Alginate – chitosan – alginate multilayer hydrogel encapsulation systems were investigated for

encapsulation of chondrocytes. Hydrogel is crosslinked due to ionic interaction between cationic

chitosan and anionic alginate, and additionally by calcium ions. Two types of chitosan with

molecular weight were investigated. Cells were encapsulated in two shape microcapsules, microbeads with diameter size 300 – 400 and 500 - 600 µm and fibres with diameter 500 - 600 µm. The

work provides a detailed examination of the impact of the microencapsulation process on the growth

of cells. The viability of chondrocytes can be influenced by the size of produced microcapsules,

while the shape of microcapsules has no important significance on cell viability. The applied

encapsulation methods do not contain harmful stages and create conducive conditions for cell

growth. A possible application area of the developed system is dressing and regeneration of

damaged joint cartilage.

Management and Production Engineering Review (MPER) is a peer-refereed, international, multidisciplinary journal covering a broad spectrum of topics in production engineering and management. Production engineering is a currently developing stream of science encompassing planning, design, implementation and management of production and logistic systems. Orientation towards human resources factor differentiates production engineering from other technical disciplines. The journal aims to advance the theoretical and applied knowledge of this rapidly evolving field, with a special focus on production management, organisation of production processes, management of production knowledge, computer integrated management of production flow, enterprise effectiveness, maintainability and sustainable manufacturing, productivity and organisation, forecasting, modelling and simulation, decision making systems, project management, innovation management and technology transfer, quality engineering and safety at work, supply chain optimization and logistics. Management and Production Engineering Review is published under the auspices of the Polish Academy of Sciences Committee on Production Engineering and Polish Association for Production Management. The main purpose of Management and Production Engineering Review is to publish the results of cutting-edge research advancing the concepts, theories and implementation of novel solutions in modern manufacturing. Papers presenting original research results related to production engineering and management education are also welcomed. We welcome original papers written in English. The Journal also publishes technical briefs, discussions of previously published papers, book reviews, and editorials. Letters to the Editor-in-Chief are highly encouraged.

The article presents a method for assessing emissions of harmful substances and noise from road and air transport, as well as a combined assessment of the emissions of these transport pollutants. The original analytical dependencies reflecting the emissions of harmful substances from road transport, developed as part of the EMITRANSYS project implemented at the Faculty of Transport of the Warsaw University of Technology, were taken into consideration, in which the unit values of the actual road emissions of harmful substances are a function of, among other things, route length or speed of the vehicles. However, the dependencies associated with noise emissions were taken from the applicable international guidelines for assessing environmental pollution by traffic noise.

The article also describes a case study in which the impact of Warsaw Chopin Airport on noise along the Warsaw road network and the entire Warsaw agglomeration was assessed. Analyses and discussions were carried out in the scope of the change in transport noise due to air operations carried out in the analysed area. As agreed, the combined impact of road and aircraft noise in the area under study is far more unfavourable than street noise alone. Thus, it can be seen that the assessment of noise levels carried out separately for individual modes of transport (in accordance with applicable regulations) should be supplemented with the assessment of traffic noise from all modes of transport – especially in the case of simulation tests of ecologically friendly changes in the area of transport.

The self-consistent optical-electrical-thermal-gain model of the oxide-confined edge-emitting diode laser has been used to simulate the room-temperature operation of the long-wavelength 1.3-µm quantum-dot (InGa)As/GaAs diode laser. The validityof the model has been verified using some experimental results for comparison. An impact of quantum-dot densityon laser operation characteristics as well as on temperature dependence of lasing threshold have been discussed.

Heavy metal contamination often accompanies pollution with petroleum oil derivatives. Metal ions may considerably affect the process of hydrocarbon biodegradation. The results obtained for bacterial strains Gordon ia a/kanivorans S7 and Pseudom on as fluorescens SL3 indicated the limitation of cell growth and reduced ability of degradation of petroleum oil hydrocarbons in the presence ferric ions in the range of 15-100 mg Fe/dm3. However, the addition of these ions in the range of 1-7 mg Fe/dm3 might appear to be advantageous for biodegradation process. Supplementation with ferric ions in the range of 50-100 mg Fe/dm' decreases emulsifying activity of tested strains. The excess of these ions is accumulated in the bacterial cells.

This paper presents the results of a numerical analysis of nitride-based edge-emitting lasers with an InGaN/GaN active region designed for continuous wave room temperature emission of green and blue light. The main goal was to investigate whether the indium thin oxide (ITO) layer can serve as an effective optical confinement improving operation of these devices. Simulations were performed with the aid of a self-consistent thermal-electrical-optical model. Results obtained for green- and blue-emitting lasers were compared. The ITO layer in the p-type cladding was found to effectively help confine the laser mode in the active regions of the devices and to decrease the threshold current density.

This paper presents the results of a thermal computational analysis of a two-dimensional laser array emitting from a surface. The array consisted of eight equispaced ridge-waveguide edge-emitting nitride diode lasers. Surface emission of light was obtained using mirrors inclined at 45°. The authors investigate how the geometrical dimensions of the array emitters and their pitch in the array affect the increase and distribution of temperature in the device. They also examine the influence on the temperature increase and distribution of the thickness of the insulating SiO2, the thickness of the gold layer forming the top contact of the laser, and the thickness of the GaN substrate, as well as the influence of the ridge-waveguide width.

Developing an effective and safe cancer therapy could significantly reduce the number of deaths and improve the quality of life of treated patients. Nowadays medicine has developed a wide range of anticancer chemotherapeutics but at the same time there is a lack of effective drug delivery methods. Therefore, the development of the targeted drug delivery system which will selectively release drug into the cancer cells is a key challenge of modern medicine.
The main aim of the presented research was to investigate the targeting effect of a drug delivery system based on the controlled release of dextran nanoparticles containing the anticancer drug – doxorubicin from the alginate microspheres coated with chitosan multilayers.
During the research the physicochemical properties of the alginate microspheres and its stability in the physiological environment were investigated. Moreover, the kinetics of the nanoparticles with doxorubicin release from the alginate microspheres covered with chitosan multilayers was characterized, depending on the thickness of the chitosan layer. Further, the cytotoxicity study of the alginate microspheres covered with chitosan multilayer and containing nanoparticles was performed to determine the therapeutic effect of the released nanoparticles with doxorubicin on the HeLa cells during the in vitro cell culture.

Experimental methods are presented for determining the thermal resistance of vertical-cavity surfaceemitting lasers (VCSELs) and the lateral electrical conductivity of their p-type semiconductor layers. A VCSEL structure was manufactured from III-As compounds on a gallium arsenide substrate. Conductivity was determined using transmission line measurement (TLM). Electrical and thermal parameters were determined for various ambient temperatures. The results could be used for computer analysis of VCSELs. Keywords: TLM, thermal resistance, VCSEL, AlGaAs.

The paper presents the first vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers (VCSELs) designed, grown, processed and evaluated entirely in Poland. The lasers emit at »850 nm, which is the most commonly used wavelength for short-reach (<2 km) optical data communication across multiple-mode optical fiber. Our devices present state-of-the-art electrical and optical parameters, e.g. high room-temperature maximum optical powers of over 5 mW, laser emission at heat-sink temperatures up to at least 95°C, low threshold current densities (<10 kA/cm2) and wall-plug efficiencies exceeding 30% VCSELs can also be easily adjusted to reach emission wavelengths of around 780 to 1090 nm.