To increase interfacial compatibility between the hydrophilic fibers and the hydrophobic polymer matrix, the fibers were treated with vinyltrimethoxysilane (VTMO), while PLA was modified with 4,4-methylene diphenyl diisocyanate (MDI). It was found that PLA/Sitka composites treated with VTMO

and MDI exhibited improved thermal and mechanical properties, compared to the unmodified control. The work also demonstrates that there is potential to improve biobased composites by utilizing the natural variability of wood fibers. (C) 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 114: 2616-2623, 2009″
“We have systematically investigated the impact of device size BEZ235 order scaling on the light output, spectral shift, and self-heating of 400 nm InGaN light-emitting diodes (LEDs). Devices with diameters in the range 20-300 mu

m have been studied. It is shown that smaller LED pixels can deliver higher power densities (despite the lower absolute output powers) and sustain higher current densities. Investigations of the electroluminescence characteristics of differently sized pixels against current density reveal that the spectral shift is dominated by blueshift at the low current density level and then by redshift at the high current density level, owing to the competition between the bandgap shrinkage caused by self-heating and band-filling effects. The redshift of the emission wavelength with increasing Geneticin clinical trial current density is much faster and larger for the bigger pixels, suggesting that the self-heating effect is also size dependent. This is further confirmed by the junction-temperature rise measured by the established spectral shift method. It is shown that the junction-temperature rise in smaller pixels

is slower, which in turn explains why the smaller redshift of the emission wavelength with current density is present in smaller pixels. The measured size-dependent junction temperature is in reasonable agreement with finite element method simulation results.”
“The antioxidant properties of 6 legumes: green gram (Vigna radiate), red kidney beans (Phaseolus vulgaris), chickpea (Cicer arietinum), red lentil (Lens esculenta), soybean (Glycine max), and moth beans (V. aconitifolia), and Blebbistatin ic50 their morphological fractions were evaluated before and after cooking. Kidney beans had the highest total phenolic content (8.9 mg ferulic acid equivalents/g), DPPH free radical scavenging activity (38.1%), reducing power (85.5 mu mol ascorbic acid equivalents/g), and total flavonoid content (0.9 mg catechin equivalents/g). Highest metal chelating activity was observed for moth beans (93.3%). The antioxidant properties of the seed coat in all the legumes were manifold higher as compared to the whole legume or its respective endosperm and removal of the seed coat significantly reduced the antioxidant activity.