One-Step Synthesis of Graphene Oxide-Polyamidoamine Dendrimer Nanocomposite Hydrogels by Self-Assembly

Graphene oxide (GO)-polyamidoamine (PAMAM) dendrimer nanocomposite hydrogels were prepared through a one-step synthesis by mixing a GO suspension and a PAMAM solution at varying ratios of GO to PAMAM. The materials self-assembled into physically cross-linked networks, mainly driven by electrostatic interactions between the oppositely charged GO nanosheets and PAMAM dendrimer. The chemical structure of PAMAM dendrimer was studied by mass spectrometry, nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy, and potentiometric titration. The structure and properties of GO-PAMAM nanocomposite hydrogels were investigated by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, Raman spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, and rheometry. The nanocomposite hydrogels exhibited a relatively high mechanical performance with a storage modulus of up to 284 kPa, as well as self-healing property, owing to their reversible and multiple physical cross-links. These hydrogels may be further developed for biomedical applications

Prevalence of the metabolic syndrome in Chinese adolescents

Since national figures on the occurrence of metabolic syndrome among Chinese adolescents are lacking, this study aims to estimate its prevalence and distribution among Chinese youngsters. The 2002 China National Nutrition and Health Survey is a nationally representative cross-sectional study. Applying the criteria for US adolescents, we estimated the prevalence of metabolic syndrome among 2761 adolescents aged 15 to 19 years. The prevalence of metabolic syndrome among Chinese adolescents overall was 3·7% (10% in US adolescents). It was 35·2 %, 23·4% and 2·3% among adolescents who were overweight (BMI $95th percentile), at risk of overweight (BMI between 85th and 95th percentile) and normal weight (BMI below the 85th percentile), respectively. Urban boys had the highest rate (5·8$85th percentile and one or two parent(s) with metabolic syndrome, the prevalence was 46·4 %. A total of 96% of overweight adolescents had at least one and 74·1% overweight adolescents had at least two abnormalities of metabolic syndrome. Based on these figures, it is estimated that more than three million Chinese adolescents have metabolic syndrome. Both overweight and metabolic syndrome prevalence among adolescents are still relatively low in China, but the prevalence of metabolic syndrome among Chinese overweight adolescents is similar to those living in the USA

Cosmic Duality in Quintom Universe

In this paper we study the duality in two-field Quintom models of Dark Energy. We find that an expanding universe dominated by Quintom-A field is dual to a contracting universe with Quintom-B field

Constraints on Oscillating Quintom from Supernova, Microwave Background and Galaxy Clustering

We consider in this paper a simple oscillating Quintom model of dark energy which has two free parameters and an equation of state oscillating and crossing -1. For low redshifts the equation of state of this model resembles itself similar to the linearly parameterized dark energy, however differ substantially at large redshifts. We fit our model to the observational data separately from the new high redshift supernova observations from the HST/GOODS program and previous supernova, CMB and galaxy clustering. Our results show that because of the oscillating feature of our model the constraints from observations at large redshifts such as CMB become less stringent.Comment: 4 pages, 6 figures Revtex

Scalar Perturbations Through Cycles

We analytically and numerically investigate the evolutions of the scalar perturbations through the cycles with nonsingular bounce. It is found that the amplitude of the curvature perturbation on large scale will be amplified cycle by cycle, and the isocurvature perturbations also obtain an amplification, but the rate of its amplification is slower than that of curvature perturbation, unless its coupling to the metric perturbation is not negligible.Comment: 7 pages, 10 figure

Theoretical Modeling and Experimental Analyses of Laminated Wood Composite Poles

Wood laminated composite poles consist of trapezoid-shaped wood strips bonded with synthetic resin. The thick-walled hollow poles had adequate strength and stiffness properties and were a promising substitute for solid wood poles. It was necessary to develop theoretical models to facilitate the manufacture and future installation and maintenance of this novel engineered wood product. A higher-order governing differential equation (GDE) model was developed for this purpose based on the principle of minimum potential energy. Transverse shear and glue-line effects were taken into account in the development of the model. A simplified theoretical model was also derived to further validate the higher-order GDE model. Thirty-six small-scale wood laminated composite poles were made and tested to validate the models developed. Strip thickness and number of strips were chosen as experimental variables. The deflection predicted by the theoretical models agreed well with those measured in experiment. The agreement with the results predicted by the simplified theoretical model was better than that with those predicted by the higher-order GDE model