The results clearly showed the significance of microstructural barriers for short fatigue crack growth at the surface, as well as into the material. The investigation presented aims for a better understanding of the three-dimensional mechanisms governing short fatigue crack propagation and, in particular, the effect of residual stresses on these mechanisms. The final goal was to generate tailored microstructures for improved fatigue resistance and enhanced fatigue life.Multiple sclerosis (MS) has been considered to specifically affect the central nervous system (CNS) for a long time. As autonomic dysfunction including dysphagia can occur as accompanying phenomena in patients, the enteric nervous system has been attracting increasing attention over the past years. The aim of this study was to identify glial and myelin markers as potential target structures for autoimmune processes in the esophagus. RT-PCR analysis revealed glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP), proteolipid protein (PLP), and myelin basic protein (MBP) expression, but an absence of myelin oligodendrocyte glycoprotein (MOG) in the murine esophagus. Selected immunohistochemistry for GFAP, PLP, and MBP including transgenic mice with cell-type specific expression of PLP and GFAP supported these results by detection of (1) GFAP, PLP, and MBP in Schwann cells in skeletal muscle and esophagus; (2) GFAP, PLP, but no MBP in perisynaptic Schwann cells of skeletal and esophageal motor endplates; (3) GFAP and PLP, but no MBP in glial cells surrounding esophageal myenteric neurons; and (4) PLP, but no GFAP and MBP in enteric glial cells forming a network in the esophagus. Our results pave the way for further investigations regarding the involvement of esophageal glial cells in the pathogenesis of dysphagia in MS.The use of whole blood and some biological specimens, such as urine, saliva, and seminal fluid are limited in clinical laboratory analysis due to the interference of proteins with other small molecules in the matrix and blood cells with optical detection methods. Previously, we developed a microfluidic device featuring an electrokinetic size and mobility trap (SMT) for on-chip extract, concentrate, and separate small molecules from a biological sample like whole blood. The device was used to on-chip filtrate the whole blood from the blood cells and plasma proteins and then on-chip extract and separate the aminoglycoside antibiotic drugs within 3 min. Herein, a novel microfluidic device featuring a nano-junction similar to those reported in the previous work formed by dielectric breakdown was developed for on-chip filtration and out-chip collection of blood plasma with a high extraction yield of 62% within less than 5 min. The filtered plasma was analyzed using our previous device to show the ability of this new device to remove blood cells and plasma proteins. The filtration device shows a high yield of plasma allowing it to detect a low concentration of analytes from the whole blood.Wound infections are common medical problems in sub-Saharan Africa but data on the molecular epidemiology are rare. Within this study we assessed the clonal lineages, resistance genes and virulence factors of Gram-negative bacteria isolated from Ghanaian patients with chronic wounds. From a previous study, 49 Pseudomonas aeruginosa, 21 Klebsiellapneumoniae complex members and 12 Escherichia coli were subjected to whole genome sequencing. Sequence analysis indicated high clonal diversity with only nine P. aeruginosa clusters comprising two strains each and one E. coli cluster comprising three strains with high phylogenetic relationship suggesting nosocomial transmission. Acquired beta-lactamase genes were observed in some isolates next to a broad spectrum of additional genetic resistance determinants. Phenotypical expression of extended-spectrum beta-lactamase activity in the Enterobacterales was associated with blaCTX-M-15 genes, which are frequent in Ghana. Frequently recorded virulence genes comprised genes related to invasion and iron-uptake in E. coli, genes related to adherence, iron-uptake, secretion systems and antiphagocytosis in P. aeruginosa and genes related to adherence, biofilm formation, immune evasion, iron-uptake and secretion systems in K. pneumonia complex. In summary, the study provides a piece in the puzzle of the molecular epidemiology of Gram-negative bacteria in chronic wounds in rural Ghana.Autonomous underwater vehicles (AUV) are seen as an emerging technology for maritime exploration but are still restricted by the availability of short range, accurate positioning methods necessary, e.g., when docking remote assets. Typical techniques used for high-accuracy positioning in indoor use case scenarios, such as systems using ultra-wide band radio signals (UWB), cannot be applied for underwater positioning because of the quick absorption of the positioning medium caused by the water. Acoustic and optic solutions for underwater positioning also face known problems, such as the multi-path effects, high propagation delay (acoustics), and environmental dependency. This paper presents an oscillating magnetic field-based indoor and underwater positioning system. Finerenone price Unlike those radio wave-based positioning modalities, the magnetic approach generates a bubble-formed magnetic field that will not be deformed by the environmental variation because of the very similar permeability of water and air. The proposed system achieves an underwater positioning mean accuracy of 13.3 cm in 2D and 19.0 cm in 3D with the multi-lateration positioning method and concludes the potential of the magnetic field-based positioning technique for underwater applications. A similar accuracy was also achieved for various indoor environments that were used to test the influence of cluttered environment and of cross environment. The low cost and power consumption system is scalable for extensive coverage area and could plug-and-play without pre-calibration.This paper proposes an action recognition algorithm based on the capsule network and Kalman filter called “Reading Pictures Instead of Looking” (RPIL). This method resolves the convolutional neural network’s over sensitivity to rotation and scaling and increases the interpretability of the model as per the spatial coordinates in graphics. The capsule network is first used to obtain the components of the target human body. The detected parts and their attribute parameters (e.g., spatial coordinates, color) are then analyzed by Bert. A Kalman filter analyzes the predicted capsules and filters out any misinformation to prevent the action recognition results from being affected by incorrectly predicted capsules. The parameters between neuron layers are evaluated, then the structure is pruned into a dendritic network to enhance the computational efficiency of the algorithm. This minimizes the dependence of in-depth learning on the random features extracted by the CNN without sacrificing the model’s accuracy. The association between hidden layers of the neural network is also explained.