Review: the latest advances in biomedical applications of chitosan hydrogel as a powerful natural structure with eye-catching biological properties

Journal of Materials Science - Chitosan is one of the natural cationic polymers with unique properties such as non-toxicity, biodegradability, biocompatibility, environmentally friendly that has...     

Cast titanium as implant material

The tissue response in rats to implants made of machined and cast titanium was evaluated after 1 and 12 weeks. The implants consisted of a circular plate portion, located in the abdominal wall, and a cylindrical rod portion protruding into the peritoneal cavity. The chemical and topographical surface properties of the two types of implants differed considerably. The implants with surrounding tissue were processed en bloc for light and electron microscopy. The bulk metal was removed by an electrochemical procedure which permitted the sectioning and evaluation of the intact implant-tissue interface. The general distribution of macrophages and fibroblasts was the same around the plate portion of both types of implants. Macrophages constituted the predominating cell type with the highest concentration in the innermost cell zone closest to the implant. The number of macrophages per section area was significantly higher around machined implants. Multinuclear giant cells, always located at the implant surface, were more frequent around cast implants. The majority of the intraperitoneal rod portions were partially (1 week) or completely (12 weeks) covered by tissue; partial or complete overgrowth of tissue was rare for machined rod portions. Imaging electron energy loss spectroscopy demonstrated the presence of titanium in macrophages in the peripheral part of the tissue capsule around cast, but not machined implants. We conclude that the tissue responses to the two types of titanium implants differed considerably in the two biological environments (soft tissue in abdominal wall; peritoneal cavity) examined and that the response in one environment does not predict the response in the other. We also believe that improvements have to be made in the casting procedure in order to reduce surface roughness and contamination before cast implants can be used in clinical applications.     

Imaging of the optic disc and retinal nerve fiber layer: the effects of age, optic disc area, refractive error, and gender.

We cross-sectionally examined the relationship between age, optic disc area, refraction, and gender and optic disc topography and retinal nerve fiber layer (RNFL) measurements, using optical imaging techniques. One eye from each of 155 Caucasian subjects (age range 23.0-80.8 y) without ocular pathology was included. Measurements were obtained by using the Heidelberg Retina Tomography (HRT), the GDx Nerve Fiber Analyzer, and the Optical Coherence Tomograph (OCT). The effects of age were small (R2 < 17%) and were limited to specific HRT, GDx, and OCT parameters. Disc area was significantly associated with most HRT parameters and isolated GDx and OCT parameters. Refraction and gender were not significantly associated with any optic disc or RNFL parameters. Although effects of age on the optic disc and RNFL are small, they should be considered in monitoring ocular disease. Optic disc area should be considered when cross-sectionally evaluating disc topography and, to a lesser extent, RNFL thickness.     

Seismic safety of lifelines—an optimum design method

Lifeline systems are vulnerable to two types of hazards arising from potential earthquake sources. These are the hazard of a fault-rupture strike on elements of a lifeline system and the hazard of overstress induced in different elements of the system because of the ground vibration. An optimum design method is presented in this paper for the design of a lifeline system for a maximum accepted probability of failure because of any of the two modes of failure. The method may be used to determine an optimum path between a number of fixed points which represent supply or demand stations in the system.     

Study of the effective parameters on mechanical and electrical properties of carbon black filled PP/PA6 microfibrillar composites

In this study the electrical and mechanical properties of microfibrillar polypropylene (PP)/polyamide6 (PA6) blend filled with super conductive carbon black (CB) have been investigated. In situ microfibrillar PP/PA6 composites filled with CB are produced using a single screw extruder equipped with a spinneret. Glycidyl methacrylate (GMA) grafted polypropylene (PP-g-GMA) is used as the compatibilizer. To investigate the effects of extensional flow on the microstructure, electrical and mechanical properties, three adaptors with various convergence angles were designed, prepared and applied between the extruder and the spinneret. To optimize the effects of processing and material parameters on the electrical and mechanical properties, the Taguchi method of experimental design is used. Material and processing factors which are studied include: concentration of PA6, compatibilizer level, CB concentration, drawing speed of melt spinning line, adaptor angle, order of mixing and temperature profile along the extruder. The results show an increase in DC conductivity of up to 10¹¹ times in comparison with pure PA6, by increasing the concentration of CB, drawing speed, adaptor angle and optimizing other parameters. By optimizing processing and material factors studied here, strength of microfibrillar structured composites is increased of up to 80% in comparison to pure PP.     

An improved volleyball premier league algorithm based on sine cosine algorithm for global optimization problem

Volleyball premier league (VPL) simulating some phenomena of volleyball game has been presented recently. This powerful algorithm uses such racing and interplays between teams within a season. Furthermore, the algorithm imitates the coaching procedure within a game. Therefore, some volleyball metaphors, including substitution, coaching, and learning, are used to find a better solution prepared by the VPL algorithm. However, the learning phase has the largest effect on the performance of the VPL algorithm, in which this phase can lead to making the VPL stuck in optimal local solution. Therefore, this paper proposed a modified VPL using sine cosine algorithm (SCA). In which the SCA operators have been applied in the learning phase to obtain a more accurate solution. So, we have used SCA operators in VPL to grasp their advantages resulting in a more efficient approach for finding the optimal solution of the optimization problem and avoid the limitations of the traditional VPL algorithm. The propounded VPLSCA algorithm is tested on the 25 functions. The results captured by the VPLSCA have been compared with other metaheuristic algorithms such as cuckoo search, social-spider optimization algorithm, ant lion optimizer, grey wolf optimizer, salp swarm algorithm, whale optimization algorithm, moth flame optimization, artificial bee colony, SCA, and VPL. Furthermore, the three typical optimization problems in the field of designing engineering have been solved using the VPLSCA. According to the obtained results, the proposed algorithm shows very reasonable and promising results compared to others.

     

Pd/Cu-Free Cobalt-Catalyzed Suzuki and Heck Using Green Bio-Magnetic Hybrid and DFT-Based Theoretical Study

Catalysis Letters - Several highly efficient and magnetically recyclable cobalt catalytic systems were prepared using magnetic chitosan and some safe and available organic compounds...