Touch‐Interactive Flexible Sustainable Energy Harvester and Self‐Powered Smart Card

Sustainable and safe energy sources combined with cost effectiveness are major goals for society when considering the current scenario of mass production of portable and Internet of Things (IoT) devices along with the huge amount of inevitable e‐waste. The conceptual design of a self‐powered “eco‐energy” smart card based on paper promotes green and clean energy, which will bring the zero e‐waste challenge one step closer to fruition. A commercial raw filter paper is modified through a fast in situ functionalization method, resulting in a conductive cellulose fiber/polyaniline composite, which is then applied as an energy harvester based on a mechano‐responsive charge transfer mechanism through a metal/conducting polymer interface. Different electrodes are studied to optimize charge transfer based on contact energy level differences. The highest power density and current density obtained from such a paper‐based “eco‐energy” smart card device are 1.75 W m^?2 and 33.5 mA m^?2 respectively. This self‐powered smart energy card is also able to light up several commercial light‐emitting diodes, power on electronic devices, and charge capacitors.     

Vinyl composites—fiberglass reinforced PVC

Glass fiber reinforced PVC has several distinctive and useful properties. Its tensile strength can be twice that of unreinforced PVC. Excellent coupling of the glass fibers to the PVC matrix is required for good retention of tensile strength when exposed to warm water, Its modulus can be twice that of unreinforced PVC and equal to that of wood. PVC's high load carrying capability is not significantly increased to higher temperatures by adding glass fibers as judged by its 264 psi heat deflection temperature. However, by changing the polymeric matrix, glass reinforced vinyl with an increased HDT of 86°C has been produced for higher use temperature. The coefficient of linear thermal expansion of PVC can be cut in half by the addition of glass fibers and has a coefficient equal to that of aluminum. Glass fiber reinforced PVC has exceptionally good resistance to crack propagation and resists shattering as judged by sawing, punching, stapling, and hammering. When properly formulated for weathering resistance, glass fiber reinforced PVC has good color retention, impact retention, and outstanding dimensional stability. As for all glass fiber reinforced plastics, processing equipment must be built for high abrasion resistance for long economical manufacturing runs.     

Oregano: properties, composition and biological activity

The oregano spice includes various plant species. The most common are the genus Origanum, native of Europe, and the Lippia, native of Mexico. Among the species of Origanum. their most important components are the limonene, gamma-cariofilene, rho-cymenene, canfor, linalol, alpha-pinene, carvacrol and thymol. In the genus Lippia, the same compounds can be found. The oregano composition depends on the specie, climate, altitude, time of recollection and the stage of growth. Some of the properties of this plant's extracts are being currently studied due to the growing interest for substituting synthetic additives commonly found in foods. Oregano has a good antioxidant capacity and also presents antimicrobial activity against pathogenic microorganisms like Salmonella typhimurium, Escherichia coli, Staphylococcus aureus, Staphylococcus epidermidis, among others. These are all characteristics of interest for the food industry because they may enhance the safety and stability of foods. There are also some reports regarding the antimutagenic and anticarcinogenic effect of oregano; representing an alternative for the potential treatment and/or prevention of certain chronic ailments, like cancer.     

Zirconium oxide regulates RNA interfering of osteoblast-like cells

Zirconium oxide (ZO) has outstanding mechanical properties, high biocompatibility and high resistance to scratching. Since dental implants are made with ZO and the genetic effects of ZO on osteoblasts are incompletely understood, we used microRNA microarray techniques to investigate the translation process in osteoblasts exposed to ZO. By using miRNA microarrays containing 329 probes designed from Human miRNA sequences, we identified in osteoblast-like cells line (MG-63) cultured on ZO disks several miRNA whose expression was significantly modified. The most notable regulated genes acting on osteoblasts are: NOG, SHOX, IGF1, BMP1 and FGFR1. The data reported below represent the first study on translation regulation in osteoblasts exposed to zirconium and one in which the effect of ZO on bone formation has been detected.     

X-Ray Scattering Studies of HgSe Nanoclusters in Zeolite

Structural studies done on HgSe nanoclusters fabricated in the pores of two types of zeolite frameworks, LTL (tubular pore) and Nd-Y (nearly spherical pore), are presented. Nanoclusters were synthesized in these zeolite frameworks via chemical vapor deposition. Anomalous X-ray scattering (AXS) studies were performed on both HgSe/zeolite-Y and HgSe/zeolite-L systems. As a result, we present two distinct structural models for NdY/HgSe and LTL/HgSe systems. A remarkable feature present in our X-ray diffraction (XRD) patterns, diffuse scattering, will also be discussed using our initial results of the atomic pair distribution function (PDF) studies. X-ray structural work is complemented using the results of optical and Raman studies. This article is based on a presentation given in the symposium entitled “Neutron and X-Ray Studies for Probing Materials Behavior,” which occurred during the TMS Spring Meeting in New Orleans, LA, March 9–13, 2008, under the auspices of the National Science Foundation, TMS, the TMS Structural Materials Division, and the TMS Advanced Characterization, Testing, and Simulation Committee.     

In vitro and in situ disappearance of β‐carotene and lutein from lucerne (Medicago sativa) hay in bovine and caprine ruminal fluids

Two experiments were conducted to determine the rumen fluid disappearance rates (kd) of β‐carotene, lutein, total carotene and total xanthophyll from lucerne (Medicago sativa) hay, in two ruminant species: Brahman steers (fat‐pigmenting) and Granadine goats (non‐pigmenting). Within species, the in vitro and the in situ methods were compared. The concentration of carotenoid compounds was determined by spectrophotometry and high performance liquid chromatography. The in vitro disappearance trends were linear for all compounds (P<0.01). β‐carotene kd were 0.13 and 0.37; lutein, 0.20 and 0.25; total carotene, 0.20 and 0.62 and total xanthophyll, 0.30 and 0.77 h ⁻¹ for steers and goats, respectively. The in situ disappearance trends were quadratic (P<0.01). Dry matter kd were 1.9 and 1.5% h⁻¹; cellular content, 2.0 and 2.3; β‐carotene, 2.5 and 1.2; lutein, 2.5 and 1.5; total carotene, 2.2 and 1.0 and total xanthophyll, 2.1 and 1.1% h⁻¹ for steers and goats, respectively. The large disappearance rates of carotenoids observed in the in situ method vs the virtual absence of disappearance in the in vitro method in both species, can be related to the dry matter and cellular content kd. These results suggest that carotenoids disappear probably by joining the cellular content and not by their direct destruction or by attack from the ruminal microorganisms, and the ruminal disappearance is independent of the species studied. © 1999 Society of Chemical Industry