Directed neural stem cell differentiation on polyaniline-coated high strength hydrogels

Stem-cell-based neural regeneration has received significant attention, as it has potential to restore functionality to diseased or damaged neural tissues that have a limited ability to self-repair or regenerate. Culturing neural stem cells (NSCs) on hydrogel substrates has been shown to facilitate differentiation to neural progenitors, but this has only been achieved on very soft hydrogels, greatly increasing the difficulty of manufacture and limiting their wide applications. Here, we realized the differentiation of NSCs to neural and glial progenitors on high-strength hydrogels. Hydrogen-bonding-strengthened conductive hydrogels (PVV-PANI) were synthesized through one-pot copolymerization of 2-vinyl-4,6-diamino-1,3,5-triazine, 1-vinylimidazole and polyethylene glycol diacrylate, followed by post-coating with polyaniline (PANI). Diaminotriazine-diaminotriazine hydrogen bonding dramatically increases their mechanical strength, while copolymerization with VI pronouncedly promotes the adsorption of PANI particles, endowing the hydrogels with electrical conductivity. These hydrogels exhibit tensile strengths up to 1.16 MPa, a 559% breaking strain, a 9.9 MPa compressive strength and up to 16.7 mS/cm conductivity. Importantly, PVV-PANI hydrogels support the attachment, proliferation, and differentiation of NSCs, and allow the efficient induction of neural and glial differentiation via electrical stimulation. This work demonstrates high-strength conductive hydrogels can serve as an electroactive soft-wet platform for modulating the specific differentiation of NSCs, a significant step towards cell-based therapies for neurological diseases.     

Electromagnetic eigenfields in checkerboard patterns

Here are described four solvers for time‐harmonic electromagnetic fields in checkerboard patterns. A pattern is built by four squares with constant permittivity, or . It is enclosed by conducting walls or is a unit cell of a periodic structure. The field is represented in two ways: by , the transverse component of the magnetic induction, and by , the magnetic vector potential in Lorenz gauge. and satisfy Helmholtz equations in each square as well as transmission and boundary conditions (BCs). These governing equations yield eigensolutions and , which are found to be at worst. Variational versions of the governing equations are introduced. The weak formulations for are standard, while those for are new. They imply that the derivative transmission and BCs are satisfied weakly on interfaces between regions with different permittivity. Eigenpairs are computed approximately by spectral element methods. They yield mutually consistent eigenpairs. However, only about half of the eigenpairs () correspond to eigenpairs (). For each set of BCs, the first few eigenfrequencies are given by tables, and some of the eigenfunctions are presented by contour plots. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Numer Methods Partial Differential Eq 32: 418–444, 2016     

Zonal PANS: evaluation of different treatments of the RANS–LES interface

The partially Reynolds-averaged Navier–Stokes (PANS) model can be used to simulate turbulent flows either as RANS, large eddy simulation (LES) or DNS. Its main parameter is f_k whose physical meaning is the ratio of the modelled to the total turbulent kinetic energy. In RANS f_k = 1, in DNS f_k = 0 and in LES f_k takes values between 0 and 1. Three different ways of prescribing f_k are evaluated for decaying grid turbulence and fully developed channel flow: f_k = 0.4, f_k = k^3/2 _tot/? and, from its definition, f_k = k/k_tot where k_tot is the sum of the modelled, k, and resolved, k_res, turbulent kinetic energy. It is found that the f_k = 0.4 gives the best results. In Girimaji and Wallin, a method was proposed to include the effect of the gradient of f_k. This approach is used at RANS– LES interface in the present study. Four different interface models are evaluated in fully developed channel flow and embedded LES of channel flow: in both cases, PANS is used as a zonal model with f_k = 1 in the unsteady RANS (URANS) region and f_k = 0.4 in the LES region. In fully developed channel flow, the RANS– LES interface is parallel to the wall (horizontal) and in embedded LES, it is parallel to the inlet (vertical). The importance of the location of the horizontal interface in fully developed channel flow is also investigated. It is found that the location – and the choice of the treatment at the interface – may be critical at low Reynolds number or if the interface is placed too close to the wall. The reason is that the modelled turbulent shear stress at the interface is large and hence the relative strength of the resolved turbulence is small. In RANS, the turbulent viscosity – and consequently also the modelled Reynolds shear stress – is only weakly dependent on Reynolds number. It is found in the present work that it also applies in the URANS region.     

顺磁性La2/3Sr1/3MnO3层对Bi0.8Ba0.2FeO3薄膜多铁性能的影响

界面效应在提升异质结构材料的多铁性能方面有着重要的作用. 本文采用脉冲激光沉积技术在SrTiO₃(STO)基片上制备了Bi_0.8Ba_0.2FeO₃(BBFO)/La_2/3Sr_1/3MnO₃(LSMO)异质结. X-射线衍射图谱表明异质结呈现单相外延生长, 利用高分辨透射电镜进一步证实了BBFO为四方相结构. X-射线光电子能谱证实异质结中只存在Fe³⁺ 离子, 没有产生价态的变化, 揭示了异质结铁电和铁磁性的增强与BBFO/LSMO的界面有关. 同时, 测试了磁电阻(MR)和磁介电(MD), 当磁场强度为0.8 T, 温度为70 K时, MR约为-42.2%, MD约为21.2%. 并且发现在180 K时出现磁相的转变. 实验结果揭示出异质界面效应在提升材料的多铁性和磁电耦合效应方面具有超常的优点, 是加快多铁材料实际应用的有效途径.     

指控装备通信接口可重构测试系统软件框架设计

指控装备通信接口种类繁多,每种接口的测试需求也不尽相同,传统接口测试系统大多仅针对某个厂家的具体设备和接口开发,功能单一,软硬件重用率低,更新维护成本高。针对上述问题,分析总结了指控装备通信接口的接口特性和测试需求,通过深入研究小型化SCA技术,设计了满足通信接口可重构测试需求的自定义中间件和自定义核心框架,完成了可在通用小型硬件平台上实现的指控装备通信接口可重构测试系统软件框架。由系统典型测试流程图可看出,用户仅通过更改应用组件和系统配置即可实现对多种通信接口的可重构测试,增强了测试系统的通用性和灵活性,提高了测试系统软硬件的重用率,降低了接口测试系统的开发和维护费用。     

基于LXI总线的压气机试验台测试系统设计及应用

本文介绍了基于LXI总线的压气机测试系统,阐述了该系统的主要特点和优势。试验中对电压、压力、温度、流量和频率等参数进行采集和记录,然后通过系统软件性能分析端提供专业的算法分析接口,接入压气机性能分析计算链以及其他用户自定义的算法进行实时性能分析,从而实现压力机性能的测试及判断。经过试验验证,该系统运行稳定,基于LXI总线的仪器和基于网络的数据发布方式既能满足试验数据实时采集、现场监视,多专业灵活分析等功能,提供灵活的接口形式满足不同专业的实时分析,实现了压气机性能的测试和试验风险的掌控。     

三维多物质欧拉界面处理的并行算法研究

针对现有的算法无法对爆炸冲击进行有效的研究这一问题,在改进了Youngs界面技术的基础上设计了三维多物质Euler界面处理的并行算法。然后采用MPI标准进行了算法的程序设计并对程序进行了并行性能测试和不同分区的算例测试,测试结果表明并行算法对加速比有较大的提高,而不同分区对并行算法的计算结果并没有影响。最后应用所编写的程序对空中爆炸和聚能射流进行了仿真,结果表明程序的模拟结果与前人的研究数据是符合的,说明了程序的有效性。     

Chemometric analysis of disubstituent effects on the 13C chemical shifts of the carboxyl carbons (deltaCO) of benzoic acids. A comparative study of the substituent effects on the strength of benzoic acids in apolar aprotic media

The results of measurements of substituent induced chemical shifts of carboxyl carbons (deltaCO) of dichloro- and difluorobenzoic acids, including the monosubstituted ones with substituents at meta- and/or ortho- positions, in chloroform-d and strengths of these acids (log K) in chlorobenzene show an anomalous reverse trend between deltaCO and log K, while the electron density at carboxyl carbons should influence similarly both deltaCO and log K. A detailed chemometric analysis of comparison of disubstituent effects between deltaCO and log K on the basis of Fujita-Nishioka's multiparameter approach and assumption of additivity of substituent effects shows a dominance of the localized pi-polarization mechanism relative to simple electrostatic effects upon deltaCO. Further, steric factors play a significant role in determining deltaCO whereas with respect to log K they were insignificant. The overall anomaly has been rationalized keeping in mind that, while log K is a gross measure of energy differences between the ionized and unionized forms of the acids, deltaCO is a very sensitive probe for determining changes in electron density at the carboxyl carbon of the unionized acid.     

Sum frequency generation spectroscopic study of the condensation effect of cholesterol on a lipid monolayer

Sum frequency generation (SFG) spectra and surface pressure–molecular area (π–A) isotherms have been obtained for mixed cholesterol–DPPC monolayers with cholesterol mole fractions, x(chol.), from 0 to 1.0, at the air–water interface, under same conditions, at 22 °C. Analysis of the spectra indicated that incorporation of cholesterol into the monolayers at 3 mN m⁻¹ greatly increases the conformational and orientational order of the alkyl chains of DPPC, maximizing these properties at x(chol.)=0.4. Analysis also indicated that order in the mixed monolayers at 15 and 35 mN m⁻¹ is not affected by incorporation of cholesterol. The π–A isotherms measured at 3 mN m⁻¹ for the mixed monolayer with x(chol.)=0.4 have the largest negative deviation of the molecular area relative to those of ideal mixtures (the so-called “condensation effect” of cholesterol), indicating the most thermodynamically stable state. Comparison of results from SFG spectra and π–A isotherms explicitly proved that the condensation effect can be interpreted in terms of conformational and orientational ordering of the alkyl chains of DPPC.