Abbreviations & AcronymsObjectives: To evaluate a novel designed degradable ureteral stent. Methods: A total of 24 male Beagles, each with bilateral stents implanted (a biodegradable ureteral 4.5-Fr stent and a standard 4-Fr biostable stent) were divided into four groups. Intravenous pyelography, B-mode ultrasonography, and blood and urine tests were carried out before the procedure (0 weeks), and at 1-, 2-, 3-and 4-week intervals. Meanwhile, the mechanical characteristics of stents were tested, and scanning electron microscopy images of the biodegradable braided stents were obtained at different time-points postoperatively. In addition, histopathological changes were compared between the two different stents. Results: All biodegradable braided stents began degrading at 1 week, and had completely degraded by 4 weeks. Hydronephrosis was equivalent during the first 2 weeks, but less with the biodegradable stents than with the control biostable stents at 3 and 4 weeks. Preoperative and postoperative blood and urine results were similar. The mechanical properties of the biodegradable stents were better than conventional biostable stents. Scanning electron microscopy images obtained at different weekly intervals showed that stents degraded in a predictable fashion. Histological testing of the urinary tract showed that the stent-related tissue reactivity of the two different stents were similar. Conclusions: Our novel braided thin-walled biodegradable stents provide temporary renal drainage as good as commercially available biostable stents. They also have good biocompatibility and physical characteristics. Therefore, they might have clinical application.
Exchange (GAX) ammonia water absorption heat pump has a relatively high efficiency and the COP is improved by recovering internal heat. In order to resolve the problem that GAX effect becomes less obvious or even fails under the working condition of large temperature lift, a novel system is proposed to recover the rectification heat and absorption heat by solution split method. Compared with the method of using total strong solution to recover absorption heat after extracting rectification heat, the method of solution split avoids the problem of high temperature of inlet strong solution of the solution cooled absorber, and improves the internal heat recovery capacity of the system. When using solution split method to recover the rectification heat and absorption heat, the solution split ratio K has an important influence on the system performance. This paper will theoretically study the selection range of the solution split ratio K and the effect of evaporation temperature, cooling water temperature and generation temperature on the optimum split ratio K. Compared to the system that uses the total strong solution to recover the rectification heat and absorption heat, the performance of the novel system is significantly improved, and the novel system performance coefficient can be increased by up to 15.7%.
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