Search Results (316)

Small-diameter vascular grafts often fail due to thrombosis and compliance mismatch. Decellularized plant scaffolds are a biocompatible, sustainable alternative. Leatherleaf viburnum leaves provide natural architecture and mechanical integrity suitable for tissue-engineered vessels. However, the persistence of immunogenic plant biomolecules and limited degradability remain barriers to clinical use. This study tested whether mild heat treatment improves scaffold biocompatibility without compromising mechanical performance. Decellularized leatherleaf viburnum scaffolds were treated at 30–40 °C in 5% NaOH for 15–60 min and then evaluated via tensile testing, burst pressure analysis, scanning electron microscopy, histology, and in vitro assays with white blood cells and endothelial cells. Scaffold properties were compared to those of untreated controls. Heat treatment did not significantly affect scaffold thickness but decreased fiber area fraction and diameter across all anatomical layers. Scaffolds treated at 30–35 °C for ≤30 min retained >90% of tensile strength and achieved burst pressures ≥820 mmHg, exceeding physiological arterial pressures. Heat treatment reduced surface fractal dimension while increasing entropy and lacunarity, producing a smoother but more heterogeneous microarchitecture. White blood cell viability increased up to 2.5-fold and endothelial cell seeding efficiency improved with treatment duration, with 60 min producing near-confluent monolayers. Mild alkaline heat treatment therefore improved immune compatibility and endothelialization while preserving mechanical integrity, offering a simple, scalable modification to advance plant-derived scaffolds for grafting. Full article

Selecting an appropriate rootstock for a specific scion cultivar is an efficient way to improve both yield and berry quality in viticulture. This study aimed to provide practical guidance for rootstock selection in the cultivation of the table grape cultivar ‘Fengguang’. The mature scions of this cultivar were grafted onto hardwood cuttings of eight different resistant rootstocks, which included 101-14M, 110R, 188-08, 3309C, 5BB, 5C, SO4, and Beta, with the own-rooted vines as control. Graft compatibility, growth vigor, yield performance, and fruit quality were compared and analyzed among the different grafting combinations. The results suggested that vines on 101-14M, 5BB, and Beta obtained higher germination rates of scions, better healing rates of the mating interface, and greater generation rates of root callus. Among these, vines on 5BB exhibited the largest scion trunk cross-sectional diameter. Furthermore, SO4 demonstrated the most significant improvement in yield, with an average increase of 13.54% compared to the control. Regarding berry quality, 101-14M significantly enhanced berry mass, pressure resistance, and flesh firmness relative to the controls, with average improvements of 7.67%, 11.34%, and 29.86%, respectively. Based on a comprehensive evaluation of yield and fruit quality indicators, 101-14M gained the highest value. In conclusion, 101-14M is preferentially recommended for grafting cultivation of ‘Fengguang’ vines. These findings could provide practical guidance for the cultivation of table grape cultivars. Full article

Background: Anatomical variations of the extensor hallucis longus (EHL) tendon hold significant implications for foot and ankle surgery, yet they remain underrepresented in orthopedic literature. Accurate recognition of these variants is crucial for minimizing iatrogenic injuries and improving surgical outcomes. Aim: This narrative review aims to summarize current anatomical knowledge on EHL tendon morphology, with a particular focus on the classification system proposed by Olewnik et al. Emphasis is placed on its diagnostic, radiological, and surgical relevance. Methods: A comprehensive literature review was conducted, integrating findings from cadaveric dissections, imaging studies, and clinical observations. The Olewnik classification—based on the number and insertion of EHL tendon slips—serves as the organizing framework for the anatomical and surgical discussion. Findings: The Olewnik classification delineates three primary types: Type I (single slip), Type II (two slips, subdivided into IIa–IIc), and Type III (three slips). Each type is discussed in terms of anatomical features, diagnostic challenges on MRI and ultrasound, and implications for surgical exposure, tendon transfer, and graft harvesting. Comparative analysis with prior typologies underscores the enhanced clinical utility of the Olewnik system. Conclusions: The reviewed classification offers a reproducible, imaging-compatible, and surgically applicable framework for understanding EHL tendon variability. Incorporating this system into preoperative planning may enhance procedural safety and precision. Further clinical validation and broader integration into surgical education are warranted. Full article

Background/Objectives: Some lung transplant (LungTx) recipients do not achieve the expected lung function within the first year, a condition known as baseline lung allograft dysfunction (BLAD). Our objective was to analyze the risk factors associated with BLAD, focusing on the variables associated with a higher risk of developing a more intense alloimmune response. Methods: We carried out a prospective study including 88 LungTx recipients. BLAD was defined as failure to reach 80% of the predicted value for forced expiratory volume in one second (FEV1) and/or forced vital capacity (FVC) on two tests conducted at least three weeks apart. Tacrolimus time in therapeutic range (TTR) and mycophenolic acid area under the curve (MPA AUC_0–12h) were measured at the third month. Donor–recipient compatibility was assessed using HLA eplet mismatch analysis, performed via HLA Matchmaker 3.1. Results: BLAD patients showed greater eplet mismatch burden (67, IQR 20 vs. 55, IQR 22, p = 0.018) and had been exposed to a lower TTR (26.6%, IQR 14.0% vs. 39.6%, IQR 24.3%, p = 0.039) and less frequently to an adequate third-month MPA AUC_0–12 > 30 mg × h/L (57.1% vs. 89.2%, p = 0.020). DR/DQ eplet mismatches (β = −0.348, p = 0.002) and third-month MPA AUC_0–12 (β = 0.285, p = 0.009) were independently associated with six-month predicted FEV1%. Conclusions: Among other variables, BLAD and initial lung graft function are associated with greater eplet discordance and lower immunosuppressive drug exposure, suggesting a potential role of underlying alloimmune responses in their pathogenesis. Full article

A novel fracture fluid based on a grafting polymer, PAM-co-PAMS-g-PEG (PAM-AMS-AEG), cross-linked by an organic Zr reagent was successfully produced via free-radical polymerization and an in situ cross-linking reaction with a high conversion rate of 96%, resulting in a low molecular weight of 250 kg·mol⁻¹. The effect of fluid constitution on the rheological behavior demonstrates that the P(AM₁₀-AMS₂-AEG_1.4)/[Zr]_0.35/TBAC_0.1 (PASG/[Zr]) aqueous solution has the best comprehensive performance. The PASG/[Zr] solution with a low critical associating concentration (CAC) of 0.15 wt% showed faster and steadier disassociation–reassociation processes. The synergy of ionic hydrogen bonds between sulfonic and amine groups and Zr⁴⁺-coordination results in steady interactions and fast reconstitution of association, leading to remarkable temperature resistance from 30 to 120 °C and a fast response during thixotropic processes. The PASG/[Zr] solution reduces the damage under high pressure based on the rheological characteristics and compatibility with sand, leading to a low filtration loss of the artificial cores. The PASG/[Zr] solution exhibits a good sand-carrying ability based on the rheological and interfacial performance, resulting in slow settlement and fast suspension. The filtration performance of the PASG/[Zr] fracturing fluid showed that it is not sensitive to the shearing rate, core permeability, or pressure. The comprehensive performance of the PASG/[Zr] fracture fluid is better than that of traditional guar fluid, suggesting that it can be used under various conditions for stratum protection and shale gas extraction. Full article

This study investigated PLA/PCL blends modified with maleic anhydride (MA) via radical grafting using benzoyl peroxide (BPO) as an initiator. Different formulations with 5 and 10 wt.% of PLA-g-MA (containing 1, 3, and 5 wt.% MA) were prepared to evaluate their compatibilizing effect. Samples were characterized thermally, mechanically, and morphologically using DSC, TGA, FTIR, goniometry, SEM, and tensile, impact, and hardness tests. The results show that adding PCL significantly improves the ductility of PLA, though it reduces tensile strength and hardness. Grafting with MA partially improves phase compatibility, as seen by increased elongation at break and impact resistance, especially at intermediate MA concentrations (1–3%). However, higher MA contents lead to greater variability in thermal and mechanical results, likely due to heterogeneous phase dispersion. FTIR analysis detected residual BPO in some formulations, though below 0.1 phr. TGA indicated a slight improvement in thermal stability at 5 wt.% MA. Overall, the findings suggest that controlled use of MA as a compatibilizer enhances the balance of mechanical and thermal properties in PLA/PCL systems. Full article

Grafting is a crucial horticultural propagation technique that plays a vital role in citrus production and research. Selecting compatible rootstock–scion combinations is essential for achieving high yields and superior fruit quality in citrus cultivation. This paper reviews recent advances in the physiological and molecular mechanisms involved in rootstock–scion interactions in citrus, with a focus on (1) commonly used rootstocks, (2) graft compatibility, (3) signal molecule transport at the graft union, and (4) the effects of rootstock–scion interactions on citrus growth, nutrient absorption, fruit quality, and responses to both biotic and abiotic stresses. Additionally, we prospected the future research direction and practical applications of rootstock–scion interactions. Full article

Water pollution continues to pose a critical global challenge, largely due to the unregulated discharge of industrial, agricultural, and municipal effluents. Among emerging solutions, enzymatic bioremediation stands out as a sustainable and environmentally friendly approach, offering high specificity and efficiency under mild conditions. Nonetheless, the practical application of free enzymes is hindered by their inherent instability, poor reusability, and susceptibility to denaturation. To address these limitations, the immobilization of enzymes onto solid supports, particularly clay minerals, has garnered increasing attention. This review presents a detailed analysis of clay minerals as promising carriers for enzyme immobilization in wastewater treatment. It explores their classification, structural characteristics, and physicochemical properties, highlighting key advantages such as a large surface area, cation exchange capacity, and thermal stability. Functionalization techniques, including acid/base activation, intercalation, grafting, and pillaring, are discussed in terms of improving enzyme compatibility and catalytic performance. Various immobilization methods such as physical adsorption, covalent bonding, entrapment, crosslinking, and intercalation are critically evaluated with regard to enhancing enzyme activity, stability, and recyclability. Recent case studies demonstrate the effective removal of pollutants such as dyes, pharmaceuticals, and heavy metals using enzyme–clay composites. Despite these advances, challenges such as enzyme leaching, mass transfer resistance, and variability in clay composition persist. This review concludes by outlining future prospects, including the development of hybrid and magnetic clay-based systems and their integration into advanced water treatment technologies. Overall, enzyme immobilization on clay minerals represents a promising and scalable approach for the next generation of wastewater bioremediation strategies. Full article

The quest for sustainable agriculture demands nutrient delivery systems that align productivity with environmental responsibility. This review critically evaluates stimuli-responsive starch-based biopolymer coatings for controlled-release fertilizers (CRFs), highlighting their structure, functionality, and agronomic relevance. Starch, an abundant and biodegradable polysaccharide, offers intrinsic advantages such as modifiability, film-forming ability, and compatibility with green chemistry. The paper discusses starch’s physicochemical characteristics, its functionalization to achieve responsiveness to environmental triggers (pH, moisture, temperature, ionic strength), and coating strategies like in situ polymerization, grafting, and nanocomposite integration. A comprehensive analysis of release kinetics, swelling behavior, biodegradability, and water retention is provided, followed by evaluations under simulated field conditions, encompassing various soil types, environmental stressors, and crop responses. Comparative insights with other smart biopolymers such as chitosan, alginate, and cellulose underscore starch’s unique position in CRF technology. Despite promising developments, the review identifies critical research gaps, including limitations in scalability, coordination of multi-stimuli responses, and the need for extensive field validation. This work serves as a consolidated platform for researchers, policy makers, and agro-industrial stakeholders aiming to design smart, eco-friendly fertilizers that address global food security while minimizing ecological footprints. Full article

Selecting appropriate rootstocks can enhance the adaptability and fruit quality of grafted grapevines. However, grafting studies on ‘Red Globe’, one of the major cultivated cultivars, remain limited, particularly those involving long-term and comprehensive evaluations. The present research grafted ‘Red Globe’ onto four rootstocks—‘101-14’, ‘188-08’, ‘110R’, and ‘3309C’—and systematically compared graft union healing following hardwood grafting, field performance of grafted vines, vegetative growth of mature vines, and fruit phenotypic and quality traits across multiple years. The results showed that ‘101-14’ promoted the accumulation of organic acids, which reached 1.1% in 2023, and caused an increased tendency for berry detachment from the peduncle. The RG/110R combination exhibited a higher CFI, 0.8 on average, at the basal section, and promoted shoot thickening. RG/3309C was found to have a larger shoot length exceeding 600 cm, and a significant increase in fruit weight to nearly 13 g. The grafts on ‘188-08’ showed the highest survival rate of 74% among the graft combinations, and enhanced fruit quality, as evidenced by elevated TSS (16 °Brix) and firmer pulp texture, indicating that ‘188-08’ may serve as a valuable rootstock for enhancing the local adaptability and fruit quality of ‘Red Globe’ grapevines. Full article

Polylactic acid (PLA) materials face inherent limitations in many applications due to their low toughness. To address this challenge, this study employed a reactive melt-grafting method to prepare maleic anhydride (MA)-grafted poly(butylene adipate-co-terephthalate) (PBAT–MA), providing an effective approach to improve the interfacial compatibility between PLA and PBAT, thereby significantly enhancing the toughness and impact resistance of PLA and expanding its application scope. The grafting reaction process of PBAT–MA was investigated, as well as its toughening mechanism and effect on PLA. The results showed that at a maleic anhydride concentration of 2 wt%, the obtained PLA–PBAT–MA composite material exhibited the best performance, with a fracture elongation of 358.1%, 450.4% higher than that of the unmodified composite material. The impact strength was 333.9 kJ/m², 917.3% higher than that of the unmodified composite material. This enhanced effect is attributed to the optimal MA concentration preserving the tough structure of PBAT while effectively bridging the interface between PLA and PBAT, promoting efficient stress transfer between the two phases, and ultimately achieving exceptional toughness. Full article

Introduction and Aim: Renal transplant recipients face significant long-term graft and patient loss due to post-transplant malignancies. This study aimed to characterize post-transplant malignancies, determine mortality risk factors, and evaluate patient outcomes. Materials and Methods: This retrospective study included 2052 kidney transplant recipients who underwent transplantation between 1976 and 2019 at our institution, other national centers, or international facilities, and who had at least six months of follow-up. Regardless of the transplant center, all patients were followed exclusively at our nephrology department for post-transplant care. A comprehensive review of patient files was conducted, encompassing demographic data, malignancy type and treatment, mortality rates, tissue compatibility assessments, viral serology results, immunosuppression protocols, acute rejection history, and pre-transplant malignancies. The relationships between these variables and mortality were examined. Results: A total of 167 malignant events were observed in 163 patients out of 2052 renal transplant patients (7.9%). The female patients comprised 34.4% (n = 56) of the participants. Ages at transplantation and malignancy diagnosis had medians of 40.0 (13–72) and 50.0 (23–78) years, respectively. The leading malignancy was skin cancer at 30.0%, with Kaposi sarcoma at 11.3% and post-transplant lymphoproliferative disease at 10.6% following. Of the patients followed up, 58.9% (93 patients) had mortality. In univariate analysis, older age at transplant, older age at malignancy diagnosis, and male sex were associated with mortality; however, no independent predictors were identified in the multivariate model (all p > 0.05), likely due to sample size limitations and inter-variable collinearity. Mortality showed statistically significant associations (p < 0.05) with increased age at transplantation, increased age at malignancy diagnosis, and male gender. Conclusions: Post-transplant malignancies significantly compromise both graft longevity and patient survival. Particularly aggressive skin cancers demand heightened clinical vigilance. Early detection through regular dermatological screening, patient education, and timely biopsies must become integral to long-term transplant care protocols. Full article

Magnetorheological elastomers (MREs) are a type of smart materials formed by dispersing magneto-responsive micron particles in an elastic polymer matrix. They hold significant potential for various applications due to their tunable stiffness, capability to carry out non-contact actuation, and rapid responsiveness to magnetic fields. However, weak interfacial interactions and poor dispersion of magnetic particles within the polymer matrix often lead to diminished magnetorheological (MR) performance. In this study, carbonyl iron powder (CIP) was chemically modified via polydopamine (PDA) deposition followed by grafting with isobutyl (trimethoxy)silane (IBTMO) to enhance its compatibility with a silicone-based matrix. The resulting anisotropic MREs fabricated using the dual-modified CIP exhibited a reduced elastic modulus, enhanced elongation, a large magnetically induced bending angle of 38°, and a notably improved MR effect of 246.8%. Furthermore, a magnetic soft actuator was designed based on the anisotropic dual-modified CIP-based MRE. When used as flippers for a duck model, the actuator successfully propelled a load approximately 76.8 times its own weight at a speed of 3.48 mm/s, thereby demonstrating promising potential for applications requiring load-bearing actuation. Full article

Epoxy asphalt is a superior polymer-modified asphalt material; however, significant differences in physicochemical properties, such as solubility parameters and dielectric constants, between epoxy resin and asphalt have led to compatibility issues that hinder its development. This study employed molecular dynamics simulations to investigate the effect of maleic anhydride-grafted styrene-butadiene-styrene (MAH-g-SBS) on the compatibility of epoxy asphalt. By analyzing parameters such as cohesive energy density, solubility parameters, energy distribution, interaction energy, radial distribution function, free volume fraction, and mean square displacement, the molecular mechanism underlying the enhanced compatibility was elucidated. The results indicate that the amphiphilic molecular structure of MAH-g-SBS significantly improves the thermodynamic compatibility between asphalt and epoxy resin, enhances interfacial affinity and stability, reduces the system’s total interaction and nonbonded energies, facilitates the dispersion and permeation of epoxy molecules into asphalt, and increases molecular mobility, thereby comprehensively enhancing the compatibility of the epoxy asphalt blend. Segregation tests and fluorescence microscopy further verified the simulation results, demonstrating that MAH-g-SBS improves the storage stability and phase uniformity of the epoxy asphalt system. Full article

Grafting serves as a crucial propagation technique for superior Camellia oleifera varieties, where rootstock–scion compatibility significantly determines survival and growth performance. To systematically evaluate grafting compatibility in this economically important woody oil crop, we examined 15 rootstock–scion combinations using ‘Xianglin 210’ as the scion, assessing growth traits and conducting physiological assays (enzymatic activities of SOD and POD and levels of ROS and IAA) at multiple timepoints (0–32 days post-grafting). The results demonstrated that Comb. 4 (Xianglin 27 rootstock) exhibited superior compatibility, characterized by systemic antioxidant activation (peaking at 4–8 DPG), rapid auxin accumulation (4 DPG), and efficient sugar allocation. Transcriptome sequencing and WGCNA analysis identified 3781 differentially expressed genes, with notable enrichment in stress response pathways (Hsp70, DnaJ) and auxin biosynthesis (YUCCA), while also revealing key hub genes (FKBP19) associated with graft-healing efficiency. These findings establish that successful grafting in C. oleifera depends on coordinated rapid redox regulation, auxin-mediated cell proliferation, and metabolic reprogramming, with Comb. 4 emerging as the optimal rootstock choice. The identified molecular markers not only advance our understanding of grafting mechanisms in woody plants but also provide valuable targets for future breeding programs aimed at improving grafting success rates in this important oil crop. Full article