Ultrasound contrast agents (CAs) are typically used in clinic for perfusion studies (blood flow through a specific region) and border delineating (differentiate borders between tissue structures) during cardiac imaging. The CAs used during ultrasound imaging usually consist of gas filled microbubbles (MBs) (diameter 1-5 μm) that are injected intravenously into the circulatory system. This thesi...

Magnetic (FePt) and nonmagnetic (Au) nanoparticles were used to assemble ferritin into near-monodisperse bionanocomposites featuring regular interparticle spacing. The FePt/ferritin assemblies are integrated magnetic materials with ferritin providing added magnetic volume fraction to the magnetic nanocomposite. These assemblies differ from either of their constituent particles in terms of block...

BACKGROUND This study sought to prepare a new PVA/n-HA/PA66 composite to investigate the repair of articular cartilage and subchondral defects in rabbit knee joints. METHODS A 5 × 5 × 5 mm-sized defect was created in the patellofemoral joints of 72 healthy adult New Zealand rabbits. The rabbits were then randomly divided into three groups (n = 24): PVA/n-HA+PA66 group, polyvinyl alcohol (PVA)...

A technique for the selective measurement of diffusive gradients in thin-films (DGT) for free Cu2+ ions was developed using a 0.030 M solution of polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) as the liquid binding phase with the liquid-type DGT devices (PVA DGT). The PVA DGT had a substantial binding capacity at pH 5.6 - 8.6 and concentrations of competitive Na+ up to 0.7 M. The measurements of PVA DGT and cupric io...

Chitosan is a natural polymer, which has been used in agriculture to stimulate crop growth. Furthermore, it has been used for the encapsulation of nanoparticles in order to obtain controlled release. In this work, the effect of chitosan-PVA and Cu nanoparticles (Cu NPs) absorbed on chitosan-PVA on growth, antioxidant capacity, mineral content, and saline stress in tomato plants was evaluated. T...

Polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) demonstrates chemical stability and biocompatibility and is widely used in biomedical applications. The porous bamboo charcoal has excellent toxin absorptivity and has been used in blood purification. In this study, bamboo charcoal nanoparticles (BCNPs) were acquired with nano-grinding technology. The PVA and PVA/BCNP nanocomposite membranes were prepared and characteriz...

The aim of this study was to examine the mechanical characteristics of a polyvinyl alcohol hydrogel (PVA-H) as a candidate material for artificial joint cartilage. In the study, PVA-H was filled with α-tricalcium phosphate (α-TCP) in order to improve its mechanical properties. In addition, laminated composite materials with 3 layers were prepared by laminating α-TCP–filled PVA-H and unfilled PV...

ZnS:Cu/Poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA) composite nanofibers have been successfully prepared by electrospinning technique. The formation of ZnS: Cu/PVA nanofibers were carried out by reacting H2S with Zn(AC)2:Cu/PVA nanofibers, which were electrospun from the mixture aqueous solution of Zn(Ac)2, Cu(Ac)2 and PVA. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and X-ray-diffr...

Polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) is a hydrophilic polymer with various characteristics desired for biomedical applications and can be transformed into a solid hydrogel by physical crosslinking, using a low-temperature thermal cycling process. As with most polymeric materials, the mechanical properties of the resultant PVA are isotropic, as oppose to most soft tissues, which are anisotropic. The objectiv...

In a mixed continuous culture of Pseudomonas putida VM15A and Pseudomonas sp. strain VM15C with polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) as the sole source of carbon, growth of the PVA-degrading bacterium VM15C and, hence, PVA degradation were limited by the growth factor, pyrroloquinoline quinone, produced by VM15A. Feeding of a carbon source for VM15A, ethanol, with PVA enhanced pyrroloquinoline quinone produ...