Mechanical and barrier properties of poly(lactic acid) films coated by nanoclay–ink composition

In this study, poly(lactic acid) (PLA) films were coated by an ink formulation containing nanoclay dispersed with ultrasonic homogenization for 20 min. Mechanical and barrier properties of the coated films were evaluated according to clay type and concentration. PLA films coated by ink formulations containing Cloisite 30B displayed the best mechanical and barrier properties in six types of nanoclays. PLA films coated by Cloisite 30B‐containing ink varying in clay concentration were investigated. Tensile strength and elongation at break of these coated films were improved in 1% Cloisite 30B. Oxygen permeability decreased significantly upon the addition of clay levels up to 1% and slightly decreased with further increases in the amount of the clay. The value of water vapor permeability also decreased depending on the increases of clay (0%–20%). When the clay content in the sample was 2.0%, the surface of coated PLA films displayed aggregation visible using film emission scanning electron microscopy. X‐ray diffractometry and transmission electron microscopy indicated that a mixture of exfoliated and intercalated structure was formed with addition of 1% (w/w) Cloisite 30B to the ink after ultrasonication. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci., 2013     

A self-emulsifying omega-3 fatty acids delivery system for enhanced gastro-intestinal absorption in rats

Food Science and Biotechnology - Omega-3 fatty acids have many health benefits as they help to prevent and treat coronary artery disease, hypertension, diabetes mellitus, arthritis, and autoimmune...     

Asynchronous 2‐Phase Protocol Based on Ternary Encoding for On‐Chip Interconnect

Level‐encoded dual‐rail (LEDR) has been widely used in on‐chip asynchronous interconnects supporting a 2‐phase handshake protocol. However, it inevitably requires 2N wires for N‐bit data transfers. Encoder and decoder circuits that perform an asynchronous 2‐phase handshake protocol with only N wires for N‐bit data transfers are presented for on‐chip global interconnects. Their fundamentals are based on a ternary encoding scheme using current‐mode multiple valued logics. Using 0.25 μm CMOS technologies, the maximum reduction ratio of the proposed circuits, compared with LEDR in terms of power‐delay product, was measured as 39.5% at a wire length of 10 mm and data rate of 100 MHz.     

Association between Cell Microenvironment Altered by Gold Nanowire Array and Regulation of Partial Epithelial-Mesenchymal Transition

Cell microenvironment is an essential factor in determining cell growth and cell fate. Many studies have been carried out to understand the functions and mechanisms of small molecules or growth factors/cytokines; however, the effects of the physical environment on cells are relatively unknown. Changes in the cell's physical microenvironment affect cell adhesion and modify intracellular signaling controlled by adhesion properties, resulting in altering the cytoskeletal structure and cellular properties. Herein, it is demonstrated that the changes in cell adhesion can affect the epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) of epithelial cells by implementing a cell microenvironment with a gold (Au) nanowire array to influence cell adhesion. A forcible decrease in cell adhesion leads to the downregulation of epithelial biomarkers and the upregulation of mesenchymal biomarkers. The results of force-distance experiments using atomic force microscopy showed that the overall stiffness of epithelial cells declined similarly to the case for mesenchymal-like cells. With this comprehensive analysis of cellular properties, a physical microenvironment for cell adhesion alteration is suggested, that can induce mesenchymal characteristics in both epithelial and mesenchymal cells through partial EMT.     

Development of non-gel-based two-dimensional separation of intact proteins by an on-line hyphenation of capillary isoelectric focusing and hollow fiber flow field-flow fractionation

A rapid, non-gel-based, on-line, two-dimensional separation method is introduced for proteome analysis. Protein fractionation was carried out by first exploiting the differences in their respective isoelectric points (pI) in a Teflon capillary using isoelectric focusing (IEF), followed by a molecular weight (MW)-based separation in a hollow fiber by flow field-flow fractionation (FlFFF). The method developed here (CIEF-HFFlFFF) may be a powerful alternative to two-dimensional polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis, which is currently used for the separation and purification of proteins. In CIEF-HFFlFFF, proteins can be collected as a fraction of a certain pI and MW interval without being denatured. Additionally, the ampholyte solution is simultaneously removed during separation in the hollow fiber, and the overall process time is significantly reduced. This method was applied to a human urinary proteome sample, leading to the identification of 114 proteins with the subsequent off-line use of nanoflow liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry after the tryptic digestion of each collected protein fraction.     

用200nm铜颗粒在空气中快速压力辅助烧结及连续无压退火提高结合强度

为了设计一种有效且适用于功率器件的烧结结合工艺,提出一种两步工艺,使用约200 nm的铜颗粒基浆料形成具有高温可持续性和优越导热性的粘结层.该工艺涉及在空气中快速压力辅助烧结和在氮气气氛中连续无压退火.当使用20％(质量分数)的羟基丁二酸和80％(质量分数)的乙二醇混合物浆料时,在300℃、5 MPa烧结30 s后的剪...     

Oil resistance and low-temperature characteristics of plasticized nitrile butadiene rubber compounds

The mechanical properties and oil resistance of nitrile butadiene rubber as an automotive material are investigated under low-temperature conditions. We discuss the effects of various plasticizers, such as dioctyl adipate, adipic acid ester, polyether ester, and adipic acid polyester. The mechanical properties after thermal oxidation aging, as well as oil resistance and low-temperature characteristics of the compounds, are measured using a moving die rheometer, universal testing machine, differential scanning calorimeter, low-temperature retraction tester, and gehman torsional stiffness tester. We focus on how the oil resistance and low-temperature characteristics are affected by the plasticizer type and plasticizer content. The results demonstrate that nitrile butadiene rubber compounds are affected by the low molecular weight and viscosity of the plasticizer. © 2019 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2019 , 136, 47851.     

Continuous fractionation of fly ash particles by SPUTT for the investigation of PCDD/Fs levels in different sizes of insoluble particles

A combined analytical method has been developed to characterize the size dependent levels of polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins (PCDDs) and polychlorinated dibenzofurans (PCDFs) contained in fly ash particles from a municipal solid waste incinerator (MSWI). Gravitational SPLITT fractionation (GSF), a relatively new technique for the fast and continuous separation of micron sized particles, was used to fractionate a fly ash sample, directly collected from a bag-filter house of MSWI in Korea, into six different size groups (<1.0, 1.0-2.5, 2.5-5.0, 5.0-10, 10-20, and 20-53 microm in diameter) in water solution, and the resulting fractions are examined by high resolution gas chromatography/high resolution mass spectrometry (HRGC/HRMS) in order to determine the concentration of PCDD/Fs according to these particle sizes. The results from SPLITT fractionation show that approximately 54% of the fly ash particles (sieved fraction <53 microm) by weight have been found to be smaller than 5.0 microm excluding the water soluble matter in the sample. From the HRGC/HRMS measurements, particle fractions in the size range of PM 1.0-2.5 and 2.5-5.0 appear to carry about 76 and 79 ng/g of PCDD/Fs which are relatively larger than those found in other diameter ranges. Principal component analysis (PCA) shows that particles larger than 5.0 microm are clustered into a group predominantly containing low chlorinated dioxins and fractions smaller than 5.0 microm into another group with lower chlorinated furans. This study demonstrated that the combining GSF with a secondary analytical method such as HRGC/HRMS has the potential to obtain size dependent information of particulate materials in relation to their production processes, chemical compositions, environmental fates, and other factors.