Bone tissue engineering : from bench to bedside - Review article

The drive to develop bone grafts for the filling of major gaps in the skeletal structure has led to a major research thrust towards developing biomaterials for bone engineering. Unfortunately, from a clinical perspective, the promise of bone tissue engineering which was so vibrant a decade ago has so far failed to deliver the anticipated results of becoming a routine therapeutic application in reconstructive surgery. Here we describe the analysis of long-term bone regeneration studies in preclinical animal models, exploiting methods of micro- and nano analysis of biodegradable composite scaffolds.

Bone tissue engineering

Currently, well-established clinical therapeutic approaches for bone reconstruction are restricted to the transplantation of autografts and allografts, and the implantation of metal devices or ceramic-based implants to assist bone regeneration. These standard techniques face significant disadvantages. As a result, research has focused on the development of alternative therapeutic concepts aiming to design and engineer unparalleled structural and functional bone grafts. Substantial academic and commercial interest has been sparked in bone engineering methods to stimulate, control and eventually replicate key events of bone regeneration ex vivo. Over the years, this interest has further increased and bone tissue engineering has now become a well-recognized research discipline in the area of regenerative medicine. The following chapter gives an overview of bone tissue engineering principles. It focuses on research related to the combination of scaffolds with multipotent precursor cells, such as bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cells or human umbilical cord perivascular cells, and the clinical applications of these tissue engineered bone constructs.

Towards success in higher education in engineering and technology : a coaching approach to develop holistic graduates

There is a growing gap between engineering practice and engineering education that may be contributing to less engineers practicing in industry. Coaching approach to learning and teaching has been proven to be an effective way to develop people in the workplace. A pilot coaching program is offered to Engineering and Technology students in Queensland University of Technology to enable holistic growth in order to better integrate them to the work force and society at large. The results and findings of this program will be published once the program has been completed

Higher degree research at Australian Universities : Responding to diversity in engineering and information technology

BACKGROUND There is increasing enrolment of international students in the Engineering and Information Technology disciplines and anecdotal evidence of a need for additional understanding and support for these students and their supervisors due to differences both in academic and social cultures. While there is a growing literature on supervisory styles and guidelines on effective supervision, there is little on discipline-specific, cross-cultural supervision responding to the growing diversity. In this paper, we report findings from a study of Engineering and Information technology Higher Degree Research (HDR)students and supervision in three Australian universities. PURPOSE The aim was to assess perceptions of students and supervisors of factors influencing success that are particular to international or culturally and linguistically diverse (CaLD) HDR students in Engineering and Information technology. DESIGN/METHOD Online survey and qualitative data was collected from international and CaLD HDR students and supervisors at the three universities. Bayesian network analysis, inferential statistics, and qualitative analysis provided the main findings. RESULTS Survey results indicate that both students and supervisors are positive about their experiences, and do not see language or culture as particularly problematic. The survey results also reveal strong consistency between the perceptions of students and supervisors on most factors influencing success. Qualitative analysis of critical supervision incidents has provided rich data that could help improve support services. CONCLUSIONS In contrast with anecdotal evidence, HDR completion data from the three universities reveal that international students, on average, complete in shorter time periods than domestic students. The analysis suggests that success is linked to a complex set of factors involving the student, supervision, the institution and broader community.

Research supervision of international students in engineering and information technology disciplines (Resources)

This report provides an overview of the results of a collaborative research project titled "A model for research supervision of international students in engineering and information technology disciplines". This project aimed to identify factors influencing the success of culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) higher degree research (HDR) students in the fields of Engineering and Information Technology at three Australian Universities: Queensland University of Technology, The University of Western Australia and Curtin University.

Nuclear instruments and methods in physics research section B : beam interactions with materials and atoms

The impact-induced deposition of Al13 clusters with icosahedral structure on Ni(0 0 1) surface was studied by molecular dynamics (MD) simulation using Finnis–Sinclair potentials. The incident kinetic energy (Ein) ranged from 0.01 to 30 eV per atom. The structural and dynamical properties of Al clusters on Ni surfaces were found to be strongly dependent on the impact energy. At much lower energy, the Al cluster deposited on the surface as a bulk molecule. However, the original icosahedral structure was transformed to the fcc-like one due to the interaction and the structure mismatch between the Al cluster and Ni surface. With increasing the impinging energy, the cluster was deformed severely when it contacted the substrate, and then broken up due to dense collision cascade. The cluster atoms spread on the surface at last. When the impact energy was higher than 11 eV, the defects, such as Al substitutions and Ni ejections, were observed. The simulation indicated that there exists an optimum energy range, which is suitable for Al epitaxial growth in layer by layer. In addition, at higher impinging energy, the atomic exchange between Al and Ni atoms will be favourable to surface alloying.

Engineering electrodeposited ZnO films and their memristive switching performance

We report the influence of zinc oxide (ZnO) seed layers on the performance of ZnO-based memristive devices fabricated using an electrodeposition approach. The memristive element is based on a sandwich structure using Ag and Pt electrodes. The ZnO seed layer is employed to tune the morphology of the electrodeposited ZnO films in order to increase the grain boundary density as well as construct highly ordered arrangements of grain boundaries. Additionally, the seed layer also assists in optimizing the concentration of oxygen vacancies in the films. The fabricated devices exhibit memristive switching behaviour with symmetrical and asymmetrical hysteresis loops in the absence and presence of ZnO seed layers, respectively. A modest concentration of oxygen vacancy in electrodeposited ZnO films as well as an increase in the ordered arrangement of grain boundaries leads to higher switching ratios in Ag/ZnO/Pt devices.

A model for research supervision of international students in engineering and information technology disciplines

A large proportion (over 12 per cent) of international and non-English speaking background (NESB) postgraduate research students enrol in engineering and information technology (IT) programs in Australian universities. They find themselves in an advanced research culture, and are technically and scientifically challenged early in their programs. This is in addition to cultural, social and religious isolation and linguistic barriers they have to contend with. The project team surveyed this cohort at QUT and UWA, on the hypothesis that they face challenges that are more discipline-specific. The results of the survey indicate that existing supervisory frameworks which are limited to linguistic contexts are not fully assisting these students and supervisors to achieve high quality research. The goal of this project is to extend these supervisory frameworks to a holistic model that will address the unique needs and supervisory issues these students face in engineering and IT disciplines. The model will be useable by all other Australian universities.

The supervision tango : perceptions of supervisors of international graduate students in Engineering and IT

This paper, which was part of a larger study, reports on a survey that explored the perceptions of 69 graduate supervisors regarding issues in supervision from three higher education institutions in Australia. Factors that contribute to student success in higher education research degrees are many and diverse, including a complex dance of student factors, supervisor factors, and their supervisory context factors, and those informed by cultural and language differences. Therefore, a complex system approach using Bayesian network modelling was used to explore how student and/or supervisor factors influence the success of culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) graduate students in Engineering and IT. Findings suggest that key factors include the experience of supervisors in terms of experience with the Australian higher education system, personal cross-cultural experience.

A biomimetic extracellular matrix for cartilage tissue engineering centered on photocurable gelatin, hyaluronic acid and chondroitin sulfate

The development of hydrogels tailored for cartilage tissue engineering has been a research and clinical goal for over a decade. Directing cells towards a chondrogenic phenotype and promoting new matrix formation are significant challenges that must be overcome for the successful application of hydrogels in cartilage tissue therapies. Gelatin-methacrylamide (Gel-MA) hydrogels have shown promise for the repair of some tissues, but they have not been extensively investigated for cartilage tissue engineering. We encapsulated human chondrocytes in gel-MA based hydrogels, and show that with the incorporation of small quantities of photo-crosslinkable hyaluronic acid methacrylate (HA-MA), and to a lesser extent chondroitin sulfate methacrylate (CS-MA), chondrogenesis and mechanical properties can be enhanced. The addition of HA-MA to Gel-MA constructs resulted in more rounded cell morphologies, enhanced chondrogenesis as assessed by gene expression and immunofluorescence, and increased quantity and distribution of the newly synthesised ECM throughout the construct. Consequently, while the compressive moduli of control Gel-MA constructs increased by 26 kPa after 8 weeks culture, constructs with HA-MA and CS-MA increased by 96 kPa. The enhanced chondrogenic differentiation, distribution of ECM, and improved mechanical properties make these materials potential candidates for cartilage tissue engineering applications.

Strain engineering of selective chemical adsorption on monolayer MoS2

Nanomaterials are prone to influence by chemical adsorption because of their large surface to volume ratios. This enables sensitive detection of adsorbed chemical species which, in turn, can tune the property of the host material. Recent studies discovered that single and multi-layer molybdenum disulfide (MoS2) films are ultra-sensitive to several important environmental molecules. Here we report new findings from ab inito calculations that reveal substantially enhanced adsorption of NO and NH3 on strained monolayer MoS2 with significant impact on the properties of the adsorbates and the MoS2 layer. The magnetic moment of adsorbed NO can be tuned between 0 and 1 μB; strain also induces an electronic phase transition between half-metal and metal. Adsorption of NH3 weakens the MoS2 layer considerably, which explains the large discrepancy between the experimentally measured strength and breaking strain of MoS2 films and previous theoretical predictions. On the other hand, adsorption of NO2, CO, and CO2 is insensitive to the strain condition in the MoS2 layer. This contrasting behavior allows sensitive strain engineering of selective chemical adsorption on MoS2 with effective tuning of mechanical, electronic, and magnetic properties. These results suggest new design strategies for constructing MoS2-based ultrahigh-sensitivity nanoscale sensors and electromechanical devices.

Critical success factors for the implementation of a knowledge management system in a knowledge-based engineering firm

This research identifies factors that are crucial to the success of a knowledge management system (KMS) implementation in a prominent Australian engineering consultancy firm. The study employs the Delphi method to solicit the opinions of experienced market leaders in the Australian construction industry, and then benchmarks the organisational profile of the consultancy firm against the Delphi findings. From this comparative case study, recommendations are made pertaining to the organisational and cultural changes required within the consultancy firm in order to improve its readiness to successfully implement a KMS.