With limited availability of osteochondral allografts, tissue engineered cartilage grafts may provide an alternative treatment for large cartilage defects. An effective storage protocol will be critical for translating this technology to clinical use. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the efficacy of the Missouri Osteochondral Allograft Preservation System (MOPS) for room temperature st...

A novel mixing approach for achieving a good dispersion of multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) in ethylene- propylene diene monomer (EPDM) matrix has been investigated. In this approach EPDM was modified with vinyltrimethoxysilane (VTMS) during melt mixing. In addition the effect of MWCNT concentration on mechanical and rheological properties of modified EPDM has been studied. The formulated...

Micron sizes solder metallurgical joints have been applied in a thin film application of anisotropic conductive film and benefited three general advantages, such as lower joint resistance, higher power handling capability, and reliability, when compared with pressure based contact of metal conductor balls. Recently, flex-on-board interconnection has become more and more popular for mobile elect...

The control of morphology and interface in poly(styrene-ethylene/butylene-styrene) (SEBS) composites with graphitic fillers is extremely important for the design of piezoresistive sensors for body motion or flexible temperature sensors. The effects of a high amount of graphite (G) and silane coupling agent on the morphology and properties of SEBS composites with anisotropic mechanical propertie...

Particle spatial dispersion is a crucial characteristic of polymer composite materials and this property is recognized as especially important in nanocomposite materials due to the general tendency of nanoparticles to aggregate under processing conditions. We introduce dispersion metrics along with a specified dispersion scale over which material homogeneity is measured and consider how the dis...

The aims of this study were to examine the effect of salts (CaCl2, CaSO4 and MgSO4) on the rheological and thermal properties of gelatin extracted from the skins of tropical fishes, sin croaker (Johnius dussumeiri) and shortfin scad (Decapterus macrosoma). It was found that the melting temperatures of fish skin gelatins were increased by 1.5 times as compared to bovine gelatin which was only in...

A set of three cubic one-litre phantoms containing spherical simulated lesions was produced for use in comparing lesion detection performance of different elastography systems. The materials employed are known to be stable in heterogeneous configurations regarding geometry and elastic contrast identical with (storage modulus of lesion material) / (storage modulus of background material), and re...

Segmented block copolymers based on dimerized fatty acids and poly(butylene terephthalate) (PBT) have been synthesized in the melt. Branched C36, C44 and C70 dimerized fatty acids with a low degree of unsaturation were used. The fraction of PBT was varied from 50 to 100 wt%. The resulting polymers were analysed with d.s.c, and d.m.a. The glass transition temperature (T~) increased with increasi...

This paper presents an experimental study on the static and dynamic mechanical properties of nonwoven based flax fibre reinforced polypropylene composites. The effect of zein modification on flax fibres is also reported. Flax nonwovens were treated with zein coupling agent, which is a protein extracted from corn. Composites were prepared using nonwovens treated with zein solution. The tensile, ...

Here, hypotheses about stem and root xylem structure and function were assessed by analyzing xylem in nine chaparral Rhamnaceae species. Traits characterizing xylem transport efficiency and safety, mechanical strength and storage were analyzed using linear regression, principal components analysis and phylogenetic independent contrasts (PICs). Stems showed a strong, positive correlation between...