Orientador: Prof. Dr. Jean Jacques Bonvent / Dissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Federal do ABC, Programa de Pós-Graduação em Biotecnociência, 2015. / Arcabouços são estruturas de inserção para suporte e regeneração de tecidos biológicos. Vários estudos mostraram que, quando constituídas por nanofibras de biopolímeros, essas estruturas tridimensionais apresentam características favoráveis, tais como biocompatibilidade, não-toxicidade e biodegrabilidade, para adesão e proliferação de componentes da matriz extra-celular. Este trabalho teve como objetivo desenvolver nanofibras poliméricas à base de Poli (álcool vinílico) (PVA) e quitosana, avaliar suas características morfológicas e atividade bactericida in vitro para possível aplicação como arcabouço para reparo tecidual. Filmes com nanofibras poliméricas foram obtidos pelo método de eletrofiação com diferentes parâmetros da solução polimérica, formada pela mistura de dois biopolímeros, o PVA (10%) e a Quitosana (1%). A morfologia dos filmes foi estudada por imagens de microscopia de força atômica (AFM) e microscopia eletrônica de varredura (MEV), comparando o diâmetro das estruturas das nanofibras obtidas de acordo com as mudanças dos parâmetros da solução polimérica. A análise da estrutura molecular dos filmes foi realizada por espectroscopia de infravermelho com transformada de Fourier (FTIR-ATR); a análise térmica e mecânica das amostras foi efetuada por análise termogravimétrica (TGA) e análise dinâmica mecânica (DMA), respectivamente. Como teste de bioatividade, as amostras foram postas em contato com bactérias Staphylococcus aureus (ATCC 6538) para análise de inibição de crescimento. As nanofibras foram obtidas com o diâmetro variando de acordo com a proporção de quitosana na solução polimérica, além de obter fibras mais uniformes e com menos contas com PVA. As blendas de PVA e Quitosana foram obtidas de forma homogênea com aumento da estabilidade térmica e menos resistente a deformação, além de preservar características intermoleculares de cada polímero em suas blendas. Nanofibras com diferentes frações de quitosana em solução polimérica não foram capazes de inibir o crescimento de bactérias, apresentando atividade bactericida somente quando misturadas ao cloridrato de tetraciclina (1%). Tais arcabouços necessitam de estudos mais aprofundados para a aplicação na engenharia de tecidos, para a promoção do reparo tecidual. / Scaffolds are materials applied for support and tissue regeneration. Nanofibers produced by polymeric matrix should attend some basics demands for scaffolds such as being biocompatible, nontoxic, biodegradable, allowing adhesion and growing of the matrix extra cellular components (fibroblast, collagens and integrins). The aims of this work was to develop polymeric nanofibers, with morphological characteristics and bactericidal activity for cell proliferation, as future scaffold candidate for skin wound repair. The polymeric nanofibers were obtained by electrospinning method with different solutions parameters of a mixture of Poly (vinyl alcohol) (PVA) (10 %) and Chitosan (1%). Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM) and Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) was used in order to analyze the morphology of scaffold surface, in terms of fiber diameter and density, as well as surface layers porosity. Molecular analysis was performed with Fourier Transformed Infrared (FTIR-ATR mode); Thermal and mechanical properties of the scaffold were investigated by means of TGA and DMA, respectively. As bioactivity test, samples were placed in contact with Staphylococcus aureus bacteria (ATCC 6538) for growth inhibition analysis. The nanofibers were obtained with the diameter varying with the proportion of chitosan in the polymer solution, plus fibers uniform and less beads with PVA. The blends of PVA and chitosan were obtained homogeneously with increased thermal stability and less resistant to deformation, in addition to preserving intermolecular characteristics of each polymer in their blends. Nanofibers with different fractions of chitosan polymer solution were unable to inhibit the growth of bacteria, showing bactericidal activity only when mixed with tetracycline hydrochloride (1%). Such frameworks require further study for application in tissue engineering, to promote tissue repair.

Osteoporosis is a bone disease associated with fracture risk. Accurate assessments of fracture risk, guidelines to initiate preventive intervention, and monitoring treatment response are of paramount importance in public health. Clinically, osteoporosis is defined by low bone mineral density, which explains 65-75% of the variance in bone stiffness. The remaining variability is due to the cumulative and synergistic effects of various factors, including trabecular bone micro-architecture. Osteoporostic imaging is critically important in identifying fracture risks for planning of therapeutic intervention and monitoring response to treatments. In this work, quantitative analysis of trabecular bone micro-architecture using volumetric imaging techniques and computational biomechanical simulation through finite element modeling (FEM) are applied on in vivo imaging for various human studies. The ability of imaging methods in characterizing trabecular bone micro-architecture was experimentally examined using MRI and multi-row detector CT. They were found suitable for cross-sectional and longitudinal studies in monitoring changes of trabecular micro-architectural quality in clinical research. A framework which consists of robust segmentation of in vivo images and quality mesh generator, was constructed for FEM analysis. The framework was experimentally demonstrated effcient and effective to predict bone strength under limited spatial resolution. The ability of distinguishing bone strengths of different groups were evaluated on various human studies. And the relation between FEM and image-based micro-architectural measures was explored. Quantitative analysis supports the hypothesis that trabecular bone have distinct structural properties in different anatomic sites and the osteoporosis related change of the micro-architecture also varies. It highlight the importance of standardizing the definition of bone scan locations and the segmentation of such well-defined regions. A shape modeling method was proposed to solve the problem and its application in human proximal femur using MRI were presented. The method was compared with manual segmentation and found highly accurate. Together with tools developed for quantitative analysis, this work facilitates future researches of trabecular bone micro-architecture in different anatomic sites.

Design of braking system for Formula Student vehicle. Braking system is one of the most important control system in every vehicle, even more in race car application. Only perfectly working braking system is capable bring the best results. In this diploma thesis are list of used parts with basic force calculation, design of pedal assembly in accordance with the rules of Formula Student, options for measuring and dataloging from ride for next development.

Syntactic foams are hollow particles-filled lightweight composites that are widely used in areas that require high strength while maintaining low weight and density. These foams are highly tailorable materials whose properties can be altered during the manufacturing process by changing various parameters like matrix and microballoon material type, size, distribution, as well as the volume fraction and wall thickness of microballoons. Therefore, understanding the effect of these parameter changes in the behavior of syntactic foams is very important to manufacture the foam for different applications. In the present study, syntactic foams of various volume fractions of microballoons were fabricated and different mechanical testing was conducted to study their elastic and viscoelastic behavior. Moreover, density, void content, and microstructure of the syntactic foam with varying volume fractions of microballoons were also studied to better characterize these foams. Results show that changes in the volume fraction of the microballoons had a significant impact on the elastic and viscoelastic behavior of the foams. The introduction of the microballoons into the epoxy resin decreased the density of the epoxy resin by up to 43.36% and at the same time increasing the specific modulus by up to 21.059%. In addition, representative 3D models of these syntactic foams were also developed to further study the elastic behavior of these materials which were found to be in good agreement with the experimental results. These findings will help in designing and optimizing the material properties of the syntactic foam required for different applications.

This thesis deals with analysis of mechanical and thermal load of a diesel engine cylinder head with fatigue life prediction. In the first part common solution options are described. The second part contains stress, deformation and fatigue life prediction computation of the given diesel engine cylinder head.

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Silicone hydrogels are receiving considerable interest due to their important biomedical application areas such as contact lenses and wound dressings. The applications of such materials are usually in the hydrated state, as hydrogels. However, manufacturing and molding processes are mostly carried out in the organically solvated state, as organogels. This thesis investigates the effects of some of the manufacturing parameters such as curing time and thermal processing on thermal, mechanical, viscoelastic and adhesive/cohesive fracture properties of silicone semi-interpenetrating polymer network organogels. Curing time may affect the extent of reaction and the crosslink density of a gel network. In order to investigate the effect of this parameter, materials were photo-cured for different times within the range of 150s to 1800s. Gel content, uniaxial tensile, dynamic mechanical, adhesive fracture and cohesive fracture properties were obtained as a function of photo-curing time and results were correlated with each other in order to have a better understanding of the effects on the material properties. Additionally, thermal properties of the gels were studied in detail. Crystallization and melting behavior of one of the solvents in the organogel were investigated by differential scanning calorimetry and thermal optical microscopy. Correlation between the thermal properties of the solvent and the gel network structure was shown. Dynamic mechanical analysis experiments were performed to investigate the effect of solvent crystallization on the mechanical properties. Finally, the effect of thermal processing parameters such as the heating  rate and the minimum cooling temperatures on the crystallization and the thermo-mechanical properties were studied. / Master of Science

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