Fabrication of ultrafast temperature-responsive nanofibrous hydrogel with superelasticity and its 'on–off' switchable drug releasing capacity

The temperature-responsive bulky hydrogel with fast response rate and satisfactory mechanical property has fascinating application potential in many aspects, such as the implantable macroscale controlled drug release carrier for post-surgical therapy; however, creating such a smart hydrogel was proven extremely challenging. Here a novel type of temperature-responsive bulky hydrogel with ultrafast response rate and super compressible elasticity was fabricated by the fibrous freeze-shaping technique using shortened temperature-responsive polymer based electrospun hollow nanofibers as building blocks, followed by heat treatment for endowing the hydrogel with high stability in water. Because the hydrogel has hierarchical porous structure and its constituent nanofibers have hollow structure, which are beneficial to diffusion of its embodied water during temperature-induced volume phase transition, its temperature-response time is less than 30 s. In addition, the hierarchical porous structure benefits dissipation of the compression stress exerted on the hydrogel. Fluorescein isothiocyanate (FITC)-dextran as a model biomacromolecular drug, was loaded into the shells of the hollow nanofibers during coaxial electrospinning, and the ultimately obtained nanofibrous hydrogel can release its loaded FITC-dextran in a 'on–off' switchable fashion in response to temperature alternation between 15 and 47°C. Cell cytotoxicity test results demonstrate that the temperature-responsive nanofibrous hydrogel is biocompatible.     

Study on the removal of olefins from naphtha by clay loaded with trifluoromethanesulfonic acid

Journal of Porous Materials - In this work, a trifluoromethanesulfonic acid (TFOH) modified clay (TFOH-Clay) was developed for the removal of trace olefins in heavy naphtha. 5%TFOH-Clay can...     

Evolutions of the Micro- and Macrostructure and Tensile Property of Cu-15Ni-8Sn Alloy During Electromagnetic Stirring-Assisted Horizontal Continuous Casting

Metallurgical and Materials Transactions B - The present study investigates the evolution of the micro- and macrostructure and tensile property of the Cu-15Ni-8Sn (weight percent) alloy prepared by...     

A double‐mode cell to measure pitting and crevice corrosion

Pitting corrosion and crevice corrosion of passivated steels were measured by using a double‐mode syringe electrolyte cell built on an environment chamber. The setup, when set in noncontact mode, could measure pitting potentials and critical temperatures, and crevice corrosion potentials if in contact mode. It could be employed to distinguish the pitting and crevice corrosion damage of reinforcing steel in concrete.     

Modeling online user behaviors with competitive interactions

Online user behaviors are increasingly modulated by social media. Extant literature mainly focuses on investigating how network structures affect user behaviors. However, recent empirical results demonstrate that user behaviors and network structures usually coevolve dynamically, and topological patterns turn out to be inadequate for characterizing real-world user behaviors. In this paper, we present a dynamic model to deal with this challenge. This proposed model is mainly governed by two competing principles: homophily and homeostasis. Empirical evaluations of three online real-world datasets suggest that the proposed dynamic model can well predict long-range online user behaviors.     

Analysis techniques for supporting hard real-time sporadic gang task systems

Real-Time Systems - This paper first studies the problem of scheduling hard real-time sporadic gang task systems under global earliest-deadline-first on a multiprocessor platform, where a gang...     

A Novel Strategy for Preparing Stretchable and Reliable Biphasic Liquid Metal

Low‐melting liquid metal is a hugely promising material for flexible conductive patterns due to its excellent conductivity and supercompliance, especially low‐cost and environmental liquid processing technology. However, the ever‐present fluidity characteristic greatly limits the stable shape and reliability of prepared liquid metal conductive electronics. Herein, a novel solidification strategy of liquid GaIn alloys by Ni doping and heat treatment is first reported, which can efficiently create a solid phase in the liquid metal and provide an effective solution for practical applications. Particularly, the liquid characteristic is preserved for conveniently fabricating different flexible electronic circuits, and then the solidification is carried out on prepared conductive patterns by heat treatment. The solidification mechanism is revealed by the interface chemical reaction between Ni and GaIn, creating the solid phase of intermetallic compound (Ga₄Ni₃ and InNi₃) during heat treatment. Moreover, a biphasic GaInNi can be obtained by regulating the atomic ratio of gallium, indium, and nickel. As a result, the obtained GaInNi possesses extremely low sheet resistance (15 ± 4.5 to 135 ± 2.5 mΩ sq^?1) and the variation of ΔR/R₀ exhibits low level (0–2) when strained up to 100%, which offers a promising strategy to prepare stretchable and reliable liquid metal electronics.