Normal and Anomalous Codeposition of Ni-Co-Fe-Zn Alloys from EMIC/EG in the Presence of an External Magnetic Field

The codeposition of Ni-Co-Fe-Zn alloys from a mixture of 1-ethyl-3-methylimidazolium chloride (EMIC)/ethylene glycol (EG) was studied using potentiostatic electrodeposition in the potential range of –1.10 and –1.30 V vs saturated calomel electrode (SCE), using a permanent parallel magnetic field (PPMF) of 9 T. The uniform magnetic field was aligned parallel to the cathode surface. It was found that both normal and anomalous codeposition occurred. Films with different elemental percentage and deposit morphology were obtained from a mixture of EMIC/EG solution at the applied potentials (–1.10 and –1.30 V) in the absence and presence of a PPMF. The influence of magnetic field on the nucleation and growth process is studied with respect to the magneto-hydrodynamic effect (MHD) and applied potentials.     

Fish oil microencapsulation as influenced by spray dryer operational variables

The effects of spray‐drying air temperature, aspirator rate (drying air mass flow rate), peristaltic pump rate (feed mass flow rate) and spraying air mass flow rate on microencapsulation properties of fish oil including moisture content, particle size, bulk density, encapsulation efficiency and peroxide were investigated. The process was carried out on a mini spray dryer, and skim milk powder was used as the encapsulating wall material. Results indicated that increasing inlet air temperature increased the particle size, encapsulation efficiency and peroxide value but decreased the bulk density and moisture content of product. Increasing aspirator rate resulted in increased particle size and peroxide value but decreased the moisture content and bulk density. Increase in feed mass flow rate increased the moisture content, particle size, bulk density and peroxide value but decreased the encapsulation efficiency of microcapsules. The encapsulation efficiency and bulk density increased with the increasing aspirator rate but moisture content, particle size and peroxide value decreased.     

Experimental investigation of the governing parameters in the electrospinning of poly(3‐hydroxybutyrate) scaffolds: Structural characteristics of the pores

We sought to determine the impact of electrospinning parameters on a trustworthy criterion that could evidently improve the maximum applicability of fibrous scaffolds for tissue regeneration. We used an image analysis technique to elucidate the web permeability index (WPI) by modeling the formation of electrospun scaffolds. Poly(3‐hydroxybutyrate) (P3HB) scaffolds were fabricated according to predetermined conditions of levels in a Taguchi orthogonal design. The material parameters were the polymer concentration, conductivity, and volatility of the solution. The processing parameters were the applied voltage and nozzle‐to‐collector distance. With a law to monitor the WPI values when the polymer concentration or the applied voltage was increased, the pore interconnectivity was decreased. The quality of the jet instability altered the pore numbers, areas, and other structural characteristics, all of which determined the scaffold porosity and aperture interconnectivity. An initial drastic increase was observed in the WPI values because of the chain entanglement phenomenon above a 6 wt % P3HB content. Although the solution mixture significantly (p < 0.05) changed the scaffold architectural characteristics as a function of the solution viscosity and surface tension, it had a minor impact on the WPI values. The solution mixture gained the third place of significance, and the distance was approved as the least important factor. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci, 2010     

Performance evaluation of modified rotating-jet electrospinning method by investigating the effect of collector size on the nanofibers alignment

Modified rotating-jet electrospinning method (MRJM) is a new electrospinning technique with a novel setup including two metallic concentric hollow cylinders for generating highly aligned fibers. In this report, an experimental study was carried out to evaluate the effectiveness of MRJM for generating highly aligned nanofibers. For this purpose, the effect of voltage in the range of 10–22 kV, inner collector diameter in the range of 20–50 cm, and outer collector diameter in the range of 30–60 cm, on alignment degrees of electrospun fibers were explored and the results for each set of parameters were compared with those obtained for rotating-jet electrospinning method (RJM). The obtained results indicated that the alignment degrees of electrospun fibers in MRJM were significantly higher than those of RJM. The maximum achievable alignment degree in MRJM was around 82 % that was higher than the corresponding maximum value (40 %) of RJM. Although the effect of applied voltage on the degree of alignment in MRJM was observed to be negligible, it was experimentally proved that by manipulating the outer cylinder diameter, the degree of alignment can be increased up to 20 %. To achieve a conceptual understanding of the reason for significant influence of the outer cylinder on the elecrospinning performance, a formula was derived according to the Gauss’s law in the last part of this paper that relates the electric field strength inside the region between the inner cylinder and the spinneret to the radii of inner and outer cylinders.     

Study of liquid sloshing: numerical and experimental approach

In this paper, sloshing phenomenon in a rectangular tank under a sway excitation is studied numerically and experimentally. Although considerable advances have occurred in the development of numerical and experimental techniques for studying liquid sloshing, discrepancies exist between these techniques, particularly in predicting time history of impact pressure. The aim of this paper is to study the sloshing phenomenon experimentally and numerically using the Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics method. The algorithm is enhanced for accurately calculating impact load in sloshing flow. Experiments were conducted on a 1:30 scaled two-dimensional tank, undergoing translational motion along its longitudinal axis. Two different sloshing flows corresponding to the ratio of exciting frequency to natural frequency were studied. The numerical and experimental results are compared for both global and local parameters and show very good agreement.     

Application of the Direct Strength Method to local buckling resistance of thin-walled steel members with non-uniform elevated temperatures under axial compression

This paper assesses the applicability of the Direct Strength Method (DSM) to calculating the local buckling ultimate strength of cold-formed thin-walled (CF-TW) steel members with non-uniform elevated temperature distributions in the cross-section. The assessment was carried out by checking the DSM calculation results with numerical simulation results using the general finite element software ABAQUS which was validated against ambient and uniform elevated temperature tests on short lipped channel sections. The validated numerical model was used to generate an extensive database (372 models) of numerical results of load carry capacity of CF-TW members with different uniform and non-uniform temperature distributions in the cross-sections, under different boundary and loading conditions and with different dimensions and lengths. It was concluded that the DSM local buckling curve was directly applicable for columns with uniform temperature distributions in the cross-section. For columns with non-uniform temperature distributions, a modification to the local buckling curve was necessary and this paper has proposed a new curve.     

Pineal opioid receptors and analgesic action of melatonin

Synthesis of poly(gamma-glutamyl) metabolites of many antifolates, such as methotrexate (MTX), by folylpolyglutamate synthetase (FPGS) is often essential to their cytotoxic activity. FPGS expression in the MTX-sensitive human T-lymphoblastic leukemia cell line CCRF-CEM and a number of MTX-resistant sublines was previously investigated at the DNA, RNA, and activity levels. Using an FPGS peptide deduced from its cDNA sequence, a rabbit polyclonal antibody to FPGS has now been elicited, immunoaffinity purified, and used to quantitate FPGS protein expression by chemiluminescent Western immunoblot analysis. The antibody was used to determine the half-life of human FPGS protein (3.7 +/- 1.1 h) in parental CCRF-CEM cells. A subline resistant to MTX as a result of amplified dihydrofolate reductase expression shows no change in FPGS protein or activity relative to CCRF-CEM. An MTX transport-defective line, however, displays both higher FPGS protein and activity levels. For several sublines in which the only apparent mechanism of MTX resistance is decreased FPGS activity, the FPGS protein level is decreased proportionally. However, we previously showed that these sublines have the same gene copy number, restriction map, and mRNA size and levels as the parent. Evidently, in these MTX-resistant sublines the mRNA is poorly translated and/or the protein turns over more rapidly.     

Nested self-similar wrinkling patterns in skins

Stiff thin films on soft substrates are both ancient and commonplace in nature; for instance, animal skin comprises a stiff epidermis attached to a soft dermis. Although more recent and rare, artificial skins are increasingly used in a broad range of applications, including flexible electronics, tunable diffraction gratings, force spectroscopy in cells, modern metrology methods, and other devices. Here we show that model elastomeric artificial skins wrinkle in a hierarchical pattern consisting of self-similar buckles extending over five orders of magnitude in length scale, ranging from a few nanometres to a few millimetres. We provide a mechanism for the formation of this hierarchical wrinkling pattern, and quantify our experimental findings with both computations and a simple scaling theory. This allows us to harness the substrates for applications. In particular, we show how to use the multigeneration-wrinkled substrate for separating particles based on their size, while simultaneously forming linear chains of monodisperse particles.