A feasibility study on femtosecond laser texturing of sprayed nanocellulose coatings.

Nanocelluloses are emerging as natural materials with favourable properties for coating industry and can be applied by state-of-the-art spraying technology. While additional functionalities are commonly introduced through chemical modification, the surface microstructuring of nanocellulose coatings with high throughput methods remains unexplored. Here, a femtosecond laser is used for texturing spray-coated coatings made of cellulose nanofibrils (CNF) or cellulose nanocrystals (CNC).

Ultrafast laser selective phase removal for surface modification of nanocomposite materials.

Ultrafast laser processing of zirconia/alumina nanocomposite ceramics, the current gold standard material for ceramic bearing components in orthopedics, was investigated. Instead of considering the substrate as a homogeneous material, as commonly assumed in laser micromachining, the damage behavior of different phases around the laser ablation threshold upon ultrafast laser irradiation was investigated. Under appropriate experimental conditions, the zirconia phase was selectively ablated while the alumina phase remained intact.

Burden of micronutrient deficiencies by socio-economic strata in children aged 6 months to 5 years in the Philippines.

Background: Micronutrient deficiencies (MNDs) are a chronic lack of vitamins and minerals and constitute a huge public health problem. MNDs have severe health consequences and are particularly harmful during early childhood due to their impact on the physical and cognitive development. We estimate the costs of illness due to iron deficiency (IDA), vitamin A deficiency (VAD) and zinc deficiency (ZnD) in 2 age groups (6-23 and 24-59 months) of Filipino children by socio-economic strata in 2008.

Identification of differentially expressed genes in spontaneously regressing melanoma using the MeLiM swine model.

Partial and some few cases of complete spontaneous regression have been observed in cutaneous melanoma patients but little is known about the molecular mechanisms involved. The Melanoblastoma-bearing Libechov Minipig (MeLiM) is a suitable animal model to study the phenomenon of spontaneous regression because MeLiM pigs exhibit naturally occurring melanomas which regress completely 6 months after birth. In this study, we used suppression subtractive hybridization (SSH) to identify molecular determinants of melanoma regression within swine melanoma tissues and melanoma cell cultures.

Immune characterization of the Lewis rats inoculated with K2 sarcoma cell line and newly derived R5-28 malignant cells.

Sarcoma is a relatively rare malignant disease with high mortality, bad prognosis and response to conventional therapy. Two possible models of this disease were tested: the K2 rat sarcoma cell line, which was described previously, and the new rat R5-28 cell line derived from a spontaneously growing rat neoplasm with sarcoma morphology. While all rats inoculated with K2 cells developed tumours at 22th-25th day after inoculation (D = 22-25), only 60%-75% of R5-28-inoculated rats were affected by tumours.