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Photodynamic therapy (PDT) using 5-aminolevulinic acid (ALA) prodrug is a clinically tried and proven treatment modality for surface-level lesions. However, its use for deep-seated tumors has been limited due to the poor penetration depth of visible light needed to activate the photosensitizer protoporphyrin IX (PPIX), which is produced from ALA metabolism. Herein, we report the usage of poly(ethylene glycol- b -lactic acid) (PEG–PLA)-encapsulated calcium tungstate (CaWO 4 , CWO for short) nanoparticles (PEG–PLA/CWO NPs) as energy transducers for X-ray-activated PDT using ALA. Owing to the spectral overlap between radioluminescence afforded by the CWO core and the absorbance of PPIX, these NPs can serve as an in situ visible light activation source during radiotherapy (RT), thereby mitigating the limitation of penetration depth. We demonstrate that this effect is observed across different cell lines with varying radio-sensitivity. Importantly, both PPIX and PEG–PLA/CWO NPs exhibit no significant toxicities at therapeutic doses in the absence of radiation. To assess the efficacy of this approach, we conducted a study using a syngeneic mouse model subcutaneously implanted with inherently radio-resistant 4T1 tumors. The results show a significantly improved prognosis compared to conventional RT, even with as few as 2 fractions of 4 Gy X-rays. Taken together, these results suggest that PEG–PLA/CWO NPs are promising agents for application of ALA-PDT in deep-seated tumors, thereby significantly expanding the utility of the already established treatment strategy. 

A thin compliant panel was tested in a Mach 2 wind tunnel. The panel was mounted flush with the tunnel floor and was of dimensions L=121.9 mm (chord), W=63.5 mm (span) and h=0.254 mm (thickness). A 20 degree compression ramp was placed 5 mm downstream of the model, which induced a shock/boundary layer interaction with fully separated flow over parts of the panel. Full-field deformation was measured using Digital Image Correlation and the surface pressure field was obtained from fast-response pressure-sensitive paint. Analysis of the shock foot motion was performed using a curve-fitting method. Comparison of the shock motion between a rigid and compliant panel case showed no difference in the size of the intermittent region but found that the shock motion over the compliant panel is affected by the panel vibration. Proper Orthogonal Decomposition revealed that the surface pressure is dominated by low-frequency unsteady shock motion, in both cases (rigid and compliant panel). The sixth POD mode clearly shows the streamwise shock foot motion oscillates at the first panel vibration frequency. The surface pressure field upstream of the shock foot is dominated by piston-theory aerodynamics and thus correlated to the slope of the compliant panel. The Sparse Identification of Nonlinear Dynamic Systems algorithm was employed to find low-order representations of the system dynamics. Linear stiffness matrices could be consistently recovered. The measurement noise however prevented extraction of additional relations, such as linear damping matrices or forcing terms from the surface pressure. 

This work investigates surface pressure unsteadiness on a compliant panel under a shockwave/boundary-layer interaction (SBLI) induced by a 2D compression ramp with an angle of 20o in a Mach 2 wind tunnel. High-speed digital image correlation (DIC) and fast-response pressure-sensitive paint (PSP) measurements are used to measure the panel displacement and panel and ramp-face surface pressure fluctuations at 5kHz and 20kHz, respectively. The data reduction technique of POD (proper orthogonal decomposition) was employed both for pressure and displacement fields. POD mode distribution for the pressure fields reveals that the first six modes have 60% of the total energy and exhibit low-frequency content for both rigid and compliant panels. The vibration of the compliant panel was seen to alter the energy distribution of the high energy modes as compared to the rigid panel case. The cross-correlations between the displacement and pressure modes were made using the time coefficients. This analysis shows significant correlations were present among the lower modes. The highest correlation was between displacement mode 1 and the pressure mode 4, which stemmed from the upstream of the intermittent region. The analysis was also made for the surrogate shock foot and reattachment lines. The correlation shows that panel vibration lowers the correlation between the shock foot and reattachment line when compared with the rigid panel case. 

Materials that undergo reversible changes in form typically require top‐down processing to program the microstructure of the material. As a result, it is difficult to program microscale, 3D shape‐morphing materials that undergo non‐uniaxial deformations. Here, a simple bottom‐up fabrication approach to prepare bending microactuators is described. Spontaneous self‐assembly of liquid crystal (LC) monomers with controlled chirality within 3D micromold results in a change in molecular orientation across thickness of the microstructure. As a result, heating induces bending in these microactuators. The concentration of chiral dopant is varied to adjust the chirality of the monomer mixture. Liquid crystal elastomer (LCE) microactuators doped with 0.05 wt% of chiral dopant produce needle‐shaped actuators that bend from flat to an angle of 27.2 ± 11.3° at 180 °C. Higher concentrations of chiral dopant lead to actuators with reduced bending, and lower concentrations of chiral dopant lead to actuators with poorly controlled bending. Asymmetric molecular alignment inside 3D structure is confirmed by sectioning actuators. Arrays of microactuators that all bend in the same direction can be fabricated if symmetry of geometry of the microstructure is broken. It is envisioned that the new platform to synthesize microstructures can further be applied in soft robotics and biomedical devices.

 

The vibration of a compliant panel under a shock / boundary layer interaction (SBLI) induced by a compression ramp in a Mach 2 flow, is investigated experimentally. The panel is made from brass shim stock of length (streamwise), width (spanwise) and thickness of 122 mm by 63.5 mm by 0.25 mm, respectively. The 20° compression ramp is placed near the downstream edge of the compliant panel, and it creates a shock-induced turbulent separated flow that extends over the downstream 20% of the panel. Large pressure fluctuations occur in the region of the separation shock foot unsteadiness. The pressure fluctuations increase vibration amplitudes of the higher panel modes, especially the second mode, which has an antinode near the shock foot region. In this work, the authors use structural modifications of the baseline compliant panel to mitigate vibrations induced by the large pressure fluctuations of the shock foot unsteadiness. A thin rib is attached in the spanwise direction to the lee side of the panel at the location of SBLI. In one configuration, the rib is attached to the panel using epoxy adhesive, which creates a stiff connection. In another configuration, the rib is attached to the panel via double-sided viscoelastic tape, which adds significant damping to the system. The panel vibration and surface pressure field are measured using stereoscopic digital image correlation and pressure sensitive paint. Results show that especially the second vibration mode of the panel is reduced through the addition of the rib. This effect is more pronounced in the case where the viscoelastic tape was used, where a 72% reduction in vibration is observed. 

This experimental study focuses on fluid-structure interaction (FSI) for a thin compliant panel under a shock/boundary layer interaction (SBLI) generated by a 2D compression ramp in a Mach 2 wind tunnel. In previous work, we have studied the FSI for this configuration using simultaneous fast-response pressure-sensitive paint (PSP) and digital image correlation (DIC). Simultaneous PSP/DIC allows for examination of the relationship between the dynamic panel displacement and surface pressure loading, respectively. Spectral analysis showed that pressure fluctuations within the interaction region and shock-foot unsteadiness tend to lock to the first mode resonant frequency of the compliant panel. The current study aims to utilize synchronous high-speed stereoscopic PIV (25 kHz) and DIC (5 kHz) techniques to better understand the coupling between the flow field and the panel displacement field. The PIV is obtained in a streamwise-spanwise plane located at 15% of the boundary layer height. Thin compliant polycarbonate panel with thicknesses of 1 mm is utilized, which has a first-mode vibrational frequency of 407 Hz. The 1 mm panel out-of-plane displacement amplitude was up to 15% of the boundary layer thickness. The analysis includes low-pass and band-pass filtering of the velocity data, including the surrogate separation line, and cross-correlation analysis between panel displacement and velocity. The results indicate a clear coupling of the panel motion and velocity field, but the spectral analysis suffers from limited time records associated with the pulse-burst laser used for PIV. Future work will focus on collecting more data to improve the statistical convergence of the results.