Effect of ethylene-co-vinyl acetate-glycidylmethacrylate and cellulose microfibers on the thermal,rheological and biodegradation properties of poly(lactic acid) based systems

The properties and biodegradation behavior of blends of poly(lactic acid) (PLA) and ethylene-vinyl acetate-glycidylmethacrylate copolymer (EVA-GMA), and their composites with cellulose microfibers (CF) were investigated. The blends and composites were obtained by melt mixing and the morphology, phase behavior, thermal and rheological properties of PLA/EVA-GMA blends and PLA/EVA-GMA/CF composite films were investigated as a function of the composition. The disintegrability in composting conditions was examined by means of morphological, thermal and chemical analyses to gain insights into the post-use degradation processes. The results indicated a good compatibility of the two polymers in the blends with copolymer content up to 30 wt.%, while at higher EVA-GMA content a phase separation was observed. In the composites, the presence of EVA-GMA contributes to improve the interfacial adhesion between cellulose fibers and PLA, due to interactions of the epoxy groups of GMA with hydroxyls of CF. The addition of cellulose microfibers in PLA/EVA-GMA system modifies the rheological behavior, since complex viscosity increased in presence of fibers and decreased with an increase in frequency. Disintegration tests showed that the addition of EVA-GMA influence the PLA disintegration process, and after 21 days in composting conditions, blends and composites showed faster degradation rate in comparison with neat PLA due to the different morphologies induced by the presence of EVA-GMA and CF phases able to allow a faster water diffusion and an efficient PLA degradation process.     

Nonlinear wave propagation in locally dissipative metamaterials via Hamiltonian perturbation approach

Nonlinear Dynamics - The cellular microstructure of periodic architected materials can be enriched by local intracellular mechanisms providing innovative distributed functionalities. Specifically,...     

Fast Drift and Diffusion in a Class of Isochronous Systems with the Windows Method

The aim of the paper is to deal with some peculiar difficulties arising from the use of the geometrical tool known as windows method in the context of the well known problem of Arnold’s diffusion for isochronous nearly-integrable Hamiltonian systems. Despite the simple features of the class of systems at hand, it is possible to show how the absence of an anisochrony term leads to several substantial differences in the application of the method, requiring some additional devices, such as non-equally spaced transition chains and variable windows. As a consequence, we show the existence of a set of unstable orbits, whose drifting time matches, up to a constant, the one obtained via variational methods.     

Poly(N-vinylcaprolactam) nanocomposites containing nanocrystalline cellulose: a green approach to thermoresponsive hydrogels

In this work, we report on the synthesis and characterization of thermoresponsive poly(N-vinylcaprolactam), PNVCL, nanocomposite hydrogels containing nanocrystalline cellulose (CNC) by the use of frontal polymerization technique, which is a convenient, easy and low energy-consuming method of macromolecular synthesis. CNC was obtained by acid hydrolysis of commercial microcrystalline cellulose and dispersed in dimethylsulfoxide. The dispersion was characterized by TEM analysis and mixed with suitable amounts of N-vinylcaprolactam for the synthesis of PNVCL nanocomposite hydrogels having a CNC concentration ranging between 0.20 and 2.0 wt%. The nanocomposite hydrogels were analyzed by SEM and their swelling and rheological features were investigated. It was found that CNC decreases the swelling ratio even at small concentration. The rheological properties of the hydrogels indicated that CNC strongly influenced the viscoelastic modulus, even at concentrations as low as 0.1 wt%: both G′ and G″, and the viscosity increase with CNC content, indicating that the nanocellulose has a great potential to reinforce PNVCL polymer hydrogels.     

Persistence of Diophantine flows for quadratic nearly integrable Hamiltonians under slowly decaying aperiodic time dependence

The aim of this paper is to prove a Kolmogorov type result for a nearly integrable Hamiltonian, quadratic in the actions, with an aperiodic time dependence. The existence of a torus with a prefixed Diophantine frequency is shown in the forced system, provided that the perturbation is real-analytic and (exponentially) decaying with time. The advantage consists in the possibility to choose an arbitrarily small decaying coefficient consistently with the perturbation size. The proof, based on the Lie series formalism, is a generalization of a work by A. Giorgilli.     

Round table discussions outcome and recommendations

Summary The recommendations of the panel of experts are based on the actual knowledge and the best state of the art available in April 1993. A list of the panel of experts is given in Appendix II; an outline of the Programme in Appendix III.     

Bubble Velocity and Size Measurement with a Four‐Point Optical Fiber Probe

The possibility to measure the velocity and size of individual bubbles in a high‐void fraction bubbly flow is investigated by using a four‐point optical fiber probe. The air bubbles have an initial spherical equivalent diameter ranging from 4 to 10 mm and the void fraction is up to 0.3. Firstly, single bubble experiments show that intrusiveness effects, i.e. bubble deformations due to the probe, are negligible provided that the bubble approaches the probe at the axis of the central fiber. A selection criterion is utilized for multiple bubble experiments. A good compromise can be found between the required accuracy, the duration of the measurements and the number of validated bubbles required for reliable statistical averaging. In an air‐water high‐void fraction vertical bubbly pipe flow, the void fraction obtained with the instrument is found to be in good agreement with both local single‐fiber probe measurements, and with the volume average void fraction obtained from pressure gradient measurements. The area average volumetric gas flow rate, based on the bubble velocity and void fraction as measured with the four‐point probe, agree with the measured gas flow rate. Also, the liquid velocity is measured by means of a laser‐Doppler anemometer, to investigate the slip velocity. The results show that reliable and interesting measurements can be obtained by using a four‐point optical fiber probe in high void fraction flows.     

Ammonia abatement in an enzymatic flow system for the determination of creatinine in blood sera and urine

The abatement of ammonia in standard solutions, and in human blood and urine samples is achieved by adding suitable amounts of NADPH and α-ketoglutarate to the sample and passing it through a 2-m nylon tube with glutamate dehydrogenase immobilized on the inner wall. The procedure provides removal of 98% of the ammonia (1–5 × 10^?4 M) in the original sample in 50 s. The abatement of ammonia permits the use of an ammonia probe coupled with an immobilized degradative enzyme for the determination of creatinine. Creatinine was determined in clinical blood and urine samples by first removing the ammonia from the sample and then cleaving the creatinine to N-methylhydantoin and ammonia with immobilized creatininase. Only 200 μl of sample is needed and the entire process is conducted in a single flow stream.