anew and effective electrospinning method has been developed for producing aligned polymer nanofibers. the conventional electrospinning technique has been modified to fabricate nanofibers as uniaxially aligned array. the key to the success of this technique is the creation of a rotating jet by using a cylindrical collector in which the needle tip is located at its center. the unique advantage o...

We propose and demonstrate an automatic optical fiber alignment system using genetic algorithms. Connecting optical fibers is difficult because the connecting edges should be aligned with sub-micronmeter resolution. It, therefore, takes long time even for a human expert. Although automatic fiber alignment systems are being developed, they cannot be used practically if the degrees of freedom of ...

Fiber alignment is the defining architectural characteristic of discontinuous fiber composites and is dictated by shear-dominated processing techniques including flow-injection molding, tape-casting, and mold-casting. However, recent colloidal assembly techniques have started to employ additional forces in fiber suspensions that have the potential to change the energy landscape of the shear-dom...

The sensitivity of fibroblast guidance on directional cues provided by aligned nanofibers is studied for scaffolds of successively smaller fiber sizes (740±280, 245±85, 140±40, and 80±10 nm) fabricated using mandrel and electrical alignment methodologies for electrospun nanofibers (∼10° angular deviation (AD)), as well as nanoimprint methodologies for perfectly aligned fibers (0° AD). On aligne...

Invasive cancer cells interact with the surrounding extracellular matrix (ECM), remodeling ECM fiber network structure by condensing, degrading, and aligning these fibers. We developed a novel local alignment vector analysis method to quantitatively measure collagen fiber alignment as a vector field using Circular Statistics. This method was applied to human non-small cell lung carcinoma (NSCLC...

We developed a compact and high-power modelocked fiber laser for multilayered optical memories. The average power and pulse width of the output pulse from the fiber laser that we developed were 109 mW and 2.1 ps, respectively. The dispersion of the output pulse was compensated with an external single-mode fiber of 2.5 m length. The pulse was compressed from 2.1 ps to 93 fs by dispersion compens...

Although the mechanical phenomena associated with preconditioning are well-established, the underlying mechanisms responsible for this behavior are still not fully understood. Using quantitative polarized light imaging, this study assessed whether preconditioning alters the collagen fiber alignment of ligament tissue, and determined whether changes in fiber organization are associated with the ...

Degrapol® and PLGA electrospun fiber fleeces were characterized with regard to fiber diameter, alignment, mechanical properties as well as scaffold porosity. The study showed that electrospinning parameters affect fiber diameter and alignment in an inverse relation: fiber diameter was increased with increased flow rate, with decrease in working distance and collector velocity, whereas fiber ali...

Single-mode optical D-fiber is fabricated and coupled to single-mode acrylic waveguides by use of a novel technique utilizing alignment ways and a transcision. The D-fiber is fabricated by lapping the cladding layer of a single-mode fiber to the core. Optical waveguides and alignment ways are made with polymers by photolithography. This technique allows coupling of the optical elements by means...

Cells can sense and respond to mechanical signals over relatively long distances across fibrous extracellular matrices. Recently proposed models suggest that long-range force transmission can be attributed to the nonlinear elasticity or fibrous nature of collagen matrices, yet the mechanism whereby fibers align remains unknown. Moreover, cell shape and anisotropy of cellular contraction are not...