A review of key challenges of electrospun scaffolds for tissue-engineering applications.

Tissue engineering (TE) is an emerging field of study that incorporates the principles of biology, medicine, and engineering for designing biological substitutes to maintain, restore, or improve tissue functions with the goal of avoiding organ transplantation. Amongst the various scaffolding techniques, electrospinning is one of the most widely used techniques to synthesise a nanofibrous scaffold. Electrospinning as a potential tissue engineering scaffolding technique has attracted a great deal of interest and has been widely discussed in many studies. The high surface-to-volume ratio of nanofibres, coupled with their ability to fabricate scaffolds that may mimic extracellular matrices, facilitates cell migration, proliferation, adhesion, and differentiation. These are all very desirable properties for TE applications. However, despite its widespread use and distinct advantages, electrospun scaffolds suffer from two major practical limitations: poor cell penetration and poor load-bearing applications. Furthermore, electrospun scaffolds have low mechanical strength. Several solutions have been offered by various research groups to overcome these limitations. This review provides an overview of the electrospinning techniques used to synthesise nanofibres for TE applications. In addition, we describe current research on nanofibre fabrication and characterisation, including the main limitations of electrospinning and some possible solutions to overcome these limitations.

This study used a quasi-experimental method using a treatment group and a control group. This study aims to describe: 1) the results of learning English paragraph reading skills through the scaffolding technique using question and answer-based student worksheets in the treatment group; 2) the results of learning English paragraph reading skills through scaffolding techniques using student worksheets without question and answer based in the control group; 3) the results of learning English paragraph reading skills are the same between the treatment group and the control group. This research was conducted at SMA Negeri 5 Jambi City. The research takes place in the even semester of the 2022/2023 academic year. The population of this study were 70 students of XII-IPA class at SMA Negeri 5 Jambi City. This number is divided into 35 students in class XII-IPA.1 and 35 students in class XII-IPA.2. The sample is set as many as 60 students; divided from 30 students of class XII-IPA.1 and 30 students of class XII-IPA.2 who were selected randomly using the no-return technique. This research uses student worksheets which are arranged using scaffolding technique in the context of explaining the material knowledge and skills of reading English paragraphs. To collect data on English paragraph reading skills through scaffolding techniques using question and answer based student worksheets, multiple choice test instruments were used. The test data were processed using parametric inferential statistical procedures, namely a one sample t test to achieve the first and second objectives and independent sample t tests to achieve the third objective. The results showed: 1) the results of learning English paragraph reading skills through the scaffolding technique using question and answer-based student worksheets in the treatment group obtained a mean of 15.341 or 85.23 percent; 2) the results of learning English paragraph reading skills through the scaffolding technique using student worksheets without being based on questions and answers in the control group obtained a mean of 15.133 or 84.07 percent; 3) there is no difference in the learning outcomes of English paragraph reading skills between the treatment group and the control group.

This study explores the application and effectiveness of various scaffolding techniques in improving the writing performance of first-year university students. The research focuses on three key questions: (1) how are scaffolding techniques applied in teaching writing? (2) What impact do these techniques have on students' writing performance? (3) Which scaffolding techniques are most effective in enhancing writing skills? A quantitative research design was employed, collecting data from 114 first-year students through pre-test and post-test assessments, as well as a survey among 12 teachers. The results reveal a significant improvement in post-test scores, demonstrating the overall positive impact of scaffolding techniques. Among the techniques evaluated, Utilizing Template emerged as the most effective, showing a statistically significant impact on students’ writing performance. Other techniques, such as Modelling, Guided Practice, Offering Feedback, and Peer Collaboration, did not show significant effects in this study. These findings suggest that structured guidance through templates is particularly valuable in helping students improve their writing skills, while the impact of other techniques may require a longer timeframe to fully materialize. The study highlights the importance of careful scaffolding technique selection and provides insights for improving writing instruction in academic settings.

Chapter 4 - Electrospun nanofibers for tissue engineering applications

Tissue engineering recovers an original function of tissue by replacing the damaged part with a new tissue or organ regenerated using various engineering technologies. This technology uses a scaffold to support three‐dimensional (3D) tissue formation. Conventional scaffold fabrication methods do not control the architecture, pore shape, porosity, or interconnectivity of the scaffold, so it has limited ability to stimulate cell growth and to generate new tissue. 3D printing technologies may overcome these disadvantages of traditional fabrication methods. These technologies use computers to assist in design and fabrication, so the 3D scaffolds can be fabricated as designed and standardized. Particularly, because nanofabrication technology based on two‐photon absorption (2PA) and on controlled electrospinning can generate structures with submicron resolution, these methods have been evaluated in various areas of tissue engineering. Recent combinations of 3D nanoprinting technologies with methods from molecular biology and cell dynamics have suggested new possibilities for improved tissue regeneration. If the interaction between cells and scaffold system with biomolecules can be understood and controlled and if an optimal 3D environment for tissue regeneration can be realized, 3D nanoprinting will become an important tool in tissue engineering.

This study examines the effectiveness of a scientific learning model incorporating scaffolding techniques on students' critical thinking skills and self-regulated learning, as well as identifying contributing factors to its success. A mixed-methods approach with a quasi-experimental design was applied, involving 62 students randomly selected from two groups in a State Senior High School in Praya Regency. Critical thinking skills were assessed using essay tests based on defined indicators, while self-regulated learning data were collected through questionnaires. Observations of learning activities aligned with the lesson plan provided qualitative data. Quantitative data were analyzed using multivariate inferential analysis, while qualitative data were triangulated between observations and test results. The findings demonstrate that the scientific learning model with scaffolding techniques significantly enhances students' critical thinking skills and self-regulated learning compared to models without scaffolding. Scaffolding techniques, such as providing examples during observation, guiding questioning, modeling reasoning, and supporting communication through reporting findings, foster independent critical thinking habits. The results highlight the importance of scaffolding in guiding students through the stages of scientific learning. By systematically supporting their learning processes, students become better equipped to think critically and regulate their learning independently. The scientific learning model with scaffolding techniques is effective in improving critical thinking and self-regulated learning. Future research should explore its application across varied subjects and educational contexts to generalize its impact.

An intelligent tutoring system (ITS) is a computer system or software application that is built to replicate human tutors by supporting the theory of “learning by doing.” Even though ITSs have been proven to be successful in academic studies, they still have not found large adoption by the industry due to the complexities of building such systems due to the high technical expertise and domain knowledge requirements. Attempts have been made to build authoring tools that can provide assistance in building tutoring systems; however, most of these tools are targeted toward authors that have considerable programming experience. This research proposes an authoring tool for ITS, which is targeted at novice authors with minimum technical/programming experience and provides real-time scaffolding to learner’s incomplete/incorrect answers using the best scaffolding techniques. Two evaluation techniques were applied for the evaluation of the performance of the proposed authoring tool, e.g., paired t-test analysis and postexperiment survey. The learning gains obtained from paired t-test contend a significant learning gain and improvement in the learning process with enhanced learning performance with multiple scaffolding techniques as compared to single scaffolding technique experience. The postexperiment survey has a notable result that shows the effectiveness of the tutor model that ensures a very user-friendly interface, deploying scaffolding techniques and adequate control of selecting and deploying scaffolding techniques and making the authoring process easy.

The aim of this paper is to analyse the different scaffolding techniques of native and non-native teachers of English in a second language acquisition context with very young students. For that purpose, a new taxonomy of scaffolding techniques was created to tackle the early age of the students, focusing on the form of the teacher’ s utterances and not on the pragmatic function. The data come from the UAM-Corpus and consist of four classes with six-year-old children at a similar level of immersion, two of two native teachers and two of two non-native teachers. For this purpose, the following taxonomies have been taken into account: Lyster and Ranta (1997), Richards and Lockhart (1994), Sinclair and Coulthard (1975) Llinares-Garcia (2005) and Romero-Trillo and Llinares-Garcia (2001). My purpose is to show that depending on the group of teachers, the scaffolding technique used would be different. The results show that native teachers rely more on elaborating their language, whereas non-native teachers rely on eliciting.

There are still many students who get scores below the average. It is because students have difficulty in learning. This study examines the effect of problem-based learning models with scaffolding techniques, the effect of independent learning on student learning outcomes, and the level of differences in learning outcomes between students who apply problem-based learning models and problem-based learning models with scaffolding techniques rather than conventional learning models. This study uses a quantitative research type with a quasi-experimental design with a 3 x 3 factorial design, using a Nonequevalent control group design (pretest-posttest). The sample in this study amounted to 77 students. The study was conducted using quantitative data obtained from questionnaires and surveys. The instrument used to collect data is a questionnaire. The techniques used to analyze the data are qualitative descriptive analysis, quantitative, and inferential statistics. The study results are significant differences between the Problem Based Learning learning model with the Scaffolding technique with the conventional learning model of student independence in learning, and student learning outcomes are dominant in the application of problem-based learning. It can be concluded that the application of the Problem Based Learning model with the Scaffolding technique obtains the best learning outcomes when compared to other learning models.

Electrospun scaffold fiber orientation regulates endothelial cell and platelet properties associated with angiogenesis and hemocompatibility

2D imprinted substrates and 3D electrospun scaffolds revolutionize biomedicine.

Polylactic acid organogel as versatile scaffolding technique

To the Editor: The article by Xue et al1 on human embryonic stem cell-derived pacemakers illustrates that embryonic stem cells differentiated into spontaneously beating cardiocytes may function as biological pacemakers and mentions a potential limitation: The intrinsic pacemaker rate was slower than desirable. They suggest that incorporating HCN pacemaker channel genes might achieve more desirable rates, an idea consistent with our published results using HCN2 in gene- and adult human mesenchymal stem cell (hMSC)-based therapies.2–4 However, certain of the comments by Xue et al misinterpret our own work on HCN-loaded hMSCs. They state that “…these modified, undifferentiated, human mesenchymal stem cells are incapable of pacing quiescent cells because the former are neither electrically active nor genuine cardiac cells” (p 19). This statement suggests a misunderstanding of the rationale and underlying biophysics of the hMSC experiments. In fact, generation of pacemaker activity does not require delivery of an “excitable differentiated cardiac cell,” but only that the delivered cell (1) carry sufficient pacemaker current and (2) make gap junctions; thus, the hMSC-myocyte pair should behave as a pacemaker unit entirely equivalent to a single heart cell with substantial if. We clearly demonstrated both …

Electrospun Scaffold Fiber Orientation Regulates Endothelial Cell and Platelet Properties Associated with Angiogenesis and Hemocompatibility

Advanced micro- and nanofabrication technologies for tissue engineering