Suppression of coarsening and emergence of oscillatory behavior in a Cahn-Hilliard model with nonvariational coupling.

We investigate a generic two-field Cahn-Hilliard model with variational and nonvariational coupling. It describes, for instance, passive and active ternary mixtures, respectively. Already a linear stability analysis of the homogeneous mixed state shows that activity not only allows for the usual large-scale stationary (Cahn-Hilliard) instability of the well-known passive case but also for small-scale stationary (Turing) and large-scale oscillatory (Hopf) instabilities.

Serum cytokine levels (IL-4, IL-6, IL-8, G-CSF, GM-CSF) in burned patients.

The presence and concentration of selected cytokines (interleukin 4 (IL-4), interleukin 6 (IL-6), interleukin 8 (IL-8), granulocyte colony-stimulating factor (G-CSF) and granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor (GM-CSF) were evaluated in the sera of 12 burned patients (6-90 per cent body surface area). The presence of cytokines in the sera of 20 healthy volunteers (control group) was always undetectable (< 2 pg/ml). In sera of the burned patients the concentrations of IL-4 or GM-CSF were also below the test sensitivity levels, while G-CSF and IL-6 were present throughout all the observation period and IL-8 was detectable at the onset of massive infections.

Acceleration of the development of benzopyrene-induced skin cancer in mice by microwave radiation.

Development and growth of skin cancer may be affected by various physical and chemical factors present in human environment. Of these factors electromagnetic radiation of radio- and microwave spectra are among the most common. In the present study Balb/c mice were exposed to chemical carcinogen, 3,4-benzopyrene, painted on the skin every 2nd day for a total of 6 months, and simultaneously irradiated with athermal (5 mW/cm2) or subthermal (15 mW/cm2) doses of 2,450 MHz microwaves.

Effect of hyperthermia on rabbit macrophages.

The effect of water-bath hyperthermia on rabbit peritoneal macrophages was studied in vitro. The cells were exposed to hyperthermia for 30 min to 4 hours and membrane transport of ions as measured by total and ouabain-inhibited 86Rb influx as well as membrane permeability for 86Rb and 51Cr-labelled intracellular proteins were investigated. Heat-treated macrophages were tested for their ability to phagocyte staphylococci and for reduction of nitroblue-tetrazolium.