Recycling of Carbon Fiber Reinforced Composite Polymers—Review—Part 2: Recovery and Application of Recycled Carbon Fibers

The paper presents some examples of new technological solutions for the recovery and re-use of recycled carbon fiber in automotive and railway industries, as well as in aviation and wind turbine constructions. The new technologies of fiber recovery that are described can enable the mass-scale use of recycled carbon fiber in the future

Thermal characterization of polymer composites with nanocrystalline maghemite

Samples of multiblock poly(ether-ester) copolymer doped with magnetic γFe2O3 nanoparticles (at small concentrations of 0.1 wt. % and 0.3 wt. %) have been investigated by DSC method to study the melting and crystallization behavior. Two forms of magnetic γFe2O 3 nanoparticle filler were used: solid-state grains and a suspension of γFe2O3 with palmitic acid in toluene. Application of the solid filler caused formation of agglomerates of size of about 20 μm while in the suspension form separate nanoparticles were in the range 10-20 run. The thermal and thermo-oxidative stability of composites was analyzed by conventional TGA analysis. The DSC results showed that crystallization and, to a smaller extent, melting, were considerably affected by the introduction of magnetic nanoparticles. The main influence is a shift in the crystallisation temperature up to 20 °C and melting/glass transition shift up to 6 °C. Thermogravimetric analysis showed significant enhancement of thermal and thermo-oxidative stability of the composites with respect to pure PEE. The dependence of thermal parameters on the concentration of magnetic filler has shown that the largest agglomerates produced the biggest change in all thermal parameters

Role of proinflammatory alleles in longevity and atherosclerosis: results of studies performed on -1562 C/T MMP-9 in centenarians and myocardial infarction patients from Sicily

Centenarians are characterized by marked delay or escape from age-associated diseases that cause mortality at earlier ages. Jointly, atherosclerosis and its complications, such as myocardial infarction (AMI), significantly contribute to mortality in the elderly. Inflammation is a key component of atherosclerosis and inflammatory genes are good candidates for the risk of the development of atherosclerosis. Genetic traits contribute to the risk of AMI and allelic variations in inflammatory genes should boost the risk of disease. If proinflammatory genotypes significantly contribute to the risk of AMI, alleles associated with disease susceptibility should not be included in the genetic background favoring longevity. Hence, genotypes of natural immunity should play an opposite role in atherosclerosis and longevity. Metalloproteinase (MMPs) are involved in tissue remodeling and therefore play a remarkable role in inflammation-based disease. MMPs are a family of Zn2+-dependent enzymes with proteolytic activity against connective tissue proteins such as collagens, proteoglycans, and elastin, which appear to play important roles in the development and progression of the atherosclerotic lesion. There is evidence indicating a role played by the MMPs in the weakening of atherosclerotic plaque which predisposes to lesion disruption. In this study we performed a genetic study on 1562C/T MMP-9 single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) in order to discern a possible role in AMI. We analyzed the distribution of this SNP in 115 AMI patients, 123 controls, and 34 centenarians from Sicily. We found no significant differences in the genetic distribution and allelic frequency of1562C/T MMP-9 SNP between the studied groups. The present results are not in agreement with our previous findings, strengthening our hypothesis that genetic background protection against cardiovascular disease is a relevant component of the longevity trait, at least in the generation of Italian male centenarians under study. However, present results do not exclude that differential expression of MMP-9 playing an opposite role in AMI and longevity because other kinds of regulation might be more relevant than those linked to the SNP under stud