4,218 publications from this institution
A stretchable porous nanocomposite (PNC) is reported based on a hybrid of a multiwalled carbon nanotubes network and a poly(dimethylsiloxane) matrix for harvesting energy from mechanical interactions. The deformation-enabled energy-generating process makes the PNC applicable to various mechanical interactions, including pressing, stretching, bending, and twisting. It can be potentially used as an energy solution for wearable electronics.
Abstract Triboelectric power textile (TPT) that can harvest widespread but always neglected human biomechanical energy is considered a promising and reliable energy source for wearable electronics. However, the alternating current and high impedance of triboelectric nanogenerators as well as the meager electrical output caused by the properties of the textile itself greatly restrict its practical applications. Here, an autonomous power textile with practical application value, which consists of a high‐output direct‐current TPT (DC‐TPT) and a miniaturized energy management module (EMM), is achieved for continuous operation of wearable and mobile electronics. The home‐preparable multiarray DC‐TPT can harvest transferred charge of 5.5 µC per cycle with nine repeating units. Moreover, it is found that incorrect sewing positions of the polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) yarn change the working mechanism with a decreased DC output. The EMM with energy conversion efficiency of 82.6% can reduce the impedance of DC‐TPT from 200 to 1.6 MΩ. With its powerful assistance, the watch can work continuously for 172 s just by manually sliding the DC‐TPT 1.6 s on an arm, and wireless signals can be transmitted to 281 m away after sliding for 2 min. Various widely used electronics can also be easily and continuously driven.
Nanomaterials are the fundamental components of nanoscience and nanotechnology, and they are different from bulk materials in grain size, surface/interface-to-volume ratio and grain shape, which are the origins of their unique electrical, optical, thermodynamic, mechanical and chemical properties. The small size of nanostructures hampers the applications of well- established testing and measurement techniques, thus new methods and approaches must be developed for their synthesis, property characterization and device fabrication. This has been the focus of our research, aiming at exploring state-of-the-art techniques for materials processing and characterization. This paper reviews our progress in nanomaterials research.
Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) is a common gastrointestinal disease. Recently, an increasing number of studies have shown that Toll-like receptor 4 (TLR4), widely distributed on the surface of a variety of epithelial cells (ECs) and immune sentinel cells in the gut, plays a vital role in developing IBS.
Top of pageAbstract The muscular dystrophies exemplify a class of systemic disorders for which widespread protein replacement in situ is essential for full complementation of the underlying genetic disorder. As a direct approach to this clinical challenge, somatic gene transfer will require efficient, scale-independent transport of DNA-containing macromolecular complexes too large to cross the continuous endothelia under physiological conditions. Previous studies in large animal models have revealed a trade-off between the efficiency of gene transfer and the inherent safety of the required surgical and pharmacological interventions. We tested the hypothesis that rapid, mechanical distention of the post-capillary venular endothelium by afferent infusion from a distal site would safely facilitate macromolecular transport from the vascular space to the striated muscle interstitium. We show that pressurized infusion through a large-bore catheters in either peripheral, superficial veins or the coronary sinus results in uniform, scale-and vector-independent transduction of myofibers in anatomic domains isolated from the remainder of the circulation. This approach is rapid, minimally invasive as applied to the isolated limb, and avoids pharmacological interference with cardiovascular homeostasis. We provide the first demonstration of uniform gene transfer to virtually 100% of the muscle fibers of an entire extremity in the dog, providing a firm foundation for studies of efficacy in canine models for human diseases. Additional data from a combination of angiographic, tracer dye, and marker gene studies suggests that this approach can be modified to meet the requirements for cardiac-specific or systemic gene delivery as appropriate in a variety of inherited and acquired diseases including hemophilia, muscular dystrophy, and cardiomyopathy. Figure 1 |[ndash]| |[beta]|-galactosidase levels of rat limb, rat cardiac and dog limb muscles after no treatment, vector delivery without afferent transvenular retrograde extravasation (ATVRX) and vector delivery with ATVRX. Figure 2 |[ndash]| LacZ expression after rat quadriceps (left), rat heart (middle), and dog vastus medialis (right) stained with x-galactosidase.
It is shown that the dielectric response of Ba(0.77)Sr(0.23)TiO(3) nanoparticles at temperatures below 200 K has a frequency and temperature dependence in agreement with the Debye theory with a single relaxation time, which exhibits the Arrhenius law. By contrast, at temperatures above 210 K the dielectric response exhibits a broad range of relaxation times characteristic of relaxor-ferroelectrics. We suggest that the single relaxation time at low temperature originates from a frustration effect, in analogy with frustrated antiferromagnetism.
