods of backwards propagating velocity waves, with wavelength ∼millimeter, are detected with a signal-to-noise ratio enabling for quantitative spatio-temporal analysis. Their velocity (∼ten micrometers per minute) is ten times the cell velocity; it increases linearly with the cell radius. Their period (∼two hours) is spatially homogeneous, and increases with the front density. When we inhibit the formation of lamellipodia, cell velocity drops while waves either disappear, or have a smaller amplitude and slower period. Our phenomenological model assumes that both cell and wave velocities are related with the activity of lamellipodia, and that the local stretching in the monolayer bulk modulates traction stresses. We find that parameter values close to the instability limit where waves appear yield qualitative and quantitative predictions compatible with experiments, including the facts that: waves propagate backwards; wave velocity increases with cell radius; lamellipodia inhibition attenuates, slows down or even suppresses the waves. Together, our experiments and modelling evidence the importance of lamellipodia in collective cell migration and waves.