In Vivo Biological Behavior of Polymer Scaffolds of Natural Origin in the Bone Repair Process

Autologous bone grafts, used mainly in extensive bone loss, are considered the gold standard treatment in regenerative medicine, but still have limitations mainly in relation to the amount of bone available, donor area, morbidity and creation of additional surgical area. This fact encourages tissue engineering in relation to the need to develop new biomaterials, from sources other than the individual himself. Therefore, the present study aimed to investigate the effects of an elastin and collagen matrix on the bone repair process in critical size defects in rat calvaria. The animals (Wistar rats, n = 30) were submitted to a surgical procedure to create the bone defect and were divided into three groups: Control Group (CG, n = 10), defects filled with blood clot; E24/37 Group (E24/37, n = 10), defects filled with bovine elastin matrix hydrolyzed for 24 h at 37 °C and C24/25 Group (C24/25, n = 10), defects filled with porcine collagen matrix hydrolyzed for 24 h at 25 °C. Macroscopic and radiographic analyses demonstrated the absence of inflammatory signs and infection. Microtomographical 2D and 3D images showed centripetal bone growth and restricted margins of the bone defect. Histologically, the images confirmed the pattern of bone deposition at the margins of the remaining bone and without complete closure by bone tissue. In the morphometric analysis, the groups E24/37 and C24/25 (13.68 ± 1.44; 53.20 ± 4.47, respectively) showed statistically significant differences in relation to the CG (5.86 ± 2.87). It was concluded that the matrices used as scaffolds are biocompatible and increase the formation of new bone in a critical size defect, with greater formation in the polymer derived from the intestinal serous layer of porcine origin (C24/25).     

GDME-based methodology for the determination of free formaldehyde in cosmetics and hygiene products containing formaldehyde releasers

Analytical and Bioanalytical Chemistry - Formaldehyde is often applied in the industrial production of different products, such as textiles, insulation materials, or cosmetics, due to its...     

Piecewise-linearized methods for oscillators with limit cycles

A piecewise linearization method based on the linearization of nonlinear ordinary differential equations in small intervals, that provides piecewise analytical solutions in each interval and smooth solutions everywhere, is developed for the study of the limit cycles of smooth and non-smooth, conservative and non-conservative, nonlinear oscillators. It is shown that this method provides nonlinear maps for the displacement and velocity which depend on the previous values through the nonlinearity and its partial derivatives with respect to time, displacement and velocity, and yields non-standard finite difference formulae. It is also shown by means of five examples that the piecewise linearization method presented here is more robust and yields more accurate (in terms of displacement, energy and frequency) solutions than the harmonic balance procedure, the method of slowly varying amplitude and phase, and other non-standard finite difference equations.     

Fast and efficient preparation of Baylis-Hillman-derived (E)-allylic azides and related compounds in aqueous medium

A practical access to alkyl- and aryl-substituted (E)-2-(azidomethyl)alkenoates and related azido compounds from the corresponding allylic bromides in aqueous acetone is described. An alternative method to obtain the starting bromides based on heterogeneous catalysis under mild conditions was also investigated.     

Diblock copolymers based on allyl methacrylate: Synthesis,characterization, and chemical modification

Different diblock copolymers constituted by one segment of a monomer supporting a reactive functional group, like allyl methacrylate (AMA), were synthesized by atom transfer radical polymerization (ATRP). Bromo‐terminated polymers, like polystyrene (PS), poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA), and poly(butyl acrylate) (PBA) were employed as macroinitiators to form the other blocks. Copolymerizations were carried out using copper chloride with N,N,N′,N″,N″‐pentamethyldiethylenetriamine (PMDETA) as the catalyst system in benzonitrile solution at 70 °C. At the early stage, the ATRP copolymerizations yielded well‐defined linear block copolymers. However, with the polymerization progress a change in the macromolecular architecture takes place due to the secondary reactions caused by the allylic groups, passing to a branched and/or star‐shaped structure until finally yielding gel at monomer conversion around 40% or higher. The block copolymers were characterized by means of size exclusion chromatography (SEC), ¹H NMR spectroscopy, and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC). In addition, one of these copolymers, specifically P(BA‐b‐AMA), was satisfactorily modified through osmylation reaction to obtain the subsequent amphiphilic diblock copolymer of P(BA‐b‐DHPMA), where DHPMA is 2,3‐dihydroxypropyl methacrylate; demonstrating the feasibility of side‐chain modification of the functional obtained copolymers. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part A: Polym Chem 45: 3538–3549, 2007     

Analysis of Antennas with PBG Substrate

The use of photonic materials has been used in the theory of optical waves. The PBG (Photonic Band Gap) theory and material, was developed recently for optical frequencies and can be easily applied to millimeter waves, microwaves and planar antenna frequencies. The presence of photonic materials as substrate in antennas has some good characteristics such as, supression of light spontaneous emission and suppression of surface waves, allowing the application in planar antenna array. In this work an elaborate analysis using the full wave Transverse Transmission Line - TTL method, that provides efficient and concise results is applied to the planar antennas array with PBG substrate.     

UPML formulation for truncating conductive media in curvilinear coordinates

This work presents a formulation based on UPML for truncating conductive media by using a local and non-orthogonal coordinate system to solve Maxwell’s equations by the FDTD method. The detailed procedure for obtaining the UPML equations for this case is shown and the complete equation set is provided.