Customization of Soft Tissue Expanders: Improving Safety, Accuracy, and Efficiency for Treatment of Large and Complicated Skin Lesions.

Background: Soft tissue expansion is a common technique for restoring large skin defects. Fixed-type expanders may be inappropriate for the following reasons: (1) the shapes and sizes of the defects vary in different patients; and (2) the bulged base of the fixed-type expander does not fit the curve of the human body, which may induce complications such as concave deformities or nerve palsy from continuous mechanical compression. The customized expander adjusts better to the shape and the topography of the expansion site compared with the fixed-type expander.

Influence of Molecular Symmetry and Terminal Substituents on the Morphology and OFET Characteristics of S,N-Heteropentacenes.

Many heteroacenes have been extensively studied to improve device performances; however, the morphological effects stemmed from the chemical modification on a multiscale remain less explored. In this research, five axisymmetric S,N-heteropentacenes (, , , , and ) are studied to reveal the influences of molecular symmetry and end-capping substituents on the structure-property relationship, the thermal stability, crystallization behavior, film morphology, and OFET performance. Phase behavior was probed by differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), while the quality of the crystal array and structural details was investigated by optical microscopy (OM) and grazing-incidence wide-angle X-ray scattering (GIWAXS).

Influences of Structural Modification of S, N-Hexacenes on the Morphology and OFET Characteristics.

Although chemical modifications on conjugated molecules are widely applied for the purpose of improving processability and device performances, the effect of the modification was far less investigated. Here, five S, N-hexacenes are studied to reveal the influences of (1) the lateral alkyl chain, (2) the terminal group (thiophene vs benzene), and (3) the end-capping phenyl group of the hexacenes on the morphology and organic field-effect transistor (OFET) performances. Crystal arrays of the hexacenes were prepared via polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS)-assisted crystallization (PAC) prior to morphological and OFET characterizations.

Roles of 3-Ethylrhodanine in Attaining Highly Ordered Crystal Arrays of Ambipolar Diketopyrrolopyrrole Oligomers.

Until now, only limited DPP oligomers delivered ambipolar semiconductor characteristics. To develop a facile strategy of preparing ambipolar mono-DPP oligomers, two dithienyl diketopyrrolopyrrole (DPPT) based-conjugated molecules, DPPT-RD and DPPT-DCV, which contain 3-ethylrhodanine (RD) and dicyano-2-vinyl (DCV) end substituents were synthesized. The influences of the -RD end substituents on the molecular properties, solid-state morphology, and OFET performances of the DPPT oligomer were investigated.

Estimating Percent Crystallinity of Polyethylene as a Function of Temperature by Raman Spectroscopy Multivariate Curve Resolution by Alternating Least Squares.

We have recently demonstrated a methodology to estimate the percent crystallinity (PC) of polymers directly with Raman spectroscopy and multivariate curve resolution (MCR) by alternating least-squares (ALS). In the MCR-ALS methodology, the Raman spectrum of a semicrystalline polymer is separated into two constituent components (crystalline and molten/amorphous) and their corresponding concentrations. The methodology necessitates that the Raman spectrum at any temperature be a linear combination of two MCR spectral components (one molten and one crystalline).

Plasma power controlled deposition of SiOx with manipulated Si Quantum Dot size for photoluminescent wavelength tailoring.

Plasma power controlled PECVD of SiO(x) under SiH(4)/N(2)O gas mixture with manipulated Si quantum dot (Si-QD) size for tailoring photoluminescent (PL) wavelength is demonstrated. The incomplete decomposition of N(2)O at high plasma power facilitates Si-rich SiO(x) deposition to enlarge O/Si composition ratio and to shrink Si-QD size. As RF plasma power increases from 20 to 70 W, the O/Si ratio is increased from 1 to 1.