A Review of Woven Tracheal Stents: Materials, Structures, and Application.

The repair and reconstruction of tracheal defects is a challenging clinical problem. Due to the wide choice of materials and structures, weaving technology has shown unique advantages in simulating the multilayer structure of the trachea and providing reliable performance. Currently, most woven stent-based stents focus only on the effect of materials on stent performance while ignoring the direct effect of woven process parameters on stent performance, and the advantages of weaving technology in tissue regeneration have not been fully exploited. Therefore, this review will introduce the effects of stent materials and fabric construction on the performance of tracheal stents, focusing on the effects of weaving process parameters on stent performance. We will summarize the problems faced by woven stents and possible directions of development in the hope of broadening the technical field of artificial trachea preparation.

Multi-functional Calotropis gigantea fabric using self-assembly silk fibroin, chitosan and nano-silver microspheres with oxygen low-temperature plasma treatment.

The present paper describes a novel multi-functional Calotropis gigantea (CG) fabric with durable antibacterial property and comfortable wearability for various applications. First, antibacterial microspheres (AMs) were prepared by self-assembly of silk fibroin (SF), chitosan (CS) and nano-silver microspheres (NSMs). Oxygen low-temperature plasma (OLTP) treatment was used to improve the adhesion between AMs and CG yarn. The AMs modified CG fabric has soft hand feeling, high moisture regain (10.37 ± 1.87%), good breathability, strong wrinkle resistance, and durable antibacterial properties. The antibacterial rate of the modified CG fabric against Escherichia coli (E. Coil) and Staphylococcus aureus (S. Aureus) is as high as 99.9 ± 0.1%, and it still has an antibacterial activity after washing 20 times (90.24 ± 0.65% and 80.25 ± 1.14%, respectively). The in vivo biocompatibility test showed clear signs of angiogenesis at the implantation site in the rats. Thus, this study offers the foundation for the development of functional CG fiber-based biomedical textiles.

Efficient degradation of polyacrylate containing wastewater by combined anaerobic-aerobic fluidized bed bioreactors.

Polyacrylate containing wastewater (PCW) is the typical sewage discharged by the textile industry. It has extremely poor biodegradability, and chemical methods were used conventionally as the only way for treating PCW. This study is demonstrating a novel biological method. In batch experiment monod kinetics was applied to the experimental data, which indicated that anaerobic treatment used for PCW is feasible. The pilot-scale experiment combined a Spiral Symmetry Stream Anaerobic Bioreactor (SSSAB) and an air-lift external circulation vortex enhancement nitrogen removal fluidized bed bioreactor (AFB). The COD and NH4+-N removal reached up to 95.2% and 96.6%, respectively, which were higher than the value obtained by other chemical methods. High-throughput sequencing analysis indicated that the relative abundance of Proteobacteria, Firmicutes and Bacteroidetes increased, which contribute to the degradation of PCW. Therefore, PCW can be degraded efficiently by using a SSSAB-AFB technique and thus provides an alternative to the chemical methods.

Effect of Weaving Structures on the Water Wicking-Evaporating Behavior of Woven Fabrics.

Water transfer through porous textiles consists of two sequential processes: synchronous wicking-evaporating and evaporating alone. In this work we set out to identify the main structural parameters affecting the water transfer process of cotton fabrics. Eight woven fabrics with different floats were produced. The fabrics were evaluated on a specially designed instrument capable of measuring the water loss through a vertical wicking process. Each test took 120 min, and two phases were defined: Phase I for the first 10 min and Phase II for the last 110 min according to wicking behavior transition. Principal components and multivariate statistical methods were utilized to analyze the data collected. The results showed that Phase I dominated the whole wicking-evaporating process, and the moisture transfer speed in this phase varied with fabric structure, whereas the moisture transfer speeds in Phase II were similar and constant regardless of fabric structure. In addition, fabric with more floats has high water transfer speed in Phase I due to its loosened structure with more macropores.