3D printers based on the additive manufacturing technology create objects layer-by-layer dropping fused material. As a consequence, strong overhangs cannot be printed because the new-come material does not find a suitable support over the last deposed layer. In these cases, one can add support structures (scaffolds) which make the object printable, to be removed at the end. In this paper, we propose a level set based method to create object-dependent support structures, specifically conceived to reduce both the amount of additional material and the printing time.

Infection by Leishmania protozoan parasites can cause a variety of disease outcomes in humans and other mammals, from single self-healing cutaneous lesions to a visceral dissemination of the parasite. The correlation between chronic lesions and ecto-nucleotidase enzymes activity on the surface of the parasite is addressed here using damage caused in epithelial cells by nitric oxide.

The problem is addressed of the maximal integrability of the gradient of solutions to quasilinear elliptic equations, with merely measurable coefficients, in two variables. Optimal results are obtained in the framework of Orlicz spaces, and in the more general setting of all rearrangement-invariant spaces. Applications to special instances are exhibited, which provide new gradient bounds, or improve certain results available in the literature.

A comprehensive approach to Sobolev-type embeddings, involving arbitrary rearrangement- invariant norms on the entire Euclidean space R^n, is offered. In particular, the optimal target space in any such embedding is exhibited.

A comprehensive approach to Sobolev-type embeddings, involving arbitrary rearrangement- invariant norms on the entire Euclidean space R^n, is offered. In particular, the optimal target space in any such embedding is exhibited.

Electrospinning is a nanotechnology process whereby an external electric field is used to accelerate and stretch a charged polymer jet, so as to produce fibers with nanoscale diameters. In quest of a further reduction in the cross section of electrified jets hence of a better control on the morphology of the resulting electrospun fibers, we explore the effects of an external rotating electric field orthogonal to the jet direction.

In this paper we investigate the extent to which variable porosity drug-eluting coatings can provide better control over drug release than coatings where the porosity is constant throughout. In particular, we aim to establish the potential benefits of replacing a single-layer with a two-layer coating of identical total thickness and initial drug mass. In our study, what distinguishes the layers (other than their individual thickness and initial drug loading) is the underlying microstructure, and in particular the effective porosity and the tortuosity of the material.

The topic of controlled drug release has received much attention in recent years, for example in the design of tablets and in local drug delivery devices such as stents, transdermal patches, therapeutic contact lenses and orthopaedic implants. In recent years, we have developed a series of models for such devices to describe drug release from a polymeric platform, drug transport in surrounding biological tissues and fully coupled models of them.

In this paper we describe a combined in-vitro experimental and mathematical modelling approach to predict in-vivo drug-eluting stent kinetics. We coated stents with a mixture of sirolimus and a novel acrylic-based polymer in two different ratios. Our results indicate differential release kinetics between low and high drug dose formulations. Furthermore, mathematical model simulations of target receptor saturation suggest potential differences in efficacy.

The time-reversal properties of charged systems in a constant external magnetic field are reconsidered in this paper. We show that the evolution equations of the system are invariant under a new symmetry operation that implies a new signature property for time-correlation functions under time reversal. We then show how these findings can be combined with a previously identified symmetry to determine, for example, null components of the correlation functions of velocities and currents and of the associated transport coefficients.