Morphological evolution on the surface of hydrothermally synthesized hydroxyapatite microspheres in the presence of EDTMP

Well-ordered and surface engineered hierarchical hydroxyapatite microspheres (HAM) were prepared via a template free hydrothermal process. Ethylene diamine tetra (methylene phosphonic acid) (EDTMP) was used as chelating or regulating agent for the first time in this study. The results indicated the formation of sheet-like particles in the absence of EDTMP. On the other hand, microspheres with radially grown nanorods (HAMNR) or nanosheets (HAMNS) on the surface were obtained (with average diameter of 5?µm) in the presence of EDTMP. X-ray diffraction (XRD) and Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy were used to characterize the crystalline phases in the synthesized samples. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) showed that EDTMP concentration played an important part in regulating the morphology to form well organized microspheres with nanosheets or nanorods on the surface. Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET) revealed an increase in the specific surface area with the change in morphology from the HAMNS to HAMNR. Possible mechanisms are proposed to account for the formation of different morphologies based upon thermodynamic and kinetic theories.     

Effect of film thickness on hydrogen content in a-Si : H

The hydrogen content, its depth distribution, and its bonding configuration have been studied in hydrogenated amorphous silicon prepared by plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition with hydrogen-diluted silane. Nuclear reaction analysis and infrared spectroscopy were used to determine the total amount of hydrogen and its bonded component, respectively. It has been established that the total concentration of hydrogen does not depend on the film thickness, and has a uniform depth profile. The concentration of bonded hydrogen changes with the film thickness within the measurement accuracy. The data obtained suggest the presence of molecular (non-bonded) hydrogen, uniformly distributed in concentration across the film thickness.     

pHEMA: An Overview for Biomedical Applications

Poly(2-hydroxyethyl methacrylate) (pHEMA) as a biomaterial with excellent biocompatibility and cytocompatibility elicits a minimal immunological response from host tissue making it desirable for different biomedical applications. This article seeks to provide an in-depth overview of the properties and biomedical applications of pHEMA for bone tissue regeneration, wound healing, cancer therapy (stimuli and non-stimuli responsive systems), and ophthalmic applications (contact lenses and ocular drug delivery). As this polymer has been widely applied in ophthalmic applications, a specific consideration has been devoted to this field. Pure pHEMA does not possess antimicrobial properties and the site where the biomedical device is employed may be susceptible to microbial infections. Therefore, antimicrobial strategies such as the use of silver nanoparticles, antibiotics, and antimicrobial agents can be utilized to protect against infections. Therefore, the antimicrobial strategies besides the drug delivery applications of pHEMA were covered. With continuous research and advancement in science and technology, the outlook of pHEMA is promising as it will most certainly be utilized in more biomedical applications in the near future. The aim of this review was to bring together state-of-the-art research on pHEMA and their applications.     

纳米碳酸钙的制备及表征

研究了以氧化钙和二氧化碳为原料,化学法制备纳米碳酸钙的工艺条件、添加剂的影响及形态。结果表明:中间体氢氧化钙的初始浓度、二氧化碳的流量、反应温度、搅拌速度及添加剂等在控制制备纳米碳酸钙颗粒的形状和尺寸中均十分重要。透射电镜观察结果表明:通过控制反应及添加剂,可以得到尺寸规整的链锁形、纺锤形和球形纳米碳酸钙。表面能谱证实产品为高纯的碳酸钙。X射线衍射和电子衍射的结果进一步表明:所制纳米碳酸钙均属方解石型六方晶系,a0=0.498 9 nm,c0=1.706 2 nm;为多晶结构。     

Consistency of noise covariance estimation in joint input–output closed-loop subspace identification with application in LQG benchmarking

The LQG trade-off curve has been used as a benchmark for control loop performance assessment. The subspace approach to estimating the LQG benchmark has been proposed in the literature which requires certain intermediate matrices in subspace identification as well as the covariance matrix of the noise. It is shown in this paper that many existing closed-loop identification methods do not give a consistent estimate of the noise covariance matrix. As a result, we propose an alternative subspace formulation for the joint input–output closed-loop identification for which the consistency of the required subspace matrices and noise covariance is guaranteed. Simulation studies and experimental results are provided to demonstrate the utility of the proposed method.     

Applying multiple decomposition methods and optimization techniques for achieving optimal cost in mixed materials heat exchanger networks

The optimization of the total annual cost in heat exchanger networks has been one of the overarching goals when synthesizing these networks. Several methodologies and techniques have been developed to achieve optimal costs in mixed material heat exchanger networks. This paper demonstrates the application of two decomposition methodologies (total decomposition and partial decomposition) for typical cost rules. The objective function was defined as the optimization and minimization of the total annual cost in mixed materials heat exchanger network. Three optimization algorithms, hybrid genetic‐particle swarm optimization (GA‐PSO), shuffled frog leaping algorithm (SFLA) techniques, and ant colony optimization (ACO), were used to further optimize the total cost in mixed materials heat exchanger network. The results indicate that the total annual cost in partial decomposition method was smaller than that in full integration method and total decomposition method. The reduction of the total annual cost was about 27% for GA‐PSO algorithm, 24% for SFLA and 10% for ACO relative to the results reported in this work. In partial decomposition method, at least one mixed material of heat exchanger was used to reduce the hot and cold utility for decreasing the total annual cost. Partial decomposition method resulted in the highest reduction of the total annual cost compared with other methods. Percentage of difference of the total annual cost were 0.36%, 1.92%, and 5.05% for full integration, total decomposition, and partial decomposition methods, respectively, in comparison with the previous studies. Results have been compared with the results of other studies to demonstrate the accuracy of the applied algorithms.     

Bi-objective optimization approaches to many-to-many hub location routing with distance balancing and hard time window

Neural Computing and Applications - This study addresses a many-to-many hub location-routing problem where the best-found locations of hubs and the best-found tours for each hub are determined with...     

A Cluster-based Stratified Hybrid Decision Support Model under Uncertainty: Sustainable Healthcare Landfill Location Selection

Applied Intelligence - Nowadays, healthcare waste management has become one of the significant environmental, health, and social problems. Due to population and urbanization growth and an increase...