• Title/Summary/Keyword: Illinois Institute of Technology

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Islet function within a multilayer microcapsule and efficacy of angiogenic protein delivery in an omentum pouch graft

  • McQuilling, J.P.;Pareta, R.;Sivanandane, S.;Khanna, O.;Jiang, B.;Brey, E.M.;Orlando, G.;Farney, A.C.;Opara, E.C.
    • Biomaterials and Biomechanics in Bioengineering
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    • v.1 no.1
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    • pp.27-39
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    • 2014
  • We have previously described a new multilayer alginate microcapsule system, and the goals of the present study were to assess the in vitro function of islets encapsulated in its inner layer, and the angiogenic ability of FGF-1 delivered from the external layer in an omentum pouch. Following isolation and culture, islets were encapsulated in the inner core of microspheres ($500-600{\mu}m$ in diameter) with a semi-permeable poly-L-ornithine (PLO) membrane separating two alginate layers, and both unencapsulated and encapsulated islet function was assessed by a dynamic glucose perifusion. For angiogenesis experiments, one group of microcapsules without FGF-1 (control) and another (test) containing FGF-1 with heparin encapsulated in the external layer were made. One hundred microcapsules of each group were transplanted in Lewis rats (n = 5/group) and were retrieved after 14 days for assessment of angiogenesis. Glucose perifusion of unencapsulated and encapsulated islets resulted in similar stimulation indices. The release of FGF-1 resulted in increased vascular density compared to controls. In conclusion, islets encapsulated in the core of multilayer alginate microcapsules maintain functionality and the microcapsule's external layer is effective in delivery of FGF-1 to enhance graft neovascularization in a retrievable omentum pouch.

Power Electronic Converters for Fuel Cell Applications

  • Williamson S. S.;Emadi A.
    • Proceedings of the KIPE Conference
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    • 2001.10a
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    • pp.660-667
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    • 2001
  • Power electronics plays an important role in providing an interface between fuel cells and loads. Furthermore, power electronic converters ensure that the power is reliably and efficiently delivered to the load in the required DC or AC form. In this paper, major types of fuel cells are presented. Basic structures, operating principles, and different applications of fuel cells are described. In addition, current status and future trends in the areas of power electronics for fuel cell applications are explained. A review of fuel cell power electronic system topologies and basic requirements are given as well.

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Optimal Generation Asset Arbitrage In Electricity Markets

  • Shahidehpour Mohammad;Li Tao;Choi Jaeseok
    • KIEE International Transactions on Power Engineering
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    • v.5A no.4
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    • pp.311-321
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    • 2005
  • A competitive generating company (GENCO) could maximize its payoff by optimizing its generation assets. This paper considers the GENCO's arbitrage problem using price-based unit commitment (PBUC). The GENCO could consider arbitrage opportunities in purchases from qualifying facilities (QFs) as well as simultaneous trades with spots markets for energy, ancillary services, emission, and fuel. Given forecasted hourly market prices for each market, the GENCO's generating asset arbitrage problem is formulated as a mixed integer program (MIP) and solved by a branch-and-cut algorithm. A GENCO with 54 thermal and 12 combined-cycle units is considered for analyzing the proposed formulation. The proposed case studies illustrate the significance of simultaneous arbitrage by applying PBUC to multi-commodity markets.

Molecular dynamics simulation of bulk silicon under strain

  • Zhao, H.;Aluru, N.R.
    • Interaction and multiscale mechanics
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    • v.1 no.2
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    • pp.303-315
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    • 2008
  • In this paper, thermodynamical properties of crystalline silicon under strain are calculated using classical molecular dynamics (MD) simulations based on the Tersoff interatomic potential. The Helmholtz free energy of the silicon crystal under strain is calculated by using the ensemble method developed by Frenkel and Ladd (1984). To account for quantum corrections under strain in the classical MD simulations, we propose an approach where the quantum corrections to the internal energy and the Helmholtz free energy are obtained by using the corresponding energy deviation between the classical and quantum harmonic oscillators. We calculate the variation of thermodynamic properties with temperature and strain and compare them with results obtained by using the quasi-harmonic model in the reciprocal space.

Adaptive Motion Vector Smoothing for Improving Side Information in Distributed Video Coding

  • Guo, Jun;Kim, Joo-Hee
    • Journal of Information Processing Systems
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    • v.7 no.1
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    • pp.103-110
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    • 2011
  • In this paper, an adaptive motion vector smoothing scheme based on weighted vector median filtering is proposed in order to eliminate the motion outliers more effectively for improving the quality of side information in frame-based distributed video coding. We use a simple motion vector outlier reliability measure for each block in a motion compensated interpolated frame and apply weighted vector median filtering only to the blocks with unreliable motion vectors. Simulation results show that the proposed adaptive motion vector smoothing algorithm improves the quality of the side information significantly while maintaining low complexity at the encoder in frame-based distributed video coding.