Development of 3D Printed Electrospun Scaffolds for the Fabrication of Porous Scaffolds for Vascular Applications.

Over the past two decades, electrospinning has emerged as a common technique to produce biomedical scaffolds composed of ultrafine fibers formed from many natural and synthetic polymers. A major advantage of this technique is the ability to produce scaffolds that resemble the native extracellular matrix in physical, chemical, and topological properties. However, scaffolds fabricated via electrospinning are not formed with a controlled architecture and typically do a poor job of directing cell growth into prescribed structures for tissue/organ development.

Photo-sensitive "flip-flop" characteristics of the developing Narcissus plant (daffodil phototropism).

The developing Narcissus pseudonarcissus plant (daffodil) is shown to face towards a preferential direction (east, south, west, or north, in that order) before flowering. Said directionality is accomplished by stem bending, a phototropic response mechanism, which is sensitive to partial blocking of the available sunlight from the local environmental. Polar distribution diagrams show that with partial environmental shading from the north, east, south, or west, the developing daffodil plant always excludes facing in that direction, to absorb maximum available sunlight.

The effect of heterobifunctional crosslinkers on HEMA hydrogel modulus and toughness.

The use of hydrogels in load bearing applications is often limited by insufficient toughness. 2-Hydroxyethyl methacrylate (HEMA) based hydrogels are appealing for translational work, as they are affordable and the use of HEMA is FDA approved. Furthermore, HEMA is photopolymerizable, providing spatiotemporal control over mechanical properties.

New product, old problem(s): multistate outbreak of Paratyphi B variant L(+) tartrate(+) infections linked to raw sprouted nut butters, October 2015.

A cluster of Salmonella Paratyphi B variant L(+) tartrate(+) infections with indistinguishable pulsed-field gel electrophoresis patterns was detected in October 2015. Interviews initially identified nut butters, kale, kombucha, chia seeds and nutrition bars as common exposures. Epidemiologic, environmental and traceback investigations were conducted.