Novel transcatheter aortic heart valves exhibiting excellent hemodynamic performance and low-fouling property

Transcatheter aortic heart valves (TAHVs) have been widely used for aortic valve replacements, with less trauma and lower clinical risk compared with traditional surgical heart valve replacements. In the present study, composites of poly(ethylene glycol) diacrylate (PEGDA) hydrogels and anisotropic high-shrinkage polyethylene terephthalate/polyamide6 (PET-PA6) fabric (PEGDA/PET-PA6) were fabricated as artificial heart valve leaflets. Dynamic mechanical analyses (DMA) indicated that PEGDA/PET-PA6 composites possessed anisotropic mechanical properties (i.e., storage moduli ～23.30 ± 1.36 MPa parallel to the aligned fabric fibers and ～9.68 ± 0.90 MPa perpendicular to the aligned fibers at 1 Hz) that were comparable to aortic valve leaflets. The PEGDA/PET-PA6 composites with smooth surfaces were highly hydrophilic (contact angle ～41.6° ± 3.8°) and had low-fouling properties without platelet adhesion, suggesting a low risk of thrombogenicity when they interacted with blood. Furthermore, transcatheter aortic heart valves were fabricated using nitinol self-expanding frames and PEGDA/PET-PA6 composites as artificial leaflets, which presented excellent hemodynamic performance with a large orifice area (1.75 cm²) and low regurgitation (3.41%), thus meeting the requirements of ISO 5840-3 standard. Therefore, PEGDA/PET-PA6 composites had suitable mechanical properties, good biocompatibility, and low-fouling properties, indicating that they might be used for TAHVs in the future.     

Corrosion kinetics and patina evolution of galvanized steel in a simulated coastal-industrial atmosphere

The corrosion kinetics and patina (corrosion products) layer evolution of galvanized steel submitted to wet/dry cyclic corrosion test in a simulated coastal-industrial atmosphere was investigated. The results show that zinc coating has a greater corrosion rate during the initial period and a lower corrosion rate during the subsequent period, and the patina composition and structure can greatly affect the corrosion kinetics evolution of zinc coating. Moreover, Zn₅(OH)₆(CO₃)₂ and Zn₄(OH)₆SO₄ are identified as the main stable composition and exhibit an increasing relative amount; while Zn₁₂(OH)₁₅Cl₃(SO₄)₃ cannot stably exist and diminish in the patina layer as the corrosion develops.     

Generalized Possibilistic Fuzzy C-Means with novel cluster validity indices for clustering noisy data

A generalized form of Possibilistic Fuzzy C-Means (PFCM) algorithm (GPFCM) is presented for clustering noisy data. A function of distance is used instead of the distance itself to damp noise contributions. It is shown that when the data are highly noisy, GPFCM finds accurate cluster centers but FCM (Fuzzy C-Means), PCM (Possibilistic C-Means), and PFCM algorithms fail. FCM, PCM, and PFCM yield inaccurate cluster centers when clusters are not of the same size or covariance norm is used, whereas GPFCM performs well for both of the cases even when the data are noisy. It is shown that generalized forms of FCM and PCM (GFCM and GPCM) are also more accurate than FCM and PCM. A measure is defined to evaluate performance of the clustering algorithms. It shows that average error of GPFCM and its simplified forms are about 80% smaller than those of FCM, PCM, and PFCM. However, GPFCM demands higher computational costs due to nonlinear updating equations. Three cluster validity indices are introduced to determine number of clusters in clean and noisy datasets. One of them considers compactness of the clusters; the other considers separation of the clusters, and the third one considers both separation and compactness. Performance of these indices is confirmed to be satisfactory using various examples of noisy datasets.     

阳离子聚合物复合膨润土对活性染料染色废液的脱色效果初探

用2种阳离子聚合物复合膨润土来对活性染料染色后的废液进行脱色,用分光光度法测定脱色率,研究了复合膨润土中阳离子聚合物的含量、活性染料废液的pH值、温度对脱色效果的影响。结果表明：GTA复合膨润土中GTA质量百分数为30％,DMA复合膨润土中DMA的质量百分数为40％时,对活性染料染色废液的脱色率最大;中性或者偏碱性的条件比较适合两种阳离子聚合物复合膨润土对活性染料废液的脱色;DMA复合膨润土在活性染料废液温度为40℃时脱色效果最好,而GTA复合膨润土在50℃时脱色效果最好。     

Mixed matrix proton exchange membranes for fuel cells: State of the art and perspectives

Proton-conducting mixed matrix membranes (PC-MMMs) have received considerable interest as promising materials that combine the properties of, and create synergism from interactions between, polymeric and inorganic components. The PC-MMM exhibit superior characteristics compared to individual ion-conducting polymeric membranes or free-standing electrolyte inorganic films. Recent advancements in material preparation have enhanced the ability to design PC-MMMs with specified properties. This critical review discusses the progress of the development of PC-MMMs, with special focus on PC-MMMs based on emerging materials, such as porous materials, metal organic frameworks (MOFs), carbon nanotubes (CNTs) and graphene oxides (GOs). Major challenges facing PC-MMMs and strategies taken to overcome those challenges and future perspectives are discussed.     

Some optical,magnetic and transport properties of CdMoO4:Nd3+

Single crystal of new cadmium and neodymium molybdate solid solution (Cd_0.958Nd_0.028□_0.014MoO₄, where □ denotes cationic vacancies) has been successfully grown by the Czochralski method. The X-ray diffraction analysis confirmed that this solid solution crystallizes in the scheelite type structure, the Nd³⁺ ions do not show long-range order and they are randomly distributed in the unit cell, substituting the Cd²⁺ ions. As a consequence, the unexpected properties of CdMoO₄:Nd³⁺ are observed such as the energy gap (~1.77 eV) twice smaller than that of the matrix CdMoO₄, a paramagnetic state with the short-range ferromagnetic interactions, behavior related to the electrical conductor with p–n transition along the 〈100〉 axis, the semiconducting behavior with n–p transition along the 〈001〉 axis and the diode-like behavior found to be of Schottky- or Maxwell-Wagner type. Therefore, we predict great potential of this single crystal for technical applications in electronic devices.     

国产生物法1,3-PDO合成PTT研究

以国产生物法1,3-PDO及PTA为原料,采用直接酯化法工艺路线合成了PTT,对缩聚工艺进行了研究,并以IR对PTT进行了表征,结果表明:可以用催化剂A以国产生物法1,3-PDO为原料制备得到PTT,较佳的缩聚工艺为温度:255℃,压力<50 Pa,时间:3.5~4 h。     

Graphene nanosheets as counter electrode with phenoxazine dye for efficient dye sensitized solar cell

Efficient dye sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) are developed using phenoxazine (POZ) based organic dye (WS5) and graphene nanosheets (GNs) counter electrode (CE). Being organic, both these materials are used together to explore compatibility of organic materials in current DSSCs. Organic dye with POZ moiety is synthesized and graphene oxide nanosheets (GONs) are spin coated on FTO glass and thermally reduced afterwards. To increase the performance of WS5 through decreased dye aggregation, deoxycholic acid (DCA) is added to it. The results of adding DCA are observed and compared using UV–Vis spectroscopy, external quantum efficiency (EQE), electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) and photovoltaic conversion efficiency (PCE). Prepared organic dye based DSSC cell results in a high PCE of 6.61%. The optimized WS5 dye and GNs CE, shows PCE of 5.77% and the GNs CE compared to Pt CE results in almost identical charge transfer resistance value at the CE/electrolyte interface. Low cost of this designed organic dye and GNs and the PCE results indicate that this combination may result in the reduction of cost of current DSSCs and the realization that expensive and rare inorganic materials can be replaced with organic ones in future.     

Axial crushing and optimal design of square tubes with graded thickness

Introducing thickness gradient in cross-section is a quite promising approach to increase the energy absorption efficiency and crashworthiness performance of thin-walled structures. This paper addresses the deformation mode and energy absorption of square tubes with graded thickness during axial loading. Experimental study is firstly carried out for square tubes with two types of thickness distributions and numerical analyses are then conducted to simulate the experiment. Both experimental and numerical results show that the introduction of graded thickness in cross-section can lead to up to 30–35% increase in energy absorption efficiency (specific energy absorption) without the increase of the initial peak force. In addition, structural optimization of the cross-section of a square tube with graded thickness is solved by response surface method and the optimization results validate that increasing the material in the corner regions can indeed increase the energy absorption efficiency of a square tube.     

All thermal-evaporated surface plasmon enhanced organic solar cells by Au nanoparticles

Au nanoparticles (NPs) are fabricated on indium-tin-oxide substrates by a thermal evaporation method and incorporated to an efficient small molecule organic solar cell (OSC). This renders an all thermal evaporated surface plasmon enhanced OSC. The optimized device shows a power conversion efficiency of 3.40%, which is 14% higher than that of the reference device without Au NPs. The improvement is mainly contributed to the increased short-circuit current which resulted from the enhanced light harvesting due to localized surface plasmon resonance of Au NPs and the increased conductivity of the device.