Silver nanoparticle containing silk fibroin bionanotextiles

Development of new generation bionanotextiles is an important growing field, and they have found applications as wound dressings, bandages, tissue scaffolds, etc. In this study, silver nanoparticle (AgNP) containing silk-based bionanotextiles were fabricated by electrospinning, and processing parameters were optimized and discussed in detail. AgNPs were in situ synthesized within fibroin nanofibers by UV reduction of silver ions to metallic silver. The influence of post-treatments via methanol treatment and glutaraldehyde (GA) vapor exhibited changes in the secondary structure of silk. Methanol treatment increased the tensile properties of fibers due to supported crystalline silk structure, while GA vapor promoted amorphous secondary structure. AgNP containing silk fibroin bionanotextiles had strong antibacterial activity against gram-positive Staphylococcus aureus and gram-negative Pseudomonas aeruginosa.     

pH Tuning of Water-Soluble Arylazopyrazole Photoswitches

Arylazopyrazoles are an emerging class of photoswitches with redshifted switching wavelength, high photostationary states, long thermal half-lives and facile synthetic access. Understanding pathways for a simple modulation of the thermal half-lives, while keeping other parameters of interest constant, is an important aspect for out-of-equilibrium systems design and applications. Here, it is demonstrated that the thermal half-life of a water-soluble PEG-tethered arylazo-bis(o-methylated)pyrazole (AAP) can be tuned by more than five orders of magnitude using simple pH adjustment, which is beyond the tunability of azobenzenes. The mechanism of thermal relaxation is investigated by thorough spectroscopic analyses and density functional theory (DFT) calculations. Finally, the concepts of a tunable half-life are transferred from the molecular scale to the material scale. Based on the photochromic characteristics of E- and Z-AAP, transient information storage is showcased in form of light-written patterns inside films cast from different pH, which in turn leads to different times of storage. With respect to prospective precisely tunable materials and time-programmed out-of-equilibrium systems, an externally tunable half-life is likely advantageous over changing the entire system by the replacement of the photoswitch.     

Preparation and antimicrobial properties of LL‐37 peptide immobilized lignin/caprolactone polymer film

The use of biopolymers has gained priority in tissue engineering and biotechnology, both as dressing material and for enhancing treatment efficiency. There is a demand for new biopolymers designed with protease inhibitors and antimicrobials. LL‐37 is an important antimicrobial peptide in human skin and exhibits a broad spectrum of antimicrobial activity against bacteria, fungi, and viral pathogens. Using lignin which is an abundant carbohydrate polymer in nature and a polyacrylic acid, we prepared a lignin/caprolactone biodegradable film by plastifying caprolactone and polyacyrlic acid. Lignin/caprolactone biodegradable film was activated with CDI and then immobilized LL‐37 peptide. The structure was elucidated in terms of its functional groups by attenuated total reflectance‐fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (ATR‐FTIR), and the morphology of the lignin/caprolactone biodegradable film was characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) before and after the immobilization process. The amount of LL‐37 immobilized was determined by ELISA method. It was found that 97% of LL‐37 peptide was successfully immobilized onto the lignin/caprolactone biodegradable film. Antimicrobial activity was determined in the lignin/caprolactone biodegradable film samples by quantitative antimicrobial activity method. According to the results, LL‐37 immobilized lignin/caprolactone biodegradable film samples were effective on test organisms; Gram‐positive Staphylococcus aureus and Gram‐negative Escherichia coli. In bio‐compatibility assays, the ability to support tissue cell integration was detected by using 3 T3 mouse fibroblasts. Samples were examined under transverse microscope, non‐immobilized sample showed a huge cellular death, whereas LL‐37 immobilized lignin/caprolactone biodegradable film had identical cellular growth with the control group. This dual functional lignin/caprolactone biodegradable film with enhanced antibacterial properties and increased tissue cell compatibility may be used to design new materials for various types of biological applications.     

Multi-objective integer programming: A general approach for generating all non-dominated solutions

In this paper we develop a general approach to generate all non-dominated solutions of the multi-objective integer programming (MOIP) Problem. Our approach, which is based on the identification of objective efficiency ranges, is an improvement over classical ε-constraint method. Objective efficiency ranges are identified by solving simpler MOIP problems with fewer objectives. We first provide the classical ε-constraint method on the bi-objective integer programming problem for the sake of completeness and comment on its efficiency. Then present our method on tri-objective integer programming problem and then extend it to the general MOIP problem with k objectives. A numerical example considering tri-objective assignment problem is also provided.     

Preparation,Characterization and Electromagnetic Shielding Effectiveness of Conductive Polythiophene/Poly(ethylene terephthalate) Composite Fibers

Conductive polythiophene (PTh)/poly(ethylene terephthalate) (PET) composite fibers were prepared by polymerization of thiophene in the presence of PET fibers in acetonitrile medium using FeCl₃. The effects of polymerization conditions such as oxidant/monomer mol ratio and polymerization temperature and time on PTh content and surface electrical resistivity of PTh/PET composite fiber were investigated in detail. It was observed that the usage of preswelled PET fibers in dichloromethane increased the PTh content and decreased surface resistivity of composite fiber. Composite fiber having the highest PTh content (5.7%) and the lowest surface resistivity (80 kΩ) was obtained at 20°C with 1.25 M FeCl₃ and 0.42 M thiophene concentrations. The washing effects of laundering detergent and dry cleaning liquid on surface resistivity of composite fibers were investigated. The electromagnetic shielding effectiveness (EMSE) and relative shielding efficiency by absorption and reflection of composite fibers were measured in the radio and microwave frequency range. The results show that the EMSE values decreased with increasing frequency from radio waves to microwaves with an attenuation of 21 dB to 4 dB.     

The scattering of a plane wave by two parallel semi-infinite overlapping screens with dielectric loading

The diffraction of a plane electromagnetic wave by two parallel, overlapping, perfectly conducting half-planes with a dielectric loading is considered by using the Fourier transform technique in conjunction with the mode-matching method. This mixed method of formulation enables one to obtain directly two uncoupled modified Wiener–Hopf equations instead of a matrix one. When the overlap length is set to zero and the dielectric loading is removed, the results are shown to coincide exactly with those obtained previously by Abrahams [1]. Numerical results showing the effects of the dielectric loading on the transmitted field are also presented.     

Methyl 1‐(4‐chloro­benzyl)‐2‐(4‐methyl­piperazin‐1‐yl)‐1H‐benz­imidazole‐5‐carboxyl­ate hemihydrate

The title compound, C₂₁H₂₃ClN₄O₂·0.5H₂O, contains two independent mol­ecules in the asymmetric unit. In each mol­ecule the piperazine ring adopts a chair conformation; the deviations of the piperazine N atoms from the best plane through the remaining four C atoms are ?0.678 (3) and 0.662 (3) Å in mol­ecule A, and 0.687 (3) and ?0.700 (3) Å in mol­ecule B. The mol­ecules are linked by two hydrogen bonds of the O—H?N type involving the O atom of the water mol­ecule of crystallization.     

Differential quadrature solution of heat- and mass-transfer equations

The heat- and mass-transfer equations have an important role in various thermal and diffusion processes. These equations are nonlinear, due to the solution dependent diffusion coefficient and the source term. In this study, one- and two-dimensional nonlinear heat- and mass-transfer equations are solved numerically. To this end, the differential quadrature method is used to discretize the problem spatially and the resulting nonlinear system of ordinary differential equations in time are solved using the Runge–Kutta method. The solution is improved in time iteratively by solving considerably small sized linear system of resulting equations. To demonstrate its usefulness and accuracy, the proposed method is applied to four test problems, involving different nonlinearities.     

Inactivation of Escherichia coli by alternative electric current in rivers discharged into sea

Inactivation effect of alternative electric current on Escherichia coli ATCC 25922 and fecal E. coli MAAG 1405 found resistant to antibiotics was examined in water samples collected from Ayamama River, Sar?su River, and their discharge points into sea and from Black Sea and Marmara Sea. In addition to water samples, lauryl sulfate broth was used as an organic rich medium. Both test strains were inactivated within 1–3 min in media containing marine waters (1 A), 5–10 min in Ayamama River water (1 A), 5 min in Sar?su River water (0.5 A), 20–35 min in lauryl sulfate broth (1 A) by applying alternative electric current.