Experimental investigation of the properties of electrospun nanofibers for potential medical application

Copyright © 2015 Anhui Wang et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.Polymer based nanofibers using ethylene-co-vinyl alcohol (EVOH) were fabricated by electrospinning technology. The nanofibers were studied for potential use as dressing materials for skin wounds treatment. Properties closely related to the clinical requirements for wound dressing were investigated, including the fluid uptake ability (FUA), the water vapour transmission rate (WVTR), the bacteria control ability of nanofibers encapsulated with different antibacterial drugs, and Ag of various concentrations. Nanofibre degradation under different environmental conditions was also studied for the prospect of long term usage. The finding confirms the potential of EVOH nanofibers for wound dressing application, including the superior performance compared to cotton gauze and the strong germ killing capacity when Ag particles are present in the nanofibers

Morphological evolution of a 3D CME cloud reconstructed from three viewpoints

The propagation properties of coronal mass ejections (CMEs) are crucial to predict its geomagnetic effect. A newly developed three dimensional (3D) mask fitting reconstruction method using coronagraph images from three viewpoints has been described and applied to the CME ejected on August 7, 2010. The CME's 3D localisation, real shape and morphological evolution are presented. Due to its interaction with the ambient solar wind, the morphology of this CME changed significantly in the early phase of evolution. Two hours after its initiation, it was expanding almost self-similarly. CME's 3D localisation is quite helpful to link remote sensing observations to in situ measurements. The investigated CME was propagating to Venus with its flank just touching STEREO B. Its corresponding ICME in the interplanetary space shows a possible signature of a magnetic cloud with a preceding shock in VEX observations, while from STEREO B only a shock is observed. We have calculated three principle axes for the reconstructed 3D CME cloud. The orientation of the major axis is in general consistent with the orientation of a filament (polarity inversion line) observed by SDO/AIA and SDO/HMI. The flux rope axis derived by the MVA analysis from VEX indicates a radial-directed axis orientation. It might be that locally only the leg of the flux rope passed through VEX. The height and speed profiles from the Sun to Venus are obtained. We find that the CME speed possibly had been adjusted to the speed of the ambient solar wind flow after leaving COR2 field of view and before arriving Venus. A southward deflection of the CME from the source region is found from the trajectory of the CME geometric center. We attribute it to the influence of the coronal hole where the fast solar wind emanated from.Comment: ApJ, accepte

Semileptonic BB Meson Decays Into A Highly Excited Charmed Meson Doublet

We study the heavy quark effective theory prediction for semileptonic $B$ decays into an orbital excited $F$-wave charmed doublet, the ($2^{+}$, $3^{+}$) states ($D^{*'}_{2}$, $D_{3}$), at the leading order of heavy quark expansion. The corresponding universal form factor is estimated by using the QCD sum rule method. The decay rates we predict are $\Gamma_{B\to D^{*'}_{2}\ell\overline{\nu}}=1.85\times10^{-19} {GeV}$ and $\Gamma_{B\to D_{3}\ell\overline{\nu}}=1.78\times10^{-19} {GeV}$. The branching ratios are $\mathcal {B}(B\to D_{2}^{*'}\ell\overline{\nu})=4.6\times10^{-7}$ and $\mathcal {B}(B\to D_{3}\ell\overline{\nu})=4.4\times10^{-7}$, respectively.Comment: 6 pages,2 figure

On the measurement of employment intensity of agricultural growth

Employment is the bedrock of a functioning economy for any nation wishing to progress and prosper. It is of great importance for policy makers to be able to measure the employment intensity of a nation’s economy to identify regions of productive employment growth. Employment intensity has traditionally been measured in relation national economic growth typically as ratios. However, ratios are naturally biased and unbalanced. This does not allow the observer to take into account the differences in regions that may differ greatly in socioeconomic structure. For instance, some regions may be mired in poverty while others prosper greatly although both may show employment growth. This may instead indicate that employment is transferring from low productivity sectors into high productivity sectors instead of actual growth in the agricultural sector. Thus, we propose a new measure of employment growth focusing on the agricultural sector which we call the “Employment Intensity Index” which is symmetrical, proportional and scale invariant to regional differences. The index provides a single number that is comparable, simple and growth sensitive across all types of economic sectors across all differing policies within those sectors/regions regardless of the GDP/geographic size of sector/region. We then proceed to show its applicability

Canola yield formation under different population and water use levels

Non-Peer ReviewedOptimum population is the foundation for high yields under rain-fed agriculture and the optimum population depends on the water availability. However, establishing a good canola stand in the Canadian semiarid Prairie, where low temperature, water stress and soil crusting result in poor seed bed conditions, is difficult. A field study was conducted during 2000, a year with moderate soil moisture and good canola growing conditions, and 2001, a year with severe water and heat stress, to understand the plasticity of canola yield parameters at different (80 to 5 plants per square meter) plant populations. The primary response of canola to lower plant population was increased branching, although it did not compensate completely for the decreasing population. Increased branching was accompanied by increased production and increased distribution of pods on the primary and secondary branches. Canola exhibited plasticity in yield adjustment over a wide range of plant populations. Environmental conditions played a significant role in expressing canola plasticity. For example, in a normal year like 2000 canola maintained similar yield levels over a wider range of populations (80 to 20 pl m-2), while in a dry year like 2001 seed yield started declining with populations below 40 pl m-2. Ability to produce more pods, especially at lower population densities, was responsible for the environmental influence on yield formation

Vestas V90-3MW Wind Turbine Gearbox Health Assessment Using a Vibration-Based Condition Monitoring System

Reliable monitoring for the early fault diagnosis of gearbox faults is of great concern for the wind industry.This paper presents a novel approach for health condition monitoring (CM) and fault diagnosis in wind turbine gearboxes using vibration analysis. This methodology is based on amachine learning algorithm that generates a baseline for the identification of deviations fromthe normal operation conditions of the turbine and the intrinsic characteristic-scale decomposition (ICD) method for fault type recognition. Outliers picked up during the baseline stage are decomposed by the ICD method to obtain the product components which reveal the fault information.The new methodology proposed for gear and bearing defect identification was validated by laboratory and field trials, comparing well with the methods reviewed in the literature

Promoting chickpea maturity through fertility management

Non-Peer Reviewe

Chickpea seed yield in response to stubble type and fertility

Non-Peer Reviewe

Effect of growing environment and stubble type on seed size distribution in two kabuli chickpea varieties

Non-Peer Reviewe