3D Printed Enzyme-Functionalized Scaffold Facilitates Diabetic Bone Regeneration

Patients with diabetes mellitus (DM) suffer from a high risk of fractures and poor bone healing ability. Surprisingly, no effective therapy is available to treat diabetic bone defect in clinic. Here, a 3D printed enzyme-functionalized scaffold with multiple bioactivities including osteogenesis, angiogenesis, and anti-inflammation in diabetic conditions is proposed. The as-prepared multifunctional scaffold is constituted with alginate, glucose oxidase (GOx), and catalase-assisted biomineralized calcium phosphate nanosheets (CaP@CAT NSs). The GOx inside scaffolds can alleviate the hyperglycemia environment by catalyzing glucose and oxygen into gluconic acid and hydrogen peroxide (H₂O₂). Both the generated H₂O₂ as well as the overproduced H₂O₂ in DM can be scavenged by CaP@CAT NSs, while the initiated hypoxic microenvironment stimulates neovascularization. Moreover, the incorporation of CaP@CAT NSs not only enhance the mechanical property of the scaffolds, but also facilitate bone regeneration by the degraded Ca²⁺ and PO₄³⁻ ions. The remarkable in vitro and in vivo outcomes demonstrate that enzymes functionalized scaffolds can be an effective strategy for enhancing bone tissue regeneration in diabetic conditions, underpinning the potential of multifunctional scaffolds for diabetic bone regeneration.     

Secure sensors data acquisition and communication protection in eHealthcare: Review on the state of the art

Recent advances in hardware technology have led to the development of low cost, power efficient and more feature rich devices that are amongst the most critical parts of communication networks. These devices or sensors can now sense data with more accuracy, process it by themselves and send it to the neighboring node or the sink node. However, robust and reliable security mechanisms are not yet properly implemented on these sensors due to their limited energy and computation power. Sensors also play a very important role in eHealthcare systems where ubiquitous patient monitoring is performed. As data is generated from the sensor nodes, reliable, secure and attack-resistant data acquisition and transmission is important for an efficient eHealthcare systems. This survey focuses on security issues of sensors data acquisition and transmission protocols, describing their main security features and comparing them in the context of a secure eHealthcare system. A taxonomy of open issues and future challenges is also discussed with respect to specific security metrics described in the paper.     

New Strategy for Polysulfide Protection Based on Atomic Layer Deposition of TiO2 onto Ferroelectric‐Encapsulated Cathode: Toward Ultrastable Free‐Standing Room Temperature Sodium–Sulfur Batteries

The room temperature (RT) sodium–sulfur batteries (Na–S) hold great promise for practical applications including energy storage and conversion due to high energy density, long lifespan, and low cost, as well based on the abundant reserves of both sodium metal and sulfur. Herein, freestanding (C/S/BaTiO₃)@TiO₂ (CSB@TiO₂) electrode with only ≈3 wt% of BaTiO₃ additive and ≈4 nm thickness of amorphous TiO₂ atomic layer deposition protective layer is rational designed, and first used for RT Na–S batteries. Results show that such cathode material exhibits high rate capability and excellent durability compared with pure C/S and C/S/BaTiO₃ electrodes. Notably, this CSB@TiO₂ electrode performs a discharge capacity of 524.8 and 382 mA h g^?1 after 1400 cycles at 1 A g^?1 and 3000 cycles at 2 A g^?1, respectively. Such superior electrochemical performance is mainly attributed from the “BaTiO₃‐C‐TiO₂” synergetic structure within the matrix, which enables effectively inhibiting the shuttle effect, restraining the volumetric variation and stabilizing the ionic transport interface.     

Design of a Web Based Underwater Acoustic Communication Testbed and Simulation Platform

Wireless Personal Communications - Underwater Wireless Sensor Networks (UWSNs) are playing a vital role in exploring the unseen underwater (UW) natural resources. However, performance evaluation of...     

PLL FM demodulator performance under Gaussian modulation

A widespread test of the phase-locked loop (PLL) FM demodulator under Gaussian modulation is simulated using the Monte Carlo method. Unified noise-free and noise performance analyses of the PLL FM demodulator are presented. Substantial reduction of the modulation limit by the input bandpass filter is reported in the region of the input bandwidth of practical interest. Bessel bandpass filters of order greater than two are shown to compare favorably with Butterworth filters in front of the PLL FM demodulator relative to the intermodulation (IM) distortion. A lower bound on the loop noise bandwidth is found by minimizing the output click rate for given IM distortion specifications. FM threshold of 4 and 7 dB for the root-mean-square (RMS) frequency deviation-to-message bandwidth ratio 0.1 and 1.0, respectively, is reported on the worst-case IM distortion of 45 dB     

Energy and economic aspects of synthesis gas production from oil sludge and plastic waste

A series of experiments have been performed to investigate the influence of reaction temperature, the equivalence ratio (ER), and blending ratio on the gas composition, tar content and higher heating value (HHV) of synthesis gas. H₂ content decreased from 10.7 to 8.2% in the range of BR while CO and CH₄ increased from 17.4 to 23.1% and 3.4 to 6.3%, respectively. HHV increased with BR and H₂/CO showed an opposite trend. The highest HHV and H₂/CO were obtained at 100%PW and 100%OS, respectively. Tar content increased from 4.8 to 9.5?g/Nm³ with BR increasing in the range because of a reduction in the endothermic nature of volatile combustion.     

On the practicability of a new bio sorbent: Lasani sawdust and coconut coir for cleanup of oil spilled on water

In this article, two bio-sorbents have been selected: lasani sawdust (LS) (a new bio-based material) and coconut coir (CC) for the removal of used motor oil from the aqueous phase. The physical nature of the materials was characterized using Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy and Constitutional Analysis of lignin and cellulose. The adsorption process was evaluated using various kinetic and adsorption models. The evaluated sorption capacities for coconut coir and lasani sawdust were 12.82?g g^?1 and 0.36?g g^?1, respectively. Maximum sorption of oil from the aqueous solution conveniently took place in 20?minutes. To ascribe statistically which model describes the adsorption phenomenon best, Root Mean Square Error (RMSE) and Average Relative Error (ARE) were used. The kinetics of the adsorption was best described by Pseudo-second order. Similarly, Langmuir isotherm model had the least value for the two error functions and a higher q_max value for coir than for lasani. It was concluded that the increased absorptive ability of coir over lasani was due to the difference in the composition of lignin and cellulose of the two materials.     

Heat transfer from a spinning disk during semi-confined axial impingement from a rotating nozzle

Conjugate heat transfer from a uniformly heated spinning solid disk of finite thickness and radius during a semi-confined liquid jet impingement from a rotating nozzle is studied. The model covers the entire fluid region including the impinging jet on a flat circular disk and flow spreading out downstream under the spinning confinement plate and free surface flow after exposure to the ambient gaseous medium. The model examines how the heat transfer is affected by adding a secondary rotational flow under semi-confined jet impingement. The solution is made under steady state and laminar conditions. The study considered various plate materials such as aluminum, copper, silver, constantan and silicon. Ammonia, water, flouroinert FC-77 and MIL-7808 oil were used as working fluids. The range of parameters covered included Reynolds number (220–900), Ekman number (7.08 × 10^?5–∞), nozzle-to-target spacing (β = 0.25–1.0), disk thicknesses to nozzle diameter ratio (b/d_n = 0.25–1.67), Prandtl number (1.29–124.44) and solid to fluid thermal conductivity ratio (36.91–2222). It was found that a higher Reynolds number increased local heat transfer coefficient reducing the interface temperature difference over the entire disk surface. The rotational rate also increased local heat transfer coefficient under most conditions. An engineering correlation relating the Nusselt number with other dimensionless parameters was developed for the prediction of the system performance.     

Impacts of low-pressure (LP) compressors’ fouling of a turbofan upon operational-effectiveness of a military aircraft

Some in-service deterioration in any mechanical device, such as an aircraft’s gas-turbine engine, is inevitable. However, its extent and rate depend upon the qualities of design and manufacture, as well as on the maintenance/repair practices followed by the users. As a result of experiencing deterioration (of the engine as a whole or any of its components individually), an engine will seek a different steady operating point relative to that for an engine with no deterioration. This results in changes in the available thrust from the engine(s) at the same TETs and/or rotational-speeds. Any reduction in the available thrust at specified engine settings, especially maximum available thrust from the engines, will have a significant adverse effect upon the aircraft’s operational-performance. These adverse effects can be reduced by having a better knowledge of the effects of each such deterioration on the aircraft’s operational-performance. Subsequently improvements can be made in the design and manufacture of adversely-affected components as well as in maintenance and repair practices.     

ANT-colony based disjoint set assortment in wireless sensor networks

Wireless Networks - Wireless sensor network (WSN) consists of small sized devices containing different sensors to monitor physical, environmental and medical conditions during surveillance of...