Clostridium difficile is a Gram-positive, endospore-forming anaerobe that causes life-threatening intestinal infections. These infections result in more than 14,000 deaths and billions of dollars in h...
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A stem cell’s microenvironment plays a key role in regulating its behavior (e.g., adhesion, migration, proliferation and differentiation). A variety of templates have been used to study stem cell be...
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There is a great need and market opportunity for bioresorbable and biodegradable polymers. These polymers could prove useful in a broad range of applications including health care where the polymers c...
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Lyotropic liquid crystal (LLC) assemblies are useful for highly selective chemical separations, such as water desalination and selective ion-transporting membranes. Bicontinuous cubic LLC assemblies a...
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Polymer brushes are a broad class of materials consisting of a polymer chain tethered at one end to a surface. These brushes have a variety of uses given their ability to tune or modify surface proper...
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Piezoelectric materials produce electric charge in response to mechanical stress. Such materials can be utilized as very small ‘nanogenerators’ that absorb vibrations from the environment (e.g., a...
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Formaldehyde-based adhesives have been used to make interior plywood and particle board for decades. These synthetic adhesives, which are derived from petroleum, are inexpensive and perform well. Howe...
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"Orthobiologics" provides an improved method of treating fractures and other bone defects. This therapy employs inductive molecules, such as bone morphogenetic protein-2 or bone morphogeneti...
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Plastics are the most widely used materials in the United States, surpassing steel, copper and aluminum combined by volume. While ubiquitous, fossil-based plastics are becoming more and more costly to...
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Several techniques exist for turning plastic into goods and packaging. Microcellular foams are of particular interest because they can be used to produce strong, lightweight plastic. Unfortunately, du...
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Polymer brushes are a broad class of materials made of polymer chains tethered at one end to a substrate. These brushes are able to tune and modify surface properties like bioadhesion and wettability....
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Block copolymers (BCPs) self-assemble into well-defined, highly regular and dense nanostructures. Such BCP arrays are useful for fabricating electronic devices like magnetic storage media, quantum dot...
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The lithographic process is one of the most powerful technologies of the digital electronics era. Lithography allows hundreds of millions of components to be fabricated on a single chip with pattern f...
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Microcellular injection molding produces lightweight, dimensionally stable plastic components using fewer raw materials than standard techniques. The process, also known as ‘microcellular foami...
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Batteries can be classified as primary (nonreusable) or secondary (rechargeable). The demand for rechargeable batteries of high energy density and specific energy has surged along with portable electr...
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Common biodegradable polymers such as poly(lactide) and poly (3-hydroxyalkanaoates) are derived from relatively expensive chemical feedstocks and have low melt stability. This presents a challenge for...
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Degradable polyelectrolytes are useful materials for a variety of biological applications, from implant coatings and immunostimulants to therapeutic and gene delivery. Many of these applications rely ...
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Polymer-based micropellets can be formed having diameters smaller than 50 microns. The miniscule particles are vital to a number of processes like laser sintering—used to build rapid prototypes ...
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Polymer-based pellets are utilized in plastics manufacturing. In particular, very small micropellets and powders are in special demand for processes like selective laser sintering (SLS), which require...
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Aqueous lyotropic liquid crystal (LLC) assemblies are useful for highly selective chemical separations, such as water desalination and selective ion-transporting membranes. LLCs are formed in water wh...
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Beyond its fuel potential, biomass is poised to supplant nonrenewable sources in the production of important building block chemicals. One such intermediary is 5-hydroxymethylfurfural (HMF), a primary...
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Responsive hydrogels can respond to external stimuli such as temperature, pH, photons and antigens, which makes them applicable as functional materials in drug/gene delivery devices, microlenses and s...
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Wound healing is a complex and dynamic process of rebuilding skin and tissue. Chronic or impaired wounds result when tissues fail to progress through the necessary stages of healing. This is a signifi...
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Methods that allow reactive polymer films to be deposited or assembled on topologically complex substrates are useful for the patterning or chemical modification of surfaces in a broad range of applic...
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Extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography is one of the most promising techniques for creating semiconductor devices, integrated circuits and microelectronic devices with nanoscale features (i.e., smaller...
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