Inverse Thermoreversible Mechanical Stiffening and Birefringence in a Methylcellulose/Cellulose Nanocrystal Hydrogel

We show that composite hydrogels comprising methyl cellulose (MC) and cellulose nanocrystal (CNC) colloidal rods display a reversible and enhanced rheological storage modulus and optical birefringence upon heating, i.e., inverse thermoreversibility. Dynamic rheology, quantitative polarized optical microscopy, isothermal titration calorimetry (ITC), circular dichroism (CD), and scanning and transmission electron microscopy (SEM and TEM) were used for characterization. The concentration of CNCs in aqueous media was varied up to 3.5 wt % (i.e, keeping the concentration below the critical aq concentration) while maintaining the MC aq concentration at 1.0 wt %. At 20 degrees C, MC/CNC underwent gelation upon passing the CNC concentration of 1.5 wt %. At this point, the storage modulus (G') reached a plateau, and the birefringence underwent a stepwise increase, thus suggesting a percolative phenomenon. The storage modulus (G') of the composite gels was an order of magnitude higher at 60 degrees C compared to that at 20 degrees C. ITC results suggested that, at 60 degrees C, the CNC rods were entropically driven to interact with MC chains, which according to recent studies collapse at this temperature into ring-like, colloidal-scale persistent fibrils with hollow cross-sections. Consequently, the tendency of the MC to form more persistent aggregates promotes the interactions between the CNC chiral aggregates towards enhanced storage modulus and birefringence. At room temperature, ITC shows enthalpic binding between CNCs and MC with the latter comprising aqueous, molecularly dispersed polymer chains that lead to looser and less birefringent material. TEM, SEM, and CD indicate CNC chiral fragments within a MC/CNC composite gel. Thus, MC/CNC hybrid networks offer materials with tunable rheological properties and access to liquid crystalline properties at low CNC concentrations.Peer reviewe

VEGFR-3 controls tip to stalk conversion at vessel fusion sites by reinforcing Notch signalling

Angiogenesis, the growth of new blood vessels, involves specification of endothelial cells to tip cells and stalk cells, which is controlled by Notch signalling, whereas vascular endothelial growth factor receptor (VEGFR)-2 and VEGFR-3 have been implicated in angiogenic sprouting. Surprisingly, we found that endothelial deletion of Vegfr3, but not VEGFR-3-blocking antibodies, postnatally led to excessive angiogenic sprouting and branching, and decreased the level of Notch signalling, indicating that VEGFR-3 possesses passive and active signalling modalities. Furthermore, macrophages expressing the VEGFR-3 and VEGFR-2 ligand VEGF-C localized to vessel branch points, and Vegfc heterozygous mice exhibited inefficient angiogenesis characterized by decreased vascular branching. FoxC2 is a known regulator of Notch ligand and target gene expression, and Foxc2(+/-);Vegfr3(+/-) compound heterozygosity recapitulated homozygous loss of Vegfr3. These results indicate that macrophage-derived VEGF-C activates VEGFR-3 in tip cells to reinforce Notch signalling, which contributes to the phenotypic conversion of endothelial cells at fusion points of vessel sprouts

Modelling thermodynamics in a high-temperature superconducting dipole magnet : An inverse problem based approach

The use of practical high temperature superconductors (HTS), REBCO tapes especially, in magnet applications has become possible thanks to the increasing interest of manufacturers. One difficulty has been the nonlinear material properties that are challenging to measure and model. To advance in such, demo systems are needed and they must be thoroughly analyzed. Recently, one of the first HTS dipole magnets was built to study the usability of REBCO Roebel cables in particle accelerator magnets. The prototype magnet Feather-M2 was designed, constructed and tested within EUCARD2 collaboration project at CERN in 2017. In the measurements, the magnet behaved in an unexpected way: the magnet was able to be operated at operation currents above the maximum current that was predicted based on short-sample measurements. Additionally, unexpectedly gradual dependency between magnet's resistive voltage and operation current was observed. In this work, a thermodynamical model is formulated in order to study the behavior of Feather-M2. The model was parametrized and the parameters were solved via inverse problem by finding the best match to experimental results. Thereby insight was gained on the prospects of the utilized thermodynamical model and also on the behavior and operation conditions of the magnet via the inverse problem solutions. To summarize, this paper presents a new methodology for analyzing magnets in operation and applies it to a state-of-the-art magnet.acceptedVersionPeer reviewe

Powering of an HTS dipole insert-magnet operated standalone in helium gas between 5 and 85 K

International audienceThis paper describes the standalone magnet cold testing of the high temperature superconducting (HTS) magnet Feather-M2.1-2. This magnet was constructed within the European funded FP7-EUCARD2 collaboration to test a Roebel type HTS cable, and is one of the first high temperature superconducting dipole magnets in the world. The magnet was operated in forced flow helium gas with temperatures ranging between 5 and 85 K. During the tests a magnetic dipole field of 3.1 T was reached inside the aperture at a current of 6.5 kA and a temperature of 5.7 K. These values are in agreement with the self-field critical current of the used SuperOx cable assembled with Sunam tapes (low-performance batch), thereby confirming that no degradation occurred during winding, impregnation, assembly and cool-down of the magnet. The magnet was quenched many tens of times by ramping over the critical current and no degradation nor training was evident. During the tests the voltage over the coil was monitored in the microvolt range. An inductive cancellation wire was used to remove the inductive component, thereby significantly reducing noise levels. Close to the quench current, drift was detected both in temperature and voltage over the coil. This drifting happens in a time scale of minutes and is a clear indication that the magnet has reached its limit. All quenches happened approximately at the same average electric field and thus none of the quenches occurred unexpectedly