Laser-Assisted Structures for Efficient Fluid Management on Stainless Steel Surfaces.

The article presents a high-productivity laser-structuring method combined with a hydrophobic post-treatment to create zone-structured surfaces with a decreasing wetting angle on AISI 304 stainless steel surfaces. We have investigated the impact of laser processing modes and hydrophobic substances on wetting and hysteresis angles and successfully demonstrated autonomous droplet movement over this zone-structured surface. A critical condition for autonomous fluid flow is the need for the drop to touch the boundary between the two zones.

Color Reproduction by Multi-Wavelength Bragg Diffraction of White Light.

Accurate color reproduction is highly important in multiple industrial, biomedical and scientific applications. Versatile and tunable light sources with high color-rendering quality are very much in demand. In this study, we demonstrate the feasibility of multi-wavelength Bragg diffraction of light for this task.

Protective Effects of PGC-1α Activators on Ischemic Stroke in a Rat Model of Photochemically Induced Thrombosis.

The pharmacological induction and activation of peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor gamma coactivator 1 alpha (PGC-1α), a key regulator of ischemic brain tolerance, is a promising direction in neuroprotective therapy. Pharmacological agents with known abilities to modulate cerebral PGC-1α are scarce. This study focused on the potential PGC-1α-modulating activity of Mexidol (2-ethyl-6-methyl-3-hydroxypyridine succinate) and Semax (ACTH analog) in a rat model of photochemical-induced thrombosis (PT) in the prefrontal cortex.

Passive athermalization and achromatization of a two-component system with air gap.

Passive athermalization allows keeping spatial resolution through the given spectral range while working within a wide temperature range without refocusing. Existing works concerning the problem of passive athermalization usually analyze two-lens components with zero thickness and air gaps. In our work, we have included an air gap into the consideration and derived general expressions for an athermal achromatic case.

Neanderthal brain size at birth provides insights into the evolution of human life history.

From birth to adulthood, the human brain expands by a factor of 3.3, compared with 2.5 in chimpanzees [DeSilva J and Lesnik J (2006) Chimpanzee neonatal brain size: Implications for brain growth in Homo erectus.

Childhood thyroid cancer, radiation dose from Chernobyl, and dose uncertainties in Bryansk Oblast, Russia: a population-based case-control study.

A population-based case-control study was conducted to estimate the radiation-related risk of thyroid cancer in persons who were exposed in childhood to (131)I from the Chernobyl accident of April 26, 1986 and to investigate the impact of uncertainties in individual dose estimates. Included were all 66 confirmed cases of primary thyroid cancer diagnosed from April 26, 1986 through September 1998 in residents of Bryansk Oblast, Russia, who were 0-19 years old at the time of the accident, along with two individually matched controls for each case. Thyroid radiation doses, estimated using a semi-empirical model based on environmental contamination data and individual characteristics, ranged from 0.

Risk of thyroid cancer in the Bryansk Oblast of the Russian Federation after the Chernobyl Power Station accident.

This population-based case-control study investigated whether exposure to radiation from the Chernobyl Power Station accident is associated with an increased risk of thyroid cancer in children and adolescents aged 0-19 years at the time of the accident who were residing in the more highly contaminated areas of the Bryansk Oblast. Cases were diagnosed with thyroid cancer before October 1, 1997 (n = 26); two controls per case were identified from the Russian State Medical Dosimetrical Registry and were matched by gender, birth year, and raion of residence and type of settlement (urban, town, rural) on April 26, 1986 (n = 52). Individual radiation doses to the thyroid were estimated using a semi-empirical model and data were collected in interviews, primarily of the participants' mothers.