The developments in membranes based on tailored block copolymers are reported with an emphasis on isoporous membranes. These membranes can be prepared in different geometries, namely flat sheets and hollow fibers. They display narrow pore size distributions due to their formation by self‐assembly. The preparation of these membranes and possibilities to further functionalize such membranes will be discussed. Different ways to control the pore size will be addressed, and the potential of block copolymer blends to fabricate membranes with tailored pore sizes will be shown.
Impaired wound healing is a major medical challenge, especially in diabetics. Over the centuries, the main goal of tissue engineering and regenerative medicine has been to invent biomaterials that accelerate the wound healing process. In this context, keratin-derived biomaterial is a promising candidate due to its biocompatibility and biodegradability. In this study, we evaluated an insoluble fraction of keratin containing casomorphin as a wound dressing in a full-thickness surgical skin wound model in mice (n = 20) with iatrogenically induced diabetes. Casomorphin, an opioid peptide with analgesic properties, was incorporated into keratin and shown to be slowly released from the dressing. An in vitro study showed that keratin-casomorphin dressing is biocompatible, non-toxic, and supports cell growth. In vivo experiments demonstrated that keratin-casomorphin dressing significantly (p < 0.05) accelerates the whole process of skin wound healing to the its final stage. Wounds covered with keratin-casomorphin dressing underwent reepithelization faster, ending up with a thicker epidermis than control wounds, as confirmed by histopathological and immunohistochemical examinations. This investigated dressing stimulated macrophages infiltration, which favors tissue remodeling and regeneration, unlike in the control wounds in which neutrophils predominated. Additionally, in dressed wounds, the number of microhemorrhages was significantly decreased (p < 0.05) as compared with control wounds. The dressing was naturally incorporated into regenerating tissue during the wound healing process. Applied keratin dressing favored reconstruction of more regular skin structure and assured better cosmetic outcome in terms of scar formation and appearance. Our results have shown that insoluble keratin wound dressing containing casomorphin supports skin wound healing in diabetic mice. 相似文献
Permanently fixed noisily recorded refractive index gratings are discovered in single crystals of LiNbO(3):Fe upon long-term exposure to a single laser beam with high intensities of I=100 kW/m(2) and ambient temperature. The fixing process is explained by considering the effect of laser-induced heating of the sample and the well-known simultaneous thermal fixing procedure. 相似文献
As a first step towards computing instanton-generated superpotentials in heterotic standard model vacua, we determine the Gromov–Witten invariants for a Calabi–Yau threefold with fundamental group π1(X)=Z3×Z3. We find that the curves fall into homology classes in H2(X,Z)=Z3⊕(Z3⊕Z3). The unexpected appearance of the finite torsion subgroup in the homology group complicates our analysis. However, we succeed in computing the complete genus-0 prepotential. Expanding it as a power series, the number of instantons in any integral homology class can be read off. This is the first explicit calculation of the Gromov–Witten invariants of homology classes with torsion. We find that some curve classes contain only a single instanton. This ensures that the contribution to the superpotential from each such instanton cannot cancel. 相似文献
Two [FeLn2Fe(μ3‐OH)2(teg)2(N3)2(C6H5COO)4] compounds (where Ln=YIII and DyIII; teg=triethylene glycol anion) have been synthesized and studied using SQUID and Mössbauer spectroscopy. The magnetic measurements on both compounds indicate dominant antiferromagnetic interactions between the metal centers. Analysis of the 57Fe Mössbauer spectra complement the ac magnetic susceptibility measurements, which show how a static magnetic field can quench the slow relaxation of magnetization generated by the anisotropic DyIII ions. 相似文献
Morphological changes to the different components of lignocellulosic biomass were observed as they occurred during steam pretreatment by placing a pressure reaction cell in a neutron beam and collecting time-resolved neutron scattering data. Changes to cellulose morphology occurred mainly in the heating phase, whereas changes in lignin morphology occurred mainly in the holding and cooling phases. During the heating stage, water is irreversibly expelled from cellulose microfibrils as the elementary fibrils coalesce. During the holding phase lignin aggregates begin to appear and they increase in size most noticeably during the cooling phase. This experiment demonstrates the unique information that in situ small angle neutron scattering studies of pretreatment can provide. This approach could be useful in optimizing the heating, holding and cooling stages of pretreatments to allow the exact size and nature of lignin aggregates to be controlled in order to enhance enzyme accessibility to cellulose and therefore the efficiency of biomass conversion. 相似文献