Head | EPFL Graph Search

A head is the part of an organism which usually includes the ears, brain, forehead, cheeks, chin, eyes, nose, and mouth, each of which aid in various sensory functions such as sight, hearing, smell, and taste. Some very simple animals may not have a head, but many bilaterally symmetric forms do, regardless of size. Heads develop in animals by an evolutionary trend known as cephalization. In bilaterally symmetrical animals, nervous tissue concentrate at the anterior region, forming structures responsible for information processing. Through biological evolution, sense organs and feeding structures also concentrate into the anterior region; these collectively form the head. Human head Human head and Head and neck anatomy The human head is an anatomical unit that consists of the skull, hyoid bone and cervical vertebrae. The term "skull" collectively denotes the mandible (lower jaw bone) and the cranium (upper portion of the skull that houses the brain). Sculptures of h

Vaccination with a nanoparticle E7 vaccine can prevent tumor recurrence following surgery in a human papillomavirus head and neck cancer model

Gabriele Galliverti, Vincent Roh

High-risk human papillomavirus (HPV) encoding E6/E7-HPV oncogenes are responsible for a subgroup of head and neck squamous-cell carcinoma (HNSCC) and thus therapeutic E7-vaccines may be used to control HPV+HNSCC tumors. Herein we investigated the effects of an optimized nanoparticle-conjugated E7 long-peptide vaccine adjuvanted with CpG (NP-E7LP) in an orthotopic immunocompetent mouse model of HPV+HNSCC which is based on injection of HPV16 E6/E7-expressing mEERL95-cells into the submental space. In absence of surgery, vaccination performed before or after tumor-cell injection decreased tumor growth or prolonged mice survival only marginally, despite the high numbers of vaccine-induced circulating E7-specific IFN-gamma-secreting CD8(+) T-cells. This contrasts with the high-efficacy of NP-E7LP-vaccination reported in the genital and subcutaneous HPV16-E6/E7-expressing TC-1 models. Our data show that in a direct comparison, NP-E7LP-vaccination fully controlled TC-1, but not mEERL95, tumors subcutaneously growing in the flanks. Immune-cell infiltration was 10-fold higher in TC-1-tumors, than in mEERL95-tumors, suggesting that vaccine-induced CD8(+) T-cells can only poorly infiltrate mEERL95-tumors. Indeed, immunofluorescence staining of orthotopic mEERL95-tumors showed that CD3(+) T-cells are preferentially located peritumorally. However, when NP-E7LP-vaccination was performed after mEERL95-cell injection, but before resection of primary tumors, no postsurgical recurrence was observed and 100% of the mice survived until the experimental endpoint (day 70) in the NP-E7LP-vaccinated group. In contrast, we observed a 60% recurrence rate and only 35% survival in PBS-vaccinated mice. This suggests that removal of the primary tumor modified the tumor microenvironment, allowing a therapeutic effect of the vaccine-induced anti-tumor response. E7-vaccination combined with surgery may thus benefit patients with HPV+HNSCC.

TAYLOR & FRANCIS INC2021

Design and development of the efficient anguilliform swimming robot- MAR

Peter Eckert, Auke Ijspeert, Anouk Looijestijn

Propulsion of swimming robots at the surface and underwater is largely dominated by rotary propellers due to high thrust, but at the cost of low efficiency. Due to their inherently high speed turning motion, sharp propeller blades and generated noise, they also present a disturbance to maritime ecosystems. Our work presents a bio-inspired approach to efficient and eco-friendly swimming with moderate to high thrust. This paper describes the concept, development and experimental validation of the novel anguilliform robot MAR. With 15 elements making up the 0.5 m long propulsive section and driven by a single, speed-controlled brushless DC motor (BLDC), the robot creates a smooth continuous traveling wave for propulsion. Steering and autonomy are realized by an actuated head with integrated batteries that serves as a front-rudder. Almost neutral buoyancy paired with individually actuated pectoral fins furthermore enable submerged swimming and diving maneuvers. MAR accomplished high thrusts at a moderate power consumption in first performance tests. The achieved maximum velocity and the speed related efficiency (defined as the achieved speed over the power consumption m Ws(-1)) did not fulfill the expectations in the first tests (in comparison to commercial rotary thrusters), which can be largely attributed to the spatial limitations and an imperfect test setup. Nevertheless, the potential towards highly efficient and high thrust propulsion is visible and will be further investigated in future efforts.

IOP PUBLISHING LTD2020

Adjustable fixation system for neurosurgical devices

Rémi Charrier, David Haag, Jean-Philippe Thiran

The system comprises at least a support (5) to be attached to a patient by fixing means (4), said support having an outer thread (7), a first nut (9) with an inner thread (11 ) cooperating with said outer thread (7) and an anchor having a spherical bottom end (10) being placed between said support and said nut, a spherical head (15) said spherical bottom end and head being linked by a shaft, a second nut (16) having an inner thread (17) and intended to be screwed on an external device having a corresponding thread (31 ), such as a platform (20) or a surgical device (30), whereby the tightening of at least one of the nuts (9,16) on the support and/or on the external device allows to block the position of the anchor.

2012

Vaccination with a nanoparticle E7 vaccine can prevent tumor recurrence following surgery in a human papillomavirus head and neck cancer model

Gabriele Galliverti, Vincent Roh

TAYLOR & FRANCIS INC2021