Study of hemocompatibility and endothelial cell interaction of tecoflex-based electrospun vascular grafts

Abstract

Ensuring long-term functioning and efficient endothelialization of small diameter vascular grafts (VG) is an urgent task of tissue engineering. A solution may be to use electrospun VGs prepared from blends polyurethane with gelatin and/or bivalirudin. Here, properties of 3D matrices were explored by SEM, contact angle measurements and IR spectroscopy, and their interaction with blood and endothelial cells was studied. Introduction of gelatin into matrices enhanced adhesion and proliferation of endotheliocytes and enabled adhesion of platelets, whereas bivalirudin inhibited platelet adhesion while having no negative effect on the adhesion and proliferation of endothelial cells.     

Electrohydraulic force control design of a hardware-in-the-loop load emulator using a nonlinear QFT technique

This paper presents the design of a robust force control system for an electrohydraulic load emulator utilized as part of a hardware-in-the-loop flight simulation experiment. In this application, the force controlled hydraulic actuator is used to artificially recreate in-service loads upon a second hydraulic flight actuator operated in closed-loop position control. Electrohydraulic force control is more difficult than electrohydraulic position tracking because the load dynamics influence the force transfer function in a way that makes it challenging to develop an accurate force tracking system using simple feedback control. Nonlinear quantitative feedback theory (QFT) is applied in this paper to address this issue. First, an effective and robust feedback controller is designed by nonlinear QFT to desensitize the force control loop to nonlinear servovalve flow/pressure effects and typical system uncertainties. A secondary compensator is also designed within the QFT framework to extend the force tracking bandwidth with respect to the load motion. Experiments demonstrate acceptable force tracking performance within the scope of a representative flight-simulation experiment.     

Open-circuit voltage of an illuminated nonideal heterojunction

The possibility of using the model of tunneling-recombination transport for calculating the photovoltage of an illuminated nonideal heterojunction is demonstrated. The technique of photoexcitation with light of varying spectral composition is used, and the difference in the behavior of the dependence of the photovoltage on the illumination is explained. The heterojunction photovoltage is calculated taking into account the predominance of the tunneling-recombination transport mechanism in the barrier region and modification of the shape of the potential barrier during illumination. It is shown that the dependences calculated at various illumination levels agree with those obtained experimentally.     

Foliation of Rock Mass around Mine Workings in Mining Rockburst-Hazardous Deposits

The results are presented for the experimental laboratory investigations into deformation of rock samples and the in situ instrumental observations of failure of massif around mine workings. The calculation of stress state in the vicinity of mine workings under dynamic actions is conducted. The mechanism of oriented rock foliation is revealed.     

Structural and optical properties of thin In2O3 films produced by autowave oxidation

Cubic-phase In₂O₃ films are produced by the autowave oxidation reaction. Electron microscopy and photoelectron spectroscopy of the atomic profiles show that the samples are homogeneous over the entire area and throughout the thickness, with the typical grain size being 20–40 nm. The optical and electrical properties are studied for In₂O₃ films fabricated at different pressures in the vacuum chamber. In the wave-length range from 400 to 1100 nm, the transparency of the films was higher than 85%; the resistivity of the films was 1.8 × 10^?2 Ω cm.