Exploiting Exosomes in Cancer Liquid Biopsies and Drug Delivery.

Exosomes are cell-derived nanovesicles that transfer molecular cargo from donor to recipient cells and mediate intercellular communication. Advancement in elucidating the biological capabilities and functionalities of exosomes has revealed the striking roles of exosomes as conveyors of bioactive molecules across the biological barriers. Tumor-derived exosomes hold great promise to serve as a liquid biopsy tool for cancer diagnosis and prognosis, as large quantities of exosomes are excreted by tumor cells continuously into the circulation, carrying the molecular cargo (DNA, RNA, proteins) reflective of the genetic and signaling alterations in tumor cells.

Modeling Dewatered Domains in Multilayer Analytic Element Models.

This proposed technique allows sensible and numerically stable behavior in multilayer analytic element models when layers dewater. When saturated thickness approaches zero in an unconfined or fresh/salt interface domain, the domain transitions to a very thin confined domain with a minimum saturated thickness M. M is an adjustable input parameter, so you can make the horizontal flow in dewatered domains negligibly small by making the minimum saturated thickness very small.

Analytic Element Modeling of Steady Interface Flow in Multilayer Aquifers Using AnAqSim.

This paper presents the analytic element modeling approach implemented in the software AnAqSim for simulating steady groundwater flow with a sharp fresh-salt interface in multilayer (three-dimensional) aquifer systems. Compared with numerical methods for variable-density interface modeling, this approach allows quick model construction and can yield useful guidance about the three-dimensional configuration of an interface even at a large scale. The approach employs subdomains and multiple layers as outlined by Fitts (2010) with the addition of discharge potentials for shallow interface flow (Strack 1989).

Exact solution for two-dimensional flow to a well in an anisotropic domain.

Although most current applications of the analytic element method are formulated for isotropic hydraulic conductivity, anisotropic domains can be modeled with analytic elements using the well-known coordinate transformation where one coordinate axis is scaled by the square root of the anisotropy ratio. If the standard analytic solution for steady radial flow to a well is used with this coordinate transformation, the resulting solution correctly models the far field but it does not meet the constant head boundary condition at the well radius. This could be a significant shortcoming if you are interested in the flow field close to the well or want to estimate the head at the pumping well.