The aim of the thesis was to verify the practical relevance and impact of nursery growing substrates containing coconut fiber development and quality produced by the trees. The experiment was based on the experimental area of the Horticultural Faculty in Lednice . The experiment was used ornamental tree Spiraea bumalda 'Anthony Waterer ' .

The theme of this thesis is to study the influence of soil conditioners on growth characteristics of newly planted trees. Thesis is the introduction of the theoretical part focuses on this topic. They included topics related to soil conditioners. The main basis for their use, basic soil properties and sorting improving products commercially available and their comparison, below are described using examples and experiences from scientific and academic experiments. In the first is a set of comprehensive knowledge on this topic. The second part is practical, about research. The survey examined the effect of three products (TerraCottem, Agrosil LR, Hydrogel) on the growth characteristics of newly planted trees over one year. They were evaluated results of this survey. At the conclusion is guided discussion of the theoretical and practical parts of a given conclusion about the use of these products in practice.

In this diploma thesis has been studied system of hydrogels based on interaction between polyelectrolyte and surfactants, especially their solubilizing properties. As a surfactant was used ionic cationic cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB). As a polyelectrolyte was chosen native anionic hyaluronan with various molecular weight - 0,3; 0,9; 1,6 MDa and with different concentration - 2%, 4%, 6% wt. Solubilization experiments were realized with hydrophobic dye sudan red G. The whole system was prepared in the simpliest model system of physiological solution 0,15 M NaCl and in water. At the prepared gels was investigated their stability, influence of the environment, molecular weight and concentration on solubilization. Gels were prepared in rate hyaluronan-surfactant 1:1. The purpose of this diploma thesis was to find and optimize the appropriate procedure for determining solubilization capacity by using UV-VIS spectrophotometry.

Estima-se que os EUA gastem por ano cerca de 100 milhões de dólares anuais para tratar e reabilitar pacientes com doenças na coluna vertebral. Aproximadamente 15% dos pacientes que são operados da coluna vertebral, não obtêm melhora clínica e irão necessitar de outros procedimentos cirúrgicos. Entre as principais causas de insucesso nos procedimentos cirúrgicos da coluna vertebral está a fibrose epidural, também chamada de peridural, e a utilização de um de material inibidor desta fibrose, nesse tipo de cirurgia, vem sendo pesquisada, mas até o momento não existe nenhum produto comercial, nacionalmente produzido, destinado à prevenção desta fibrose. O objetivo deste trabalho foi o desenvolvimento e caracterização químico-física e microbiológica de um hidrogel à base de Carboximetilcelulose de sódio (NaCMC) e própolis. Foram preparados 4 géis de NaCMC e própolis (1%, 2% e 8% e ausência de própolis) e caracterizados através da espectroscopia vibracional na região infravermelho, microscopia eletrônica de varredura e também teste microbiológico. A espectroscopia vibracional da região do infravermelho identificou a formação de banda característica da ligação própolis com carboximetilcelulose de sódio. A estrutra microscópica manteve-se inalterada, mesmo na concentração de 8% de própolis. O gel de NaCMC própolis 8% demostrou possuir excelente atividade antimicrobiana em relação aos demais géis e abre novas possibilidades de trabalhos futuros in vivo que poderão fornecer informações sobre a eficácia antiaderente e sua possível aplicação em procedimentos neurocirúrgicos. / It is estimated that the United States annually spend around 100 million dollars annually to treat and rehabilitate patients with spinal diseases. Approximately 15% of patients who are operated on the spine, does not obtain clinical improvement and will require other surgical procedures. Among the main causes of failure in surgical procedures of spinal epidural fibrosis is also called the epidural and the use of an inhibitor material of fibrosis in this type of surgery, has been researched, but so far there is no commercial product, nationally produced, for the prevention of fibrosis. The objective of this work was the development and characterization and chemical-physical microbiological analysis of a hydrogel made of NaCMC and propolis. Gels were prepared in four NaCMC and propolis (1%, 2% and 8% and the absence of propolis) and characterized by infrared vibrational spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy and also microbiological testing. The vibrational spectroscopy identify the characteristic of propolis connection with carboxymethylcellulose. The structure microscopic remained unchanged, even at a concentration of 8% propolis. The NaCMC gel 8% propolis have demonstrated excellent antimicrobial activity compared to other gels and opens new possibilities for future work in vivo that might provide information on the effectiveness nonstick and its possible application to neurosurgical procedures.

Uma variedade de hidrogéis, que correspondem a uma classe de materiais poliméricos altamente hidratados está sendo empregado como biomateriais. Biopolímeros como quitosana, xantana e colágeno apresentam excelente biocompatibilidade e podem ser utilizados na área de queimados e liberação controlada de fármacos. Neste trabalho foram preparados hidrogéis provenientes da mistura entre quitosana, derivada de β-quitina, xantana comercial e colágeno aniônico (derivado de tendão bovino) em proporções variadas. A caracterização das amostras foi realizada por análise térmica (termogravimetria e calorimetria exploratória diferencial), espectroscopia no infravermelho, microscopia eletrônica de varredura e absorção de água. Pelas curvas termogravimétricas os resultados mostraram que todos os hidrogéis apresentam uma grande quantidade de água na sua estrutura e que pela reidratação são capazes de reter novamente essa quantidade de água. Por DSC observou-se que todos apresentaram o pico referente à fusão de água livre em temperaturas deslocadas acima de 0oC pelo aumento da interação água/polímero. Por FT-IR constatou-se a presença de bandas características dos biopolímeros com a ausência de novas bandas e pelo estudo por MEV os hidrogéis apresentaram uma estrutura na forma de folhas e a presença de colágeno é bastante visível participando desta estrutura. / Hydrogel are polymeric materials, which have the capacity to retain a great amount of water, and are often used as biomaterials. Chitosan, xanthan and collagen present biocompatibility and they can be used in tissue regeneration and drug delivery. In this work hydrogels were prepared by the mixture with chitosan (from β-quitina), commercial xanthan and anionic collagen (from bovine tendon) in different proportions. They were characterized by thermal analysis (thermogravimetry and differential scanning calorimetry), infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), scanning electronic microscopy and water absorption. Thermogravimetric curves showed that all hydrogels present a great amount of water and after the rehydratation were capable to keep the same amount of water. Melting point of water in DSC curves were shifted to higher values due the increase of water/polymer interaction. FT-IR showed characteristic bands of biopolymers with the absence of new bands and the morphology (MEV) showed that the hydrogels structures were in sheet form and the collagen fibers are visible in the hole structure.

Kyoto University (京都大学) / 0048 / 新制・課程博士 / 博士(工学) / 甲第17601号 / 工博第3760号 / 新制||工||1573(附属図書館) / 30367 / 京都大学大学院工学研究科合成・生物化学専攻 / (主査)教授 濵地 格, 教授 松田 建児, 教授 秋吉 一成 / 学位規則第4条第1項該当

The launch of silicone hydrogel contact lenses has led to a rise in the incidence of mechanically-related clinical complications, which is thought to be due to the increased stiffness of these materials compared to conventional hydrogel lens materials. The mechanical characteristics of hydrogel contact lenses have traditionally been investigated using tensile testing which investigated the bulk material characteristics. This thesis presents a study intended to establish a repeatable method for local mechanical measurement of hydrogel contact lenses using nanoindentation. Hydrogel materials in phosphate buffered saline were indented using a Hysitron Triboindenter mounted on a Veeco Explorer AFM using Triboscope software (version 3.5a) with a specially constructed wet cell. A model hydrogel (poly(HEMA-MMA)) was used to validate the methodology and investigate a the effect of controlled change in specimen thickness. A range of commercially available hydrogel contact lenses were then characterised (including conventional and silicone hydrogel lenses) using the same method. Two different analytical techniques were employed to determine the mechanical properties data; elastic analysis and a time-dependent viscoelastic analytical technique.A strong influence of specimen thickness on apparent mechanical properties was seen with the elastic analysis and an empirical relationship was derived to correct for this which was found to be appropriate for all contact lens specimens studied and reported in the thesis. The viscoelastic analysis results were more complex and exhibited a less clear influence of specimen thickness. However, as this is a very simple approximation as contact lenses are suspected to be poroelastic rather than viscoelastic this work could not be fully resolved in the scope of this thesis. For all contact lenses analysed, nanoindentation produced data similar to that found with conventional tensile testing, however, there was evidence for a slight dependence of elastic properties across the lens that does not correlate with sample thickness. This thesis shows the development of a way of accounting for the variation of thickness of a range of contact lenses, and demonstrated that traditional analysis is accurate enough to determine local differences in modulus across contact lenses. The viscoelastic analysis may be more appropriate for hydrogels, however, it produced irregularities that will require further work to fully resolve.

The characterization, properties and applications of the novel nanostructured microgel (nanoparticle network and microgel crystal) composed of poly-N-isopropylacrylanmide-co-allylamine (PNIPAM-co-allylamine) and PNIPAM-co-acrylic acid(AA) have been investigated. For the novel nanostructured hydrogels with the two levels of structure: the primary network inside each individual particle and the secondary network of the crosslinked nanoparticles, the new shear modulus, drug release law from hydrogel with heterogeneous structure have been studied. The successful method for calculating the volume fraction related the phase transition of colloid have been obtained. The kinetics of crystallization in an aqueous dispersion of PNIPAM particles has been explored using UV-visible transmission spectroscopy. This dissertation also includes the initial research on the melting behavior of colloidal crystals composed of PNIPAM microgels. Many new findings in this study area have never been reported before. The theoretical model for the columnar crystal growth from the top to bottom of PNIPAM microgel has been built, which explains the growth mechanism of the novel columnar hydrogel colloidal crystals. Since the unique structure of the novel nanostructured hydrogels, their properties are different with the conventional hydrogels and the hard-sphere-like system. The studies and results in this dissertation have the important significant for theoretical study and valuable application of these novel nanostructured hydrogels.

In this study, crystalline poly(N-isopropylacrylamide-co-acrylic acid) (PNIPAm-co-AAc) nanoparticle network in organic solvents was obtained by self assembling precursor particles in acetone/epichlorohydrin mixture at room temperature followed by inter-sphere crosslinking at ~98 °C. The crystals thus formed can endure solvent exchanges or large distortions under a temporary compressing force with the reoccurrence of crystalline structures. In acetone, the crystals were stable, independent of temperature, while in water crystals could change their colors upon heating or changing pH values. By passing a focused white light beam through the crystals, different colors were displayed at different observation angles, indicating typical Bragg diffraction. Shear moduli of the gel nanoparticle crystals were measured in the linear stress-yield ranges for the same gel crystals in both acetone and water. Syntheses of particles of different sizes and the relationship between particle size and the color of the gel nanoparticle networks at a constant solid content were also presented. Temperature- and pH- sensitive crystalline PNIPAm-co-AAc hydrogel was prepared using osmosis crosslinking method. Not only the typical Bragg diffraction phenomenon was observed for the hydrogel but also apparent temperature- and pH- sensitive properties were performed. The phase behavior of PNIPAm nanoparticles dispersed in water was also investigated using a thermodynamic perturbation theory combined with lightscattering and spectrometer measurements. It was shown how the volume transition of PNIPAM particles affected the interaction potential and determined a novel phase diagram that had not been observed in conventional colloids. Because both particle size and attractive potential depended on temperature, PNIPAM aqueous dispersion exhibited phase transitions at a fixed particle number density by either increasing or decreasing temperature. The phase transition of PNIPAm-co-AAc colloids was also studied. The results from the comparison between pure PNIPAm and charged PNIPAm colloids showed that the introducing of carboxyl (-COOH) group not only contributed to the synthesis of three-dimensional nanoparticle network but also effectively increased the crystallization temperature and concentration range. The phase transitions at both low and high temperatures were observed from the turbidity change by using UV-Vis spectrometer. Centrifugal vibration method was used to make crystalline PNIPAm-co-AAc dispersion at high concentration (8%). The turbidity test proved the formation of iridescent pattern.

Two series monodispersed nanoparticles of hydroxylpropyl cellulose (HPC) and functionalized poly-N-isopropylamide (PNIPAM) particles have been synthesized and used as building blocks for creating three-dimensional networks, with two levels of structural hierarchy. The first level is HPC nanoparticles were made from methacrylated or degradable cross-linker attached HPC. These nanoparticles could be stabilized at room temperature by residual methacrylate or degradable groups are present both within and on the exterior of HPC nanoparticles. Controlled release studies have been performed on the particle and networks .The nearly monodispersed nanoparticles have been synthesized on the basis of a natural polymer of hydropropylcellulose (HPC) with a high molecular weight using the precipitation polymerization method and self-assembly of these particles in water results in bright colors. The HPC nanoparticles can be potential using as crosslinkers to increase the hydrogels mechanical properties, such as high transparency and rapid swelling/de-swelling kinetics. The central idea is to prepare colloidal particles containing C=C bonds and to use them as monomers - vinylparticles, to form stable particle assemblies with various architectures. This is accomplished by mixing an aqueous suspension of hydrogel nanoparticles (PNIPAM-co-allylamine) with the organic solvent (dichloromethane) to grow columnar crystals. The hydrogels with such a unique crystal structure behavior not only like the hydrogel opals, but also have a unique property: anisotropy.