Effect of Superhydrophobic Surface of Titanium on Staphylococcus aureus

Despite the systemic antibiotics prophylaxis, orthopedic implants still remain highly susceptible to bacterial adhesion and resulting in device-associated infection. Surface modification is an effective way to decrease bacterial adhesion. In this study, we prepared surfaces with different wettability on titanium surface based on TiO2 nanotube to examine the effect of bacterial adhesion. Firstly, titanium plates were calcined to form hydrophilic TiO2 nanotube films of anatase phase. Subsequently, the nanotube films and inoxidized titaniums were treated with 1H, 1H, 2H, 2H-perfluorooctyl-triethoxysilane (PTES), forming superhydrophobic and hydrophobic surfaces. Observed by SEM and contact angle measurements, the different surfaces have different characteristics. Staphylococcus aureus (SA) adhesion on different surfaces was evaluated. Our experiment results show that the superhydrophobic surface has contact angles of water greater than 150∘ and also shows high resistance to bacterial contamination. It is indicated that superhydrophobic surface may be a factor to reduce device-associated infection and could be used in clinical practice

Towards better caption supervision for object detection

As training high-performance object detectors requires expensive bounding box annotations, recent methods resort to freeavailable image captions. However, detectors trained on caption supervision perform poorly because captions are usually noisy and cannot provide precise location information. To tackle this issue, we present a visual analysis method, which tightly integrates caption supervision with object detection to mutually enhance each other. In particular, object labels are first extracted from captions, which are utilized to train the detectors. Then, the label information from images is fed into caption supervision for further improvement. To effectively loop users into the object detection process, a node-link-based set visualization supported by a multi-type relational co-clustering algorithm is developed to explain the relationships between the extracted labels and the images with detected objects. The co-clustering algorithm clusters labels and images simultaneously by utilizing both their representations and their relationships. Quantitative evaluations and a case study are conducted to demonstrate the efficiency and effectiveness of the developed method in improving the performance of object detectors

Self-passivated freestanding superconducting oxide film for flexible electronics

The integration of high-temperature superconducting YBa2Cu3O6+x (YBCO) into flexible electronic devices has the potential to revolutionize the technology industry. The effective preparation of high-quality flexible YBCO films therefore plays a key role in this development. We present a novel approach for transferring water-sensitive YBCO films onto flexible substrates without any buffer layer. Freestanding YBCO film on a polydimethylsiloxane substrate is extracted by etching the Sr3Al2O6 sacrificial layer from the LaAlO3 substrate. In addition to the obtained freestanding YBCO thin film having a Tc of 89.1 K, the freestanding YBCO thin films under inward and outward bending conditions have Tc of 89.6 K and 88.9 K, respectively. A comprehensive characterization involving multiple experimental techniques including high-resolution transmission electron microscopy, scanning electron microscopy, Raman and X-ray Absorption Spectroscopy is conducted to investigate the morphology, structural and electronic properties of the YBCO film before and after the extraction process where it shows the preservation of the structural and superconductive properties of the freestanding YBCO virtually in its pristine state. Further investigation reveals the formation of a YBCO passivated layer serves as a protective layer which effectively preserves the inner section of the freestanding YBCO during the etching process. This work plays a key role in actualizing the fabrication of flexible oxide thin films and opens up new possibilities for a diverse range of device applications involving thin-films and low-dimensional materials.Comment: 22 pages,4 figures,references adde

Preparation of Co-YSZ/HAp nano-composite coating on Ti substrate by electrochemical method

Co-YSZ/HAp nano-composite coating and nano-HAp single coating were deposited on Ti substrate using the combination of electrocodeposition and electrophoretic deposition, and electrophoretic depositions, respectively. Surface and cross section morphologies of the coatings were observed by scanning electron microscope. Element distribution and crystal phase of the coatings were analyzed by energy dispersive spectrum and X-ray diffraction. The adhesive strength of the coating and Ti substrate was determined by shear strength testing. The results indicate that the adhesive strength of Co-YSZ/HAp nano-composite coating and Ti substrate is higher than that of nano-HAp single coating and Ti substrate. It shows that Co-YSZ as an interlayer reduces the mismatch of the thermal expansion coefficients between HAp and titanium and Co-YSZ/HAp nano-composite coating has better mechanical properties

Nitidine Chloride Alleviates Inflammation and Cellular Senescence in Murine Osteoarthritis Through Scavenging ROS

Osteoarthritis (OA) is one of the most common chronic musculoskeletal disorder worldwide, representing a major source of disability, pain and socioeconomic burden. Yet the effective pharmaceutical treatments applied in the clinical works are merely symptomatic management with uncertainty around their long-term safety and efficacy, namely no drugs currently are capable of modulating the biological progression of OA. Here, we identified the potent anti-inflammatory as well as anti-oxidative properties of Nitidine Chloride (NitC), a bioactive phytochemical alkaloid extracted from natural herbs, in IL-1β-treated rat articular chondrocytes (RACs), LPS-stimulated RAW 264.7 and rat osteoarthritic models in vivo. We demonstrated NitC remarkably inhibited the production of inflammatory mediators including COX2 and iNOS, suppressed the activation of MAPK and NF-κB cell signaling pathway and reduced the expression of extracellular matrix (ECM) degrading enzymes including MMP3, MMP9 and MMP13 in IL-1β-treated RACs. Several emerging bioinformatics tools were performed to predict the underlying mechanism, the result of which indicated the potential reactive oxygen species (ROS) clearance potential of NitC. Further, NitC exhibited its anti-oxidative potential through ameliorating cellular senescence in IL-1β-treated RACs and decreasing NLRP3 inflammasomes activation in LPS-stimulated RAW 264.7 via scavenging ROS. Additionally, X-ray, micro-CT and other experiments in vivo demonstrated that intra-articular injection of NitC significantly alleviated the cartilage erosion, ECM degradation and subchondral alterations in OA progression. In conclusion, the present study reported the potent anti-inflammatory and anti-oxidative potential of NitC in OA biological process, providing a promising therapeutic agent for OA management

Effects of bootstrap current on magnetic configuration in Chinese first quasi-axisymmetric stellarator

Neoclassical properties in quasi-axisymmetric (QA) stellarators are analogous to these in tokamaks. Consequently, a substantial bootstrap current could significantly modify the MHD equilibrium properties of a QA stellarator, which is an important characteristic in this type of stellarator. This paper is dedicated to systemically investigate the effects of bootstrap current on the magnetic configuration in Chinese first quasi-axisymmetric stellarator (CFQS). For the firsttime, self-consistent bootstrap currents in free-boundary equilibria are calculated with an accurate Fokker–Planck neoclassical numerical mode in CFQS. Several important results are achieved: (a) as the bootstrap current grows with increasing volume-averaged normalized pressure β, magnetic shear develops in the bulk plasma and meanwhile, a deep magnetic well is robustly sustained, which leads to improved stabilization of interchange modes up to β ∼ 2.0%. (b) In the analysis of global ideal MHD instability, as the bootstrap current rises to 39 kA (β ∼ 1.3%), external kink modes become destabilized and the unstable mode with m/n = 2/1 is dominant. (c) From β = 0 to 1.5%, the bootstrap current hardly changes the QA property and a low neoclassical transport is maintained. However, as β is enhanced beyond 2.0%, the substantial bootstrap current gives rise to an increase of non-QA magnetic field components, which weakens the neoclassical transport properties. (d) An increase of the negative magnetic shear at the core region by the bootstrap currents has a favorable effect on the properties of J (second adiabatic invariant). The maximum-J region can be extended by raising bootstrapcurrents

The three-dimensional equilibrium with magnetic islands and MHD instabilities in the CFQS quasi-axisymmetric stellarator

The equilibrium of the Chinese first quasi-axisymmetric stellarator (CFQS) has been investigated by the HINT code. It is found that the stochastization of magnetic field lines expands with the increase in the volume-averaged beta value 〈β〉 in the plasma boundary. In the high-β regime, the generation of large magnetic islands at rational surfaces not only leads to an effective shrinkage of the plasma confinement region but also increases the outward shift of the magnetic axis. With bootstrap current effects, the low-order islands spread over the whole plasma area, leading to a stochastization of magnetic field lines due to island chain overlapping. However, for a flat pressure profile, the magnetic islands are significantly suppressed so that the magnetic surfaces can be fairly maintained. Moreover, the magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) instabilities in the optimized CFQS configurations have been simulated by the MEGA code. The linear properties of unstable resistive MHD modes are studied. The results show that in the CFQS the main MHD behaviour is dominated by the resistive ballooning modes with strong mode coupling. The mode structure and resistivity scaling are consistent with related theories