The objective of this study is to fabricate porosity-controlled polyethylene terephthalate porous materials using a CO
2
-assisted polymer compression (CAPC) method. In a previous study, the CAPC ...method was used to fabricate porous polymer materials by compressing fabric sheets in the presence of CO
2
. However, the controllability of the porosity was not clear in the previous study. In this study, it is shown that the porosity of porous polymer materials could be easily controlled by adjusting the operating conditions of the CAPC method, using polyethylene terephthalate (PET) nonwoven fabric sheets. Using mercury porosimetry, a decrease in the porosity induced by compression accompanied by a decrease in the pore size is demonstrated. Scanning electron micrographs strongly indicate the plasticization of PET fibers by CO
2
.
Porosity-controlled polyethylene terephthalate porous materials can be easily fabricated by using a CO
2
-assisted polymer compression (CAPC) method.
The objective of this study is to fabricate porosity-controlled polyethylene terephthalate porous materials using a CO
-assisted polymer compression (CAPC) method. In a previous study, the CAPC ...method was used to fabricate porous polymer materials by compressing fabric sheets in the presence of CO
. However, the controllability of the porosity was not clear in the previous study. In this study, it is shown that the porosity of porous polymer materials could be easily controlled by adjusting the operating conditions of the CAPC method, using polyethylene terephthalate (PET) nonwoven fabric sheets. Using mercury porosimetry, a decrease in the porosity induced by compression accompanied by a decrease in the pore size is demonstrated. Scanning electron micrographs strongly indicate the plasticization of PET fibers by CO
.
The Arctic is notable as a region where the greatest rate of increase in precipitation associated with global warming is anticipated. The Arctic precipitation simulated by the Coupled Model ...Intercomparison Project Phase 6 models showed a strong increasing trend since the 1980s. We found that the forcing factor of the trend is a combination of the continued strengthening of greenhouse gas forcing and the leveling off of aerosol forcing dominated in earlier periods. From an energetic perspective, we found that the increased atmospheric radiative cooling and reduced sensible heat transport from lower latitudes contributed equally to the recent increase in Arctic precipitation. The combination of these two energetic factors suggests a doubling of the Arctic amplification factor for precipitation relative to that for temperature. Future Arctic precipitation will change in proportion to the temperature change, and the fractional contributions of the energetic factors will remain stable across various scenarios.
Plain Language Summary
The Arctic region is inherently a low‐precipitation area. However, because of global warming, precipitation is expected to increase substantially in the Arctic region compared with the global average when viewed as a percentage change from the original precipitation. This severely affects climate change in the Arctic environment. The latest climate model simulations show that there has been a rapid increase in precipitation in the Arctic region in recent decades. The driving factors behind the rapid increase are the effects of the accelerating growth of greenhouse gas concentrations, which were previously suppressed by the increasing anthropogenic aerosol emissions before the 1980s. Based on the heat budget of the atmosphere, we identified important factors contributing to these precipitation changes. These include enhanced radiative cooling (responding locally to increased air temperature) and reduced heat transport from lower latitudes due to greater temperature increases at higher latitudes. Future precipitation will change in proportion to the temperature change while maintaining consistent fractional contributions across different scenarios.
Key Points
Trends in Arctic precipitation in the recent and future decades are examined from multimodel simulations
The recent rapid increase is driven by accelerating greenhouse gas concentrations and plateauing growth in anthropogenic aerosol emissions
Increased radiative cooling and reduced poleward sensible heat transport equally contributed to the Arctic precipitation changes
The photocatalytic properties of anodic oxides on a newly developed TiNbSn and commonly used Ti6Al4V alloys as biomaterials were investigated. The alloys were anodized in an electrolyte of sodium ...tartrate acid with H2O2 at a high voltage and the mechanism of the photocatalytic and antiviral activities was studied. The anodized TiNbSn and Ti6Al4V exhibited highly crystallized rutile TiO2 and poorly crystallized anatase TiO2, respectively. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy analysis revealed the presence of oxides of the alloying elements in addition to TiO2. The anodized TiNbSn exhibited higher activities than Ti6Al4V, and electron spin resonance spectra indicated that the number of hydroxyl radicals (⋅OH) generated from the anodized TiNbSn was higher than that from the anodized Ti6Al4V. The results can be explained by two possible mechanisms: the higher crystallinity of TiO2 on TiNbSn than that on the Ti6Al4V reduces the number of charge recombination sites and generates abundant ⋅OH; charge separation in the anodic oxide on TiNbSn due to the electronic band structure between TiO2 and the oxides of alloying elements enhances photo activities. The excellent photoinduced characteristics of the anodized TiNbSn are expected to contribute to the safe and reliable implant treatment.
We measured the phonon dispersion of silicene (monolayer Si with a honeycomb lattice) on ZrB2(0 0 0 1) using high-resolution electron energy loss spectroscopy. The measured phonon dispersion was ...compared with ab initio density functional theory calculations for a silicene model with periodicity of the substrate. The most stable silicene structure, which is similar to the so-called 'planar-like' model (Lee C C et al 2013 Phys. Rev. B 88 165404) reproduced the observed phonon modes very well. The recently reported soft phonon around the point (Lee C C et al 2014 Phys. Rev. B 90 241402(R)) was not reproduced, either experimentally or theoretically. The calculated electronic structure revealed that the silicene was metallic on ZrB2(0 0 0 1) and semiconducting on ZrC(1 1 1).
Aims
To test the hypothesis that 1‐h plasma glucose in an oral glucose tolerance test is a better predictor of the development of diabetes than 2‐h plasma glucose, independently of indices of insulin ...secretion or action in Japanese adults.
Methods
A historical cohort study was conducted in 1445 Japanese workers who did not have diabetes. The association between 1‐h plasma glucose and the development of Type 2 diabetes was analysed.
Results
Overall, 95 of the study participants developed Type 2 diabetes during a mean follow‐up of 4.5 years. The area under the receiver‐operating characteristic curve for 1‐h plasma glucose for future diabetes 0.88 (95% CI 0.84–0.91) was greater than that for 2‐h plasma glucose 0.79 (95% CI 0.74–0.84), and for insulinogenic 0.73 (95% CI 0.68–0.78) and disposition indices 0.79 (95% CI 0.74–0.84); P < 0.05. Compared with the first quartile, the hazard ratio for future diabetes in the fourth quartile of 1‐h plasma glucose was 42.5 95% CI 5.7–315.2 (P < 0.05) and the hazard ratio in the fourth quartile of 2‐h plasma glucose was 4.4 95% CI 1.8–10.8 (P < 0.05), after adjustments for covariates including fasting plasma glucose. The significance of the elevated hazard ratio in the fourth quartile of 1‐h plasma glucose was maintained after adjustments for 2‐h plasma glucose, insulinogenic index or disposition index, whereas the elevation of the hazard ratio in the fourth quartile of 2‐h plasma glucose was diminished and was no longer significant after adjustments for 1‐h plasma glucose.
Conclusions
One‐hour plasma glucose had a greater association with the future development of Type 2 diabetes than did 2‐h plasma glucose, independently of oral glucose tolerance test‐derived indices of insulin action in a Japanese population.
What's new?
The study confirmed the superior predictive ability of 1‐h plasma glucose to that of 2‐h plasma glucose with regard to the development of diabetes and that this finding can be generalized to an Asian population.
The association between 1‐h plasma glucose and the future development of diabetes was independent of indices of insulin secretion or action as assessed by insulinogenic index or disposition index.
The results of receiver‐operating characteristic curve analysis showed that the predictive ability of indices of insulin secretion or action were not superior to that of sampling plasma glucose at 1 h.
Summary
We compared the effectiveness of promoting bone healing between two teriparatide preparations for atypical femoral fracture (AFF). A total of 45 AFFs were included in this study, and we ...compared the duration of bone union. Teriparatide administered by daily injection enhanced bone union more than weekly administration in complete AFFs.
Introduction
The efficacy of teriparatide for atypical femoral fracture (AFF) has been recently reported. Although two different teriparatide preparations can be used to treat osteoporosis in Japan, daily or weekly injection, all previous reports on the effectiveness of teriparatide for AFF only examined daily injection formulations. Therefore, we compared the promotion of bone healing between the two teriparatide preparations for AFF.
Methods
A total of 45 consecutive AFFs in 43 Japanese patients were included in this study. They received either a daily 20-μg teriparatide injection (daily group;
n
= 32) or a once-a-week 56.5-μg teriparatide injection (weekly group;
n
= 13). We compared the clinical background and duration of bone union between these two groups.
Results
When all patents were included, the fracture healing time was not significantly different between the two groups. Only patients with complete AFFs had significantly fewer daily bisphosphonate or denosumab injections than the weekly group (
P
< 0.05). The fracture healing time in the daily group (6.1 ± 4.1 months) was significantly shorter than that in the weekly group (10.1 ± 4.2 months) (
P
< 0.05). Even if the influence of bisphosphonate or denosumab usage was excluded, a similar significant difference was observed in the fracture healing time (
P
< 0.05). There was no significant difference between the two groups among patients with incomplete AFFs.
Conclusions
Daily teriparatide injections enhance bone union more than weekly injections in complete AFF patients.
Amorphous carbon (a-C:H/a-C) or Diamond-like carbon, have a very high potential diverse engineering application especially in protective coating which made it an ideal method to be manipulated in ...process parameters so to achieve the desired mechanical and functional properties; this correlates to the smoothness, atomic density, and the sp3 content. The nano-structure of this amorphous carbon is characterized by its disordered state of sp2 and sp3. The mechanical property would response to the sp2/sp3 matrix with the small hydrogen content which leads to the significant increases in hardness, tribological and also the wettability properties. This vague columnar structure of DLC is strictly modified to fine and self-organized structure, where high-density, graphitic inter-columnar structure is embedded into the low-density amorphous carbon phase as being confirmed through characterization, mechanical properties and response. This unique hybrid system in the a-C:H films would control the functionality of the final coating in customized way to suit multi-disciplinary engineering applications. This Nano-columnar a-C:H system. However, this hybrid system is still bound to the triangular diagram of sp2-sp3-H in the formation of a-C or a-C:H. This formed nano-columanar a-C:H films shows a unique nano-structure and its graphatized inter-columnar network with amorphous columns responsible the desired properties manipulation. In this paper, correlation between the degree of graphitization and wettability is established.
The austenitic stainless steels have been widely utilized as a structural component and member as well as a die and mold substrate for stamping. AISI316 dies and molds require for the surface ...treatment to accommodate the sufficient hardness and wear resistance to them. In addition, the candidate treatment methods must be free from toxicity, energy consumption and inefficiency. The low temperature plasma nitriding process has become one of the most promising methods to make solid-solution hardening by the nitrogen super-saturation. In the present paper, the high density RF/DC plasma nitriding process was applied to form the uniform nitrided layer in the AISI316 matrix and to describe the essential mechanism of inner nitriding in this low temperature nitriding process. In case of the nitrided AISI316 at 673 K for 14.4ks, the nitrided layer thickness became 60 μm with the surface hardness of 1700 HV and the surface nitrogen content of 7 mass %. This inner nitriding process is governed by the synergetic interrelation among the nitrogen super-saturation, the lattice expansion, the phase transformation, the plastic straining, the microstructure refinement and the acceleration of nitrogen diffusion. As far as this interrelation is sustained during the nitriding process, the original austenitic microstructure is homogeneously nitrided to have fine grains with the average size of 0.1 μm and the high crystallographic misorientation angles and to have two phase (γ + α') structures with the plateau of nitrogen content by 5 mass%. Once this interrelation does not work anymore, the homogeneous microstructure changed itself to the heterogeneous one. The plastic straining took place in the selected coarse grains; they were partially refined into subgrains. This plastic localization accompanied the localized phase transformation.
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