摘要:
Described are tubular silk fibroin compositions and methods for their manufacture and use. Tubular compositions as described herein can be produced in a range of high burst strengths, can easily be made in a range of inner diameters, can be derivatized with functional moieties, and can be produced in a range of permeabilities suitable for particularized uses. In one aspect, the tubular compositions can be used in the repair or replacement of damaged or diseased blood vessels, including, but not limited to vessels smaller than about 6 mm.
摘要:
The present invention provides for novel sustained release silk-based delivery systems. The invention further provides methods for producing such formulations. In general, a silk fibroin solution is combined with a therapeutic agent to form a silk fibroin article. The article is then treated in such a way as to alter its conformation. The change in conformation increases its crytallinity or liquid crystallinity, thus controlling the release of a therapeutic agent from the formulation. This can be accomplished as single material carriers or in a layer-by-layer fashion to load different therapeutic agents or different concentrations of these agents in each layer.
摘要:
The present invention provides an all-aqueous process and composition for production of silk biomaterials, e.g., fibers, films, foams and mats. In the process, at least one biocompatible polymer, such as poly(ethylene oxide) (PEO) (a well-documented biocompatible material), was blended with the silk protein prior to processing e.g., electrospinning. We discovered that this step avoids problems associated with conformational transitions of fibroin during solubilization and reprocessing from aqueous solution which lead to embrittled materials. Moreover, the process avoids the use of organic solvents that can pose problems when the processed biomaterials are exposed to cells in vitro or in vivo.
摘要:
The present invention provides an all-aqueous process and composition for production of silk biomaterials, e.g., fibers, films, foams and mats. In the process, at least one biocompatible polymer, such as poly(ethylene oxide) (PEO) (a well-documented biocompatible material), was blended with the silk protein prior to processing e.g., electrospinning. We discovered that this step avoids problems associated with conformational transitions of fibroin during solubilization and reprocessing from aqueous solution which lead to embrittled materials. Moreover, the process avoids the use of organic solvents that can pose problems when the processed biomaterials are exposed to cells in vitro or in vivo.
摘要:
A method of manufacturing a biopolymer optofluidic device including providing a biopolymer, processing the biopolymer to yield a biopolymer matrix solution, providing a substrate, casting the biopolymer matrix solution on the substrate, embedding a channel mold in the biopolymer matrix solution, drying the biopolymer matrix solution to solidify biopolymer optofluidic device, and extracting the embedded channel mold to provide a fluidic channel in the solidified biopolymer optofluidic device. In accordance with another aspect, an optofluidic device is provided that is made of a biopolymer and that has a channel therein for conveying fluid.
摘要:
A method of manufacturing a microfluidic device having at least one cylindrical microchannel includes providing a substrate, casting an uncured polymer matrix solution onto the substrate, embedding an elongated rod in the uncured polymer matrix solution, curing the polymer matrix solution to form a solidified body, and extracting the elongated rod to form the cylindrical microchannel in the solidified body. In another embodiment, the method includes forming an optical feature on a surface of the microfluidic device. A microfluidic device is also provided, the device including a polymer body, and at least one cylindrical microchannel in the polymer body, the cylindrical microchannel having a diameter between approximately 40 ?m and 250 ?m, inclusive. An additional microfluidic device is provided that functions as an optofluidic spectrometer. The optofluidic spectrometer includes a polymer body, a diffraction grating integrated within the polymer body, and a cylindrical microchannel behind the diffraction grating on the polymer body.
摘要:
Systems and methods are described for a power aggregation system. In one implementation, a system includes a transceiver device physically coupled to an electric resource, the transceiver device being configured to provide information about the electric resource to a charging component. Additionally, such a system may include a charging component, the charging component being coupled to the electric resource via a charging medium and communicatively coupled to the transceiver device. The charging component may also be configured to receive the electric resource information from the transceiver and, in response, effectuate charge control management of the electric resource.
摘要:
The claimed invention provides a fusion polypeptide comprising a fibrous protein domain and a mineralization domain. The fusion is used to form an organic-inorganic composite. These organic-inorganic composites can be constructed from the nano- to the macro-scale depending on the size of the fibrous protein fusion domain used. In one embodiment, the composites can also be loaded with other compounds (e.g., dyes, drugs, enzymes) depending on the goal for the materials, to further enhance function. This can be achieved during assembly of the material or during the mineralization step in materials formation.
摘要:
Systems and methods are described for collecting and distributing environmental impact offset payments at the point of sale of a fuel. An exemplary method presents a user interface at a point of sale of a purchase of a fuel, receives via the user interface a user-selection indicating an intention of the user to pay an environmental impact offset fee associated with the purchase, presents a choice to the user of making a custom offset payment or of buying a fuel that has the offset fee included in the price of the fuel, and calculates a custom offset payment for the purchase. The custom offset payment can be based on such considerations as an energy equivalency of the fuel purchased, volume or weight of the fuel being purchased, fuel type, fuel grade, e.g., octane level, oxygenation level, temperature of the fuel, fuel composition, climatic data, regional variation in fuel composition, efficiency of a vehicle receiving the fuel, pollution control capability of the vehicle receiving the fuel, and life-cycle environmental impacts of fuels, such as costs for extraction, processing, delivery, and combustion.
摘要:
A server architecture has a server program to receive client requests and multiple applications to process the requests. Each application comprises a collection of agents that can be invoked to process the requests and an application manager that manages the collection of agents. The agents within the associated collection are independent from, but dynamically accessible by, the application manager. Depending on the request, the application manager selects one or more agents to generate content to be returned to the client. An application manager director manages the application managers and facilitates delivery of the client requests from the server program to the suitable application. The application managers are independent from, but dynamically accessible by, the application manager director. For a given request, the director selects the appropriate application manager to handle the request. The application manager, in turn, selects the appropriate agent to process the request. The applications, including the agents and associated application managers, can be run either in-process or out-of-process with the server program. The server architecture has a detection and recovery subsystem that detects when an out-of-process application crashes and then recovers the application from that crash. The subsystem logs requests when they are passed to the out-of-process application, and remove the requests from the log when responses to the requests are returned from the application. If the out-of-process application crashes while one or more requests are outstanding, those requests remain listed on the log and thus readily identifiable. During recovery, the subsystem cleans up the outstanding requests until the log is cleared. Thereafter, the subsystem restarts the failed application to restore the service.